Angel's Work. In one of the letters of Robertson,
of Brighton, he tells of a lady who related to him
" the delight, the tears of gratitude which she had
witnessed in a poor girl to whom, in passing, I gave
a kind look on going out of church on Sunday.
What a lesson ! How cheaply happiness can be
given ! What opportunities we miss of doing an
angel's work! I remember doing it, full of sad
feelings, passing on, and thinking no more about it ;
and it gave an hour's sunshine to a human life, and
lightened the load of life to a human heart for a
time!" If even a look can do so much, who shall
estimate the power of kind or unkind words in
making married life happy or miserable ? In the
home circle more than anywhere else
" Words are mighty, words are living :
_ Serpents with their venomous stings,
Or bright angels, crowding round us,
With heaven's light upon their wings :
Every word has its own spirit,
True or false that never dies ;
Every word man's lips have uttered
Echoes in God's skies."
TREATISE,
fyc.
ON THE RECORDS OF THE CREATION.
Mundum esse conspicimus, Deura esse credimtis ; quod autem Dens
mundum fecerit, nulli tutins confidiraus, quam ipsi Deo.
August, de Civ. Dei.
A
TREATISE
ON THE
RECORDS OF THE CREATION,
AM) ON THE
MORAL ATTRIBUTES OF THE CREATOR;
WITH
PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE JEWISH HISTORY,
AND
TO THE CONSISTENCY OF THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION WITH
THE WISDOM AND GOODNESS OF THE DEITY.
BY JOHN BIRD SUMNER, D.D.
LORD BISHOP OF CHESTER.
FIFTH EDITION.
LONDON :
J. HATCH ARD AND SON, 187, PICCADILLY.
MDCCCXXXIII.
LONDON :
IBOTSON AVI) I'AIMIU, I-IIIVIIIO, S 4 VO V M II I I'l , SI I! A VI).
Stacfl
Annex
5017438
PREFACE.
SEVERAL years ago, Mr. Burnett, a Scottish
gentleman, among other instances of distinguish-
ed munificence, which have rendered it imprac-
ticable to comply with his own earnest wish of
keeping his name concealed,* bequeathed pre-
miums of the sums of twelve hundred and four
hundred pounds, for two Treatises upon the fol-
lowing subject : " The Evidence that there is a
Being all-powerful, wise, and good, by whom
every Thing exists ; and particularly to obviate
Difficulties regarding the Wisdom and the Good-
* A more detailed memoir of this gentleman has been
prepared by Dr. Brown, Professor of Divinity, and Princi-
pal of Marischal College in Aberdeen ; and is prefixed to his
Treatise on the same subject, to which the premium of twelve
hundred pounds was adjudged.
vi PREFACE.
ness of the Deity ; and this in the first place,
from Considerations independent of written
Revelation ; and in the second place, from the
Revelation < u i>**0: and from the
whole, to point out the Inferences most neces-
sary for, and useful to Mankind." The Minis-
ters of the established Church, and the Principals
and Professors of King's and Marischal colleges
of Aberdeen, and the Trustees of the Testator,
were appointed to nominate three Judges who
should decide upon the comparative merits of
the Treatises that might be laid before them with
sealed mottos, by the 1st of January 1814.
In this liberality the following Treatise origi-
nated, to which the premium of 400/. was
awarded by the judges chosen according to the
instructions of the Testator ; namely the late
Professor Gerard, whose death the university
has since had to lament, and Professors Hamil-
ton and (ilcnnic, <>f Aberdeen.
PREFACE. Vii
The first view of the subject thus proposed
for consideration, presents the appearance of a
country, every spot of which is appropriated
and pre-occupied. The EVIDENCES of religion,
it is true, were not the earliest objects of British
theology. The great divines who led the Re-
formation, and those who followed their steps
during the first half of the succeeding century,
were chiefly employed in clearing the majestic
fabric of Christianity, from the weeds and rub-
bish by which it had been so long obscured.
Attention is first due to those within the
Church : it was, therefore, for some time a suf-
ficient labour to extricate the true doctrines of
the ' from the errors which had long
overrun them : and when a right faith had been
once laid as a foundation, and an Apostolical
worship established, to raise upon it that pure
and holy practice which is its fit and proper
ornament, instead of that lax and compromising
morality which is the decisive condemnation of
viii PKEFACI..
the church of Rome, and the inveterate scandal
of its professors.
When, however, the genius of this illustri-
ous age had set up the Protestant faith, and
the rule of life belonging to it on an immoveable
basis, the attention was naturally directed, in
the next place, to those without the pale of
Christianity. Accordingly its agreement in all
points, with the universal tenets of natural
religion ; the insufficiency, at the same time, of
natural religion both to inform and to sanction ;
the acquaintance we derive from reason with
the Creator and his attributes, and the confor-
mity of the appearance of the universe with
the conclusions at which reason arrives : these
subjects of perpetual interest have called forth
talents worthy of their importance, and have
received an accession of light from learning,
genius, and industry, through the successive
generations of Stillingfleet, Clarke, Butler,
Warburton, ;ni<l Palcv.
PREFACE. IX
If it is hopeless to look out for a vacant spot in
a district so fully occupied, the next object is to
fix upon ground which stands most in need of
farther cultivation.* This view of the subject
determined me, among the various lines of ar-
gument which all tend to the same point, to rest
my principal evidence of the existence of the
Creator, upon the credibility of the Mosaic re-
cords of the creation. Neither does it appear
that the most unanswerable argument, or irre-
fragable demonstration, can produce a convic-
tion at all comparable to that which arises from
a firm belief that the fact in question has been
made known to us by revelation.
I am aware that it may be urged as an ob-
jection to this plan, that it carries us away
* When the plan of this work was arranged, and the first
part of it written, Dr. Graves's learned Discourses on the
Pentateuch had not appeared ; nor Dr. Ireland's equally able
Lectures on < .> Paganism compared.
X PREFACE.
from NATURAL theology. But, if it does so,
we are only following- the course to which the
subject itself must lead every reflecting mind.
That there is a Creator,
All Nature cries aloud in all her works ;
but Nature, though she always proclaimed the
same truth, yet spoke in vain to the sages of
antiquity, who either altogether failed to in-
terpret her language, or suffered the still whisper
of " Divine Philosophy" to be lost amidst the
various bustle of the world. It is true, we
understand astronomy better than Thales or
Pythagoras, and natural history and anatomy
better than Aristotle or Galen : the treatises
of Ray, or Derham, or Paley, could not have
been written two thousand years ago : but the
ancients, imperfect as their sciences were, knew
more than enough of the harmony and design
of the universe, to draw out an unanswerable
argument from final causes : and, in point of fact,
PREFACE. XI
they did draw out both that and other argu-
ments so far as to leave us indisputable proof
that the God of NATURAL THEOLOGY will never
be any thing* more than the dumb idol of
philosophy : neglected by the philosopher himself,
and unknown to the multitude ; acknowledged
in the closet, and forgotten in the world.
The real use of Natural Theology to our-
selves, is to show the strong probability of that
being true which revelation declares. For,
when Natural Theology has told all her story,
the reasonable question presses us still, Has,
then, the Creator, whose existence you point
out so clearly, maintained no communication
with this visible emanation of his power ? Has
he revealed no commands, and prescribed no
worship to the human race ? Then he remains
the inactive deity of philosophic theism :* the
* The doctrine of Socrates affords the only material ex-
ception .
XI 1 I'UEFACE.
indifferent spectator of the crimes, the virtue,
the cares, and the sorrows of mankind :
Who sees with equal eyes, as God of a 11 ,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall ;
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.
The truth is, however, that to descend from
the height to which we have been gradually
raised by Revelation, and argue still upon the
level of unassisted reason, would be impossible
if it were desirable, and unprofitable even if
it were possible. It would be impossible, be-
cause the rays of knowledge which Revela-
tion has generally diffused will imperceptibly
penetrate, however thick a veil we may choose
to spread before our eyes : and it would be un-
profitable, because, as I have already hinted,
philosophy may silence atheism, but will never
command practical obedience, or inspire prac-
tical devotion.*
* " The bounds of this knowledge are, that it sufficeth to
convince atheism, but not to inform religion ; and therefore
PREFACE. Xlii
Where Reason, however, leaves us, Revela-
tion takes us up ; and furnishes us with a record
of the creation, preserved by the wisdom, and
authenticated by the power, of the Creator :
although it has sometimes been fashionable to at-
tack , as Paley expresses it, through
the sides of Judaism, it will, I trust, appear to a
candid inquirer, no less morally impossible for
the early Hebrew writings to have been forged,
than for the r , itself to have been fabri-
cated by its first teachers : and a difficulty no
less inexplicable to account for the existence of
the Jewish law and religion, independently of
the facts which are attested in the Penta-
teuch ; than for the promulgation of '
, independently of the miracles and re-
there was never miracle wrought by God to convert an athe-
ist, because the light of nature might have led him to confess
a God ; but miracles have been wrought to convert idolaters
and the superstitious, because no light of nature exteudeth
to declare the will and true worship of God." Bacon's
Advancement of Learning.
XIV PREFACE.
surrection of the Messiah. To bring into
popular view the nature and extent of this ar-
gument, is the principal object of the first of
the following volumes.
In the second volume I have endeavoured
to obviate those difficulties regarding the
wisdom and goodness of the Creator, which
arise from the existence of physical and moral
evil. These difficulties have been deemed im-
portant by reflecting persons in all ages :
and some superficial writers, though professing
to acknowledge the Power and Intelligence
displayed in the creation, have ventured to
blaspheme the MORAL attributes of the Deity, on
the ground of the guilt and ignorance, the
poverty and wretchedness, with which the world
abounds.
But the subject has been made still more in-
teresting, since it has been recently and clearly
PREFACE. XV
proved, that the greater part of these evils are
the necessary consequence of a cause universally
operating, viz. the natural tendency of mankind
to increase in a quicker ratio than their subsis-
tence. So that it becomes almost hopeless to
expect any material diminution of the degree of
evil actually existing ; and the imputation may
now appear to attach upon the divine ordi-
nances, which was formerly cast upon acci-
dental inconveniences, or human institutions.
On this account it seemed peculiarly desirable
to inquire, if possible, into the final cause of
that provision for replenishing the world, which
is known to be so universally active, and has
engaged of late years so much attention ; and
to show that the present and actual state of the
world is not only consistent with the wisdom
and goodness of God, but affords perpetual tes-
timony of both.
In the prosecution of this attempt, I have
XVI 1'HKFACK.
not ventured to take the Christian Revelation
as the groundwork of my argument, because,
that being- granted, any treatise upon the
divine attributes would be superfluous : at the
same time I should consider it equally absurd
and unprofitable to argue in this age, and in this
country, as if we were really as much in the
dark respecting the counsels of God, or the ob-
ject of man's existence, as Socrates or Cicero.
The experiment of vindicating the moral ad-
ministration of the universe without the help
of a future state, has been sufficiently tried.
The necessity of general laws, or the inevitable
consequences of human liberty, or the degrees of
perfection of possible worlds, may serve by turns
to exercise, or amuse, or perplex the reasoning
powers of a few philosophers. But something
more satisfactory must confute the sceptic :
something more consolatory must soothe the nf-
flicted : something more irresistible must arm the
moralist. It i^ easy for a philosophical Emperor
PREFACE. XV11
to exclaim " O world, all things are suitable to
me which are suitable to thee. Nothing is too
early or too late for me which is seasonable for
thee. All is fruit to me which thy seasons bring
forth. From thee are all things ; in thee are
all things ; for thee are all things." But the
voice of the multitude will still reply : Why
must our poverty contribute to another's pros-
perity ? Why must Epictetus be depressed, that
Epaphroditus may be elevated ? Cannot Omni-
potence provide general good, except at the
expense of individual misery ?
The truth is, that Reason and Revelation
mutually support and assist each other in con-
templating the justice and goodness of the
Deity, no less than in ascertaining the fact of
the creation. If we look to this world alone,
we see indisputable benevolence, and are con-
vinced ; we see indisputable evil, and are con-
founded. We argue, that, " if there's a power
VOL. i. c
Xviii PREFACE.
above us, he must delight in virtue ; and that
which he delights in, must be happy ;" but the
question still recurs, does not the actual ap-
pearance of the world disprove this rational
conclusion ?
On this account, it was a sound and excellent
judgment, which directed that the attributes of
the Deity should be treated of, " in the first
place, from considerations independent of writ-
ten Revelation ; and in the second place, from
the Revelation of Natural
reason conducts us to the doors of the temple ;
but he, who would penetrate farther, and be-
hold in their just proportions the greatness and
majesty of the Deity within, must consent to be
led by Revelation. No other guide can enter
the sanctuary in which he resides, or read the
book in which His counsels are written. In-
deed, I feel, that in pursuing those counsels
through the intricate paths of natural and moral
PREFACE. XIX
evil, though with the light of Revelation before
me, I have sometimes ventured upon dangerous
ground. But wherever sceptics dare to tread,
the firm believer of Revelation need not be
afraid to follow ; in full confidence that every
just research into the laws by which the moral
man is regulated, as well as every fresh dis-
covery in the constitution of the natural world,
will tend eventually to illustrate the majesty of
that Being, whose eternal counsels direct the
whole, and from whom the will and the power
to search out those counsels ultimately proceed.
c 2
CONTENTS
OF
THE FIRST VOLUME.
PART I.
CHAP. I.
On the Opinion of the Eternity of the World. (Page 1.)
Preliminary Observations.
Statement of the Opinion of the Eternity of the World.
Metaphysical Objections of that Opinion, from the Nature
of universal Substance; from the existence of Motion;
and from the Nature of necessary Existence.
CHAP. II.
On the Opinion which ascribes the Formation of the
World to Chance. (Page 21.)
Statement of Epicurus's Cosmogony.
Its Contradiction to Reason and Experience.
Chance never called in by natural Philosophers to account
for Phaenomena. Instance from the Strata of the Earth
and Saltness of the Sea, &c.
Conclusion as to the Effect of the Argument from final
Causes.
XX11 CONTENTS.
CHAP. III. SECT. I.
On the Probability that some Account of the Creation
would be revealed and preserved. (Page 32.)
Statement of the Reasons for that Probability.
Mosaic History.
Collateral Testimony to its Truth.
Its internal Evidence unobjectionable ; and therefore in-
sisted on in the following Argument.
Preliminary Inquiries as to the Nature of the History, and
its Origin from Revelation and Tradition.
Collateral Evidence in favour of original Revelation, from
the Nature of Language : from the slow Progress of the
Arts : from the agricultural State described by Moses.
Nothing improbable in the Idea of original Revelation.
CHAP. III. SECT II.
The Object of the Hebrew Polity. (Page 58.)
Its avowed Intention to maintain the Worship of the Creator.
Proof from the Decalogue ; and from the Institution of the
Sabbath.
Argument from the Establishment of such a civil Polity.
CHAP. III. SECT. III.
Peculiarity of the Design of the Hebrew Polity. ( P . 70.)
Plan of other Legislators.
Lycurgus and Solon : Romulus and Numa, compared with
Moses : their religious Rites the Effect of Policy.
CONTENTS. XX111
Zaleucus : inferior to Moses in Tone of Authority.
Miraculous Interpositions appealed to throughout the Law.
Antiquity of the Law. Absurdity of the contrary Opinion,
from the Impossibility of assigning any period to its Intro-
duction, on other Grounds ; and from the Nature of its
Enactments.
Recapitulation.
CHAP. III. SECT. IV.
Peculiar Sanction of the Mosaic Law. (Page 100.)
Moses relies on divine Interposition.
Duration of the civil Polity dependent on the Allegiance of
the People to the Worship of the Creator.
Punishment of Slavery threatened to Disobedience. Mode
of averting that Punishment.
Contrary to the Course of human Affairs.
Rewards promised.
Comparison of Mahomet.
Extraordinary Providence necessary, under the Mosaic In-
stitutions ; as the Sabbath, sabbatical Year, 8cc.
Proved by subsequent Events of the History.
This Necessity foreseen by Moses.
Peculiar Provisions of the Jewish Law confirmed by colla-
teral Testimony.
Conclusion from the Peculiarity of its Design and Sanctions.
CHAP. III. SECT. V.
On the Religious Opinions of the Hebrews. (Page 134.)
Inquiry as to their Superiority over those of other Nations.
Universal Belief among the Hebrews of the Existence of one
XXIV CONTENTS.
omnipotent Creator. Different Case of other ancient
People.
Hebrew Literature : confined to sacred Subjects ; and con-
taining sublime Descriptions of the Attributes, &c.
Comparison of these with heathen Hymns. Orpheus.
Isaiah. Fragment of Euripedes. 102d Psalm. Hymn
of Cleanthes. Extract from Book of Wisdom. Mytho-
logical Hymns. Carmina Ssecularia.
Concluding Remarks.
CHAP. III. SECT. VI.
On the national Worship of the Hebrews. (Page 161.)
National Worship an important Test.
General Errors of the ancient Philosophers, and Multi-
tude.
Idolatry. Forbidden to the Jews.
National Worship of Greece. Chorus from the CEdipus
of Sophocles. Roman Superstition. Serpent brought
from Epidaurus. Erection of the Statue of Jupiter dur-
ing the Catilinarian Conspiracy. Contrast of the Jewish
Worship. Solomon's Dedication of Temple. Heze-
kiah's Prayer. Belief retained throughout the whole Jew-
ish History.
CHAP. III. SECT. VII.
On the Principles of Hebrew Mora lily. (Page 184.)
I. Authority assumed by Moses as to Virtues of imperfect
Obligation. The Welfare of the State was the sole Ob-
ject of heathen Legislation. Consequent Purity of the
Jewish Morality.
CONTENTS. XXV
II. Infanticide at Sparta, and generally in Greece, &c.
Forbidden to the Jews, in consistency with their Views of
the Creator.
III. Motives of Jewish Morality, the divine Favour or Dis-
pleasure
IV. Humanity prescribed by the Jewish Law, in Conformity
with the same Principles. Treatment of Slaves and Stran-
gers, compared with other nations.
Argument arising from this Difference.
CHAP. III. SECT. VIII. and IX.
On the Causes to which the Superiority of the Mosaic
Theology may be referred.
SECT. VIII.
Whether Moses could have invented the Doctrine he
taught concerning the Creation. (Page 217.)
Belief of a Creator agreeable to Reason, but not discovered
by it. Polytheism of the Ancients. Not dispelled by
the Philosophers. None of them taught a rational Sys-
tem.
Sublime Passages from Plato and others. Difference be-
tween the Philosophers and Moses examined. 1. Their
Ignorance of the Personality of the Deity. This De-
fect inherent in the System of Pythagoras and the Stoics :
and of Aristotle. Practical Consequences of such an Error.
II. Socrates. His Superiority. But his Doctrine not
applicable to an Account of the Creation. Plato's Belief
XXVI CONTENTS.
of the independent Existence of Matter. The Clearness
of the Views of Moses compared.
No Arguments unknown to the Philosophers, which could
have convinced Moses of the Unity. Argument from final
Causes clearly understood by Socrates and his Disciples.
Argument from the Necessity of a First Cause used by
Aristotle. Positive Conviction of Moses.
Difference between the Doctrine of the Philosophers and of
Moses acknowledged by the Converts to Christianity.
Improvement in the Doctrines of Philosophy as the Scrip-
tures became known.
Concluding Remarks.
SECT. IX.
Moses neither received his Doctrine of the Creation from
the Egyptians, nor from the popular belief of the Is-
raelites. (Page 263.)
I. Egyptian Doctrines. Crossness of their Idolatry. Eso-
teric Belief of their Priests. Its inconsistency. Mistaken
Ideas of Egyptian Superiority.
Reserve of the Egyptian Priests, as to their Doctrine.
Immortality of the Soul.
II. Difficulty of accounting for the Existence of a pure
Belief among the Israelites, except from original Revela-
tion.
Their State Pastoral : that State unfavourable to Literature.
Proofs. Unhesitating Declaration of Moses. Couclusiv
Argument arising from it.
Recapitulation of the whole Evidence. Absurd Conse-
quences of rejecting it, deduced from the Peculiarities of
CONTENTS. XXV11
the Hebrew History and Law. The Evidence amounts to
moral Certainty.
CHAP. IV.
Conclusions from the foregoing Argument. (Page 297.)
Recapitulation of the demonstrative, analogical, and his-
torical Argument. Question considered, whether the
Evidence is such as ought to influence the Practice of Man-
kind. Nature of demonstrative Evidence. Its narrow Ex-
tent. Different Provinces of several Sorts of Evidence.
Their Application distinct. Question, as to the Liability to
Error. No Species of Evidence free from such Liability.
Probable Evidence of most general Importance in human
Life. Obligation it imposes. Our usual Confidence in it.
Instances ; as Voyage of Columbus. Conclusion.
APPENDIX.
No. I.
That the Mosaic History is not inconsistent with geological
Discoveries. (Page 321.)
Introductory Remarks, as to the Objections to the Autho-
rity of the Pentateuch.
Statement of the real Question as to Geology.
Character of the Mosaic Records.
Outline of the Mosaic Account of the Creation.
Results of geological Researches.
XXV111 CONTENTS.
Evidence of the Deluge universal and indisputable. Mosaic
Account of the Extent of that Catastrophe. Subterra-
neous Fire, the probable Agent. Traces of such Agency.
Alternate Revolutions supposed by Cuvier.
Concluding Remarks on geological Hypotheses.
No. II.
On the Descent of Mankind from a single Pair. (P. 342.)
Statement of the Objection.
Question examined by Analogy. Varieties among brute
Animals ; the same in Degree and Kind as those in the
human Race.
Causes of them : Climate, Domestication, Food, &c.
The effect of these Causes on Man, considered.
Climate alone insufficient to produce the Varieties of Com-
plexion
Known Effect of local Causes : and Instances.
Effect of the Reverse of those Circumstances. Instances of
gradual Approximation towards the European Feature and
Complexion. On the Perpetuation of Varieties : how far
favoured in the early Ages of the World.
No Advantage gained by the Hypothesis of Different Species.
No. III.
On the Authenticity and Antiquity of the Pentateuch.
(Page 379.)
Proof from Style.
Brief View of the principal Objections.
Argument from the Samaritan Pentateuch.
TREATISE,
PART I.
ON THE EVIDENCES OF A CREATION.
CHAPTER I.
On the Opinion of the Eternity of the World.
IT appeared to Hume that Milton has justly
represented Adam, when rising- at once, in
Paradise, and in the full perfection of his senses,
as astonished at the glorious appearances of
nature, the heaven, the air, the earth, his own
organs and members ; and led by the contempla-
tion of them to ask, whence this wonderful
scene arose?* And it is somewhat curious,
* Natural History of Religion, sect. 1.
VOL. I. B
2 ON THE ETERNITY
that an ancient philosopher, in a well-known
passage of similar tendency, has furnished us
with the answer which the scene would suggest
to him : " If it were possible that persons who
had long lived in subterraneous habitations, and
had enjoyed only a vague report of the existence
and power of the gods, should suddenly emerge
into the light and lustre of the world we inha-
bit, they would no sooner behold the earth,
and sea, and sky, or understand the regular
order of the seasons and the vastness of the
heavenly bodies, than they would at once
acknowledge both the existence of superior
powers, and that these wonders were of their
creation."*
This seems reasonable ; and yet if it is so,
whence comes Atheism? and why have not
these wonders uniformly had the effect of lead-
* Quoted by Cicero, Nat. Deor. ii. 37; as if from Aris-
totle. If the fragment were really from a work of Aristotle,
it could not originally have been intended to convey his own
sentiments.
OF THE WORLD. O
ing mankind to the discovery and contemplation
of the Supreme Being-?
It may afford some explanation of this, to
observe, that mankind do not rise like Adam,
in Paradise, in the full perfection of their
faculties. The magnificent fabric of the uni-
verse which is before our eyes from our infancy,
and gradually comprehended as the intellect
expands, loses its effect upon the mind ; but
would strike us with irresistible conviction, if
all the beauty, variety, and regularity of the
world opened upon us at once, when the powers
of the understanding were capable of appre-
ciating them. To a certain degree, this may
account for the indifference with which mankind
in all ages have been apt to survey the wonderful
scene around them, and their relation to its
Author.
There are many ages during which we have
little record left of the progress of the human
mind. But according to the earliest writings
we have received from Greece, the country
B 2
4 ON THE ETERNITY
with which we are best acquainted, it does not
appear that for a length of time, the beings
which were termed Gods were considered other-
wise than as parts of the general system ; or
that any notion had been attained of a Creator,
upon whose fiat the universe depended. Nor
ought we to wonder that men, in that rude
period of civilization, should not have been
led to form rational ideas of a Creator from
the works of the creation ; it is an inference
which the great mass of mankind would never
draw, if left to their own reflections. Simple
as the analogical reasoning from effect to cause,
from contrivance to a contriver, may seem,
still it is reasoning, and, as such, it is the busi-
ness of a mind in some degree improved, and
abstracted from sensible objects. In the first
stages of society there are no such minds ; and
it is no more surprising that, by the great
body of mankind in every age, the world
is seen and inhabited without exciting awe
and admiration, than that a peasant who finds
himself placed by the fortune of his birth in
any particular country, should be little solicit-
OF THE WORLD. O
ous about its history, antiquity, or earliest
founders.
As soon, however, as the progress of civili-
zation had improved reason, and given oppor-
tunity for reflection, the existence and origin
of the world presented the first and most in-
teresting object of inquiry. The earliest sages
that we hear of as engaged at all in philoso-
phical speculation, turned their attention to
physics, and the explanation of the appearance
of the natural world.* It was then that the
question was first started, How, at whose order,
and to what end, this universe derived its form
and being : a question which proved the most
fruitful theme of disputation among the ancient
philosophers ; which even in the dark ages,
however frivolous the perplexities to which it
gave rise, still served to keep alive the spark
of ratiocination ; and which, since the revival
of literature, has employed alike the pen of
* See Adam Smith's account of this, Wealth of Nations
vol. iii. book v. chap. 1. Also Stewart's Essays, Prelim.
Dissert, xxiii.
ON THE ETERNITY
authors most distinguished for wit and learning,
for genius and logical precision.
To this interesting problem, one of the three
following answers must necessarily be returned :
I. Either the world must have existed from
eternity the same ;
II. Or it was formed by chance, at some
unassigned period, out of pre-existing mate-
rials ;
III. Or it was created by an omnipotent
and intelligent Being.
The two first of these opinions it will be
enough to glance at very slightly. It seems
to be now both generally and justly considered,
that what can be done by metaphysics, upon
this great subject, has already been done so
completely, as to leave little for these later days
except the repetition of points which have been
long ago established, or the gleaning of argu-
ments which earlier disputants abandoned as
not worth taking. The great difference between
OF THE WORLD. 7
metaphysical and moral reasoning is, that the
former is a mine that is quickly exhausted, while
the latter is continually deriving- fresh supplies
from the progressive advance of our physical
or historical researches. The question as to
the eternity of the world, however, is strictly
metaphysical, and can only be met by meta-
physical arguments ; as such, therefore, I should
leave it altogether in the powerful hands of
Locke, and Clarke, and Wollaston, if it did not
stand in the way of a more consistent and rational
belief, and on that account require some short
consideration.
Whether we adopt the Egyptian or Mosaic
chronology ; whether we suppose our globe to
be six million or six thousand years old, it is
of all truths that depend upon reason the most
obvious, that something must have existed from
eternity. Perhaps this is the only truth esta-
blished by metaphysics which no sophist has
been subtle or hardy enough to impugn. It is
not, therefore, surprising, that the apparent
simplicity of supposing the world itself to have
8 ON THE ETERNITY
been that eternal thing, should have disposed
philosophers to the early adoption of such a
tenet. It was, in fact, an extensive opinion
among- the ancients, and has been the chief
resource of modern atheists.
In the statement of the system there are
some shades of difference. Aristotle, for exam-
ple, whilst he held that the world was neither
produced, nor is capable of corruption, but is
one and everlasting, acknowledged, at the same
time, the necessity of some intervening power,
to give motion to that which is itself inert and
immovable. The generality of the followers*
of this system, however, have maintained, in
the words of the ancient philosopher, that GW,t
t/w active and efficient cause, and matter, are so
essentially united, as to be one and the same ; or,
* Ocellus Lucanus, if his jargon deserves the name of
system: Zeno afterwards more clearly; who was followed,
with some shades of verbal difference, by the Eleatics and
i'< ripatetics : Pliny, lib. ii. cap. 1, very explicitly : and Spi-
noza, \vifh most of the modern atheists.
i Diog. Lacrt. lib. vii.
OF THE WORLD. 9
according 1 to his modern disciple,* that there is
only one substance in nature, endued with infinite
attributes, and, amongst them, with extension
and thought.
The present age does not so much require
to be set free from error, as to be reminded of
truth. We should be ill employed in dragging
from their obscurity the doctrines of Spinoza,
in order to employ against them at any length
the arguments by which the reasoners of his
own time either demonstrated the falsehood of
his premises, or the absurdity of his conclu-
sions.-}- Professing to clear from its difficulties
the received system of theology, he introduced
his own with axioms which shock our reason,
and directly oppose our natural judgment. J
It will only be necessary to hint concisely at a
few of the absurd conclusions to which his
* Spinoza. See Bayle, vol. v. p. 299.
f Particularly Clarke, in answer to Spinoza ; and Sykes
on Natural and Revealed Religion, in answer to Toland,
who adopted the same system, under the title of The Pan-
theistic Scheme.
t Bayle, vol. v. p. 212.
10 ON THE ETERNITY
principles lead, in order to show that we are
justified in looking farther than the hypothesis
of the world's eternity for a satisfactory explana-
tion of its present existence.
I. The notion which our senses present to
us respecting the world, leads us to consider
it as consisting of an infinite number of parts,
subservient, perhaps, to one another, and to
a certain degree mutually dependent, but still,
as existences, perfectly and essentially dis-
tinct; collected, as a number of individuals
may be collected together ; but not united, as
the members of the same individual. Those,
however, who argue for the eternity of the
world, comprehend all this infinite variety of
parts, in one sole, universal, and eternal substance.
If by substance they here understand merely
the imaginary support of the numerous attri-
butes and qualities which are found in the world,
substance is manifestly not a real existence, but
an abstract term ; of which, as it has no arche-
type in nature, it is impossible for us to form
any accurate or definite idea.
OF THE WORLD. 11
But the system involves, at least, this ab-
surdity ; that whatever can be affirmed or
denied of any of the parts of this compound
substance, must be affirmed or denied of the
whole ; and, whatever can be suffered or felt
by any of the parts, must be felt and suffered
by the whole ; must equally effect God and
man, bodies organized or unorganized, animate
or inanimate matter. Such consequences could
never be admitted by any reasonable being ;
and such premises could never have been laid
down, except under shelter of the ambiguities
of language, which sometimes renders sub-
stance an abstract term, coined for the conve-
nience of the understanding, and sometimes
gives it a real existence as body.*
II. When, however, we have proceeded so
far as to conceive the universe as one individual
substance, the attributes with which it must
* This remark is sufficiently justified by the observation of
Hobbes so frequently quoted : " Incorporeal substance, are
words, which, when joined together, destroy each other."
An observation, solely founded on the ambiguity of the word
substance.
12 ON THE ETERNITY
be endowed will be no less embarrassing than
its first existence. For, it is too plain to be
denied, that whatever we find to exist, must
be derived from the independent Being that
existed from eternity. It follows, that this
independent Being must either have possessed
in himself whatever exists, or must have had
the power of producing it. We find, however,
sense and motion to exist ; and if that eternal
thing is the world itself, there is no other
source to which we can refer the origin of sense
and motion.
Now, without attempting to define matter or
mind, and only taking the evidence of our
senses for the existence of the former, it is
surely safe to affirm that we find in ourselves,
and observe in other animals, in some in an
equal, in others in an inferior degree, a power
of sensation and reflection, and a power of
moving ourselves and other things. We find
in the world other bodies, which are to all ap-
pearance entirely without the sensitive or re-
flecting power, and are certainly incapable
OF THE WORLD. 13
of spontaneous motion. It has, therefore, been
pretty generally concluded, that animals en-
dued with these qualities, owe their superiority
over the other bodies which are without them,
and which we term inanimate, to the exclusive
possession of an immaterial substance, which
philosophers have called spirit ; and that there
are, in fact, two sorts of being's in the world,
cogitative and incogitative, corporeal and spi-
ritual.
This difference is altogether denied by those
who assert the universe to be one substance.
" The same matter," they affirm,* " crystallizes
in the mineral, vegetates in the plant, lives
and is organized in the brute, feels, thinks,
and reasons in man. Thoughts and sentiments
proceed from peculiar distributions of atoms
in the human brain ; and as necessarily result
* Academical Questions, p. 251, et seq. : a book, of which
the precise object is not declared; but in which the old
atheistic and sceptical arguments are brought again into view,
according to their several systems, with considerable labour,
and placed in as popular a light as their nature allows.
14 ON THE ETERNITY
from its organization, as the. forms and modes
of being", in inferior creatures, result from the
peculiar disposition and arrangement of their
component particles, and the properties inherent
in these. The reason why a stone falls to the
ground, and the reason why the globe of the
earth turns on its axis, are equally to be found
in the book of nature. In man, the machinery
is more wonderful, and the motion more com-
plicated, than in any other creature. Hence,
is his superiority in the scale of existence ; and
hence, too, result all his faculties of thinking
and acting."
It might be sufficient merely to ask, whether
these passages contain a more satisfactory ex-
planation of the phenomena of thought and
motion, than to suppose that the " first thinking
Being," namely, a God distinct from the visible
world, " should have communicated to certain
systems of created senseless matter, put toge-
ther as he thinks fit, some degrees of sense,
perception, and thought."* But it is impos-
* Locke, Essay on Human understanding, vol. ii. p. 167.
OF THE WORLD. 15
*
sible not to observe in addition, that the argu-
ment involves a confusion between the mechani-
cal laws of matter, and the spontaneous motion
of animate nature. In order to establish the pre-
tended analogy, the motion of a stone, and of
the globe of the earth, ought either to be volun-
tary^ or that of man, and other living animals,
to be necessary, and determined by prescribed
laws. Man is subject to the laws which govern
matter in the same way as other bodies are
subject to them, and is confined to the earth
by their influence ; but man is endued with a
faculty altogether distinct and separate, which
is totally wanting to unorganized matter. The
difference between the power of beginning mo-
tion, and passive inactivity ; between inward
consciousness and sluggish insensibility ; is not
such as to be hastily accounted for by the dif-
ferent situation of the primary atoms of the
same material substance. We are reduced,
therefore to the dilemma of supposing, either
that the whole universe is one cogitative, sen-
tient being, as some have affirmed, but, I
think, without much countenance from reason
16 ON THE ETERNITY
and our natural apprehensions ; or of embra-
cing the manifest absurdity, that the one uni-
versal substance is endued with attributes
which are wanting 1 to many of the parts of
which it is composed.*
III. It will be sufficient to point out one
other inadmissible conclusion resulting- from
the hypothesis now under consideration. If
the universe itself is the first eternal Being, its
existence is necessary, as metaphysicians speak ;
and it must be possessed of all those qualities
which are inseparable from necessary exist-
ence. Of this nature are immutability, and
perfection. For, change is the attribute of
imperfection ; and imperfection is incompatible
with that Being, which is, as the hypothesis
affirms, independent, and therefore can have no
possible source of imperfection. To suppose,
therefore, of the first independent Being, that
* u As substance cannot exist without all its attributes, so
extension must always exist with thought." Ac. Quest. 237.
