PROSPECT; or, View of the Moral World.

SATURDAY, November 2, 1804.

No. 48.

Comments upon the Sacred Writings of the fews and Christians. Exodus Chapter 33.

MOS

OSES and his god contradict themselves; for in verfe II of this chapter it is thus written; "And the Lord fpake unto Mofes, face to face, as a man fpeaketh unto his friend;" and in verfe 20, thus," And he faid, thou canst not fee my face; for there fhall no man fee me and live. And the Lord faid, behold, there is a place by me, and thou fhall ftand upon a rock; And it fhall come to pafs, while my glory paffeth by, that I will put thee in the cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pafs by; And I will take away my hand and thou fhalt fee my back parts; but my face fhall not be seen." What a ftrange contradiction is here? ac cording to the 11th verfe, Mofes is talking with God, face to face; and according to the 20th verfe, this was impoffible without producing inftant death. How are thefe inconfiftencies to be reconciled? If God revealed this book he certainly could have made it free from fuch grofs and palpable errors; and if Mofes or any other man wrote it he ought to have been afhamed of committing fuch egregious blunders. To call fuch a chapter as this divine revelation, is a departure from every thing which common fenfe and the reafon of man confider correct. This chapter clofes with a childish, curious, kind of hide and feek account of God and Mofes among the rocks. Formerly Mofes had the honour of looking God full in the face; but now it feems he is reduced to the degraded condition of being permitted to view only the polterior parts of the Jewish divinity! What ftuff and nonfenfe is all this! Have Chriftian believers no better idea of the Supreme Being than to fuppofe he is creeping about among the rocks and mountains with Mofes, and that he exhibits all the parts, form and appearance of a man ?— Abfurd as this is, yet fuch is the fact, and therefore their

book and their opinions predicated upon fuch a miferable relinquishment of genuine Theifm are falfe and merit not the attention of a reafonable being. The only attention which ought to be paid to the book is, an expofition of its fallacies, and a refutation of its deftructive errors.

Theological Enquiries concluded.

When a man fees his wife worship (to use the language of the church of England) another man with as much devotion as himfelf he has reafon to be jealous; but if the were only adicted to fondling a favourite parrot or lapdog how filly and ridiculous he would make himself were he to be jealous of the animal, and in his wrath dash out the poor creature's brains; yet fuch is the conduct of the god of Mofes, who delights in diftinguishing himself by the title of jealous god, and under thefe circumftances it is peculiarly unfortunate for him that he is wedded to a people who are conftantly going a whoreing after other gods. Indeed if I must take the liberty of deciding be*twixt the Hebrews and their god, I fhould fay that if he defired they should cleave to him, and him only, he should have used them better and been more indulgent; and above all not to have led them fo often into temptation.

Quitting for a moment the character of the god, and confidering the fubject as purely political, we fhall then fee it in its true light. It was Mofes that was jealous. If he had fuffered the people of Ifrael to intermarry with the Mideanites, they would infenfibly have melted into the mafs of that nation, and his power been reduced to a fhadow-and more efpecially if he had fuffered a prince of Ifrael and a princefs of Midian to form an alliance. Therefore it was the political craft of Mofes to afcribe anger and jealoufy, paffions with which his own bofom burned, to this imaginary god. This explanation is furOther elucidated by the fubfequent conduct of Mofes with - regard to the Midianites, for we read in Numb chap. 3г

that he armed a 1000 of every tribe and fent to war a gainst the Midianites, under the conduct of this fame Phinehas, the fon of Eleazor the priest.

