THE GOD OF THE JEWS; OR, BEING THE CHARACTER OF THE JEWISH DEITY DELINEATED. WITH STRICTURES ON THE LIVES OF HEBREW SAINTS; AND Uemati&0 on X\^t Cfjeocracg. TO WHICH IS PREFIXED, A LETTER TO THE BISHOP OF LLANDAFF. BY A TRADESMAN. " If he be a God, let him plead for himself, because one liatli cast down his Jtltar." JuDOEs vi. 31. " Wise men are not ))rofane when they di-ny tlic Gods of the common ])Coi)le, hut llicy are |)rofane when they tliink. the Gods an- such as the common i)eoi)le l>olicve in." Sayino of Epicurus. • ^*tt^^k^MkMM«««< iLonlrou : PRINTKD.V PUBLISHED UY R. CAULILR,.-.5, FLKET STRFiyr, :f^-n3s PREFACE. Superstition is one of the greatest evils that can afflict society ; it instigates to the commission of every crime, and the practice of every vice. It paralizes the efforts and genius of a people, makes them slaves to tyrants, and dupes to the craft and fraud of impos- tors. It is a mortal enemy to truth, to science, and the enlargement of the human faculties. The best remedies for this dreadful malady are the cultivation of science and philosophy, discarding of prejudice and believing on trust, and a firm determination to exa- mine for ourselves, and receive the truth in simplicity. It was these considerations that induced the author to examine the subject contained in the following work, the result of which he now takes the liberty of laying before the public. For his own information he ventured to examine writings which are said to be the oracles of truth, the fountain of wisdom, and an infallible rule of faith and manners. It is in them, say the priest- hood, that a God of " holiness^ truths justice, good- ness" is announced to mankind ; it is in them that an infinitely wise, good, and omnipotent being is exhibit- ed to our view ; and it is in them that we see display- ed all those attributes and perfections of Deity thajt .are the object of our imitation. Morality, the author considers " a science that iias for its object the promotion of humun happiness." It IV PREFACE. must, llicn lore, be fomidcd on the nature of man, his various relations in society, and the duties resulting tVoin tliem. lie has invariably found, that priests and their votaries have cohj^tantly endeavoured to with- draw it from this basis, and found it upon conformity to the will, and imitation of the conduct of an un- known being, whom they have taken the liberty to de- pict and dress up as suited their own peculiar interest. Their rhorality is essehtially different from natural morality, or virtue ; it consists in frivolous observances, idltj and fantastic ceremonies, ahd not utifrequently in the ddmmission of enormous Crimes ; but, above all, irt a blind credulity and implicit faith. Men, conducting themselves by these principles, must then be governed by the caprice and selfishness of those who claim the right of expounding the will of the unknovvn Being, and they have ever Imd, and for eVer Will have, a sepa- rate interest from that of their fellow-men. The author has endeavoured to detect this quackery and expose the fraud. He has seized their park of artillery, and played it off on themselves. For this the ignorant and the interested, the bigot and the hypocrite, Will most cordially join in loading him With abuse. But they are welcome, as he is verj'' well convinced, that calumny is the ratio ultima of bigots when they have no power to persecute. Those who cannot reason are surely entitled to the privilege of scolding. Bias- phemer. Infidel, and Atheist, are the best titles he has any reason to expect. But those who call God good and merciful, and then make him the author of cruelty and injustice ; who call him the God of truth, and then father upon him innumerable lies ; who make him immutable, and then represent him as continually PREFACE. V changing his mind ; and who clothe him with incon- sistent quahties and contradictory attributes ; these are the true blasphemers. The author by exposing it means to do it away. If to discredit wild rhapsodies, inconsistent fables, and flat contradictions, be infi- delity, then is he an infidel. Atheist is a term that has been most liberally applied to the wisest and best of men in all ages, and when he knows that such men as Tillotson and Locke have been branded with atheism by the fanatics of the times, it would ill be- come him to attempt repelling the charge. But if to strip nature or matter (which you please) of die powers and energies inherent in it, and inseparable from it, and place them in incomprehensible non-entities and metaphysical abstractions, be atheism, then theolo- gians are real Atheists. He may, perhaps, also be ac- cused of turning serious subjects into banter and ridi- cule. The weak have always been fond of crying up nonsense as sacred, and knaves chime in with them. He would further observe, tiiat the prophet Elijah did not scruple to try BaaPs divinity by the test of ridi- cule, and the adorers of Jehovah will not hesitate about the application of their own principles. To the unprejudiced, and the friends of truth and free inquiry, the Author begs leave to appeal ; by their judgment he will stand or fall. The candid he hopes will excuse the defects in this performance ; want of a classical education, and the situation of a tradesman who can only write when he has finished the task of the day, he is conscious will require very liberal indulgence. The Author. LETTER TO THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN OOTD, RICHARD WATSON, BISHOP OF LLANDAFF. MY LORD, I AM one of those tradesmen^ whom you are so anxious to preserve from the contamination of irreU- gion, who ventures to lay before your reverence the result of my examination of the Bible, according to the " better mode'* you prescribe to Thomas Paine. In your fifth letter* you say, " Permit me to state to you what would in my opinion have been a better mode of proceeding, better suited to the character of an honest man, sincere in his endeavours to search out truth. Such a man, in reading the Bible, would, in the first place, examine whether the Bible attributed to the Supreme Being any attributes repugnant to holi- ness, truth, justice, goodness ; whether it subjected him to human infirmities ; whether it excluded him from the government of the world, or assigned the ' There is a class of men for whom I have the greatest rrsjM.ct, and whom I am anxious to preserve from the rontamination of your irrcli- gion — Tl)p merchants, manufacturers, and tradesmen of the kingdom. Apology for »he Bible, Let. x. ' Apology for the Bible. 8 LETTER TO oriq;in of it to clinnco, and an otornal conflict of atoms." YoM tluMi proceed, " finding nothing of this kind in tlic> JJihlc ;" but here I must pause in my endeavours to search out truth, according to the method you pre- scribe. 1 have found the 13il)lc attributing to the Jew- ish Deity attributes repugnant to holiness, truth, jus- tice, goodness ; but whether the Jews or your reve- rence take him for the Supreme Being or not, I will not pretend to say. Iksides, 1 have found it repre- senting him with human parts, as well as human pas- sions and infirmities. If it does not excUide him from the government of the world, it makes him ignorant of what is going on in it, and represents him as partial, ar- bitrary, and capricious. It makes him a ferocious monster, cruel, unjust^ awd deceitful ; making those miserable whom his omnipotence caused to exist. And if it does not assign the origin of (he world to chance, it constructs one very different from this ,we live in, and as ridiculous as an eternal conflict of at6ms can be supposed to do^ r m|m'.v' ! J: •r^a.jM Now, my Lord, haying found yoiir statement raise and erroneous, the Bible containing matters quite the reverse of what yovi would make us believe, I hope your reverence will excuse me from troubling myself with the rest of your Jindings, which would require the leisure and revenue of a Bishop to go through with, and in th^ issue might prove equally unsuccessful. "I trusl;, tjierefore, that before I proceed in my inquiries^ yquT Reverence wiUcpmlescend to peruse the following *' (character of the Jewish God/' as it; i^s given in the Bijlijle, and say whether your assertioiis are' true. Will ypii \hcn come forward to the world and say, that thiij being is a God of holiness, truth, justice, goodness ? Will you say that the most dreadful enormities ever heard of are only acts of " good policy combined with mercy ?'' or that the mad ravings and wild whimsies of an ignorant and savage people are the unerring dic- tates of wisdom and truth ? Such assertions, I trust, will never be made by one who has sucli pretensions THE BISHOP OF LLANDAFF. '^9 to learning and candour as your reverence ; they would only suit the character of those who hire themselves to preach and pray any thing for a piece of bread ; whose conscience; is in the keeping of the powers that be. You say, " 1 hope there is no want of charity in saying, that it would have been fortunate for the Christian world had Thomas Paine's life been termi- nated before he had fulfilled his intentions of pub- lishing his thoughts on religion." If there be no want of charity in the case, there is surely great want of prudence. If the Christian religion be as is pretended, " the plan of infinite wisdom, supported by Almighty- power," it has nothing to fear from any thing that can be either said or written against it.