The necessary inference is no/ added, that thought must
always exist with extension.
OF THE WORLD. 17
it could have existed otherwise than it is, is no
less contrary to the idea of necessity, with
which we set out, than to suppose it not to exist
at all.
Now, it is justly observed by Locke, that
" though our general specific conception of matter
makes us speak of it as one thing ; yet really
all matter is not one independent thing, neither
is there any such thing existing as one material
being, or any single body that we know or can
conceive." It is manifestly plain, as has been
already hinted, that what we term the material
world is made up of an infinite number of parts.
But as the whole is supposed eternal, inde-
pendent, self-existent, so must all the parts
exist independently^ And as it has been de-
clared a contradiction to suppose of the whole
that it should have existed different from what
it is, so is it no less absurd to suppose the dif-
{- Thus Ocellus Lucanus; "The world having been eter-
nal, it is necessary that the things existing in it, and the
parts of it, viz. the heaven, earth, and air, must have been
eternal: for, of these the world itself consists."
VOL. I. C
18 ON THE ETERNITY
ferent existence of any of the parts, " since all
variety of difference of existence must needs
arise from some external cause, and be depen-
dent upon it, and proportionable to the efficacy
of that cause, whatsoever it be."
How contrary the very form and appearance
of the world is to this notion of necessity, need
not be much insisted upon. Many parts of it
are, in fact, annually undergoing the greatest
changes. Probably no theorist can be found
hardy enough to assert of particular lakes or
seas, or mountains, even that they did exist,
much less that they must have existed neces-
sarily, and have borne the form they bear at
present, from eternity. Yet, if you take these
qualities away from individual parts of the uni-
verse, a Socratic disputant may stick close to
the concession, and gradually deny them of tho
whole.* Can we conceive it otherwise than
arbitrary, whether our earth should be attended
* Sykes has done this : " If the universe is God, every
part of him, except what constitutes space, may be conceived
OF THE WORLD. 19
by a single moon, or be surrounded by as many
satellites as Jupiter or Saturn? But if the
world be necessarily existent, these things are
not arbitrary, but governed by the same im-
mutable necessity by which the world itself
exists : unless it can be denied that to suppose
the possibility of alteration in that which exists
necessarily, involves a contradiction, and is
absurd.
These cursory observations are sufficient to
show that the doctrine of the world's eternity
is embarrassed by objections which forcibly
urge us to seek some further explanation of the
phenomena by which we are surrounded. If
it be asked, what advantage can be expected
from bringing the subject back at all to meta-
physics ; a sort of argument which an Alci-
phron may say at last " he has always found
dry and jejune, unsuited to his way of thinking,
which may perhaps puzzle, but will never
convince him ;"* I would reply, that there is
not necessary, and yet the whole is necessary. Can any idea
be more self-contradictory than this ?" Ch. iv.
20 ON THE ETERNITY, &C.
some advantage in showing that, to whichever
side we turn, insurmountable difficulties op-
pose us, till we admit the agency of an intelli-
gent immaterial Creator ; whose presence in
the system at once dispels the cloud, and dif-
fuses the only light which on a subject so far
removed from our comprehensions as the crea-
tion of the world, our minds are capable of re-
ceiving. It will not be denied, that if meta-
physical speculations were adverse to the ex-
istence of such a Being, the positive evidence
which asserted it would require extraordinary
strength and cogency. It is reasonable there-
fore to expect, that whatever historical or pro-
bable evidence we may hereafter find in favour
of the existence of a Creator, should derive at
least as much additional force from the concur-
rence of metaphysical arguments, as it would
be deprived of, if such researches terminated
in the contrary conclusion.
* See Berkely, Minute Philos. vol. ii. p. 445, quarto edit.
CHAPTER II.
On the Opinion which ascribes the Formation
of the World to Chance.
WHILST the most reasonable* among the hea-
then philosophers who have left any record of
their opinions, asserted that matter was itself
eternal, but moulded into the form of our world
by the operation of an intelligent Deity ; and
others, (as we have seen,) deifying the world
itself, contended for the eternity of its visible
form ; the hypothesis of Epicurus and his fol-
lowers differed altogether from them all ; and
referred the existence of the world neither to
the necessity of its own nature, nor to the inter-
* I do not hesitate to give this character to Pythagoras
and Plato, notwithstanding the absurdity attending their
doctrine of the eternity of matter.
22 ON THE FORMATION OF
ference of a Divine Architect,* but to the
fortuitous concurrence of eternal atoms. Atoms,
he affirmed, of an infinite smallness and in per-
petual motion, compose the universe : and Jail-
ing by chance into the region of our world, were
in consequence of their innate motion, brought
gradually together, and collected into an in-
digested mass. These atoms, according to their
size and weight, either subsided and settled into
earth, or formed themselves into air, or collected
themselves into stars ; and hence arose the ma-
terial globe : while the vegetable and animal
productions of the earth sprung from various
seeds intermixed with the first combination of
atoms, and being preserved and nourished by
moisture and heat, afterwards grew up into
organized bodies of various kinds. Such was
the mechanism of the world of Epicurus, t
It would be idle to enter upon the refutation
* The ^ftyuoupyoc of Plato.
f See Brucker's Historia Critica Philosophise, for the quo-
tations on which this arrangement is founded ; or the valu-
able abridgment of that laborious work, by Entield.
THE WORLD BY CHANCE. 23
of an hypothesis which assumes without a shadow
of proof or probability, first, that the universe is
composed of space and atoms ; secondly, that
these atoms, without any assignable cause, being-
impelled from the right line in which they
should naturally have been directed, formed the
regular and harmonious order of the world ;
and thirdly, that the seeds of the plants and
animals which adorn and inhabit the earth,
sprung up spontaneously among the atoms of
which it is composed.* But as the word Chance
has been sometimes repeated in modern days
as if it were really something more than an
unmeaning and unphilosophical term ; it will
be proper very briefly to show how entirely we
must oppose all the deductions of reason and
daily experience, if we for a moment remove
from our system the operation and agency of
intelligent design.
It is received as an indisputable truth, and
* How much of the same censure is justly applicable to
the organic molecules of Buffon, has been observed by Paley,
Nat. Theol. chap. 23.
24- ON THE FORMATION OF
argued and acted upon as such, in the com-
monest occurrences in life, as well as in the
highest researches of philosophy, that a regular
and certain effect must be referred to the ope-
ration of a definite and sufficient cause : that
whatever steadily acts to produce a particular
end, must be planned and directed by intelligent
contrivance. It results from this habitual con-
viction, that chance is never called in to explain
any of the extraordinary appearances of nature,
however much they may baffle the inquiries of
philosophy. We have a familiar instance of
this, in the strata which compose the earth.
These strata have been examined to a con-
siderable depth, and are found to lie sometimes
horizontally, as if they had sunk gradually and
regularly according to their specific gravity ;
but varying in other places from this regular
direction, they shoot perpendicularly or proceed
upwards, and incline at different angles to the
horizon. These strata, too, consist of metals,
minerals, stones, sands, earth, waters, and
matters of every kind, without the slightest
appearance of order : and those combinations
THE WORLD BY CHANCE. 25
have been discovered which seem most per-
plexing, and irreconcilable with the usual laws
of mineral bodies. Accordingly, theories have
been ingeniously formed and eagerly defended ;
and whilst one party endeavours to account for
the phenomena from the effects of aqueous
solution, the Vulcanists have taken no less pains
to explain them by the hypothesis of subterra-
neous fire, and a state of fusion. Why all this
labour ? Throughout the natural world perhaps
we shall find nothing which bears so strong an
appearance of accidental concurrence j yet no
one is hardy enough to interpose chance as a
solution of the difficulty.
The properties of the sea furnish us with
another illustration. It is evident that unless
it were preserved by its motion and saltness
from putrefaction, it would abound with those
unwholesome exhalations which we find in the
neighbourhood of stagnant pools and waters.
We have here a reason, why it is desirable that
the sea should have saltness and motion j but
not why it becomes possessed of them. Nu-
20 ON THE FORMATION OF
merous theories have therefore been devised,
though hitherto with little success, to account
for its saltness ; and notwithstanding many diffi-
culties which embarrass the explanation of the
tides from the moon's attraction, we readily
acquiesce in that account of their regularity.*
It is not enough to say, that the ocean must
either have been sweet or salt, and chances
to be salt ; that it must either have been in
motion or at rest, and chances to be in motion :
our inquiries prove our universal sense of
the necessity of some adequate cause. But
while we expect a reason to be assigned for
the regular movement and briny properties
of the sea, it would be the basest inconsistency
to attribute to chance alone the fact, that
it does possess those properties which it is
necessary it should possess, lest the atmosphere
should be rendered unfit for the respiration
of animals so constituted as the inhabitants of
.the world.
* Those at least who do not, think themselves bound to
propose a substitute; as St. I'ierre, Etudes de la Nature.
THE WORLD BY CHANCE. 27
We scrutinize with accurate and attentive
research the secret process of evaporation,
rarefaction, and condensation ; and the admis-
sion of a latent power, or occult principle, is
reserved as the last refuge of our ignorance.
Accordingly an assignable reason has been
discovered, from the known properties of fluid
bodies, why the vapour from springs and seas
and rivers should ascend, till, having obtained
a certain height and a certain degree of con-
densation, it is precipitated again upon the
earth, which is thence supplied with a regular
accession of moisture, and consequent fertility.
He could not then be thought an enlightened
reasoner who would ascribe to chance the re-
gular correspondence between the various parts
of nature ; or, would deny that he sees any
proof of a designing cause, when plants are so-
formed as to be nourished by the moisture for
which there is this constant provision, and ani-
mals so constituted as to be nourished by the
plants thus regularly produced. In fact, every
research, nay every single experiment in philo-
sophy, is a practical testimony of our general
ON THE FORMATION OF
conviction that there is contrivance at the bot-
tom of every phenomenon ; and is so far a con-
futation of the Epicurean atheist, that it shows
him to be at variance with the universal expe-
rience of mankind, on which that conviction is
founded.
It must not be altogether omitted, that in
the works of human art and labour, nothing is
ever left to chance. The most experienced
carpenter makes the most constant use of his
rule ; the oldest mason keeps his wall in the
perpendicular by his line. It is impossible,
ninety-nine times in a hundred, to make a com-
plete circle or a perfect square without the use
of instruments. The story of the painter, who,
when his art had failed, produced the foam
of his horse's mouth by the accidental dash of
his brush, has even found a place in history.
Why is this, but from our accumulated expe-
rience, that chance, in reality, does nothing at all
for us ?
This then is the outline of the argument from
THE WORLD BY CHANCE. 29
final causes against the production of the world
from chance. It is the result of our uniform
experience, that no certain effect can be ob-
tained without some regular means of con-
trivance. But whatever part of the universe
we examine, from the minutest insect to the
noblest animal, from the meanest plant to that
magnificent system which the researches of
modern astronomers unfold, we trace the un-
doubted evidence of means corresponding to
their intended object, and attaining their end.
Therefore we conclude, by a natural and irre-
sistible analogy, that a world which exhibits
throughout an unbroken chain of contrivances
and means, is the effect, not of fortuitous
concurrence in its constituent parts, whether
termed molecules or atoms, but of their regular
disposition ; and is the work, not of chance,
but of an intelligent contriver. For, if we
should despise the philosopher, who told us
that even the rudest and most imperfect petri-
factions of vegetable or animal substances were
the work of chance : if this is so well acknow-
ledged, that no one has ever dared to supply
30 ON THE FORMATION OF
the greatest desiderata in philosophy, such as
the cause of polarity in the magnet, by attri-
buting it to accidental inclination ; and that it
would be deemed legitimate proof of insanity
in an architect, if he undertook to produce the
meanest cabin by the fortuitous concurrence of
beams and tiles ; we must renounce all con-
sistency of principle, unless we infer that this
world, in which we see so many complicated
and various means all conspiring to accomplish
their prescribed purpose, so many springs of
action and motion all coinciding in the most
perfect order, was produced, and only could be
produced according to the regular design of an
intelligent Being.*
* If this Chapter had been intended as any thing more
than a brief statement of the nature of the argument from
final causes, it would have been necessary of course to detail
the chief marks of contrivance which the world exhibits, which
have here been only alluded to incidentally. But, in addition
to other numerous volumes upon this subject, the recent and
popular work of Dr. Paley seems to render any fresh enume-
ration of those instances quite superfluous. I do not mean
to say that the subject is exhausted ; nor indeed can it be,
till every part of the universe is laid open to our inquiry. JJut
THE WORLD BY CHANCE. 31
perhaps there is some justice in the remark, that it already
labours under disadvantage from its unlimited extent. " A
single example seems altogether as conclusive as a thousand ;
and he that cannot discover any traces of contrivance in the
formation of an eye, will probably retain his atheism at the
end of a whole system of physiology." Edin. Rev. vol. i.
p. 289.
CHAPTER III.
ON THE HISTORICAL EVIDENCE OF THE
CREATION OF THE WORLD.
SECT. I.
The Probability that some Account of the
Creation would be revealed and preserved.
THE preceding survey of two out of the three
accounts which have been at different times
proposed to explain the phenomenon of an ex-
isting- world, though brief and rapid, may be
sufficient to make it appear, that neither its
independent eternal existence, nor its fortuitous
production, furnish any thing- like a satisfactory
solution of the problem. In particular, the u n
deniable appearance of innumerable instances
of design throughout the universe in all its
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SOME ACCOUNT OF CREATION PROBABLE. 33
parts, irreconcilable with our experience of ac-
cidental effect ; and the existence of sentient
beings, endued with a faculty of voluntary re-
flection and motion which does not belong to
unorganized or mere vegetable matter ; lead us
insensibly to the only solution which remains
to be adduced, the operation of an Immaterial
Intelligent Creator. I proceed, therefore, to
inquire more particularly into the evidence that
may exist of such actual creation, in addition
to the incidental probability arising from the un-
disputed existence of a world, and the difficulty
of ascribing its existence to any other origin.
Now, it cannot be denied that this proba-
bility would be counterbalanced by a formi-
dable objection on the opposite side, if, after
the diligent inquiry which an inhabitant of the
world might be expected to make concerning
the formation of the globe to which he belongs,
no records were found to have been left of its
author, or original constitution. Suppose it
granted, for the present, that a Creator exists ;
it is difficult to believe that such a world, and
VOL. I. D
34- SOME ACCOUNT OF
such beings as it contains, were created with-
out any definite or assignable object : that
its intelligent inhabitants were summoned into
life, and then immediately abandoned by their
Maker, retaining no connexion with him, either
during the short period of their earthly exist-
ence, or after it. But if we reject this idea,
as inconsistent with all reasoning as to the pro-
bable operations of Divine intelligence ; then
it becomes natural and almost necessary to con-
clude that the Creator would leave some memo-
rial of himself in a world, which, as forming
a part in the comprehensive scheme of his pro-
vidence, he beholds with regard and interest.
It is evident, however, that as mankind alone, of
all the inhabitants of the earth, are gifted with
intelligence, mankind alone can hold any con-
nexion with an intelligent Creator.* To them
therefore we must look as the chief objects of
creation, and as the depositaries with whom the
records of it, supposing such an event to have
* TtVoc yap dXXov wou \//i/j|
yitrru cat /ca'XXtora avrratavrttiv , ijffOqrai on eiirt ; TI
uXXo r\ nv6pti)Troi Oeoi/c depairevovai ; Xen. IVlem. 1. 4. 13.
CREATION PROBABLE. 35
taken place, would be left, to be handed down
by them from age to age.
A history, however, does exist, by consent
of antiquity ascribed to Moses, the leader and
lawgiver of the Jews, a very singular and an-
cient people ; which relates, that at a certain
period not extremely remote, (when compared
with other conjectures,) our globe, and the
system to which it belongs, was created by an
Almighty and Invisible Agent, described by
the author as God. All necessity of argument
respecting the existence of a supreme Creator
is of course precluded, if this history is admitted
to be true. The Hebrew nation is there repre-
sented as enjoying proofs of the fact in question,
which were denied to the rest of mankind. Their
deliverance from Egypt, their subsequent wan-
derings, their battles, and ultimate establishment
in Canaan, were accompanied by a series of divine
interpositions which perpetually reminded them
of their relation to a Creator.
A history like this, containing an account of
D 2
36 SOME ACCOUNT OF
an event in which we are so intimately con-
cerned ; not only pretending to be, but un-
doubtedly being, the most ancient record that
we know to exist, must interest every one who
thinks it important to inquire whether the
Creator has expressly revealed himself to the
knowledge of mankind, or left the relation
which they hold towards him to be discovered
by the exercise of their reason. If the subject
of such a history is transcendently important,
its evidence has a proportionate claim to a full
and impartial investigation, according to such
ules as we are accustomed to apply to those
other histories which furnish the only acquaint-
ance we have with the events of former ages ;
so far at least as the subject of the history in
question falls within the limits of human judg-
ment and experience.
Of the truth of this history, we have all the
proof which the nature of the case allows.
The early periods with which it is concerned
are involved in so much darkness, that even
the annals of the powerful kingdoms of Assyria
CREATION PROBABLE. 37
and Egypt present chasms, in the first of thirty
generations, in the latter of a thousand years,
if we except the fabulous reign of Sesostris,
and what is incidentally collected from Jewish
records.* But the Jews, as a nation, were
always in obscurity, the certain consequence
not only of their situation, but of the peculiar
constitution and jealous nature of their govern-
ment. Can it then reasonably be expected,
that we should obtain positive testimony con-
cerning this small and insulated nation from
foreign historians, when the most ancient of
these, whose works remain, lived more than a
thousand years posterior to Moses ?f Can we
look for it from the Greeks, when Thucydides
has declared, that even respecting his own coun-
trymen, he could procure no authentic record
prior to the Trojan war ? or from the Romans,
* Viz. from Ninyas to Sardanapalus ; and in Egypt, from
the invasion of the Shepherds, 2000, to Amosis, 1040, before
Christ.
f So Clemens Alexandrinus sarcastically but justly ob-
serves, Kat GEflN apa rwv TrXeiffruv Trap' ''EXX^ffij/, ov p.6vov
TU>V \eyopevb)v ao<f)tSy KOI TrotTjT&v, 6 Mw(77c irpetrfivrepoq.
L. 1. Strom, p. 323.
38 SOME ACCOUNT OF
who had scarcely begun to be a people, when
the empire of Jerusalem was destroyed, and
the whole nation reduced to captivity ?
In the mean time, however, exactly such
collateral testimony is preserved as the na-
ture of the case allows, in which, as it has
appeared, there is not even the possibility of
positive confirmation. For instance, the Mo-
saic account of the deluge,* and the escape
of the ark with a single family, is so extraor-
dinary, that we might expect it to be com-
memorated by tradition ; and this traditional
evidence is found at large in Berosus and
Plutarch ; and researches into ancient mytho-
logy abundantly prove the existence of such
records as we might naturally look for, disguised
under the mistaken worship, and images, and
symbols of idolatry.-}- It was probable, also,
* It is as falsely as boldly remarked by Bolingbroke, " that
the tradition of Noah's deluge is vouched by no other autho-
rity than that of Moses, and that the memory of that catas-
trophe was known only to one people, and preserved in one
corner of the earth." Vol. iii. p. 224.
f I allude to Mr. Bryant's learned work on this subject.
CREATION PROBABLE. 39
that the dispersion from Babel would be pre-
served in memory, by the descendants of those
persons who set out from thence to people the
world ; and in fact it has been preserved in
traditional fables, and may be clearly traced in
profane writers, through the veil of poetical
imagery. It may be traced still more indis-
putably in the three separate and primitive lan-
guages, which still, as we are assured by the
most competent witness the world has yet heard
The first head of his argument is thus summed up by Sir W.
Jones, Asiat. Res. iii. 487. " If the deluge really happened
at the time recorded by Moses, those nations, whose monu-
ments are preserved, and writings accessible, must have re-
tained memorials of an event so stupendous ; and in fact,
they have retained such memorials. The reasoning seems
just, and the fact is true, beyond controversy." See also
Faber, Horee Mosaicae, chap, iv. Mr. Mitford's testimony is
to the same effect : " The traditions of all nations, and ap-
pearances in every country, bear witness, scarcely less explicit
than the writings of Moses, to that general flood, which nearly
.destroyed the whole human race ; and the ablest Greek au-
thors, who have attempted to trace the history of mankind to
its source, all refer to such an event for the beginning of the
present system of things on earth." Hist, of Greece, ch. i.
sect. 1.
40 SOME ACCOUNT OF
upon this subject, attest the gradual replenish-
ment of the world from the progeny of Shem,
Ham, and Japhet.*
Besides these coincidences, which might be
greatly extended, it is remarkable, that the
farther we can go back in history, the nearer
approach we find to the pure worship of the
Creator, f and the more closely our accounts of
the creation agree with that of Moses. Recent
acquaintance with the ancient literature of
India has furnished memorials of many of the
events recorded in Genesis, expressed by sym-
bols very nearly similar. The Hindus, in par-
ticular, have allotted an entire Purana to the
detail of the deluge. J The account of the
oldest historian, Sanchoniatho, so far as its ob-
scurity has been pierced by the ingenious la-
bours of those who have considered it as im-
* Sir W. Jones on the Origin of Nations, Asiat. Res.
vol. iii.
-f- See Leland, advantages of Revelation, chap. xi. : and
Shuckford's Connexion, vol. i. p. 304.
I Asiat. Res. vol. iii.
CREATION PROBABLE. 41
portant, relates the Phoenician tradition of a
history, agreeing" in its chronology and gene-
alogy with that of Moses. The records like-
wise of Eratosthenes, succeeding those of San-
choniatho, give a series of profane history,
from the first man to the first Olympiad, agree-
ing with the Scriptures.* Many remaining
fragments of early historians, though in the cir-
cumstances involving various degrees of truth
and error, according to the different opportu-
nites of information possessed by their authors,
unite in corroborating the main facts of the so-
journing of the Jews in Egypt, of their sudden
departure, and final settlement in Syria, f
Whatever may be thought the value of this
* Cumberland's Preface to Sanchoniatho.
t Strabo, and Tacitus, 1. 5. Hist. The various corrobo-
ratious of Jewish history from heathen authors are collected
by Josephus, contra Apion : Eusebius, Prsepar. Evang. ;
Stillingfleet, in his Origines Sacrse ; Gale's Court of the
Gentiles; Stackhouse's Preparatory Discourse, Sac. &c:
more recently, and with the additions which our acquaint-
ance with America and India has furnished, by Faber, Horaj
Mosaicse, vol. i.
VI SOME ACCOUNT OF
corroborating testimony, it must be remem-
bered, that the circumstances of the case ad-
mit of no other. The evidence may be less
than we desire ; it may be insufficient : but it
is not defective. Nothing is wanting, which
we can justly expect or demand.
The events of the Hebrew history, however,
as related by their own historians, involve a
series of miraculous interferences, of which there
is no other example ; and miracles, we are told,
being repugnant to our experience, cannot be
proved to the satisfaction of reason, or, at least,
should not be received " entirely and solely on
affirmation, the affirmation of the Jews."* I
should readily admit, that the more any event
is out of the regular course of nature, the
stronger is the evidence required to induce a
rational belief of it. But it may be affirmed
on the other hand, that the principal facts re-
corded by Moses, have more testimony, his-
torical or moral, positive or collateral, in their
* Bolingbrokc, Pliilos. Works, vol. v. p. 538.
CREATION PROBABLE. 43
favour, than any other events in the annals of
the world.
To avoid altogether objections like that of
Bolingbroke, arising from the questionable au-
thority of the Hebrew historians, I shall be con-
tented with appealing to the INTERNAL EVI-
DENCE of the Hebrew law and civil polity j
which, if it proves, as I think it does, to a
moral certainty, that Moses acted under a
divine commission, is a species of evidence which
precludes all similar cavil, and is in great mea-
sure independent of external testimony.
But, before we enter more particularly on
the proofs which appear to me to confirm the
divine origin of the Mosaic law, it will be neces-
sary to clear up some questions that meet us in
the outset, respecting the nature of the history
attached to it, and the sources from whence it
may be derived.
First, as to the nature of the history, it has not
been unusual for some real and some pretended
44 SOME ACCOUNT OF
friends of Revelation, startled at the difficulties
which seem to oppose them in the early chap-
ters of Genesis,* (difficulties, it must be remem-
bered, which are commonly magnified to sup-
port their hypothesis,) to give an allegorical
interpretation to those parts of Scripture which
they cannot be persuaded to understand lite-
rally. Many passages of this tendency from
the Fathers are quoted by Middleton in his short
essay upon this subject, in which he seems in-
clined to give more weight to that ancient au-
thority, than he was accustomed to allow when
it interfered with his own argument. " It was
not the intention of Moses," Eusebius says,t
" to detail a philosophical account of the form-
ation of the world, but to signify only that it
did not exist of itself or by chance, but was
the production of an all-wise and all-powerful
Creator." To the same purpose Cyril, in reply
to the scoffs of Julian,t declares, " that Moses's
view was to accommodate his story to the igno-
* See Appendix to this volume, Nos. I. and IJ.
f Oracles of Reason, 1. 4, p. 186. Euseb. Praep. Ev. 2. 7.
I Jul. p 50 ed. Lips.
CREATION PROBABLE. 45
ranee of the Jews." Origen concurs with Philo
in a similar opinon, which will not surprise
those who are aware that the Fathers were, ge-
nerally speaking, as bad reasoners, as they
were pious and sincere Christians.*
It will hereafter appear, that the arguments
I shall propose will be very little affected by
the decision of this question. At the same
time I would premise, since it is a subject
upon which the Fathers had no clearer means of
judging than ourselves, that two unanswerable
reasons must prevent us, however pressed with
difficulties, from resorting to this explanation
of them. First, these passages are referred to
in other parts of Scripture, as of historical au-
thority.-}- Secondly, it would seem altogether
unjustifiable in an author professing to relate
matters of fact, and to sanction, on their autho-
rity, his legislative character, to introduce alle-
gory into the most important subject of his
* Or. Philocal. c. i p. 12, 13. See also Josephus, Prooem.
ad Antiq.
2 Cor. xi. 3. 1 Tim. ii. 14.
4f) SOME ACCOUNT OF
narration.* My inquiry, therefore, supposes
the Mosaic account to contain not allegory, but
fact : fact, of which Moses derived his know-
ledge, either from inspiration delivered imme-
diately to himself, or from information origi-
nally revealed and preserved from the earliest
times, and afterwards incorporated with the
Hebrew law by the divine direction.
In respect to the original communication be-
tween the Deity and his newly-formed crea-
ture, man, I have already hinted at those moral
reasons which render such a communication
probable : other circumstances seem to point
out its absolute necessity.
First, it has been imagined by some of those
who have turned their thoughts to the theory
of language, that the use of intelligible speech
was a human invention, first suggested by the
* Sir W. Jones saw this in a strong light. " Either the
first eleven chapters of Genesis," he says (all due allowance
being made for an Eastern style) " are true, or the whole
fabric of our national religion is false." As. Res. i. 225.
CREATION PROBABLE. 47
wants, and afterwards improved by the experi-
ence of mankind.* It was the aim of Dr.
Smith's most agreeable Treatise upon this sub-
ject, to show how " savages who had never
been taught to speak, would begin to form a
language by which they might make their mu-
tual wants intelligible to each other, by utter-
ing certain sounds, whenever they meant to
denote certain objects." Modern observations,
however, have proved with sufficient certainty
that speech is purely imitative, and that men
would have remained without the power of
communicating their sentiments, as long as they
remained without the means of instruction.
It is well known that those, who, with their
organs of speech perfect have been unfortu-
nately deaf from their birth, are never brought
to utter articulate sounds by any efforts of their
own ; but, if taught at all to do so, effect it by
imitating the motion of the lips in others.
Whoever has watched the progress of speech
31 Voltaire, Condillac, 1'Abbe de Drosses, Sac. The au-
thorities on both sides have been studiously collected by
Archb. Magee on Atonement, vol. ii.
48 SOME ACCOUNT OF
in children, will have found that it is not
dependent upon the gradual enlargement of
their ideas, since they always understand
much more than they can express ; but upon
the facility, acquired by degrees, of adapting
the organs of speech to the expression of cer-
tain sounds. A child which first begins to join
words together, shows manifestly, by its slow,
imperfect, and abrupt articulation, wherein the
difficulty lies ; and the knowledge recently ob-
tained from the benevolent exertions of the
Abbe Sicard, in France, has placed this matter
beyond all reasonable doubt.*
In fact, the difficulties which embarrass the
believers in the human invention of language,
may be imagined from the acknowledgment of
the Abb de Brosses, who examined the sub-
ject most profoundly, and with a sufficient at-
* See an interesting account in Yorke's Letters from France,
1804. In the school of that philanthropist was a girl of seven-
teen, who, having lost her hearing at six years of age, had a
vocabulary of such words and ideas as could be attained by
tliat time of life, but no farther.
CREATION PROBABLE. 49
tachment to his own system. He confesses
that men must have existed for a long time,
must have acquired general ideas, nay, must
have formed themselves into societies, and
have undertaken designs in common, before
they learnt to transpose inarticulate sounds and
cries, expressive of joy, fear, their passions,
and their wishes, into regular words. Now,
with regard to general ideas, it is agreed by
the soundest metaphysicians, not only that
they could not originally have been framed,
but that they can never become the subject of
our conception, otherwise than through the me-
dium of the terms in which they are expressed.
" Whether it might have been possible," says
Mr. Stewart, " for the Deity to have so formed
us, that we might have been capable of rea-
soning concerning classes of objects without
the use of signs, I shall not take upon me to
determine. But this we may venture to affirm
with confidence, that man is not such a be-
ing."* And surely nothing is incredible, if
it be not incredible that men could have
* Elements, vol. i. chap. 4. s. 3.
VOL. I. E
50 SOME ACCOUNT OF
agreed upon a mode of civil polity, or un-
dertaken works in common, without any expres-
sive medium of communication.* So that it
approaches as high a degree of certainty as is
consistent with the nature of the case, that man
was originally indebted to his Creator, not only
for the organs of speech, but also for the power
of using them.
Secondly, the slow degrees by which man-
kind, when left to the progress of their own ex-
perience, are found to attain any of the arts
which contribute to the ornament and comfort
of civilized life, render it probable that in this
instance also they were not unassisted by their
Creator. The barbarous state of the inhabi-
tants of countries newly discovered, their ge-
neral ignorance of arts and deficiency in morals,
have naturally introduced a vague idea that man
* It is curious to find Rousseau (Ineg. des Hoinmes) at-
tempting to explain the origin of language ; till at last he
confesses himself " convaincu de 1'impossibilite, presque de-
monstree, que les langues aient pu naitre, et s'etablir par des
moyens purement Immains."
CREATION PROBABLE. 51
was originally, at his birth or creation, a savage.
But, according to the Mosaic account, which
agrees too with the suggestions of reason as
to the probable operations of a wise and bene-
volent Creator, this savage state was not the
primitive state of man. Even among the grand-
sons of Adam, we are told not only of the use of
brass and iron, but of the division of labour
into separate branches ; we read not only of
the arts which support life, but of those which
contribute to amuse and refine it, the harp and the
organ. When we consider in how rude a state,
compared with this, the Mexicans and Peru-
vians were found, though they had belonged for
some centuries to a settled and populous com-
munity, we shall have reason on our side in
concluding that mankind were not at first aban-
doned altogether to their own ingenuity in the
gradual invention of useful arts ; and that many
of them, under various circumstances of situation
and climate, sunk at different periods into a bar-
barism to which they were not originally created.
Thirdly, following the gradual progress of
52 SOME ACCOUNT OF
improvement, Adam and his posterity would
have been hunters, supported by the produce
of the chase, till their increase of numbers
forced them first to the more regular occupa-
tion of shepherds, and afterwards, still farther,
to the higher improvements of agriculture.*
But one of the earliest occurrences related by
Moses, represents the occupations of a shep-
herd and a husbandman not only as known, but
as placed in separate hands. " Abel was a
" keeper of sheep, and Cain was a tiller of the
" ground."! If events had been left to their
natural course, their progress would have been
the same in primitive, as in later times. Nor
is it any answer to this' argument, to turn its
force against the truth of the history itself. If
Moses had imposed a forgery upon the world,
he would have studied its probability, by fol-
lowing the regular and acknowledged course of
improvement by purely human means. So that
we here seem to have obtained an additional,
though indirect proof, both of his veracity, and
* Smith, Wealth of Nations, b. 5. c. 1. f Cen. chap. iv.
CREATION PROBABLE. 53
of the Creator's interference for the good of his
creatures.
Indeed, it can only be ascribed to want of
due reflection upon the difficulties which op-
pose the other alternative, that we hear such
interference rejected by many, who would stre-
nuously maintain the divine agency in every part
of the creation. If it is a proof of benevolent
wisdom, that the minutest insect is provided
with the means of attaining its sustenance, and
with the instinct necessary for its preservation,
why would it not be equally a part of wisdom
to guard against the comparatively slow opera-
tion of human reason, by anticipating its results,
and providing mankind with that instruction
at. which their natural powers would enable
them very gradually to arrive? If it is wor-
thy of God to have created man, why should
it be held unworthy of him, to have enabled
his creature to perform at once the highest
purposes of his being ?
Concerning the mode in which these neces-
.54 SOME ACCOUNT OF
sary interpositions may have taken place, it
would be idle to offer opinions or form con-
jectures. It is sufficient to observe here, that
it has in all ages appeared agreeable to reason,
to suppose a race of beings in the interme-
diate state between man and his Creator.*
Scripture, though by no means full or explicit
on a subject which is to us merely matter of
speculative inquiry, is not however silent : but
occasionally speaks of such superior beings,
employed in ministering between God and his
creatures upon earth.t And through their
means doubtless we are to understand those
communications > to have been made, which the
early chapters of Genesis are employed in re-
presenting.
The events there recorded, partly thus re-
vealed, as we must necessarily allow, to Adam,
* The ^m/iovec of many of the ancient philosophers. Locke,
1. 3. chap. xii. s. 6.
f Nehemiah ix. 6 ; Luke ii. 15, xv. 10, &c. &c. ; and
particularly, as connected with their supposed office, Heb. i.
14; Matt, xviii. 10 ; Acts xii. ; Eccl. v. 6 ; Tobit xii. 12.
CREATION PROBABLE. 55
and partly remembered, would be communicated
by him to his children, and probably rehearsed
and commemorated on certain days, set apart
for sacred purposes.* They would be pre-
served by traditional, if not by written history,
beyond the deluge ; and at that time the
length of human life rendered tradition both
easy and secure. Noah had lived some hun-
dred years with thousands of persons who had
conversed with Adam. Abraham lived with
Shem, the son of Noah. " So that from Adam
unto Abraham, is, comparatively speaking, no
greater length even for tradition than from our
father's grandfather to ourselves."f Joseph, the
* That the observation of the Sabbath formed part of the
patriarchal religion, seems probable from the past tense used
in the fourth commandment, The Lord blessed the seventh
day, and set it apart, or hallowed it ; and from the double
portion of manna provided ou the sixth day, previous to the
giving 1 of the law. Exod. xvi. See Horsley, Serm, xxii.
f Bishop Wilson from Isidore. See Shuckford's Con-
nexion. Allix on Genesis, chap. xvii. " From Adam to Noah
there is but one mail, viz. Methuselah, who joined hands with
both. From Noah to Abraham, but one, viz. Shem, who saw
them both for a considerable time. From Abraham to
Joseph, but one, viz. Isaac, Joseph's grandfather. From
56 SOME ACCOUNT OF
great-grandson of Abraham, lived to see his
children and his children's children. Besides,
it is extremely probable that a surer mode of
conveying information than even such simple
tradition was not unknown to the antediluvian
patriarchs. What we learn of those times from
the only history that exists of them, by no means
leads us to suppose that mankind were ignorant
of letters, or in any respect rude and uncivilized.
