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which inflicted the most awful suffering on man-which infringed on the divine glory, by leading to idolatry, and which even set God at defiance, by pretending to rescue departed souls from the grasp of his power and the riches of his grace? She must have shuddered at the thought of bringing Samuel again in mortal form; but she knew that was impossible. Samuel, or Joseph, or Abraham, all were alike to her, and beyond the reach of her incantations. Had she possessed an influence over the unseen world, she would have declined the task of recalling Samuel -she would not expose herself to the rebukes of a sainted spirit, and perhaps to the scathings of the curse of an incensed Deity. From the absence of a refusal to employ her art on Samuel, we infer her conviction of the inefficiency

of her arts.

Perhaps by this time our readers are wishing to know our opinion concerning the arts which this woman practised. We say then at once, they were nothing beyond the reach of any one possessing a common share of knowledge. It is an unwelcome necessity which is sometimes laid upon us, when we are compelled to reject and condemn our translation of the Scriptures. Our memory does not supply us with a single subject on which such flagrant and dangerous errors have been propagated by our translators, as on the subject of witchcraft. It is, perhaps, impossible to say what were the precise ideas they attached to the words familiar spirit; but there are no words corresponding with them, either in the Hebrew Bible or in the Septuagint. We do not profess proficiency in the original languages, but we are bold to assert, that our views respecting sorcery, witchcraft, enchantments, &c.

were perfectly changed by a reference to the languages in which the Scriptures were written. Let it be remembered, that the Scriptures were" done into English" in the reign of James the First, when (alas for many) witchcraft and demonology were popular. They had for advocates persons eminent in power, learning, and religion. Like winter snow, frequently seen beneath the hedges after the spring has arrived, those relics of the dark ages retained considerable power over the public mind long after it had formally renounced their sway. To any one who considers the love of the marvellous, which is natural to the human race; the credulity of the age in which the Scriptures were translated; the innate disposition we have to penetrate the secrets of futurity; the hope of protection from dangers and success in earthly schemes, which cannot be obtained from ordinary skill; our anxiety to appease an enemy, especially when that enemy threatens us with wrath in another world, together with the amazing power which a slight knowledge of drugs would give in times of general ignorance; and the tenacity with which the fears will hover around terrific scenes, when the judgment has long since repudiated them, cannot wonder at the partial prevalence of these errors in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The purest water will, in some measure, partake of the soil through which it flows; so the Scriptures have come to us, upon the whole, admirably pure, yet, in some points, and especially that of witchcraft, tinged with the views of the translators. There are, we believe, about sixteen places where the expression familiar spirit is used. In all these places the Hebrew word is the same as that employed

in Job xxxii. 19, rendered by our translators" bottles ;" and if in these sixteen places a similar rendering had been given, thousands of people would have been saved from mystic perplexities. Without something like a paraphrase, it is impossible to give a correct idea of the expression rendered" Woman that hath a familiar spirit." The following is offered. A woman having power over a thing inflated with air, such as the ancient leathern bottle, or the bladder, or stomach. Such women, when consulted, gave their answers like modern ventriloquists, with distended or inflated stomachs. The Septuagint expressly calls this woman a ventriloquist, or a speaker from the stomach. In addition to the power of ventriloquism, we presume she pretended to that of necromancy, raising from the grave the ghost or shade of the dead, which was supposed to retain the shape and appearance of the living person. We therefore believe this woman to have been a professor of ventriloquism and necromancy, and nothing more. The first, in all probability, she really could employ; the latter was a mere juggle.

Respecting the laws of Moses, which have been thought to imply the reality of witchcraft, we wish to make an observation. It is, doubtless, true, that laws were not made by Moses against a mere non-entity, or an evil existing merely in the imagination. But if this woman did, bona fide, possess the powers which many allow her, of what avail were the laws of Moses? If a familiar spirit were always in attendance upon her, surely it would forewarn her of approaching danger from the civil authority, or extricate her from their hands. Such laws were enacted, because the

persons we improperly term witches and wizards practised awful cruelties in their divinations. Their foreknowledge was obtained, not by a spirit flitting about between the things which are seen and the things which are not seen, and who, at their bidding, could penetrate the future, but, among other sources, from the entrails of murdered children. Idolatry was also a capital part of witchcraft. Who then can wonder at the rigour of the Mosaic laws against such characters ? Had there been no cruelty about them, the very pretension to preternatural information and capacities was a sin of the first magnitude against the theocracy of Judaism. It was a virtual admission of the existence of other gods which had power in both worlds. The cruelties requisite to keep up the system, though a baseless one, and the encroachments it made on the divine prerogative, rendered the penalty necessarily severe.

