He provided for them even in the wilderness,
And in the arid deserts he fed them.

He protected them-He trained them up,

And He guarded them as the apple of his own eye.—

As an eagle, jealous of her aery, hovereth over her young;

Or, expanding her wings, taketh them up, and beareth them on her shoulders:

So, those the LORD alone conducted;

And with him was no stranger-god.

On a hilly region he placed them,

And the product of the fields he made them eat:

He nourished them with honey from the rocks,

And with oil from the hardest cliffs;

With the cream of the herds and of the flocks;

With the choicest of lambs and of kids;

With rams and he-goats of the breed of Bashan,
And with flour of the best wheat:

And the product of the grape he made them drink.

But Jacob ate, and was satisfied:

Israel grew fat, and kicked!

Grown full, fat, and fastidious,

They forsook the God who made them,

And despised the author of their salvation!

They moved him to jealousy, by adoring strange gods;
By their abominations they provoked him to anger.-
They sacrificed to gods without godship;

To gods whom they had never known;

To gods whom their fathers had not revered!The Creator, who begot them, they relinquished; The God, who brought them forth, they forgot.

The Lord saw, and was indignant, at the provocation of his sons and daughters; and he said :

I will hide my face from them, and see what will become of them:
For a perverse generation they are;

Children, in whom there is no fidelity!

They have moved me to jealousy,
By adoring what is not God
They have provoked me to anger,
By their worship of vain idols:
So, I will move them to jealousy,
Through a people of no account;
And will provoke them to anger,
Through an abject nation.

For a fire is kindled in my wrath,

Which shall burn unto the lowest depth;

Shall consume the land with its product,

And set the foundations of the mountains in a blaze.

Upon them I will accumulate evils;
By them my shafts I will exhaust.-
By famine they shall be emaciated,
And by ravenous birds devoured;
With most bitter destruction.

The teeth of wild beasts I will also let loose upon them,
And the rage of tremendous reptiles.

Without, the sword shall bereave;

And within, terror shall kill;
The young man, as well as the maiden,

The suckling and the man of grey hairs.

I would even say, I will extirpate them,

And make the remembrance of them cease among mankind; Were I not apprehensive of the haughtiness of the enemy; Lest their adversaries should become arrogant, and say, Our own high hand, and not the LORD, hath done all this.

For an ill-advised nation are they;
And in them there is no understanding:
They are not wise enough to discern this,
Nor to consider their own latter end.
How could one of them have chased a thousand,
And two have put ten thousand to flight?

If these their own supporter had not sold,
If the LORD had not delivered them up!
For not like our supporter is their supporter,
Our enemies themselves being judges.

Of the vines of Sodom are their vines,
And of the blasted fields of Gomorrha!
Their grapes are grapes of poison,
And their clusters clusters of bitterness!
Their wine is the venom of serpents,
And the cruel poison of asps!

Is not this stored up with me?
Sealed up among my treasures?

For a day of vengeance and retribution?
For a time when their foot shall slip?
For at hand is the day of destruction,
And rapidly their fate approacheth.

For the LORD will avenge his people,

And relent for the sake of his servants;

When he shall see that gone is their power,

And there is none to succour and support them.

Where now (will He say) are your gods?

The supporters in whom ye trusted? Who have eaten the fat of your sacrifices,

And drunken the wine of your libations?

Let them arise and assist you, and take you into protection.

See now, that I, I only, am HE!

And with me there is no rival God!

I kill, and I keep alive;

I wound, and I heal:

And from mine hand there is no rescue.

To the heavens I raise mine hand, and say:

As I live for ever, I will whet the edge of my sword;
And mine hand shall lay hold on judgment !

I will render vengeance to mine adversaries,
And those who hate me, I will requite!
Mine arrows I will make drunk with blood;
And with flesh my sword shall be satiated:
With the blood of the slain and the captive,

With flesh from the dishevelled heads of the enemy.

Miscellanea.

INSTITUTION OF THE SABBATH.

To the Editor of the Scripture Magazine.

