of his being entombed in the body of a large fish, which is supposed to have been a whale." That these hiflories have afforded matter for cavil to the infidel, and fometimes difturbed the quiet even of the humble believer, must be known to every man, who has read them with attention, and who is in any tolerable degree acquainted with what is paffing, or has paffed, in the religious world. It well became Mr. Bryant, therefore, to attempt an elucidation of them by that erudition which has been fo fuccefsfully employed to throw light upon other paffages of the facred writings, and which cannot otherwife be employed in fo noble a cause. Whether Troy was or was not taken by the Greeks? whether that city flood in Phrygia or in Egypt? and, indeed, whether it ever exifled? are queftions of very little importance, when compared with the authenticity of the books attributed to Mofes. The claffical fcholar, and he who has devoted much time to the study of ancient hiflory, muft feel indeed a strong inclination to maintain the common opinion concerning the father of epic poetry, and an event which made an epoch in the chronology of the world, and is cited as an undoubted fact by Thucydides, the moft profound historian who ever wrote, against the hypothefis which, fome years ago, was advanced by Mr. Bryant; but what is the importance of epic poetry or of ancient chronology, when put in the balance againft our holy religion, of which the very foundation refts on the authenticity of the Pentateuch? There are various tracts in the Old Teflament, of which the inspiration and even the authenticity might be questioned, without questioning the principles of Chriftianity; but if the Mofaic account of the fall of man be rejected, the Gofpel view of redemption is unintelligible. Hence, infidels, in all ages, have opened their chief batteries against the books of Mofes; and hence thofe Chriftians who very falfely call themfelves rational, are at great pains to reprefent the account which we have, in the book of Genefis, of the pri mæval flate of man, and of his fall from that ftate, as an allegory or a is. Mr. Bryant was a Chriflian truly rational. He knew well, that the revelations of God must be confiftent with each other; that if the books afcribed to Mofes be not authentic; or that if their author wrote not by infpiration; the great and indeed fundamental doctrines of the Gofpel cannot be divine. Impreffed with this conviction, he ftept forward, fome years ago, to prove, and completely proved, the Divine Legation of Mofes; when he fhowed the wonderful propriety of the miracles which that legiflator was enabled to work in Egypt, to evince at once his own divine miffion, and and the vanity of the fuperftitions which prevailed in the country*; and, in the firft part of the work before us, he undertakes to vindicate, on the fame principles, and by the fame -mode of reafoning, the history of Balaam. He begins his obfervations, by afcertaining the place of that diviner's refidence to have been not Mefopotamia beyond the Euphrates, as is ufually fuppofed, but a city on the river Arnon, between Edom and Midian, in the vicinity of Moab. It was called Pethor or Petor, in Greek Petra, because it was famous for an oracular temple, where Balaam appears to have officiated as chief prieft. Thefe two points the author proves to our complete fatisfaction, difplaying, as ufual, a vast variety of learning; but occafionally admitting as facts things which are altogether incredible. Thus, when he is diftinguifhing the Petra of Balaam from Petra Arabica, he fays, We are told by Diodorus Siculus, that when the Grecian gene ral, Athenæus, took by form Petra Arabica, it required a march from Idame of three days and three nights to arrive at it. Alanoatles Jano The Idounxiast, &c.Having proceeded from the province of Idume, and marched in three days and three nights two thousand two hundred Aadia, we at midnight got possession of Petra. (Diod. 1. 