However this may be, the most important of
those ancient records, in whatever way preserved,
would naturally be selected by Moses for the in-
formation of future ages ; so that, after the origi-
nal revelation declaring the creation of the
world, there would appear no necessity for in-
terposing farther any extraordinary degree of
immediate inspiration.
It seems, therefore, that there is nothing either
impossible, or improbable, in the idea that the
history of Moses was founded upon original re-
Joseph to Moses, but one, Amron, who might have seen
Joseph long. These characters of lime Moses has carefully
observed."
CREATION PROBABLE. 57
velation. To preserve among the Hebrews a
knowledge of the principal event there recorded,
viz. the creation of the world, the Mosaic law,
and the civil government of that people, are de-
clared to have been expressly instituted by the
command of God himself. I shall endeavour to
show particularly that this was no vain pre-
tension ; and confine my proofs to the internal
evidence arising out of the nature of the law,
and the character it impressed upon the people
who lived under that peculiar administration.
58 THE OBJECT OF
SECTION II.
The Object of the Hebrew Polity was to main-
tain the JVorship of a Creator.
THE Hebrew nation, when viewed in contrast
with the rest of the ancient world, presents
a spectacle not less remarkable for the pure sim-
plicity of its theology, than for the singularity
of its political constitution. The familiarity with
their history, which we acquire in early infancy,
weakens the force of the impression which the
annals and civil government of the Hebrews
must infallibly excite in a philosophical mind,
if the account of them were conveyed to us at
a period of maturer judgment, and viewed in
sober comparison with the other records of anti-
quity. From the midst of darkness, error, and
dispute ; from a scene of licentious worship and
degrading superstitions, we turn to an unhesi-
THE HEBREW POLITY. 59
tating faith, and a sublime devotion : all around
is a desert, a wilderness and gloom ; from the
centre of which, the Hebrew polity rises before
us, set up like a pillar to record the creation of the
world, and the God who demands the homage
of his creatures.
This, in fact, was the declared intention of
that polity. It is founded expressly on the
principle, that, in the beginning of the system
to which the human race belongs, the world
was created by one independent Being ; who
had selected the Hebrews to commemorate the
original of the universe, and to perpetuate the
important truth, that its Author, seen only by
his works, is to be worshipped without material
or visible representation, as the Creator and
Governor of the world.
To prove that the main object of the conse-
cration of the Hebrews, was to perpetuate the
records of the creation, * we need go no further
* I am not unmindful of the ulterior purpose accomplished
by the separation of the Hebrews, as preparing the way for
60 THE OBJECT OF
than the decalogue.* The laws of the first
table assert the existence and unity of God ;
declare the reverence in which his name is to
be held ; and refute the belief, and condemn the
practice, of those nations who think that he,
the Creator, can be properly represented under
any visible form taken from the things he has
made. Blessings are promised to the Hebrews,
if they adhere to his prescribed worship ; and
severe punishment is entailed upon them, if they
abjure his authority, and prove unfaithful to the
trust reposed in them.
These declarations are followed up by a law,
appointing one day in seven for the worship of
God, and specifying the reason of that appro-
priation. It ordains, that as the work of the
creation, as detailed in Genesis, employed six
successive days, so six successive days should be
the corning of the Messiah : nor of the additional confirmation
which this law derives from the fact of its being a preparatory
dispensation. But to have insisted farther upon this would
have carried the 'argument into too wide a field : and the
object here stated, is borne on the face of the law.
* Exodus xxxi. 12, &c.
THE HEBREW POLITY. 01
allotted by the people who possessed the history
of the creation, to the ordinary labours and
business of life ; but that every seventh day
should be set apart and distinguished from the
rest, should be employed in no secular avoca-
tions, but held sacred for the commemoration
of that great event, and of the day when the
Creator having seen the world fit for the recep-
tion and support of the creatures to whose use
it was destined, ordered them to increase and
multiply, and enjoy their goodly habitation.
This regular return of a season, on which all
their usual employments were to be exchanged
for devotion, was appointed, say the Jews them-
selves,* " that, having no other business, they
might fasten in their minds the belief, that the
world had a beginning ; which is a thread that
draws after it all the foundations of the law, or
the principles of religion." For, we should
mistake in imagining, that the division of time
into working days and Sabbaths, was intended
* R. Levi of Barcelona ; quoted by Patrick on Exo-
dus xix.
62 THE OBJECT OF
merely to secure a certain portion of the year
to the worship of the Deity. If that were all,
why every seventh, rather than every tenth or
fifth day, or, than any fifty days in the year ? *
But we find in this appointment a perpetual
memorial of the reason why the Deity requires
our worship : namely, as the Creator of the
world. It is not only prescribed, that a seventh
part of life should be appropriated to religious
duties, but it is especially provided that the
reason of such appropriation should be borne
perpetually in mind. " For, in six days the
" Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all
" that in them is, and rested the seventh day ;
" therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day,
* " That men should assemble at stated seasons for the
public worship of God, all must perceive to be a duty who
acknowledge that a creature endowed with the high faculties
of reason and intelligence, owes to his Maker public expres-
sions of homage and adoration ; but that the assembly should
recur every seventh, rather than every sixth, or every eighth
day, no natural sanctity of the seventh, more than of the
sixth, or eighth, persuades. By keeping one day in seven,
we protest against idolatry, and acknowledge that God who
in the beginning made the heavens and earth." See Horsley's
excellent Sermons on the Obligation of the Sabbath.
THE HEBREW POLITY. 63
" and hallowed it : " therefore, that particular
day shall you consecrate to God, and distinguish
it by rest from labour, as it was originally signa-
lized by the cessation of the visible and imme-
diate exercise of the Creator's power.
This particular object of the solemnization of
the Sabbath is repeated, and explicitly assigned,
in a subsequent communication. " The Lord
" spake unto Moses, saying, Verily, my Sab-
" baths shall ye keep, It is a sign between me
" and the children of Israel for ever ; for in six
" days the Lord made heaven and earth, and
" on the seventh day lie rested"* And it may be
worth remarking, that the modern Jews have
preserved the original reason of the consecration
of the day, in the grace they use on the Sab-
bath : " Blessed be thou, O God our Lord,
King of the world, who hast sanctified us by thy
commandments, and given us thy holy Sabbath ;
and of thy good will and pleasure hast left it
to us an inheritance, the memorial of thy works
of creation "\
* Exod. xxxi. -j- Patrick.
64 THE OBJECT OF
It is not our concern to inquire, why the de-
scendants of Abraham were made the chosen
depositaries of a fact, miraculously preserved in
their knowledge, respecting which the rest of
mankind, through so many ages, were left to
the darkness in which their original apostasy
had involved them. This is among " the secret
" things which belong to God ; " and is lost
in a train of counsels, which we are not taught
to penetrate. Their positive selection, however,
for this purpose, and that they might become,
as it has been well observed, a standing con-
futation of idolatry, is declared with undoubted
clearness, and repeated with a solemnity suited
to the occasion. When they had reached Mount
Sinai, " the Lord called unto Moses out of the
" mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the
" house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel ;
" Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians,
" and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and
" brought you unto myself. Now, therefore,
" if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my
" covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure
" unto )ne above all people : Jbr, all fhc earth is
THE HEBREW POLITY. 65
" mine : and ye shall be unto me a kingdom
" of priests and an holy nation" * The same
idea pervades the law, and is given as a reason
for many special statutes. It is again enforced,
when the Hebrews, having nearly traversed the
wilderness, were upon the point of entering the
Holy Land. " Now, hearken, O Israel. Be-
" hold, I have taught you statutes and judgments,
" even as the Lord my God commanded me ;
" keep, therefore, and do them ; for this is your
" wisdom and your understanding in the sight
" of the nations, which shall hear all these
" statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a
" wise and understanding people. For what
" nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh
" unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things
" that we call upon him for ? " " Thou hast
" avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, and
" to walk in his ways, and keep his statutes : and
" the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his
" peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and
" that thou shouldest keep all his command-
" ments ; and to make thee high above all
* Exodus xix. 3.
VOL. I. F
66 THE OBJECT OF
" nations which he hath made, in praise, and
" in name, and in honour : and that thou mayest
" be an holy people unto the Lord thy God, as
" he hath spoken." *
The original covenant is farther renewed in
very solemn terms by Joshua in a general
assembly of the people, when he found his end
approaching. After recounting the special se-
lection they enjoyed, and the special assistance
they had received, he calls upon them to declare,
whether they will take upon themselves their
part of the covenant, and bind themselves indi-
vidually to obey those laws which marked their
appropriation. " If it seem evil unto you to
" serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye
" will serve, whether the gods which your fa-
" thers served, that were on the other side of
" the flood, or the gods of the Ammonites, in
" whose land ye dwell ? but, as for me and my
" house, we will serve the Lord. And the
" people answered and said, God forbid that we
" should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods :
* Deut. xvi. 17.
THE HEBREW POLITY. j
"for the Lord our God, he it is that brought
" us up, and our fathers, out of the land of Egypt ;
" therefore will we also serve the Lord, for he is
" our God."*
Four hundred years after, we find the dying-
admonition of David to the same effect, leaving
it as his last injunction to his son : " Keep the
" charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in his
" ways, to keep his statutes, and his command-
" ments, and his judgments, and his testimonies,
" as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou
" mayest prosper in all thou doest, and whither-
" soever thou turnest thyself."*
But it is unnecessary to specify particular pas-
sages. The universal language of the law, and
of the magistrates who from time to time enforce
its observance, always tends to the same point of
diffusing and maintaining a general belief in God
as the Creator and moral Governor of the world,
and a particular belief that he had selected the
family of Abraham for his peculiar service.
* Josh. xxiv. -f- 1 Kings xi. 3.
G8 THE OBJECT OF
Such was the design of the Hebrew polity.
Whatever was its origin, its professed object was
undeniably to render its members living- testi-
monies of the existence of one God, the Creator
of the world. The only inquiry therefore is re-
specting its origin. Had Moses, its founder, any
other light upon the subject than the light of rea-
son ? Did he, of his own purpose, appoint a
polity, and institute a civil government, to honour
the Creator, and commemorate the creation :
or, had he divine commission to perpetuate the
records of this fact among the Israelites ; and
had they themselves such undoubted evidence of
this commission, as induced them to receive him
as their legislator, and submit to the authority
of his laws ? That they had this evidence, I shall
endeavour to prove. For, though the miracles
in question, being contrary to the course of na-
ture, cannot, we are told, be received as true, on
the testimony of the Jews alone ; yet, in weigh-
ing the internal evidence of the law we are sub-
ject to no imposition. That a commonwealth
really existed, of which God, the Creator of the
world, was acknowledged as the founder and
THE HEBREW POLITY. 69
protector ; that it abounded in laws providing
for his worship, and guarding- against the idolatry
of other nations ; are facts, upon which there is
no doubt, and there can be no dispute. Neither
do I despair of showing that the existence of such
a polity as that of the Hebrews, is in itself a
complete proof of the fact which it professes to
record.
7<> PECULIAR OBJECT OF
SECTION III.
Peculiar object of the Hebrew Polity.
THE leading object of the Hebrew polity being
evidently the worship of one God, as the Crea-
tor ; it becomes reasonable to inquire how this
speculative truth happened to be made the
leading object of civil government ; or how
Moses alone, of all legislators, came to select
this article of faith as the foundation-stone of
his legislation.
We must descend of course from all high pre-
tensions, and place Moses on a level with Minos
or Lycurgus, with Solon or Numa, with Zaleucus
or Charondas.* Let them stand on the same
* Josephus, in the opening of the Jewish Antiquities,
speaking of Moses, might be thought to countenance the idea
of his being a human legislator; and any person reading his
THE HEBREW POLITY. 71
footing with respect to their opportunities, and
how shall we account for the extraordinary
difference which appears in the conduct of the
lawgivers, and the nature of their laws ? One
of the two principal tables of the Mosaic code
is solely occupied in providing for the right belief
and exclusive adoration of the Creator. A
great proportion of the other statutes relate to
the mode in which he is to be worshipped. He
is declared in a peculiar manner the king or head
of the state. A departure from the established
belief, and a refusal to worship God under the
character assigned to him in the law, is con-
sidered as treason, and punished as the most
heinous crime. Not to dwell too long on mat-
ters that cannot be disputed, it must be obvious,
to any one who reads the Hebrew laws, that
they all refer directly or indirectly to God, as
the actual Governor of that people: that the law-
giver seems to think he shall have done all that
he need be anxious to effect, if he can establish
account of Moses receiving 1 the law, might compare it with
the case of Numa or Mahomet. This is to be attributed to the
compromising spirit in which Joseplius wrote his History.
7'^ PECULIAR OBJECT OF
this belief; and that the whole community pro-
fesses to have no other bond of union than its
sacred observance.
Now, there is no doubt, that the profoundest
inquiries of reason terminate in the belief of
one God, as inculcated by Moses. But it is
notorious, and will be seen hereafter more par-
ticularly, that reason did not succeed in ascer-
taining this fact generally throughout the an-
cient world. That Moses then alone, without
any advantage denied to others, should pene-
trate the mists of ignorance, or, which are still
more perplexing, the mazes of error ; and ap-
prehend the Creator, and the spiritual worship
which is due to an immaterial Being ; nay, far-
ther, that, not contented with satisfying his own
mind of this rational belief, he should fix upon
this point as the basis of his legislation, and the
cement of his civil polity ; is a notion too im-
probable to be received, even with any common
authority in its favour ; how much more then
is it absurd to embrace it, in direct contradic-
tion to the only evidence we possess concern-
THE HEBREW POLITY. J3
ing the establishment of the Hebrew govern-
ment ?
It is true, indeed, that I may be here met by
an objection to this effect : that Moses, con-
sidered as a mere political legislator, and con-
sulting of course the welfare of his people and
the observance of his laws, would naturally be
led to prefix to his legislative code, a history,
declaring the dependance of mankind upon a
Creator. I am ready to acknowledge that such
was the practice of antiquity. It appears, not
only in the philosophical treatises of Plato and
Cicero,* but still more explicitly in the pre-
amble to the laws of Zaleucus,f legislator of
the Locrians. All lawgivers have been con-
vinced of the insufficiency of any sanctions which
* Cic. de Leg. ii. 6.
-f- Diod. Siculus, I. 12. " The first step which the legis-
lator took," says Warburton, Div. Leg. ii. 2, " was to pre-
tend an extraordinary revelation from some god, by whose
command and direction he framed the laws he would esta-
blish." Bolingbroke, who takes this ground, instances Zo-
roaster, Hostaues, the Magi, Pythagoras, and Numa.
74 PECULIAR OBJECT OF
they can employ, to obtain effectually their object
of encouraging virtue and repressing vice, with-
out a resort to some such principle of universal
obligation, as the dread of present divine ven-
geance, or future punishment, affords. All have
been convinced that the existence in their society
of a strong practical sense of divine government,
is more valuable towards restraining those dis-
orders which endanger the peace of a community,
than the most despotic authority or the severest
punishments. Thus much is willingly granted.
But it will set this point in a truer light, if
we refer to the legislators of antiquity, acting
in pursuance of these convictions, and making
the benefit of their people their object in en-
forcing the belief of superior powers. The dif-
ference will appear to be this ; that, among
other nations, the divine worship was introduced
for the sake of the civil polity ; but that by the
institutions of Moses, the civil polity was esta-
blished for the sake of preserving the faith.
It is probably true, that no civilized com-
THE HEBREW POLITY. J5
nmnity has ever existed without a sense of re-
ligion. That those ancient kingdoms, at least,
with which we are best acquainted, lived under
a consciousness of some divine power and go-
vernment, is fully proved by their frequent sa-
crifices and vows and festivals. The belief from
which these practices proceed, is so forcibly
natural, that it continues to operate in super-
stition, where it is too far perverted to excite
devotion. But the constitution of the Hebrew
polity is all along accompanied not by such vague
belief alone, but by a continued and superin-
tending sense of divine direction. It places
religion as the foundation of the whole edifice ;
which in other communities has been only added
as a prop to the building.
It is impossible to survey the books of Jewish
law at the same time with the codes of other
legislators, without an irresistible conviction of
the difference which I am here remarking.
Look at the laws of Lycurgus, as they are de-
tailed at length by Xenophon, an author who
cannot reasonably be suspected of omissions in
76 PECULIAR OBJECT OF
a subject of this nature. It is there observed,
" that the emulation of young men in feats of
agility and strength, is both agreeable to the
gods and useful to the state ; and that Lycurgus
did not promulgate his edicts, till he had first
inquired of the oracle whether his laws would
benefit the community."* This is the only re-
ference which is made to any superior power.
With respect to Athens, Maximus Tyrius goes so
far as to observe, that it would have been vain
for Socrates to appeal to the people in defence of
his innocence ; for, how were the Athenians to
understand what was the nature of virtue, or of
the Deity, or how he should be worshipped j
since these were not subjects into which the legis-
lators inquired, nor had Solon or Draco laid down
any laws respecting them.t Detached enact-
ments, it is true, appear, recommending religious
worship and sacrifice, both public and private :J
* Pag. 184 and 199, ed. Simson.
t Diss. 39.
J The fragment of a law of Draco is preserved to this
effect : Oeoi/c ripdv, KO.I "Hpwac ey\wpiove eV Koivif,
vot; VV/J.OU; Trarp/oic, iciy Kara OVVOUtV flfv evtyrm'iq wit
, Mit TreXdyoic eVerei'oif- Porph. de Abstiu. 1. iv.
THE HEBREW POLITY. 77
but the real fact is, as the philosopher means to
be understood, that these lawgivers left the opi-
nions of their country untouched ; or, at most,
prescribed only the continuance of the customary
religious rites ; but to establish new ones, or to
settle the popular faith on any solid or philoso-
phical foundation, never became their object, or
entered into their contemplation.
With regard to Rome we are more fully in-
formed, and able to institute a pretty exact com-
parison. Dionysius* acquaints us, " that Romu-
lus, aware how much good laws and worthy pur-
suits contribute to the piety, order, morals, and
free spirit of a political community, paid great
attention to these matters, beginning with the ve-
neration due to the superior and inferior deities.
He appointed, therefore, their sacrifices and
altars, images, and statutes, commemorating the
benefits which each had bestowed on mankind ;
prescribing the feasts which should be held to the
several orders of gods, and what sort of honour
and sacrifice they are respectively pleased with :
* Lib. ii. p. 9, Steph.
78 PECULIAR OBJECT OF
and instituting- assemblies and festivals and days
of remission from business, after the wisest cus-
toms of the Grecian states, but rejecting at the
same time those mythological fables which seem
unworthy of the nature of the gods ; and taking
especial care to admit none of those rites which
had been perverted in other countries to the
corruption of morals." Even the laudable
anxiety, we may see, to avoid the impurities which
attended the worship of Bacchus and Cybele,
was inspired by a sense of the public welfare,
not by zeal for the honour of the Deity.
Livy is no less explicit respecting the pre-
vailing object in the mind of Numa, whose pre-
tence to divine communication has so often been
set in comparison with Moses. The temple of
Janus, he says,* being closed, and peace being
established with all the surrounding states ; lest
those minds which military discipline and the
fear of the enemy had kept in order, should riot
in the wantonness of leisure and security, Numa
thought it desirable that a .sw/.sv <>//>/ <tirc. of the
* Lib. i. 19.
THE HEBREW POLITY. 79
divine power should be infused into them, a thing
of the greatest efficacy among a rude and igno-
rant multitude : and with this in view he pre-
tended to receive through the communications of
Egeria those laws and rites which were most
agreeable to the gods. The historian, after this
preface, proceeds to describe how, by the appoint-
ment of priests and sacrifices, the minds of the
people were at once occupied, and imbued with
piety.
It is evident from these passages, that the in-
stitution of religious ceremonies at Rome was
not the effect of belief, but of policy ; * and it
* Ovid speaks of this as generally acknowledged :
Principio uimium promptos ad bella Quirites
Molliri placuit jure, Ueumque metu.
Inde datae leges, ne firmior omnia posset,
Cseptaque sunt pure tradita sacra coli. FASTI.
Varro, in his books of antiquities, makes an express distinction
between natural and civil theology ; and confesses that his own
judgment does not lead him to follow the religious institutions
of the state ; and that, if he were regulating a community de
novo, he would institute gods and divine titles according to
nature. Jt is remarkable, that he gives this reason for treat-
ing first upon human things, before he touches upon the divine :
80 PECULIAR OBJECT OF
naturally followed, that the religious worship was
superstition, not devotion. How different this
introduction of a state religion appears from the
object so authoritatively professed by Moses, it
would be superfluous to prove from particular in-
stances. There is one God who created the
world, who revealed himself to our forefathers
and ourselves, who delivered us from slavery,
who selected our nation to perpetuate his wor-
ship, who appointed us laws, who superintends
our observance of them : this is the fundamental
principle and the uniform language of the He-
brew code ; a language acknowledged, as it every
where appears, by the hearts of the people, even
while their rebellious actions ceased to corres-
pond with it. The fact is not merely, that a
belief of the unity and power of the Creator ex-
isted among the Hebrews ; but that on this
because states existed first, and then instituted things relating
to the gods ; just as a painter exists before his picture, or an
architect before his building. Augustine very reasonably asks,
" Naturale a civili velle discernere ; quid est aliud, quarn
ipsum civile fateri esse mendosum?" De Civit. Dei, lib. vi.
s. 4, &c.
THE HEBREW POLITY. 81
belief their whole civil government was raised.
The fact is not merely, that God was worshipped
by them as the common Father of all mankind ;
but he was esteemed their own immediate ruler
and protector ; the king 1 of their nation, the au-
thor of the laws which bound them as indi-
viduals, and of the civil polity which united them
as a community. The majority of the enact-
ments of a voluminous ritual have the purity of
his worship for their object. To him they looked
for punishment of their violation of his com-
mands, and for the rewards of their obedience.
To him they referred their national as well as
their personal prosperity. Each individual took
home to himself the promise which concludes the
code : " If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of
" the Lord thy God, to observe and do all his
" commandments, blessed shalt thou be in the city,
" and blessed shalt thou be in thejield"* Under
this impression they consented to observances so
rigorous and so universally obligatory, as could
only have been proposed by a lawgiver conscious
* Deut. xxviii. 3.
VOL. I. G
82 PECULIAR OBJECT OF
of his divine commission, to a people equally
conscious of his supreme authority.
Undoubtedly it was common among- the an-
cients to dedicate their cities to some particular
deity, who was specially invoked in cases of pub-
lic danger, and whose supposed office seems to
have resembled that of St. Nicolas in the Greek
church, and the various tutelar saints of the
Romish calendar. Thus Athens was sacred to
Minerva ; Delos to Apollo : Ephesus to Diana ;
Argos to Juno. But we find nothing in the laws,
nothing in the customs, nothing- in the piety of
these states, which can carry us one step farther
in the comparison. Austerities are appointed by
Lycurg-us ; but they are directed to the strength
of the state. Austerities are enacted by Moses ;
but their object is the worship of the Creator.
Where shall we look for an institution similar to
that solemn ceremony among the Jews, by which
the firstborn were sanctified to God ? not only to
preserve the memory of their deliverance from
Egyptian tyranny, but to implant most strongly
a sense of the duties of religion in the head of
THE HEBREW POLITY. 83
every family. " Thou shall set apart unto the
" Lord all that openeth the matrix ; the males
" shall be the Lord's. And it shall be, when
" thy son asketh thee in time to come, say-
" ing, What is this ? that thou shalt say unto him,
" By strength of hand the Lord brought us out
"from Egypt, from the house of bondage ; and it
" shall be for a token upon thy head, and for
" frontlets between thine eyes."* No room is
left among these strict injunctions, for a distinc-
tion between natural and civil theology, as if the
philosopher and the legislator had separate gods.
Faith is treated as a moral duty, and as uni-
formly required from all, as temperance or jus-
tice. And to what cause can we ascribe this supe-
riority, if we reject the one assigned by Jose-
phus ; f who observes, that the heathen lawgivers,
not being acquainted, like Moses, with the true
nature of God, and not defining any accurate
knowledge of him, even as far as they had it in
their power to attain it, for this reason established
their communities after a different form.
* Exodus xiii. 12. -j- Contra Apion. p. 1386, ed. Huds.
G 2
84 PECULIAR OBJECT OF
The only exception to these remarks which
can be urged from antiquity, or thought to bear
the least comparison with the language of the
Mosaic code, occurs in the preamble to the laws
of Zaleucus ; who shows an evident anxiety to
introduce a philosophical belief in the existence
of the gods, excited indeed by a view of the
public welfare, but still far more explicit than
we find elsewhere. In the preface which opens
his system, he laid down,* " that first of all it is
necessary for the inhabitants of a state to be per-
suaded and believe the existence of divine beings :
that this belief must arise from a contemplation
of the heavens, and the universe, and their order
and arrangement, which cannot be the work of
chance, or man : therefore that the gods should
be worshipped and honoured, as the authors of all
our real blessings. Let each individual there-
* See Diod. Sic. 1. 12, p. 84; Rhod. 300, Steph.; and
Stobaeus, Serm. 42 and 37. The prooeni of Charondas, who
gave laws to the people of Catana, 8cc. is in the same spirit, but
more concise : Twc /3owXo^eVwc *cti Trprfrrorrac ri, aVo deuiv
%prj ro yap upiarov, TOV Qeov eif-iev atriov iravruv
' ert tie <f>iiv\it>v Trpa^ewy dire'\eff6ut, Kal ^ta\0ra Sid raV
rdv OeoV rw///5ovX<a' ovcevof ydp dittov
THE HEBREW POLITY. 85
fore cleanse his mind from every kind of pollu-
tion ; and labour to be virtuous according to his
power, in thought and deed, as he wishes to ren-
der himself acceptable to the gods : but should
the evil daemon haunt him, exciting him to wick-
edness, let him resort to the temples and altars,
and there entreat the gods to deliver him from
sin, the worst and most relentless of tyrants."
The spirit of this passage has been deservedly
admired.* But there is an obvious difference
between the tone of the Locrian and that of the
Hebrew lawgiver. If their conclusion is the
same, there is no resemblance between the steps
by which they arrive at it. Zaleuccus anxi-
ously impresses as a political consideration, what
Moses simply relates as a known historical fact.
Moses declares a naked truth, to which he fore-
sees no dissent among his hearers : In the begin-
* See Hume, Nat. Hist, of Relig. ; Warb. Div. Leg. ii. s. 3.
I have no concern with the controversy as to the authenticity
of these remains, in which Warburton maintains his ground
with equal skill, learning, and ingenuity against the criticism
of Bentley. It is enough for the argument here, that the
preface, at least, was considered ancient in the time of Cicero.
80 PECULIAR OHJECT OF
ning, God created the heaven and the earth : and,
/ am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have none
other Gods but me, Zaleucus, on the contrary,
enforces by argument, and by reference to the
signs of order in the world, a point which need
not have been proved, if it had not been disputed.
The positive language of authority which Moses
employs, is not the language assumed by one who
introduces a new and unacknowledged principle,
devised by his own reason. The certain con-
fidence with which he broadly and at once as-
serts the fact, that in the beginning God created
the world, can only arise from a consciousness
that this fact required no proof in the minds of
the people to whom it was addressed, but would
receive the immediate assent of the whole He-
brew nation.*
* Plato, who imitated the Pythagorean lawgivers, and
Cicero, who imitated Plato, both concur in proving the truth
systematically, which they wish to be generally believed. The
latter argues, " Quid est verius, quam neminem esse oportere
tarn stulte arrogantem, ut in se rationem et mentem putet
inesse, in coelo mundoque non putet? aut ut ea, quee vix
suiiima ingenii ratione comprehendat, nulla ratione moveri
putet ?" Then, by tlie conclusion which he deduces, ho betrays
THE HEBREW POLITY. 87
I think it must be evident from these actual com-
parisons, that there is no similarity between the
tone of Moses, and that of other lawgivers placed
in his supposed circumstances : but that the dis-
tinction really exists which was at first remarked ;
viz. that they, for political purposes, introduced
into their laws religious considerations ; while
the Hebrew government has chiefly and almost
alone in view, the maintenance of the belief and
worship of the Creator.
It still, however, remains to be observed,
that Moses not only betrays no hesitation him-
self, and supposes no doubt on the part of the
people, but he addresses them in terms which
are quite unaccountable on the supposition of
his not being borne out by facts, and his hear-
ers' personal conviction of their truth. He
the political interest which inclines him to establish the exis-
tence of superior powers : " Utiles esse opiniones has, quis neget ;
cum intelligat quam multa firmentur jurejurando, quantae
salutis sint fcederum religiones ! quam multos divini supplicii
metus a scelere revocarit ! quamque sancta sit societas civium
inter ipsos, Diis immortalibus interpositis turn judicibus, turn
testibus?" De Leg. ii. 7.
88 PECULIAR OBJECT OF
called all Israel, and said unto them, " Hear,
" O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I
" speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn
" them, and keep them, and do them. The
" Lord our God made a covenant with us in
" Horeb. The Lord made not this covenant with
" our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of
" us here alive this day. The Lord talked with
" you face to face out of the midst of the fire, and
" ye said, Behold, the Lord our God has showed
" his glory and his greatness, and we have heard
" his voice out of the midst of the fire."* These
appeals to their own knowledge of the divine
origin of their law, are frequently and confi-
dently made. So are they likewise, to the ex-
perience they had felt of the miraculous protec-
tion which God bestowed upon them, as a king-
dom of priests and an holy nation, whom he had
borne from Egypt " on eagles' wings."-f The
remembrance of this deliverance was to be handed
down to posterity, as an imperishable fact.
" When thy son asketh thee in time to come,
" What mean these statutes, and testimonies, and
* Dent. v. 1. f Exodus xix.
THE HEBREW POLITY. 89
" judgments, which the Lord our God hath
" commanded you ; then thou shalt say unto
" thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt,
" and the Lord brought us out from Egypt with
" a mighty hand : and the Lord showed signs
" and wonders, great and sore, upon Pharaoh,
" and upon all his household, before our eyes ;
" and the Lord commanded us to do all these
" statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our
" good always, that he might preserve us alive,
" as it is at this day."*
In the same manner their former experience
is appealed to, for the purpose of allaying an
apprehension which might seem at first sight
very natural : " If thou shalt say in thine heart,
" These nations are more than I, how can I dis-
" possess them ? thou shalt not be afraid of
" them, but shalt well remember what the Lord
' thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all
" Egypt, the great temptations which thine eyes
" saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and
" the mighty hand, and the stretched-out arm,
* Dcut. vi. 20, &c.
{JO PECULIAR OBJECT OF
" whereby the Lord thy God brought tliee out :
" so shall the Lord thy God do unto all the
" people of whom thou art afraid." * Instances
without number might be adduced, if it were
requisite ; but such is the whole tenor of
the law.
This language is wholly incompatible with
the idea that Moses acted under a forged com-
mission. Suppose it admitted, that he considered
the agency of a Creator the most rational belief,
and that he abhorred idolatry as the parent of
cruelty and abomination ; suppose it granted,
that he deemed it most suitable to the character
of a rude and ignorant people, to declare in
positive terms, instead of proving by argument,
the sum of his own faith, and to profess himself
the instrument of Heaven in promulgating it ;
suppose, I say, all those concessions made, which
no rational person would agree to make in con-
tradiction to probability and experience : yet
still he must have acted on a different plan j he
would not have appealed to the senses, the con-
* Deut. viii. 17.
THE HEBREW POLITY. 91
sciousness, and the memory of the people, in
matters where every one of them could have
contradicted him. This has not been the prac-
tice of false pretenders to divine communication.
Minos had no witnesses to his conferences with
Jupiter on mount Ida ; those of Numa with the
goddess Egeri& were private and nocturnal. It
was in the cave of Hera, that Mahomet, in
secret retirement, " consulted the spirit of fraud
or enthusiasm."*" None of these challenged
the assembly of their nation, as able to bring
their testimony to the facts on which they founded
their pretensions ; none of them collected the
people to be witnesses of the miraculous appear-
ances which attested the delivery of the law.
Allusions to these supernatural facts on which
the law is professedly built, are closely inter-
woven with it, in a manner perfectly natural on
supposition of their truth and recent occurrence ;
but totally unaccountable on any other.
This point is, indeed, so unanswerably strong,
that it is impossible to believe the law to have
* Gibbon.
92 PECULIAR OBJECT OF
been introduced at the time it professes, and
by the reputed author, except on the conviction
of its divine appointment. Whoever denies
assent to the facts declared in the law, must
begin by refuting the authenticity and supposed
antiquity of the law. These are questions,
which it would carry me too far out of my
present line of argument to discuss at length.
Besides, it is quite unnecessary to tread over
again the steps of the many able writers who
have repeatedly answered, to the entire satis-
faction of any reasonable disputant, the few and
trifling objections that may be raised against the
age of the Pentateuch.*
One point must be particularly observed : that
it is not sufficient to object to the received date
of the law, without assigning some other spe-
cific period for its introduction. The history
it involves, and the statutes enacted in it, were
indisputably received by the conquerors of Pa-
lestine as the records of their ancestors, as the
authority by which they settled in a foreign
* See Appendix. No. III.
THE HEBREW POLITY. 93
country, as the foundation of their civil and
domestic institutions, and as the canon of their
religious belief and ceremonies. It becomes in-
cumbent, therefore, on those, who dispute the
professed account of its origin, to explain the
problem in some more credible manner. If the
law did not proceed, in all essentials, exactly as
we read it now, from Moses and Mount Sinai,
from whom, and whence, did it proceed ? The
building was undoubtedly raised : what then
was its support, if it was not founded on mira-
culous interposition ? This demand we have
a right absolutely to insist upon, though it im-
poses a task of no slight difficulty, and is seldom
voluntarily undertaken.
Any account of the Pentateuch, except that
which appears on the face of the book itself, is
embarrassed by objections which I shall only
briefly glance at. It professes to contain the
law prescribed to the Israelites on their migra-
tion from Egypt, by Moses, under the divine
direction ; which direction had been manifested
by their miraculous deliverance from slavery,
94- PECULIAR OBJECT OF
and by many indisputable signs. But this, it
seems, is incredible. When then did they receive
the records of the law, and from whom ?* It
can make but little alteration in the difficulty, to
whatever period or person we may be referred.
It is not of much consequence at what time we
suppose an impostor to have appeared, and to
have furnished the Hebrews with a history of
their ancestors, and of the origin of their laws.
At some period or other, certainly, we must
believe that the nation accepted a series of
records, professing to acquaint them with the
transactions of their progenitors, from their first
settlement as a single family in Egypt, to their
final settlement in the country they then enjoyed
by conquest. That these records were false ;
or otherwise the miraculous interference they
contain must be acknowledged ; yet that no
recollection or tradition of their real history
remained to contradict the imposture, and that no
individual existed in the country, with under-
* The argument arising out of this question is put in the
strongest and clearest light by Leslie, in his unanswerable
treatise, " A short Method with a Deist."
