which there appears to be no escape, that the uncivilized and unenlightened offer little hopes of conversion? Does the refinement of philosophy, and the wisdom of this world, present no obstacle to the reception of Gospel truth, from which the simplicity of the uncultivated mind is happily exempt? Has the rude islander of the Southern Ocean been found less open to missionary efforts than the comparatively polished native of the continent of Asia? The Divine command to "teach all nations i" assuredly intimates neither distinction nor reserve. "There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free, but Christ is all, and in all *."

I of course attach not to this theory, as developed in the work before us, any approximation to those blasphemous extravagancies of the neologist, who would even represent Christianity as in some points

nature of the beneficent Creator, and the offer of immortality through the redemption of our blessed Saviour. To trace this gradual progress was the design of our earlier history." Preface to vol. iii. p. iv.

'Matthew xxviii. 19.

* Col. iii. 11.

an accommodation to existing prejudices ;-it has however, as it is, been more than sufficiently pernicious. So fixed is the opinion, that "the ancestors of the Jews, and the Jews themselves, pass through every stage of comparative civilization', that in their early period they are of necessity considered as utterly barbarous. It is accordingly argued, that “the seeming authorization of fierce and sanguinary acts, resolves itself into no more than this, that the Deity did not yet think it time to correct the savage, I will add, unchristian, spirit, inseparable from that period of the social state";"— and again, in the case of the Canaanites, "the ferocious valour of this yet uncivilized people was allowed free scope "."

But how can the truth of Scripture be more grievously perverted? The commands of God were most explicit and peremptory; "Thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them ";""thou shalt

save alive nothing that breatheth'." Their conduct was the result of implicit obedience. If this should appear in any degree doubtful, let it only be taken into the account, that in obedience to the same authority, and to the suppression of every barbarian propensity, they destroyed the spoil also. It was even with reluctance, if not by absolute compulsion, that they thus executed the Divine sentence on the devoted inhabitants of Canaan ;-for when the terror of immediate penalty was removed, they spared them, and incurred the wrathful denunciation, that

they should be as thorns in their sides, and their gods should be a snare unto them'." The same perverted view is taken of Jehu's conduct in destroying the priests of Baal, and the sinful house of Ahab; and the guilt of blood is distinctly charged

P Deut. xx. 16.

↑ Joshua vi. 24.

'Judges ii. 3. See the case of the Israelites and Canaanites ably stated in Lectures on the four last Books of the Pentateuch; by Richard Graves, D.D. Dean of Ardagh, &c. vol. ii. part iii. lecture i.

・“An indiscriminate slaughter of the seventy sons, the friends and kindred of Ahab, took place: the heads were

on these acts of manifest obedience to the will of Heaven. But what was the judgment of God himself? "And the Lord said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which is

sent, in the modern Turkish fashion, to Jehu, at Jezreel. The subtle usurper ordered them to be placed by the gate; and addressed the assembled people, obliquely exculpating himself from the guilt of the massacre ; • Behold I conspired against my master and slew him, but who slew all these?" He proceeded to attribute their death to the inscrutable decrees of the Almighty, who had determined on the extirpation of the whole guilty house of Ahab. The crafty Jehu continued his successful, though bloody career. The house of Ahaziah met with no better fate than that of Ahab; Jehu put to death forty-two of them whom he encountered on his way to Samaria, obviously with a view to popularity. He concluded

his dreadful work of vengeance by the total extermination of the priests of Baal, which he conducted with his usual subtlety. Thus Israel was finally delivered from

the fatal house of Ahab; but Athaliah, the queen mother of Judah, shewed herself a worthy descendant of that wicked stock, and scenes as bloody, and even more guilty, defiled the royal palace of Jerusalem." Vol. i. p. 292, 293.

right in mine eyes, and hast done unto 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." Surely this is not so much to be "wise above what is written," as in defiance and in despite of it.

As it is my leading object to vindicate the sacred canon of Scripture from irreverence and misrepresentation, I am unwilling to extend my remarks to that portion of the history, which, as it depends on merely human testimony, even in the novelties of unauthorized speculation, throws no immediate contempt on an inspired guide. But I cannot altogether abstain from noticing the disappointment, not to say the shock, naturally experienced by the Christian reader, on finding that even the leading and public facts of his Saviour's ministry are not deemed worthy of a place in a history of the Jews. The few cursory' observations on the character of Pilate, and the prejudices of the Jews, as calculated to affect his ministry, are no satisfactory