In the course of this essay we have implied our doubtfulness whether there were any supernatural agency exerted on this occasion; or in other words, whether God presented Samuel to the affrighted woman; and from this doubt we cannot at present release ourselves. Had a saint been commissioned by God to meet Saul at Endor, surely there would have been given some excitements to repentance. The absence of these corresponds neither with the general conduct of God, nor with the compassion for Saul which Samuel had cherished. It has been alleged that it was a real resurrection, because Saul perceived that it was Samuel, or as it is in the Hebrew, Samuel himself. This however was a mental perception, arising from the statements of the woman. The strongest objection with many is, that

none but a supernatural person could utter the prophecies which Samuel is represented as declaring. But in our opinion the revelations made are of so meagre a character, as to render their celestial origin exceedingly doubtful. The knowledge of politics, which this woman must be supposed to pos sess, could enable her to say nearly, if not entirely, every thing which was said. With the slight exception of the period of Saul's death, we can discover nothing stated more than was declared by Samuel in his last interview with Saul. Compare chapters 15 and 28 of the first Book of Samuel. The phrase "to-morrow," is in the Scriptures very indefinite. Allowing, however, that his death was thus fixed for the following day, we are unable to agree with those who think, that this explicit knowledge of his fate would savingly impress his soul, and thus justify the mission of a sainted spirit. Would it not so harass his mind, as to disqualify him for the exercises of repentance and faith? To that harassed state of mind may we not ascribe his defeat in war, The very announcement of an occurrence will often produce it; as when a run upon a bank is maliciously predicted, the report will cause a run; and if the prophecy which had been thus uttered on him, had reached the ears of the Philistine army, it would inspire such confidence on their part and such agitation on his, as to render their conquest absolutely certain. Had Saul, like Alexander before the battle of Arbela, spent the night in bed, the events of the following day might have been of a very different character. If there be any thing which bespeaks the divine agency between the time foretold for his death and the event of his death, we should asN. S. No. 92.

cribe it, not to the supernatural sagacity of the Witch, not to the divine intervention in making a glorified saint obedient to her incantations, but to the divine displeasure, causing the bolt of destruction to alight upon him at the time specified by the sorceress ; thus rendering her prophecy the rule by which he measured his indignation. Saul had asked the Witch of Endor to reveal the map of his future doom; and God inflicts in measure and in time what had been thus foretold. He who often made the faith of his people the rule of his gracious conduct, might on this occasion do to Saul precisely according to the oracle he had guiltily consulted. He had commissioned her to utter a prophecy for him, and being one of doom, God fulfilled it; thus making his impiety the rod which scourged him, causing his criminal proceeding to re-act upon his own head. It has been further alleged, that an uninspired person would not dare foretel such appalling events; that if this woman were performing a juggle, she would rather have prophesied smooth things, crying peace when there was no peace. We reply, to prophesy smooth things to Saul when his kingdom was in so critical a posture, would have been ridiculous. David had been anointed, the rending mantle had typified his rending kingdom; existing events were conspiring with prophecy; the storm was brooding, she therefore merely renders vocal occurrences which were evidently at the door. By conforming her oracle to the aspect of impending scenes, she gave a degree of truth to her prophecy, prophecy, while she deepened the distress of Saul's mind, by adding her testimony to that of the divine denunciation, a denunciation which was now all 3 P

but realized. Her assuring Saul that on the morrow he should be with the pseudo Samuel, was possibly intended to work like an opiate, soothing his agitated spirit with the false hope of enjoying internal rest after he had fallen in the approaching battle.

