of their own tent. Moses gives the history of this transaction

thus:

(6 And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And when Phineas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw it, he rose up from the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand; and he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel." (See Num. xxv: 6-8.)

SEC. 11. According to the record, for the service rendered by Phineas in assassinating Zimri and his wife, Moses' Lord promoted him, and his seed after him, to the everlasting priesthood in Moses' church. (See Num. xxv: 10-13.) This whole matter is either fabulous or a gilded record of Moses' crime. But I will drop the examination of this bloody tragedy by inserting an extract from Josephus, confirmatory of views expressed above in this Chapter. The language that I copy from Josephus was used by Zimri, and in reply to Moses' speech made by him, before the congregation of Israel, condemnatory of intermarriage with those of other nations, and also condemnatory of the free exercise of religion, and shortly before he was assassinated by Phineas. Josephus says:

"But Zimri arose up after him, (Moses,) and said: Yes, indeed, Moses, thou art at liberty to make use of such laws as thou art fond of, and hast, by accustoming thyself to them, made them firm; otherwise, if things had not been thus, thou hadst often been punished before now, and hadst known that the Hebrews are not easily put upon; but thou shalt not have me one of thy followers in thy tyrannical commands, for thou doest nothing else hitherto, but, under pretence of laws, and of God wickedly impose on us slavery, and gain dominion to thyself, while thou deprivest us of the sweetness of life, which consists in acting according to our wills, and is the right of freemen, and of those that have no lord over them. Nay, indeed, this man is harder upon the Hebrews than were the Egyptians themselves, as pretending to punish according to his laws, every one's acting what is most agreeable to himself; but thou thyself better deservest to suffer punishment, who presumest to abolish what every one acknowledges to be what is good for him, and aimest to make thy single opinion to have more force than that of all the rest;

and what I now do, and think to be right, I shall not hereafter deny to be according to my own sentiments. I have married, as thou sayest rightly, a strange woman, and thou hearest what I do from myself as from one that is free; for truly I did not intend to conceal myself. I also own, that I sacrifice to those Gods to whom you do not think fit to sacrifice; and I think it right to come at truth by inquiring of many people, and not like one that lives under tyranny, to suffer the whole hope of my life to depend upon one man, nor shall any one find cause to rejoice, who declares himself to have more authority over my actione than myself." (Antiq. of Jews, book IV: chap. VI: sec. 11.)

CHAPTER XLIX.

THE MIDIANITES TO BE HARASSED AND SMITTEN-MOSES MAKES WAR ON THEM THE ISRAELITES DESPOIL THEM-THE PLUNDER TAKEN FROM THEM, AND HOW DISPOSED OF.

"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Vex the Midianites and smite them." [Num. xxv: 16, 17.

*

*

"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward thou shalt be gathered unto thy people. And Moses spake unto the people, saying, Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the Lord of Midian * And they warred against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses; and they slew all the males. * And the children of Israel took all the women of the Midianites captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods. And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire. And they took all the spoil, and all the both of men and of beasts." [Num. XXXI: 1, 2, 3, 7, 9, 10, 11.

prey,

SECTION 1. In the text which stands first in the above quotation Moses says the Lord spake to him, and told him to harass, and then smite the Midianites. In the text which follows this, in the record, he says the reason stated to him by his Lord why he would have him vex the Midianites was because of the matter of Baal-peor. The principal features of this question were examined at considerable length in the last Chapter, therefore it is not necessary that much be said in this. If what I there said will not direct the attention of the reader in the right direction for correct thought and study on the subject, whereby the mind may become disenthralled from the popular errors entertained, nothing which I should say here would be likely to have any different effect. And concerning the things that are related in the texts quoted, I have before said, and I now repeat it, that the

Lord who "spake unto Moses" the sentiments here said to have been expressed, was none other than Moses' own debauched unregenerated nature; else it was the voice of some spirit from a moral plain beneath his own.

SEC. 2. In justice, why should the children of Israel have "vexed the Midianites," as Moses' Lord commanded? Was that war waged against them for the purpose of extorting from them withholden justice to the Israelites? Had the Midianites done that for which, by the law of justice, they deserved the chastisement of a war? I say nay. In the eye of God's law, in no way, or manner, had the Midianites done injustice to Moses, individually, or to the Israelites, as a people. The war was waged upon them by Moses for the purpose of plunder, power, and self-aggrandizement, and to avenge himself for their infringing his law which violated their divine prerogatives. Then, the war which Moses waged against the Midianites was of the most barbarous kind, as the texts above, and the chapter from which they are extracted, show. The atrocities committed by the most barbarous nations, on the persons and property of the victims of their savage ferocity, do not excel in barbarity, and criminality, the deeds committed by the Israelites on the persons and property of the Midianites. Manifestly, where there is no justice involved there is no God, or God principle, dictating operations. As has been said before in these pages, Justice is an essential attribute of that God who is our heavenly Father, and whose excellencies demand man's adoration. That God, and justice, are unchanging and unchangeable. That which would be justice to-day, in like circumstances, would have been, and was, justice three thousand years ago. By this rule and the law of justice we are to judge the acts of Moses and the Israelites-to judge of their conduct toward the Midianites.

SEC. 3. The Midianites were few in numbers, and unable to make war upon the Israelites; unable to contend successfully with them. This they acknowledged, and gave the best of evidence of that fact by confederating with the Moabites

for their own protection. Then they again acknowledged their inferiority by acting under Balaam's advice, in attempting to perpetuate their separate nationality by affinitizing with the people of Israel-by intermarrying and associating with them on social equality. Hence, there was no reason why Moses should have waged a war against the Midianites because of their numbers and power, or because of their disregard of social etiquette, toward his people—they desired social intercourse and friendly alliance with his people, but he forbade both. And he made war upon them, in part, because they attempted to enjoy their God-given prerogatives in social entertainment, and conjugal felicities, which he by royal edict had forbidden.

SEC. 4. The country of the Midianites did not lie within the bounds of that territory which Moses claimed that his Lord promised to give to him and the people whom he led. Nor did it lie between the land of Canaan and the territory of the Amorites which he had overrun and taken forcible possession of the countries over which Sihon and Og had ruled. It lay far to the south, and east of south of the country which he had taken from Sihon and Og; and the territory of Balak lay between the two. Hence, the war upon the Midianites was not waged by Moses for the purpose of obtaining contiguous desirable territory; nor was it waged for the purpose of destroying a dominion which divided his; nor a kingdom which intervened between the different parts of his own present and, prospectively, future dominion. But, as before said, there was no just cause for this war on the Midianites-it was solely an aggressive war on the part of Moses, waged by him, principally, for the purpose of plunder and to avenge himself for acts which he declared violations of his authority, but were deeds approved by divine law. Therefore, no God is yet seen in this war, but the hand of Moses, only.

SEC. 5. According to the record, at the command of Moses, twelve thousand men of Israel, a thousand of each tribe, armed themselves and went forth from their tents in