and gratifying himself with, the spectacle of human mifery *. There can be no doubt that the learned and very respectable Dr. Geddes is a believer both in the jewish and the christian revelation, although he has not told us how much of the scripture he conceives to have the unquestionable fanction of the Deity. In the general preface to his tranflation of the Bible, which will not appear till his great work is finished, he will explain himfelf more fully. In the mean time, having occasion to speak of the extirpation of the Canaanites, in the preface to his fecond volume, he has, like a good and upright man, expreffed himfelf thus in a note: "After all that has been written, either by "jews or chriftians, in defence of this fan *The above citation from the Apocalypfe informs us, that the holy angels and the Lamb are admitted to the enviable privilege of participating in this horrid fpecies of gratification. guinary meafure, I confefs my reason "and my religion continually revolt at it: " and I cannot bring myself to believe that "fuch an order proceeded from the mouth "of God; perhaps not even from the "mouth of Mofes. I am rather willing "to fufpect that it is the fabrication of "fome pofterior jew, to justify the cruel"ties of his nation. And indeed it is the "shortest way to juftify any measure, and "to obviate all troublesome objections. "Such a deed could not be unjuft, fince "God authorized and commanded it: who "will prefume to fay that what God com"mands is unjuft? True; but then we "must first be well affured that he has "commanded; and the very appearance "of injuftice in the act, is to me a ftronger proof that he did not command it, than "the authority of all the jewifh hiftorians put together. I was grieved to read in ་ "a late elegant Apology for the Bible fo lame a juftification of that paffage: and am " tempted "tempted fometimes to think that the right reverend author must have felt the "weakness of his argument, and feen the disparity of his fimile." Such, and fo liberal is the manner in which Dr. Geddes has expreffed himfelf: and I own it is gratifying to me, to find that what I have advanced, in oppofition to the bishop's argument, has fo far the concurrence of fuch a man*. He has likewife, much to his honour, when animadverting on the pretended divine order for extirpating the Amalekites, thrown out, with virtuous indignation, the following apostrophe: "But, "O God of Justice, could it thou, then, "have given the fanguinary injunction to deftroy, without mercy and without exception, a whole unoffending nation, men, women, and children, for a crime, "real or fuppofed, committed by their an"cestors four hundred years before? Cre"dat Judæus Apella!" *See above, pp. 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28. In the further profecution of my design, I fhall now bring forward, and comment more or lefs upon certain narratives from the Old Teftament; and I fhall do the same respecting a very important and diftinguished doctrine of the New. I fhall next animadvert on the morality of the New Testament. I fhall then fhew why I think that, even though a part of the objectionable matter might be rejected, the whole could not, confiftently with the belief of the christian revelation. And, laftly, I shall give my reasons for eftimating the argument from teftimony as unfound and infufficient. SECTION SECTION I. Of Objectionable Stories and Doctrine. ALTHOUGH it fhould feem that any exhibition of miracles, to the disturbance and interruption of the course of nature, must be a proceeding unworthy of the immutable Author of nature, it may be obferved that, fome of thofe miraculous ftories related in the jewish hiftory, strike one as peculiarly degrading to his character. Very strange it is to read of colloquial difcourfes paffing between that great and aftonishing Being and his human creatures. Nevertheless we read of many fuch colloquies with Abraham and others. But what must we think when we are told, Gen. ch. xx. that this fame Abraham, while a fojourner at a place called Gerar, basely represented his wife Sarah as |