SIR,

THE pleasure with which I read the paper of your correspondent, G. B. (p. 14.), "On the State of Society before the Deluge," was considerably diminished at witnessing, in one part of his enquiry, an abandonment of the testimony of Scripture, in favour of the "traditions of men." This is the more to be regretted, in the case of G. B. inasmuch as he appears to be a careful reader, and an attentive student of the oracles of God; and, excepting in the instance which has induced these remarks, to argue solely from their announcements. Having watched over the religious productions of the press for some considerable period of time, with a view to ascertain their influence with reference to the personal reading of the BIBLE, I have been painfully convinced, that human compositions have, to a fearful extent, usurped the place of Divine; and that, while religious tracts, and sermons, and commentaries, have been circulated and read, for the ostensible purpose of promoting the understanding of the Scriptures, that Book which, alone," is able to make us wise unto salvation," has been most culpably and criminally neglected.' Under these impressions, I hailed with considerable pleasure the appearance of your valuable work, the avowed object and the obvious tendency of which is, to promote the rational and profitable study of the Sacred Volume. Your correspondent, then, will, I doubt not, pardon the jealousy which I feel, lest the SCRIPTURE MAGAZINE should be found to lend its influence in

giving currency to the conclusions and doctrines of men, instead of the infallible truths of heavenly inspiration.

The passage to which I allude in the communication of G. B. regards the institution and observance of the Sabbath day. The requisitions under which the antediluvians are represented to have enjoyed the benefits of the promised Saviour, are, a sincere return to the obedience of God, humbly trusting in his mercy through faith." And the ordinances annexed to this covenant, are said to have been, "sacrifice for sin and the observance of the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." And it is thence inferred, that “the Sabbath was doubtless kept sacred by that part of the antediluvian world which lived in this fear," p. 19. Now, Sir, however" doubtless," this may appear to the mind of your correspondent G. B. it appears not only far from "doubtless" to mine, but next to certain, that no such ordinance was either observed or known; and I feel no hesitation in asserting, that the institution in question was not known until the arrival of the Israelites, under the guidance of Moses, in the desert of Sin: a period of more than 2500 years posterior to the creation of man, and upwards of 800 years after the Deluge! Some of your readers, however, may ask for the evidence upon which my assertion is founded. I refer them to the Scriptures-the only authentic records which we possess of the times in question, and whence all our information relative to the patriarchal ages is derived. In these writings, there is not the slightest trace to be found of the observance of the Sabbatic festival, nor the most distant allusion made to its existence. In the writings of Moses we are furnished with biographical sketches of the private and domestic character and devotion of the Saints of the Most High; but throughout the whole there is not an expression which the utmost ingenuity can torture into an indication of the observance or knowledgeof this hebdomadal rest. Upon what, then, are the conclusions of G. B. founded? and what are the evidences upon which he has hazarded this statement? Will it be believed-can it be thought credible—proh pudor !—on the circumstance of Noah having "entered the ark on the seventh day," with "several other matters, as the sending out of the raven and the dove"!

Such an argument merits not a reply, being only calculated to shew the instability of the opinion it is brought to support. Let the real friends of revelation abandon every such questionable mode of interpreting its annunciations, as powerfully tending to betray the interests of the cause they are anxious to serve :—

Pudet-pudet hæc opprobria nobis

Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli.

PROPER NAMES IN SCRIPTURE.

DR. KENNICOTT has justly remarked, that the want of an uniform rendering of proper names occurring in Scripture, is a fruitful source of perplexity to the generality of readers. In this respect, the variation is sometimes so great, that it can hardly be supposed that one and the same person is meant. In every other book, except the Scriptures, an uniform expression of proper names is diligently attended to, but here the strangest variety and the utmost confusion prevails. In order to correct this source of error, the Doctor has furnished the two following lists of proper names from the Pentateuch, which are strangely varied; the first twenty-three names expressed differently in the Hebrew text itself, and seventeen of them in our English translation; the other thirty-one names expressed uniformly in the Hebrew, yet differently in the English :—