phets are four hundred and fifty men.

Let

them, therefore, give us two bullocks, and let them chufe one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under; and I will drefs the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under. Then call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of Fehovah; and the God that anfwereth by fire, let him be God.

To this the people agreed, ver. 24. And the people answered, and faid, It is well Spoken. By this time the long drought and famine must have led the people to suspect the power of the new God, whose worship they had adopted. They were therefore the better difpofed to listen to the proposal of Elijah. And as the miracle which followed was particularly calculated to establish the truth of the religion of the Hebrews, as delivered by Mofes, in a time of general apoftafy from it, fo that it is of more importance than any of the miracles fubfequent to the time of Mofes, I fhall dwell the longer on the circumstances of

it.

The

The priests of Baal, having nothing to object to the fair propofal of Elijah, took the bullock which they had chofen, and dressed it; and having placed it on the wood, they called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, faying, ver. 26, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that anfwered. This continued till the time of evening facrifice, these priests having recourse to all their usual modes of invocation, one of which was to cut themselves with knives and lancets till the blood gushed out, while Elijah, confident of his fuccefs, mocked them, faying, V. 27, Gry aloud, for he is a God. Either he is talking, or he is purfuing, or he is on a journey, or peradventure he fleepeth, and muft be awaked.

The priests of Baal having tried all their arts to no purpose, Elijah's turn came; and by way of preparation, he repaired an old altar, building it of twelve ftones, and making a trench all round it; and when he had placed the facrifice on the wood, in order to make the miracle as unexceptionable as poffible, he bade the people fill the trench

N 2

trench with water, and to drench both the facrifice and the wood with it. This was done even three times, till, as we read, the water ran round about the altar, and he filled the trench with the water.

When this was done, and the time of the evening facrifice approached, Elijah made the following prayer, ver. 36, fehovah, God of Abraham, Ifaac, and Ifrael, let it be known this day, that thou art God in Ifrael, and that I am thy fervant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Jehovah, hear me that this thy people may know that thou, Jehovah, art God, and that thou haft turned their heart back again.

Having pronounced this prayer, in the hearing of all the people, the purport of it was fully accomplished. For as we read, ver. 38, Then the fire of Jehovah fell, and confumed the burnt facrifice, and the wood, and the very fones, and dried up the water that was in the trench.

Nothing now remained to complete the conviction of all the people, who were fpectators of fo great and evident a miracle.

And

And when all the people faw it, they fell on their faces, and faid, Jehovah he is God, fehovah he is God. And being fatisfied with respect to this great article, they could not refuse complying with the express order of God by Mofes, which was to put to death those priests of Baal who had feduced them to their apoftafy from their own God. For thus the hiftory proceeds, And Elijah faid unto them, Take the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape; and they took them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kidron, and flew them there. Immediately upon this an end was put to the long and deftructive drought, the rain coming in torrents.

After this we read no more of Ahab worshipping Baal, though, at the inftigation of his wife, he had the.wickedness to contrive the murder of Naboth, in order to get poffeffion of his vineyard; and in confequence he was, according to the prediction of a prophet, flain in battle, the dogs licking his blood in the very place where that of Naboth had been shed.

His fon Jehoafh, as we read, 2 Kings iii. 21, Wrought evil in the fight of the Lord, but not like his father, or like his mother; for he put away the images of Baal which his father had made. Nevertheless he clave to the fin of feroboam, the fon of Nebat, and departed not therefrom. Jehu, also, who destroyed all the pofterity of Ahab, agreeable to a prediction to that purpose, and who put to death the priests of Baal, adhered to the worship of Jeroboam's calves, 2 Kings x. 29. This too was the cafe with all the remaining kings of Ifrael. We read no more of any public encourage, ment given to the worship of Baal, though it must have been practifed by many individuals, or there could not have been found fo many priests of Baal as were put to death by Jehu, after the flaughter of them by Elijah. And when the reafons are given for God's forfaking that nation, and giving them up to be conquered, and carried into captivity by the kings of Affyria, it is faid, 2 Kings xvii. 16, They left all the commandments of Jehovah their God, and made

them