God. But this is all that was neceffary to produce the miraculous phænomenon recorded in the Book of Joshua; and yet fo confident is the author, that the whole account of that phænomenon cannot be true, that, without pretending to the authority of any ancient manufcript, he rafhly pronounces part of it an interpolation from the Book of Jafher, which he fupposes to have been a work of no credit*. He retails the objections to this narrative, which have been a thousand times urged by others, and as often anfwered, though unworthy of an answer; but refts his own objection to the poffibility of the miracle on the circumftance of Jofhua's being, at the time when it is faid to have been wrought, beyond Gibeon and Ajalon, towards the fouth.

"We have seen that the two cities, Gibeon and Ajalon, bordered upon each othert, and were in the tribe of Dan. Jofhua, chap. xix. ver. 42. When Jofhua came to their affiftance, upon their being fuddenly attacked, and in great danger from the five kings, their deliverance was quickly infured. We have alfo feen, that Joshua drove the enemy downwards towards the fouth, and purfued them to Bethoron. From that place the enemy fled to Azekah and Makkedah, farther fouth. The whole progrefs of Jofhua from Gibeon was in that direction, with the Sun before him; and at the fame time, during this purfuit, the city Gibeon, and the vale of Ajalon, were behind him, directly north. How then could the Sun and Moon be seen over them, when they were in fo contrary a part in the heavens? If there be any truth in hiftory, no fuch appearances could have happened. The fuppofition is ill-founded, and the fact impoffible." P. 175.

This language is abundantly confident; and yet the argument derives all its apparent force from the author's mistaking the fenfe of the original Hebrew. The radical import of the word, which Arias Montanus and he fuppofe to be filence, is equable, level, uniform, even, parallelt. The fun muft therefore have been ready to fet, with his rays paffing in a horizontal direction, gilding perhaps the turrets of Gibeon, when Joshua faid on a way, folar light remain on Gibeon.

* For fome excellent obfervations on the Book of Jafher, the reader is referred to the late excellent Bithop Horne's Letters on Infidelity.

+ For the truth of this, no fatisfactory proof is brought; and we are inclined to think, that though both in the country of the fame tribe, they were at a confiderable diftance from each other.

This is fuficiently proved by Mr. Parkhurit in his Lexicon; where it is likewife fhown, that the word tranflated fun fignifies often the folar rays, and that —zun yna might be rendered the folar light ftayed in the vifible horizon".

Accordingly, when in the fubfequent verfe it is faid, that "the fun flood fill and the moon flaid", the word employed, when fpeaking of the moon, is ; of which the radical meaning is, to be fupported in a place. The fact then feems to have been, that juft when the fun was fetting, and when the moon was fhining faintly on the vale of Ajalon, which was too low to be then touched by the folar rays, the diurnal rotation of the earth was ftopt; and if fo, how could it be impoflible for perfons further fouth than Gibeon and Ajalon to see the phænomenon which followed this exertion of almighty power?

Let not the reader, however, fuppofe that Mr. Bryant has here deferted the cause of revelation. He admits that a mira cle was performed at Gibeon and Ajalon; though it had no relation, he fays, to the luminaries in the heavens;

"but to two idolatrous, and probably oracular, temples of the Sun and Moon, for which the two places mentioned were celebrated. There were many others in Canaan, where the like worship prevailed, as we may learn from the cities ftyled Beth-Shan, Beth-Sur, BethShemesh, Beth-Meon, Beth-Baal-Meon, and the like." P. 179.

This we readily admit; and if he had afferted, that the rays of the fetting fun, when he was arrefted in his course, were gilding the turrets of the temple dedicated to his worship at Gibeon, we fhould not have called in queftion the truth of the affertion; but though the miracle was probably wrought to wean the Gibeonites from their idolatry, and to guard the Ifraelites from the danger of their example, we fee no neceflity for adopting the following emendation of the facred text.

