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    from their brethren a tenth part of the gro 9 S produce . The better to effect the purposes for which they were intended , they were distributed among all the tribes , and had a certain number of cities set apart for their maintenance . Six of the Levitical cities had the privilege of affording refuge and protection to a certain class of criminals , and each of their cities was a school as well as a seat of justice . " There the language , the traditions , the history , and the laws of their nation were the constant objects of study , pursued with that zeal and

    earnestness which can only arise from the feeling of a sacred obligation combined with the impulse of an ardent patriotism . Within their holy walls were deposited copies of their religious , moral and civil institutions , which it was their duty not only to preserve but to multi p ly . They kept besides the genealogies of the tribes , in which they marked the lineage of every family which could trace its descent from the father of the faithful . Being weU instructed in the law , and possessed of the annals of their people from the earliest days , they were well qualified to supply the courts with judges and scr ibes , men who were fitted not only to administer justice ,, but also to keep a record of all their decisions . "

    The second chapter treats of the Religious Belief and Practices of the Ancient Hebrews . We are not to look for the practical belief of the Israelites in the institutes of the Mosaic law . There it is simple and clear enough ; but we must gather much from casual notices in the narrative of the historian and the remonstrances of the prophet . During the time of the Judges , the pure religious faith which had enlightened and elevated the minds of the ancient patriarchs , had been corrupted by mixing with idolaters , and by an evident proneness to unite with them in their absurd worship . Still the

    traces of a pure and uncorrupted faith are to be found in their devotional compositions . They recognized one great almighty Cause , the source of all existence , the director of all events , an unceasing providence the re warder of goodness , the punisher of vice . Our author notices a distinction in some of the Hebrew writings between the notions entertained of the Deity when worshiped as the God of the whole earth , where his attributes are described in simple , sublime , and appropriate language , and those descriptions which are applied to him as the tutelary God of the Hebrews , which are deficient in the dignity and elevation that belong to the greater

    part of the ancient Scriptures . The devotional and prophetic writings of the Scriptures place God before our minds in terms as sublime and simple as are suitable to the dignity of the Divine attributes , so far as that is comprehensible by the human intellect ; but in speaking of him as the tutelary God of the nation , words and actions are ascribed to him of a much more familiar nature , though they never fall into the error of heathen writers who multiply the number of their gods .

    With respect to the evil principle , in the simple theology which the Jews held previously to the Babylonish captivity , they never doubted that all events , good or evil , proceeded from Jehovah . They believed in the existence of intellectual beings superior to the human race , who , though they mi g ht vary in the benevolence or malignity of their dispositions , were under the constant and immediate controulof the Deity . The doctrine of two independent principles was as jpet unknown in Palestine . Not the least allusion is found in the earl y records to Satan as the chief of the malignant angels , or as counteracting the designs of the Almighty . The notion can be found in none of the sacred books composed previously to the return from , Bab y lon , and we find the same event , which in the 24 th chapter of the 2 nd Book of Samuel is ascribed to the anger of the Lord , is in the 21 st chapter of the 1 st Book of Chronicles ( compiled after the return from Babylon )

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    Review . —RtmelVs Sacred and Profane History . 559

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1828, page 559, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2563/page/47/