the freest human actions to a good end. Dathius. 2 Sam. xxiv. 1.

NOTE 15.

SEE Dathe on the place, and Michaelis's Laws of Moses, Art. 174. who considers Uzziah also, 2 Chron. xxvi. 11-14, as having done the same. Concerning the frontiers of Palestine, see Art. 20–25.

NOTE 16.

WHERE the fashion was to say: è cælo descendit filius Jovis, as more classical than filius Dei.

NOTE 17.

THE prosopeia is not more bold here than in Isaiah xiv. 4-27, where he introduces the dead King of Babylon into Hades; and raises all its inhabitants into life to receive him with indignant tauntings on his former pride and tyranny, contrasted with his present fallen state. See Lowth's admirable translation of this passage. Prælect. Poes. Heb. xxviii. p. 376.

NOTE 18.

THE very expressions of the historian prove this, 2 Chron. xviii. 19-21. The lying spirit is represented as voluntarily standing forth; and ver. 22, the prophet says, "The Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets :" because he suffered them to practise their deception.

NOTE 19.

"OF all views under which human life has ever been considered, the most reasonable, in my judgment, is that which regards it as a state of probation." Paley's Nat. Theol. Cap. xxvi. page 570. Mr. Irving has taken this view of it with great ability. Arg. of Judgment, Part I. Cap. xxvi. Si sic omnia!

NOTE 20.

"CHRISTIANITY itself; I mean the revelation of Christianity, is not only a blessing, but a trial. It is one of the diversified means by which the character is exercised." Paley's Nat. Theol. cap. xxvi. p. 575.

NOTE 21.

THE following are the observations of the celebrated author of the Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, Art. 83. "It appears that when the fathers lived in polygamy, the uterine brothers had a good deal to say in regard to the marriage of their sisters; sometimes perhaps more than the father himself; at least in Gen. xxiv. 50. we find Laban first answering for his sister, and put before his father Bethuel; and Gen. xxxiv. 13. the sons of Jacob are represented as rejecting the honourable offer of a reparation, by the man who had seduced their sister Dinah; although the match was probably one that her father would have approved. But Jacob leaves the matter entirely in the hands of her brothers; and does not so much as know the true object of the terms, on which they at last accede to the proposal."

Scott moves a doubt, whether the Bethuel mentioned be not a younger brother of Laban; and whether Bethuel, her father, were not dead. There seems no reason for this doubt, as Laban only is mentioned, c. xxiv. ver. 29. and one brother only, ver. 53.

Tacitus De Mor. Germ. cap. xx. mentions a prevalent practice, which seems in some degree analogous to the custom of the Arabian tribes." Sororum filiis idem apud avunculum qui apud patrem honor. Quidam sanctiorem arctioremq; hunc nexum sanguinis arbitrantur, et in accipiendis obsidibus magis exigunt; tanquam ii et animum firmius et domum latius teneant."

"Arvieux has remarked, that in Arabia the Arabians and Israelites had one common ancestor, and many customs in common. Parents and brothers do at this day look upon themselves as far more dishonoured, by the unchastity of their daughters and sisters, than husbands by the infidelity of their wives: because, as they say, a husband may put away his wife; but daughters and sisters never cease to be such." Michaelis, Art. 261.

This may account for Abraham's choosing to stand in this relation to Sarah rather than in that of a huśband and may account for, though it will not justify, the revengeful spirit of Simeon and Levi, Gen. xxxiv. 25. especially if we consider the sentiments of retaliation, which must prevail in a nation, where such rights were allowed as the blood avenger claimed. See Michaelis, Art. 134.

Isaac did the same, Gen. xxvi. 7.; and his case admits of the same defence, though his relationship was not literally that of a brother; yet by the rule of guardianship she stood in the degree of sister to him: and the terms brother and sister were used with much more latitude among them than among us; as appears in many places both of the New and Old Testaments. See Dathe on Judges xxi. 22. Not. d. and on Gen. xxiv. 50.; also Lettres de quelq. Juif. Vol. II. Extrait vii. P. 252.

NOTE 22.

SOME critics charge Isaac with two faults, of which he does not appear to have been guilty. That he was a luxurious eater, and on that account was more partial to Esau than he ought to have been-and that he endeavoured to give the blessing to him, which ought by the prophecy at their birth (Gen. xxv. 23.) to have been reserved for Jacob. As to the first, the passage Gen.

xxv. 28. if it implies any curiosity in the choice of food, it might be the very innocent one of preferring one sort to another: but it is more likely to mean that Isaac's fondness for Esau was, because he furnished him with such food as saved the flocks and the herds. Seeing him to be an active hunter, he might rejoice that he had a son so well able to succeed him in the government of a Nomad tribe. Even when his posterity was settled, as a nation, on agriculture, as its polity, Solomon marks hunting as one species of good thrift, Prov. xii. 27; and to that part of the nation, which dwelt in the desart reaching towards the Euphrates, it must have been an advantageous practice. Had it not been much followed by the Israelites, we should not have heard so much, as we do, in the laws of Moses, of the roebuck and the hart, being used for articles of food-both of them animals caught by hunting. Again, the passage Gen. xxvii. 4. if the mention of savoury meat were any thing more than a pretence of Isaac's to cover his real design, it might imply no more than a common infirmity of old age, when the appetite becomes torpid and requires a provocative to enable it to take food sufficient for nourishment. But Lightfoot's solution seems the most probable: (Chronicle of the Old Testament) "His sending Esau to hunt for venison, that he might eat of his savoury meat and his soul might bless him, was not because meat or drink would conduce for that spiritual purpose; but he puts him to this, that he might know whether he should bless him or no; for his missing of venison before, had occasioned the loss of his birthright, and if he missed of it now, it would be a sign to Isaac, that God would have him also to

* Putarem eum non tam captum dulcedine cibi quam ex officio judicasse de ejus reverentia et amore erga patrem. Rivetus in Pol Synop.

lose the blessing." Considering the intimations in various ways, which God had given this family, directing them what they were to do, Isaac cannot be accused of superstition in seeking for a sign upon the present occasion. If this were really his view, the second accusation, that he endeavoured to divert the blessing from the right person, falls to the ground; and accordingly when he observes in what way Providence had disposed the affair, he acquiesces without hesitation. But if such were not Isaac's purpose, the prophecy, given to Rebeccah, was not explicit enough to allow Isaac to act against the law of the family, and disinherit his son without some more positive direction. See Deut. xxi. 15. and 1 Chron. v. 1.

NOTE 23.

MICHAELIS has pointed out the cruelties used by other Eastern nations in war, much exceeding any practised by the Jews, and compared the severities exercised by the Romans in their wars with the war laws of the Israelites, and successfully combated the prejudice in favour of that cruel nation against the latter. Art. 64. p. 330.

NOTE 24.

WHOEVER reads Captain G. F. Lyon's account of the only motives, which the Sultan or Bey of Fezzan has for going to war, the desire to enslave and plunder the defenceless Negro tribes, and the manner in which those wars are carried on, together with the fondness of the Bedouins alone for them, who lead a wandering life, without lands to cultivate, or houses to take care of, will not, from affected humanity, cavil at the divine command to extirpate the free-booters of old times.-Tra