ANSWER.

It certainly may be understood in this sense in the present version; but the original says expressly, that in the time of Moses, God was "visiting the iniquity of the fathers, of the children in the third and in the fourth generation." That is, the iniquity of the Amorites, which iniquity, or idolatry, their children had adopted; so that it was not the iniquity committed by the fathers in their persons, but the same kind of iniquity, the same idolatry, practised by them of the third and fourth generation. Which then is perfectly consistent with Deut. xxiv. 16. "The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin."

OBJECTION.

"Who would think that a man of Israel, having an amour with a Midianitish girl, could ever be the occasion of such horrid butchery, when Moses himself was married to a Midianite? Yet, for all this, the Lord said to Moses, Take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel. And those that died of the plague were twenty and four thousand men.""

ANSWER.

It does not appear that a man of Israel having an amour with a Midianitish girl, was the occasion of the deaths of those men. The cause of the heads of the people being hung was, because they had transgressed the law of the nation by joining themselves to Baal-peor. See ver. 2, 3. "And they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself to Baal-peor." This was the cause of the deaths of those men, and not as it is stated by objectors.

OBJECTION.

"It appears from Deut. x. 6. that Aaron died, and was

buried at Mosera, which we find Numb. xxxiii. 30., was seven stages from Mount Hor; at Mount Hor, however, Aaron was ordered to die a second time, and was carried up to the top of the mount by his brother."

ANSWER.

But there is no such thing said in Numb. xxxiii. 30. that Mosera was seven stages from Mount Hor: therefore such an assertion is a downright falsehood.

These objectors may with the same truth say of Moses, as they have here said of Aaron, that as he was told to go up to Mount Abarim and to Mount Nebo, he also died twice according to the narrative. Nebo was the name given to the top of the mountain, but the whole mountain was called Abarim. So in like manner Hor was the name given to the top of the mountain; but the mountain with the district surrounding it, was called Mosera.

So that the absurd remark made by these objectors, that “Jehu king of Israel, put himself to the trouble of slaying them over again," arises from their profound ignorance of the subject on which they have thought themselves capable of giving a true statement.

OBJECTION.

"2 Chron. xxi. 12. Elijah sent a writing to Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah; but according to 2 Kings ii. and iii. chapters, Elijah was taken up into heaven more than seven years before that, at least before the eighteenth of Jehoshaphat."

ANSWER.

But it is not true that "the 2 Kings ii. and iii. chapters say Elijah was taken up into heaven more than seven years before he sent a writing to Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat." It is true that the narrative states Elijah to have sent a writing to Jehoram, informing him that such things as he there mentions should happen to him; but this was not before the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat. It was necessary that these writers on the Bible should have acquainted themselves with the original Hebrew; they then

would not have committed such unpardonable blunders;blunders which may, notwithstanding, lead thousands into distress and ruin.

The original, which is translated, "and there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet," is constructed with a pluperfect tense, and though it is the same in sense as the translation, yet it is more correctly rendered-" now a writing had come to him from Elijah the prophet; that is, Elijah had sent the writing to Jehoram before he departed from this world.

OBJECTION.

"The Lord denies having any hand in the Mosaic institution of sacrifices. Jer. vii. 22. For I spake not to your fathers, nor commanded them, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burntofferings or sacrifices.' Moses says the very reverse."

ANSWER."

The word dibree, which means promises, is omitted in the translation. The verse truly reads " For I spake not to your fathers, nor commanded them, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning promises of burnt-offerings or sacrifices." Evidently meaning that something more had been required of them than bringing their sacrifices; and the following verse says-" But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice."

OBJECTION.

"The very laws which Moses had from the mouth of the Lord are contradictory one of another; Lev. xviii. 16. -and xx. 21. forbids the cohabiting with, or marrying a brother's wife: Deut. xxv. 5. commands it."

ANSWER.

The passages in Lev. xviii. 16. and xx. 21. are applied to brethren related by consanguinity, but that in Deut. xxv. 5. to a brother-in-law, not related by blood to the former husband, which is the true meaning of the word yebaamah.

OBJECTION.

"We shall now take notice of the nature of that divine inspiration with which these writings were composed, an account of which we have in 2 Esdras, chap. xiv."

ANSWER.

Such is the profound ignorance of these men as to the subject on which they have presumed to write, that they have yet to be informed that the books of Esdras form no part of the Old Testament; and therefore cannot be referred to for proof against its divine inspiration. Those things, which will prove the truth of the divine inspiration of the Sacred Scripture, even to the DEIST, will be found in the former part of these pages, where I have shown that those things which were foretold many hundreds of years before they began to be developed, are even now accomplishing, and are acknowledged to be evident demonstrations of the truth of divine revelation by every honest and intelligent man; to deny which, a man must deny his own senses, or the certainty of any fact of which he may be at witness to which I refer the reader. They can never fail to silence the objector to divine revelation; to convince him that such information must have come from a higher source than that of man, though they may not be effectual in changing the heart, or of turning a wicked man to a good man, governing himself by that command of the Christian lawgiver." Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets."

OBJECTION.

"We find upon some discontents prevailing in the Israelitish camp, Numb. xiv. 30. occasioned by the disagreeable accounts of the spies, that the Lord would not perform that which he had sworn to do: 'Doubtless ye shall not come into the land concerning which I sware, to make you dwell therein.'"

ANSWER.

The promise to bring them by his providence into the land, was always conditional. See Exod. xix. 5. "Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar people." Deut. xi. 27, 28. "A blessing if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God. And a curse if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God."

OBJECTION.

"In Numb. xiv. 34. he tells them, Ye shall know my breach of promise.”

ANSWER.

This passage is no doubt objectionable as it stands in the common version: but, as I have before observed, no one in search of truth, will presume to speak in such terms as these writers do, particularly when it is applied to the unchangeable being of all perfection; they will rather impute it to an error in the translation. The clause truly reads, according to the Hebrew, thus-" And ye shall experience my threatenings speedily."

OBJECTION.

"He sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem, and they dealt treacherously with Abimelech."

ANSWER.

The word shalach, which his rendered he sent, diverges into a variety of applications, as the verb sent does in English as release, dismiss, discharge, &c. and as applied to the evil intentions of the men of Shechem, the meaning evidently is, that God permitted things so to work in his universal providence, that the spirit of evil in these men, manifested itself against Abimelech; for so it is in the original. So that there is a very material difference between an evil spirit, and a spirit of evil.