When we look upon thefe actions as the work of Mofes we cannot help confidering him as a profound politician, equal even to Pitt himfelf; but if they are to be afcribed to the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, it is evident, that. he was not the true God, for he tells Mofes to avenge the children of Ifrael of the Midianites. Now the children of Ifrael had no caufe to feek revenge of the Midianites, who had done them no injury, but on the contrary had treated them with hofpitality, and it is probable that a majority of the Hebrews bore no animofity, or cherished a fpirit of revenge against the Midianites any more than the people of the United States do at this moment against the French. But Mofes as a political general has caufe of revenge; for that reason, and for no other, were the ignorant and eggregiously duped Ifraelites led into a war against their beft friends, a war that is marked with eve ry attrocity that can poffibly be conceived by the most diabolical mind, and all under the direction of the Lord, the wonder-working god of the Hebrews; for it is exprefsly faid that they warred against the Midianites as the Lord commanded Mofes, and flew all the males! gave no quarter! what barbarians! Even Eri, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba, five Kings of Midian, Balaam alfo the fon of Beor they flew with the fword. Balaam, their good friend, the incorruptible Balaam; who could not even be bribed to do them the fmalleft injury, they flew with the fword! He who faid bleffed is he who bleffeth thee, and curfed is he that curfeth thee, they flew with the fword. What foul ingratitude! Balaam falls by the fword of the Hebrews for bleffing them and obeying their god, contrary to his own intereft.

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But what follows has no parallel in the hiftory of any nation, nor has its cruelty been equalled by the most fanguinary tyrant. After the battle in cool bloodevery male among the little ones, and every woman that had known man, were ordered to be flain, and what rea

fon is affigned?-Some woman had caufed the children of Ifrael to commit trefpafs against the Lord, and therefore all this wanton cruelty is to be exercised, and the innocent and guilty made to fall indifcriminately toge

ther.

Profession of Faith from Rousseau, continued.

R.

"Because, to give them fuch weight, requires three things; the concurrence of which is impoffible. Thefe are, that I should, in the first place, be a witnefs to the delivery of the prophecy; next, that I fhould be witness alfo to the event; laftly, that it fhould be clearly demonftrated to me that fuch event could not have followed by accident: For though a prophecy were as precife, clear, and peterminate as an anxiom of geometry; yet as the perfpicuity of a prediction, made at random, does not render the accomplishment of it impoffible, that accomplishment, when it happens, proves nothing in fact con cerning the fore-knowledge of him who predicted it."

"You fee, therefore, to what your pretended fupernatural proofs, your miracles and your prophecies reduce us to the folly of believing them ali on the credit of others, and of fubmitting the authority of God, fpeaking to our reason, as to that of man. If thofe eternal truths of which my understanding forms the ftrongeft conceptions, can poffibly be falfe, I can have no hope of ever arriving at certitude, and fo far from being capable of being affured that you fpeak to me from God, I cannot even be affured of his existence.""

You fee, my child, how many difficulties must be removed before our difputants can agree; nor are these all. Among fo many different religions, each of which pro4fcribes and excludes the other, one only must be true, if indeed there be fuch a one among them all. Now to bedifcover which this is, it is not enough to examine that

one; it is neceffary to examine them all, as we fhould not, on any occafion whatever, condemn without a hear ing. It is neceffary to compare objections with proofs, and to know what each object to in the reft, as well as what the others have to offer in their defence. The more clearly any fentiment or opinion appears demonftrated, the more narrowly it behoves us to enquire, what are the reasons which prevent its opponents from fubfcribing to it. We must be very fimple, indeed, to think an attention to the theologifts of our own party fufficient to inftru& us in what our adverfaries have to offer. Where fhall we find divines, of any perfuafion, perfectly candid and honeft? Do they not all begin to weaken the arguments of their opponents, before they proceed to refute them? Each is the oracle of his party, and makes a great figure among his partizans, with fuch proofs as would expofe him to ridicule among thofe of a different. perfuafion. Are you defirous of gaining information from books? What a fund of erudition will not this require! How many languages must you learn! How many libraries muft you turn over! And who is to direct you in the choice of the books? There are hardly to be found in any one country the best books on the contrary fide of the question, and still lefs is it to be expected we should find books on all fides. The writings of the adverfe and abfent party, were they found, would be very easily refuted. The abfent are always in the wrong; and the most weak and infufficient arguments, laid down with a confident affurance, eafily efface the most fenfible and valid, when exposed with contempt. Add to all this, that nothing is more fallacious than' books, nor exhibit lefs faithfully the sentiments of their writers. The judgment which you formed, for inftance, of the Roman Catholic religion, from the the treatise of Roffuet, was very different from that which you acquired by refiding among us. You have feen that the doctrines we maintain in our controverfies with the proteftants, are not those which are taught the common people, and that Roffuet's book by no means refembles the inftructions delivered