^ The betraying of fear in this manner is tantamount to a proof of real unbelief. This charity of yours may be Christian charity, as it was practised by the church at the time of Constantine, at the period of the Crusades, at that of the Reformation, and at the present moment : it may be Christian charity at Rome, at Lisbon, at Cal- garth Park, and in the Holy Office ! but I do not think it is the charity of any philanthropic mind. It is astonishing to hear a clergyman of the Church of England talk about the divine origin and holiness of religion, when he would not scruple to prostitute her most solemn ordinances to qualify the vilest of man- kind for the meanest office of the state. Your reverence thinks, that Thomas Paine, in ac- complishing his intentions, " will have unsettled the faith of thousands." There are thousands whose faith ' It seems the arts and sciences can support themselves without leffal establishments, and penal statutes; but our holy Christian lelifjion, al(lionp;h of divint- ori^rinal, is too tender a plant to wilh- srand the cutting winds and nipping frosts of carnal argiinuntatioii. It h;is been at all times necessary to fence it round with penal laws, ami Rcrure its growth liy lire and faggot, fines and imprisonment, in every Christiau country. 10 LETTER TO HO hook wliatcvrr ran unsettle^ : lio has not unsettled the faith of many elt'rovm<"n of tlio church, I presume; nor ever will, while faith is ibunded on the evidence of things seen and felt. It takes, 1 am told, five mil- hons sterling, or more of evidence, annually to uphold the faith of the national clergy of your church ; it were a pity if that could not "maintain faith, or if a paltry pamphlet could unsettle it, when supported by such weighty arguments. Your reverence appears to consider the faith of the great and opulent to be ra- ther of a " (|uestionable shape ;" — that is not alto- gether candid ;— if any such there are, they can oidy be the unpensioned few. Jam sure the others have rehgion and faith to the full. Have they not given sufficient evidence of it already ? Have they not re- peatedly declared religion to be one of the causes of the present war ? Have they not also declared it to be " good policy combined with mercy" to extermi- nate a nation of infidels ? and have they not both fasted and prayed for success to the cause ? With re- gard to their motives or sincerity I say nothing, but such an observation in the present time certainly comes from your reverence with a very bad grace. Now the great question occurs, What is to settle the faith of the merchant, manufacturer, and trades- man, which is thus likely to be unsettled by this terri- ble Age of Reason ? To be sure, a tradesman, who labours hard to maintain himself and family, who has no salary for believing, cannot reasonably be expected to have such a settled faith as a Bishop of 10,0001. ii year, or a Prime Minister who can command the na- tional purse. He may surely be allowed some doubts concerning those things of which you write so fluently. 'i here is a great difference between the faith of a Bishop and that of a tradesman ; the one brings much^ the other costs him much ; the faith of the one lessens the comforts of life, that of the other adds to them. There can be little wonder, then, if tradesmen's faith be in a declining state. But let them partake a little of THE BISHOP OF LLANDAFF. 11 tliat illuminating gospel evidence, of which the Bishops receive so large an annual portion, then you would certainly see this " grain of mustard-seed" become a tree in which the fowls of heaven might build their nests. But if the Ciiurch be not inclined to part with any portion of this evidence, which I much fear, as she may think itall little enough for her own consumption, perhaps reason may be exalted above faith, which would be a sad thin"' ! I wish that tliis matter mav be better attended to than it has been. Is it not a shame that such sums of money should be expended in hiring missionaries to convert Indians, Negroes, Caf- Irarians, and Otahcitans, while our own infidels are suftrred to remain in unbelief? The old proverb says, " Charity begins at home ;" why then go to such an insmense distance for proselytes ? 1 am fully confident, that if all the money that htis been collected by the various missionary societies were to be distributed among the dilferent infidels in this country, proportion- ably to the degrees of their unbelief, there would very \cw remain. Is it not as possible to gain over a free- thinki-r with money as to bribe aj)atriot? Or will an apostate I'rom the cause of reason make a worse advo- cate for Christianity, than a renegado Whig, who hires himself to flefend despotism and tory principles ? if the church were to make use of solid gold, instead of flimsy arguments, there could not be a doubt of her success. The tradesmen of this country are under great obli- gations to your rev(Tence, for tlu^ j)aiiis you have taken to guard them against the contamination of irreligion ; the great and opulent you have l(;ft to shift for them- selves. This is wisely done ; their faith, 1 believe, •stands ujjon the same basis as the faith of Bisliops, so there can be no fear of it. But what would b(xx)me of the clergy if faith wore to disappear among the lovv«ir or. These vverc^ the rules of conduct which the Lord ob- served towards the Canaanites : next we shall see how lie intended to behave to " those nations that were very far off,'' chap. xx. 10. When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. And it .shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries un- to thee, and they shall serve thee. And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it. And when the Lord th}^ God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword. But the women, and the little ones, and the catde, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself: and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which die Lord thy God hath given thee. Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee." This declaration may be considered as the Jewish God's law of nations, an example of which we have reduced to practice, Judges xviii. It is true, none of our modern writers on the law of nations have adopted his principles ; such cojiduct is only ])ractised by a few royal and im- j)erial banditti. I doubt not but i>riests may declare these orders to be " the tender mercies of the Lord ;'' but, in my Oj)inion, happy were those people who were " very far oil" from sucli a God, and such neighbours. It is disgusting to humanity to select any more of the sanguinary, rxterminating conunands of tliis Divi- nity, ^\hi(:h his ciuiscn pcopit' |Mit in execution to the tuUcst extent. Joshua linished the work of carnage 21 TIIK COD OF THE .1KWS; Avliirh Moses Ucgm\ ; his l)ook contains little else than n rceital of" shockinp^ l)arl>arities, at which human na- ture revolts ; and, to increase the horror we must feel at the recital of these scenes, they are all said to be done at the express command of God. We must not here forget the inhuman barbarity exercised upon old Aaron by the Lord's orders. The poor old priest, notwithstanding his faults, was treated with uncommon severity. It appears from Deut. x. 6, that Aaron died, and was buried at Mosera, which we find, Numb, xxxiii. 30, was seven stages from Mount Hor ; and might, for ought we know, take as many years to accomplish the journey. At Mount Hor, how- ever, Aaron was ordered to die a second time, and was carried up to the top of the Mount by his brother Moses and his son Eleazer, there stripped of his sacred costume, where he died. But we do not read of the two worthies putting themselves to the trouble of bury- ing the old priest a second time. We rather suspect that our modern priests would not be very fond of giving up the ghost on the top of the hills, even at the command of the Lord; it is likely they would rather choose to die in their beds, experiencing the kind attention of their friends and relatives. This conduct of the Lord to Aaron forms a striking contrast to the care and attention bestowed on his old horses by the benevolent Howard. We are at a loss to conceive why none of our theologians nor commentators have brought this story forward as a proof of the resur- rection ; a dogma which stands greatly in want of examples to support it. We expect their thanks for this hint. Time, which mollifies the most obdurate and inflexi- ble vengeance, had no effect upon the temper of this implacable Deity. He who can " visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generation," may as well do it to the fortieth or fiftieth. Accordingly, we find Saul receiving orders to destroy Amalek for what was conceived to be a crime OR, JEHOVAH UNVEH.ED. 25 in their ancestors, viz. repelling the attacks of the Is- raehtes, Numb. xiv. 43, four hundred years ago ; and for which the Lord was to have war with Amalek from generation to generation/' Lev. xvii. 16, " Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass," I.Sam. XV, 3. Human language is not adequate to the task of expressing, with sufficient detestation, our abhorrence of these commands ; it must be left to the silent feelings of the heart. Saul executed his instructions in such a manner, as one should think was enough to satisfy the vengeance of the most vindictive tyrant that ever history held up to universal execration. But no ! Saul saved " the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and of the Iambs," and spared the life of king Agag, for which solitary act of humanity " it repented the Lord that he had " made him king ;" and he took his spirit from him, and sent an evil one in its place, chap. xvi. 14-. If to the murder of Agag we add that of all those other kings who were previously killed by the Lord's orders, nobody can hesitate in declaring him to be the greatest regicide the world ever heard of. Notwithstanding Saul " utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword," they were soon as strong and powerful as ever. We find them, at the time of Saul's death, strong enough to take Ziklag ; but not according to the Lord's rules of war, or in the way his people take cities,' for, " they slew not any. ' What is called the cause f»f Cod, has always been dislinfj^uished by pfTuJiar enormities. '* Whin fht; Christians took .lenisaleni in the year lOiW, every person within it, Christians excepted, wen- put to the sword, in aniJLssarre that lasted scvend days, without distinctirophets divine for money," chap. iii. 11. [I'liey sometimes took it ajniss if a customer were to go by them with his employ. See 2 Kings i. 2. The pro- j)hets were hkewise dividcxj into factions and parties ; ^c factions of Judah and Israel used to proi)hesy lies against one another ; examples of which we have in \ Kings chap. xiii. and «hap. xxii. and in 2 Kings iii. ,\3. Their cruelty is no h.-ys observable than th(;ir other qualities. Klijah slew lour hundred and fifty of JJtiVil's priests atone time, 1 Kings xviii, 40 ; at another, two cotnfximies of /ifly men each, ^ Kini;s i. 10, 12. lj[is ,su(;(;^!jboj , l:^lji>ha, got i'orly-two children torn in 30 THE GOD OF THE JEWS ; pieces, lor calling- liim bald pate, chap. ii. 24; and a iiaiueless pro|)liet had a man worried by a lion, for not giving- him a box on the ear, 1 Kings xx. 35. It was to avenge a quarrel of the prophets that Elisha sent one of his pupils to anoint Jehu king of Israel ; with instructions to murder the whole house of Ahab, 2 Kings ix. 6, 7- Let us hear the malevolent wishes of the prophet Jeremiah against those he looked upon as his enemies. " Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword : let their wives be bereaved of their children and be widows, and let their men be put to death, and let their young men be slain by the sword jn battle/' Jer. xviii. 20. We have also some curious specimens of their pride and haughtiness, which deserve our notice. Nathan took it in high dudgeon that he was not invited to Adonijah's feast, and complains of the slight with great emphasis : *' for me, even me, hath he not called.'' Elisha, notwithstanding the kindness and hospitality of the Shunamite Jady, would not condescend to speak to her personally, even when in his presence, but or- dered his servant to interrogate her, and return his an- swers. So proud and haughty was this prophet, that when Naaman, captain of the host of Assyria, came to his door in his chariot, he disdained to speak to him, but sent a messenger with his orders. We have heard the prophets accusing the Lord of Jying and deceit: we shall now hear what the Lord says of the prophets. It would seem that these inspi- rations of the prophets, which we have such a venera- tion for, were nothing more than the effect of drunken orgies and Bacchanalian revels, as the Lord expressly declares, Isaiah xxviii. 7, 8. " The priest and the pro- phet have erred through strong drink : they are swal- lowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink ; tiiey err in vision, they stumble in judg- ment : for all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean."' It was the inspirations OR, JEHOVAH UNVEILED. STj^ of Bacchus that gave the proj)hets both utterance and impudence ; for the Lord disclaims all connection with them, Jer. xiv. H. " The prophets prophesy lies in my name ; I sent them not, neither spake unto them : they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart :** upon which account he cautions people to pay no at- tention to any thing they might say, chap, xxiii. 16, 21, 26. " Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you; they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.'* He says, " I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran ; I have not spoken to them, yet they have prophesied." And again : " I have heard what the'prophets said that prophesy lies in my name, say- ing, I have dreamed, I have dreamed." Jn order to throw as much light as possible on this trade of prophesying, we shall produce two criterions by which we are to judge of prophets and prophecy. " If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee, saying, let us go after other gods (which thou hast not known), and let us serve them : thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams." Deut. xiii. 1, 2, 3. Here signs and wonders are to be no test of the prophet's divine au- thority ; it is the orthodoxy of the prophesy : but in the 18th chapter this test is reversed, and the credit of the prophet is to be established upon the fulfilment of the prophecy ; verse 21, 22. " And if thou say in thine heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken ? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thinE^ which the Lord hath not epoken, but tin* })rophet hath sj)oken it presumptuous- ly." In the midst ai' tju^se harmonious (contradictions, it is no small consolation to reilect, that the Lord's ^ T!1K COD OF THE JEWS ; ^jmbassadoi's make ii very gent(?el livelihood out of them, ■4fi well as delight a number of vapour-fed tools. IJlessed aie the credulous, for they believe without examination ! In our day the light of science hath so eclipsed that of prophecy, that we order the prophet to a mail-house, instead of sending for him to court. AV e siiall now proceed to consider a few of their prophetical predictions, and see whether the event cor- responded with the prophecy or not, leaving it to the church to determine, whether the Lord deceived the prophets, or they, erring through strong drink, spoke lies in his name. The prophet Nathan was sent to tell David that his house and kingdom should be es- tablished for ever before him; that his throne should be established for ever, 2 Sam. xii. 16. .This grant the Lord confirmed to David himself, Psal. Ixxxix. 35, 36 : " Once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not he unto David : his seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah." Surely, if ever the Lord meant to keep his word with any one, it was witli the man after his own heart, who was the model from which all fu* ture monarchs w^re to copy : yet we find David, in this very Fsalmj making a complaint of his bad faith: " Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant ; thou hast profaned his crown, by casting it to the ground," ver. .39. It seems other people, who had no such faith in the promises of this Deity, did not fail to upbraid him with them ; for he says, verse 50, " How do L bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people/' llehoboam, David's grandson, however, had only one-sixth of these promises for his share. There ar^ many examples of the Lord frittering his promises away to a mere nothing in the performfince : the pror fane may, perhaps, suspect the Lord acts agreeably to the Machiavelian maxim, that " princes iTkay safely break their wojtl ; for, if they but swear to perform OR, JEHOVAH UNVEILED. ^ they will always find people credulous enough to be- lieve them.'' This the Lord does not scruple to do. Accordingly we find him, in the prophet Jeremiah, chap, xxxiii. 17, 21, saying, " David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel : neither shall the Priests, the Levites, want a man be- fore me to offer burnt-oflerings, and to do sacrifice con- tinually. Thus saith the Lord, if you can break my covenant of the day, and the covenant of the night, that there shall not be day and night in their season : then may my covenant be broken widi David my ser- vant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne.'* This lying prophecy has been exposed to sufficient contempt by the Prince of the Jews, Richard Brothers, applying it to himself: let the church and him dispute who has the fairest claim. Neither the Lord nor the prophets, however, foresaw the destruction of the government and subjugation of the country by the Ilomuns and other succeeding conquerors. The co- venant of the day, and the covenant of the niofht, is rather a little better secured than that with DavidJ The prophetess Huldah told king Josiah, he was " to be gadiered to his grave in peace," 2 Kings xxii. 20. This prediction of dying in peace was rather unfortu- nate in the fulfilment ; for, in warring with the king of JV2:y)»t, he was killed at Megiddo, and brought up dead to Jerusalem, chap, xxiii. 