THE HEBREW POLITY. 95
standing enough to question its author as to the
information he had thus suddenly acquired upon
subjects, concerning which all had been hitherto
equally ignorant ; no one to demand the proofs
of his history, or the credentials of his autho-
rity : that the people were not astonished at the
miracles, pretended to have been wrought in
favour of their ancestors, or incredulous as to
the order of nature having been so often in-
fringed without any record or memory of such
facts ; nor indignant at the injury offered to the
character of their forefathers, by representing
them as often rebellious against the clearest
miracles and the kindest promises. Improba-
bilities like these are overlooked, when it is
desired to undermine revelation ; but it would
be a heavy task to support it on similar grounds.
Allowing, however, even all this to be granted,
how shall we explain the existence of a law like
that of the Hebrews, so strict in its articles and
so peculiar in its nature, on any other principle
than the foundation which it claims? To say
nothing here of its sublimity and purity, how is
J)G PECULIAR OBJECT OF
it possible to account for such a code having
been received and acted upon by such a people,
except on the credit of the extraordinary circum-
stances under which it professes to have been
established ? a code neither suited to the cus-
toms, nor the prejudices, nor the passions of
mankind ; and in particular most opposite to
those of the people who received it, as being
contrary to the habits they had brought with
them from Egypt, as well as to the practices of all
the nations by whom they were surrounded :
a code encumbered with burdensome ceremonies,
and entailing a variety of severe obligations ;
nay, farther, containing in itself, as I shall pre-
sently show, the seeds of its own destruction,
unless its observers had really been supported
by that divine assistance, which the words of the
law promise, and the history records.
It is not enough to answer all this generally,
by saying, that a barbarous people are easily
amused by miracles, and genealogies, and legends
of antiquity. I should be much surprised, I con-
fess, to learn that any people however barbarous,
THE HEBREW POLITY. 97
had been imposed upon to this extent : but, in
regard to the particular case of the Mosaic law,
it must be observed, that the imposition itself re-
quires a certain degree of civilization, far removed
from stupid, and careless, and uninquiring 1 igno-
rance. Such a state neither produces an impostor
who could propose it, nor a people who could un-
derstand it. A nation must be advanced, or advanc-
ing, at least, beyond the lowest stage of barbarism,
which could be the subject of a legislation such as
that of Moses ; entering so minutely into the details
of civil life, providing often for transactions of a
complicated nature, and supposing the existence
of a regular police, priesthood, and magistracy.
How it happened, that such a description should
be applicable to the Israelites, just emerging from
a state of servitude, the opponents of the divine
commission of Moses are bound to discover : but
it is a palpable contradiction to affirm, that they
were barbarous enough to be deceived by any in-
genious impostor, at the same time that they were
civilized enough to be in possession of such a law.
From the details of this Section, it has appeared
VOL. I. H
98 PECULIAR OBJECT OF
that the object prevailing through the Hebrew
polity, is entirely different from that which legis-
lators have commonly proposed to themselves ;
and that antiquity furnishes no example of a
state, the principal scope of whose laws was to
maintain the belief of a Creator, or indeed in
which that belief was at all inculated with a con-
fidence any way comparable to that expressed by
Moses. This circumstance alone, it will be
owned, gives reasonable grounds for a presump-
tion of its having a different origin from that of
other civil governments. And this presumption
is confirmed by the words employed to the per-
sons who were to observe the law : words ad-
dressing them as actual witnesses of the mode in
which it was conveyed to them, and by which its
divine appointment was proved to their com-
plete conviction : a confirmation, strengthened by
the reflection, that no period has been or can be
specifically assigned, when a fabrication so gross
as a forged history and fabulous archives could
be imposed upon them.
This sort of evidence is all that the case allows.
THE HEBREW POLITY. 99
It is accumulated in favour of the Hebrew laws
in the highest conceivable degree ; and has been
drawn out at different times in a variety of ways,
any one of which might be justly deemed satisfac-
tory ; rendering it, upon the whole, a most im-
practicable task for any one who considers the
matter in detail, to maintain that Moses acted on
his own assumed authority.
Hitherto, therefore, I think it has been satisfac-
torily shown, that the peculiar nature of the He-
brew polity affords strong grounds for believing
that it was divinely instituted, for the purpose of
preserving the records of the creation ; inasmuch
as the worship and commemoration of the
Creator was the chief and primary object of the
Hebrew legislator, which, with other legislators,
is only made auxiliary and subservient to their
main object, the welfare of the state.
H
100 PECULIAR SANCTIONS OF
SECTION IV.
Peculiar Sanctions of the Mosaic Law.
IT is not only by such a consideration of the ob-
ject of the Hebrew Polity, as was entered upon
in the preceding section, that we may derive an
irresistible argument for its divine institution :
but the peculiarity of its provisional sanctions, and
the deviations from the ordinary course of nature
on which they confidently rely, must bring us to
the same conclusion. I take it as an acknow-
ledged principle, that every lawgiver provides for
the observance of his statutes, by such penal
enactments as he has within his power ; and
would be more anxious to establish a belief of
the certainty, than even of the severity, of his
punishments. It was for this reason that the
THE MOSAIC LAW. 101
terrors of future judgment were called in, as we
have seen, to assist the inadequacy of human jus-
tice, by some of the ancient lawgivers ; and to
assure offenders that the vengeance, which must
necessarily prove often tardy and uncertain on
this side the grave, will be sure and swift on the
other.
Moses, however, relies on this vengeance as
immediate ; and employs the sanction of a retri-
butive providence as confidently, as if he held the
lightning in his own hands, and wielded the go-
vernment of the world. All his enactments im-
ply that sort of dependance on divine interposi-
tion, which could not be derived from any expe-
rience of the usual course of events. Obedience
to the commandments is not only enjoined as a
positive duty, but as the sure source of all pros-
perity, both national and individual. " And it
" shall come to pass, if thou shall hearken dili-
" gently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to
" observe and to do all his commandments which
" I command thee this day, that the Lord thy
" God will set thee high above all nations of the
102 PECULIAR SANCTIONS OF
" earth. The Lord shall cause thine enemies
" that rise up against thee to be smitten before
" thy face ; they shall come out against thee one
" way, and flee before thee seven ways. The
" Lord shall command a blessing upon thee in thy
" storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine
" hand unto ; and all people of the earth shall see
" that thou art called by the name of the Lord,
" and they shall be afraid of thee."* On the other
hand, disobedience, and particularly in the mat-
ter of idolatry, is threatened with the severest
chastisements that can befal a nation ; with pri-
vate distress, and public calamity ; with the an-
nihilation of the government, and the captivity
of the people. " See, I have set before thee this
" day life and good, and death and evil ; in that I
" command thee this day to love the Lord thy
" God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his com-
" mandments and his statutes and his judgments,
" &c. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou
" wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and
" worship other gods, and serve them ; / de-
" nuance unto you this day, that ye shall surely
* Dtut. xxviii.
THE MOSAIC LAW. 108
" perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days
" upon the land, whither thou passest over Jor-
" dan to go to possess it. The Lord shall scatter
" thee among- all people, from the one end of the
" earth even unto the other ; and among 1 these
" nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall
" the sole of thy foot have rest." *
Thus the duration of the whole civil polity is
made dependant on the adherence of the people,
not to the established form of government by ma-
gistrates and elders, but to the established wor-
ship : and its dissolution is represented as conse-
quent, not on a violation of the political ordi-
nances, or moral code, so much as on a departure
from that allegiance which was due to God, as
the author of the whole, and on a dereliction of
the worship which he had appointed as suited to
the immateriality of his essence, and as calculated
at the same time to inspire an habitual conviction
of his superintending power.
Again, the case is supposed of the crime of dis-
* Deut. xxx.
104 PECULIAR SANCTIONS OF
obedience, and of the infliction of the consequent
penalty, defeat and captivity : and it is positively
declared, that repentance and an acknowledg-
ment of the Creator, and a return to his worship,
shall be rewarded by his forgiveness of their
transgressions, and the re-establishment of their
temporal power. " And it shall come to pass,
" when all these things are come upon thee, the
" blessing and the curse which I have set before
" thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among
" all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath
" driven thee ; and shalt return unto the Lord
" thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to
" all that I command thee here this day, thou and
" thy children, with all thine heart and with all thy
" soul ; that then the Lord thy God will turn thy
" captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and
" will return and gather thee from all the nations
" whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee ;
" and thou shalt return and obey the voice of
" the Lord, and do all his commandments which
" I command thee this day." '
* Dcut. xxx. 18.
THE MOSAIC LAW. 105
Throughout this, there is a total defiance of
the ordinary process of human affairs. I do not
allege it as remarkable, that the lawgiver should
represent the observance of his laws as essential
to the interests, or even to the existence, of his
community : we know that Lycurgus attempted
to provide by a stratagem, for the perpetuity of
his institutions ; and that Charondas suffered a
voluntary death, to show the sanctity in which
he held his own edicts : but what is remarkable,
is the nature of the laws, to which Moses at-
taches such great importance. The laws which
common experience proves to be the safe-guards
of a nation, and which patriotic legislators have
desired to sanction, even at the expense of their
own lives, relate to the national defence, the
political economy, the frugal dispensation of the
revenues, or the social duties of the citizens.
But in the Mosaic code, all these bulwarks of
security are either totally unprovided for, or
comparatively neglected. The Hebrews were
preparing to take possession of a country by
conquest, and might reasonably expect to be
surrounded with implacable enemies j yet no
106 PECULIAR SANCTIONS OF
pains are taken to secure or discipline a national
army. It does not enter into the contemplation
of the legislator, that his people, however sud-
denly assembled as occasion might require, could
ever fail of success, either in attacking a foreign
territory, or in defending their own, as long as
they continued true to their invisible Head and
Governor. Neglecting all human means, such
as national treasures, or military exercises, he
promises his people victory, and assures them of
security, as long as they continue to " obey the
" voice of the Lord their God, and do his com-
" mandments and his statutes."* Let them only
be faithful to the worship of the Creator, " the
" Lord," he says, " shall cause thine enemies that
" rise up against thee to be smitten before thy
" face : and all people of the earth shall see that
" thou art called by the name of the Lord, and
" they shall be afraid of thee."t " Ye shall
" chase your enemies, and they shall fall before
" you by the sword. And five of you shall
" chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall
* Deut. xxvii. 10. f Dcut. xxviii. 7, 10.
THE MOSAIC LAW. 107
" put ten thousand to flight ; and your enemies
" shall fall before you by the sword."*
If, on the contrary, they will not observe the
words of the law, " to fear this glorious and
" fearful name, the Lord their God," they are
threatened with destruction as a people in a man-
ner as particular and confident, as if the future
event were present to the eye of the legislator.
" The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king
" which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation
" which neither thou nor thy fathers have known;
" and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood
" and stone ; and thou shalt become an asto-
" nishment, a proverb, and a by-word among
" all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee."f
Still farther, that he might influence those as
individuals who were careless of the public
welfare, Moses not only presumes upon a power
of directing foreign armies and future political
events, as in the passages already cited ; but
* Lev. xxvi. 7, 8. f Deut. xxviii. 36.
108 PECULIAR SANCTIONS OF
he speaks as if pestilence and famine, and all
the hosts of diseases, were placed under his au-
thority. The Lord, he says, to punish your ido-
latry, " will make thy plagues wonderful, and
" the plagues of thy seed : moreover, he will bring
" upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which
" thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto
" thee."* " If ye will not hearken unto me,
" and will not do all these commandments, I
" will do this unto you ; I will appoint over
" you terror, consumption, and the burning
" ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause
" sorrow of heart ; and ye shall sow your seed
" in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. / will
" bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the
" quarrel of my covenant ; and when ye are ga-
" thered together within your cities, I will send
" the pestilence among you ; and ye shall be
" delivered into the hands of the enemy. "f
Lastly, should they hereafter, in despite of
the promises held out to them on the one hand,
and the threats denounced on the other, rush
* Deut. xxviii. 59. f Lcvit. xxvi. 14, 15. 25.
THE MOSAIC LAW. 109
into the forbidden sin, and incur the captivity IX
appointed as the punishment of their rebellion ;
they are not led to expect deliverance through
the interference of friendly powers, or by train-
ing- up their youth to arms, or by the gradual
multiplication and increase of strength among
those that may have been left at home j or by
any of those means, in short, by which a legis-
lator, under common circumstances, might be
conceived likely to provide a remedy, for some
foreseen contingent evil : but their restoration
is to be effected, if at all, by a return to that
inward faith and pure worship, to their deser-
tion of which their calamity is ascribed. " If
" they shall confess their iniquity, and the ini-
" quity of their fathers, with their trespass
" which they trespassed against me, and that also
" they have walked contrary to me ; and that
" / also have walked contrary to them, and have
" brought them into the land of their enemies ;
11 if then thsir uncircumcised hearts be hum-
" bled, and they accept of the punishment of
" their iniquity ; then will I remember my cove-
" nant with Jacob, and also my covenant with
110 PECULIAR SANCTIONS OF
" Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham
" will I remember ; and I will remember the
" land."*
\/ Now the object, I conceive, which a person
would naturally prescribe to himself, having 1 the
design attributed to Moses of imposing a code of
laws upon his countrymen, would be, in the first
place, to create a favourable impression of those
laws with the people to whom they were ad-
dressed, by making them agreeable to their rea-
son, and their experience of the common course
of human affairs. But it cannot be pretended
that the blessings and the curse with which Moses
sanctions his code, are framed in any degree
upon the model of the usual law of God's moral
government. That vice, upon the whole, is
detrimental to the temporal prospects and success
of an individual, cannot certainly be denied ; and
examples may even be found of the collective
vices of a nation leading to such a degradation
of the national character, as to render a country
* Lev. xxvi. 40. See also the passage already quoted
from Deuteronomy xxx.
THE MOSAIC LAW. 1] 1
an easy prey to foreign enemies. But it is not
this distant and gradual effect of immorality
which the language of Moses points at : neither
is the crime which he specifically threatens with
captivity, one that can be at all supposed to lead
to it in the way of natural consequence. He
denounces national destruction as the immediate
punishment of national idolatry, just as a legis-
lator in ordinary circumstances threatens treason
with banishment or death, while he holds the
means of inflicting them in his hands. No
pains are taken to enforce the probability of this
judgment, considered as a natural proceeding.
For who, after all, were to execute the punish-
ment ? Not the more virtuous and more pure
worshippers, as might have been expected on
the general principle of retribution ; but it is
declared as an additional degradation to the
Hebrews, that their overthrow should be effected
by idolaters, and they themselves be brought
to " serve other gods, wood and stone."*
Again, Moses is not contented, as other law-
* Deut. xxviii. 36.
112 PECULIAR SANCTIONS OF
givers are forced to be, with threatening punish-
ments, but he also promises rewards. And his
rewards it would be as absurd for a person in
ordinary circumstances to offer, and for a people
under no peculiar dispensation to expect, as we
have seen the punishments to be : since the pros-
perity which is to be the consequence of their
obedience, must arise from the course of the
seasons, and depend upon the winds and clouds
of heaven : being no other than the fruitfulness
of the land, and the increase of their flocks and
herds. " If ye walk in my statutes, and keep
" my commandments, then I will give you rain
" in due season, and the land shall yield her
" increase, and the trees of the field shall
" yield their fruit. And your threshing shall
" reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall
" reach unto the sowing-time : and ye shall eat
" your bread to the full, and dwell in your land
" safely. And I will give peace in the land, and
" ye shall lie down, and none shall make you
" afraid ; and I will rid evil beasts out of your
" land."*
* Levit. x\vi.
THE MOSAIC LAW. 113
It would seem an idle waste of time if I were
to set about proving- systematically, that this is
not a skilful adaptation of the regular laws of
Providence, deduced from an attentive observa-
tion of the general course of divine government,
and applied to the sanction of a code pretending
to divine authority. No one, indeed, admitting
the agency of a Creator, can doubt that a general
providence ordains the series of events, and that
a particular providence superintends the inferior
agents by whose instrumentality they are brought
about : but no one can follow the path, or trace
the steps of its operation. Look through a body
of individuals ; who will venture to assign their
success to their moral virtues, or their misfor-
tunes to their guilt? Still more, survey the
nations of the world : is it possible to estimate
the degree of their idolatry by their comparative
barrenness, or to find any proportion preserved
between the natural fertility of the land and the
moral merits of the people ? The result of ob-
servation and experience is, that the good and
the bad, the wheat and the tares, grow up toge-
ther till the harvest, and that the sun shines and
VOL. I. I
1 14 PECULIAR SANCTIONS OF
the rain falls on the just and unjust without discri-
mination : this inequality being in fact essential to
a probationary state, which supposes all exactness
of retributive justice to be reserved for another.
If then such is the actual and undeniable
course of things, no rational impostor, intending
to devise a constitution for an infant people,
would have rested its stability on a violation of
that course, or sanctioned his laws upon a pre-
sumption of supernatural interference, unau-
thorized by the order of nature, and contradicted
by every day's experience. It is indeed possible
that he might, in general terms, have instructed
his people to depend upon the divine blessing,
whilst they obeyed the laws proposed to them,
and to dread divine vengeance, as the certain
consequence of disobedience. He might have
gone as far as Zaleucus, in saying that " every
one ought to labour all he can to become good,
both in practice and principle, whereby he will
render himself acceptable to the Deity."* But
he never could have proposed this invisible arm
* Tdv ueXXotra Zirai 6eo(jn\f).
THE MOSAIC LAW. 115
as the primary instrument of success, or minister
of punishment ; or have rested such entire de-
pendance on the divine agency, as to expect it to
supersede the usual means of victory, or national
defence. Let us refer to the example of Maho-
met : no one with more confidence, or apparent
enthusiasm, assured his followers of the assist-
ance of Heaven : and without hesitation, in the
moment of danger, " he demanded the succour
of Gabriel and three thousand angels/'* But
however he might endeavour to inflame by re-
ligious feelings the national valour of his Ara-
bian followers, we do not find that he neglected
any of the known means of success : he first
inured his troops to perfect discipline ; and then,
with consummate address, he brought in en-
thusiasm, not as a substitute for the common in-
struments of victory, but as an additional incite-
ment to their courage, by assigning the highest
rewards of a future state to the most heroic
warrior. " The sword," says the Koran, " is
the key of heaven and of hell : a drop of blood
shed in the cause of God, a night spent in arms,
Gibbon, vol. ix. p. 299.
I 2
116 PECULIAR SANCTIONS OF
is of more avail than two months of fasting or
prayer : whosoever falls in battle, his sins are
forgiven : at the day of judgment his wounds
shall be resplendent as vermilion and odoriferous
as musk ; and the loss of his limbs shall be sup-
plied by the wings of angels and cherubims."*
This is not the language of Moses : who calmly
says, " ye .shall walk in all the ways which the
" Lord your God hath commanded you, that ye
" may live, and that it may be well with you"\
Mahomet argues, Pursue the most decisive
measures to secure success, and then trust that
the divine aid will accompany the defenders of the
faith ; while Moses, in a tone directly opposite,
dissuades his people from trusting to themselves,
or to any other security than their obedience to
the commandments, and abstinence from idolatry.^
As yet, however, we have touched upon only
half the argument. The Hebrew leader not
only overlooks human means, and substitutes
heavenly protection for the usual and experi-
* Gibbon, chap. 1. f Deut. v. 32.
\ Deut. vi. 24 ; viii. 11, to the end of the chapter ; &c.
THE MOSAIC LAW. 117
enced instruments of national success and sta-
bility ; but he superadds enactments which must
actually render the Israelites, in every human
view, an easy prey to their enemies.
The first institution trenching- upon the
strength and security of the state is that of the
Sabbath : an institution which, when observed
in its original strictness and austerity, was not
merely calculated to produce the effect which we
now derive from its more limited obligation, of
increasing- the powers of a people, by sparing
their exertion ; but afforded an easy opening for
the destruction of the whole nation by any
enemies who should become acquainted with the
Hebrew law. So severe was the appointment,
that no work could be undertaken, either abroad
or at home, on the Sabbath ; not only the active
operations of war were forbidden, but all the
preparations for them : nor was there even any
indulgence, permitting a regard to the business
of self-defence.
There is no occasion for argument to point out
118 PECULIAR SANCTIONS OF
the difficulties which must arise from such an in-
stitution : the examples of the later ages of the
Jewish state furnish a sufficient proof that the
evil is not imaginary. In the first place it ap-
pears from the history of the Maccabees, that the
troops of Antiochus Epiphanes attacked a body
of Jews, belonging to Mattathias's party, on the
Sabbath ; who would neither repel their assault,
nor defend the cavern in which they had taken
refuge ; * " but said, Let us die in our inno-
" cency : heaven and earth shall testify for us, that
" ye put us to death wrongfully." This seems
to have been the first calamity into which the
nation had been suffered to fall, in consequence
of their strict adherence to the words of the
Mosaic law : for the experience of this event
having satisfied Mattathias that the extraordi-
nary providence by which such misfortunes had
hitherto been averted, was now withdrawn, a
general determination was made, with respect to
the future, to proceed as far as self-defence,
and repel force by force on the Sabbath.t
* 1 Mac. ch. ii.
-f- 1 Mac. v. 40,41. The account is confirmed by Josc-
phus, xii. 6.
THE MOSAIC LAW. 119
Subsequent events, however, prove, that even
such modified observance of this particular day,
if unaccompanied by the divine interference, was
quite inconsistent with the public safety. When
Pompey attacked Jerusalem, the inhabitants ad-
hered to the determination proposed by Matta-
thias. Pompey, therefore, perceiving that he
could carry on his works with impunity on the
Sabbath, the Jews making no effectual opposition
provided he did not actually force them to en-
gage, employed that seasonable opportunity for
raising his towers and battering-engines, and
proceeded in the attack on the following day by
means of this advantage :* a stratagem which
soon ended in its natural consequence, the cap-
ture of the city. From that time the institution
of the Sabbath seems to have been considered,
what it really was, a regular advantage to any in-
vader of Judaea.-{-
* Joseph. Antiq. Jud. 1. xiv. p. 614, ed. Huds.
-j- The governor of Babylonia, J osephus acquaints us, at-
tempted to surprise Asinseus on the Sabbath, oto^evoq ov
roXftrjaeiv dvTiara.rr\aaL dvrtf roue TroXe^t'oue, a'AA' apaj^f
Aa/Seiv dvrovg ciecJo/ieVove. This plot, however, was counter-
acted by the vigilance of the Jewish leader. Jos. xviii.
120 PECULIAR SANCTIONS OF
It is worth remarking, too, that other nations
were so well convinced of the necessary effect
of this institution, as to judge at once that it ren-
dered the Jews unfit for any of the operations
of war. In the year of Caesar's death, the consul
Dolabella exempted them from military con-
scription, on their pleading that it was against
their laws to act on the Sabbath, and also that
they were precluded from the use of customary
food. And afterwards, under Nero, when the
seeds of rebellion against the Roman authority
were first beginning to appear, Agrippa endea-
vours to check the spirit of discontent, by warn-
ing the Jews how little prospect of success they
could entertain against a powerful enemy, who
possessed a decided advantage over them from
this very peculiarity of their religious laws.
" If, " he argued, " you observe the duties of the
Sabbath, and abstain from labour on that day,
you become an easy prey to the enemy, as your
p. 828. Frontinus enumerates among his stratagems, that
Augustus Vespasianus Judseos, Saturni die, quo netas erat
([iiirijuam sense rei agere, adortus superavit, quia noluerunt
arma attingere.
THE MOSAIC LAW. 121
ancestors in the siege under Pompey. If, on
the contrary, you transgress your law to avoid
the consequences which must result from its
observance, then you defend a religion which you
yourselves are violating, and have nothing to
hope from the divine protection."*
It is evident then, that the actual events of his-
tory confirm the suggestions of common sense,
as to the natural effects to be expected from the
rigid attention to the Sabbath prescribed by
Moses. No one therefore can reasonably sup-
pose that any legislator acting upon his own au-
thority, would have endangered his state by such
a suicidal ordinance. This, however, is by no
means the only enactment which must have in-
flicted a death-blow upon any such polity of mere
human institution. It was positively appointed, t
that three times a year all the men of the coun-
try should appear together for the purpose of
worship at the place that should be appropriated
to the peculiar manifestation of the divine pre-
sence, viz. originally the tabernacle, and after-
* Jos. tie Bello Jud. 1. ii. p. 1089. f Exod. chap, xxxiv.
PECULIAR SANCTIONS OF
wards the temple at Jerusalem. What was this,
but to provide as it were for leaving- a frontier
exposed, which was surrounded on all sides by
inveterate enemies ? Moses therefore accompa-
nies the enactment by a divine declaration which
was to quell alarm : " I will cast out the nations
" before thee, and enlarge thy borders : neither
" shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt
" go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice
" in the year"* The objections which in a hu-
man view oppose the appointment and attend the
observance of such an ordinance, are so clear
and evident, that when Jeroboam dreaded the ef-
fect of a meeting between his revolted tribes and
their brethren, he had a ready plea at hand for
abrogating the usage ; and urging that it was too
much for his people to go up to Jerusalem,! he
prescribed two places where they might more
conveniently assemble.
The appointment of the Sabbatical year is
more extraordinary still : still less agreeable, if
possible, to the idea of human invention. It is
* Exod. xxxiv. 24. -j- 1 Kings xii.
THE MOSAIC LAW. 123
conceived in these terms : " When ye come into
" the land which I shall give you, then shall the
" land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord, Six years
" thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou
" shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the
" fruit thereof : but in the seventh year shall be
" a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for
" the Lord : thou shalt neither prune thy vine-
" yard nor sow thy field."* This is a point,
which never could have been insisted on by any
lawgiver, having only in view the usual conside-
rations of the wealth and security of his nation.
It strikes at the root of political economy, and
proceeds on a defiance of every object which a
legislator has most at heart, by legalizing idleness,
and causing an intermission of the regular avo-
cations of the people. Any such intermission is
calculated to inflict a twofold injury ; not only
by the immediate loss of time and its products,
but by the consequent loss of habit and inclina-
tion. No man therefore could of his own
accord have devised such an appointment ;
which was indeed only suited to a nation hav-
ing a peculiar office, independent of the com-
* Levit. xxv. 2.
PECULIAR SANCTIONS OF
mon business of life, and enjoying a peculiar pro-
tection, independent of the usual sources of pros-
perity. The disadvantages attending it could
only have been compensated by the paramount
necessity of preserving among the Israelites a
constant sense of the power and faithfulness of
God, and of the providence with which he se-
cured to them the possession of their land, as
long as they adhered to the conditions on which
they held it.*
That the nation, in point of real fact, could
not maintain its ground against these rigid insti-
tutions without this extraordinary providence to
correspond with them, we have here, as before,
the testimony of actual history. The regulations
of Moses, with the veneration which naturally
adhered to the authority by which they were ori-
ginally prescribed, were strictly followed on the
re-establishment of the nation after the captivity
at Babylon : though that signal accomplishment
of the denunciations contained in the law from
the beginning, might have satisfied the Hebrews
that the terrors of punishment had not been
* See Lowman on the Hebrew Ritual, p. 186, &c.
THE MOSAIC LAW.
vainly threatened, but that, as they had with-
drawn their allegiance, God had withdrawn his
protection. The natural consequence was soon
perceived. Under Antiochus Eupator Jerusalem
and the fortress of Bethsura were besieged in the
" year of rest," and after a spirited but useless
defence the former was taken, it having been im-
possible to procure provisions : and the latter
was quickly surrendered, from the same distress
of famine.* When Antigonus also had sought
refuge in Jerusalem from Herod, who was sup-
ported by the Romans, they suffered dreadfully
from scarcity, the event having fallen upon the
Sabbatical year.f
Could any one, let me ask, possessed of under-
standing to devise the Hebrew law, have failed
to foresee these inconveniences ; and having
foreseen them, have proceeded to encumber his
people, unnecessarily it would seem, with such dif-
ficulties, and have proposed to them to subscribe,
in a manner, to their own destruction, by vowing
obedience to laws so big with danger ? To this
* Mac. i. 6, 48, &c. Jos. Ant. p. 661. + Joseph. 637.
126 PECULIAR SANCTIONS OF
question let the legislator furnish his own reply.
He does not propose these observances blindly and
ignorantly, and with no regard to the objections
arising from them ; but he overrules the objec-
tions, by the importance of his views in their es-
tablishment, and trusts to the power under
which he acted, for a security against the evident
danger to be apprehended. " Keep my judg-
" ments," he declares in the name of the Al-
mighty, " and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.
" And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the se-
" venth year f behold, we shall not sow nor ga-
" ther in our increase : then I will command
" my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it
" shall bring forth fruit for three years. And
" ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of
" old fruit until the ninth year ; until her fruits
" come in shall ye eat of the old store.'**
Moses therefore appoints the observance of
customs, which it is plain from reason, and
which he undoubtedly foresaw, required super-
natural protection ; and upon this supernatural
* Levit. xxv. 20, &c.
THE MOSAIC LAW. 127
protection he instructs his people to rely. Whe-
ther they actually received this assistance, it is
not necessary to discuss : but the question is,
can we believe that he would have promised it
in these confident terms, upon his own autho-
rity ; or even if we suppose he might have been
so insane an enthusiast, was the whole nation
infected with his insanity in such a degree as to
trust his promises, and pay him implicit obe-
dience ? Can we imagine that the Israelites, if
they had not really been in the habit of seeing,
in their deliverance from Egypt and their pro-
gress through the wilderness, continual evidence
of divine interference, would have trusted the
safety of their families, the liberty of their
country, and their existence as a nation, to a
deviation from all the known laws of nature,
and the course of all former experience ? Yet
this they were in the continual custom of doing,
not theoretically but practically three times every
year, when they left their families and homes to
" appear before the Lord" in the place specifi-
cally appointed, and when they allowed their
lands to lie uncultivated, and gave up all the
1*28 PECULIAR SANCTIONS OF
produce of their possessions one year in seven.
Sudden acts of desperation, or of valour ap-
proaching to desperation, have arisen from the
immediate impulse of enthusiasm upon a people :
but the calm and regular and formal observance
of the Sabbath and stated sacrifices, and the
habitual confidence in superior power, implied
by a Sabbatical year, it is impossible to attribute
to any such unsound influence : and it would be
a waste of words to argue upon the subject, or
bring the case to the test of practicability, with
any supposed impostor now. For what had the
Israelites seen, to corroborate any enthusiastic
promise of an immediate providence, in the
history of their ancestors for many generations ?
They had long been an injured and an un-
redressed people ; who had settled in Egypt by
invitation of its monarch, had increased its
strength by their labour and numbers, and at
last had been reduced to most abject slavery,
and treated with unexampled cruelty : from
which they had now rescued themselves through
the greatest difficulties and dangers, but only
on the hard conditions of leaving the country
THE MOSAIC LAW.
of their nativity, to seek another, through a bar-
ren wilderness, by the exertions of their own
valour. Take away all miraculous interpo-
sition from their departure out of Egypt,
and from the promulgation of the law at Mount
Sinai, and this is the tale that remains ; no
good foundation, it would appear, on which to
build the doctrine of an extraordinary Pro-
vidence punishing oppression and vindicating
innocence, and accommodating the national
prosperity to the national morals, in the exact
proportion of retributive justice. Yet it was to
a people who had this history fresh in their
memories, that Moses proposed a law, which
not only presumed, but declared, the constant
superintendence of divine power, for the protec-
tion of the chosen nation : and it was a people
who had suffered so much for want of an in-
terposing Providence, who received a book of
statutes, which, if they were not supported by a
deviation from the common laws of things and
seasons, made them the voluntary instruments
of their own destruction.
VOL. i. K
130 PECULIAR SANCTIONS OF
If, then, any faith is to be placed in our ex-
perience of the human mind, the peculiar pro-
visions of the Hebrew polity afford as strong
an evidence of its divine appointment, and mark
as strong- a contrast between it and all human
institutions, as was deduced in the former Sec-
tion from the peculiar object it professes to
have in view. The same conclusion must be
drawn from both : for, as nothing could account
for the object of the polity, except the truth of
the accompanying history, so the peculiar pro-
visions can only be explained by admitting that
they were really established by the command of
the Creator, and supported by his power. Nor
is any preliminary fact assumed to establish the
argument, or required to confirm it, except the
real existence of the polity itself. The certainty
of this we derive, not only from the original do-
cuments, which furnish the surest attainable au-
thority in all cases relating to domestic and civil
institutions, but from the incidental remarks of
profane writers ; which either plainly indicate,
or expressly declare, that the Jewish people were
understood to possess a system of government
THE MOSAIC LAW. 131
and religious worship, totally different from those
existing- among 1 other nations. The observations
arising from the cursory acquaintance of these
writers with the Jews, ascertain their confidence
in miraculous interposition ; * their devout at-
tachment to their religious belief; their scrupu-
lous observance of the Sabbath ; their abhor-
rence of idolatry ; -f~ their disdain of foreign na-
* This is to be collected from the supercilious remark of
Horace, Credat Judseus Apella, Non ego.
-f- Quidam sortiti metuentem Sabbata patrem,
Nil praeter nubes et coeli numeii adorant. Juv. xiv. 96.
In the succeeding- lines he specifies all their most remark-
able peculiarities : see, too, Mr. Gifford's note on the passage.
Lucan, in a concise allusion, points at the peculiarity of their
faith :
" Dedita sacris
Incerti Judaea Dei." Phars. lib. ii. 1. 593.
Dion Cassius's account is specific, as to many points of their
disagreement from the rest of the world, 1. xxxvii. p. 41.
Tacitus confirms the observance of the Sabbatical year : Sep-
timum quoque annum ignavise datum. He expressly men-
tions that they held images as profane ; and worshipped only one
God, seen by the eye of the mind(menta sola unumque Numen,
iritelligunt). He declares, too, that Moses instituted rites
contrary to those of all other nations. The foundation of
bis account, which is a curious perversion of real history,
exists in an e\-\oy?? of Diod. Sic. p. 901. That author gives
132 PECULIAR SANCTIONS OF
tions, and unsociable aversion to all who did not
profess their own religion. These are the only
points to which we can possibly require the col-
lateral evidence of foreign testimony : and to
these most ample testimony is supplied. The
profane historians and satirists, in the true spirit
of polytheism, ridiculed the Jews as a superstitious
people ; and by that ridicule have confirmed the
truth of the Jewish history, and thrown upon
it the only additional light which the original
records and documents we possess could re-
ceive.
us a general account of the Jews, reported to the inquiries of
Antiochus Eupator, that they, after their establishment iu
Judea, -rrapalofft/biov Troifjaai ro/it<roc irpoc roue dvQpvirovc.
Of their abhorrence of images, a curious instance, among
many others, occurs in Josephus. The inhabitants of that
part of the country through which Vitellius was passing in
his route against the Arabians, anxiously besought him to
forbear introducing among them their ensigns with the eagles
attached to them : ov ydp elvai dvrolq -rrdrptov ireptopdv EIKOVCH;
etc \wpav ^epoyueVctc. Antiq. \\iii. c. 6. s. 3, A still stronger
resistance was made to the introduction of the image of Tibe-
rius as an ensign into Jerusalem ; and the threatened erection
of Caligula's statue iu the temple was the occasion of the
greatest apprehension and despair. Jos. de Bel. Jud. xi.
ch. 10.
THE MOSAIC LAW. 133
Had the appearance of the Jewish rites and
polity presented nothing- extraordinary to the
Romans, when the progress of their arms and
commerce introduced such a nation to their
knowledge, some colourable presumption might
perhaps have been raised against the actual or
literal observance of the Mosaic institutions.
