complete theory of true religion from the very beginning The last prediction given to Abraham, “In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed,” has been accomplished by the redemption through Christ, by which we may be made partakers of everlasting life. It would be interesting to portray at some length the character of this good man, but it does not comport with our design. A few observations will not be inappropriate. His great characteristic was faith. He never doubted a promise of God. He exhibited this in his emigration. He exhibited this especially in the offering of his son Isaac. According to Scripture, God designed to test Abraham's faith, and therefore commanded him to offer up his son Isaac as a sacrifice. Whether or not Abraham had ever witnessed such a truly horrid sight as a human being put to death by his companions as a sacrifice, we cannot tell. On either supposition, it must have required strong confidence in God to obey him; but he faltered not. Though the journey was continued three days before he reached the required spot, and while travelling on with his beloved son his meditations must have been constantly upon this one subject, he turned not back. He piled up the wood to consume the offering, and took the knife in his hand to slay his son. “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had re ; ceived the promises offered up his only-begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead.” "* * According to Sanchoniathon, as quoted by Eusebius in his Præp. Evang., lib. i, cap. x, p. 40, and lib. iv, cap. xvi, p. 156, a mysterious ceremony was common among the early Phonicians, which he describes as follows : “It was an established custom among the ancients, [meaning the Phoenicians,] on any calamitous emergency, for the ruler of the state to offer up, to prevent the ruin, the most dearly beloved of his children, as a ransom to avert the divine vengeance. And they who were devoted for this purpose were offered mystically. For Kronus, truly, whom the Phænicians call Il, and who after his death was translated with divine honours to the star which bears his name, having, while he ruled over that people, begotten by a nymph of that country, named Anobret, an only son, thence entitled Jeud, (it being to this day usual with the Phoenicians so to denominate an only son,) had, when the nation was endangered from a most perilous war, after dressing up his son in the emblems of royalty, offered him as a sacrifice on an altar specially prepared for the purpose.” Now it is highly probable that the above is an ornamented or poetical account of the very offering of Isaac by his father Abraham. The grounds of this opinion are as follows: 1. II, the Phænician name of the father, may be a contraction of Israel, which might well be put for Abraham. This is the opinion of Stillingfleet, Scaliger, and others. 2. The title of the only son, Jeud, is the very title given in Hebrew to Isaac, when God issues his order to Abraham, Take now thy son, 77717", thy Jehid, (thine only son.) 3. Anobret, the name of the mother, may signify ex gratia concipiens, and therefore applies to Sarah. 4. Abraham might justly be styled a king, and was venerated widely. From all these circumstances, the probabilities that this is a heathen account of the facts related in Scripture are strong. As, however, this opinion is not unquestionable, we have introduced it in a note. Those who may wish to examine this singular statement further, can consult Magee on Atonement, Appendix, No. xli; or Stillingfleet on Phænician Theogony, derived from Sanchoniathon. CHAPTER VII. THE DESTRUCTION OF SODOM AND GOMORRA H. In the ninteenth chapter of the Book of Genesis is found one of the most astonishing relations recorded in the Bible,-the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. According to the simple Scriptural account, the inhabitants of a tract of country called “the plain," including the cities Sodom and Gomorrah, and also Admah and Zeboim, were excessively wicked. From the single instance of their wickedness related, it is evident that they were universally as abandoned to sensuality and as degraded as it seems possible for human beings to be. They had no respect for sacred things, and thought of nothing but to gratify their unholy lusts. God therefore determined to destroy them and their country together, and leave the spot where they lived as a perpetual monument of his indignation. Lot, a foreigner, who dwelt among them, was comparatively a good man, and unaffected by the corrupt manners of those around him. He, therefore, received warning of the impending destruction, and was urged to fly for his life, with his family, to the surrounding mountains. He obeyed, but could not induce any of his family to start with him but his wife and two daughters. Having escaped from the city, “the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven." This completely destroyed the cities, and all their inhabitants, and even the wife of Lot, looking back, was changed into a pillar of salt. The next morning, Abraham, rising early, and looking toward the cities and the land of the plain, “ beheld, and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace." Now we maintain that this strange account, forming a part of the Bible, so well authenticated as a whole, should be implicitly believed, even though no other evidence of its truth existed; but if subsidiary evidence can be found, it will serve to add confirmation to sacred writ. We purpose, then, to examine this history faithfully. According to the chronology which we adopt, this event took place about two thousand years before Christ, in an age of which we have but few historical traces, and these faint and imperfect, except what are found in the Bible. The |