but to have shown themselves far more humane than some of the later conquerors of this country. Among the prisoners was Lot, who dwelt in Sodom, and had thus, as it appears, relinquished the custom of dwelling in tents which is the peculiar character of nomades, and had taken the first step in the usages of a settled life, by dwelling in a fixed abode, and sending forth his servants to the pastures with his flocks and herds.

News of the calamity that had befallen Lot was brought by a fugitive to Abram, who was then still encamped in the valley of Mamre. He appears to have instantly formed his resolution, and to have displayed all the decision and promptitude that generally attend the movements of a nomade chief. Arming his trained servants—that is, all those of his clan or tribe who were used to bear arms-three hundred and eighteen in number, and probably also the slaves he had bought himself, and those he had received in Egypt, and joined by three Amoritish chiefs, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre,* with their clans, he hastened to attack by night the victorious Assyrians, while some were asleep, and some drunk, as it appears from Josephus.† Consequently, struck with panic, and overpowered by wine, the Assyrians seem not to have made any attempt at resistance, but to have sought safety in a precipitate flight. Pursued as they were for a long distance, it is probable that many were slain in addition to those killed on the spot. The prisoners-among whom was Lotand the gathered spoils were retaken.

Many writers have pronounced the account of this victory as one of the most improbable related in the Hebrew writings; still, when all circumstances are taken into due consideration, I do not view this feat as at all incredible. There are innumerable examples in history, of large bodies of men, which, thrown into a panic by a sudden attack, and especially in the night time, have suffered defeat, and been driven to flight by a comparatively small number of determined assailants. Such events have frequently happened on the eve or during the night after a successful battle, when the victors have carelessly permitted themselves to indulge in excesses in celebration of their triumph. There is besides, as has been properly observed, nothing in the account that gives us reason to suppose the Assyrians were very numerous-as the exploits which were performed by them, might well have been accomplished by a small army making a sudden incursion, when the inhabitants were unprepared to resist. And though five kings or chieftains are mentioned as commanding the invaders when we consider the time in which it occurred-this forms no evidence that the host they commanded was composed of a very large

* Gen. xiv. Perhaps the valley of Mamre received its name from this Mamre; but it seems to me more probable that it ought to be read the men of Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; thus these names indicating cities instead of chieftains.

t Antiq. book i. chap. 10.

number of men. However this may be, the bold and heroic achievement of Abram, ensured him the admiration and gratitude of the native chiefs; and the great respect with which he afterwards appears to have been treated by them, may probably be regarded as the result of his conduct on this occasion.

The king of Sodom, who had escaped with a portion of his followers, came down from the mountains-to which he had fled-and hastened to meet and salute the conqueror of the invaders. He met Abram in the valley of Shoveh-otherwise called the King's Dale-which is supposed by many writers to be the same place afterwards known as the valley of Jehoshaphat, to the east of Jerusalem. Abram was there also met by the king of Salem,* Melchisedek,† who united in his own person, like most of the chiefs of early oriental tribes, the double office of chief and high priest. Melchisedek is said to have been priest of the Most High God, in whose name he also blessed Abram-who had delivered the country from foreign invaders and refreshed his followers with bread and wine. Abram, out of gratitude for these refreshments, gave Melchisedek the tenth part of the spoils he had taken, as is related by Josephus.‡

It is to this day a law among the inhabitants of the Arabian deserts, that if one tribe defeats another which has plundered a third, the victorious party is bound to liberate the conquered tribe, but is entitled to retain all the booty it may find, whether it may have originally belonged to, or been been plundered by the defeated party. Conformably with such a practice, the king of Sodom proposed to Abram to retain all the property, but to restore all the persons he had recaptured. To this proposal Abram gave the following answer: "I have lifted up my hand"--that is, I have sworn-" unto the Almighty, the Most High God, the Possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread, even to a sandal-thong, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich," requesting, however, for his allies, Aner, Eshcol and Mamre, the liberty of retaining that share of the spoils which custom allotted to them, and which it does not appear that they were induced, by his example, to decline. The conduct of Abram was generous, and could not but make him, though a stranger, dear to the natives.

* Some have supposed Salem to have been the origin of Jerusalem.

Josephus says that this name signifies the Just King." Antiq. book i. ch. 10.

