was the author of it, it is impossible to say; neither can it be now discovered who was the author. The name of the author is but a matter of indifference; that of Asaph stands prominent as a noted singer and a composer of songs. The 78th psalm, which is called a Maschil of Asaph, goes a great way to support my former observations. The first three or four verses are a complete support to my assertion, that the Book of Psalms might be considered the traditionary part of the Jewish history: I insert the whole Psalm.

"Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God. The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. They kept not the convenant of God, and refused to walk in his law; and forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them. Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap. In the day-time also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire. He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths. He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most high in the wilderness. And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their fustYea, they spake against God; they said, can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people? Therefore the Lord heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel: because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation: though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, and had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven. Man did eat angels'

food: he sent them meat to the full. He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind. He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the saud

of the sea. And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations. So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire; they were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths. The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel. For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works. Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble. When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God. And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their Redeemer, Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues. For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant. But he being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath. For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passed away, and cometh not again. How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the holy one of Israel. They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy. How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan, And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink. He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs which destroyed them. He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust, He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost. He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts. He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them. He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence; and smote all the first-born in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham: but made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased. He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies: but turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitfu bow. For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images. When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel: so that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men; and delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand. He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance. The fire consumed their young men ; and their

maidens were not given to marriage. Their priests fell by the sword'; and their widows made no lamentation. Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine. And he smote his enemies in the hinder part: he put them to a perpetual reproach. Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim: but chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved. And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever. He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds: From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands."

From the manner in which David is mentioned at the close of the psalm, it is evident that the writer did not live as a cotemporary with him. The 79th psalm is a proof that Asaph had witnessed or heard of the destruction of Jerusalem, and that he was among the captives at Babylon, for Jerusalem was not destroyed until the final Babylonish Captivity, that is, until Nebuchadnezzer had been provoked by the repeated revolts and seditions of the Jews to take vengeance on them, and to obliterate them as a province and destroy their city. The 80th psalm forms a further proof of the captivity of Asaph. The 85th psalm appears to have been written after the Jews had returned from this captivity The 108th psalm is another repetition: it is the same as the 60th: this is a curious mode of book-making.

The 137th psalm is an unquestionable proof of having been written after the return from the Babylonish captivity. I insert it to reprobate the hateful and diabolical revenge which is contemplated at the close of this psalm. Our versifiers of the psalms have studiously aggravated the language.

"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, rase it, rase it, even to the foun a tion thereof. O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones"

I have now taken all the notice that I consider to be necessary of the book of psalms. I apprehend that my assertions with respect to David and Asaph are fully borne out. If any one psalm more than another has the appearance of having been composed by David, it is the 144th, but this even is not sufficient to satisfy me. That many of the different psalms were written during and subsequent to the Babylonish Captivity is unquestionable, and it is but a fair inference to draw, and to say that all of them must have been the same. I calculate on finding further proofs among the Apocryphal books, that all the Old Testament was fabricated at that period, and this I hope to substantiate satisfactorily before I quit the subject. I shall treat the books called Apocryphal as Canonical, to me they are all alike, but I think there is more truth to be found in the Jewish writings which we term Apocryphal, than in those generally received.

In the seventeenth chapter of the Book of Chronicles, there is a curious expression put into the mouth of Jehovah by Nathan the prophet." Go and tell David, my servant, Thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not build me an house to dwell in; for I have not dwelt in an house since the day that I brought up Israel unto this day; but have gone from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another." How contemptible was the Jewish idea of a Deity! How disgraceful the attempt to confine any man by pains and penalties to such a notion of the Deity in the present day! What, the God of Nature express an uneasiness about a dwelling-house! No: 'tis Jehovah! an idol. The Jupiter of the Jews.

In the two accounts of David's battles with the Ammonites and Syrians, there are strange contradictions as to numbers, but I shall take no further notice of them here. We now come to some of the beauties of David's character, and some specimens of Jewish cruelty. We are told, that after David had taken the city of Rabbah, he tortured the inhabitants by cutting them in pieces with saws, with harrows of iron, and with axes, and made them pass through hot brick-kilns! This is the man after Jehovah's own heart! This is the moral example that is attempted to be forced down our throats. The story of David, Bathsheba, and Uriah, is as infamous a story as was ever related. A baser assassination cannot be imagined than that of Uriah. I need not insert the story here, it must be common to my readers, and when the Bible becomes extinct it would be well that all such tales should become extinct with it. The story of Ammon and Tamar is another

tale that would merit the attention of the Vice Society if it. was consistent with itself. This Society attempts to check all other obscenity but that which is contained within the pages. of the Bible. Its object seems to be to enable the Bible Society to monopolize the propagation of obscenity.

The assassination of Amner, and the revolt of Absalom are circumstances quite in character with this Jewish family, and Jehovah's favourites, but who could have expected to find such an abominable filthy tale as the following even in the Bible:

"And Alithophel said unto Absalom,Go in unto thy father's concubines, which he hath left to keep the house; and all Israel shall hear that thou art abhorred of thy father; then shall the hands of all that are with the be strong. So they spread Absalom a tent upon the top of the house; and Absalom went in unto his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel."

The twenty-second chapter of the second book of Samuel is borrowed from the eighteenth psalm, which I have before noticed.

The last chapter of the Second Book of Samuel, and the 21st of the first Book of Chronicles, are on the same subject but very contradictory: they relate to an order of David to have the Israelites numbered, which order it seems was not pleasing to Jehovah. The account in Samuel begins thus: "And. again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, (what for?) and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah." That in Chronicles thus: "And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. Perhaps the "anger of the Lord" and "Satan" are synonimous. Such was the Persian idea of the Ormuz and the Ahrimanes, the good and evil spirit, they worshipped both alike, and it was here the Jew borrowed his notion of Satan in opposition to Jehovah.

The account of the number in the Book of Chronicles ex-· ceeds that in the Book of Samuel by 270,000, with this addition, that the greater amount is said to be the number but of ten tribes, whilst the smaller embraces the whole twelve. Jehovah's caprice is said to have been satisfied on this occasion by the destruction of seventy thousand of the Israelites!— Merciful God!

The first Book of Kings commences with a laughable story about David having a young damsel put into his bed to keep life and heat in him. The following is the tale :