of 2 Chron. chemish †, a city belonging to the king of Babylon, and situate upon the Euphrates, From 1 Kings Josiah would by no means consent to it; but getting together his forces, posted himself viii. to the end in the valley of Megiddo *, on purpose to obstruct his passage. The Egyptian king. hearing of this, sent ambassadors desiring him to desist, declaring that he came not to invade his territories, but purely to do himself justice on the king of Babylon; and assuring him withal, that what he did in this case was by the order and appointment of God. Josiah however thought himself no way concerned to believe him; and therefore, on Necho's marching up to the place where he was posted to receive him, a battle immediately ensued, wherein the Egyptian archers discovering Josiah, (though he had disguised himself before the action began) plied that quarter of the army where he fought so very warmly with their arrows, that at last receiving a mortal wound from one of them, he was carried in another chariot * out of the battle to Jerusalem, where, after a reign of one and thirty years, he died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his ancestors. * The death of so excellent a prince was deservedly lamented by all his people, but by none more sincerely than by Jeremiah the prophet; who, having a thorough sense of the greatness of the loss, as well as full foresight of the sore calamities which were afterwards to follow upon the whole kingdom of Judah, while his heart was full with a view of both these, wrote a song of lamentation * upon this mournful occasion; but Connection, Ann. 610. and Marsham's Canon. Eg. Sæcul. 18. Geographers make no mention of this city under this name; but it is very probably the same with what the Greeks and Latins call Cercusium, or Cercesium, which was situated on the angle formed by the conjunction of the Chaboras or Chebar and the Euphrates. Isaiah, x. 9. speaks of this place, as if Tilgath-pileser had made a conquest of it, and Necho perhaps now was going to retake it, as we find he did; but Jeremiah informs us, Chap. xlvi. 1, 2. that in the fourth year of Jehoiachim king of Judah, it was taken and quite destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Calmet's Commentry, and Wells's Geography of the Old Testament, vol. iii. Megiddo was a city in the half tribe of Manasseh, not far from the Mediterranean Sea, which way Necho was to pass with his army in order to go into Syria, and thence to the Euphrates. In the valley adjoining to this place Josiah was slain, while he was at the head of his army, (as Josephus tells us) and riding up and down to give orders from one wing to the other. This action Herodotus makes mention of, when he tells us, that Nechos king of Egypt having fallen upon the Syrians near the city Magdol, obtain ed a great victory, and made himself master of Cadytis, where the author plainly mistakes the Syrians for the Jews; Magdolum, a city in the lower Egypt, for Megiddo; and Cadytis, for Kadesh, in the upper Galilee, by which he was to pass in his way to Charchemish, or rather for the city of Jerusalem, which in Herodotus's time might be called by the neighbouring nations Cadyta, or Cadyscha, i. e. the holy city; since, even to this day, it is called by the Eastern people Al-huds, which is plainly both of the same signification and original. Calmet's Dictionary, under the word Kadesh, and Prideaux's Connection, An. 610. ** It was the custom of war in former times, for great officers to have their led horses, that if one failed they might mount another. The kings of Persia (as Quintus Curtius informs us) had horses attending their chariots, which, in case of any accident, they might make to; and in like manner we may presume, that when it became a mighty fashion to fight in chariots, all great captains had an empty one following them, into which they might betake themselves. if any mischance befel the other. Bochart's Hieroz. part. 1. c. 2. and 9. *3 The author of the book of Ecclesiasticus has given us his encomium in these words :-"All except David, and Hezekias, and Josias, were defective. They forsook the law of the Most High; even the kings of Judah failed. But the remembrance of Josias is like the composition of the perfume, that is made by the art of the apothecary: It is as sweet as honey in all mouths, and as music at a banquet of wine. He behaved himself uprightly in the conversion of the people, and took away the abomination of iniquity. He directed his heart unto the Lord, and in the time of the ungodly he established the worship