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may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel."

I would cite this paragraph as a proof that the author of Deuteronomy was not connected with the general compiling of the Jewish law; for it is evident that it was intended to exclude the office of king, and to make the government of the Jews an hierarchy, or what some have called a theocracy. We find nothing more said about a king until the time of Samuel, and then the demand of a king is imputed to the Israelites as an act of wickedness, and their demand is granted merely because it might prove a punishment for that wicked

ness.

In the eighteenth chapter we find the following passage :— "There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.”

I have already made some few observations on the belief in witches, but in the above we have the names of all the craft, so that I shall finish my observations on them as a body, excepting the famous witch of Endor. The practice of making children pass through the fire, appears to have been one of the most horrid circumstances of antiquity. valent in the famous Republic of Carthage, and in case of any It was very predisaster, the common cry of the priests was, that the inhabitants had withheld their children from the God. This was sufficient to instigate the noblest families to flock away to the God with their children, and thousands have been sacrificed on such an occasion. The God was a large figure of brass, whose hands were moveable with hinges or some kind of joint, and the children were placed on his hands, when they dropped down by their own weight into a furnance of fire. Custom could even render this horrid transaction holy and religious, and I doubt not was performed with the same feelings of piety, as the chewing of bread and drinking of wine in the present day. It was from this custom, which appears to be prevalent throughout Asia and Africa that came the Jewish rite of offering up the first-born, and it is evident, that the Jewish law implies a sacrifice, although, the barbarity of the measure subsided, and the priest preferred fingering the cash and something to eat instead. The practice of sacrificing children is not quite extinct in the present day, it frequently occurs in India, in that country whose absurdities are taken under the

especial protection of the British government, because of their antiquity! As to divination it is still prevalent in England to this day, although it might have varied in its practice from what it was formerly. What can the consecration of churches and burying grounds be called but a species of divination? What the consecration of bread and wine, and pretending that it is changed into human body and blood but divination? The stomach of the receiver has the power of transubstantiation, and turns the bread and wine into body and blood, and I wonder that the priests don't attempt to explain their figure by this means. The human or any animal stomach might be compared to a chemical furnace, it analyses, every thing which passes through it by a regular chemical process. In fact, the laws of chemistry are nothing more or less than the artificial laws of nature. A cup was a common instrument of divination in the East, hence, the fuss that was made about the cup in Benjamin's sack, and hence, the chalice used in the Christian church. The marking of the cross on the forehead among Christians must be also considered a species of divination, and a variety of other species, which are in some measure gone out of date, such as laying the devil, exorcism, raising the devil, calling forth of spirits, and many other whims too tedious to mention, were the common practice of the christian priesthood in darker ages, when the imposition struck terror into the multitude, instead of being scouted by them.-What an "observer of times". means in the bible phraseology, I have ever been at a loss to conceive, because, if it applies to festivals, no sects whatever have had so many festivals to observe, as the Jews and Christians. As for the Christians, they have dedicated almost every day in the year to some knavish saint or other. The phrase of being an observer of times is as ridiculous as it is vague. We have some idea of what an enchanter implies, for the stage continues to be disgraced with the performance of enchantments and such like nonsense. One would think the present age should put a stop to such fooleries, or at least, that the literate part of society should not find amusement in them. Enchanted castles are almost extinct, if not quite, but the present Scottish Bard, Sir Walter Scott, tries to keep up the farce, and frequently makes enchantment his theme. It answered the purpose of a romantic tale very well, but it would be well for society if romances were discarded, and the truth alone become agreeable and attractive of interest. Romances, and even some novels, might be said to have been food for priests.-As to witchcraft, I shall make some few ob

servations on it here, by way of introducing a few paragraphs from the Free Thinkers pamphlet, whom I have quoted before. He says,

I must not omit one great benefit of free thinking, of which all past ages as well as the present may convince us. Free thinking is upon experience, the only proper means to destroy the 'devil's kingdom among men; whose dominion and power are ever ' more or less extensive, as free thinking is discouraged or allowed: and all other means employed against him, such as the casting him out miraculously, multiplying priests, and enlarging their power, and using the temporal sword, have often increased, but never wholly destroyed his power.

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Thus the devil is entirely banished the United Provinces, where 'free thinking is in the greatest perfection; whereas all round about ⚫ that commonwealth, he appears in various shapes: sometimes in his own, sometimes in the shape of an old black gentleman, sometimes in the shape of a dead man, and sometimes in that of a cat. He 'obsesses some, possesses others, and enters into confederacy with 'others. As for instance, he has had from the remotest antiquity a great sway in England; first, while we were in heathen darkness, and afterwards a greater, during the thicker darkness of popery. 'Nor did the reformation do much towards lessening his power; for 'great complaints have been made of the growth of witchcraft, and "the mighty power of the devil among us, from the most primitive times of our holy church, viz. about 150 years ago*.

Bishop Jewel, in a sermon before Queen Elizabeth, told her Ma'jesty of the marvellous increase of witches and sorcerers within her realm, and expressed his fears lest her Majesty herself should be "bewitched by them. I pray God, says he, they never practice further than upon the subject.'

