a likeness between the treatment they should receive, and that of wanton cattle, by giving them the appellation of kine of Bafhan. Though elfewhere indeed, the oppreffion of the people by the princes is called, flaying their skin and breaking their bones, and chopping them in pieces as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron, Micah iii. 1, 2, 3. it was only defigned by that expreffion, in the paffage under confideration, to delineate their criminal character, for which God was provoked to punish them, in the manner the prophet defcribes.

SECTION V.

Of his inference from certain Pfalms, that the Jews were of a fanguinary difpofition; and of his mifquoting one paffage and perverting another in their Pfalter, to prove that they were a carnal people, in Chapter fourty-fourth.

IPASS on to another inftance. It is to be found in Chapter fourty-fourth of the Philofophy of History, which he intitles Of the prayers of the Jews.' Here, without giving them any honour on account of. many pfalms in the collection, which are full of the

living in pleasure, to be fignified by, the kine of Bafhan, and the denunciation to be, that they should be dealt with as fifhes that fport and frisk in a pond, which the fishers draw out with poles and hooks, and throw into their boats, is worthy to be transcribed here.

'Nec mirum videri debet, talem fimilitudinem adhiberi, poftquam 'mulieres iftae appellatae funt vaccae Bafan, quia hoc erat nudum cog'nomen, ut tauri Bafan Pf. xxii, non autem fimilitudo.' Vide Houbig. Bibl. in locum.

moft fublime and manly piety, and of the most exalted and pure morality, he produces a few paffages, felected here and there, to fhew that they were a carnal and fanguinary people, that they wished the death of a finner rather than his converfion, and required of God all terrestrial bieffings.

Now in proof of this charge about the fanguinary temper of the Jews, he quotes fome of the prayers against enemies, which are fcattered through the book. Nor do I accufe him of falfhood in reciting them. But are they a fufficient ground for the reflexion he throws upon that people?

In the opinion of many learned men, the paffages which in our own and other * translations, are turned as requests that God would fend evil upon enemies, fhould be rendered as predictions or declarations of David's affurance through the fpirit, that God, in the course of his administration, would in

Some I am aware have understood the cixth Pfalm, to contain David's recital of his enemies curfes against himself, rather than an ac⚫ count of his own imprecations against them. And to this purpose they have urged, that the wishes of hurt there are prefaced with an affertion, that the mouth of the wicked was opened against him, while he fhewed them love and kindness. That they are levelled against one person, instead of being pointed against many perfons, and shut up with this obfervation according to the original, v. 20. This is the work (or be'haviour) of my adversaries, with (or before) the Lord.' Finally, that there follows upon them this petition, which looks as if the curfes preceding were aimed at himself, Let them curfe, but blefs thou:' Nevertheless, though this fhould be allowed the true interpretation, (which however is not very probable, fince we cannot well suppose the Pfalmift would have repeated the impious fpeeches of his enemies, to fuch number and length in a devotional office; or that the apostle Peter would have cited fome clauses thence, which yet he does, to authorize

flict it upon them. For example, fay they, Pf. Ixix. 22. fhould run thus, Their table fhall become a

fnare before them, and that which fhould have been ' for their welfare, fhall become a trap;' and in like manner the other exceptionable places of the fame kind. But if this explication be juft, in favour of which it may be observed, that for the most part the Hebrew * verbs are in the future tense, they afford no handle or pretence at all for the imputation of our author.

Left this however + please not, I add, though they should be admitted to be prayers inftead of prophecies,

the filling of Judas's place in the Apoftolic college, by the nomination of a fucceffor, Acts i. 16.-20.) it would be but a small relief from the objection. For there remain many other pfalms to be accounted for, where is no room for such an evasion of the difficulty; and if they can be reconciled with a moral and religious character, so may that cix. Pfalm, though it should, according to the common interpretation, reprefent David's words against his adverfaries, and not theirs against

him.