30. The Egyptian monarch proverl a better prophet of die Lord than Ifuldah, who advised him not to engage in the quar- rel, or the consequences would be fatal ; which hap- peney the king ol Hahylon, he saw his sons and the princes of the land slain brfon^ his eyes, which were then put out, himself put in chains, and kept prisoner 40 THE GOD OF THE JEWS; till his death ; cliap. hi. 10, 11. This is rather an odd iiianmr of dying in peace ! ! The rhodomantade pro- })hccies coiicerniiig the destruction of Egypt, Isa. xix. Jer. Ixiii. Ezek. xxix. when the rivers were to be dried iij), the fish destroyed, and the land desolate without man or beast, for forty years, we leave to pro- phecy-mongers to discover the fulfilment at their leisure. It may, perhaps, be expected, that we should say something concerning the prophecies rclatijig to the Messiah : but, as they are sacred, and the Jews and Christians not being agreed about them, we shall leave them to dispute the matter until his second coming. To hold up a human character to general odium, it would be sufficient to enumerate among its bad quali- ties, a furious, angry, and revengeful disposition ; yet though we find these to predominate in the Jewish Deity, in all the omnipotence of his character, we are still to account him a God, *' slow to anger, and of great kindness ; whose tender mercies are above all his other works,'* and one " whose mercy endureth for ever.'* It is no easy matter to conceive how a man, far less a God, could be provoked at such silly trifles as this God of the Hebrews often was ; sometimes for faults, of which himself is the author; commonly in circum- stances that would rather excite sentiments of pity and compassion in a generous mind than those of an- ger and resentment. A few examples will illustrate this. The affair of the golden calf put him in a terrible passion, if Moses had not been able to soothe him, by representing the indelible stain it would be upon his character to vent his anger upon his own chosen peo- ple in their present circumstances : " And Moses be- sought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt, with great OR, JEHOVAH UNVEILED. 41 power and with a mighty hand ? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, for mischief did he bring them out to slay them in the wilderness, and to con- sume them from the face of the earth ? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against th}'- people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swearest by thine ownself, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever," Exod. xxxii. 11, 13. These were the reasons *' that the Lord repented him of the evil which he thought to do unto his people." What this evil which the Lord thought to do and repented of was, we know not ; but the evil which Moses ordered, and the Levites executed, was prodigiously enormous. It was not long before his anger was again greatly kindled. Upon the peoples murmuring about the manna, Num. xi. 10, he was very much displeased. It would seem the people had no great stomach for angels' food, it was rather heavenly ; the flesh and fish of Egypt suited carnal appetites better, and was more to their liking, though at first it tasted like " wafers made with honey," Exod. xvi. 31, it was but light food for men in a desert: at this time the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil. Upon this occasion Moses plied the Lord with a curious remonstrance upon the toil of the government, which so far molli- fied him, that he sent the people a month's diet of fjuails, acconij)anied with the tender mercy of choking great numbers of them. Shortly aftorn difference btjtween the two is so striking, that they refuse to assimilate, after all the finesse of theological twisting have been employed upon them. Tlie difl''erent ac- counts of th(; death of Saul, 1 Sam. xxxi. and 2 Sam. i. 2, is no less distressing; without faith litth; credit could be attached to either. The f«Ttility of Absalom's head is very wonderful, four pounds thirteen oiukms of hair was a pretty tolerable crop in a year. This shews the extrerrK^ fertility of revelation abovt! nature. The prodigious magnificence of Solomon is beyond 64 THE COD 01- THE JEWS; all belief. How is it creditable that the prince of so small a country as .ludea should be in possession of such enormous wealtli ; whose father had begun his fortune by heading a gang^ of banditti, and jilundering a few strolling Arabs ? Forty thousand stalls for horses were a great many in a country that reared only asses to fill them. But what outdoes all these tales, is telling us of seventy thousand labourers, eighty thou- sand quarriers and stone-cutters, and three thousand six hundred overseers, being employed seven years in building a house ninety feet long, thirty broad, and forty-five high. See 2 Chron. ii. 1, and 1 Kings vi. 38. Why surely the Lord had forgot himself a little when he wrote this account ! To people living at this day, and witnessing the late war on the continent, who know with what extreme difficulty the greatest powers in Europe could bring armies of two and three hundred thousand men into the field, and that it was by an eflfort without a parallel, that the French Repub- lic could muster a force of one million two hundred thousand men. Even faith itself will scarcely be able to persuade them, that two petty kings of Judah and Israel could bring into the field, one an army of four hundred thousand, and the other eight hundred thou- sand fighting men, where there were five hundred thousand killed in one battle, 2 Chron. xiii. 3. As little credit is to be attached to the killing one hun- dred and twenty thousand Midianites, Judges viii. 10, and one hundred thousand Syrians in one day, or a wall falling and burying twenty-seven thousand men in the rubbish, 1 Kings xx. 29, 30. Or that " Pekah, the son of Ramaliah, slew in Judah one hundred and twenty thousand in one day, which were all valiant men." 2 Chron. xxviii. 6 ; especially as it contradicts a celebrated prophecy of the Lord's. See Isaiah, chap, vii. It is wholly incredible, that " the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assy- rians one hundred and eighty-five thousand ; and when they arose early in the morning, behold they OR, JEHOVAH UNVEILED. 55 were all dead corpse," 2 Kings xix. 35. How Joasli could be " stole from among the king's sons that were slain," is to us very surprising, when we are told ot'his being hid, and escaping the slaughter, 2 Chron. xxii. 11. It must be allowed that the Lord sometimes makes a bull ! These arc only a few specimens of the sacred truths which might be collected from this divine book, as a sweet morsel for the elect, but a bitter one for infi- delity to digest. Great is the mystery of ignorance, stupidity manifested in the belief of absurdities ! Those who hire themselves out to explain this holy book uniformly assert, that the Bible is an unerring rule of faith and manners, and the Westminster divines, in their Confession of Faith, have declared, that " God, by his singular care and providence, has kept them pure in all ages of the world." Which purity consists in bein;^^ dark as Erebus, confused as chaos, and opposite as the poles. A modern Apologist, who has said as much as he possibly can in fovour of the inspiration, has resigned the singular care and provi- dence to the mercy of its detractors; while Bible critics of all ages give us abundant proofs of the al- terations it must have undergone, both from pious fraud and holy ignorance. We shall at present drop these objections, as they are but gnats for believers to swallow, and proceed to observe a few of those divine contradictions, which render this book so peculiarly edifying to the godly. The 1 1th chapter of Genesis makes Abram one hundred and ihirtv-five years of age when he left the country of Ilaran, the l^th chapter says he was only seventy-five. The Lord threatcMis to visit the inicpii- ties of the fathers upon the ehildren to the third niid fourth generation, FA'od. xx. 5 ; xxxiv. 7 ; Num. xiv. IS; Deut. v. 9. This he flatly denies, Deut. xxiv. K). 2 Chron. XXV. 4, and the whole; ISth chapter of Kzekiel, is t.iken up in demonstrating^ the injustiee of it. In Exodus xxxiii. 1 I, the Loril speaks to Moses 96 THE GOD OF THE JEWS; face to face, as a man speaks to liis friend ; in the 90th verse he could not sec his face, for no man conld see it and live. Num. xxvii. \3. Deut. xxxii. 49, the Lord ordered Moses to go up on Mount Abarim, and die there ; Deut. xxxiv. 1, says it was on the top of Pis- gah. As Moses died at two different places, it must also have been at different times. Aaron also died at Mosera, Deut. x. 6, and at Mount Hor, seven stations from the former place, Num. xxxiii. 