We learn, however, that their civil customs and
religious tenets, as soon as they met the eyes
of foreigners and polytheists, did appear ex-
clusively peculiar. Whence then, let me finally
ask, did this peculiarity arise ? We may confi-
dently affirm, that the singular tendency of the
Mosaic economy, as laid down in the preceding
Sections, and its peculiar provisions, as detailed
in this, are inexplicable, except on the admission
that the Jewish polity was really established for
the purpose of preserving the knowledge and
worship of the Creator, and supported by the
national experience of miraculous interposi-
tion.
134 ON THE RELIGIOUS OPINIONS
SECTION V.
On the religious Opinions of the Hebrews.
IT is important to inquire, whether the general
opinions prevalent among the Hebrew people,
respecting the high matters declared to them in
their law, furnish a corroboration of the conclu-
sion derived from the tone in which that law is
conceived. Was the belief of a Creator and
Ruler of the universe maintained in any purity
amongst them ? Was their worship, with their
hymns and addresses to the Deity, conformable
to the belief which it was the object of their
national institutions to inculcate ? Was their
superiority over other nations in these respects,
at all proportioned to the peculiarity of their in-
stitutions ? The result of this inquiry must fur-
OF THE HEBREWS. 135
nish either a material confirmation, or a strong-
objection to the divine appointment of the Mo-
saic law. For, if a rational and sublime belief
of an omnipotent Creator and independent Go-
vernor of the world, be once impressed upon an
infant people with the solemnity which accom-
panied the promulgation from Mount Sinai, it
will naturally be supposed that its effect would
not be confined to the devotions of the anchoret
or speculations of the philosopher, but would
display itself in the national worship of the
people, and become interwoven with the whole
texture of their morality and literature. Just
views and sure conviction are at least to be ex-
pected, even though they should fail to produce
undeviating 1 obedience. The firmest conviction,
we know experimentally, does not always tend
to practical obedience in the progress of an indi-
vidual through the difficulties and temptations of
life ; much less then should it be expected in a
nation placed under such singular circumstances,
and standing alone in the midst of a surrounding-
host of evil examples. Still, however, if it
appeared that the Hebrew people were no more
136 ON THE RELIGIOUS OPINIONS
pure or fervent in their piety, and no more con-
sistent in their religious belief, than other an-
cient nations, an argument might be justly
raised against their having really received a di-
vine revelation, from the absence of its natural
practical consequence. But it will be seen on
examination, that the declarations and provisions
contained in the Mosaic law were not only in-
trinsically good, but practically efficient ; and
that there was as much superiority in the reli-
gious opinions actually entertained by the He-
brews, as peculiarity in the means appointed to
preserve them. This superiority is visible in
their public worship, and displays itself re-
markably in the notions of the Supreme Being
which occur in their writings.
It is first to be observed, that a general belief
in the existence of one spiritual, omnipotent,
and omnipresent Being, the Creator of the world,
was diffused throughout the Hebrew people. I
shall hereafter take an opportunity of showing,
that, even among the most learned and philo-
sophical heathens, this belief did not prevail,
OF THE HEBREWS. 137
to any purposes of practical devotion. The
language of Moses and of Plato, in extent
and confidence, no more admits of compari-
son, than the conjectural reasoning of Galileo
resembles the demonstrative conclusions of New-
ton. But a far more remarkable difference
occurs as we descend in the scale of learning
and civilization. The sublime opinions respect-
ing the Deity which originate in the Mosaic
account of the creation, and which are enforced
and preserved by the law established to com-
memorate that fact, were not confined to any
superior sect or philosophical part of the nation,
but were alike familiar to the highest and
lowest of the people. All worshipped the same
God, according to the same form, in the same
temple. No Peripatetic disputed, no Academic
doubted, no Epicurean denied the truth of the
national faith. It was justly pointed out by
their learned countryman, that all held the
same opinion, and agreed with the law in af-
firming that one God overruled the world :
and it might be heard as the sentiment even of
the vulgar and illiterate, that all should propose
138 ON THE RELIGIOUS OPINIONS
to themselves piety towards Him, as their prin-
cipal object in the various pursuits of life.*
Few readers require to be reminded how
different a picture from this the other nations
of the ancient world present. Detached pas-
sages indeed may be produced, particularly from
the writings of Plato and Xenophon, which
contain very sublime conceptions of some su-
preme artificer of the universe ; but these doc-
trines were not only heard with no general
effect, and converted few proselytes even among
the instructed orders of society, but from the
vulgar they were altogether withheld, as un-
suited to their comprehensions. The difference
between the esoteric and exoteric philosophy
is universally acknowledged : and appears to
be founded in a notion like that which made
Plato declare, in a passage which has been
often brought forward, that it was difficult to
discover the father of the universe, and that,
* Joseph, contra Apion. " Of servants and women," in
the original. The low rank which they held in ancient times,
is notorious.
OF THE HEBREWS. 139
when discovered, it was impossible to make him
generally known.*
Superstitious polytheism had struck its roots
so deeply before Plato lived, that he probably
had reason to apprehend all endeavours to era-
dicate it would be vain. But the consequence
was, as might be expected, that the popular
faith of the heathen vulgar was equally repug-
nant to reason and inapplicable to devotion.
Instead of the unanimous confession andadoration
of the same supreme Governor, which the
Hebrews avowed, the people who set out to
the festival of one deity, returned home to ce-
lebrate another ; every element had its appro-
priate guardian, and every profession its pecu-
liar patron. Perhaps no error is more natural
to ignorance, than to suppose that particular
deities preside over the various elements, or,
influencing the powers both of body and mind,
direct the several arts which exercise the in-
genuity of man ; but nevertheless it is error,
Tim. p. 28. Tom. iii. ToV /ueV ovy 7rotjjr/;>' KOI -rrarepa
TovZe TOV TTtt'jToc, evpelv re epyov, KO.I cvpovru, eiQ
a$vva.TQV \eyetv.
M-0 ON THE RELIGIOUS OPINIONS
however natural ; it is the error of ignorance ; and
flies from the test of reason as well as revelation.
No such inconsistency is to be found in the
belief of the Hebrews. Instead of a general
consciousness of some unseen powers, superior
to themselves, united to a vague idea of some
one particular power, superior to the rest, which
may be considered as a loose outline of the
popular faith of the heathen world ; God was
honoured among the Hebrews, under one con-
sistent character : as a Being so spiritual, that he
cannot be either represented, or properly wor-
shipped, under any sensible image ; and yet at
the same time as constituting the fit object, and
the only fit object, of human worship, inasmuch
as he is the independent Creator and sole
Governor of the universe.
It results from this sublime idea of the Di-
vine unity and attributes, established by the
writings of Moses, that we find an equal supe-
riority over the rest of the ancient world, in
the abstract conception* on the subject of the
OF THE HEBREWS. 141
Divine essence* which exist in the Hebrew
Scriptures, and in the public devotional wor-
ship which prevailed among- the Hebrew peo-
* This superiority is strongly exemplified by the Nomen
Tetragrammaton rendered Jehovah ; and derived from a root
signifying essence, or existence, TO eivai, or virdp^iv. It is
well known that the Jews commonly applied, and still apply,
other titles to the Deity, as Shaddai, the rock, or powerful
one, Adonai, or dominion, and Elohim, lords, i. e. so-
vereignty. The name Jehovah they hold in veneration,
which makes them deem it ineffable, as not expressing the
attributes only, but the essence of the Deity. It was well
understood and preserved by the Septuagint translators, who
render it /cuptoe a Kvpw, sum, a word not classically used to
signify God, as appears from Julius Pollux, who gives the
words deal and Sainoves, but not Kvptoe. It appears, from
various sources, that this was understood to be the title un-
der which the Hebrews worshipped their Supreme (see Park-
hurst Hebr. Lex. Pearson on the Creed, p. 147) ; and St,
Hilary says, that meeting with the words (before his con-
version to Christianity) which express the same idea, in Exo-
dus, chap, iii., he was struck with admiration, there being
nothing so proper to God, as to be. It was well suitable to
the Divine dignity, when the Hebrews were the depositories
of his being and attributes, and were surrounded on all sides
by gods worshipped under various appellations, that the
Creator should distinguish himself by a name signifying his
independent essence, from which all other things derive
theirs.
142 ON THE RELIGIOUS OPINIONS
pie.* To set this matter in a true light, it
will be necessary to institute an actual compa-
rison between the Jews and other ancient na-
tions ; and as national worship takes its tone
from the ideas of supreme power which pre-
vail antecedently to its establishment, I shall
first consider the nature of these ideas, as de-
veloped in their sacred compositions.
The Hebrews, as far as we know, seem to
have cultivated general literature less than most
nations who have attained, in other respects,
an equal degree of civilization ; far less, cer-
tainly, than the rivals with whom we are able
to compare them, the inhabitants of Greece
and Italy. Poetry, which usually branches
out into a thousand various courses, following
* Ft was pretended by Tyndal and Collins formerly ; that
the Jews refined their old doctrines concerning the Deity, and
invented new ones, just as the priests improved in know-
ledge, or the people advanced in curiosity, or as both were
better taught in the countries to which they were led captive.
The proper answer to this is, that they could no where learn
such theology as that of Moses, or such devotion as that of
David.
OF THE HEBREWS. 143
every variety of genius and national manners,
is, with them, confined to the single channel of
morality and religion. The battles and sieges
they had known, furnished subjects to no epic
poet ; we hear no mention of dramatic repre-
sentations : and their history, which has since
proved so fertile a source of poetry, is recorded
in concise and unambitious annals.
Inferior, however, in every other species of
composition to the writers of other nations, the
Hebrews abound with poetical addresses to the
Supreme Being which infinitely surpass any
similar attempts that can be brought into com-
parison. They contain ideas of omnipotence
and omnipresence, disgraced by no sensible
images ; they concur in representing the same
invisible and spiritual Being, to be the guar-
dian of mankind, and the Creator of the whole
universe : above all, they excel in describing
the moral attributes of God, justice, and good-
ness, and mercy, existing together, and not
counteracting each other. Almost the whole
beauty of the Hebrew poetry may be traced to
144 ON THE RELIGIOUS OPINIONS
that union of the natural and moral sublime,
which was inspired by their belief of the majesty
of the Creator. But this beauty is at once of
the highest importance and of the most difficult
attainment. It proves that these opinions re-
specting the moral attributes, as well as the
unity, power, and majesty of the Creator, ex-
isted generally among the Jews : that the ac-
count of the creation, on which the legislation
of Moses was founded, did not remain as a dead
letter on the records, but influenced the belief
and filled the conceptions of the people collec-
tively considered. A poet indeed, choosing,
like Milton, a sacred subject, may describe God
as a wise and powerful Creator, and as a just
and good ruler of the universe, who has no ef-
fectual belief that he deserves these appellations.
But such a description proves at least that such a
belief exists somewhere. The absence of similar
conceptions from the heathen writings, affords a
negative proof that no such belief existed among
them : so that their poetry, however excellent
in all subjects where the actions and characters
of men are concerned, and however superior in
OF THE HEBREWS. 145
the arts and graces of composition, is nevertheless
devoid of all dignity of style, or sublimity of sen-
timent, wherever it relates or is addressed to the
superior powers.
It would be an injustice to the argument not
to illustrate its truth, by comparing with those
hymns which the ancient authors have left us,
some of the effusions of Jewish devotion. And
as the passages of this nature which remain
from the wreck of heathen literature, being
chiefly fragments, are less familiarly known
than other ancient writings, I shall not he-
sitate to place them by the side of those Jewish
compositions that may be most similar in subject.
The supremacy of Jupiter is described by
Orpheus : and though much of that collection
which passes under the title of the Orphic
Hymns is confessedly interpolated, the follow-
ing verses may be safely quoted, being pre-
served in pagan writings.*
* Proclus on the Timeeus. Auctor de Mundo. Vide
VOL. I. L
146 ON THE RELIGIOUS OPINIONS
" Jupiter, who commands the thunder, was
first and last j Jupiter is the head and the midst :
all things were formed from Jupiter ; Jupiter
is immortally both male and female ; * Jupiter
is the foundation of the earth and starry heaven ;
Jupiter is the breath of all things ; Jupiter is the
force of invisible fire ; Jupiter is the root of the
sea ; Jupiter the sun and moon ; Jupiter is the
ruler ; Jupiter himself the first origin of all.
There is one power, one deity, one great ruler
of all."
Cudworth, vol, i. p. 301. On the Orphic hymns there have
been various opinions. In Origen's judgment, contra Cel-
sum, 1. 7, they are far inferior to Homer's. On the other
hand, Pausaniae judicio, 1. 9, Orphei hymnis elegantiores
existimantur Homerici, Orphei BcoXoyiKwrepoi. et forte, se-
cuudum Allatii opinionem, compositi ab Onomacrito, ad
Homeri iraitatiouem. Meminit hymnorum Orphei Plato, 8.
de Legibus : et Pausanias in Boeoticis, qui paucos et breves
fuisse refert; unde non alios habuisse videtur quam nos
hodie legimus. Fabric, Bib. Gr. i. 18.
j- This idea is expressed in some verses of Valerius Sora-
nus, quoted by Augustiu from Varro, Civ. Dei, 1. 7.
Jupiter omnipotens rcgum, rerumque deumque
Progenitor, genitrixque deum : deus unus et omnis.
OF THE HEBREWS. 147
To this description, in which the idea of a
Supreme Governor is confounded with that
adopted by the stoics, &c. which identified the
Deity and the world,* I would oppose the ex-
postulation of Isaiah, ch. xlv. ver. 5 : " I am
" the Lord, and there is none else ; there is
" no God beside me : I girded thee, (prophe-
" tic of Cyrus,) though thou hast not known
" me ; that they may know from the rising of
" the sun, and from the west, that there is
" none beside me : I am the Lord, and there is
" none else. I form the light, and create
" darkness ; I make peace, and create evil ; I
" the Lord do all these things. Drop down,
" ye heavens, from above, and let the skies
* This error, which, 1 shall afterwards observe, pervaded
the most specious systems of the ancient theology, is still
more evident in the opening to Aratus's Phenomena, a sen-
tence of which is quoted by St. Paul.
'EK Atoc dp%u)/j.effda' rdv ovleiror ti^peg eu/Jej'
"Apprjrof jLteorat $e Atoc Trdarat fj.ev dyvial,
ndo-cu <T dvdptairiijy dyopal' peart} c>e QdXavaa,
Kcu X/^evcc' iravTrj If Atoc Ke^prjpeda
Tov ydp teal yevoc
1 18 ON THE RELIGIOUS OPINIONS
" pour down righteousness ; let the earth open,
" and let them bring- forth salvation, and let
" righteousness spring up together ; I the Lord
" have created it. Thus saith the Lord, the
" Holy One of Israel, and his maker ; Ask me
" of things to come, concerning my sons, and
" concerning the works of my hands command
*' ye me : I have made the earth, and created
" man upon it ; I, even my hands, have
" stretched out the heavens, and all their host
" have I commanded."
A fragment of Euripides affords us an interest-
ing specimen of rational devotion struggling
against the uncertainty of corrupt belief: * " To
thee who governest all things, I offer the liba-
tion and sacrificial cake, whether thou preferrest
the title of Jove or Hades. Receive thou my
plenteous offering of various fruits. For, di-
recting among the celestial gods the sceptre
of Jupiter, thou partakest also with Hades, the
* Fr. 155. There arc many various readings throughout
this fragment : I give the general sense, according to the text
in Musgrave's edition.
OF THE HEBREWS. 119
kingdom of the gods below. Send the light of
the soul to those of men who desire to know
beforehand whence their labours spring, what
is the source of evils, and whom of the gods
they should appease by sacrifice, to receive a
respite from their toils."
With this I would compare the lO2nd of the
Hebrew Psalms, of which the author is uncer-
tain ; it is supposed to implore the assistance of
God for Jerusalem, either during the period of
the Babylonish captivity, or soon after the deli-
verance of the Jews. It thus concludes, from
verse 15 : " When the Lord shall build up Zion,
" he shall appear in his glory. He will regard
" the prayer of the destitute, and not despise
" their prayer. This shall be written for the
" generations to come, and the people which
" shall be created, shall praise the Lord ; for
" he hath looked down from the height of the
" sanctuary ; from heaven did the Lord behold
" the earth ; to hear the groaning of the pri-
" soner ; to loose those that are appointed to
" death ; to declare the name of the Lord in
150 ON THE RELIGIOUS OPINIONS
" Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem ; when the
" people are gathered together, and the king-
" doms to serve the Lord. He weakened my
" strength in the way, he shortened my days.
" I said, O God, take me not away in the
" midst of my days j thy years are throughout
" all generations. Of old hast thou laid the
" foundation of the earth ; and the heavens are
" the work of thy hands ; they shall perish,
" but thou shalt endure, yea, all of them shall
" wax old like a garment ; as a vesture shalt
" thou change them, and they shall be changed ;
" but thou art the same, and thy years shall
" have no end. The children of thy servants
" shall continue, and their seed shall be esta-
" Wished before thee." *
Nothing, however, among the heathen devo-
* If I had any heathen relic which could be contrasted
with it, I might here add the 103d Psalm, which is attributed
to David, and in the grateful manner of thanksgiving con-
tains a beautiful acknowledgment of the mercy and provi-
dence of God extended to individuals. Half of the Psalms
indeed have an equal claim to selection with that I have taken ;
particularly Ps. cxxxviii. cxxxix.
OF THE HEBREWS. 151
tional pieces, is equal in consistent grandeur
of ideas to the hymn ascribed to Cleanthes the
Stoic, which candour requires me to cite at
large.*
" Hail, O Jupiter, most glorious of the im-
mortals, invoked under many names, always
most powerful, the first ruler of nature, whose
law governs all things ; hail, for to address
thee is permitted to all mortals. For our race
we have from thee ; t we mortals who creep
upon the ground, receiving only the echo of
thy voice. J Wherefore I will celebrate thee,
and will always sing thy power. All this
universe rolling round the earth, obeys thee
wherever thou guidest, and willingly is go-
verned by thee. So vehement, so fiery, so
immortal is the thunder which thou boldest
subservient in thy unshaken hands : for, by the
* Brunck, Gnomici Poetae, p. 141.
-J- Fabricius thinks it possible that St. Paul may have
had this passage in view, as well as Aratus : 'E/c crov yap
| 'Irjc fic
152 ON THE RELIGIOUS OPINIONS
stroke of this, all nature was rooted ; by tins,
thou directest the common reason which per-
vades all things, mixed with the greater and
lesser luminaries; so great a king art thou,
supreme through all ; nor does any work take
place without thee on the earth, nor in the
ethereal sky, nor in the sea, except what the
bad perform in their own folly. But do thou,
O Jupiter, giver of all blessings, dwelling in
the clouds, ruler of the thunder, defend mortals
from dismal misfortune ; which dispel, O father,
from the soul, and grant it to attain that judg-
ment, trusting to which thou governest all
things with justice : that, being honoured, we
may repay thee with honour, singing continually
thy works, as becomes a mortal ; since there is
no greater meed to men or gods, than always
to celebrate justly the universal law."
Though I am ready to confess that if this
hymn had not stood alone among the heathen
writings, my present argument* would have
* This hymn first occurs in Stobseus, who lived at the end
of the fourth century. Cleauthes died 240 years before
OF THE HEBREWS. 153
lost much of its force ; I think it will be found
to yield both in distinctness of conception and
Christ. Diogenes Laertius, in his catalogue of Cleanthes'
writings, makes no mention of it. What seems remarkable
supposing it genuine, is, its escaping the notice of Clemens
Alexandrinus and Eusebius : who were so anxious to adduce
every thing ancient that might seem parallel to the Scripture,
that they even quote from Homer's shield of Achilles ;
Et> p.ev yalav erfv^e, KO.I ovpuvov, ev Se QuXaaaav,
'Ev e TO. relpea irdvrd TU T ovpat'OQ e
as similar to Moses's account of the creation. Praep. Ev.
1. 13. p. 674.
The fact is, that, from a mistaken earnestness of the early
Christians to recommend, as they hoped, Scripture, by con-
firming it from writers of classical estimation, the most obvi-
ous interpolations were introduced into any old writings upon
sacred subjects. In the hymn which Warburton quotes
from Orpheus, as the very hymn sung by the hierophant
in the Eleusinian mysteries, there occurs this manifest
forgery :
"Ou yap Kei' nc tt/ot QvrfTuv pepoTruJv xpaivovra,
'E< prj povro-yet'tjQ TIQ cnropput^, fyvXov avtoQf.v
Nothing can deserve much stress, which is not quoted before
or about the Christian era.
With regard to Cleanthes it should be observed, that,
whatever be the language of his hymn, those who possessed
his philosophical writings ascribe to him the general opinions
154 ON THE RELIGIOUS OPINIONS
confident devotion, to the following extract from
the Book of Wisdom : " O God of my fathers,
" and Lord of mercy, who hast made all things
" with thy word, and ordained man through
" thy wisdom, that he should have dominion
" over the creatures which thou hast made, and
" order the world according to equity and righte-
" ousness, and execute judgment with an up-
" right heart : give me wisdom, that sitteth
" by thy throne, and reject me not from among
" thy children. For I thy servant, and son of
" thy handmaid, am a feeble person, and of a
" short time, and too young for the understand -
" ing of judgment and laws. For though a man
" be never so perfect among the children of
" men, yet if thy wisdom be not with him, he
" shall be nothing regarded. And wisdom was
" with thee, which knoweth thy works, and
" was present when thou madest the world, and
of his sect* " Cleantlies ipsum mundum Drum dicit esse,
turn totius iiainiM menti atque animo hoc nomcn tribuit."
Cic. de Nat. Deor. 1.1. "Cleauthes mentem modo animum,
modo aethera, plerumque ratiouem Deum disscruit." Minuc.
Felix, 1. xix.
OF THE HEBREWS. 155
" knew what was acceptable in thy sight, and
" right in thy commandments. O send her out
" of thy holy heavens, and from the throne of
" thy glory, that being present, she may labour
" with me, that I may know what is pleasing
" unto thee. For she knoweth and under-
" standeth all things, and she shall lead me so-
" berly in my doings, and preserve me in her
" power. For what man is he that can know
" the counsel of God ? Or who can think what
" the will of the Lord is ? For the thoughts of
" mortal men are miserable, and our devices are
" but uncertain. For the corruptible body press-
" eth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle
" weigheth down the mind that museth upon
" many things. And hardly do we guess
" aright at things that are upon the earth, and
" with labour do we find the things that are be-
" fore us : but the things that are in heaven,
" who hath searched out? And thy counsels
" who hath known, except thou give wisdom,
" and send thy Holy Spirit from above ? For
" so the ways of men which lived on the earth
15G ON THE RELIGIOUS OPINIONS
" were reformed, and men were taught the
" thing's that are pleasing unto thee, and were
" saved through wisdom."*
Extracts, after all, fail in doing justice to the
subject. The passages which I have selected
from the Hebrew writings, are taken from a
volume, which if a hundred persons were to
read it with the same object in view, would
probably lead each of them to fix upon different
instances of beauty : but those which I have
cited from ancient pagan writers, are the most
important which the indefatigable Cud worth
could discover for the purpose of supporting
his overstrained hypothesis : nor am I aware
of the existence of any remains superior to
those I have adduced, since the general tenor
of ancient poetry is altogether contradictory to
them. The hymns of Homer and Callimachus,
and those collected in the book of Hebrew
Psalms, form a contrast of irresistible force.
* Wisdom, chap. ix. entire excepting three verses relating-
to the ;tssuincd character of Solomon.
OF THE HEBREWS. 157
What deserves to be kept particularly in view,
is the important fact, that in the Hebrew Scrip-
tures there is no drawback of inconsistency, no
passages which militate against the general im-
pression of the rest. It would be quite dis-
gusting, on the contrary, to quote at length the
absurdities of the heathen hymns. That of Cal-
limachtis to Jupiter, which concludes with an air
of grandeur, " Hail, O supreme Jupiter, the
giver of blessings, the author of safety : who
can sing thy works ?" has this unworthy intro-
duction : " What can we better sing at the
festival of Jove, than the god himself, always
great, and perpetually governor, the conqueror
of the earth-born Titans, who gives laws to the
inhabitants of heaven ? How shall I celebrate
him, as Cretan or Arcadian ? I am doubtful,
since his origin is disputed. They say, O
Jupiter, that thou wast born on Ida's mountain :
they say also, in Arcadia : which, O father, has
been false ? The Cretans are always false, for
they, O king, have raised a tomb to thee : but
thou diedst not, for thou livest always." This
is followed by a long account of the birth of
Jupiter from Rhea.
158 ON THE RELIGIOUS OPINIONS
It may be observed, that nothing- has been
quoted from any Roman poet. Rome, in fact,
has left us nothing applicable to the purpose.
The Carmina Saecularia, or occasional hymns
of Horace and Catullus, contain nothing supe-
rior to the gross superstitions of the vulgar.
Of these, indeed, ancient poetry was the ge-
neral repository ; and instead of being devoted,
as among the Hebrews, to the noble purpose
of addressing or celebrating the Creator, is
justly prohibited from his Utopia, by Plato, as
inculcating ideas unworthy of the gods, and
pernicious to mankind : and is condemned by
Varro to the purposes of dramatic representa-
tion.*
The difference, therefore, which existed be-
tween the Jews and other nations in their civil
institutions, continues farther, it has appeared,
so as to impart a peculiar complexion to their
literature. Their writings treat of the Creator
in the same sublime tone and language as that
which is inculcated in the law. And this with-
* Apud Augustin. d& Civ. Dei, 1. vi. c. 5, 6.
OF THE HEBREWS. 159
out exception. From the earliest to the latest
of the Hebrew authors, there is an interval of
at least 1200 years. Yet from the first to the
last there is no contradiction. All their writers
seem to have imbibed from the same fountain
the same idea. Some parts may labour more
than others under the disadvantage of transla-
tion scrupulously literal from a language im-
perfectly understood : but all agree in describ-
ing the unity, superintending power, and good-
ness of the Creator. To this spirit so univer-
sally diffused, the few gleams of genius which
I have exhibited from heathen authors, and
which occasionally break out from the heaviest
clouds of error and obscurity, will no more bear
comparison, than the blaze of a meteor to the
steady light of the sun.
This too, as far as it goes, is surely import-
ant. It proves, that the impression made upon
the people, in the infancy of their state, was
both vivid and permanent. It proves that there
was nothing contradictory between the state
religion, and the popular sentiments. There
160 ON THE RELIGIOUS OPINIONS, &C.
was not one system of theology for the poet,
and another for the philosopher. And this is
all uniform, and consistent with what was ob-
served in the opening of this Section as a legi-
timate demand. It might be expected, that as
the leading object of the Hebrew polity was
different from any other known institution, simi-
lar traces of peculiarity might be found in the
general sentiments and even habits of the nation.
And there is this peculiarity. It was to be
desired also that there should exist throughout
the Hebrew writers, the same clearness of views,
the same superior intelligence as to the creation
and the unity of God, which it was so remark-
ably the purpose of the legislator to establish.
And there is this decided superiority.
161
SECTION VI.
On the National Worship of the Hebrews.
THE consideration of the devotional worship of
the Israelites is of similar nature and import-
ance to that pursued in the preceding Section.
If we were to make a comprehensive survey,
we should find the public worship of the vari-
ous nations of mankind to be no inaccurate
transcript of their abstract conceptions of the
divine nature. Theoretical errors as to the cha-
racter of the Deity, have uniformly led to cor-
responding errors in the popular religion. The
worship of the ancient heathens was not only
gross and licentious in general, as might be ex-
pected from the adorers of deified men ; but
was more or less licentious in pretty exact pro-?
VOL. I. M
162 ON THE NATIONAL WORSHIP
portion to the supposed nature of the indivi-
dual deity, in whose honour the particular fes-
tival might be held. The national worship,
therefore, may be considered as the practical
test to which we can bring the religious feel-
ings and popular opinions of a nation. As in
addressing a superior in our intercourse with
mankind, we adapt our language to the dispo-
sition of the individual ; so a religious address
will itself partake of the character, whether
real or imaginary, which it is intended to pro-
pitiate or honour.
If we look into the ideas of the ancients re-
specting the worship of the Deity, we shall
find that they fall generally under one of two
comprehensive heads of error. The few who
saw beyond the reigning superstitions, and
either rejected the popular worship as absurd,
or only complied with it as established by law
and usage, went far into a contrary extreme ;
and maintained the plausible though mistaken
argument, that it was unnecessary to apply to
the Deity, who already knew our wants, and
OF THE HEBREWS. 163
was a better judge than the petitioner of the
expediency of granting 1 them.* This was the
philosophical error ; and, by restraining all
communion between man and his Creator, was
calculated to check his best and purest feel-
ings, and to render him incapable of attaining
that tranquil frame of mind, that pious con-
fidence, which arises from well-directed de-
votion.
* This is the tenor of Socrates' discourse with Alcibiades.
His conclusion is, 'E^ot fjLkv ovv $OKel Kpariffrov etfai rfav\iav
e\eiv. Maximus Tyrius enlarges still farther upon Plato's
idea, and has a dissertation professedly to dissuade from
prayer, in which he employs a number of subtle and some-
what plausible arguments, to show how useless it must needs
be for mortals to attempt to change either the course of
providence or of destiny ; and also, how unworthy it would
be of the divine nature to be moved by entreaty. These are
his conclusions : Merarideffdai Kai fjLerayivwffKeiv Tr
urj ori 6ey, a'\X' ov'^e aVrpt a'ya6w and, 6'vre ovv e
w<ret irapd rrjv atav, cure OVK ew^o^eVoic ov Swcrei Kard rr\v
d^iav. See the whole of the 30th Dissertation. This autho-
rity is the more valuable, because the arguments are exactly
such as might be expected from natural reason on the sub-
ject. Apollonius Tyanseus and Porphyry held nearly the
same opinion. See Leland, p. i. p. 375.
M 2
164 ON THE NATIONAL WORSHIP
Far worse, however, was the popular error,
inasmuch as inactivity, though an evil, is a less
evil than positive crime. The majority, who
must always, in all countries, be led by the
practice of their ancestors, zealously embraced,
without hesitation or inquiry, that polytheism
and idolatry, the details of which are no less
disgusting than degrading ; and practised a
religious worship, to which the Bacchanalian
feasts, the Lupercalia, the Floral games, the
rites of Cybele, the Aphrodysia, the Dionysia,
and Thesmophoria belonged.*
The antiquity of idolatrous worship, what-
ever was its origin, appears from the law of
Moses, which forbade it ; its universality is
generally acknowledged. Both its universality
and its antiquity show that it is the natural
error of the human mind, which, being too
conscious of its own weakness not to recur to
superior power, and also too much enchained
to the world with which it is conversant, to
* Tin 1 enormities of these festivals arc sulliciently
hy Leland, in liis " Advantages of Revelation."
OF THE HEBREWS. 165
abstract its attention to a spiritual object of
adoration, fixes and addresses itself to a sensi-
ble image of its God.* That this is natural,
appears not only from the practice of all unin-
structed nations, but from the frequent relapses
of the Jews into the custom of the countries by
which they were surrounded, and even from
the present habits of a large part of the Chris-
tian world; while the earnestness of the Ro-
man Catholic devotions, however mixed with
error, and the solemn awe of their religious
processions, are a sufficient testimony of its
effect. Experience, however, has proved, that
in the rapid progress of evil, what was at first
the emblem, soon becomes the object ; and the
sanctity due only to the unseen original, is
transferred to the visible representation. Thus
we find, that the images of departed ancestors
* The ancient Romans afford a melancholy instance.
What idolaters they became is familiarly known. Yet, ac-
cording to Plutarch and Dionysius, Numa prohibited the
erection of statues in the temples, which law was obeyed
for 170 years, till Tarquiuius Priscus introduced Etrurian su-
perstitious. Plut. in Vit. Numse, p. 141. August, de Civ.
Dei, iv. xxxi.
166 ON THE NATIONAL WORSHIP
become objects of worship, where departed
ancestors are considered as tutelar deities :
where the sun, or other heavenly bodies, are
looked upon as the gods of this world, there,
as in Persia and Peru, veneration will be paid
to emblematic fire ; and in still ruder commu-
nities, the unmeaning work of human art, even
an ancient stone or figure of unnatural propor-
tion, will claim an hereditary title to vulgar and
senseless superstition.
This prevalent error was at once foreseen
and guarded against by the simple precept of
the Jewish lawgiver, which forbade his people
" to fall down and worship any graven image."
In pursuance of this precept, while the disci-
ples of Confucius and Zoroaster, the people of
Lycurgus, of Solon, and of Numa, differed only
in the degrees of grossness of their idolatry,
the community of Moses renounced it ; and
practised, in the earliest times, a purity of
worship, as unknown to the other ancient na-
tions, as the God who was the object of it.*
* Varro, when lamenting the corruptions which attend
OF THE HEBREWS.
The religion of Greece and Rome (to which
countries I confine myself, as being both most
advanced in civilization, and best known to us)
consisted chiefly in public festivals, which bore
the name of the deity to whom they were con-
secrated, and usually began with a sacrifice,
and ended in an exhibition of games and spec-
tacles.* Though it may be affirmed with truth,
that the religion of few among the ancients ex-
tended farther than the celebration, sometimes
vicious and always licentious, of these festivals,
idolatry, is obliged to have recourse to the Jewish nation
to prove the superiority of a contrary practice. Aug. ubi
supra.
* It seems clear, from Homer's account, that the games
originated in the honours paid to the memory of deceased
warriors, and the performance of gymnastic exercises at
their tomb. The scenic games were instituted at Rome, for
the express purpose of averting the anger of the Gods. Quum
vis morbi (according to Livy, 1. 7. c. 2.) nee humanis cou-
silliis nee ope divina levaretur, victis superstitione animis,
ludi scenici inter alia coclestis irae placamina instituti dicun-
tur. It was impossible that celebrations of this kind should
not introduce a spirit of irreligion and profaneness : as Au-
gustin says, very pointedly, Non alii dii ridentur in theatris,
quam qui adorantur in templis ; nee aliis ludos exhibetis,
quam quibus immolatis. De Civit. Dei.
168 ON THE NATIONAL WORSHIP
it may perhaps be thought that we can no more
consider them a specimen of ancient national
worship, than we could judge of the Roman
Catholic religion from a description of the car-
nival. It is desirable, therefore, and in this
case possible, to penetrate farther, and draw a
closer parallel.
All religion implies an acknowledgment of
weakness, and a dependence on superior power ;
and as the hour of sickness, and approach of
death, have always been considered as the
surest trial of the religion of an individual, a
season of public danger and calamity is the most
proper test of the religion of a state. But,
at Athens, the usual resources in cases of ge-
neral alarm, was an extraordinary embassy to
Delphi ; which commonly terminated in the
disturbance of the dead from the sacred island
Delos, a removal of whose bodies and sepul-
chres was called its purification.* The national
* Thuc. 1. 3. s. 104. Once, during the Peloponnesian
war, the fancy arose that this purification had bci-n I'.rlici-
ently performed, and it was proposed to secure the favour
OF THE HEBREWS. 1 69
religion prescribed an abundance of sacrifices,
and favoured the frequent consultation of ora-
cles ; nor does it appear that this superstition
was superficial only, or that any thing more
sound and rational remained below so unpro-
mising an exterior. Few of the hymns, which
may have been recited in the temples on these
and other solemn occasions, have survived the
wreck of literature. But a passage, which may
give a fair representation of the ideas accom-
panying the public worship of Greece, exists
in the CEdipus of Sophocles, and introduces
the Thebans imploring a respite from the pes-
tilence drawn upon them by the unconscious
incest of their king. In this supplication,*
of the god by an act of cruel injustice. The whole Delian
people were expelled from their island without having any
other settlement provided for them. Thuc. v. 11. Mitford,
iii. 325.