"And it came to pafs, as they fled before Ifrael, and were in going down to Bethoron, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them, unto Azekah, and they died. There were more, which died with hail-stones, than they which the children of Ifrael flew with the fword. Then fpake Jofhua to the Lord, in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Ifrael; Sun, upon (the high place of) Gibeon be filent; and, thou Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And Joshua returned, and all the people with him, unto the camp at Gilgal." Chap. x. ver. 11, &c.

Here the 13th and 14th verfes of our prefent text are omitted, and the author's interpretation of the 12th confidently inferted as its true meaning. But he supports it thus:

"The words of Jofhua are undoubtedly uttered in the name of God, and not addreffed to the two fictitious luminaries, except in a fecondary direction; and were probably a wish, and prayer, rather than a command. They proceeded from an ardent zeal to establish the worship and true religion of the Deity, and from a grateful fenfe of his good

nefs

nefs in affording fuch a miraculous victory. The purport and ultimate deign of this addrefs, though couched in a fmall compafs, feems to be this:-God of all victory, may thy people, from this inftance of thy fuperiority, be confirmed in their duty, and worship thee alone. And may the Gibeonites, and their confederates, by this difplay of thy power, be weaned from their idolatry, and fee the inferiority of their bafe deities. May the Sun, whofe oracular temple ftands upon Mount Gibeon, be dumb; and the Moon, whofe fhrine is in the valley of Aialon, be equally filent. May their oracles ceafe for ever." P. 187.

All this is very plaufible and very pious; but may not we with equal plaufibility, and in conformity with the facred text, fuppofe the purport and ultimate defign of Jofhua's addrefs to be this?

"God of all victory, may thy people, from this inftance of thy fuperiority, be confirmed in their duty, and worship thee alone. And may the Gibeonites, by this difplay of thy power, be weaned from their idolatry, and fee the inferiority of their bafe deities. May the Sun be compelled by thee to linger in the horizon, fhining on the temples of Gibeon, and the Moon to ftand over the valley of Ajalon, that thefe two greatest deities of the nations beholding, as it were, the overthrow of their votaries, may bear witnefs to their own impotence, and thus proclaim to all the earth-" The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God."

To prove the fuperiority of Jehovah over the gods of Canaan, is undoubtedly the moral import of the miracle. Thus far we entirely agree with the author; and we leave it to the reader to judge for himself, whether fuch a proof would have been moft completely exhibited by filencing two heathen oracles, whilft hundreds were permitted, even in the neighbourhood, to give out their refponfes as formerly; or, by arresting in their courfes the Sun and Moon, the two greatest Divinities of all the heathen nation's, until the worshippers of the true God had avenged themselves on their votaries. To us we confefs, that there appears fo little room for ftating a comparifon between the two miracles confidered in this refpe&t, that even the love of novelty and paradox feems hardly fufficient to account for the origin of Mr. Bryant's hypothefis.

Of this author's obfervations on the history of Jonah, with which the work before us concludes, we know not what character to give. They difplay, as ufual, great ingenuity, and great erudition, while they contain nothing contrary to the facred text; but for the theory advanced, however plausible in itfelf, we long for better evidence. Having afcertained that Gath Hepher, the place of the prophet's refidence, was in the country afterwards called Galilee, and Galilee of the nations; and having satisfied himself, that the Galileans were a

mixed race, prone to all the modes of idolatry which prevailed in the furrounding nations, Mr. Bryant obferves of Jonah, that

"as he came from among a mixed and unfettled people, he was probably of unfettled and corrupt principles; one of thofe, of whom it is faid-They feared the Lord, and ferved their own gods-They feared the Lord, and ferved their graven images. This, I think, may be fairly inferred from his behaviour. He is indeed ftyled-a fervant of the Lord: but it is well known, that the Lord had many wayward and unfaithful fervants, who were disobedient to his word; whom alfo he forced against their will to accompli his purpofe. This refractory prophet of Galilee feems to have been one of the number of thofe unfettled in their principles, as Balaam had been before, and Judas afterwards." P. 202.