30, ^8 ; two strong proofs of a resurrection, most unfortunately overlooked by commentators. If we believe Joshua X. 36, it was him, and all Israel with him, that took Hebron and Debir; but if we are to credit chap. xv. 14, Jud. i. 10, these places were not taken for a long time after that. In 2 Sam. xxiv. I, the Lord moved David to num- ber Israel and Judah, and the numbers were, the men of Israel eight hundred thousand, and of Judah five hundred thousand, for which he had the choice of seven years* famine, three months' war, or three days* pestilence; and the price he paid for Auranah's thrash- ing-floor is stated at fifty shekels of silver. 1 Chron. xxi. 1, says it was Satan who provoked David: the numbers here are the men of Israel one million one hundred thousand, those of Judah four hundred and seventy thousand ; the time of the famine is dwindled away to three years, but the price of the thrashing- floor is advanced to six hundred shekels of gold. 1 Kings iv. 26, says, Solomon had forty thousand stalls for horses ; 2 Chron, ix. 25, allows no more than four thousand. 1 Kings v. 11, says Solomon gave to Hi- ram twenty thousand measures of wheat, and twenty measures of oil. 2 Chron. ii. 10, makes twenty thou- sand measures of wheat, twenty thousand of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand of oil. In 1 Kings vii. 14, the artificer, whom the king of Tyre sent to Solomon, was the son of a woman of the tribe of Naphtali ; 2 Chron. ii. 14, says she was of the tribe of Dan. 1 Kings vii. 1.5, makes OR, JEHOVAH UNVEILED. 5? the two pillars of the porch eighteen cubits ; "S Chroii. iii. lo, makes them thirty-five. 1 Kings vii. 26, makes the brazen sea to contain two thousand baths ; 2 Chron. iv. o, says three thousand. I Kings xv. 2, says Abijah's mother was jNlaachah, the daughter of Abishalom ; the 10th verse of this chapter says she was the mother of Asa; 2 Chron. xi. 20, says Abi- jah's mother was Maachah, the daughter of Absalom, but chap. xiii. 2, says it was Michaiah, the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah, that was Abijah^s mother. 1 Kings XV. 1 6, 32, says, " There was wax between Baasha and Asa all their days ;" now as Baasha began to reign in the third year of Asa, this war must have been during the ten years the land had quiet, 2 Chron. xiv. 1 . But how are we surprised to find, that after the period of this ten years' quiet, it was not with Baasha, but with Zerah, the Ethiopian, who had an host of one million three hundred chariots, whom he attacked with five hundred and eighty thousand men, that he had war, verse 9. How immensely superior in point of numbers are revealed armies to those which the greatest powers could ever actually bring into the held. " And there was no more war until the five- and-thirtieth year of the reign of Asa," chap. xv. 19, when Baasha must have been dead nine years, accord- ing to 1 Kings xvi. 8. Nor was it until the six-and- thirtieth year of Asa that Baasha began to build Ila- mah (ten years after he was dead), which was surely no war ; and we have no accounts of any other. When a revealed story is both contradictory and con- fused, it is a proof that inspiration has reached the acme. 2 Kings r, 17, says that Jehoram, the son of Ahab, began to reign in th(; second year r in dif ferent places, it is quite common in revealed story. A mere bagatelle^ which none but infidels would carp at. 2 Chron. xxi. 12, Elijah sent a writing to Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah ; but according to 2 Kings ii. and iii. chapters, Elijah was taken up into heaven more than seven years before that, at leasl before the eighteenth of Jehoshaphat. When inspired writers tell us stories of this nature, we cannot hesi- tate a moment in giving them all due credit. To crown all the other contradictions, the Lord denies having any hand in the Mosaic institution of sacrifi- ces, Jer. vii. 22. " For I spake not to your fathers, nor commanded them, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices :" Moses says the- very reverse. The OR, JEHOVAH UNVEILED. 50 very laws which Moses hud from the mouth of the Lord are contradictory one of another; Lev. xviii. 16. and XX. 21, forbids the cohabiting with, or marrying- a brother's wife ; Deut. xxv. J, commands it. Lev. xix. 34-, enjoins eqnal justice to strangers as natives. " But the stranger diatdwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, thou shalt love him as thyself, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." Chap. xxv. 4o, allows the enslaving of strangers and their children : " Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy (bondmen and bondmaids), and of their families that arc witli you, which they begat in your land, and they shall be your possession." But we should never have done if we were to notice every contradiction that occurs in holy writ ; we shall only observe, that it is vvritino^ in this manner that constitutes the divine harmony of Scripture, so much insisted on by the priesthood. We shall now only take notice of the nature of that divine inspiration with whicii these writings were com- posed, an account of which we have in 2 Esdras, chap. xiv. " And the next day a voice called me, saying, Esdras, 0[)cn thy mouth, and drink that I give thee to drink. Then opened 1 my mouth, and behold he reached me a full cuj), which was full as it were with water, but the colour of it was likr; lire. And I took it and drank ; and when 1 had drimk of it, my heart uttcrrd tnidcrslanding, and wisdom grew in my breast, for my s|)irit strcnuthcned my memory. Arid my mouth was opened, and shut no more. The If ighest gave understanding unto five men, and they wrote the visions of the night that were told, which they knew not t and they sat forty days, and lliey t\TOte in the rincc's reign. Tiiese seeming contradictions have proved a stum- bling block to those who trust to the light of carnal reason, to guidt; them in their scriptural researches ; but it is to be observed, that a thing may bi; false in phiiosoj)hy and yet a divine truth. Il" it were affirmed, « STRICTURES ON THE LIVES that two and two make four, and at the same time do not make four ; tliat a thing can be and not be, at the same time; that the whole is greater than a part, and that a part is as great as the whole ; these propositions would be contradictions in science ; but it" they were revealed in an infallible book, they would then be no longer real, but only seeming contradictions. This is the most approved method that commentators have yet discovered of answering infidels. Whatever might be the manner of Samuel's judging, or the nature of his prophetic powers, he has proved no bad prophet of the manner of a king, chap. viii. as every one who has the happiness to live under the government of those blessings to society will most readily allow. Samuel, though he judged Israel, and went a circuit, to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpeh, yet it doth not appear he was known for any more than a simple man of God in the land of Zuph, who would give intelligence concerning stray cattle for small gra- tuities, it was at a feast in this place that Samuel dis- covered Saul to be a proper person for being a king ; at least the Lord told Samuel so, in the ear, a day before ; and it is very likely that Samuel, who wanted to judge Israel in reality all the days of his life, thought Saul a fit person on whom to confer the mock shew of royalty, and humour the populace. Saul, however, disappointed both their expectations ; for though the Lord " turned him into another man," and made him a present of another heart, and lent him his spirit, and also made him a prophet, chap. x. yet it was not long before Saul acted foolishly, and the Lord had to seek him a man after his own heart, chap, xiii. 13, and by his mercy to Agag, " it repented the Lord that he had made him king ;" yet 1 Chron. x. 14, gives as the only reason for turning the kingdom to David, the affair of the witch of Endor. He therefore took his spirit from him, which he had so kindly lent, and sent him an evil one in its place. Chap. xvi. I*. To convince the people of the tender mercies of the OF THE JEWISH SAINTS. m .1 Lord, to shew the benevolent affections of priests ana prophets, and that it was no more than a mock monarch he intended should reign, Samuel took and " hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. Samuel now came no more to see Saul, until the day of his death !" Nevertheless, he went privately to David and anointed him kins:, who turned out a better friend to priests and prophets than Saul. We hear very little of Samuel after this, but that he died, " and all the Is- raelites were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran." A plain proof that Samuel was a promoter of the seditious and treasonable views of David. The fate of poor Saul was very hard. The Philis- tines, his constant enemies, were now gathered to- gether, and their force was such, that he " greatly trembled. And when Saul enquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets." Chap, xxviii. 