OF THE GOLDEN CALF AND MOLECH.

It is manifest it was the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all, even Jehovah, who brought up Israel out of Egypt-So far agreed-Yet when they had made their image, proclaimed a feast to the Lord, offered sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the work of their own hands-did the Lord, who said to Moses, "The people have corrupted themselves; they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped IT, and sacrificed THEREUNTO, and said, THESE BE THY GODS, O ISRAEL, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt"-did the Lord, by all these words, mean to say, that they were only worshipping himself, and that he acknowledged the service as done to himself, though they mistook in a name, and called it a golden calf? Will the greatest calf of a water-dipt or sprinkled atheist say so? If this was to know, acknowledge, and worship God, what is idolatry? What were they punished for? For worshipping the true God! What then is required and forbidden in the first, second, and third commandments?

Moreover, who gave them sons and daughters? Was it not God? You allow it-Well, when they made them pass for an offering by fire, through the fire unto Mofech or Malcham, their king, as the name signifies, from whom they said they had received them- how comes Jehovah to upbraid them, by telling them,

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That they offered his children, his sons and his daughters to devils; which he commanded them not.— They served the idols of the nations, which were a snare unto them.-Yea, they sacrificed their sons and and their daughters unto devils-unto the idols of Canaan-And the land was polluted with blood. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went awhoring with their own inventions. Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled."- Wherefore kindled? Will this account of the matter persuade us that it was

for worshipping and serving the true God, whom they knew and acknowledged under the name of Molech, and other sounds of abomination? None but a devil will say so in this instance.

Yet, how are men so blinded, that they shall scarce have time to turn a page of the book of God, before you shall find them at the same absurdity again, labouring tooth and nail to convince you, "That all men, of all nations, who are worshippers of something, whatever it be, are worshippers of God-the same One living and true God"-(unless they say this, they say nothing to the purpose; for who ever denied that blinded nations worship idols, shame for glory?)

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der various names and characters, suitable to the various genius, language, and fashion of their own country, people, and age of the world wherein they live."

If you will indeed be so kind as believe some of the heathen philosophers themselves upon occasions, or those who recommend and hold them forth for true worshippers, at the expence of flatly contradicting Jehovah, they were all acknowledgers and worshippers of the One true God, notwithstanding all that monstrous multiplicity and endless diversity of their strange gods.

A PASSAGE FROM THE THEOLOGY OF THE PAGANS.

To shew that this doctrine of theirs, which we are attacking, is not like their gods, a mere nothing, or man of straw; will the reader be pleased to see a passage or two transcribed from the well-known theology or divinity of the pagans.

Says one of their chief divines, or philosophers, if you please; you may perceive by his wisdom, notwithstanding his words, that he knew not God-however, hear him with his brethren-"This universe is a great commonwealth, of which Jupiter is the prince and common father."

Says another, "It is of very little consequence by

what name you call the first nature and divine reason, that presides over the universe, and fills all the parts of it. He is still the same God. He is called Jupiter the Upholder, because he is the constant upholder and support of all beings. They may call him Fate, because he is the first cause on whom all others depend. We call him sometimes Father Bacchus, because he is the universal life that animates nature; Hercules, because his power is invincible; Mercury, because he is eternal reason and wisdom: you may give him as many names as you please, provided you allow but one sole principle every-where present."

Again, to the same purport," By Jupiter, the ancients meant the guardian and governor of the universe, the understanding and the mind, the master and the architect of this great machine, the world. All names belong to him. You are not in the wrong if you call him Fate; for he is the cause of causes, and every thing depends upon him." (And may not Í add in a parenthesis, You may call him Baal also; for he is a god, and Elijah meant, in sober sadness, to join his priests in acknowledging his undoubted godship, without any irony or mockery in, the world!) "Would you call him Providence, you fall into no mistake; it is by his wisdom that this world is governed." (The god of this world-the spirit that ruleth in the hearts of the children of disobedience, said to the Son of God, "All the kingdoms of the world, and all this power, and the glory of them, will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me-for that is delivered to me, and to whomsoever I will I give it."And so the blinded nations were taught by the devil to worship himself as god-ascribing to him the kingdom, the power, and the glory, due to God alone.But did they, who thus worshipped the devil, believe and know God?) "Would you call him Nature, you will not offend in doing so; it is from him all beings derive their origin; it is by him they live and breathe. These were mere pagans; but now hear professed

Christians giving the same account of the pagan gods and worship, and some of them with approbation too"It is a mere calumny," say the heathens, " to charge us with such a crime, as the denying of the supreme God; we call him Jupiter, the supremely great, and sovereignly good; we dedicate our most magnificent structures and our capitols to him, to shew that we exalt him above all other deities."

Says another, in his own words and sentiments, "St. Paul," (he calls him Peter,) "preaching to the Greeks, insinuates, that they had a knowledge of God at Athens. He supposes, that those people adore the same God as we do, though not in the same manner. He does not forbid us to adore the same God as the Greeks, but he forbids us to adore him in the same way. He orders us to change the manner, and not the object of our worship." Says another, "The heathens own that there is but one only God, who fills, pervades, and presides over universal nature."

Lastly, another great divine says, "Jupiter, accor ding to the philosophers, is the soul of the world, who takes different names, according to the different effects which he produces. In the higher regions he is called Jupiter, in the air Juno, in the sea Neptune, in the earth Pluto, in hell Prosperina, in the fire Vulcan, in the sun Phoebus, in fortune-telling Apollo, in war Mars, in the vintage Bacchus, in the harvest Ceres, in the forest Diana, and in the sciences Minerva. All that crowd of gods and goddesses, are only the same Jupiter, whose different powers and attributes are expressed by the different names.'

Upon the whole, if you will receive the concurring testimony of these, and of thousands more who might be added, of pagans, poets, philosophers and historians; and of church divines, fathers, papists, and protestantsI say, if you will receive such witnesses as these for solid and substantial proof, you must of necessity allow, that the pagans universally acknowledged but one sole supreme God, the living and the true; and that

the Persians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Scythians, with all nations under the cope of heaven, universally agreed in holding and teaching this truth; - and that Diana of the Ephesians was great; and that they were right in worshipping her, and the image which fell from Jupiter out of heaven; and that Baal was indeed, without any irony or figure of speech, in good sad earnest, very God; and that Ashtaroth, the king and queen of heaven, and Pluto, or Mammon, were but other names for Jupiter; and Jupiter, (O monstrous!) but another name for JEHOVAH; in a word, that the Holy Ghost was-even without any mincing-a liar, when he said, "The things which the heathens sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God!"

It is high time now to pause awhile upon our principles, before we bring ourselves, or lead others into such conclusions as these. Yet, from the above premises, which are of their own framing, the consequences already spoken of, and many others of the same goodly appearance, are natural and unavoidable. But let every man see to his own foundations. The unbelief of some (though it were, as in the days of Noah, all the world to one) can neither make the truth of God, nor the belief of other men, of none effect.

THE WORSHIP OF LYSTRA.

BUT to insist yet a little farther on scripture argument- -When the people of Lystra would have done sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas, under the notion that they were Jupiter and Mercurius, who, as they supposed, had come down to men, and restored a cripple to soundness of feet, were they knowing, acknowledging, and worshipping the living and true God, who undoubtedly had done among them the good work which they saw and acknowledged? If so, the apostles (not to speak of the Spirit that moved them) were impertinent, when they ran in among the people, and rent their