I would only say, "Nay but, O man, who art thou "that repliest against God?" It is undeniable, that pain, sorrow, and death exist, and that men are prone to wickedness in every age and country. The greatest philosophers can give no satisfactory account, how the world was brought into its present depiorable condition; and the scriptural narration is at least as reasonableas any hitherto devised. Now if Adam by transgression became sinful and mortal, his whole posterity must fall in and with him; for every creature propa gates its own nature and all its essential properties. Accordingly children are liable to pain, sickness, and death; and the state of the world accords exactly to the sentence denounced on Adam.* Children likewise shew precisely the same propensities to pride, envy, sensuality, and other corrupt passions, as appear more strongly marked in grown persons. If then all men actually sin and deserve punishment, if they be incapable of a holy felicity in the enjoyment of God, and if there be a future state of righteous retribution: they must be condemned in consequence of Adam's sin, unless mercy and grace deliver them. Would it not then better become us to leave these matters to a world of clearer light, and to employ ourselves in seeking mercy, and victory over our evil propensities, or in alleviating the miseries of mankind; than in disputing about what we do not understand, and ridiculing what we cannot disprove? Could it even be demonstrated, that the Mosaick account of the fall were

Gen. iii. 16-19.

false; the wickedness and misery of our race would not be in the least diminished, and unrepented sin would surely expose men to the wrath of God. As to infants who die without actually transgressing the divine law; we are not bound to determine any thing about them, but may safely leave them in the hands of infinite justice and mercy.

The circumstance of Eve's not expressing wonder at the serpent's speaking, may be accounted for by the brevity of the narrative, and the extraordinary sagacity before observed in that animal; and by supposing with great probability, that Satan ascribed this gift bestowed on the serpent, to the salutary tendency of the forbidden fruit.

Mr. P. can clearly see the doctrine of evil spirits in the scriptures: and so far he is right. But as Satan's kingdom is the power of darkness, and as he is most successful when least suspected: it is not impossible but Mr. P. may be indebted for many of his brilliant thoughts to Satan's suggestions, especially such as < bolt into the mind of their own accord;'* and that he may abundantly repay his obligations, even while he denies Satan's existence, by endeavouring to set men against the religion of Him, who "was manifest"ed to destroy the works of the devil."

Take away from Genesis,' says Mr. P. the be'lief that Moses was the author, on which only the 'Strange belief that it is the word of God hath stood;

<ries-absurdities, or-downright lies. The story of Eve and the serpent, and of Noah and his ark, drop 'to a level with the Arabian tales, without the merit * of being entertaining; and the account of men living to eight or nine hundred years becomes as fabulous as the immortality of the giants.'-But is it not more wonderful, that God should at all destroy the work of his own hands, than that he should preserve his creatures for many hundred years?-Many traditions among the heathen confirm the account of the deluge, and learned men have discerned traces of it all over the earth. The opinion of the divine inspiration of the book of Genesis is not supported, only or principally, by the opinion that Moses wrote it, but rests on other evidence.This despised book contains the most satisfactory account of the creation, the entrance of sin, the origin of the nations dispersed through the earth, and the history of the remote ages, at this day extant in the world: with many most extraordinary prophecies, fulfilling at this day. And the story of Joseph, in the opinion of most competent judges, is the most pathetick and interesting that ever was related!

Mr. P. has given a fair specimen of his candour and caution, in his observations on the conduct of Moses and the Israelites, respecting the Midianitish women and children.-The Lord prohibited the Israelites to assault or distress the Moabites and Ammonites, with whom the Midianites were intimately connected:* yet Balak, king of Moab, when they ap

*Deut. ii. 9--13.

proached his land, instead of sending an ambassador to desire peace, or openly making war upon them, sent for Balaam to curse them. When that project did not answer, he followed Balaam's counsel, and, by means of the Midianitish women, seduced the Israelites into fornication and then into idolatry, in order that they might provoke the Lord to curse them. In this diabolical design he so far succeeded, that twenty four thousand of them were cut off by divine judgments in one day. Moses was therefore commanded to avenge Israel, on the Midianites, who seem to have been most criminal: and twelve thousand Israelites were sent into the country of Moab and Midian, who were completely successful and did not so much as lose a single man. Mr. P. calls this a plundering excursion, though, even if Moses had acted by his own authority, the war would have been completely justi fiable.

But after the return of the detachment with the spoil and prisoners, Moses ordered all the grown women to be put to death; and this excites most dreadful exclamations. The sword of war indeed should distinguish between armed opponents and those who make no resistance: but the sword of justice knows no such distinction. Deliberate insidious temptation to sin must appear, to all wise and virtuous men, the greatest of injuries. The sex of the culprit does not in other cases excuse guilt or exempt from punishment: and if the women, in defiance of modesty and decency, openly suffered themselves to be hired by the princes and priests of Baal, to become prostitutes to the Israelites, in order to promete idolatry, and to

bring guilt and wrath upon the worshippers of JEHOVAH; was it meet the tempters should escape with impunity, while the tempted were severely punished? The project of thus seducing Israel was reasonably adjudged the national sin of Midian and Moab: and was it proper the principal criminals should escape? Moses could not possibly know the individual transgressors; and the Lord commonly involves many in publick calamities who are not equally criminal: by his orders therefore the virgins were mercifully spared, and the rest were righteously punished.

But Mr. P. says, that an order was given to debauch the daughters, as well as to slay the mothers; and he calculates that thirty two thousand were thus consigned to debauchery!-If he could prove this, he would have an argument against the divine authority of the books of Moses, far more cogent than any he has hitherto produced: for a holy God may justly condemn transgressors to death, but he cannot command them to violate his own righteous laws.-But where did Mr. P. learn, that the Israelites were even allowed to debauch their female slaves? In fact the law of Moses did not permit a man to marry a captive, without many delays and previous formalities: and if afterwards he divorced her, he was bound to set her at liberty, "because he had humbled her."* And it is most certain that the passage referred to, compared with other Scriptures, implies nothing about debauching the female children, or even taking them as con

* Deut. xxi. 10-14.