There is but one more point upon which we are anxious to make a remark; it respects the loud voice with which the woman cried. We are free to admit that this is the most difficult part of the narrative. Upon whatever principle we account for the crying, it proves that the woman was an impostor. Whether it also prove that a preternatural figure presented itself, is a question upon which, inter alia, we should rejoice to see a paper by some other correspondent. We shall keep to the more immediate design of this

essay, by remarking that had there really been the pretended power in her magic, her crying was perfectly uncalled for. Why should she cry out on seeing only what she fully expected to see. Her crying out therefore implies, either that beyond her anticipation Samuel had burst upon her astonished view, or that she craftily wished to impress Saul's mind with a conviction of her success. Whether it was the utterance of a real surprise, or a mere flourish of trumpets, we hesitate to say. In either case her vileness is manifest. We have been chiefly anxious to strip this woman of honours she has too long worn; and were not our remarks so lengthened, we had purposed showing that the view this essay takes is quite as instructive as its opponent theories. Ellesmere.

W. R.

THE TREASURES OF THE DEEP.

IF the prophecy of Jacob, with reference to his sons, when the earthy and cold hand of death" was upon him, the portion of Zebulun and Issachar is thus described :

"At the haven of the seas shall Zebulun dwell,

And he shall be a haven for ships,
And his border shall extend unto Sidon;
Issachar is a strong ass

Couching between two burthens.

And he saw the resting place, that it was good,

And the land that it was pleasant;
And he inclined his shoulders to the load,
And became a servant unto tribute."*

Moses also prophecied concerning the inheritance of these two tribes:

Rejoice Zebulun in thy going out And Issachar in thy tents. They shall call the people unto the mountain,

*Gen. xlix. 13, 14, 15,

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seas,

And treasures hid in the sand."*

1st. It is evident, from these announcements, that Zebulun and Issachar were to occupy maritime situations; the former to be a "haven for ships," and both to have at their command the "treasures of the deep."

The language of Jacob respecting Zebulun is thus paraphrased in the Targum of Ben Uzziel: "Zebulun shall be on the coasts of the sea, and he shall rule over the havens; he shall subdue the provinces of the sea with his ships; and his border shall extend unto Sidon.". It is impossible for any statements to

* Deut. xxxiii. 18, 19.

have been more literally accomplished. The territory assigned by lot to Zebulun, in the division of the promised land, extended along the coast of the Mediterranean, one end of it bordering on that sea, and the other reaching eastward to the lake of Gennesareth. Issachar's inheritance was to the south of that of Zebulun, and to the north of the half tribe of Manasseh; the Mediterranean formed its western boundary, and the Jordan, with the southern extremity of the sea of Tiberias, was at its eastern limit. They both possessed, ac cording to their forefather's announcement," havens for ships," and by the facilities afforded them for commercial intercourse, and their contiguity to the neighbouring adventurous Sidonians, became familiar with the "abundance of the seas." To foretell the situation of these tribes, which was determined upwards of two hundred years afterwards, in such an accidental manner, as by the casting of lots, is, indeed, an instance of the "sure word of prophecy."

2. The tribe of Issachar was further to be distinguished for hardihood and strength, and its inheritance to be a "pleasant" "land."

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provinces of the people, and drive out their inhabitants, and those that

are left shall be his servants and his tributaries." With this exposition, Grotius and several of the modern commentators agree; and what is more to our purpose, the succeeding history of the tribe is strictly analogous to it. Deborah expressly mentions the "princes" of Issacbar, as foremost in the fight against Sisera, when Reuben, Dan, and Asher, were cowardly skulking in their sheep-folds.' "All the families of Issachar" are specified as "valiant men of might in their generations," i e. at every period of their history, patient in labour and invincible in war.†

The territory allotted to Issachar was exactly as Jacob foretold, a "land that was pleasant," occupying one of the most favoured situations in a country that flowed with "milk and honey." It embraced within its limits the whole plain of Esdraelon, spoken of by all writers since the time of Josephus, as the most fertile part of Palestine, and which is still, on account of its luxuriant pasturage, a chosen place of Arab encampment. Here, guarded on the south by the "high places of Gilboa," so fatal to Saul and Jonathanbeautified on the north with the "excellency of Carmel," and the mountain-dews of Hermon-on the banks of "that ancient river, the river Kishon," Issachar might "rejoice in his tents," and long amid the distractions of war for "rest," to enjoy the goodly "lot of his inheritance."

3. Zebulun and Issachar, on account of their maritime situation, were to become rich and prosperous, to" suck of the abundance

* Judges v. 15. +1 Chron. vii. 1-5.

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