Experimental investigation of the spirit manifestations, [electronic ...

RELIGIOUS ERRORS OF MR. MAIIAN. 401WO have takon nolico boforo, as woll as tlio iiitorvcntion of tlio prophet,with a prcdiclioii in the hcnirinp; of tlic iiiultitudo, at tlio time wlicn Jeroboamwas olVering sacrifice, ' That one of the race of David, Josiah byiiaiiio, was to do this.' The prediction was verified, by the event, threehundred and fift^'-onc years after it was foretold.1048. ** 80 ardent was the zeal of Josiah for extending the great workof reformation, that he went in person to several of the Israelites who hadescaped the Assyrian bondngc, in order to dissuade them from continuingin superstition, and prevail with them to embrace the pure religion of theirforefathers, according to the long established custom of their country.did he rest here, but caused the towns and villages to be searched for thediscovery of any remains of idolatrous practices that might lie concealed.The very figures of the horses over the porch of the temple, which theirforefathers had dedicated to the sun, and all the monuments to which thepeople liad ascribed divine honour, were, by his special order, taken awayand destroyed.1949. '' Having thus purged the whole nation from idolatry, and fullyrestored the true worship of the one only and true God, he called an assemblyof the people at Jerusalem, for the purpose of celebrating thepassover, the time for that festival being near at hand. On this occasionthe king gave out of his own store, for paschal sacrifices, thirty goats, athousand lambs, and three thousand oxen. The heads of the priests presentedto the others of the sacerdotal order two thousand six hundredlambs, and the chief of the Levites gave to their tribes five thousandNorlambs, and five hundred oxen. A solemn sacrifice was made of thesevictims, according to the precepts of Moses, and the ceremony was performedunder the direction of the priests. From the time of the prophetSamuel to that day, there had never been a festival celebrated with equalsolemnity ; for this had the allowed preference, because the whole wasconducted in strict conformity to the very letter of the laws, and the precisemode of their forefathers. Josiah, after the accomplishment of a workof such moment and importance to the nation in general, enjoyed his governmentin honour, peace, and plenty, till he closed his life.'''—Book 10,page 153.If the Pentateuch had heeii previously Icnoion to the JewSj it is incredihlethat it could have hccome obsolete and forgotten prior to the allegeddiscovery of it in the Temjylcj in the reign of Josiah.1950. After the Pentateuch had been viewed as the word of God, madeknown to a people as their peculiar inheritance, lifting them, in their ownestimation, above the rest of mankind, as God's chosen people, this codebeing the sole authority for their bloody and rapacious course toward theirneighbours, is it credible that such a document, had it ever existed, couldhave become both obsolete and forgotten ?* Yet we have no alternative* It is a remarkable fact that, although in later times the Jews have been so frequentlynamed after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it does not appear to have been customary duringthe time which intervened between the supposed era of Moses and that of the finding ofthe Pentateuch in the temple.This serves to show that the Pentateuch is a fabrication of the priesthood and KingJosiah.26