the honour to know, but from character; and he has been uniformly represented to me, as a man of irreproachable manners and conduct. In this publication, which is addressed to the Catholics of Ireland, in a pastoral letter, be gives them some very good advice. He recommends to them a peaceable and loyal demeanor; reminds them of the allegiance they owe to their lawful sovereign; but in the same breath cautious them, most emphatically, not to depart, from their ecclesiastical allegiance to the Pope; and declares to them in broad and distinct terms, that the ecclesiastical jurisdiction and authority, assumed by the Kings of England, was, in its origin, and still continues to be, a prophane usurpation upon the inherent spiritual and ecclesiastical primacy, not only of power and rank, but of real jurisdiction and authority of the Pope or Bishop of Rome, derived to him by divine right, as successor to St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles in that 'see. And in this pastoral letter, he tells his flock in broad and distinct terms, that any deviation from their ecclesiastical allegiance to the Pope, or acknowledgment of ecclesiastical allegiance to their lawful Sovereign, must inevitably bring upon them eternal perdition. He has, in this pastoral letter, communicated one piece of information, and one only which is new to me, and that is, that there is a standing Cabinet of Cardinals at Rome, for the ecclesiastical government of Ireland. I was always apprized that the Pope had established an Irish Nuncio resident at Brussels; but this cabinet of cardinals for the ecclesiastical government of Ireland, is new to me. I presume the cardinal York, is at the head of it, and therefore there can be no doubt, that the mild superintending spiritual influence of this cabinet upon the Irish Catholics, will have the best effects in cultivating their hereditary attachment to the British govern ment, and the British nation, and their natural affection for the established constitution in church and state. It is idle to palliate their attachment to the court of Rome, by asserting that the Catholics of Ireland acknowledge only canonical obedience to the Pope. Canonical obedience to the Pope, is inconsistent with the duties of civil allegiance to a protestant state. I consider civil al

* Since dead; but as the present Pope is the tool of the French Usurper, no doubt some cardinal in the interest of France, now presides over this Cabinet of Cardinals!

legiance

legiance to my sovereign, to consist in an explicit acknowledgment of the powers which the constitution has entrusted to him, and in prompt and implicit obedience to the laws, civil and ecclesiastical, by which he governs his subjects. And I know that canonical obedience to the Pope, as enjoined by the laws of the Court of Rome, is utterly inconsistent with the duties of civil allegiance to my sovereign, as enjoined by the laws and constitution of the British empire. And therefore I do not scruple to say, that in my opinion it is an act of insanity in the parliament of Ireland, to open the efficient political powers of the state in any degree to Papists, holding correspondence or communion with the court of Rome. If they do not make use of them to subvert a Protestant government, they must resist the ruling passions and propensities of the human mind; and as to their professions of attachment, I cannot forget that James II. when Duke of York, with tears in his eyes, requested an exemption in his favour from the Test Act; and pledged his word, as a Prince and a Peer, that his religion was only a matter between God and his conscience; and that it never should in any instance influence his political conduct in England. I cannot forget, that he renewed the same professions on his succession to the throne; that, as a private man, he was always considered to be a man of truth and honour? yet, when Mr. Devaux, his confessor, had access to him, his professions were all forgotten; and we know the abuses which he afterwards. committed under the same pernicious influence."

After an exhibition of such stubborn, and we will venture to add, most alarming facts, are we to be told that there is nothing to apprehend from Catholic preponderancy? In the name then of all that is most dear to us; of that LIBERTY for which our fathers bled; of that CONSTITUTION which is the envy or admiration of the earth; and of that pure RELIGION established among us, and which was sealed with the blood of holy bishops and martyrs, barbarously butchered by sanguinary papistslet every sound protestant be upon his guard-let our senators-our nobles and our princes seriously consider what must inevitably be the CONSEQUENCE of establishing Popery in Ireland or of granting what is called by a perversion of terms little short of libellous, CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION ! W.

DEVOTIONAL

DEVOTIONAL REFLECTIONS ON SELECT PORTIONS of

SCRIPTURE.

Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily; therefore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil. Eccles. viii. 11.

A

LAS! how frequently do we see the truth of this important remark verified amongst the sons and daughters of mortality. Our eyes are almost daily shocked with the sight of drunkenness and licentiousness, and our ears with heasing the most profane, indecent, and impious language. The long-suffering and forbearance of an offended God, is seldom or ever thought of; and "because sentence against" their evil deeds and vicious practices, "is not executed speedily; therefore, their hearts are fully set in them to do evil." But it shall not be well with the wicked; the awful period is hastening on, when God shall bring every work to judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. It is surely lamentable in the highest degree, to see so many of our fellow-creatures erring from the right way, and inconsiderately following the bent of their wicked inclinations. A wise and good man cannot but commisserate their unhappy conditions and pray to God, that they may see the errors of their conduct, before they go hence, and are no more seen. O God! be pleased to have compassion on all those who live in the known and habitual practise of any wilful sin, and turn the hearts of the more obdurate and impenitent, to a proper and timely sense of the dangers which must ultimately and infallibly await them. Have mercy on all of us; and direct us to choose that peaceful, secure, and encouraging path, which may lead us at last to the realms of eternal hap piness.

9th April, 1905.

TC.

As the late excellent scholar Mr. BRYANT, in his in

genious exposition of the story of BALAAM Vol. VIII. Churchm. Mag. April 1805. Qq (Numb.