Antiq. book i. ch. 10.—In the 20th verse of xivth chap. Genesis, we read, “he gave him tithes of all," which words seem to indicate the same as what Josephus has said on this subject. Mr. Milman appears, however, to interpret the words of Genesis in another sense, as he says: "On his part, Abram, according to general custom, consecrated a tenth part of the spoil to their common Deity"-as both Abram and Melchisedek worshipped the Most High God; but should not the accounts given by Josephus be correct, I would, with regard to the preceding words in the same verse of Genesis, rather be inclined to think, that after having thanked the Deity with words, Melchisedek offered to Him the tenth part of the refreshments he had brought with him.

We are told that after this event had happened, the Almighty held a discourse with Abram in a vision, exhorting him not to fear-as if the patriarch had entertained some anxiety, that the Assyrians would return and take revenge upon him-and promising to be his defence, and to reward him. Remarkably enough, Abram is represented as showing evident displeasure with his lot, and asking, "What advantage will it be to me to have such rewards, when I have none to enjoy them after me?"* for he was still childless.

The Almighty, however, is said not to have been offended, but to have promised him an heir of his own flesh, and to have commanded him to count the stars of the firmament, for even thus numerous would he make his descendants. Now Abram's faith was strengthened, and he again believed. The Almighty then proceeded to remind him, that he had been brought from the Ur of the Chaldees to inherit the land in which he dwelt. Again the distrust of Abram is evident, because he asks, "Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit ?"+

The Deity is said to have returned no further answer, but to have commanded Abram to offer certain animals in sacrifice-which was accordingly done. We are also told, that Abram watched the carcasses until evening, to protect them from the birds of prey. "But when the sun was gone down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and lo! horror and darkness fell upon him." During this sleep the destinies of his descendants were told to him, namely, their servitude for a period of four hundred yearstheir deliverance, and their possession of the whole land from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates.

What is thus related to have happened to Abram, first in a vision and then in sleep, is evidently no historical fact, and consequently not within the sphere of the historian's investigation; still it might not improperly be con

*Joseph. Ant. book i. ch. 10.—These records imply the very meaning of those in Genesis, chap. xv. verses 3 and 4: “And Abram said, Almighty God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus ? And behold thou hast given no seed to me; and therefore, one born in my house is mine heir." This, while it hints at the existence of a custom of adoption, still very common in the East, is remarkable also for omitting to notice any claims which Lot might be supposed to have had in preference to Eliezer, and perhaps intimates that the estrangement between the uncle and the nephew was greater than appears, or that some usage or custom, unknown to us, operated to oppose the succession of Lot, when the separation of his clan from that of Abram had taken place. See Kitto's History of Palestine, p. 49.

+ Josephus mentions, however, not this distrust of Abram. He says, when the Patriarch had heard the promise of God in regard to the multitude of his descendants," he offered a sacrifice to Jehovah, as he commanded him. The manner of the sacrifice was this: He took an heifer of three years of age, and a she-goat of three years of age, and a ram in like manner of three years of age, and a turtle-dove and a pigeon, and as he was enjoined, he divided the three former, but the birds he did not divide." Ant. book i. ch. 10.

Gen. chap. xv. 9.

sidered as a proof of the care which was taken to impress upon the minds of the Israelites the conviction, that Abram had already received the promise that they should come into the possession of Canaan, which, while roving about the desert, they seemed not much inclined to accept.

Still as no heir had come to gladden the heart of the patriarch and his wife; Sarai, despairing of issue, had recourse to a custom still in vogue in the East, and particularly in China. The chief or lawful wife substitutes another woman in her place, and the children born of the substitute are considered as legitimate, and are thus treated in every respect. In this manner Hagar, an Egyptian woman by birth, bore to Abram a son, who was named Ishmael. But before the birth of the child, Hagar proud of the prospect of becoming the mother of the heir of the wealthy emir, is related to have conducted herself with haughtiness towards Sarai, through whose recommendation and friendship she had been introduced to the favor of the father of her expected child.