6, he was therefore under the necessity of having recourse to the witch of Endor. The Lord's other wav of telling: the story differs a little from this ; it was because he asked " counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it, and enquired not of the Lord : therefore he slew him," 1 Chron. x. 14. This difference is of small moment, although one place says he " enquired of the Lord," and the other, that he " enquired not of the Lord :" those who have faith can believe both with the utmost facility. The witch of Endor, by the assistance of her art, was successful in raising Samuel out of the earth, to give advice to Saul uj)on this trying occasion ; but the information was of so unpleasant a nature, that Saul faint(.'d, and became totally unfit for action. " When doctors differ, who shall decide ?" Priests have falh'n out about this story, one party will have it to be Satan, assuming the; appcnirance of the prophet ; the other, affirmiuj^ it to be Samuel in propria persona ; wc must therefore leave it to the elect to believe which 70 STRICTURES ON THE I.IVES of the ways they choose, or them both, it' they be so inehned. It is to be observed, that it is Samuel him- self who writes the story (according to the determina- tion of the church) with many others of a similar stamp, equally amusing and diverting. We come now to the very climax of saintship, to holy David, a king and a saint, and a man after God's own heart,^ whose conduct we ought to be very cau- tious in scrutinizing, it being long held impeccable both by the Lord and the church, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite ; which matter, as it is given up to the mercy of the j)rofane by both, we shall say nothing, of not choosing to insult a fallen foe, or attack a defenceless post. The first of David's exploits in story is his killing of Goiiah, the Philistine giant and cham- pion, by a lucky blow with a stone. This we allow to be a very gallant and splendid achievement, for which he had the promise of the king's daughter to wife ; but Saul being much chagrined at the applause bestowed by the women upon David's bravery, was rather tardy in the fulfilment of it. He therefore judged it best to put him upon his mettle, and required, as a farther qua- lification for the proposed honour, that he would bring him an hundred foreskins of the Philistines ; this our hero gallantly performed, by bringing double the num- ber in full tale. A curious and most extraordinary spectacle it must undoubtedly have been, to see the Royal Psalmist devoutly employed in flaying the fallen members of the dead Philistines, and gravely stringing them on a piece of packthread, to bind round his tem- ples in form of a civic crown, or to wear them over hi.'i ' An English divine hath the following comment on this title of David : — " David was a man after God's own heart, not in holiness, that is not meant; for besides adultery, and murder, his many other sins, as cursing his enemies to the pit of Hell, is unaccountable : but nfter God's own heart is a Hebraism, and in English signifies as much as [a man for my turn.] He will kill and slay as the priest commands and directs." — IJickeringill on Priestcraft. OF THE JEWISH SAINTS, 71 shoulder like a sash ; thus accoutred to enter the royal presence, or to pay his devoirs to his mistress. This marriao-e, however, had not the desired effect of conciliating matters ; for whatever was the cause, Saiii was exasperated more and more against David, until he was obliged to fly the court. It is to be recollected, that the prophet Samuel had privately anointed David as successor to the kingdom, previous to his appearance at court. Upon the break- ing out of this rupture, David immediately set out to his old friend Samuel, at Naioth in Ramali, who was then busily employed in training the young prophets for service. Saul sent messengers to apprehend Da- vid, who were immediately seized with the mania of prophesying until he came himself, when the disorder infected him so violently, that hestript off his clothes, and prophesied naked a night and a day. We have no clue to unravel the nature of prophesy- ings ; the Lord has lett them in utter darkness, that priests may find employment in guessing what they might be about. Inspiration proceeds by fits and starts, and by no means is tied down to the rules of composi- tion. The Pythia of Delphos, and the Urim and I'humniim of Judea, spoke equally dark and unintelli- gible enigmas. After this, David, being alone, and also in company with young men, called at Nob to see his iVicnd Ahimelech the priest, and get some provi- sion, wli(^ consented to give him the consecrated bread, provided the young men had at least kept them- selves from women, when it happily turned out that they had abstained for three days. The j)riests of Nob, however, paid dear for their hos|)itality. David now wandered up and down the country with a band of {'){)() vagrants and malrontents at his heels, collecting provisions from th(i country jx'ople ; or to use a Scots law-plirase, " went a sorning,'' sending young men with a polite message, and a deal of comj^linunits, giving at the same time a broad hint, if refused his demands, he 72 STRICTURES ON THE LIVES noiilcl " smite every one that pissed against tlie wall," 1)V next iiiorninii:. This was the way he served Nabal the Carmelite, Avho i)eing a country clown, gave his young men a very indifferent reception ; which so incensed David, that lie and his band were on the road to pay Nabal a very unwelcome visit, had not his wife met him with a handsome present, being informed of his intentions by one of" the young men : this mollified our incensed hero, so that he received the present, and also " ac- cepted her person !" Wlien Abigail returned home, she found Nabal in his cups, so did not think proper to inform him of what passed between her and David that night; but next morning, by what she told him, and what he probably guessed, " his heart died within him, and he became as a stone." Ten days after this the Lord smote the cliurlish clown, and he died, to the mutual content of holy David and Mrs. Abigail, who, no doubt, thanked the Lord for his great kindness ! David's affairs turning critical, he thought it pru- dent to emigrate to Gath, and put himself under the protection of Achish, who gave him Ziglag for an asy- lum ; where, instead of cultivating the arts of peace, and attending to country affairs, his trade was to rob and murder the Geshurites, the Gezerites, and the Amalekites, pretending to Achish he was making in- roads into his own country ; for, " he saved neither man nor woman alive to bring tidings to Gath." Murder, robbery, and falsehood, make but a small speck in the character of a saint, who is " a man after God's own heart ;" could the priesthood fix crimes like these on Atheists or Infidels, they would then be termed the greatest of human atrocities, but when acted within the pale of the church, it is an in- fallible sign of grace, for " where sin abounds, grace doth much more abound." The war which broke out between the Philistines and the Israelites gave David a fresh opportunity of OF THE JEWISH SAINTS. 73 displayinp: his saint-like behaviour, who offered himself as a volunteer to go and tight against liis country : but the other J^hilistine chiefs, having no such confidence in him as Achish, refused to accept the services of so dangerous an ally. He was forced to turn back, 1 Sam. xxix. David's hypocrisy was equal to his other holy qualities; upon the defeat of the Israehtish army, and the death of Saul and his sons in battle, he pretended the deepest sorrow, and no less than com- posed an elegy for them. David now changed his plan of operations, " he enquired of the Lord, saying, shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah ? and the Lord said unto him, Go up ;" when by stratagems of one kind or other he got himself anointed king of Judah. During his reign over Judah, which was seven years and six months, a civil war was carried on between the two houses of Saul and David ; but " the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker," until two villains, by a grand act of treason, murdered Ishbo- sheth, which put an end to the contest. David now arrived at the zenith of power. He was anointed king over all Israel in Hebron, by the elders of the [)eople. He was not long settled in the government, when he " gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand," to bring up the ark of the Lord from Kirjath-jearim, besides a goodly company of priests and fiddlers. David thought, no doubt, by this splendid show to impress the people witli sentiments of his extraordinary piety; an accident, however, discovered his true motives, which sufiicieiitiv imvcils his hvpocrisy to us. ]t happened that Uzzah, on(^ of the drivers, took hold of the ark, to prevent its I'alli ng, as the oxen shook the cart. This action of Uzzah's, however, not pleasing the Lord, he smot(^ him, " for his error; and there he died by the a)k of (iod," 2 Sam. vi. 7. Hut I Chron. XV. 1.0, says, the reason of his smiting Uzzah was be- cause the i^evites did not carry it^^ as it w^s their duty K 74 STRICTimES ON THE LIVES to have done* It is no uncommon thing for the Lord to smite one person for another's fault ; by which he proves hiniseU" a Ciod of justice and equity. It is upon this subhme principle that Christianity is founded. David fin(hng that there was smiting going on, grew (hspleased, and being afraid of the Lord, determined not to carry it a toot further ; he wheeled about, and left it at the house of Obed-edom, where it abode three months. " And it was told king David, saying, the Lord hath blessed the house of Obed-edom, and all that pertained unto him, because of the ark.'