* The chorus is thus translated by Franklin :
Minerva, first on thee we call :
Daughter of Jove, immortal maid,
Low beneath thy feet we fall ;
O bring thy sister Dian to our aid.
Goddess of Thebes, from thy imperial throne
170 ON THE NATIONAL WORSHIP
Diana and Apollo, Jupiter and Bacchus, are
severally invoked, and besought to appear armed
with the weapons in which they particularly
excelled and delighted, in order to drive away
the pestilence which depopulated Thebes. As
far as can be judged from the remains that have
been preserved to us, this is the general strain
of the hymns which were recited in the Grecian
temples, in which there is nothing satisfactory
Look with an eye of gentle pity down,
And thou, far-shooting Phoebus, once the friend
Of this unhappy, this devoted land,
O now if ever, let thy hand
Once more be stretch'd to save and to defend.
Drive hence this baneful, this destructive power,
To Amphitrite's wide-extending bed ;
O drive him, goddess, from thy favourite land, &c.
Father of all, immortal Jove,
O now thy fiery terrors send ;
From thy dreadful stores above
Let lightnings blast him and let thunders rend.
And thou, O Lycian king, thy aid impart,
Send from thy golden bow th' unerring dart ;
Smile, chaste Diana, on this lov'd abode,
While Theban Bacchus joins the madd'ning throng ;
O god of wine, and mirth and song,
Now with thy torch destroy the base inglorious god.
OF THE HEBREWS.
to reason or piety, except a confession of de-
pendence.
Again, if we subject the religion of Rome to
a similar criterion, its application to a period of
public calamity, we shall find it by no means
better able to abide the test : on the contrary,
the current of superstition, instead of becoming
clearer as it proceeds farther, is marked with the
folly both of the country in which it arose, and of
that through which it flowed. In the pestilence
which occurred during the siege of Veii, the
feast called Lectisternium was first devised ;
and eight days were devoted to appeasing at
their respective temples the anger of Apollo,
Latona, Diana, Bacchus, Hercules, and Nep-
tune.* On another occasion, it is recorded in
history, that when a continued pestilence ren-
dered it necessary to have recourse to every expe-
dient, it was recollected that a plague had been
formerly checked by the fixing of a nail in a par-
ticular part of the Capitol ; and a dictator was
appointed for this very purpose. But the most
* Liv. 1. 7 ; 1. 3.
17*2 ON THE NATIONAL WORSHIP
distinguished instance of Roman superstition is
to be found in the year of the city 462,* when,
in consequence of a pestilence which had for
three years defied all assistance, human and
divine,- the Romans, according to the account
of the historian, commissioned an embassy of
ten persons to bring ^Esculapius from Epi-
daurus, his supposed birth-place. On their
arrival, .^Esculapius favoured them ; and, assum-
ing his usual form of a serpent, took his station
in the bark of L. Ogulnius, the chief of the
embassy, and was thus conveyed in great state
to Rome ; where, as the bark proceeded along
the river, all the city came together to enjoy a
sight so extraordinary ; altars were built, incense
was burnt, and victims were slain upon the
banks. At length, on an island of the Tiber,
where the serpent disappeared, a temple was
built by order of the senate to jEsculapius, and
the pestilence ceased to rage.
It is curious to observe from this specimen,
how low superstition may sink a great and gal-
* Frcinsli. Snppl. ad Liv.
OF THE HEBREWS. 173
lant people, when human fancy alone is em-
ployed to raise the structure of religion.
Lest, however, it should be thought that this
presents a single instance, or is drawn from a
period when Rome had not attained a compe-
tent state of civilization, we have a picture not
less remarkable from the pen of the most ac-
complished Roman, at the brightest sera of the
Roman annals. Cicero has recorded, that, in
the year of the city 688, many of the towers of
the Capitol had been struck by lightning, which
had melted many of the statues, and even that
of the infant Romulus : which having alarmed
the state, the soothsayers were summoned from
Etruria, who unanimously declared that a civil
war and the destruction of the state was thus
betokened, and would occur, unless the gods
were so appeased as to avert the destiny. Re-
course was therefore had to scenic games, as
usual, which were continued for ten successive
days : and the diviners farther ordered that the
statue of Jupiter should be made larger than
before, and placed on an eminence, and turned
174 ON THE NATIONAL WORSHIP
towards the opposite quarter, the rising 1 sun :
in hopes that, if that statue should look towards
the east, and the forum and senate-house, it
might bring 1 to light the hidden plots then con-
triving against the republic. The designed al-
teration of the statue was accidentally delayed
for two years, and the work was completed by
Cicero on the very day when the discomfiture
of the Catilinian conspiracy took place ; so
that at the same time when the workmen were
employed in fixing the statue, the conspirators
and witnesses were conveyed into the temple
where the senate was assembled : an unde-
niable proof, says the Consul,* that to the om-
nipotence and foresight of Jupiter, we owe the
preservation of the state.
The public worship of the Israelites presents
a remarkable contrast to the errors into which
the ancient heathens fell both on the right hand
and the left : being free alike from the uncer-
tainty of the philosophers, and from the immo-
ralities which disgraced the worst of the popu-
* Catil. Orat. iii. prope finem.
OF THE HEBREWS.
lar services, or the superstitions which de-
formed the best. The doctrine of the Israelites
maintained, as was before observed, that the
Deity was to be worshipped and addressed as
the Creator and Governor of the world, and as
the father of his people : but that, as a spiritual
Being 1 , he could not be represented or adored
under any visible form. This latter truth was
so strongly impressed upon them, that they
held every sort of image in the greatest abhor-
rence j and the first they so firmly believed, as
to have recourse to prayer, and to pour their
distresses into the unseen ear of the Creator,
in every private misfortune ; and in all public
calamities they implored pardon and assistance
in language which always appears sublime,
but never more remarkably so, than when
opposed to the absurdities of heathen suppli-
cation.
No more impartial specimen can be selected
than the prayer used by Solomon at the dedi-
cation of the temple. It was extraordinary, it
was public ; and is, therefore, calculated to fur-
176 ON THE NATIONAL WORSHIP
nish a just idea of the principles possessed ge-
nerally by the Hebrews concerning the Deity,
to whom they were now consecrating a magni-
ficent building.
" Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord
" in the presence of all the congregation of
" Israel, and spread forth his hands toward
" heaven : and he said, Lord God of Israel,
" there is no God like thee, in heaven above or
" on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and
" mercy with thy servants that walk before thee
" with all their heart. And now, O God of
" Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified,
"which thou spakest unto 'thy servant David
" my father. But will God indeed dwell on
" the earth ? Behold the heaven of heavens
" cannot contain thee ; how much less this house
" that I have builded ? Yet have thou respect
" unto the prayer of thy servant and to his sup-
" plication, O Lord my God, to hearken unto
" the cry and to the prayer which thy servant
" prayeth before thee to-day : that thine eyes
" may be opened towards this house night and
OF THE HEBREWS. 177
" day, even towards the place of which thou
" hast said, My name shall be there : that thou
" mayest hearken unto the prayer that thy servant
" shall make towards this place."*
It is evident from the whole of this sublime
hymn, that the ideas impressed by Moses at the
first institution of the Jewish polity, had lost
none of their clearness by the lapse of five hun-
dred years. It is evident that the belief im-
planted in them of the immediate presence of
God with their armies and in the ark or taber-
nacle, had in no degree produced an erroneous
notion of his attributes ; that they could believe
the immateriality and omnipresence of the Crea-
tor, notwithstanding 1 the peculiar character he
had condescended to assume, as going forth with
the armies of Israel.
This, then, was the language of prosperity,
" Blessed be the Lord that hath given rest
" unto his people Israel :"t and if we turn to
the language of adversity, we find it continuing
* 1 Kings viii. 22, et seq. -f- 1 Kings viii. 56.
VOL. I. N
ON THE NATIONAL WORSHIP
unchanged in tone, and unshaken in confidence.
The Old Testament abounds with proofs in
point, and the book of Psalms, in particular,
contains alone a series of overwhelming evi-
dence ; but on a subject so familiar and indis-
putable it will be sufficient simply to adduce
the prayer composed by Hezekiah at the time
when Jerusalem was endangered by the invasion
of Sennacherib.
" Hezekiah received the letter from the hand
" of the messengers, and read it ; and Hezekiah
" went up into the house of the Lord, and spread
" it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed
" before the Lord, and said, O Lord God of
" Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims,
" thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the
" kingdoms of the earth : thou hast made heaven
" and earth. Lord, bow down thine ear, and
" hear ; open, Lord, thine eyes, and see ; and
" hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath
" set him to reproach the living God. Of a
" truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have de-
" stroyed the nations and their lands, and have
OF THE HEBREWS. 179
" cast their gods into the fire : for they were no
" gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and
" stone ; therefore they have destroyed them.
" Now, therefore, O Lord our God, save thou
" us from out of his hand, that all the kingdoms
" of the earth may know that thou art the Lord
" God, even thou
It is evident, from these comparisons, that the
superiority of the Hebrews in their practical
worship of the Supreme Being is no less decisive
than their abstract conception of his essence.
Hezekiah neither consults an oracle, nor appeals
to a variety of discordant deities ; but with equal
consistency and confidence, resorts, on the sudden
appearance of danger, to the aid of that God
whom he had learnt from his forefathers to vene-
rate as both the Creator of the world, and the
peculiar protector of his nation.
In this respect, again, all is conformable.
What was the prevailing sentiment concerning
the divine character was seen in the former
* Isaiah xxxvii. 14.
N 2
180 ON THE NATIONAL WORSHIP
Section , and it appears from this, that the
practice did not contradict the theory. Indeed,
from the whole account which we possess of the
Jewish history, which for the most part is suffi-
ciently minute, it appears that that people never
lost sight of the peculiar relation in which they
stood towards the Creator. Their national
prosperity is the divine blessing ; their national
misfortunes are the judgments of Heaven upon
their disobedience.* Had there been no closer
connexion or no stronger appearance of con-
nexion between national faith and national
* See the whole history : and particularly Judges ii. 22 ;
where the preservation of a remnant of the idolatrous nations
is expressly attributed to the necessity of keeping a check
upon the people who had " transgressed the covenant com-
" manded unto their fathers." Aliijah's denunciation against
Jeroboam is in this strain : " The Lord shall root up Israel
" out of this good land which he gave, to their fathers, and
" shall scatter them beyond the river, because they ht/n-
" made their groves, provoking the Lord to anger." 1 Kings
xiv. 15. The same spirit prevades the prophecies made to
Manasseh: " / will forsake the remnant of mine inlnrilance,
" and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they
" shall become a prey and spoil to all their enemies ; because
" they have dam- that which was evil in nnj sight," &c.
2 Kings \\i. 15.
OF THE HEBREWS. 181
success, than we may suppose established by the
fictitious assertions or vague promises of a legis-
lator ; misfortune, it is probable, would have had
the contrary effect, would have diverted them
from dependence on their law, instead of reviving
their obedience. Such has been the case in
other instances. Thucydides relates that during
the plague which desolated Athens, the people
finding no advantage from the public worship
and ceremonies to which they had commonly re-
sorted, at last abstained from them altogether,
and gave themselves up to a desperate and unre-
strained lawlessness.* But so effectually was
the belief of divine interference impressed upon
the Hebrew nation, that any general distress or
remarkable calamity always served as a sort of
signal to rally them round the faith of their fore-
fathers. This is the outline of their whole
history. And at the close of the theocracy,
when the threatened vengeance upon repeated
rebellion was accomplished by the destruction
of the temple and captivity of the people, this
event, which must have proved the confutation
* Lib, ii. s. 47.
182 ON THE NATIONAL WORSHIP
of any unfounded reliance upon divine support,
was deemed by the nation itself a confirmation
of their whole history and peculiar covenant.
The captive people saw, in the humiliation of
their country, only the accomplishment of pro-
phecy and the punishment of their transgressions,
and looked forward for their restoration to re-
pentance alone. Such is the confession of Ezra ;
" O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up
" my face to thee, my God ; since the days of our
" fathers have we been in a great trespass unto
" this day ; and for our iniquities have we, our
" kings, and our priests, been delivered into
" the hand of the kings of the lands, to the
" sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to con-
" fusion of face, as it is this day."* Such also
is the solemn humiliation of the people after
their return to Jerusalem, exhibiting as strong a
conviction as language can express of the cause
of their national misfortunes, and showing that
their faith in the author of their law had been
violated, but not destroyed. " Thou, even thou
" art Lord alone j thou hast made heaven, the
* Ezra ix. 6.
OF THE HEBREWS. 183
" heaven of heavens, with all their host, the
" earth, and all things that are therein, the seas
" and all that is therein, and thou preservest
" them all ; and the host of heaven worshippeth
" thee."* This sublime declaration, to which
it would be vain to look for a parallel beyond
the pale of revelation, is followed by a circum-
stantial review of the selection, the transgres-
sions, and the punishment of the Hebrew nation ;
and whoever can read this confession, and still
believe that the faith it expresses, which remained
unimpaired through so many centuries and sur-
vived such heavy calamities, was originally
grounded on a false assumption of legislative
power, must have, to say the least, a very inade-
quate idea of the nature of moral evidence.
* Nehemiah ix. throughout.
184 ON THE PRINCIPLES
SECTION VII.
On the Principles of Hebrew Morality.
I HAVE hitherto traced the superiority of the
Mosaic law, in the principles it inculcated, and
the practical worship it enjoined towards the
Supreme Being. There is another light in
which it remains to be viewed, viz. as a system
of relative duties. It is probable, that from a
consideration of this point also we may obtain
some assistance to our inquiries. For although
it is true that the great rules of morals, being
necessary to the existence of human society, can
be in no communities wholly unknown, and in
civilized states have been generally well under-
stood ; yet it is likewise to be acknowledged, that
a nation professing, like the Israelites, to live
OF HEBREW MORALITY. 185
under the immediate direction of divine Intelli-
gence, would be expected to enforce a purer
morality, to practise duties unknown to others,
and to avoid errors admitted elsewhere. That
this was the exact case among the Jews, many
authors have made it their peculiar object to
prove : and it would require a discussion evi-
dently inapplicable to the business of the present
Treatise, to elucidate the subject at large. It
will be more to my purpose to point out an
instance or two, in which there is not only a
difference between the Jewish and other institu-
tions, but precisely that difference which a sense
of the immediate superintendence of the Deity
would occasion.*
First, the authority which Moses exercises,
and exercises to all appearance unconsciously,
is of a sweeping and extensive nature unat-
tempted by other legislators. In all other ci-
* The punishment of idolatry as a capital crime, is con-
formable to the general tenor of the Hebrew law, as a theo-
cracy : in any other view, unaccountable. This has been
treated at large by Warburton.
186 ON THE PRINCIPLES
vilized communities the moralist and the law-
giver have had a separate character and pro-
vince. The lawgiver forbids the overt act, and
says, Thou shalt not steal ; the moralist lays a
restraint on the secret intention, and his lan-
guage is, Thou shalt not covet. The lawgiver
issues his decrees against such open vice as is
injurious to society ; the moralist does not stop
there, but inculcates virtue. The lawgiver
threatens punishment ; the moralist goes farther,
and holds out such rewards as are within his
view ; whether the approbation of conscience,
or of good men, or of an all-seeing God ;
whether the elevation of the noblest faculties of
the soul, or the certainty of future retribution.
The laws of Solon and of the twelve tables
established the rights of individuals, and pro-
vided against their open infringement ; but it
remained for Socrates and Cicero to prescribe
personal duties j and to point out the many
cases in which the morality of an action might
be eminently defective, even whilst the letter
of the law was precisely obeyed. Our modern
statutes issue such enactments as the rights of
OF HEBREW MORALITY. 187
persons and of property require ; but they leave
it to the divine to enforce charity, and to re-
press covetousness or avarice on other, and
widely different considerations.
If we analyze the matter, the reason will
appear no less evident than the fact is notorious.
The legislator is himself essentially the subject
of the community ; and the jealousy of the body
whose minister he is, though it allows, or even
invites his interference to restrain that ferocious-
ness of individual liberty which would endanger
peace or property, forbids his exercising any
jurisdiction in cases where these are not con-
cerned, or extending his power beyond absolute
right to moral duties. The authority delegated
to the lawgiver for the public good emanates
from the public itself : but no man gives another
a title to regulate his thoughts, or prescribe the
moral virtues which he shall exercise. This
jurisdiction must originate elsewhere. It is a
matter of certainty, for example, that no one can
be privileged to take forcibly another's property ;
but it cannot be so plainly determined, whether
188 ON THE PRINCIPLES
he is bound to give his own in charity. You
have a right, it will be argued, to forbid my
robbing my neighbour ; but you have no right
to insist on my relieving him. The same argu-
ment holds true with regard to gratitude,
humanity, &c. ; which on that very account have
been termed virtues of imperfect obligation,
since they depend upon a nice balance of circum-
stances, and cannot be rendered imperative by
the letter of any general law : it also holds true
of the personal duties which concern the regu-
lation of the heart ; they are an affair between
man and his own conscience, and their essential
or non-essential obligation is left to the private
judgment of the individual.
But, on the other hand, if we imagine the
case of the Deity, as moral Governor of the
world ; prescribing a system of laws to any of
his creatures, the difference between laws of
perfect and imperfect obligation vanishes at once.
Anew principle isintroduced of paramount autho-
rity. The public safety is no longer the professed
object of legislation, and the natural rights of
OF HEBREW MORALITY. 189
mankind are no longer the limit of the legisla-
tor's power, who appears invested with other
sovereignty than that which the people have in-
trusted to him, and with a higher title to his
office than the consent of the community.
Supposing, therefore, the fact to be as pre-
tended in the preamble to the Hebrew code,
it were to be expected beforehand that the dis-
tinction usually preserved between rights and
duties should be thrown down j that the empire
of the legislator should be exerted over the
conscience, and that the same authority which
prohibited vice shall command virtue.
In the provisions of the Hebrew law this
antecedent expectation is completely answered.
Moses is at the same time moralist and lawgiver:
and in virtue of this double office united in his
own person, he extends his jurisdiction to a
variety of cases which are confessedly beyond
the reach of other legislators. He prescribes
charity and benevolence as required by the Crea-
tor, in the same tone with which he forbids
190 ON THE PRINCIPLES
murder, theft, and false witness, crimes acknow-
ledged to be injurious to the community. Nay,
he even proceeds to regulate the thoughts.*
Of this we have a familiar instance in the tenth
commandment, which comprehensively lays an
interdict against the very coveting or desiring
any of the possessions of another ; and issues
this wise but singular injunction, philosophically
wise as corning from a moralist, but exclusively
singular as delivered by a legislator, with the
same consciousness of undisputed authority as
when he forbids the overt acts of theft or
adultery, of which a covetous desire is the
original germ.
Relying on the same support and instructed
by the same oracle, the legislator of the Hebrews
imposes a restraint upon the passions, which was
not attempted in any other ancient country :t
* The reader will observe that I represent as the pecu-
liarity in Moses, his making the thoughts tJie subject of a
law, not his declaring the guilt to consist in the intention ; a
truth which reason seems very early and universally to have
discovered.
f Joseph, contra Apion. ii. 30, &c. : and Eusebius, Praep.
Evang. xiii. 20.
OF HEBREW MORALITY. 191
and which is equally striking 1 , whether contrasted
with the habits of the civilized Greeks, or the
general libertinism of Asiatic nations. Moses
proscribes, under the sanction of legislative au-
thority and penalties, practices which we un-
doubtedly are taught by the light which Christi-
anity has shed over our moral view to detest as
criminal : but which few, even of the moralists
of antiquity, and none of their lawgivers, either
condemned by their sentence or discountenanced
by their lives.* To enter into particulars on
this head would be superfluous to those who are
conversant with the defective morality of the
heathen world, and to those who are not, unne-
cessarily disgusting.
Perhaps it may be supposed that the corrup-
tions which had increased to so great a height
before the sera of our acquaintance with ancient
history, were the gradual progress of vice, and
unknown to the earlier and purer age of the
* This subject has been treated at great length by Leland,
Advantage of Revelation, part xi. chap. 3, &c. ; also in
Clarke's Evid. Prop. vi.
192 ON THE PRINCIPLES
Hebrew legislation. This, however, is a favour-
able supposition to which human nature has no
claim. On the contrary, the people are expressly
warned that the vicious customs in which they
are forbidden to indulge, are familiar both in
the countries they had left and by which they
were surrounded. Still further, they are assured
that they are commissioned as the ministers of
divine vengeance against the people of whose
lands they took possession, because those nations
were stained with those very enormities
" Defile not ye yourselves in any of these
" things ; for in all these the nations are defiled
" which I cast out before you, and the land is
" defiled : therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof
" upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her
" inhabitants."*
* Lev. xviii. 24. This seems a proper occasion to notice
an objection which has been raised against the employment
of the Israelites, " men, and moral ag-ents," in destroying
the Canaanites, when, " as moral agents, they ought not to
have been unjust, cruel, or rapacious ; but to have believed
that God cannot delight in rapine, bloodshed, and robbery."
This objection has been from time to time repeated, in defi-
ance of the reasons stated on the very front of the narration
OF HEBREW MORALITY. IQ3
Indeed, many of the peculiar institutions of
the Jews were ordained for the purpose of dis-
playing- to the peculiar people of divine choice,
the real heinousness of that vicious indulgence
of the passions, which scarcely seems to have
troubled the conscience of the other nations
of antiquity. " Ye shall be holy unto me : for I
" the Lord thy God am holy> and have severed
itself, for which the guilty nations were extirpated : viz. their
gross immoralities, and their idolatry, a vice which included
(as Lowman has largely and successfully shown) many hein-
ous species of wickedness. The Israelites, therefore, living
as they did under the immediate direction of the Supreme
Being, when they were specially employed to wield (he sword
of divine justice against a guilty race, would see in the dis-
pensation of which they were the appointed ministers, not
the violation, as is rashly insinuated, but the fulfilment of
moral justice; and the practical lesson they would imbibe,
would be an awful conviction of the severity with which the
moral Governor of the world, who is uniformly represented
in their Scriptures as just as well as merciful, treats wicked-
ness and punishes idolatry. It was a fearful example of
the destiny inpending over themselves, should they fall into
the practices, and commit the abominations, which they had
been specifically enjoined to avenge in others. And their
subsequent history proved the intention of the lesson, though
its effect was too often lost upon their conduct.
VOL. I. O
194- ON THE PRINCIPLES
" you from other people that ye should be
" mine."* This is the spirit of the code, and
preserved by particular provisions with the
minutest care, and an intimate knowledge of
the human heart, which requires that the
root of vice should be extirpated, and not its
branches lopped ; that impurity should be
checked at its source, before it begins to flow.
Knowing too, as we are happily taught to know,
the effect of sensuality in alienating the heart
from all that is most dignified in human nature,
we cannot but admire the rigour with which
Moses opposes it, and the barrier which he
raises in that unimproved and infant state, be-
tween the practice of those that have the Lord
for their God, and those who follow the de-
vices of their own hearts. But the authority
which he employs for this salutary purpose,
and the union of moral and civil duties which
his code contains, together with the superior
tone of virtue which it inculcates, are evident
proofs that his power was neither self-assumed,
nor delegated by the people, and that his coni-
* Lev. xx. 26.
OF HEBREW MORALITY. IQ5
munity were well aware that he acted as the
vicegerent of Him whose will alone was to be
the standard of their law.
Secondly, it is strictly natural, that legisla-
tors professing only that general notion of some
superior power, which I have all along consi-
dered as common to every civilized people,
should, in enacting their laws, make the pro-
bable welfare of the state their leading object ;
and imagine themselves bound to keep this
alone in view, even setting aside, in particular
cases, the general rules of morals, and rights
of individuals. Whoever reads the first chap-
ter of Xenophon's treatise on the Polity of
Lacedsemon, or the fifth book of Plato's Re-
public, will find this professed as the sole prin-
ciple of legislation. By the laws of Lycurgus,
the free choice of love was subject to the re-
straint of the lawgiver's ordinances, that a strong
and hardy race might be ready to defend the
state.* Modesty was banished from the female
sex, lest any weakness should be perpetuated
* Xen. Laced. Pol. p. 169, Simson.
02
196 ON THE PRINCIPLES
among their offspring- ;* and even chastity was
annulled, and the rights of husbands violated,
that disparities of age might cause no dege-
neracy in the progeny of Sparta.-j- Nor was the
philosopher more delicate than the statesman.
Plato recommends the attainment of the same
object by similar means.
These infringements of morality have been
often censured. I would direct more particu-
lar attention to the custom of exposing such
* Id. 368. Apo/Jou cat iaxyoG, wffTrep Kai ro?c dVopaertv, oi/'rw
Kai rate Sf/Xe/'atc aywvac Trpoc a\\/\ac e-rroirjare, vo^i'^uv e
ap0ore'pwv Iff^vptSv Kai rd etcyova eppw/meveffrepa ylyreaOat.
This is well censured by Eusebius, Praep. Evang. xiii. 19.
-} Id. 170. "Et ^e rig yvvaiKi pev avvotKeiv fjitj /3ov'\otro,
TKKVdiv II dZtoXoywv eTTtdv/JiotT), Kai rovrif voptpov eiroi
i')V Tiva dV e.vTKvov (cat yevrdiav 6pw?j, ireiaavra TOV e
CK Tavrrjv rcKvoTroieiffdai. This is farther enlarged upon by
Plutarch in his life of Lycurgus, p. 105, 1. Mr. Mitford
describes this with his usual fidelity : " His morality ( speak-
ing of Lycurgus) was always made subservient to kit political
purposes. To be unmarried and without children for the com-
monwealth, he caused to be accounted shameful ; but it was
indifferent who was the father, provided the child were a fine
one." Vol. i. 305.
OF HEBREW MORALITY. 197
children as the parents thought themselves un-
able to maintain, or who were oppressed by bo-
dily infirmities, which was admitted as legitimate,
and practised without remorse both in Greece
and at Rome. But the Spartan legislator, con-
sidering the state as a common mother, and in-
dividuals as comparatively without a right, would
not even leave the decision to the parents. In
Sparta, all new-born infants were examined by
public officers appointed for the purpose ; the
well-formed and vigorous only were preserved :
those who appeared unlikely to be service-
able to the state, owing to any defect in bodily
shape or constitution, were buried in a cavern
of mount Taygetus.* Custom had so far re-
conciled the consciences of men to this practice,
however barbarous, that Plato, even where he
is describing an imaginary republic, which he
might therefore have moulded to his will, makes
exposure the express provision for those chil-
* Plut. Vit. Lye. i. 106, ed. Br. (This law is not men-
tioned by Xenophon.) Suet. Aug. c. Ixv. Vit. Cal. vii. De
illustr. Gr. xxi. Juven. vi. 601. Cicer. de Leg. 1. 3, ch. viii.
198 ON THE PRINCIPLES
dren, whose parents' ages did not conform to
the period appointed by the laws.*
A priori, no nation was more likely to have
admitted this usage than the Hebrews. They
married early. When their laws were enacted,
they were an unsettled people, nor were they
at liberty to provide in other countries for the
redundant population of their own. Had the
circumstances of the state alone been consi-
dered, nothing would appear more probable
than the introduction of a custom which per-
mitted the intercourse of marriage without re-
quiring the burden of domestic poverty ; which
provided for the indulgence of the passions,
without oppressing the state with useless and
* Plautus, in the Cistellaria, of which the scene lies in
Sicyon, speaks familiarly of the practice. In the Andria of
Terence (the scene of which lies at Athens) it is ridiculed
as extravagant folly, that Pamphilus was determined to bring
up his child by Glycerium :
Quiequid pepererit, decreverunt tollere.
Incepfio est amentium, haud amantium.
See Hume, Populousness of ancient Nations; Malthus, i.
288 ; Philopatris Warwicensis, vol. ii.; Millar's Origin of
Ranks, 125. 134.
OF HEBREW MORALITY.
hungry mouths. If Moses, therefore, like
other legislators, had considered his people
as existing for themselves, and as permitted
to consult in their civil code their own interests
and strength alone, we may reasonably suppose
that he would have countenanced a practice,
which other more civilized states admitted, and
philosophers did not think unworthy of their
sanction.*
But when it is understood that an infant is
born subject to the will and disposal, not of
the state, but of God, and belonging not only
to an earthly parent, but to an heavenly pro-
tector 5 it becomes clear that any ordinance
which legalizes the destruction of an innocent
human being, is not less impious than barbar-
* Aristotle, Polit. 7, c. 16, after observing, that Sid
7r\7/0oc reKvuv, edv 17 ra'ic rwf e'0wv KwAvj; f*r)Sev drrorideffQai
rSiv yiyvo/aej'wv, (apiadai rai del rfjs reKvoTrouae TO ir\fjdoQ'
adds, under certain circumstances, epTroieiadai Set r^v ap.-
/3\wfftv. Romulus and Lycurgus, like Aristotle and Plato,
the two real as well as the two imaginary legislators, assume
the right of determining the number of each family. Dion.
Halicar. ii. 88, Sylburg.
'200 ON THE PRINCIPLES
ous. This was apparent to Plato himself on
another occasion, when he required an argu-
ment against suicide j and it is curious to ob-
serve from such an instance, how little even
the most philosophical mind is able to follow a
consistent line of steady practice through the
various bearings of human action, if the founda-
tion of authoritative rules is wanting. " Man,"
says Socrates by the pen of Plato, "is in the
possession of the gods." * A conviction of this
truth, not occasional and speculative, but effec-
tive and habitual, will alone account for the su-
perior morality of the Jewish law.f If an infant
* Phacdo. From him Cic. Tusc. Disp. i. 30, Vetat do-
minans ille in nobis Deus, injussu hinc suo nos demigrare,
&,c. Vide et Somn. Scip.
{- 'O vofjLoq yvvaiQv direifrev /i?}r' dp.fl\ovv TO airapev, p.tJTe
$ia<f>6eipeiv a'XXd rjv tyavfir], TCKVOKTOVOQ av elrf ^v^v dfyavi-
tovffa, Kill TO yeVoc eXarrovaa. Joseph, contra Apion. ii. 24.
Vide et Phil. Jud. ii. 318. It appears clearly from the lan-
guage of these two authors, as well as from the national prac-
tice, that the Jews gave a just interpretation to the seventh
commandment, and extended its obligation to infanticide.
Doubtless, the expectation of the Messiah had its influence
as well as the general law against murder. But the sacred
importance in which human life is invariably held throughout
OF HEBREW MORALITY. 201
is born for his country only, and his parents
submit to live under the established laws ; it is
for his country to dispose of him, according to
the legislator's notions of his utility.* But if
there is a supreme Creator, as was believed
and acted upon by the Jews, according to
whose will each individual is ushered into the
world, and to whom he is accountable, human
existence rises inestimably in value j and a new
law becomes obligatory, paramount to the sup-
posed necessity of confining the level of popu-
lation within the standard of subsistence. The
practice, therefore, of infanticide may be consi-
dered to a certain degree as a test of national
faith ; t since it is impossible, wherever it pre-
the history, shows that this alone would be an insufficient ex-
planation of the fact.
* ITpwrov /Jiev nvv OVK ISiovs /yeiro TU>V Trarepuv rove iraiSae,
a'XXa KOIVOVQ r;G TroXew? o Av/cou/oyoc. Plut. Vit. Lye. 105.
-}- A negative indeed, rather than a positive test. The
Thebans, with a religion no purer than the other Grecians
possessed, punished infanticide with death. Julian. Var.
Hist. ii. 7. And Tacitus records of the ancient Germans,
numerum liberorum finire, aut quenquam ex agnatis (forte,
natis) necare flagitium habetur. The custom was first for-
ON THE PRINCIPLES
vails, that the belief of a Supreme Disposer
of events should exist in any distinctness or
purity.
Thirdly, whoever enacts or sanctions a law,
is offended when it is broken. If God has ap-
pointed rules by which mankind are to be go-
verned, God will avenge the infringement of
those rules j if the state has the sole direction
of moral actions, the violation of her commands
is only cognizable by the state.* We must
expect, therefore, among a people professing
a sense of a superintending Deity, not only
a purer morality, as has been already shown,
but different motives to the practice of morality.
And, in fact, offences which with other
nations are treated merely as hurtful either
to the society, or the offender himself, were
considered by the Jews as committed against
bidden in the Roman empire by an express law by Valens
and Gratian. Reimar on Dio Cass. b. i. par. 16. This differ-
ence between the practice of the Jews and other nations is
also remarked by Tacitus : augendac multitudini consulitur ;
necare quenquam ex agnatis (forte, natis) nefas. Hist. 1. 5.
* Plato argues this point, de Rep. 1. 4.
OF HEBREW MORALITY. 203
God ;* while obedience to his will was also
enforced as the proper motive of virtue, his
favour as its proper reward.
I would not be understood to deny that there
existed among 1 the ancients a sort of vague and
general feeling 1 , that justice, patriotism, and
some of the other virtues were agreeable to the
superior powers, and the contrary vices the ob-
jects of their displeasure. This notion, how-
ever received, whether the result of enlightened
reason, or the remains of original revelation,
appears as the ground of some of the arguments
attributed to Socrates by his disciples ; t and
* u Those who believe that God overlooks their lives,
cannot venture to sin." Jos. contra Apion. 11. 16. See Lev.
xix. 2.
-j- Crito, pag. 54, ad fin. Phaedo, 84, do. In the treatise
de Repub. Cephalus says, that when a man finds his end
approaching, he begins to feel an alarm, which had never
come across him in the former part of his life ; for, the fables
concerning the dead, that one who has done wrong here,
must be called to account below ; fables laughed at till then ;
begin to aifect his mind lest they should possibly be true.
1. i. p. 330, St. This passage is of the same character
with the remarkable one in the preface to Zaleucus's laws ;
enjoining those who have evil inclinations, " to set before
201 ON THE PRINCIPLES
is more familiarly observable in the vague and
undefined belief of future rewards and punish-
their eyes the season of their departure from life ; since re-
pentance is wont to come upon all when they are on the
point of death, and recollect the instances of their injustice
with a wish that they had acted uprightly." Stob. Sem. 42.
Upon this subject the later philosophy is very inferior to the
earlier. The Latin writers were corrupted by the prevalence
of the Stoic doctrines, according to which, it was beneath
the Deity to take cognizance of human transgressions. Ci-
cero says, " Hoc quidem commune est omnium philosopho-
rurn, nunquam nee irasci Deum, nee nocere. Quod affirm-
ate, quasi Deo teste, promiseris, id tenendum est : jam enim
non ad iram deorum, quae nulla est ; sed ad justitiam et ad
fidem pertinet." De Off. iii. 28, 29. His familiar opinions
in his epistles, tend to the same point, 1. v. 12, vi. 3. Epic-
tetus and Seneca argue decisively in the same strain. The
latter says, " No man in his senses would fear the gods, as it
is folly to dread beneficial objects." Late as Marcus Anto-
ninus wrote, he speaks of the resurrection of the soul as a
matter of great uncertainty, and of very inconsiderable in-
terest. " You have made your voyage, and arrived at your
port. Go ashore : if into another life, the gods are there ;
if into a state of insensibility, you will be no longer dis-
tracted by pains and pleasures, nor be in subjection to this
mean vessel." De Rebus suis, 1. iii. c. 3. It is needless to
add, that the opinion concerning the nature of the soul as
making a part of a celestial substance to which after the
dissolution of the body it was to be restored, is entirely de-
structive of a belief of future rewards and punishments, be-
OF HEBREW MORALITY.
merits which made a part, at least, of the poetical
creed. And this belief, however inconsistent
and obscured by fable, may be supposed to have
checked in some degree the glaring and indis-
putable crimes of fraud, violence, and rapacity.