19, p. 731) This march must have confifted of at least two hundred and forty miles. From what part of the province he fet out is uncertain; but we may reasonably infer, that it was at a confiderable distance; and that there were manifeftly two cities. The purport of the two names were also different. The one was a rock called Hagar, Saleh; and rendered Herga, Petra. But the city of Edom had its name from 5, Petor, in our verfion called Pethor, by which is fignified a place of prophecy." P. 13. That there were two cities, and that this author has fairly affigned the origin of the name Petra, as given to each of them, we readily admit; but it is well that his proofs reft not on the quotation from Diodorus, fince no man can believe that any army marched, in three days and three nights, two hundred and forty miles, and then inflantly formed a city! Having afcertained the place of Balaam's refidence, and thus removed the objection which has been fometimes urged against his hiftory, from the fuppofed diftance between Pethor and Moab, Mr. Bryant proceeds to inquire into the propriety of that particular miracle, by which a dumb afs was made to reprove the madnefs of the prophet". He begins the en See Brit. Crit. vol. iv. p. 33. +Mr. Bryant prints his Greek without accents, which, therefore, though contrary to our own method and opinion, we have not thought proper to fupply. Y y 2 quiry quiry by informing us, that he has often fufpected, that in the oracular temple at Petra, where Balaam officiated, the Onolatria, or worship of the afs, prevailed. This hypothefis, if it can be confirmed, will certainly remove from the miracle the greatest difficulty with which it is encumbered; but to us the arguments, which are here urged in its fupport, though some of them are probable, feem not to be fuch as will carry conviction to an unwilling mind. The first is built on a paffage of Tacitus, who, in his very erroneous account of the origin of the Jews, and of the fuf. ferings of that people as they journied from Egypt to Ca. naan, fays, "Sed nihil æque quam inopia aquæ fatigabat. Jamque haud procul exitio totis campis procubuerant; cum grex Afinorum agreftium a paflu in rupem nemore opacam conceffit. Secutus Mofes, conjectura herbidi foli, largas aquarum venas aperit. Effigiem animalis, quo monftrante errorem fitimque depulerant penetrali facravere." But the Jews did not worship the image of an afs, nor is there one word of truth in this ftory. This author, however, obferves, that "fomething fimilar to it is mentioned (in four words) by the hiftorian Democritus, as we find him quoted by Suidas", and that the fame thing is alluded to by Petronius Arbiter, when he says, "Judæus, licet et Porcinum numen adoret, Et Cilli fummas advocet auriculas." The Chriftians likewife were accufed of this worship, as appears from a paffage here quoted from Minucius Felix; and hence it is inferred, that "these hiftories, however mifapplied, feem to intimate, that among many nations, and particularly the Egyptians, there was an imputed fanctity attributed to thefe animals; and that they were reverenced for fome benefits which they were fuppofed to have afforded." P. 21. We cannot think this inference fairly drawn. The object of Tacitus and Petronius Arbiter was to exhibit the Jews not in a respectable but in a contemptible light, as a people hated by and hating the whole human race; and though these two authors knew lefs than we do of the religion of Egypt and Midian in the days of Mofes, they furely mean to reprefent the religion of the Jews as fomething very different from it. Taciti Hift. 1. 5, cap. 3. Such is the author's reference to Taci tus; but the last sentence of this quotation belongs to the next chapter, a circumftance, as will be feen prefently, of much importance. + Χρυσουν όνου κεφαλην προσεκύνουν 3 "Plurimi "Plurimi auctores confentiunt", fays Tacitus, orta per Ægyptum tabe, quæ corpora fædaret, Regem Bocchorim, adito Hammonis ora culo remedium petentem, purgare regnum, et id genus hominum, ut invifum deis, alias in terras avehere juffum. Sic conquifitum collectumque vulgus, poftquam vaftis locis relictum fit; ceteris per lacrymas. torpentibus, Molen unum exulum monuiffe, ne quam deorum hominumve opem expectarent, utrinque deferti, fed fibimet ut duci cœlefti crederent, primo cujus auxilio credentes, præfentes miferias pepuliffent." The hiftorian, who retails this account of the expulfion of the Jews from Egypt, did not furely believe, that Mofes intro duced among his countrymen the worship of any of thofe Gods, from whofe aid he affured them that they had nothing to hope, as they had been abandoned as well by the Gods as by the men of Egypt. Accordingly, in the beginning of the very next chapter, Tacitus says, "Mofes, quo fibi in pofterum gentem firmaret, novos ritus, contrariofque ceteris mortalibus, indidit. Profana illic omnia, quæ apud nos facra: rurfum conceffa apud illos, quæ nobis incesta. Effigiem animalis, quo monftrante errorem fitimque depulerant, penetrali facravere: cæfo ariete, velut in contumeliam Hammonis. Bos quoque immolatur, quem Egyptii Apin colunt. Sue abftinent, memoria cladis, qua ipfos fcabies quondam turpaverat, cui id animal obnoxium." 