His sacred Majesty King James the first, (who was told to his face by the Archbishop of Canterbury, that his Majesty spake by the ⚫ especial assistance of God's spirit, and who eraployed his royal pen always on subjects worthy of a prince, viz. A Paraphrase on the 'Revelation,' 'A Counterblast to Tobacco-taking,' and Love Letters to the Duke of Buckingham,') tells us, that the fearful abounding at 'this time in this country of these detestable slaves of the devil the witches and enchanters, moved him to dispatch in post his treatise on Demonology.'

In the reign of King Charles the First, it ought likewise to be supposed that many people of the church were obsessed and possessed by the devil, since among the articles of enquiry at a visitation of the diocese of London, by Bishop Juxon, then Lord Treasurer of England, one is: Whether any minister without licence, upon any pre"tence whatsoever, either of obsession or possession, cast out any devil or devils.'

* Now 250 years since.

In short, great numbers of witches have been almost annually ex'ecuted in England front the remotest antiquity to the late révolution when upon the liberty given and taken to think freely, the devils power visibly declined, and England as well as the United Provinces ceased to be any part of his christian territories*. Let the priests give such an instance of their success against the devil any where.'

But since the time of Dr. Sacheverell, when the clamours against free thinking began to be loudest, the devil has again resumed his empire, and appears in the shape of cats, and enters into confederacy with old women; and several have been tried, and many are accused, through all parts of the kingdom, for being witches, and ⚫ he seems at present to have so great a party among us, and so many ministers ordained to his service, and to have rendered free thinking 'so odious; that nothing but the second coming of our Blessed Sa viour, which is soon expected by several of our reverend divines, who are well skilled in the Prophets and revelation, gives me any hopes of a change for the better!'

Perhaps it will be said, That the stories of the devil's power were founded on the lies of some, and the credulity of others; and that 'the executions of witches have been so many murders: and therefore that there is no pretence to talk of conquest over the devil since the revolution, and nothing to be boasted of by free thinkers, The people were only come a little more to their senses, and by consequences their tutors were a little fearful of endeavouring to impose ' on them.'

But this objection can be made by very few. First, all the ignorant people believe all stories of this kind to be true. Secondly, it is not likely, that they who have so great an interest in maintaining the power of the devil, and have been the principal promoters of all prosecutions against witches (and against blasphemers too) and have branded all men with atheism, who did not agree with them in the extent of the power attributed to the devil, or refused to join with them in the promoting prosecutions against witches, should accept of this apology.

To those few therefore who make this objection, I reply, That it is an equal glory to free thinkers, to wrest out of the priests hands, the power of taking away so many innocent lives and reputations, which the general belief of the great power of the devil and of the 'existence of witches gave them an opportunity to do, as to drive away the devil himself. And the good consequence of free thinking

* I know not how our author can account for this assertion, for even to this day, the devil is found in our courts of law, as well as places of worship, every indictment for high treason charges the person with having been instigated by the devil, and within a few days past, we have seen an Irish Judge, sit and allow a perjured wretch to say, that he had been instigated to perjure himself by the devil, but that he was now conscious of his error!!!

to society, is plainly equal upon this last, as upon the former sup position.'

Witchcraft, priestcraft, kingcraft, and devilcraft, must all fall together-for the foundation of one is that of the whole. They have been one and all built on the ignorance, fear, and credulity of mankind, and cannot withstand the progress of education. That same feeling among the priests and their ignorant supporters which raised up a cry against witchcraft, against sorcery, against devilism, and against antichrist, has only taken another course in the present day, in their clamours about irreligion, infidelity, and blasphemy-the trick is the same, only they have expressed themselves by different names. The next age will read the particulars of the prosecutions for blasphemy and profaneness with the same disgust and horror, as the present age reads of the trials for witchcraft, and the executions which followed. The same disposition and feeling guides the Judges-the same influence guides the Juries the former will always be the supporters of existing abuses under a monarchy, and the latter being chosen by a King's officer, are guided by a worldly and selfish interest, to acquiesce in the dictates of the former; knowing that an opposition would only point them out for a secret persecution. The cry against popery has its origin in the same feeling; and the hatred of Christian Catholics towards Christian Protestants, is engendered from the same cause; and never until all public worship be abolished, will it be otherwise; for in the different sects of Protestants, where a by-stander can scarcely perceive a shade of difference in their sentiments, they carry the same rancorous feeling towards each other. Religion is the common parent of strife, of malice, of hatred, of war, and of murder. It has fostered all the evils whch have been incident to man; and if I were inclined to write an essay on the origin of evil, as others have done, I would begin and end with one sentence, and that should be as follows:-THE ORIGIN OF EVIL HAS BEEN RELIGION. How ridiculous do Queen Elizabeth and her bishop, Jewel, King James, and his Archbishop of Canterbury, King Charles and his bishop, Juxon, appear in our eyes at present, when we reflect on the idle notions which they must have severally held about the devil and witches; yet they, in their day, were all considered very religious people, no doubt. But even in the present day, our Magistrates and Police wink at astrologers, at fortune-tellers by cards, and palmistry, and a variety of other expedients by