Sarai, stung to the quick by such insolence, complained of it to Abram with bitterness, insinuating, that without some encouragement from him, Hagar would not have dared to treat her so. Abram appears to have found justice on her side, or else the love he entertained for her was of a nobler nature than that he felt for Hagar, because he gave Sarai power to do as she pleased with her servant-maid-the expected mother of his heir. Sarai, on her part, appears not to have been restrained by that moderation which adorns every one, and particularly a woman, but rather to have given full vent to her anger; for we are told that Hagar fled from her face and braved the horrors of the desert, rather than she would submit to the severity of her irritated mistress. It appears from the direction in which she fled, that it was her intention to return to Egypt-having not considered the impossibility of a woman, alone and on foot, of passing the desert which separates the land of Canaan from that whither she intended to flee; but she would soon have been made aware of her desperate undertaking, had she not, when yet upon the borders of the desert, been induced to follow a more prudent course, and return and humble herself before her mistress. We are told that a divine angelt appeared to her

This name is compounded of the words jishmagh and El-the Lord hath or will hear. + Angel-from the Greek ayyeλos-signifying a messenger. Those who do not believe that the angel here spoken of was a spirit-which for the moment had assumed a human form-interpret the angel, as being the thoughts of mature reflection, that filled the mind of Hagar at the aspect of the dreariness of the desert. Others again say, that with divine angel is meant some traveler that met Hagar, and made her acquainted with the danger of attempting to execute her rash resolution; and that the traveler is called a divine angel in consequence of being the instrument of Providence to save Hagar. Those who harbor this opinion say also that it was natural that the traveler would point out to Hagar the brilliant prospects her child would be born to, as heir of so powerful and rich a man as Abram. The figurative language of the Hebrews allows undoubtedly both of these interpretations.

and gave her this advice, and at the same time predicted that she should give birth to a son, to whom she was commanded to give the name of Ishmael, in remembrance of the care of God in her affliction. At last the angel assured her that her son should be the parent of a race that would, in the course of time, be very numerous; and that he should be wild and fierce, and live in continual strife with his neighbors, but still defend his independence in spite of his many enemies.* After her return to Mamre, Hagar in due season bore a son, to whom Abram, as before mentioned, gave the name of Ishmael.

It would appear as if for a period of thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael, that Sarai also as well as Abram, viewed him as the future heir of the patriarch. But on the following year, when Abram was on the verge of a hundred years,† and Sarai was wanting but ten years of the same age, a new revelation from the Deity, as is related, announced the surprising intelligence that Sarai herself was to bear a son, who was to be called Isaac. Abram, disbelieving the words of the Divinity, laughed and uttered to himself words that manifested his doubts; and, as it appears, evincing more anxiety for the preservation of the son already living, than desire for the birth of another heir-exclaimed with parental affection, "O may Ishmael be permitted to live!" Abram is also commanded to assume the name of Abraham, as the ancestor of a great and numerous people who were to descend from Sarai-whom he was now required to call Sarah-and to receive Canaan for an everlasting

In another place I will show in what mode the idea of angels originated-here I will only explain how this idea was farther developed. Under the name of angels are mostly understood good spirits, and particularly such as are supposed to have stood in some connexion with men. In the Jewish theology they are divided into different classes and ranks, which have been surely more accurate than could have been expected from a mortal, described by the author of the Heavenly Hierarchy-ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite. He divides them into three classes, each containing as many subdivisions. According to the majority who have written on this subject, they were created long before the visible world; according to others, at the same time. Their office is said to be to serve the Deity, and to execute his commands. They have also been supposed to be spirits with ethereal bodies. This conception of them was established as a doctrine of the church, by the Council of Nice, in 787; but the decision of the Lateran Council of 1215 makes them to be immaterial beings. What a proof of the presumption of priests!

* Thus, I think, we may be allowed to interpret the words-" he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren."

There has been much disquisition among the learned, as to what length of time is meant by the years mentioned in the ancient Hebrew writings, without leading to any result. There is, however, one thing which seems to me very evident, and that is, the years mentioned in these writings cannot be considered as conveying the idea of equal periods of time. The reason of this, it is very easy to assign, as we know that to measure time by the solar year, was not, and could not have been known in the most remote times. Thus the term year, when applied to the time of Noah, or even to that of Abram, does, in all probability, not signify the time of a solar year.

Genesis, chap. xvii.

The father of a multitude.