of God." Ecclus. xlix. 1, &c. *4 The Jews were used to make lamentations, or mournful songs, upon the death of great men, princes, and heroes, who had distinguished themselves in arms, or by any civil arts had merited well of their country. By an expression in 2 Chron, xxxv. 25, "Behold they are written in the Lamentations," one may infer, that they had certain collections of this kind of composition. The author of the book of Samuel has preserved those which David made upon the death of Saul and Jonathan, of Abner and Absalom: but this mournful poem which the disconsolate prophet made upon the immature death of good Josiah, we no where have; which is a loss the more to be deplored, because, in all probability, it was a masterpiece in its kind; since never was there an author more deeply affected with his subject, or more capable of carrying it through all the tender sentiments of sorrow and compassion. Calmet's Commentary, and Preface sur les Lamentations de Jeremie. A. M. 3246, that is lost; and the other (which goes under his name, and is still remaining) was com&c. or 4772. posed upon the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. Ant. Chris. 758 &c. or €39. THE OBJECTION. 66 BUT how religious soever we may suppose Josiah the king of Judah to have been, we cannot but wonder at his ignorance in the law of God. Those who had the care of his education, were required to instruct him in it (a) upon all proper occasions; himself (according to what (b) the law directs) was to transcribe a copy of it with his own hand, and to have it so constantly in his remembrance, as if it were (c) frontlets between his eyes;' and yet, when he was no less than six and twenty years old, and in the eighteenth year of his reign, we find him (d) rending his clothes for fear of the threats denounced against a wicked prince and people, as if he had never read his bible (which the high priest by the bye seems equally a stranger to), nor heard a word of the book of Deuteronomy before. How the chosen people of God came so frequently to fall into the detestable sin of idolatry we are not at a loss to comprehend; but though, whenever they did so, it was the part of every good prince to endeavour to reclaim them; yet we should be glad to know what right king Josiah had to extend his reformation into other countries, and to exercise this authority in the kingdom of Samaria, which was then subject to the Assyrians; or upon what pretensions he opposed Necho, king of Egypt, when he only civilly asked a passage through his country, and was going to do himself justice upon an enemy that had invaded his territories first. 6 Had he sent indeed in his own name only, Josiah might have pleaded in his excuse, the danger of admitting a large army into the bowels of his country; but since (e) the request was sent in the name of God, who had put him upon this expedition, and accordingly prospered him in it, we cannot but say that Josiah justly suffered for opposing the Almighty's will, and intermeddling in the matter wherein he had no concern: Though how to absolve the Divine goodness and veracity, in bringing so good a prince to an untimely end, and causing him to be slain in battle, when he had promised (ƒ) that he should be gathered into his grave in peace,' is what we cannot unriddle. The sting of death is sin;' but the man who can appeal to God for the truth and sincerity of his heart (as we find Hezekiah appealing), may bid defiance to that prince of terrors: And yet (whatever his distemper might be) the Scripture represents this great and good man, upon notice of his death, in a very piteous plight, (g) weeping sore, (h) chattering as a crane or a swallow, and mourning like a dove,' at the thoughts of his dissolution, which is far from setting the saint and the hero, much more the benefits which accrue from a religious life, in an advantageous light. A person so passionately in love with life may well be supposed to desire some assurance of his recovery: But to cause the sun, not only to stop its course, but even to go ten degrees backward for his conviction, is a little too lavish. Instead of disturbing the whole course of nature, therefore, merely to satisfy the diffidence of one man, it is more rational to think (i) that this miracle was not wrought (a) Deut. vi. 7. (e) 2 Chron. xxxv. 21. (b) Chap. xvii. 18. (c) Chap. vi. 8. (d) 2 Kings xxii. 11, &c. (f) 2 Kings xxii. 20. (g) Ibid. xx. 3. (h) Isaials (i) Le Clerc's Comment. on 2 Kings xx. 9. upon the body of the sun, but upon the dial only, i. e. that God, upon this occasion, From 1 