* It is true, imperative forms are also intermixed. But they are lefs frequent, as I have faid; nor is it without example, that even fuch receive a future fignification elsewhere, as Gen. xx. 7. xlii. 18. Deut. xxxii. 50. Ifai. liv. 1. &c. Is the authority of the Greek and Vulgate verfions oppofed to this explication? to omit, that Jews writing Greek, do fometimes employ the imperative for the future form of verbs, as in Matt. x. 13. John ii. 19. and Matt. xxiii. 32. wherefore the Seventy may be fuppofed to do so here, there is little weight in the argument. For who knows not, that the Greek verfion is in many places faulty and erroneous? yet upon it, (as will be hereafter taken notice of) the Vulgate in the Pfalms was very much formed.

It may be objected, I obferve, that the verfion which makes thefe fentences prayers, inftead of prophetic denunciations, is to be preferred, because the future tenfe is frequently used by the Hebrews in forms of intreaty, as well as the imperative, because it is unnatural to make Da

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fill the author may be vindicated, from all reasonable

blame and cenfure, for a cruel and vindictive fpirit, and upon like principles, the people who gave them a place in their facred volume.

For, firft, we may suppose the penman of them fo fituated and circumstanced, as to justify the effufion of his heart in fuch language before God, against the perfons whom he describes, for his own fafety or the safety of the state. It is undeniably lawful, to pray for deliverance from enemies, not only by infa tuation of their counfels, defeat of their enterprizes, and like methods, but even by deftruction of their lives, when this is needful to our own, or our country's freedom from their oppreffion and unjust violence, in the fame manner as it is lawful to kill them in our own, or the nation's felf-defence; now it cannot be proved, that any of the prayers of the Pfalmift extend beyond this unto their final damnation, whatever * air some expreffions may have of fuch dreadful

vid in a direct address to God, enter into fo long a detail of the calamities that would befall his enemies, and in fine, because the apoftles Peter, Acts, i. 16.-20. and Paul, Rom. xi. 8. 9. though they do not always cite according to the Seventy, do quote fome of the claufes of Pf lxix. and Pf. cix. conformably to their tranflation, which by its use of the Greek verbs in the imperative and optative moods, exhibits them, most obviously at least, in the light of fupplications from David to Jehovah, that he would so and so punish his, and the nation's enemies.

* Thus what we render Pf. lv. 15. Let them go down quick into hell,' is only, Let them go down quick or lively (while yet healthy, and free from disease) into the grave or invisible state.' Let them die fuddenly, as happened to Ahitophel, 2. Sam. xvii. 23 which punishment however, he is alfo content fhould happen to himself, if their foul charges against him were not falfe, Pf. vii. 3.-5.

fense, according to our version. Why then might not David pray under fuch preffing neceffity, for the excision of enemies, and the Hebrew people receive thefe prayers into their facred volume, without being accused of a fanguinary difpofition? Is it asked, where is the evidence that David's condition was fuch, that he could not be faved unless his enemies were cut off? I answer, to grant fuch was his apprehenfion or view of the matter, feems to be no greater indulgence to his character than what a very moderate degree of candour dictates. For he informs us in one place, he felt a moft tender concern for the miseries of his foes, and became a most fervent interceffor with God for their welfare; Pf. xxxv. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. Falfe witneffes did rife up; they laid to my charge things which I knew not. They rewarded me evil for good, to the spoiling of my foul. But as for me, when they were fick, my ⚫ clothing was fackloth: I humbled my foul with faf6 ting, and my prayer returned into mine own bofom. I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother, &c.' And his hiftorian has recorded fome striking inftances of his gentleness toward thofe who had given him the highest provocation; I mean, Saul, 1 Sam. xxiv. and xxvi. Shimei, 2 Sam. xvi. 9. Abfalom, ibid. xviii. 5, 33. and even Nabal, whom he fpared after all his rudeness and ingratitude, in compliance with Abigail's request, advanced as he was to take vengeance on him, and enga ged as he was by what fome men count ties of honour, in pursuance of his oath to do so, 1 Sam. xxv. Withal, it is to be attended to, that these enemies, against

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