But its effect did not at all extend to the personal
virtues. Respecting these, the ancients univer-
sally considered themselves as free from any
obligation or restraint, except that which their
own prudence or inclination might impose. Thus,
Plato speaks of drunkenness as a crime from
which the guardians of his republic must abstain,
not as a crime in itself, but " because it suits
any one rather than a guardian of a country,
to forget the land he is in, through intoxica-
tion."* And, generally, the best of the ancients,
cause it removes all idea of individuality. These are the
probable grounds of Aristotle's opinion, who makes death
the boundary, beyond which neither good nor evil is to be
looked for. Qepac yap' KOI ovfiev eV T<3 redreijjri doKei ovre
iiyaQov tivre KUKOV eirai. Ethic, lib. iii.
* De Rep. 1. iii. p. 218, Massey. The same line of argu-
ment is pursued through the other vices, 1. iv. 311, &c. It
appears, from another passage in the same treatise, how little
the favour of the superior powers was supposed to depend
ON THE PRINCIPLES
if they acknowledge a branch of moral duty,
speak of it as an offence against themselves.
In the celebrated advice, where he recommends
his disciples to review the actions of the past
day, Pythagoras says, " for what you have done
ill, be sorry : rejoice for the good you have per-
formed."* On the contrary, in a passage which
keeps up a continual strain of high morality,
Jobf is represented as asking, " If I despise
" the cause of my man-servant, or of my maid-
" servant, when they contend with me ; what
" shall I do when God riseth up, and when he
" visiteth, what shall I answer him ?"
So also in his Proverbs, Solomon enforces
chastity on a principle as unknown to the an-
cients, as the virtue itself, namely, " that the
" ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord ;
upon morality, and how little practical influence any idea of
the pleasure or displeasure of the deities exercised over the
actions of the best heathens. See Glaucon's argument,
Rep. 1.2.
* AeiXd 2e 2KTrpijas, cTrtirXijooeo' xpjjora e, repirov. Aur.
Carm.
f Chap. xxxi. 13.
OF HEBREW MORALITY. 207
" and he ponder eth all his goings"* Where
shall we find a parallel to the advice of Tobit
to his son ?f " Fear not, my son, that we are
" made poor ; for thou hast much wealth, if
" thou fear God, and depart from all sin, and
" do that which is well pleasing- in his sight.
11 Be mindful of the Lord thy God all thy days,
" and let not thy will be set to sin, or to trans-
it g ress his commandments" These were prac-
tical enforcements of the words of Moses : who
uniformly represents the divine will as the
standard, and the divine purity as the motive
of moral duties ; who says to the nation at
large, Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord thy God
am holy : who prohibits fraud, because all that
commit it, " and do unrighteously, are an abo-
" mination unto the Lord thy God :" and who
sanctions civil punishments, on the ground that
the soul " which doeth aught presumptuously,
" whether he be born in the land, or a stranger,
" the same reproacheth the Lord."$ This su-
periority, peculiar to the Hebrew nation, was
* Chap. v. 21. f Tobit iv. 525.
t Lev. xx. 26. Deut. xxv. 16. Num. xv. 30.
208 ON THE PRINCIPLES
at the same time observed and explained by
Josephus : who remarks, that Moses differed
from other philosophers in not making piety a
distinct virtue, but all virtues, as temperance,
patience, justice, a part of piety : all our actions,
pursuits and discourses, having- a reference to a
right deportment towards God.*
Fourthly, the grounds on which humanity
both towards strangers and countrymen is sanc-
tioned in the Mosaic law, belong to the same
principles which pervade the other ordinances.
That hostile spirit which several ancient writers
attribute to the Jews, had no other foundation
in the code of laws under which they lived,
than as far as those laws forbade their inter-
course with idolaters. The principles on which
they were enjoined to practise humanity and
charity, while they recognise the facts of their
early history, derive a moral lesson from them
to which the other nations of antiquity furnish
a contrast instead of a counterpart. " Thou
" shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress him ;
* Contra Apiun. ii. 16.
OF HEBREW MORALITY. 209
"for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
" Thou shalt not pervert the judgment, of the
" stranger nor of the fatherless, nor take the
" widow's garment to pledge. But thou shalt
" remember that thou wert a bondman in the land
" of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee
" thence ; therefore I command thee to do this
" thing."*
The practice of antiquity towards those
strangers, whom the chance of war or the hard-
ships of fortune had reduced to dependence,
was in strong opposition to this benevolent
spirit which considers the common relation
borne by all mankind towards a Creator, and
founds the social duties on that universal basis.
By the Romans, and throughout Greece, slaves
were considered as absolute property, and the
supposed interest of the master was the sole
law which regulated the usage they received.^
* Deut. xxiv. 17.
f " The custom of exposing old, useless, or sick slaves
in an island of the Tiber, there to starve, seems to have been
pretty common in Rome. It was the professed maxim of the
VOL. I. P
210 ON THE PRINCIPLES
The laws respecting them assumed, that they
were an inferior order of beings, and provided
elder Cato, to sell his superannuated slaves for any price,
rather than maintain what he esteemed an useless burden.
The ergastula, or dungeons, where slaves in chains were
forced to work, were very common all over Italy. Columella
advises that they be always built under ground. A chained
slave for a porter was usual in Rome." Hume, Essay xi.;
where much more is to be found to the same purpose. " Le
Senatus-Consulte Sillanien et d'autres loix etablirent que
lors qu'un maitre seroit tue, tous les esclaves qui etoient sur
le merue toit, ou dans un lieu assez pres de la maison pour
qu'on put entendre la voix d'un homme, seroient sans dis-
tinction condamnes a la mort." Mont. xv. 15. The treat-
ment of slaves in Greece was, if possible, worse. They were
forbidden by the laws to practise any liberal art. Even at
Athens, where their situation was reckoned comparatively
secure, Demosthenes says, that where it was possible to pro-
duce for the same fact either freemen or slaves as witnesses,
judges always preferred the torturing of slaves, as a more
certain evidence. Hume, Ess. xi. The institutions of Ly-
curgus, however, are the most abominable in this respect.
" Never was human nature degraded by system to such a
degree as in the miserable Helots. Every imaginable method
was taken to set them at the widest distance from tlieir
haughty masters. Even vice was commanded to them ; they
were compelled to drunkenness, for the purpose of exhibiting
to the young Lacedaemonians the ridiculous and contemptible
condition to which men are reduced by it. They were for-
bidden every thing manly, and they were commanded every
OF HEBREW MORALITY.
that they should remain so ; nurtured the
younger citizens in the belief that their morality
was of no account, and their lives of no higher
value than that which their master or the state
attached to them. What a contrast does the
Syllanian law at Rome, or the legalized Crypteia
at Sparta present to the commandment of Moses ;
" Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that
thing humiliating, of which man is capable, while beasts are
not." As to the Crypteia, " the most active and intelligent
young Lacedaemonians were occasionally sent into the country,
carrying provisions, and armed with a dagger. They dis-
persed, and generally lay concealed during the day, that
they might with more advantage in the night execute their
commission for reducing the number of the Helots, by mur-
dering any they met, but selecting in preference the stoutest
men, and those in whom any superiority of spirit or genius
had been observed." Mitf. Greece, i. 317. On the other
hand, " the penal code of the Jews guarded the person of
the servant and the slave, as well as of the freeman : and the
injunction, ' Whosoever smiteth a man, that he die, shall
' surely be put to death,' equally protected all." Dr. Graves,
i. 270. Montesquieu blames as severe one of the laws of
Moses, Ex. xxi. 20. But it appears evidently from the con-
text, that the law previously quoted was of universal extent,
v. 12; and the special law which succeeds it only applied to
those who inflicted just punishment, and without evil inten-
tion, but with blameable and punishable severity.
P ^
212 ON THE PRINCIPLES
" is poor and needy, whether he be of thy
" brethren, or of the strangers that are within
" thy gates, lest he cry against thee unto the Lord,
" and it be sin unto thee.*
It must be observed, that the right claimed
by Moses to direct his people and prescribe their
conduct in matters which might seem to belong
only to private obligation, is founded on the as-
sumption that the bounty of God, peculiarly
extended to the Hebrews, was the origin of all
their prosperity, and entitled his vicegerent to
require what terms he chose in return. " If thy
" brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay
" with thee, then thou .shaft relieve him : take
" thou no usury of him, or increase, but fear thy
" God. I am the Lord your God, which brought
" you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give
" you the land of Canaan."^ A similar exhor-
tation in Deuteronomy is enforced on similar
* Ex. xxii. 31. The same spirit is to be seen Deut. xv.
throughout : and the impression it fixed on the character of
fhe people may be traced as tar as Nehemiah, chap. v.
-j- Lev it. v.
OF HEBREW MORALITY. 213
considerations: " If thy brother, an Hebrew man
" or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and
" serve thee six years ; then in the seventh year
" thou shalt let him go free : and thou shalt not
" let him go away from thee empty : thou shalt
" furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out
" of thy floor, and out of thy wine-press ; of that
" wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee
" thou shalt give unto him. And thou shalt re-
" member that thou wast a bondman in the land
" of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed
" thee ; therefore I command thee this thing
" to-day."*
Here it is material to remark, that in the
points of difference between the Hebrews and
other nations, there is not only an actual supe-
riority, but precisely that superiority which might
be expected to result from the cause in question.
The morality is purer in itself; and its advantage
is exactly on that side where the origin it claims
would lead us to expect it : in the rules pre-
scribed for the government of the passions, and
* Deut. xv. 12.
ON THE PRINCIPLES
in what concerns the relief and treatment of our
fellow-men, and the value of their lives in the
eye of their Creator. This is the superiority we
should look for in a code which professes not to
proceed from the fallible reason of man, deducing
rules from the apparent advantage of society,
and squaring his moral enactments according to
his views of utility ; but to be derived from a
moral governor, who is holy, and demands the
service of a holy nation. Accordingly, in the
vices that are forbidden, and in the duties that
are enjoined, we find the same object kept in
sight, and a reference perpetually maintained to
God, as the legislator and judge from whom
every thing emanated, and to whose will every
thing ought to conform. The morality is con-
formable to the purity of belief; and the purer
belief accounts for the peculiar excellence of the
morality.
All the collateral circumstances, therefore,
belonging to the Hebrew character, into which
I have successively inquired, tend to the same
conclusion. From the opinions respecting the
OF HEBREW MORALITY. 215
Creator prevalent among- the Hebrews, and
from the peculiar relation he was believed to
bear towards them, resulted a species of litera-
ture almost exclusively their own in its nature,
and entirely so in its excellence. The same
belief accompanies and spiritualizes their national
worship, and inspires their personal devotions ;
the same belief pervades and regulates their mo-
rality. If no account existed of the introduction
and reception of this belief, not forming- the
opinion of the philosophers, or a detached sect
of philosophers, but the settled faith of the whole
people ; its singularity would offer a reasonable
subject of wonder and inquiry. The account,
however, given by the Hebrews themselves, is
sufficient to explain, not only the existence of
their peculiar belief, but its universality and
effect. Unless we give up all claim to reasonable
consistency, we must either admit the recorded
account of the phenomenon, or suggest some
other means, by which Moses might have been
rendered different from all other legislators, and
the Hebrews distinguished in their faith beyond
all other nations. It will be a proper conclu-
216 ON THE PRINCIPLES, &C.
sion of my argument, if I can succeed in showing-,
in the following sections, the difficulties which
encounter those who, on any grounds they may
choose to select, dispute the divine commission
of Moses, or deny that he had the advantage of
a revelation.
217
SECTION VIII.
TVhether Moses could have invented the Doc-
trine he taught concerning the Creation.
IF the history of the constitution of the world,
on which Moses laid the foundation of his law,
were not derived from the authentic source to
which it pretends, there are three several ways
in which its appearance may be accounted for :
it must either have been devised by himself, as
the most clear and rational ; or secondly, bor-
rowed by him from the Egyptians, and em-
bodied in his own legislative code) or, lastly,
must have been adopted and reduced into form
from the generally prevailing opinions of his
own nation. It will be proper, therefore, to
consider attentively each of these possible ex-
218 HEBREW THEOLOGY
planations ; especially as none of them exhibit
at first sight, that appearance of improbability,
which we shall find, on inquiry, belonging to
them all.
I have already admitted the likelihood, that
Moses, considered as a mere political legislator,
should be anxious to impress upon his infant
people the belief of a Creator, whose omnipo-
tence formed and whose providence maintains
the universe, supposing him convinced of it
himself. But it may justly be doubted whether
the resources of his own or of any human rea-
son, unassisted by traditional history originally
derived from revelation, could ever have fur-
nished Moses with that distinct proposition
which first arrests our attention in the opening
of the book of Genesis : u In the beginning
" God created the heaven and the earth."
It may indeed appear probable to those,
who, from the fortune of their birth and educa-
tion, have been accustomed to draw the habi-
tual inference of a Creator from his visible
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES.
works, that a declaration equivalent to that of
Moses, would be the spontaneous result of a
reasonable and reflecting mind. It is true
that such a result seems insensibly to arise
from the appearance of a world, which in every
part displays proofs of an omnipotent Intelli-
gence, incalculably exceeding the limits, not
merely of our comprehension, but even of our
imagination. That atheism, properly so called,
is an error chiefly of speculative minds, appears
clearly from the fact, that when we attempt to
disseminate the purer doctrines of our religion
among uncivilized tribes, the difficulty consists
rather in unteaching prior false notions con-
cerning superior beings, than in proving their
existence.
But although it cannot be denied, that the
being of one intelligent Creator is a proposition
so congenial and satisfactory to our minds when
offered to them, that for many ages it was be-
lieved innate ; and that it bears so well the test
of reason, as almost to seem its unpremeditated
result ; yet we are by no means warranted by
HEBREW THEOLOGY
experience in saying-, that the human mind,
when left to itself, has generally been found to
embrace it, or human reason to ascertain and
establish the discovery. In arguing- concerning
the natural capacity of the human understanding,
we should act very erroneously in assuming the
present state of our knowledge as a criterion.
A close acquaintance with the ancients, both in
their philosophical and moral writings, and also
in their familiar and practical opinions, can alone
enable us to judge how much has been added
to the first principles of religious belief by the
diffusion of Christianity.* In fact, however,
we have no other sure mode of appreciating
the powers of human reason to form or dissemi-
nate sublime ideas on the relation between the
* A regular attempt to prove the claims of natural religion
has been made by Wollaston, though with no intention to
discredit revelation. But Dr. Ireland very truly observes,
that" notwithstanding all his efforts on the side of unassisted
reason, Wollaston could not descend to (he level of nature.
He was too well instructed by Christianity, not to feel its in-
fluence even against his own purpose. The suggestions of
his reason are tinged with revelation ; and the standard
which he establishes for the religion of nature, is of a height
which Plato never reached." Lcct. vii.
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES.
world and its Creator, between God and man,
than by examining- what in former ages reason,
when confessedly unassisted, was actually able
to perform ; and the close acquaintance with
the most civilized states of antiquity which we
derive from their writings, enables us to make
this examination, both with respect to the phi-
losophical and the popular belief, with less chance
of error than would arise from reasoning a priori.
It appears from history, both sacred and pro-
fane, that, within a few centuries after the de-
luge, idolatry had become very general among
mankind ; either to the total exclusion of a purer
worship, or in that milder form which added
the veneration of fictitious deities to an acknow-
ledgment of a Supreme Creator. The neces-
sity of seeking habitations, and settlements, and
subsistence, soon depressed, it is probable, what-
ever degree of cultivation may be supposed
antecedent to the flood : the barbarous mode
of life which accompanies an unsettled state,
and the vices which deform it, would soon de-
grade that clear view of justice which is ne-
222 HEBREW THEOLOGY
cessary to the notion of a moral governor ;
while stupid ignorance could not long retain
the conception of an immaterial Creator. At
the same time, among the more reflecting and
enlightened, the wonders of the creation ; among
the uninformed and illiterate and guilty multi-
tude, the terror which attends storms and earth-
quakes, and the various phaenomena of nature,
combine to preserve an idea, if not of an over-
ruling providence, at least of more than human
power. It is in this state of man, and of the
human mind, that all those superstitions and
various forms of idolatry arise, which were
once nearly universal through the known
world ;* which still remain in full force over a
* Not only Clarke and Leland, who considered this sub-
ject without hypothesis ; but even Cudworth agrees, that
" the pagans in general, even the most refined of them, con-
curred in these two things : first, in breaking and crumbling
the one simple Deity, and multiplying it into many gods, or
parcelling it out into several particular notions, according to
its several powers and virtues ; and then in theologizing the
whole world, and deifying the nature of things, accidents,
and inanimate bodies: they supposing God to pervade all
things, and himself to be in a manner all things." p. 532.
To which I add, that, as the worship of these several parts,
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES.
large part of it, and of which the traces and ves-
tiges in every country are continually exciting
the research of the learned and curious. The
idea of spiritual worship, such as is paid to a
being known only to the imagination, not only
requires a considerable advance in religion, but
in cultivation also ; we cannot, therefore, won-
der, that unenlightened minds, more timid from
their ignorance, retaining or acquiring the no-
tion of super-human power, but utterly unable
to comprehend an immaterial God, should fall
into gross idolatry : not, as I conceive, believing,
or, at least, not generally believing, that the
images which they themselves had formed were
either sensible or powerful ; but proposing to
themselves a visible object, to which they might
fix their attention and direct their prayers.
Some of the ancient nations, more fortunate
than the rest, found this visible object in the
powers, and virtues, was consequent upon abstracting them,
a confusion was immediately introduced, sufficient to obscure
altogether the originally pure theology.
224 HEBREW THEOLOGY
sublime parts of the creation :* and we may
observe, that in the Asiatic kingdoms, which
appear to have arrived earliest at civilization,
the sun and heavenly bodies formed the sole
objects of worship.
The polytheism of the Greeks and Romans
took a different turn ; its foundation was laid
in the supposed elements of the universe, and
the strongest passions or qualities of the human
mind ; over all which a particular deity was
believed to preside, and to excite or control
them according to the various purposes of his
dominion. Among these Jupiter, being ruler of
the air, was represented as possessing superior
power.t Upon this original divine synod (the
* Eusebius (Prae. Evang. 1. i. p. 307) asserts, that this
was originally the universal worship, and that idols, and the
various heathen divinities, were a subsequent invention.
-} The apparent regularity of this system has induced
some great authorities to explain the whole of the heathen
mythology by allegorical interpretation ; and this was the
resource of the pagans themselves when they were pressed
by the absurdities of their faith upon the advance of philo-
sophy and truth, as may be seen in Eusebius, passim. This
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES.
dii majores) was engrafted the race of heroes,
who from time to time became illustrious in
the world, or useful to their own nation ; whose
qualities and exploits being- delivered to posterity
by tradition, were magnified by the zeal of
their countrymen, or the fancies of poetical
imagination.
^
A national religion which accidental circum-
stances, concurring with superstitious ignorance,
have thus once contributed to establish, is pow-
erfully defended by that tide of prejudice which
always opposes the change of popular and an-
cient customs, but sets particularly strong in
favour of religious habits. When, therefore,
civilization increases, and more enlightened un-
derstandings begin to pierce the mist which en-
velopes all that relates to superior powers, they
is, however, to ascribe philosophy to a period when philoso-
phy was unknown. Similar superstitions in many parts of
Britain may acquaint us that men in a very rude state are
likely to conceive the air, or the sea, or the earth, to be
haunted or governed by a fiend or god ; and attribute their
danger, or remarkable phenomena, to his anger and in-
fluence.
VOL. I. O
226 HEBREW THEOLOGY
have to encounter not only the clamours, but
often the weapons, of prejudiced ignorance,
which treats every deviation from the popular
superstitions as apostacy.*
*
* Much has been argued about the toleration of the an-
cients. It seems now very generally agreed, that this to-
leration was a readiness to admit any new deity into their
catalogue. Socrates and Aristotle afford a decisive proof
that their toleration was by no means unlimited. They al-
lowed private opinions, and were not scrupulous with regard
to the notions held by philosophical sects : but even the
Epicureans, whose doctrines were openly hostile to all the
sacrifices and public offices of religion, obeyed their coun-
try's rites, and abstained from attempting to abrogate esta-
blished ordinances. Though the death of Socrates may be
partly ascribed to political motives, and the banishment of
Aristotle to the " rancorous malignity" (as Dr. Gillies says)
of private enemies, the punishment of Stilpo and Diagoras
sufficiently shows that the state guarded vigilantly her religi-
ous belief: and it must be remembered by those who repre-
sent the ancient toleration as complete, that, whatever was
the cause of the fate of Aristotle and Socrates, a non-com-
pliance with their country's laws was the plea employed
against them ; (see Diog. Laert ;) and that the accusation
under which the latter was indicted of impiety, was rebutted,
not by an appeal to his rational sentiments on religion, but
to his conformity with the senseless worship of his country-
men. Xen. Mem. 1. 1. This subject is discussed at large by
Taylor on the Civil law, and Bentley, Philel. Lips.
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES.
This may be considered as, in part, the rea-
son why those philosophers of antiquity, whose
good sense discovered to them the absurdity
of the national worship, conformed in public
to what they privately condemned ; so that
the licentious festival of a popular deity some-
times gave occasion to those refined discourses,
in which sublime truth was approached at least,
if not attained, and disclosed to a select party
of disciples. But another and a still stronger
reason is to be found in the obscurity and con-
tradictory nature of their own opinions. Even
if prudential motives had not withheld them
from disturbing the established faith, this uncer-
tainty must have prevented them either from
undertaking the attempt at all, or from succeed-
ing in it, if undertaken. Those who have most
studied the perplexities of ancient philosophy
will be most forward to agree with me in as-
serting, that it is vain to seek there for a declara-
tion, express and positive, like that of Moses, of
the independent existence and unity of the
Creator. Among the various sects into which
philosophers were divided, and the still more
Q 2
228 HEBREW THEOLOGY
opposite opinions which they maintained, no
one proposed this as their distinguishing tenet, or
appropriated such a doctrine to themselves.*
It is, no doubt, true, that very sublime con-
ceptions of the divine nature have been trans-
mitted to us, from some of the theistical philo-
sophers, and, sparkling as detached sentences
from the obscure metaphysical speculations by
which they are surrounded, form the most in-
teresting relics of antiquity. It was a saying of
Thales, according to Diogenes Laertius, " that
God is the most ancient of all things, for he is
unbegotten ; the world the most beautiful, as
being the work of God." In the Phsedo of
Plato, Socrates gives this sublime opinion : " I
conceive that there is something independently
and by itself excellent, and good, and great, and
* Even Socrates cannot be excepted. In the account which
Xenophon gives of his discourse with Aristodemus, where he
is asserting a providence, the expressions 0eoc and 9eol are
used promiscuously ; and in the 'AiraXoyta, where Plato pro-
fesses to declare his master's sentiments, he acknowledges
the sun, and moon, and stars, as gods, condemning, in strong
terms, the contrary doctrine of Anaxagoras.
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES.
all thing's else ; and if there is any other thing-
excellent besides this excellence itself, that it
is in no other way excellent, than either by
the presence or participation, or by some as-
sistance, of whatever nature, of that excel-
lence." 4 Aristotle has left us this among many
similar sentences : " God possesses every thing
that is good, and is self sufficient ;"t and his
scholar, Theopompus, defines the Deity as
" that first and divinest being-, which willeth
every thing- that is best."J " God can only be
understood by us (says Cicero) as some mind,
unconnected and free, separated from every
mortal admixture, perceiving- and moving every
thing." Plutarch]] has preserved to us the in-
scription of an Egyptian temple at Sais, which
declared of the Deity, " I am whatever has been
and is, and shall be : and my veil no mortal has
ever drawn aside."
* P. 100, Steph. This being, he elsewhere in the same
dialogue calls, the one the, good, and wise God.
f IlaVra r' e^et ayaflu 6 Oeos, (cat ianv djra'p/o/c. Mag.
Mor. ii. 15.
1 To TrpiSrof KOI fletoVaroi/, irdvra ret dpiarra flov\ofjievo<;.
Tusc. Quaist. 1. De Osiride et Jside.
230 HEBREW THEOLOGY.
These and similar passages (though I have
introduced the clearest of those whose anti-
quity can be depended upon, which have fallen
in my way) are surely valuable as displaying the
efforts of superior reason to expand itself, while
labouring under the weight of an absurd my-
thology. Considered separately, they might
seem to justify an opinion which has been
rashly asserted, that some of the enlightened
Greeks were pure monotheists.* These sen-
* I am well aware that Cudworth, Stillingfleet, Prideaux,
and Warburton, (in his dissertation on the Mysteries,) in
order to do imaginary homage to religion, took this ground,
which is now chiefly maintained by those who wish to de-
preciate the internal evidence of the Mosaic law. But I am
convinced, that, however truth might occasionally break out,
or transpire through tradition, so that single passages may
be found to give colour to such an opinion ; yet it was no
where so distinctly understood, as to be applicable to a sys-
tem, or furnish a rational account of the creation. The con-
trary opinion has been sufficiently refuted by Leland.
Eusebius, PraDp. Evang. asserts the peculiarity, and at the
same time the rationality, of the Hebrew faith, as to the
creation, which he allows to have been approached by Plato
alone. He ridicules Diodorus for not even introducing the
name of a Deity in his Cosmogony ; and Thales and others,
$ CTffjuovpyov, } Troitirtjv riva TUV oXwv ffvaTrjaa^fvovq. L. 1.
. t 15.
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES. 231
tences, however, only shine when separated
from the dross that surrounds them ; united
to the parts from which they are here detached,
they led to no practical result, and conveyed
no distinct idea. All the discourses of the
ancients on the subject of the Deity want that
clearness and positive tone of authority which
we see, at one view, in the declaration of
Moses, and which arising from the conscious
certainty of the author, can alone communi-
cate the same certainty to others. This dif-
ference I shall proceed to point out more par-
ticularly.
I. The leading excellence of the Mosaic system
consists in its declaring at once to mankind
their relation to an individual Creator. The
existence of such a Being, far from remaining a
theoretical speculation, ought to be kept in view
through all the various pursuits of life ; and
our dependence upon him, to become the chief
spring of human actions. The fear of offending
him is the strongest preventive of vice ; the
desire of pleasing him the noblest incitement
HEBREW THEOLOGY
to practical virtue. But in order to our becom-
ing thus affected by the existence of an invisible
Being, we must necessarily conceive, that, al-
though inaccessible to our senses, he is intimately
conversant with all our actions, not merely as
an animating power, but as an all-seeing
witness ; and that, although universally diffused
throughout the whole creation in the effects of
his power, he himself possesses an individual
and essential existence, separate from any of his
creatures. Impossible as it is for us to compre-
hend the nature of a Being purely spiritual, it is,
nevertheless, most congenial to a mind in-
structed in the wonders of the universe, to con-
ceive the existence of some one intelligent
Supreme, possessed of infinite power, infinite
wisdom, and infinite goodness, as displayed in
the visible world, which has its being from him,
not as the emanation of his nature, but as the
creation of his will.
To a large proportion of those who hold a
distinguished rank among the ancient theistical
philosophers, viz. the disciples of Pythagoras,
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES. 233
Aristotle, and Zeno, this idea of the personality
of the Deity was in a great measure unknown.
The Deity, by these philosophers, was consi-
dered not so much an intelligent Being, as an
animating power* diffused throughout the
world ; and was introduced into their specula-
tive system to account for the motion of that
passive mass of matter which was supposed to
be coeval, and, indeed, co-existent, with himself.
" God is not," according to a disciple of Py-
thagoras,! " exterior to the world, as some
conjecture ; but entire in himself, pervades the
universal sphere ; superintends all productions,
is the support of all nature ; eternal ; the
source of all power ; the first simple principle
of all things ; the origin of celestial light ; the
father of all ; the mind and animating princi-
ple of the universe ; the first mover of all the
spheres." The air of apparent sublimity con-
* 1 ! r v'x w eio' ry o\ti) KVK\W. Clem. Alex.
-f- Supposed to be a quotation from the work of some
ancient Pythagorean, being found in the Doric dialect, in
Justin Martyr's Address to the Gentiles (p. 18, Paris ed. )
See Enfield's Hist, of Phil.
231< HEBREW THEOLOGY
veyed by passages like this, when viewed in-
dependently of the system to which they be-
longed, has attached a greater credit to those
systems than, on a closer examination, they will
be found to deserve.
The fairest test of a theory is its application
to the solution of a phenomenon. The curious
treatise of Ocellus the Lucanian, one of the
earliest Pythagoreans, enables us to try by this
test the principles in question ; and is the more
interesting, as the author appears on the same
ground with Moses, professing to account for
the visible appearance of the world ; and has been,
in fact, by infidel writers, expressly opposed to
the authority of the sacred historian.* Instead
of acknowledging the agency of a Creator, he
asserts the eternity of our system and its inhabi-
tants in these explicit terms :f " The original
birth of man, of other animals and plants, was
* He lived in the age preceding Plato. Diog. Laert.
viii. 80. His authority is opposed, by Blount, to that of Moses.
See Clarke on the Heing and Attributes, Dem. 2.
j Opuscula Mylholog. Gale, iii. 29.
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES. 235
not from the earth ; but the arrangement of the
universe having- been eternal, the things existing
in it, and belonging to it, must have been eternal
also ; namely, the heaven, earth, and air. The
parts, therefore, of the universe, having been
eternal, it follows, that the things they contain
were co-existent with them : the sun, the moon,
the fixed stars and planets, with the heaven ; ani-
mals, plants, and metals, with the earth ; winds,
and the vicissitudes of heat and cold, with the
region of the air. Since, then, in each divsion
of the universe, some race superior to the earth
is constituted, as, in the heaven, that of the gods;*
in earth, that of men ; in the region of the air,
that of daemons ; it is necessary that the race of
men should have been eternal ; and reason clearly
concludes, that not the divisions of the world
only, but the things contained in those divisions,
must be co-eternal with the world.'*
* The gods here spoken of are separated from the su-
preme principle, or Deity, which animates the whole. Py-
thagoras supposed four orders of subordinate intelligent be-
ings ; gods, demi-gods, heroes, and men. Laert. viii. 23.
236 HEBREW THEOLOGY
Those, therefore, have been misled by terms,
considered without reference to the system to
which they belong, who imagine, from the cele-
brated Monad of Pythagoras, that he or his fol-
lowers entertained any clear conception of one
only Creator, himself independent of his crea-
tion ; the universe itself was their monad, arid so
called, because it consisted, according to the
doctrine we have seen, of one indivisible whole.
To this purpose it is expressly declared, in another
part of the same treatise,* " that the things con-
tained in the universe have a connexion with the
universe, but the universe with no other thing,
but only with itself."
The theological tenets of Zeno resemble closely
those of Pythagoras, and are liable to the same
objections. Although no part of ancient philo-
sophy contains more elevated descriptions of the
divine nature than the Stoical writings, we find,
on a careful inspection, that the Supreme Deity
of Zeno was considered as a pure ethereal fire,
the active principle that pervaded and informed
* P. 10.
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES. 237
the passive material mass, " the substance of
which was the world and the heaven."* In con-
formity with this description, the Stoic is repre-
sented by Cicero to affirm, " that the universe
must of necessity be intelligent" and that the
nature which holds all things together must excel
in the perfection of reason : that the " universe,
therefore, is the Deity, all the power of which is
sustained by a divine nature."t " The universe,"
says Manilius,^ " is animated, is moved by reason;
since one spirit dwells in every part, and, pre-
vading universally, cherishes the world, and gives
its form to the embodied animal." In these
passages, which faithfully, though briefly, re-
capitulate the sum of the Stoical creed, instead
of a real Father of mankind, who, from his
heavenly throne, overlooks and protects his
creatures, we discover only what may be called
an infinitely extended soul : we discover not the
object of adoration or prayer, but the philoso-
phical agent, invented by reason, to explain why
* Laert. vii. 148. f Nat. Deor. ii. 11.
t Lib. 2. See also Plutarch de Placitis Philosoph.
c. 7. 1. 1.
238 HEBREW THEOLOGY
" the sensible warm motion should animate the
kneaded clod."
That the doctrine of Aristotle is exposed to a
similar censure is more immediately obvious,
and more generally acknowledged ; since this
philosopher, both in his own age, and in later
times, has been exposed to the imputation of
atheism. There are, however, no ancient
writings,* in which a more elaborate proof of an
agency distinct from inanimate matter, can be
found. " The first heaven,"f Aristotle asserts,
" is eternal ; there is also something that gives
it motion : since, then, there is a thing moved
and a mover, there is some middle thing which
moves that which is itself inert, which is eternal,
substance, and energy." This substance, he pro-
ceeds to prove by a string of subtleties, " is
* Of other systems he expressly declares, ovcev \eyei
KIVOVV iroiei.
f Meaning the universe: "Universum, mundus, coelum,
sunt saepe ovvwvpa apud Platonem." Serranus.
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES. 239
without parts, indivisible, without passions, and
unchangeable."*
But as the Deity of Zeno and Pythagoras
is resolved into a vital principle, or ethereal
fire, that of Aristotle is merely an external
moving- power : not the creator or even the di-
rector of the world, which is equally eternal
with himself: an energy, in fact, which, ex-
cepting in the constant exercise of its nature,
as the cause of motion, resides unconnected
with our world, and happy in the contempla-
tion of himself, in the celestial sphere. Such a
deity, it need scarcely be urged, is purely phy-
sical, and bears a part in the author's peculiar
system of natural philosophy, but is totally
without that personal interference in human
affairs, which would be necessary to render
him the natural object of religious reverence.
Indeed, this general result of ideas, such as
those which have been hitherto developed re-
* Met. 1. vi. cap. 6, 7, &c. Also de Coelo, ii. 3. Geoj?
eVepye'icr, dQdvaaid eariv TOVTO e eVrtv Zwi} didio? wore
ru deih) diStov Kivr\air v
240 HEBREW THEOLOGY
specting the Supreme Being-, is evident, as soon
as the principle is exposed. The numerous
philosophers who embraced them, frequently,
without doubt, in their popular precepts admitted
the popular language, and enjoined, that worship
should be offered to the gods ; and some ex-
pressly taught, that to the inferior deities, of
whom mention was made in the extract from
Ocellus, adoration was due ; but unless their
theological system has been here misrepresented,
it will be a true inference, that such conceptions
of the divine nature could lead to no results of
practical piety. It was impossible that Aristotle
should address \\isjirst mover, who had no con-
cern in the existence of the world, eternal like
himself, and whose situation in the remotest
sphere, the supposed centre of motion, removed
him as much as the indolent deities of Epicurus
from the knowledge of human affairs. Nor
could the mind of a Stoic or a Pythagorean
when torn with anxiety and affliction, turn from
the distractions of life to the contemplation of
an Almighty Disposer of events. They had
arrived at no idea of a Creator, whose relation
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES.
to his creatures might induce him to regard their
distresses with commiseration.* The very mind
that suffered was a portion of the supreme
deity they acknowledged, and, at its dissolution
from the body, was about to return to it again.