(Numb. xxii. &c.) incidentally elucidates some dark passages both of profane and sacred literature; a short abstract of his hypotheis may perhaps recommend itself not only by its principal object, but by what Lord BACON terms its "intervenient and collateral" results.

The author first proves that the Midian, of which BaLAAM was a priest, (probably, from his great reputation, Numb. xxii. 6. the high priest) residing at Pethor*, was an Edomite province of that name, to the east of the lake Asphaltites, peopled by the progeny of ABRAHAM and KETURAH; and not the similarly named region near the Red-Sea, where Moses took refuge for forty years (Exod. ii. 15.) upon his first flight from Egypt. His chief difficulty lies in Numb. xxiii. 7, where BALAAM is said to be brought from Aram or Syria; and in Deut. xxiii. 4. where he is still more fully represented as of "Aram hakaraim," or Mesopotamia. But if in these passages we admit the easy and not unusual substitution of a for a (that is, for Aram read Adam, or Edom) and in the latter dismiss haharaim as an erroneous gloss foisted into the text, the whole becomes consistent and intelligible. This we shall not hesitate to do, if we consider,

1. That haharaim in the Hebrew, like Mesopotamia in the Greek, means "the space between the rivers” (viz. in this instance, the Euphrates and its tributary the Aborras) whereas BALAAM came from Pethor, by the single river of the land of the children of his people‡ (Numb. xxii. 5.)

2. That he came upon his ass, with only two servants (Numb. xxii. 22.), whereas the immense desert between

,פתר,inology

* Called by the Greeks ga, (and by TACITUS, perhaps Hist. v. 3.). interpreted a rock;" instead of being explained from its Hebrew etya place of prophecy." It may be added that PETER, in the opinion of HESYCHIUS, has this additional meaning; and that Patura, anciently eelebrated for its "Lycia sortes" is probably of the same extraction.

†The converse of this mistake, viz. a for a, occurs probably Psalm cxxiv. 1, and also 1 Chron. xviii. 2. Compare 2 Sam. viii. 12. and 1 Chron xviii. 2, 3, 7, and inany other passages.

This river, so particularized, cannot (as LE CLERC supposes) mean, xal sox, the Euphrates; but by inserting, on the authority of many of the versions, a single letter in the original (for py reading Y, or py) it becomes still more incapable of that interpretation, and signiGes" of the children of Omar, Oman, Amon," a powerful tribe in Seir and Edom.

Mesopo

Mesopotamia and Moab could only be traversed by ca

mels and caravans*.

3. That he came at the joint requisition of the elders of Moab, and of Midian, (Numb. xxii. 7.) whereas there is no Midian or Pethor in Mesopotamia:

4. That he was met by BALAK, at a city of Moab which is on the border of Arnon, which is in the utmost coast (Numb. xxii. 36.) i. e. to the south of Moab, not towards the Euphrates, which was nearly north; and, lastly,

5. That on his way he was carried by his ass into a field, and amongst vineyards (Numb, xxii. 23, 24.) whereas Mesopotamia, though fruitful towards Armenia, on the side of the Euphrates is a perfect desert, without any grass or trees; and that no vines were to be found, even at Babylon, we have the testimony of HERODOTUS (i. 193.) while Moab and Midian and Edom were in a high state of particular cultivation.†

These arguments, conjunctively taken, prove that Pethor must have been an oraculous city or temple in Midian (called also Edom) near Moab, of which BALAAM was the archimage or chief diviner. Here the worship of BAAL-PEOR (the PEOR-APIS, or PRIAPUS of the ancients) and, most probably, of his attendant the Ass, chiefly prevailed. This animal, in its wild state remarkably beautiful (Martial xiii. 110.) and an emblem of liberty (Job. xxxix. 5.) was first, it may be presumed, made an object of veneration in the thirsty regions, from its peculiar sagacity-perhaps by snuffing up the air, and thence inhaling the moisture-in discovering springs of watert. The female ass had the farther recommen

*So was it traversed by ABRAHAM's servant (Gen. xxiv. 19. and by JACOB (Gen. xxxii. 15.) whereas the armies of CRASSUS, ANTONY, TRAJAN, JULIAN, and GORDIAN (in their expeditions to Babylon, and the East) went about by Syria North, and crossed the Euphrates at Zeugma or Cercusium; as well as the Assyrian armies, on their way to Judea and Egypt. SOLOMON built Tadmor or Palmyra, near the western extremity of the Desert, for the use of travellers (II. Chron. viii. 4.)

† See Numb. xx. 17. xxi. 22. Isai. xvi. 8, 9. Jerem. xxviii. 32, &c. + Sce Psalm. civ. 2. To this faculty, we can hardly doubt, allusion is made Gen. xxxvi. 24. where the word ', translated "Mules," should (on the authority of the Syriac and Vulgate versions) be trans lated "waters;" implying that, ANAH first discovered this peculiar in stinct of the ass, and what well deserved honourable record, taught its useful application. His name indeed, derived from a fountain," is a farther confirmation of this conjecture. TACITUS (Hist. v. 3.) with the venial mistake of a heathen and a foreigner, seems to have jumbled together the story of ANAH and of MOSES (Numb. xx. 2.) for it is surely not too refined in his "rupes" to discover the Pethor(ga)herein question.

૨૧.

אין

dation