Kings made no alteration in the motion of the heavens, but only, by the means of some ex- viii. to the end traordinary meteors or refractions, so disposed the rays of the sun, and directed its. light, that no shadow could be projected but where the prophet foretold. But whether this miracle was in the motion of the sun, or in the direction of its shadow only, it certainly was a sufficient evidence to convince Hezekiah of his future recovery. Much better than what God gave this prince, to assure him (a) that the king of Assyria should not invest the city of Jerusalem, nor shoot an arrow there, nor cast a bank against it.' Much better (b) than what he gave king Ahaz, when, from the invasion of two confederate kings, he lay under the most dreadful apprehensions. For (c) of what use can a sign be that is subsequent to the thing signified? What consolation could the promise of the future birth of a son be to a person labouring under perplexity and want of immediate relief? Or where is the sense of the prophet's saying, that (d) before the child (to be born seven hundred years hence) shall be able to distinguish between good and evil, the land shall be forsaken of both her kings?' But of all the stories in this period of time, commend me to that wonderful novel of young Tobias and the angel in their adventures to Ecbatana. His father's losing his eye-sight by the hot dung of swallows had been a sad family accident, had not the gall of the fish come in opportunely to remedy it; though it be the first time that we ever knew that a swallow's dung was pernicious, and a fish's gall restorative to the eyesight. This however was nothing, in comparison to its heart and liver, whose very smoke was enough to drive away the devil Asmodeus as far as the utmost parts of Egypt, where the good angel took care to chain him down, that he might give the newmarried couple no farther molestation. All this sounds so like a romance, that we know not what else to call it, unless we will suppose with Grotius (e), that the whole account is parabolical, and that this pretended Asmodeus was some ill quality attending Sara's body, which had proved mortal to her other husbands, but that Tobias, by using proper fumigations, had preserved himself and cured her." THAT the dung of swallows is of a very hot and caustic quality, and when dropt into ANSWER. the eye, must needs be injurious to the sight, as being apt to cause an inflammation, and thereby a concretion of humours, which in process of time may produce a white film that will obstruct the light from the optic nerves; and that the gall of a fish (especially of the fish called Callionymus) is of excellent use to remove all such specks and obstructions to the sight, we have the testimony of some of the greatest men, (f) physicians and naturalists, to produce in confirmation of this part of Tobit's history. That good angels are appointed by God to be the guardians of particular men, and, in execution of this their office, do frequently assume human shapes, to guide them in their journeys, and to deliver them from all dangers, is a doctrine (g) as ancient as the patriarch Jacob's time, embraced by Christians, and believed by the wisest heathens; and that every man, in like manner, has an evil angel or genius, whereof some preside over one vice and some over another, insomuch that there are demons of avarice, demons of pride, and demons of impurity, &c. each endeavouring to ensnare the person he attends with a complexional temptation, is another position that has been almost generally re (a) Isaiah xxxvii. 33. (b) Ibid. vii. 14. (c) Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion. (d) Isaiah vii. 16. (e) Tobit iii. 8, and vi. 4. (f) Galen, de Simplic. Medicament. Facult. lib. x. c. 12. Ælian, lib. xiii. c. 4. Rhasis, lib. ix. c. 27. Pliny, lib. xxvii. c. 11. Gesner, Hist. Animal. lib. iii. Aldrovand Ornitholog. lib. 17. Vales, de sacra Philosoph. c. 42. (g) Gen. xlviii. 16. Psal. xxxiv. 7. Matth. xviii. 10. Acts xii. 15. Hesiod, Oper. et Dies, lib. i. Plata, de Legibus, lib. x. et Apuleius, de Deo Socratis. A. M. 3246, ceived, (a) not only in the Jewish and Christian, but in the Pagan theology likewise; &c. or 4772. and therefore thus far the history of Tobit can be no novel or romance. Ant. Chris. 