evil But will the Lieutenant, therefore, charge moral upon his Maker? We are all born in sin-we all spring from the same corrupt stock: David says (Psalm li. 15) "Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." We all of us bring into the world the poison of the serpent, and are continually subject to his awful influences; but all are not tempted alike; no, nor in the same degree. Why the tempter is allowed to assail some minds more powerfully than others, is one of those secret things which belong to God (Deut. xxix. 29), but we are assured that his government is holiness itself from first to last, and what we know not now we shall know hereafter. (John xiii. 7.) "The stars shall fall, the Sun shall lose his flame; GAY. No. 4.-The Lieutenant's observations on Leviticus xxvi. 19, and Hosea ii. 21, need no reply, the preceding remarks being sufficient for that purpose; I therefore proceed to consider Judges v. 20-"They fought from heaven, the stars in their courses fought against Sisera." The Lieutenant founds his interpretation of this passage upon the distinction between the planets and fixed stars, but which is never noticed by the sacred writers; for as the scriptures were not written to make us astronomers, the stars are ever N : spoken of as they appear to the eye-see Genesis i. 16. We may understand from this famous passage, that the POWERS OF HEAVEN were engaged against Sisera, because he fought against the people of God and if the great Sovereign of nature be against a man, all nature is against him; nothing is for him, and all things around him move forward to hurry him to perdition. The bright seraphs of the skies were engaged against the enemies of the Lord; the stars lighted their general to ruin; time rolled on for his destruction; the ancient river Kishon swept away his forces; and the very horses pranced till their hoofs were broken, no doubt terrified by the roaring thunder, and the blazing firmament. See Joshua x. 11. It may also be remarked, that as this passage is part of the triumphant song of Deborah for the great victory obtained, we should suppose that the Hebrew poetry would be somewhat figurative. No. 5.-The next passage quoted in favour of astrology is Job xxxviii. 31 to 33-"Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?" The Lieutenant here says "In this place the starry influences are directly and unequivocally asserted; there is no shuffling out of this fact. The or dinances of heaven refer to the laws of the heavenly bodies, and not to the laws of God, for these have an unlimited dominion in the earth, whereas those have set limits, and Job is asked if he can determine them. The dominion' means clearly the power or rule of the heavens over the earth. This passage in Job is irresistible, and if it prove not the admitted existence of starry influence, I know not how to read English." 66 The Almighty is here discoursing of the various phenomena of the material world, as regulated by his eternal power and goodness. These interrogatories are intended to humble Job, and to show him that that power which has created and preserves all things, is infinitely beyond his comprehension; and that the wisdom which regulates and governs the whole is remote from the ken of man, and that the ways of God are past finding out." (Job xi 7.) The Lieut. however, supposes that he knows all, even the very purposes of Heaven, and that he can predict the fates of individuals, and the revolutions of states and kingdoms. Presumptuous man! With regard to the ordinances here spoken of, and this dominion, I refer my readers to Jer. xxxi. 35. "Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a LIGHT BY DAY, and the ORDINANCES of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; the Lord of Hosts is his name. In the eighth Psalm we read "When I consider thy heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ORDAINED, what is man that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that thou visitest him?" The ORDINANCES of heaven are, in these passages, evidently connected with the succession of day and night, and not with men's lives and fortunes. No one, but an astrologer, would ever imagine that the influences of the Pleiades were astrological. Upon the passage under consideration, an excellent commentator thus writes: "The different seasons of the year are marked by the relative situations of the fixed stars to the earth and to the sun. Could Job prevent the effects of the spring, or of the winter? Could he even explain how those effects were produced?" Hales states that- "Chimah is generally considered to denote the Pleiades, or principal constellation Taurus. The name siguifying charming, corresponds to the delightful season of spring, of which Taurus was the cardinal constellation in Job's time." See Job ix. 8. No. 6. The next passage produced to support the dark cause is Psalm civ. 19, "He appointed the moon for seasons, the sun knoweth his going down." The Lieutenant here says, "But the Sun produces the seasons, and not the moon; unless we understand the words astrologically, when the Moon shews certain times fit for doing things." Now I shall here make the Lieutenant a present of his own phraseology, substituting his name for mine: Lieutenant Morrison " has shewn himself very ill-informed as to the meaning of several passages of scripture, which do not at all bear the sense he applies to them: this is owing to the confined nature of his general reading, and his ignorance of the original languages in which they were written.-I shall confute the Lieutenant by one verse from the prophet Isaiah (lxvi. 23.) "And it shall COME TO PASS from ONE NEW MOON TO ANOTHER, and from one sabbath to another, shall ALL FLESH COME TO WORSHIP before me, saith the Lord." O poor ignorant man! to prattle about scriptural knowledge, and the original languages. No. 7.-The Lieutenant, supposing that the sun and moon shine upon his path, refers to Psalm xxxix. 4-"Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is, that I may know how frail I am." The prayer book version of this passage is the translation of a translation; and upon this subject I refer the reader to the observations of Dr. A. Clarke - David was weary of the "contradiction of sinners" (Hebrews xii. 3), and his petition bears a striking resemblance to our Lord's exclamation(Matthew xvii. 17), "Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, HOW LONG |