^ Al- though David would have no concern with the ark, when there were smiting in the case, he no sooner heard there were blessings to be had by keeping it, than he flew with all speed, and took it from poor Obed-edom, who might have made his fortune, if he had been allowed to keep it a little longer. The carry- ing of it now was not entrusted to profane hands, but solely confided to the sanctified fingers of the Levites, ' There is something: singular in the history of the ark. The people of Bethshemesh, notwithstanding: the joy they expressed when they fii-st saw it, wanted to get rid of it as fast as possible. " And the men of Bethshemesh said, who is able lo stand before this Holy Lord God ? and to whom shall he go up from us ?" 1 Sam. vi, 20. Yes, after smiting 50,070 men, he and his ark might go where they pleased. They accordingly sent messengers to the men of Kirjath-jearim to come and fetch it away, which they did, where it lay neglected, without any one caring about it, 1 Chron. xiii. 3, for twenty years, according to 1 Sam. vii. 2; but as this transaction must have taken place previous to Saul's accession to the throne, and his reign was forty years, and David only brought it away after he ascended the throne of all Israel, it must have remained near fifty -years in Kirjath-jearim. We see that the smiting of 50,070 men made the men of Bethshemesh call him Holy Loid God ; and it is because the history is stufled with blunders and contradictions, that •we term it Holy A\ rit ! \\ hen Solomon lodged the ark in the tem- ple, all the precious ware it contained was only the two tables of stone, 1 Kings viii. 9. 1 Chron. v. 10, although Aaron had put up a pot of manna along with them. In St. Paul s time it contained a j^olden p<)t with manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, besides the two tables. Heb. ix. 4. OF THE JEWISH SAINTS. 73 who brought it safe home without any further accident. David played a principal character in this second pro- cession ; he danced and leaped " before the Lord with all his might," in such indecent and obscene attitudes, uncovering himself " as one of the rain fellows shame- lessly uncovereth himself," that he gave great offence to his wife INlJchal, who reproved him for such scan- dalous behaviour ; but she might have spared herself the pains, for David told her " he would be more vile than thus, and base in his own sight: and of the maid- servants, whom she had spoken of, of them should he be had in honour." This story contains a beautiful picture of true religion, piety, and decency ! David, finding there were blessings to be got by the possession of the ark, thought it would be no bad scheme to build a house for the Lord ; but, though he " was with him whithersover he went," yet having " shed blood abundantlv," he would not suffer him to build a house to his name. A piece of great incon- sistency in the Lord, who is God of battles ! and " who makes the fowls drunk with the blood of princes." David, however, drew out a plan of the building, and prepared vast materials ; he also left Solomon one hundred thousand talents of gold, and one million talents of silver ; 1 Chron. xxii. 14 ; besides this he gave, as a private donation, three thousand talents of gold, and seven thousand talents of silver ; the princes of Israel also made a collection of five thousand tal(,'nts and ten thousand drams of gold, and ten thou- sand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of brass, and one hundred thousand talents of iron, chap, x.xix. 4-, 7 ; an»ou)itiiit;in the whole to seven hundred and eighty millioMs sterling. The Lord nmst undoubtedly have given David the most of this sum out of his in- exhaustible treasure ; it is not to Ix- suj)posed, that robbing a few (iezerites, (Jeshurites, or Amalekites, could |)rodure niucli tnoniy. I'liere is not so much on the face of the earth ; but the stories related in a divine 7« STRICTURES ON THE LIVES history must Air exceed the bounds of credibility, or cJse they could have no attractions for faitii. David, when an exiled vagrant, used to subsist by robbery and murder ; now that he is raised to the re- gal dignity, practises cruelty, and injustice by legal methods, and murders people by geometrical rules, and with mathematical precision. " And he smote Moab, and measured them with a line, castinij them down to the ground : even with two lines measured he to put to death, and with one full line to keep alive ; and so the Moabites became David's servants, and brought gifts/* 9 Sam. ii. 2. Who could refuse presents to a prince of such unbounded clemency ? Unfortunately the number of those who hated him without a cause were more than the hairs of his head ; and, poor man, he was sometimes forced to restore that which he took not away/ Psal. Ixiv. 4. David in warring with JIadadezer king of Zobah, took from him one thousand chariots, seven hundred horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen ; he houghed all the chariot horses, except so many as would serve for one hundred chariots, he likewise slew of the Syrians, who were the allies of Hadadezer, twenty-two thousand ; at another smiting in the valley of Salt he slew eighteen thousand Syrians more, 2 Sam. chap, viii. At another time, (for the inspired historian dis- dains every thing that looks like chronology,) " David slew the men of seven hundred chariots of the Syrians, and forty thousand horsemen," chap. x. 18. The books of Chronicles difFcr in these articles, 1 Chron. xviii. 4, magnifies the number of horsemen taken from Hadadezer to seven thousand, and calls them eighteen thousand Edomites, whom Abishai slew in the valley of Salt ; the Hebrew title of the Ixth Fsalm makes them ' We are notable lo comprehend how a person tan " restore that which he took not away ;" it is truly enigmatical. OF THE JEWISH SAINTS. ^ only twelve thousand Edomites whom Joab slew ; chap. xix. 18, calls them forty thousand footmen, whom David slew. A few jarrings in an infalHble book establishes its divine original beyond a doubt, because the writers, according to the logic of the church, could not lie by consent ! Undoubtedly this is one of the best arguments the church is in possession of; nothing can be more ob- vious. That the God of truth, who knoweth all things, should inspire different writers, to tell the same storv different ways, so as to contradict each other ; and' thus prevent all suspicion of lying. It is sur- prising that infidels should remain blind to the force of this argument. David was now warmly employed in smiting and slaying his neighbours, although the Lord " had given him rest round about from all his enemies." When he took Rabbah, he was very ingenious at contriving new methods of torture for the unfortunate mhabitants. " And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick kiln : and thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon," 2 Sam. xii. 31. This con- duct is entirely comformable to the character of those who are under the inlluonce of the true religion. The tree is known by its fruit. " Then there was a famine in the davs of David three years, year after year, and David enquired of the Lord. And tlu' liOrd answered, it is for Saul and for his bloody house, because he sl(>w the (jibeouites," 2 Sam. xxi. I. if we were to judge of this history l)y the same rules that we juflg(i of other histories, we might very possibly conclude, that this enfjuiring of the Lord, and the answer the Lord gave, was uolliing more than a base juggle between the jiriests and David, in order to palliate the murder of Saul's inncx'eut ain of a venereal ulcer, and the pangs of the new inrth ; so accommodating is inspiration to the ideas of the vulgar. $0 STRICTURES ON THE LIVES " Now the days of David drew u\'j;h, that he should die;" but as he "did that which was right in the eyes of the LortI, and turned not aside from any tiling that he commanded him all the days of liis life, save only in the matter of Uriah the llittite/' he liad no occasion of repenting that he " had shed blood abun- dantly :" or of forgiving his enemies : actions, which we sometimes find even saints performing at their death. He was not one of the unhappy virtuous, wlio need the consolatory hope of a future recom- pence ; he therefore gave himself no concern about it, but finished a life of unparalleled iniquity by unfeeling obstinacy. rhus have we taken a cursory view of the life of David, who is held upas a standard of saintship, whose conduct in the government of the Jewish nation was the model by which all future princes were to regulate theirs. Those who " walked in the ways of David" were sure of giving satisfaction to the Lord, and to be well pleasing in his sight ; others who deviated from so pious an example, were constantly provoking him to anger. If, however, we were to con) pare the actions of holy David with the Neros and Caligulas of anti- d of the house of Ahab at Jezreel, and all his great men, and his kinsfolk, and his priests, until he left him none remaining." Chap. X. 1 1. Going to Samaria, he met on the way forty-two young princes of Judah, the brethren of Ahaziah, verse 14-, who were only his nephews, SChron. xxii. 8, 1, If two inspired writers were to relate a story the same way without contradicting each other, it might then be said that they lied by consent. Them he instantly murdered. When he arrived at Samaria, " he slew all that remained unto Ahab" there. Then under the pretence of a great sacrifice to Baal, he com- manded all the adherents of that sect to attend, under pain of death, prophets and priests; and having got the house as full as it could hold, he had them all foully and inhumanly massacred. Can history afford a parallel to such abominable cruelty ? The prescriptions of Sylla and Marius fall infinitely short of it; and the united cruelties of Robe- spierre, Carrier, and Joseph Le Bon, can never stand a comparison, and yet we are taught to look upon these men as the most abominable ruffians that ever lived. What then must be our astonishment when we hear a God of peace and mercy, approving of such atrocious wickedness ? " And the Lord said unto Jehu, be- cause thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto all the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. '^ OF THE JEWISH SAINTS. 