This author is even led to think from the fituation of Jonah, and his particular conduct, not only that he was infected with the prejudices and bafe worfhip of the people around him, but alfo that he officiated at their altars, and maintained among them the twofold character of prophet and prieft. All this may be true; but the reader will find no evidence of it in the Bible, the only book of antiquity in which he is mentioned. This idolatrous and obftinate man, Jehovah, to magnify his own power over the gods of the heathen, commanded to go to Nineveh, the metropolis of the Affyrian empire, and preach repentance to the people. But the prophet was terrified at the profpect which fuch a commiffion prefented to his view; and had fo little of that fear, which is the beginning of wisdom, that he determined not to obey. "But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the prefence of the Lord; and went down to Joppa. And he found a fhip going to Tarshish; fo he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, from the prefence of the Lord." Jonah, chap. i. ver. 3.

From the prophet's imagining that it was poffible to flee from the prefence of the LORD, Mr. Bryant fairly infers, that he could have had no other idea of the LORD, than that he was the tutelar deity of Ifrael, juft as Dagon and Derceto were the tutelar deities of Philiftim; and he fuppofes that he proceeded to Joppa rather than to Tyre or Sidon, which were nearer to Gath Hepher, becaufe he was more devoted to the gods of Joppa, than to thofe of Tyre and Sidon.

"When Jonah arrived at Joppa, as he had deferted the God of Ifrael, we may suppose, that he put himself under the protection of the deity of the place. In confequence of this he must have made his oblations at the altar, and worshipped before the fhrine. What is extraordinary, this deity was defcribed as a whale, or large fish. Pliny fpeaks of Joppa

as a city of the highest antiquity, and concludes with faying-Colitur iftic fabulofa Ceto. Here the deity in the farm of a fifb, called Coto, concerning which there are so many mythic hiftories, is worshipped. By Ceto, or Cetus, was underfood, according to Heftchins, alios +bus waμmeyaons; a fea fish of an immenfe fize: and it is very properly tranflated a Whale." P. 213.

We have then a differtation on the principal deities of Philiftim, in which it is proved that Venus-pifcis, Atargatis or Derceto, was the chief object of worship at Joppa; that fhe was reprefented by the figure of a large fifh, with the head and breafts of a woman growing out of its mouth; that he was always attended by her my flic dove, to which the name of Jone or Jonah was given; and that under whatever title, and in what ever fhape this goddess appears in the writings of antiquity, The is always reprefented as the fovereign of the feas, whom the winds and floods pofitively obeyed. To a place where this deity was worthipped, Jonah betook himself, in order to flee from the prefence of the Lord.

"As he had the folly to withdraw himself from one God, we may reasonably fuppofe, that he put himfelf under the care and difpofal of another. He joined with thofe whom he was to accompany, in making his vows and offerings to the Ceto, under whofe protection he was to traverse the feas; and whofe infigne the fhip probably bore. Under the shelter and fanction of this deity, he thought to elude the all-feeing eye of Providence. But the Lord fent out a great wind into the fea, and there was a mighty tempt. Every perfon called upon his God: and all thofe of Joppa mult neceffarily have applied to their marine deity, the Cetus, but they could obtain no help. They fufpected that fomebody under a curfe was on board; and that this evil came upon them for affording him shelter. They therefore caft lots of inquiry, and the lot fell upon Jonah." P. 235.

To his confeffion, as we have it in fcripture, the author thinks he may have added, that in confequence of his deserting the Lord God of Heaven,

"he had put himself under the protection of another power, the deity of Joppa, who was fuppofed to rule both the winds and waves. Then were the men exceedingly afraid; and they had particular reafon; for they found, that the teinpeff which prevailed, was raifed by the God of Ifrael, whom they did not ferve; and that all the deities to whom they had applied, could not in the least allay it. The fuperiority therefore was manifeft. Then faid they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the fea may be calm unto us? And he said unto them, Take me up, and caft me forth into the fea; so shall the fea be calm. This he must have faid by a divine cogency, busos; otherwife he

Vol. i. lib. v. p. 260.

could