12%6 
ought not to apply to the temple or foun- 
tain at Lechi, upon any occasion, nor to 
the deity there worshipped; but to a 
superior power the God of their fathers. 
This formidable weapon not only be- 
longed to the animal they had been em- 
ploying in their sacred rites, but had 
actually given name to the sacred foun- 
tain, which was there dedicated to the 
wild ass, and near which there wgs an 
oracular temple. Nothing, therefore, 
Mr. Bryant concludes, was more proper 
to shew the superiority of the God of 
Israel over the deities of Canaan, and 
to prevent any undue reverence among 
the descendants of Abraham, than the 
miracle performed by the Jewish hero. 
It will, however, appear to our rea- 
ders, as it appeared to us, a very extra- 
ordinary and imcredible thing, thqt the 
Philistines should sacrifice, in honour of 
their deity, the very animal which, as a 
symbol of that deity, they reverenced. 
Mr. Bryant thinks it “ idle to object 
to the account in Scripture of Samson 
and the Foxes, as there could not be a 
more effectual method to hurt the ene- 
my; for the foxes, drawing different 
ways, were undoubtedly impeded in their 
course, which must have given time for 
the fire to take effect. ‘The story, in his 
opinion, is confirmed by the practice 
which prevailed in Rome, of exhibiting 
every year foxes and firebrands in the 
circus. 
With respect to the third passage 
selected from the Xth ch. of the book 
of Joshua, and relating to the command 
of Joshua that the sun and moon should 
stand still, Mr. B. proceeds upon the 
same general principle of interpretation ; 
but, with more boldness than he usually 
displays, pronounces a part of the history 
an interpolation. The 13th and 14th 
verses, he asserts, were originally a 
marginal note, and afterwards ignorant- 
ly taken into the text. The 12th verse, 
supported by Aquila and Symmachus, 
he renders thus, “ Then spake Joshua to 
the Lord, in the day when the Lord de- 
livered up the Amorites before the chil- 
dren of Israel: sun, upon (the high 
place of) Gibeon, be silent; and thou 
moon, in the valley of Ajalon.” And 
he remarks, 
«© The words of Joshua are undoubtedly 
uttered in the name of God, and not address- 
ed to the two fictitious luminaries, except 
in a secondary direction ; and were ee 
a wish, and prayer, rather than a command. 
They proceeted from an ardent zeal to esta- 
THEOLOGY AND ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS. 
blish the worship and true religion of the ~ 
Deity, and from a grateful sense of his good= 
ness in affordiag such a miraculous victory. 
The purport and ultimate design of this ad- 
dress, though couched in a small compass, - 
seems to be this: God of all victory, may 
thy people, from this instance of thy superi- 
ority, be confirmed in their duty, and wor- 
ship thee alone. And may the Gibéonites, — 
and their confederates, by this display of th 
power, be weaned from their idolatry, au 
see the inferiority of their base deities. May. 
the Sun, whose oracular temple stands upon 
Mount Gibeon, be dumb ; and the Moon, 
whose shrine is in the valley of Aia-lon, be ~ 
equally silent. May their oracles eease for 
ever.” 
The inhabitants of Gibeon had scen 
the object of their worship obscured by 
the miraculous storm of hail that de- 
stroyed their encmies, and were there- 
fore prepared, according to the pious 
wish of the Jewish chief, to renounce 
their idolatry. The children of Israel 
received another proof of the supreme 
power of the true God, and were again 
warned not to forsake his service. In 
a note printed at the end of the volume, 
Mr. Bryant shews, that Gibeon was, in 
the days of Solomon, devoted to the 
worship of Jehovah; and he‘thence | 
concludes, that the inhabitants became — 
proselytes upon the event recorded in 
the passage he has thus interpreted. 
Upon the same principles Mr. Bryant 
endeavours to account for the prodigy 
of Jonah’s being swallowed by a whale, 
the account of which we are perempto- — 
rily told, (p. 209.) that “ whoever is a 
sincere Christian ought, without any 
evasion, to believe.” Jonah was a nas 
tive of Galilee, and “ one of the nums 
ber of those who were unsettled in their ~ 
principles, as Balaam had been before, 
and Judas was afterwards.” Gath He« 
per, the place of his birth, was inha- 
bited by ‘ different people, who were 
either the remains of the ancient inhabi- 
tants, the Canaanites, or were a mixed 
race from ‘['yre, Hamath, and the cities 
of Syria, who had forced themselves: — 
into the country, and had brought their ~ 
rites and religion with them.” To these 
rites Jonah was deyoted; and was even 
a prophet and a priest among the wors, | 
shippers’ of the dove and the Cetus.— 
Hence he derived his name—the term © 
Jonah, ordove, denoting a priest. Ofthe ; 
nature of the true God he was ignorant + — 
he was his servant, only as being the © 
most proper instrument to display his , 
power. Not choosing to goashe was | 