83 But although Jehu pleased the Lord by murder and massacre, he cared as little for his worship as any of his predecessors. " Howbeit, from the sins of Jero- boam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them, to wit, the golden calves that were in iJethel, and that were in Dan." Verse 29, 50. Thus, after all this cruelty and mischief, the Lord was no better served than ever. What becomes of the foreknowledge of Ciod ? Could he not select a person to fill the throne that would promote his worship? Or are we to look uj)on it as a thing impossible to worship a God of such a character ? Let us then beware of imitating the conduct of men after " God's own heart ;" none ever assume such titles but the most profligate villains and monsters in human shape. We have Jiow taken a review of the actions of the most eminent men in the Jewish history; what do thi.y present to view but the chiefs of a gang of ban- ditti, totally destitute of virtue or morality, immersed ill ignorance and barbarism, and living in a state of the most savage ferocity ? Let us, for a moment, compare them with the illustrious men of Greece or Rome, we shall then see the value of Bible morality, and know how far tiuir saints are fit patterns of imitation for civilized Europe. RElMARKS ON THE THEOCRACY. Civil Goveriimciit necessarily arises out of the nature of society; to judge of its perfection, it is ne- cessary to know its ultimate object, and the end it has in view. The object which the science of government seeks to attain, is, beyond a doubt, " the promoting the greatest possible quantity of happiness to the com- munity/' Salus popiili lex, " or the public welfare, the supreme law," has been a maxim in every nation that ever existed. In proportion, then, as a govern- ment is capable of procuring the greatest number of advantages with the fewest inconveniencies, it ap- proaches perfection. That man is a creature of habit, is now known ; and that the religion and government under which he lives influence his conduct, and make him contract habits of virtue or vice, is also unfjues- tionable. These two great springs of human action ever have, and ever will, continue to form the man- ners and character of a nation. The proof of this truth is easy from history : whoever will take the trouble to compare the characters of the ancient Greeks and Romans with that of their modern descendants, will easily perceive the vast diflerence that is to be found between them to be entirely owing to the different REMARKS ON THE THEOCRACY. 85 systems of religion and government under which they respectively lived. These principles kept in view will enable us to form a iudsraent of the nature of the Jewish theocracy, if carnal reason be allowed to judge of so divine a govern- ment. Of the many various and different forms, for which mankind have contended so earnestly, that surely hath a fair claim for preference, in which the Author of our being condescends to become our lawgiver and magistrate. If there do exist a Being, destitute of human passions, and possessed of iniinite Justice, wisdom, and power, it were to be wished he would take upon him the charge of governing the whole human race. 1 am sure their affairs have been sadly managed by those who have governed them hitherto. 1 know it is the opinion of philosophers, that no government ever existed, or can exist, but of men : priests have affirmed, that a theocracy may exist, if they are to be its administrators ; and that the Jewish orovernment was one. To save all altercation on this head, we shall allow it to be as they say : all we mean to do is only to examine the nature of it, and see what sort of government it was. It would not be using the Lord with the respect due to so great a personage, to place him at the head of their affairs, while they were slaves to Pharaoh. The commencement of the theocracy must therefore bo fixed at the time the Israelites left Egypt ; when the Lord brought them up by "• mighty wonders and a strong h-.uid." The Israelites had at this time six hundred thousand fightnig men. Had these lellovvs been animated with the sjjirit of liberty, they could easily have cut their way out of Kgypt, without i)ut- ting th(' Lord to the expence of " mighty wonders :" but a mob of poltrons needed to be aniniated with the miracle of the ten plagues. SeoHers ha\e mad(! theni- selves very merry with these ten plagues; they obstMve, if they were no lH;ttsto(lfbr wickedness and Ijuibarisin l>y all |)cuj)lc' of the eaitli. Let ns then spnrn tliis pre- tended a^itt of heaven, which has proved so inimical to linnian liappiness ; let us return back to the celestial regions, and betake ourselves to the morality of the earth. To think of building a system of morality on the basis of revelation, is attempt! n2^ to found a castle in a quagmire, the foundations of which will be for ever slipping from under it. it is on the nature of man and his various relations in society only, that it cau stand, but which is sufficiently able to support it. Let us then discard the reveries of imposture, and listen to the dictates of nature ; let us turn a deaf ear to visions, dreams, and revelations ; but be ever atten- tive to the voice of truth, sober reason, and experience. Let us see if the superstition of the earth hath any thing better to present to our view than the following little abstract, from a work of distinguished merit, which we shall submit to the judgment of our readers, and so bid them farewell. Be just, because equity is the sup])ort of the human species. Be good, because goodness connects all hearts. Be indulgent, because feeble thyself, thou livest with beings as feeble as thou art. Be gentle, because gentleness attracts affection. Be grateful, because gratitude feeds and nourishes benevolence. Be modest, because haughtiness is disgustiug to beings smitten with themselves. Forgive injuries, because revenge perpetuates hatred. Do good to him that injureth thee, in order to shew thyself more noble than he is, and to make a friend of him. He reserved, tem- perate, and chaste, because voluptuousness, intem- l^erance, and excess, will destroy thy being, and render thee contemptible. Be a citizen, because thy country is necessary to thy security, to thy pleasures, and to thine happiness. Be faithful, and submit to legitimate authority, be- cause it is requisite to the maintenance of that society which is necessary to thyself. Be obedient to the laws, CONCLUSION. 99 because they are the expression of the public will, to which thy particular will ought to be subordinate. De- fend thy country, because it is that which renders thee happy, and contains thy property, as well as all those beings who are dearest to thine heart. Do not permit this common parent of thyself, and thy fellow citizens, to fall under the shackles of tyranny, because from thence it will be no more than a prison to thee. If thine unjust country refuse thee happiness; if, sub- mitted to an unjust power, it suffers thee to be op- pressed, withdraw thyself from it in silence, and never disturb it. In short, be a man : be a sensible and rational being ; be a faithful husband ; a tender father ; an equitable master ; a zealous citizen : labour to serve thy country by thy powers, thy talents, thine industry, and thy virtues ; participate with thine associates those gifts which nature hath bestowed on thee ; diffuse happiness, contentment, and joy, over all those who approach thee ; that the sphere of thine actions, en- livened by thy kindness, may react upon thyself. Be assured, that the man who makes others happy, cannot be unhappy himself. If exjx;rience direct our steps, truth illuminate our way, and reason support us with its aid, we shall infallibly arrive at that happiness our circumstances will permit, and our natures are capable of enjoying, without having recourse to the mandates of invisible phantoms, or their inferior agents. THE END.