As to his affertion, That Jeremiah was only • fourteen years of age when he received the Spirit,' it hath no better foundation than his plea, that he was y nagnar, a child, when he would excufe himfelf from being employed by God as a prophet to the nations, Jerem. i. 6. but it hath been already proved, if I am not mistaken, that the term was applied to perfons of ftill more mature age, in many places of Scripture; to which I now add Exodus, xxxiii. 11. where Joshua is so described, though he was twenty years old and upwards at the egress of the children of Ifrael from Egypt, Numb. xiv. 30.

When he fays* again, Jeremiah directs the neighbouring kings to submit to the king of Babylon 'Nebuchadonofor, in whose favour he prophefies ;' How apt is this to convey to his readers a wrong idea! It is true, he foretells his prevalence against them, as he was the chofen inftrument of divine providence for punishing their iniquities. But does he not alfo predict terrible judgments upon him, and the feat of his empire, and the people of his land, after the feventy years of the captivity of the Jews fhould be accomplished? See Jerem. xxv. 12. &c. alfo chap. 1. li. that nudus in Latin, and yuuvos in Greek, are used concerning perfons who are ill-cloathed, or whose raiment is worn out and tattered, as in Tacitus De More Germanorum, c. 20. Curtius, 9. 3. Matt. xxv. 36. James, ii. 15. hence Seneca's obfervation, De Beneficiis, lib. 5.

c. 13.

Quaedam etiamfi vera non fint, propter fimilitudinem eodem ⚫ vocabulo comprehenfa funt; Sic-illiteratum non ex toto rudem, ⚫ fed ad literas altiores non perductum. Sic qui male vestitum et pan⚫ nosum vidit, nudum fe vidiffe dicit.' And indeed we ufe the term naked with the fame latitude in our own language.

Phil. of Hift. p. 208.

* Phil, of Hift. p. 208.

He was then far from prophefying only things conducive to the king of Babylon's intereft, and agreeable to his wishes, as one hired and bribed by him would have done.

In the last paragraph of this 4 3d chapter, which hath detained us now long, we meet, I think, with a mistake about God's ‡order to Hofea, He commands 'Hofea to wed an adulterefs, who was beloved by another, as the Lord loves the children of Ifrael, who pay refpect to foreign gods, and who love the skin of the grape, chap. 3.'

For the genuine fenfe appears to be, that he should express love to a woman, 'beloved' not by a stranger, but, by her friend' and companion, the affociate of her bed, that is her husband, as y rang is taken Jerem. iii. 20. Cantic. v. 16. ' yet an adulteress,' notwithstanding this additional engagement, from tender affection on the part of her husband, according 'to the love of Jehovah toward the children of Ifrael, 'who turn to other gods, and love,' not the skin, as Mr. Voltaire has it without any authority, but, as the word is turned every where elfe, 'flagons of grapes,' 2 Sam. vi. 19. 1 Chron. xvi. 3. Cantic. ii. 5. that is, of † wine, the juice thereof; by which defcription is fignified in general, their affection to thofe idolatrous feafts which were celebrated in the idol-temples upon their facrifices, Judges, ix. 17. Amos, ii. 8. 1 Cor. x. 7-21. The prophet then is bid fhew kindness toward a woman, probably his own spouse, from whom he had for fome time fequeftered himself on

account of her adultery, against all the ties and obligations upon her to fidelity, arifing from his ardent attachment; and this he is enjoined to do, to denote God's tenderness for the people of Ifrael, notwithwithstanding their falfhood to him, and violation of their covenant with him, by the worship of false gods, which is often ftiled adultery in Scripture, by allufion to the conjugal relation, it represents to have fubfifted between them.

But though this feem the genuine fenfe, as his interpretation of the former part of the verse hath fome learned advocates, we do not accuse him therein of malicious mifrepresentation.

SECTION XVIII.

Of his enumeration in chapter forty-feventh of popular prejudices to which the facred writers conformed, That the Scripture calls the rainbow the ark of God, That Mofes erected a brazen ferpent, a God whofe look cured,-That Christ fays, new wine should never be put into old casks,

That Paul fays, the feed is not quickened except it die,—and that Chrift grants the Pharisees difpoffeffed devils.

I NOW pass over to his forty-feventh chapter, 'Of popular prejudices, to which the facred writers have 'deigned to conform through condefcenfion.' Here there is room for many animadverfions; but I fatisfy myself with the following.

He fays, The Scripture calls the rainbow the ark of God, the fign of alliance.' But where does

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it receive this title? God indeed is introduced faying, 'I do fet my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a to'ken of a covenant between me and the earth,' viz. that I will not destroy it any more with a flood, which is in the Vulgate Arcum meum ponam in nubibus.' But how ridiculous to pretend the Scripture calls this rainbow the ark of God, which every one knows denotes that coffer wherein the tables of the law were depofited, and over which the Shechinah or fplendor, that was the symbol of the divine presence, refided first in the tabernacle, and afterwards in the temple? For this there is no better handle, than that the first is in the Latin tranflation ftiled arcus, and the laftarca, while the names of the one and the other, are as different in the original as up kesbeth and aron. What scholar muft not be amazed at fuch mifrepresentation!

Again how inexcufable his affertion, Mofes e' rected a god, a brazen ferpent, whofe look cured those who had been bit with ferpents;' For what is there in the hiftory to countenance this wild charge? There we read, that Mofes interceded with God at the requeft of the people, that the fiery ferpents which wounded them to death in great numbers, might be taken away; hereon God directed him to make the likeness of one of these ferpents in brafs, and fet it upon a pole, with a promise that whoever should after any hurt from these animals look upon it should recover. In conformity to this order, Mofes framed

Only it may be obferved, the word for the rainbow in the French version is arc, and the word for the ark of the testimony, the ark of Noah, is arche.

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and erected it in the camp, and it had this expected virtue and efficacy. But what reason did that give our author to fay, he erected a God? None at all furely. If the people in a fucceeding period of great corruption, when Mofes was long dead, worshipped or burnt incenfe to this brazen ferpent, 2 Kings, xviii. 4. (for the fame was it seems still preferved among them, as might be fuppofed indeed, concerning fuch a monument and mean of divine mercy toward their ancestors,) it is most abfurd to impute, by such an expreffion, this abuse of it to him, in whose writings we do not read either the requirement or performance of fuch honour to it, but on the contrary, the most express prohibition of making any image of any object whatever for worship, and this enforced by the most tremendous and awful fanction. Mr. Voltaire himself * is so honest elsewhere as to fay, Tho'

* We have had occafion to obferve already, that he is sometimes a little inconfiftent with himself. In this Treatife chap. 30. page 138, he fays, Solomon placed two cherubims in the temple. But thefe che⚫ rubims were not look'd upon as Gods,' which is very true; yet in his effay Of the Jews,' which is to be found in the book called his Dialogues and Effays Literary and Philosophical, p. 62. he represents The two cherubims at Jerufalem, to have been confecrated like the two calves at Sichem ;' though it is said of these very calves at Sichem, that Jeroboam on their erection faid unto the people, Behold thy Gods (thy God) O Ifrael! which brought thee up out of the land of • Egypt,' and facrificed unto them, 1 Kings, xii. 28, 32.

In the fame manner chap. 42. p. 198. he says, 'Never were the ⚫ Jews more attached to their law, than under the kings of Syria. They ⚫ no longer adored foreign divinities,' yet in two lines after he fays, • They were nevertheless more unhappy than ever, always in expecta⚫tion of being delivered by the promises of their prophets, by the affist⚫ance of their gods, but abandoned by Providence, whose decrees are unknown to man.' What contradictions are thefe! What shameful