758, &c. or 639. That good angels have a superior power and controul over the bad, and, by the Divine authority, can curb and restrain their malice, (which is all that we need understand by their binding them up), is evident from a passage in the Revelations very similar to what we read here concerning Raphael and Asmodeus: (b) " I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand, and he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more:" And that this good angel, personating an Israelite, and (c) calling himself Azarias, the son of Ananias, was not guilty of any lie or prevarication, is plain from cases of the like nature. For, as the picture is usually called by the person it represents, and he who in tragedy acts the part of Cato, does for that time go under his name, so Raphael, being sent by God in the form and appearance of a young man, was in that capacity to act and speak as if he had been such. Nor was there any fallacy in his assuming the name of Azarias, which signifies God's help or assistance, since he was manifestly sent for this very purpose, that he might be a guide and assistance to Tobias in his journey, and therefore very prudently concealed his quality of an angel, that he might more conveniently execute his commission. So that hitherto there is no incongruity in the whole narration, if we can but have a farther account why (d) the smoke of the fish's liver and heart should be of an efficacy to put the evil spirit to flight. Those who are of opinion (e) that demons or evil angels were invested with certain material forms, wherein they snuffed up the perfumes, and feasted themselves upon the odours of the incense and sacrifices that were offered to them, have an easy way of solving this difficulty, by supposing that the smell of the burnt heart and liver of the fish was offensive to Asmodeus, even as they pretend, (f) that in some herbs, plants, stones, and other natural things, there is a certain virtue to drive away demons, and to hinder them from coming into such a determinate place. The Chaldeans, among whom the book of Tobit was wrote, and the Israelites, for whose use and instruction it was wrote, might both be of this opinion :-That demons, as not absolutely divested of all matter, were capable of the same sensations and impressions that belonged to corporeal substances; and therefore, in accommodation to the vulgar idea and prejudice of the people, the author of this history might express himself as though the expulsion of this evil spirit was effected by a natural cause, the smoke of the fish, even though at the same time he sufficiently intimates, that it was by a Divine power that it came to pass, because we find the angel thus enjoining Tobias, (g) "When thou shalt come to thy wife Sara, rise up both of you, and pray to God, who is merciful, who will pity you, and save you." Upon the contrary supposition, viz. that this demon was a being incorporeal, (and this is the supposition concerning the angelical nature which generally prevails) we may safely conclude, that the smoke of the fish's entrails could have no direct and physical effect upon him; that his fleeing away therefore was occasioned by a supernatural power, in the exercise of which, the angel, appointed to attend Tobias, was the principal instrument; (h) that he ordered the burning of the fish's entrails as a sign when the evil spirit, by his superior power, should be chased away; or, in the same sense that our blessed Saviour spread clay upon the eyes of the man that was born blind, and (a) Vid. Buxtorf, Synag. Jud. c. 10 Basnag. Hist. des Juif. lib. vi. c. 19. Orphei Hymn. ad. Musas. Plutarch, in Bruto. 1 Pet. v. 8. Matth. vii. 32, 33. Luke xiii. 11, 16. (c) Tobit v. 12. (d) Ibid. viii. 2. (e) Porphyr. de Abstin. lib. ii. (g) Tobit. vi. 17. (f) (h) Saurin's Dissert. sur le Demon Asmodée. (b) Rev. xx. 1, &c. Origen, cont. Cels. lib. viii. ordered him to wash in the pool of Siloah, viz. not as the cause, but the proof of his From 1 Kings cure; and that he sent him away (a)" into the uttermost parts of Egypt," i. e. into viii, to the end the desarts of the Upper Egypt, because our Saviour intimates, that such is the usual, habitation of evil spirits, when he represents them (b) "as walking through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none." However this be, we cannot hold ourselves concerned for the vindication of every expression in a book, which our church has not thought fit to receive into her canon of Scripture. It is sufficient for our present purpose, that the historical ground-plot of it be true, whatever may be said as to some particular passage in it; and though its figurative and poetical style, as well as near conformity to the theology then in vogue, may give some umbrage to a reader, that will not be so candid as to think with St Jerom, . (c) "Multa in Scripturis