CHAPTER XXVI. 



I HAVE before ventured my opinion on the poli- 

 tical history of the Israelites and their wars, and I 

 wish I could not believe in them ; but I fear that 

 portion of their history is too true. The example 

 thus set has been followed since by other nations, 

 to wage the horrid wars in which they have em- 

 barked on the most trivial pretences, whenever 

 their rulers found it convenient to give vent to 

 their bad passions, wantonly to engage in them. 

 There are many other matters related in the Bible 

 which operate as stumbling-blocks to those who 

 otherwise revere it for the clear truths set forth in 

 its texts. These consist in one part contradicting, 

 or apparently contradicting, another part ; and, 

 in some cases, of making assertions which appear 

 to be derogatory to the Majesty of Omnipotence. 

 There may, indeed, be two causes assigned as 

 reasons for these. The first is, in reading many 

 portions of the Scriptures literally which must have 

 been intended to be understood allegorically. It 

 surely could never be meant to be literally under- 

 stood that the sun and moon stood still by the 

 command of Joshua, till he was "avenged of his 

 enemies," and that the regular order of nature and 

 the universe was set aside to please Joshua in his 

 man-killing pursuits. That this was the way by 

 which Omnipotence willed the destruction of whole 

 nations of people, does not seem to accord with the 

 reverence with which man ought to view his Maker, 



