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    received , and confided in our Father ' s paternal Wisdom and goodness , to guide us b y his counsels , and afterward receive us to glory . Thus I have laid before you , Sir , my poor thoughts on the principal particulars of the Mosaic history of the fall . You will perhaps smile , and you are welcome , for I am sure it will be with good nature . But can your good nature excuse the length I have proceeded to ? I intended only hints , and I have been led into a dissertation . I will endeavour to be shorter on the remaining questions .

    Qu . III . As to your question concerning Baal-zebub , I am not sufficiently skilled in the antiquities of eastern idolatry to answer it . He is called the God of Ekron , a city of the Philistines . The name signifies Lord of Flies . Probably the Ekronites might believe him to be the genius that presided over the locusts , and might worship him to preserve their territory from the ravages of those destructive insects , to which , by its proximity to Arabia , the native region of locusts , it was much exposed . Probably also , the Jews , after their return from the captivity , which had cured them of attachments to idolatry ,

    might , out of antipathy to the Philistines , the hereditary enemies of their country , and b y way of shewing their contempt for their great deity and oracle , affect to call the evil spirit , whom they considered as prince of the devils , by the name of the Philistines , Lord of the Locusts . I do not find that the evangelists , or Christ , do themselves any where call the prince of the devils by the name Beelzebub . They only represent the Jews , and particularly the Scribes and Pharisees , as calling him so , and even applying the name to Christ .

    Qu . V . As to the text in Canticles , and what you say the Church affirms about it , I give it you up wholly . I consider the book , according to its obvious appearance , as only a love-song , or Epithalamium , and , in that light , regard it as a curious remain of ancient Oriental poetry . I should be glad to read a lately published attempt to illustrate it on a new plan communicated from the East , which I understand to be by extracts from books of travels into theEast , and the accounts there given of the customs , manners , &c , of the eastern nations . W . T

    * The following account of Mr . Amory is extracted from a letter of Mr . W . Turner , Sen ., dated November 19 , 1773 : " Mr . Thomas Amory , supposed author of the Life of JohnBuncle > is , as I am told , son of a Mr . Amory who was Secretary to King William in his wars in Ireland , ami there got possession of two thousand pounds per annum ; I suppose of the forfeited estates : by his mother ha is allied to the Fitzgeralds and several other noble families in Ireland ; but was really disinherited by his father for his want of orthodoxy , as is mentioned in John Buncle : however , he still is in possession of about five or six

    hundred pounds per annum , which his father could not deprive him of . As for seven wives , we account that embellishment . His son , a physician in our town , says he knows of no wives his father ever had besides his mother . ' No , ' says the old man , ' how should he , for his mother was my last wife . ' Mr . Amory is a remarkably healthy and strong old man of near eighty , still retaining all his faculties in full vigour , with uncommon cheerfulness among his friends . He lives very retired , and spends much time in reading and writing ; but , when the weather will permit , walks three or four hours with surprising strength and agility . His character is very

    peculiar : the same force of sentiment , strength of expression , and high colouring , that distinguish his writings , appear also in his conversation . In his earlier years he ivas a sort of spy upon mankind , and entered into all orders and scenes of life ; this has given him a kind of inquisitive habit which he still retains . He still pays great attention to the ladies , and is superlative in his encomiums on those who excel in understanding and mental improvements . He is just now finishing for the press a second volume of Memoirs of Eminent Ladies . Bigots have misrepresented him as an Unbeliever ; but he has often expressed to me the highest esteem and admiration

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    94 Correspondence between T . Amory , Esq ., and Rev . JV , Turner .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1827, page 94, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1793/page/14/