_Answ._ 1. The answer that may be given to this objection, that the apostle Paul, when he says, _three and twenty thousand died_, or fell, _in one day_, speaks of those who died by the immediate hand of God, by the pestilential distemper that was sent among them; but, besides these, there were many more that died by the hand of public justice for this sin; for in that chapter in Numbers, verse 4 and 5. we read of the _heads of the people being hanged up before the Lord, and the judges being ordered to slay every man his men that were joined unto Baal-peor_. These died by the sword of justice, and it is no great impropriety to say, that such died in a mediate way, by the plague, or sword of God; the sword is one of his plagues, as well as pestilential diseases, and is frequently so styled in scripture: now we cannot suppose that fewer died of this latter plague, if that be the import of the word, than a thousand; so that Moses gives the number of all that died, whether by God’s immediate hand, or by the sword of the magistrate, pursuant to his command: but if it be reckoned too great a strain upon the sense of the word plague, to admit of this solution, let it be farther observed, that, in the 9th verse, where Moses gives the sum total of those that died, it is not said that they were such who died _of_ the plague, but _in_ the plague; that is, those that died in or soon after the time that the plague raged among them, whose death was occasioned by this sin, were _four and twenty thousand_; so that these two places of scripture are so far from contradicting, that they rather illustrate one another. _Object._ 6. Another contradiction is pretended to be between Gal. i. 8. where the apostle says, _Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed_; 2 Cor. xi. 4. _If he that cometh, preacheth another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him._ In one place he speaks against those who preach another gospel; in the other he says, they may be borne with; which seems to be a contradiction. _Answ._ For the reconciling and accounting for the sense of these two scriptures, let us consider, that in the former of them the apostle pronounces them that preached another gospel accursed, and therefore, doubtless, they were not to be borne with, or allowed of; therefore it must be enquired what he means when he says, in the other scripture, that such may be well borne with; now this scripture will, without the least strain or force upon the words, admit of one of these two senses.