sanctis dicuntur juxta opinionem illius temporis, et non juxta quod Rei veritas continebat *". Whether the book of the law, which Hilkiah the high priest found in the house of (a) Tobit viii. 3. (b) Matth. xii. 43. [By much the greater part of this disquisition on the book of Tobit might have been well omitted. That book was never admitted into the canon of the Hebrew Scriptures by the Jews; nor is it to be found in the earliest and most authentic canons of the Christian church. That there was such a man as Tobit, carried captive with the rest of the tribe of Naphtali by Shalmaneser; that he was eminent for his piety and charity; that his wife, though a good woman, was not always obedient to her husband; that he became blind in the manner which is recorded, and had his sight restored by the means which are said to have been used for that purpose; and that his son married the daughter of Raguel of Ecbatana, after she had been betrothed to seven husbands, there is no reason to doubt; for not one of these events is contrary to the common course of nature. It is indeed very singular that seven young men should have successively perished on their attempting each to consummate his marriage; but such events were not, in themselves, impossible, and perhaps we may even conceive the cause by which they were effected. The whole story of Asmodeus and Raphael is certainly a piece of poetical machinery, invented for a similar purpose with that for which Homer introduces his gods and goddesses as taking opposite sides in the Trojan war, or for which the Persian poets introduce the agency of good and evil genii, in their beautiful moral allegories. It was to adapt the story to the taste of those for whose amusement and instruction it was written, who delighted in the marvellous, and on whose memory and imagination, a philosophical account of a singular event would have made no deep or lasting impression. To understand the story of Raphael and Asmodeus literally, as Calmet seems to have done, would be to prefer the authority of this beautiful oriental tale to that of the whole Hebrew Scriptures, in which I heartily agree with Bishop Horsley, that no countenance whatever is given to the popular doctrine of guardian angels. (c) Jerom in Jerem. c. xxviii. "This interpretation, says the bishop (a), introdu(a) Sermons, vol. ii. serm. xxix. 1st Ed. ces a system, which is in truth nothing better than the pagan polytheism, somewhat disguised and qualified; for in the pagan system every nation had its tutelary deity, all subordinate to Jupiter, the sire of gods and men. Some of those prodigies of ignorance and folly, the rabbins of the Jews, who lived since the dispersion of the nation, thought all would be well if for tutelar deities they substituted tutelar angels. From this substitution the system (of guardian angels) which I have described, arose; and from the Jews the Christians adopted it with other fooleries." But though the story of Raphael and Asmodeus must be considered as mere machinery, it does not by any means follow that the history itself—the detail of facts, is not entitled to great credit. No man of real learning, Mr Bryant alone excepted, has ever called in question, I believe, the great outlines of the Trojan war as drawn by Homer; though surely no man in this age hath believed, that the pestilence was sent among the Grecian troops by Apollo, for Agamemnon's cruelty to his injured priest, or that Diomed literally wounded the god of war, and sent him bellowing with pain to heaven! That there were such men however as Agamemnon and Diomed; that the former was the commander of the confederate Greeks, and the latter one of their most accomplished heroes ; and that in the tenth year of the war, great numbers of the army were cut off by some pestilential disease, which the medical knowledge of Machaon did not enable him to cure, it would be unreasonable to doubt. And would it not be equally unreasonable to doubt the historical facts related in the book of Tobit, though we do not interpret literally his oriental machinery? or on account of that machinery to neglect the moral lessons with which it abounds, and affect to despise the beautiful simplicity of the tale? As a moral tale founded in fact, it ought undoubtedly to be received; as such it appears to have been alluded to by Polycarp (b) early in the second century; and there is not the smallest reason to believe that its author ever expected it to be received as a work of a higher order.] (b) See his Epistle to the Philippians, chap. x. Wake's translation. of 2 Chron. |