1 We infer, therefore, in direct oppofition to this author, that Tacitus either thought not of the Onolatria of ancient Egypt, or did not believe it, when he chofe to ftigmatize the Jews with having the likeness of an afs in the holiest place of their temple. Indeed the whole account, given by that author, of the Jewish nation, betrays either extrene ignorance, or a contempt of truth. No, fays Mr. Bryant, "it is a curious hiftory"; and if we only reflore each part of what he fays of the Onolatria to its proper agent, it will be found in the principal articles very true, and very much to the prefent pur pose. The two agents, between whom he wishes to divide it, are Mofes and Anah; though the reader will probably be of opinion, that there are at leaft nine hundred and ninety-nine :: chances to one that of Anah and his affes, Tacitus had never : heard. To the affes of Anah, however, this author attributes the Onolatria of Pethor; and he attempts to establifh his bypo-thefis by the teftimony of Scripture. Thefe animals, and efpecially the Onagri, are introduced in the facred books as emblems of liberty, at the fame time that their aptness to dif Hift. lib. v. cap. 3. cover water is alluded to. Hence, he fays, that as people were often loft in the dreary wilds bordering on Edom, Moab, and Midian, and reduced to the laft extremity by thirst, their only refource was to follow the wild als or its track; by which they were generally led either to a pool or fountain. The meeting of this animal was of courfe looked upon as a fortunate omen; and its inftinctive fagacity efleemed a divine impulfe, an immediate gift from heaven. Hence these animals, like thofe in Egypt, were reverenced for their fuperior forecaft, and admitted as emblems of divination. He fuppofes, therefore, that in the hiftory of Anah (Genefis xxxvi. 24) the nature of thofe thirfly regions, and the peculiar faculty of the afs are alluded to; and he proves completely, that, which in our version is rendered males, ought to be tranflated waters. "We fhould therefore read, that inftead of mules, Anah found out water in the wilderness; but to what does the hiftory amount? Every known fpring must have had somebody to have difcovered it; fo that Anah, if this be all, did no more than hundreds had done before; but to me there feems to be fomething of more importance in the account than at firft appears; and for that reafon, the name of the perfon is recorded, as being of moment to thofe who lived in the vicinity of Edom, and were acquainted with the rites of Midian. "It is to be obferved, that the facred writer, in speaking of Anch's firft discovery of these waters, does not inform us when or where he was feeding his father's affes; but only that the event took place as he was feeding them. This may be found of fome moment. "I imagine that the latent purport of the history is this. As Anah was attending thefe animals in the defart, he obferved that faculty with which they were endued, of fnaffing the moisture of the air, and being by thefe means led to latent waters. Accordingly, either by the inumation of thofe which he fed, or by the traces of the wild brood, he was brought to the knowledge of those refources: and as thefe animals, which had been, beneficial, were entitled in many countries to a particular regard, fo thefe, among others, met with uncommon reverence among the Horites of Mount Hor, and the people of Seir; for they were looked upon as the inftruments of Heaven towards the finding out in thofe barren wilds the greatest bleifing. Hence arofe a town, and temple, where the Divinity was worthipped under this emblem. They flood in a valley beneath Mount Hor, which was a part of the mountains of Kiddim, upon the skirts of Edom. 66 Thus, as I have before mentioned, what was natural fagacity they looked upon as a fupernatural impulfe, an intimation from Heaven; and the animal, like the Apis and Mnevis in Egypt, was efteemed a living emblem of the Deity, and oracular. From the fituation of Petora, which was very reclufe, the place being almost furrounded by high mountains, we may fuppofe, that the water was first found out in the manner above; in confequence of which, the animal was looked upon as an oracle, and accordingly reverenced: and when the falfe prophet |