These are the natural conclusions to be drawn
from such theories as have been already brought
under consideration ; nor do any facts remain
to us which invalidate, in the main, the truth of
such a deduction.
II. That indistinct veil which, according to
the doctrines of these numerous philosophers,
overspread the greatness of the Deity, and ob-
scured him from the homage of human wor-
ship and contemplation, seems to have been
penetrated by the mind of Socrates alone. The
voice of the oracle, which pronounced this sin-
gular philosopher the wisest of mankind, is sanc-
* It is justly remarked in Cicero, (de Nat. Deor. i. 11,) Py-
thagoras, qui censuit animum esse per naturam rerum ornnem
intentum et commeantem, ex quo nostri animi carperentur,
non vidit distractione humanorum animorum discerpi et la-
cerari Deum, et cum miseri animi essent, quod plerisque
contingeret, turn Dei partem esse miseram.
VOL. I. R
HEBREW THEOLOGY
tioned by the writings of antiquity and the
judgment of more enlightened times. But it
has not been explicitly observed, that his merit
is due to his avoiding the very subject, in which
his rival theists failed ; to his declaring the de-
pendence of matter upon mind, without confound-
ing their existence : so that his supreme deity is
not a mechanical agent, but a separate being :
not the mover only, but the maker of the uni-
verse. His superiority consists in the correct
conceptions which he formed of the personality
of the Deity ; whose actual superintendence of
human affairs, and intimacy with human ac-
tions, was his favourite theme in those sublime
discourses, in which he appears to have fixed the
mark of moral eloquence, and shown the actual
height to which unassisted reason can attain.
Socrates, however, was not less admirable
for the discoveries at which his reason arrived,
than for his abstinence from those topics which
reason cannot successfully pursue. He did not
inquire, as we are assured by Xenophon, con-
cerning the nature of the universe, or constitu-
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES. 243
tion of the world : this, and other metaphysical
speculations, he left to the sophists of his time,
and applied himself to the more useful inquiry
into the principles of morals. The theological
doctrine which he enforced, and contented him-
self with enforcing, was that of a providence,
and of an immaterial agent separate from the
visible world ; and there can be no doubt, that
if any practical sense of the unity and personality
of the Supreme Being existed at all among the
ancient philosophers, it is to be found in the
sentiments of Socrates.*
Have we, then, in this singular ornament of
ancient philosophy, a rival of Moses, who, if
it had been his business to declare a cosmogony
to an infant community, could have attained the
same consistency and precision ? We have no
reason to make this favourable conclusion. He
* The agency of inferior deities, and the superiority of the
Stiftiovpyoc, is expressly admitted in his dialogue with Euthy-
demus. "O re yap a\Xot (0eot), he says, rifJ.lv TO. iiya&a. SiSdv-
rec, ovSev rovrwv el? Tovp.tya.veq toyrec Cu^oaaiv, KCLL 6 rdv o\ov
Koap.ov avvTa.TT(i)v re (cat awe-^uv, eV w TraVra /caXct *rat aya0a
e'ori, ouroc r<z yue'ytora Trpa'rrwi/ ojoa'rat, rae ^e
ao'paroc n^ v eanv. Mem. 1. iv. c. 3.
R
244 HEBREW THEOLOGY
himself avoided all system, and this was his se-
curity : he despised the inquiry, (as we are ex-
pressly assured by the most faithful recorder of
his sentiments,) " whether the universe was a
single substance, or made up of a multitude of
parts, whether all things were generated and
perishable, or eternal and indestructible ;"* and
thus showed what he judged attainable by mere
reason, in the subjects on which his own reason
was employed. But when Plato subsequently
began to reduce his master's doctrines into an
actual system, and attempted to explain the con-
stitution of the universe, he fell into an error
opposite to that already exposed, and instead of
confounding the immaterial mind with matter,
maintained the equally independent existence of
each principle. Thus, concurring in the almost
universal opinion of antiquity, and degrading
the attributes of his deity, by supposing him
unequal to the original creation of matter, he
concluded it to have existed from eternity, *)"
* Xen. Mem. c. i. 1. 11, 13, 14, 16.
-j- Without dwelling upon the obscurities of the Timanis,
where a third eternal principle is added to the two held by
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES. 215
independently of the divine power, which was
only employed to bring it into order and form.
Anaxagoras, and where it is laid down, that the operation of
the Demiurge, acting upon eternal matter through the me-
dium of self-existent ideas, concurred in the formation of
the world ; it is sufficient to state Plato's doctrine in the ge-
neral terms of Diogenes Laertius, (iii. 69,) who, in his ac-
count of this philosopher, declares him to have taught " that
there were two principles of the universe, matter and Deity ;
which last he also calls the mind, or cause ; and that matter
was without form and infinite. God, therefore, as Plato pro-
ceeds, wishing all things good, and, as far as his power extends,
nothing evil, having received visible matter in a disordered
state, brought it from disorder into order, judging this to be
altogether preferable." And in this way was his doctrine
understood by Cicero. See also Plut. de Gen. Anim. iii. 78.
The absurdity of this system, alluded to in the text, appears
from the following dilemma : Matter, supposed to exist in-
dependently, and of itself, must either have existed in the
best possible state, or in a state which might be improved.
If we affirm the latter, why was not that originally perfect
which, being independent and self-existent, could have no
possible cause of imperfection ? If we affirm the former,
why does another independent being interpose his power, to
alter that which is already excellent? The just notion of
creation is expressed by Moses alone, as Eusebius observes,
T(3v 'E/SpctiKtov Soyfjidrwv 'idtov ijv, TO ei'ct TUIV diravruv iroirjTtjv
vopieff8at TOV eVt iravrtov Qcov, dvrfjs re r?je viroKf.i^evrjq rofc
ffw/uaariv overlay, i]V vXrjv Trpoffayopevovoriv EXX^yee. Praep.
Evang. 1. vii. c. 18. This subject has been exhausted by
246 HEBREW THEOLOGY
The absurdities to which this system leads can
only be avoided by the doctrine of Moses ; assert-
ing 1 , that the same Being which organized the
universe, created the matter out of which it
was organized. This is the distinguishing fea-
ture of his narration, in which he retains a
consistency peculiar to himself, and raises his
account of the existence of the world, not only
above that of the philosophers who supposed
it eternal in its present state and form, but be-
yond those also who, with respect to the per-
sonality and agency of the Deity, approached
nearest to his own conception.
This concise, though, I hope, faithful inquiry
into the principles of the ancient philosophers,
gives us no warrant for supposing that the doc-
trine of Moses was the inference of his unas-
sisted reason. It is easy to affirm generally,
that some of the ancients were monotheists ;
that it is probable the doctrine of the unity
Mosheim, De Creatione Mundi ex Nihilo; Barrow, 12th
Serm. on the Creed ; and lately in the seventh of Dr. Ire-
land's able Lectures on Paganism and Christianity com-
pared.
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES. 24/7
was taught in the mysteries ; to conclude
that, whatever might be publicly inculcated,
the esoteric precepts were purer ; and to quote
single passages of obscure meaning, or even of
acknowledged sublimity, in proof of a devia-
tion from the popular creed. But where is the
philosopher who could boldly teach, Believe in
the existence of one God, and worship no
other ? or whose was the system which admitted
the^ creation of matter, and could lead its fol-
lowers to a sentiment like this ? " Thou, O
" God, hast laid of old the foundation of the
" earth, and the heavens are the work of thy
" hands : they shall perish, but thou shalt en-
" dure ; yea, all of them shall wax old like a
' garment : as a vesture shalt thou change them,
" and they shall be changed : but thou art the
" same, and thy years shall have no end."
* Ps. cii. 25. See also Jeremiah, c. x. 11, 12. And it
is worth while to observe, from a passage in one of the books
of Maccabees, that, after inspiration had ceased, the Jewish
writers retained the original meaning of creation : " I beseech
thee, my son, look upon the heaven and the earth, and all
that is therein, and consider that God made them of things
which were not : and so was mankind made likewise." 2
Mace. vii. 28. Ireland, p. 312.
HEBREW THEOLOGY
Nothing, I repeat, in the tenets or doctrines of
the ancients, can justify our believing-, that
Moses, unassisted by revelation, from some
source or other derived to him, could have con-
ceived so distinctly, or declared so expressly,
or have imprinted so indelibly upon his people,
that account of the creation which is contained
in the Pentateuch, and was implicitly received
by the Hebrews.
Should it be still urged, that allowing the
founders of the Greek philosophy not to have
made the proper conclusion from the arguments
which prove the existence and unity of a Crea-
tor, yet there are arguments which demonstrate
it, which might have occurred to Moses, though
they did not occur in the same force to them :
it may be farther shown, in reply, that this is
no less untrue in fact, than improbable in ap-
pearance. There are no arguments which can
ascertain the existence of a Creator, which may
not be referred either to the necessity of a First
Cause, which is the method Clarke has followed ;
or to the appearances of design in the construe-
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES. 24>9
tion of the world, irresistibly indicating- a con-
triver ; which is the ground which Paley, after
a multitude of predecessors, has so ably taken
and maintained.
I. Neither of these trains of reasoning was
unperceived by the Grecian masters of philo-
sophy. The very process pursued by Socrates
is detailed at large. To his solid understand-
ing, says Xenophon, it appeared contradictory
and absurd to honour the painter and the sta-
tuary, because their senseless and inert imita-
tions resemble the form of man, and not to
honour the unseen maker of man himself, en-
dued with sense and motion. It seemed con-
tradictory to admit design in the works of
human art, which are seen to correspond with
their intended use, and at the same time to
suppose that the sensitive faculties of man
proceed from chance ; to allow to the mind of
man the power of governing the body, and to
deny to the mind of the universe the power of
ruling the world.*
* Mem. c. iv. 1. 1.
250 HEBREW THEOLOGY
By these and similar steps of analogy, to the
force of which even the reasoners of these later
times have made little addition, except that
arising from cumulative evidence, Socrates per-
suaded his hearers of the intelligence, the con-
stant presence, and the superintendence of the
gods ; and seems to have stood alone among
the ancients, as was before observed, in apply-
ing his speculative belief to the practical pur-
pose of regulating the lives and conduct of his
disciples.* Yet did he arrive at a distinct con-
clusion, or inculcate a simple belief of the
unity, like Moses? To say nothing invidiously
upon the obscurity which hung over his own
mind, and which many of his habits betray ;
(" for he was constant in sacrificing both in
private and at the public altars, and often ap-
plied to divination ;"f) Xenophon, even whilst
he is relating the successful arguments of So-
crates, speaks commonly of a plurality of gods :
and we find it openly asserted by Plato, in a
strain the most opposite to that of Moses, that
* Mem. c. iv. H. 19.
f Xen. i. I, 2. Cicero de Nat. Deor. i. 12.
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES. 251
" to discover the Artificer and Father of the
universe, is indeed difficult, and that, when
found, it is impossible to reveal him through
the medium of discourse to mankind at large."*
Accordingly, in an oration supposed to be held
in public, we find Plato reasoning to the peo-
ple with every appearance of seriousness, on
the certainty of their having sprung from the
soil of their own country.t
II. The other course of argument, viz. the
necessary existence of an eternal Being, as the
prime mover of the material part of the crea-
tion, was first insisted on, as far as I am aware,
by Aristotle. The following passage, how-
ever, is sufficient to prove that it was well
understood by that philosopher : " I affirm,"
he says, " that the Deity is an animate Being,
immortal, excellent ; since life and an uninter-
rupted eternity belong to God ; for this is God.
But they are in error, who think with the
Pythagorians and Speusippus, that what is most
* Timaeus, Taylor's translation, vol. ii. p. 475.
f Dial. Menen.
HEBREW THEOLOGY
excellent and perfect is not the original ; reason-
ing 1 in this way, that the causes of plants and
animals exist first in their seeds, from whence
afterwards their perfection proceeds. For the
seed of which they speak, comes itself from
others that were before perfect ; and the real
original is not the seed, but the perfect plant or
animal. It is plain, therefore, that there is some
Being eternal and unchangeable, and separate
from the objects of our senses."*
Here we seem to have discovered the truth
for which we are searching ; and might expect
that the author of the sentences above cited,
had established a system of pure theism. Yet
in the same treatise which contains this sublime
argument, we find, to the humiliation of rea-
son, that this first moving Deity was incorpo-
rated by Aristotle with the world, which is sup-
posed equally eternal and incorruptible wit Ji him-
self. So that it has even been a question, whether
he who first saw the metaphysical necessity of
* Metaph. vii. 14.
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES. 53
a First Cause, ought not to be reckoned among
the atheistical philosophers.
Had there not been preserved to us passages
of this nature, enabling us to judge of the effect
produced by analogical and demonstrative argu-
ment, upon the mind which has no other in-
struction ; it might not have been safe to deny
that Moses could have been led by the mere
force of such reasoning to assert the existence
of one God, the Creator of heaven and earth.
But knowing, as we thus do, the insufficient
result both of analogical proof and systematic
demonstration, we surely are bound to believe
that some more sensible evidence lay before the
writer, who, without stopping to argue, seizes
the conclusion at which argument painfully
arrives, with an effect which mere argument
has never attained. For, even if we were to
affirm that a train of reasoning, like those we
have considered, was present to the mind of
Moses, of which he published only the conclu-
sion ; that he declared the theorem, but with-
held the steps of demonstration which led to
254- HEBREW THEOLOGY
it : what justice could there be in imagining
that its effect would have proved more general
than that of Socrates, or produced a system
less embarrassed and inconclusive than we have
found in Plato or Aristotle ? Can it be con-
tended, that the Jews, in the time of Moses,
were in such a state of improvement, as to see
intuitively the process of argument which ended
in the inference proposed to them ? It may
rather be affirmed, that no man could have
proposed such an inference so nakedly and gra-
tuitously, unless it were supported in the minds
of his hearers, by familiar and indisputable
testimony. Had Newton simply asserted that
the planets perform a regular course round their
centre, the sun, and are retained in their ap-
pointed paths by a general law of attraction,
keeping back in the mean time the gradual de-
monstration which guided his belief; in spite
of the rational probability of his opinion, he
would have had no more prospect of establish-
ing a permanent system than Ptolemy or Co-
pernicus. Yet Moses, while he combats no
doubts, and provides against no possibility of
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES. 255
scepticism, perpetuates among his people a
pure and rational theology. How did he effect
this, unless, because invested with plenary
power, he declared at once the truth which he
was charged to deliver to posterity, with a
voice of authority which the dogmas of philo-
sophy cannot assume, and imposture is unable
to imitate ?*
I shall conclude this discussion with two col-
lateral arguments, which seem to fix incontro-
vertibly the point I have endeavoured to esta-
blish. For, first, if there be a wide difference
between the doctrines taught by the philoso-
phers and those derived from the Hebrew into
the Christian scriptures, respecting the nature
of God and the original of the universe, we may
expect to find this difference remarked by those
who, having been long conversant with the
one, became at last acquainted with the other.
* So Justin truly characterizes the old Hebrew writers :
ov fiera airo^ei^ewq TreTron/vrcu Tore rovq Xo'yovc, are
Cum Tryphone Dial. xxv. ed. Jubb.
256 HEBREW THEOLOGY
To this purpose we have the most explicit de-
clarations from the early converts to Christi-
anity.
Justin Martyr* details his progress through
the various philosophical sects, in search after
a knowledge of the Supreme Being, and relates
the inconsistencies which successively dis-
gusted him in them all : till his venerable in-
structor pointed out to him the Hebrew writers,
who being much earlier in age, and speaking
by divine intimation, had alone seen the truth,
and declared it to mankind. f Eusebius, after
giving a diffuse account of the numerous dis-
cordant and absurd opinions which prevailed in
different countries and sects concerning the
divine nature, breaks out into a just description
* Lucian, with less gravity, though equally in earnest,
points out the contradictions of the philosophers, and the
impossibility of discovering the truth through their means.
NeKvcytaJT/u, ch. iv. Cicero's Treatise de Natura Deorurn,
was even reckoned favourable to Christianity, from the un-
certainty and vanity of the existing system which it exposed.
See Arnob. 1. xxiii. p. 103.
t Dial. p. 24.
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES. 257
of the contrast which the doctrine he had
espoused opened to his view. " I have rea-
son," he declares, " to profess myself relieved
from a long- and inveterate error, and feel as if
recovered from a most severe and dangerous
disease."* Augustin too, in his remarkable
confessions, describes the wavering uncertainty
which hung over his mind till he at last became
thoroughly imbued with a knowledge of God
from the Scriptures.t
And yet the sincere searchers after truth in
those later times had great advantages over the
immediate disciples of Pythagoras, Plato, or
Zeno, from the improvements introduced into
their system, and the clearness communicated
to their views, from other sources than those of
unassisted philosophy. This leads me to my
second observation, in which I would remark
* Prsep. Ev. ii. 6.
-j- In the dialogue Philopatris, attributed, as is thought
erroneously, to Lucian, the account of the creation given by
Moses is spoken of as new, and with particular mention
of the Creatio ex Nihilo, and the observation of human
actions. Luc. Hist. v. iii. 599 and 603.
VOL. I. S
258 HEBREW THEOLOGY
how strongly the superiority of the Mosaic doc-
trine is confirmed, from the subsequent history
of those philosophical opinions which I have
employed this Section in discussing.
For, if it be true that the cosmogony of
Moses is more rational, and his ideas of the
Deity are more consistent and sublime than
those of the philosophers with which they have
been compared, it must be naturally expected
that the language and sentiments of philosophy
would be somewhat altered and improved,
when the Jewish system became gradually
known, first through the Greek translation, and
the increasing connexion of the Jews with other
countries ; and afterwards more extensively,
through the medium of the Christians. It is
remarkable, that such an alteration is undoubt-
edly dicernible ; and is discernible particularly
in those two instances, in which the fathers of
the Stoical and Platonic system were open to
confutation. The later Stoics,* through whose
writings we are most accustomed to judge of
* See Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments, vol. ii. p. 7, s. 2.
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES. 259
their whole sect, adopt the Socratic language
concerning the Deity, even with improved dis-
tinctness and sublimity. " Honour," says An-
toninus,* " that which is most excellent in the
universe ; this is that Being that uses all things,
and administers all things." Here he describes
the personality of God ; and accordingly, in
common with Epictetus, attributes not only
the general course of his fortunes, but even the
minutest circumstances of his life, to a super-
intending Providence.f
The later Platonists too, as Maximus Tyrius,
Jamblichus, Proclus, and Hierocles, perceived
the inconsistency of allowing two independent
principles : and, availing themselves of the
obscurity of their master's language, denied
that this doctrine, notwithstanding the consent
of antiquity, was inculcated or believed by
Plato :t till by degrees the advocates of Plato,
* Medit. v. 21. Compare v. 26.
f Medit. i. 17.
| That Plato intended to inculcate this doctrine, is vir-
tually proved by his introducing Timaeus the Locrian, as the
speaker in his dialogue upon the origin and nature of the
260 HEBREW THEOLOGY
who also called themselves Christians, endea-
voured to introduce a consistent system of uni-
versal philosophy, in which the errors of the
learned and the folly of the vulgar were pro-
fessedly corrected by the light of the Scrip-
universe ; when Timaeus had laid down his opinion so clearly
and openly, irpiv ovpavov yevetrdai, X6yy rjffrtjv idea Kal v\a.
The fact is, that almost any thing, except a clear and con-
sistent system, may be educed from the various and volumi-
nous works of Plato and Aristotle. An opinion which they
and the other ancient philosophers are very far from deserv-
ing, might be formed by a person who took his idea of their
doctrine from summaries or abstracts. In these, one general
view is given of sentiments which were originally scattered
not only through various pages, but even through many dif-
ferent treatises: collected, they appear perspicuous, and
even sublime ; but in their original state are usually incon-
sistent and unintelligible. For instance; Dr. Gillies, in his
Analysis of Aristotle's Works, arranges what he terms " a
system of theology, not less satisfactory than sublime ;" p.
138. But when we trace this system to its source, we find
it collected in pail from the fourteen books of Metaphysics,
in part from the Physical Auscultations, in part from the
Treatise on the Heaven : scarcely two sentences taken from
the same chapter, and oi'ten one sentence composed from
chapters originally detached. Not to mention, that (he pa-
raphrastic form adopted in abstracts of this kind gives a
clearness to what in its literal interpretation scarcely conveys
any intelligible idea.
NOT INVENTED BY MOSES. 26 1
tures. The diffusion of philosophical truth is
slow and gradual ; but where the intercourse of
conflicting opinions is free, those arguments
which have their foundation in reason, will ulti-
mately take the lead. It is not surprising,
therefore, that the majority of theistical philo-
sophers should coincide at last in opinions con-
sonant to those of Moses, respecting the attri-
butes of the Deity, and the formation of the
world :* but it must be remembered that these
authorities can no more convey to us a just idea
of the confusion before existing, than the order
of the universe represents the previous chaos.
Hume has justly observed, that " were men
led into the apprehension of invisible, intelli-
gent power, by a contemplation of the works
of nature, they could never possibly entertain
any conception but of one single Being, who
bestowed existence and order on this vast ma-
chine, and adjusted all its parts according to
* lu the same way the absurdities of tiie popular faith be-
came more generally avowed, and more boldly exposed.
This is very observable in the open sarcasm of Juvenal, Se-
neca, and Lucian : language like theirs was not ventured
before the Christian sera. See in particular Lucian's Timon.
. HEBREW THEOLOGY &C.
one regular plan or connected system."* To
this unbiassed testimony may be added that of
Lord Bolingbroke ; who has declared, that
'.' the idea of an all-wise and all-powerful Being,
the first cause of all things, is proportionable
to human reason ; and that the whole universe
bears witness to his existence." This rational
doctrine, as it is most justly characterized,
was the doctrine of Moses, and was explicitly
taught by him alone of all the ancient philoso-
phers who attempted to give any account of
the existence of the world. It is a fact which
can be no otherwise explained, than by admit-
ting the truth of the history itself, that Moses,
in a very early age, and in an unphilosophical
country, taught and established a system which
philosophers gradually approached, as the cul-
tivation of the human mind advanced : and
which appeared most agreeable to reason, when
reason was most improved.
* Hist, of Nat. Religion.
MOSAIC THEOLOGY, &C. 263
SECTION IX.
Moses neither received his Doctrine of the Crea-
tion from the Egyptians, nor from the popular
Belief of the Israelites.
IF it is thus morally improbable, that Moses
should have been the inventor of the sublime
theology he established among the Hebrews,
we come now to consider the second explana-
tion that may be proposed. The Hebrews, it is
said, during some centuries preceding the age
of Moses, had been a settled people in a civi-
lized nation j and Moses being " learned in all
" the wisdom of the Egyptians," it is pretended
that he imbibed from that fountain the opinions
he promulgated concerning the creation of the
world.*
* Fa a sentence of Simplicity's Commentary on Aristotle,
(1. 8, p. 268,) this is affirmed, but merely at random. Speak-
MOSAIC THEOLOGY NOT
I. What the Egyptian philosophy or religious
worship might be in the days of Moses, we
have no certain means of collecting except from
the Scriptures. These, it must be confessed,
do not favour the idea under consideration.
They represent the God of the Hebrews, as
altogether unknown to the Egyptians. When
Moses prefers his request to Pharaoh in behalf
of the people of Israel, Pharaoh answers, " Who
" is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let
" Israel go ? I know not the Lord, neither will
" I let Israel go." Many of the peculiar rites
and ceremonies which distinguished the Hebrew
worship, were pointed against the idolatry of
the Egyptians, into which the Jews were wont
to relapse when they swerved from their alle-
giance to the God of their fathers : and it was
on this account a familiar custom with their
writers, when condemning idolatrous practices,
to speak of the abominations of the Egyptians.
ing of the Mosaic account, he says, evvocirw (Grammaticus,
against whom he is arguing) on fjLvdiKrj rt<; eanv rj TrapdSoffts,
Kaidiro fivOwv AtyvTrriwv e'tAxvoyneyj;. See Huet. Dem. Evang.
Prop. 4. c. 4.
BORROWED FROM EGYPTIANS. 265
Josephus * expressly attributes the hatred of that
nation against the Jews to their religious diffe-
rences ; there being, he says, as decided an op-
position between the respective habits of wor-
ship, as between the nature of God and that
of irrational animals. And Tacitus,t after re-
marking some customs which the Jews had de-
rived from Egypt, observes, that there was a de-
cided contrast in their theology.
It certainly appears at first sight rather im-
probable, that the only people among the an-
cients who were not polytheists, should have
borrowed their faith from a nation which was
ridiculed, even among polytheists, for the gross-
ness of its idolatry. J Thus much at least must
* Contra Ap. i. 25.
t Hist. 1. v. c. 5.
t Ausa Jovi nostro latrantem opponere Anubin.
Prop. 3. 11.41.
Accepimus Isin,
Semideosque canes. Lucan. 8. 831.
Quis nescit, Volusi Bithynice, qualia demens
jEgyptus portenta colat ! Juv. Sat. 15.
Herod. 2. 42. Minuc. Pel. 284.
266 MOSAIC THEOLOGY NOT
be acknowledged : that if there were, at the
period of which we are now speaking, any sub-
lime notions of the Deity to be learnt in Egypt,
no people ever more fatally degenerated from
the wisdom of their ancestors than this had
done before the date of pagan history. Not
content with the worship of the heavenly bodies,
or with deifying heroes and ancestors, and
the attributes of supreme power, the Egyptians
shocked the common sense even of idolaters,
by the promiscuous adoration which they paid
to the irrational, and even to the inanimate
parts of the creation ; an infatuated superstition
in which they were far behind any people
having the pretence of civilization. It is surely
too incredible to require serious refutation,
that a nation which carried its idolatrous prac-
tices to such an extreme length, as to ransack
for deities their fields, their gardens, and their
deserts, should have taught the Israelites to
worship one God, the Creator and Father of all.
It being allowed, however, that the outward
doctrine of the Egyptians was polytheism, ido-
BORROWED FROM EGYPTIANS. 267
latry, and the mysteries of magic, there was
also, we are informed, an esoteric doctrine of na-
tural religion ; and Moses, through the in-
fluence of his royal protectress, might be let into
a knowledge of both. It certainly appears that
there was a mysterious doctrine professed by the
priests, and concealed from the people : and
indeed it is in itself incredible, that the edu-
cated part of the nation should not have seen
the popular worship in its real absurdity. From
what we know, however, of the esoteric doc-
trine of the philosophers, of which Plutarch
gives an account which seems to be derived
from Greek, rather than Egyptian sources, we
shall find nothing to justify our accounting in
this way for the consistency of the Mosaic history.
Our knowledge upon this subject is confessedly
imperfect, as coming to us at second hand,
through Grecian interpreters ; which has in-
creased the perplexity in which all the ancient
philosophy is more or less involved, in conse-
quence of its inconsistency. It appears, how-
ever, that the Egyptians concurred with the
other ancient philosophers in believing the
268 MOSAIC THEOLOGY NOT
eternity of matter,* as a first principle from
which the four elements were separated, and
animals formed. Whether they added to this
material principle an active intelligent principle,
is doubtful, being- asserted by Plutarch, and de-
nied by Porphyry and others. If they did,
their doctrine will resemble the Platonic ; will
be equally different from that of Moses, and be
liable to the objections which embarrass Plato.
If they did not, the account which Diodorus f
gives of the Egyptian cosmogony must have
been derived from their philosophers : it being
the common assertion of the people, that the
human race first sprung up in Egypt, on ac-
count of the excellent temperature of that re-
gion, and the fertilizing influence of the Nile.
That Moses should have derived a just idea of
the creation from this confusion and obscurity,
is not less improbable than that he should have
invented it.
* Diog. Laert. Prowm. 10, says,
** twf" Ttjt> v\r)i>, eirct ru
i uit.(n()>iyiii, /cat wc/ TIVO. diroT\ffti>)vat.
-j- L. 6. See also Euseb. Pracp. Ev. ii. J.
BORROWED FROM EGYPTIANS.
Besides this, however, it is agreed on all sides
that this imperfect philosophy was rendered
still more imperfect by the belief which was
united to it, of inferior deities residing in the
heavenly bodies. The planets were worshipped
under the title of Cabiri, the moon by the name
of Isis or Bubastes, the sun by that of Ammon,
Horus, and Osiris.*
The most favourable opinions, therefore, that
we are warranted in forming as to the Egyp-
tians will amount to this, and no more : that,
as the people were infinitely deeper plunged in
idolatry, so the priests or philosophers f were
in no respect purer from error than the rest of
the ancient world. Indeed it might reasonably
excite our wonder to find the Egyptian learning
in such high estimation, did we not know from
experience, how often antiquity passes for excel-
* Diog. Laert. ubi supra. Jablonski Panth. Egypt.
f Diogenes Laertius speaks of the whole nation promis-
cuously as idolatrous. Prooem. 1. 10. Juneval seems to have
written his 15th Satire, to show that the Egyptians, who
were usually held in such high veneration, were really among
the most barbarous of nations.
MOSAIC THEOLOGY NOT
lence, and mystery for wisdom. The nation of
which we are speaking, seems to have earliest
attained that degree of civilization,* which first
produces a regular scheme of polity, and is after-
wards farther improved by its effects : so that
the account left us by the ancient historians of
the Egyptian laws and customs is in many
respects calculated to excite our applause. When,
therefore, some of the early Greeks f left their
rude and uncivilized countrymen, to whom the
barrenness of their soil scarcely afforded a sub-
sistence, and found in Egypt a land abounding
in fertility, and a regular government and laws,
the contrast naturally filled them with admira-
tion ; and the useful inventions which they
carried back as trophies of their travels, perpetu-
ated the memory and fame of the country from
which they were originally derived, even to a
period when the Egyptians were no more to be
* Diod. Sic. p. 64, Rhod.
-}- Homer, Lycurgus, Solon, Thales, Melampus, Pytha-
goras, &c. Much is to be learnt on this subject from Wood-
ward's posthumous Treatise ou the Learning of the Egyptians,
Archaeolog. vol. iv.
BORROWED FROM EGYPTIANS. 271
compared with the Greeks themselves, than
their Anubis with the Grecian Jupiter. The
rude principles of geometry, astronomy, and
the mathematics, existed among- them, but were
afterwards improved by the ingenuity of the
Greeks j for we find it was Eudoxus who first
explained the motions of the heavenly bodies,
by the application of mathematical science,
and that Thales was the first whose astrono-
mical knowledge enabled him to predict an
eclipse.*
It may be farther remarked, that if there
were any good reason to believe that what are
called the doctrines of natural religion could
* Brucker, Hist. ant. Phil. " If Pythagoras sacrificed a
hecatomb upon finding out the 47th proposition of Euclid,
and Thales an ox on having discovered how to inscribe a
rectangled triangle in a circle, after having studied mathe-
matics in Egypt, the parent of geometry ; what opinion does
it give us of the knowledge of their masters in that science !
Thales having shown them how to measure the heights of
their pyramids by their shadow, is a proof of their little pro-
gress in trigonometry." Wood on the Genius and Writings
of Homer. This writer will not allow that Egypt could have
furnished even Homer's mythology.
272 MOSAIC THEOLOGY NOT
have been learnt by Moses in Egypt, which is
not the case ; there are other decided objec-
tions against attributing his theology to any
such origin. Had he borrowed his doctrine
from those priests, would he not have imitated
the priests in withholding the purer belief from
the vulgar ? What right have we to conclude
that he who had seen the pretended mysteries
concealed by hieroglyphics, and reserved with
the most scrupulous care from the general eye,
would suddenly and at once seize on the pro-
priety of declaring them to the people at large ?j
Why should we imagine, that he who had wit-
nessed only the general practice of idolatry, and
left this the universal worship of his supposed
instructress Egypt, would immediately proscribe
it under pain of death in his own nation ?
Had Moses received his ideas from the educa-
tion given him by the priests, it is far more
probable, that he would have imbibed and acted
upon the same notions, as to the expediency
of keeping the people in utter ignorance, than
that he should have struck out a plan di-
ametrically opposite to the whole practice,
BORROWED FROM EGYPTIANS. 273
not of his instructors only, but of all the an-
cient philosophers, who agreed in little else
than in the necessity of perpetuating the vulgar
superstitions.
In addition to these considerations, if Moses
derived his theology from Egypt, and thought
himself at liberty to alter it according to his
own views of utility, it is impossible to ex-
plain his having omitted to sanction his law by
inculcating the belief of the soul's immortality.*
Though the precise tenets of the Egyptians
upon this subject have not been transmitted
to us, it seems very evident that they taught
the existence of the soul after the dissolution
of the body, though veiling it, probably, under
the fable of a metempsychosis.! Now, this
doctrine is equally useful to the philosophic
theist, and to the practical statesman ; useful
to the theist, as removing the only plausible
* Warburton, Div. Leg. iv. s. 6.
-j- I quality the assertion, though commonly believed, be-
cause some have questioned Herodotus's account, who is
express on the subject. Euterpe, s. 123. Vide Cudworth,
i. 313.
VOL. I. T
MOSAIC THEOLOGY, &C.
objection against the moral government of God
in the world ; and to the statesman, as hold-
ing out a stronger terror to the wicked, than
any punishment he is able to threaten ; and
affording an universal incitement to virtue,
which it is totally out of his power to reward.
This advantage was well understood by the an-
cients, as was formerly observed ; and Zaleucus
and Plato both inculcated the belief, the one
in his real, the other in his imaginary republic.
But whatever may have been the opinion of
the Hebrews upon this point, derived from the
history of their ancestors, it is impossible to
deny that the sanctions of the Mosaic law are
altogether temporal. This circumstance has
been even alleged as a charge to discredit his
legislation.* It is indeed one of the many
* Since Bolingbroke, who first touched this string, the
omission of the doctrine of a future state from the Jewish
law has been "seen n-it/t surprise" by every sceptical essayist.
I am well aware that the knowledge of a resurrection and
future state was familiar to the patriarchs ; which is proved
by the translation of Enoch, the faith of Abraham, the vision
of Jacob, &c. beyond fair controversy. This has been often
shown, but no where more clearly than by Sir H. Moncrielf
POPULAR BELIEF OF THE ISRAELITES.
facts which can only be explained by acknow-
ledging that he really acted under a divine
commission, promulgating a temporary law for
a peculiar purpose to a single nation. But if
it is believed, that Moses had sufficient skill to
frame the admirable system which he delivered
to his people, out of the mixture of idolatry
and mystery with which Egypt abounded, it is
incredible that he should not have united with
it, as the firmest support of his precepts and
laws, their opinions, alike useful and popular, of
the immortality of the soul.
II. It only remains to suppose that Moses
received that doctrine which the Egyptians
were unable to teach him, and which he can-
not possibly be thought to have derived from the
powers of his own mind, from the religious sen-
timents and traditions which prevailed among
Wellwood, in his recent volume on the evidence of the Jewish
and Christian revelation, Discourse 2d ; in which that able
writer adduces the various passages of the Old Testament
which bear upon this point, and shows the corroboration they
receive from allusions in the New.
T Q
276 POPULAR BELIEF
the Hebrew people.* If this account is held
to be true, the difficulty which it creates is no
less formidable than that which it is intended
to explain.
The people of Israel, for some centuries pre-
ceding- the time of Moses, had been pastoral.
Their chiefs, or patriarchs, were shepherds ;
their riches consisted in flocks and herds.
Jacob is described as " increasing 1 exceedingly,
" and having- much cattle, and men-servants and
" maid-servants, and camels and asses." His
presents to his brother Esau consisted of " two
" hundred she-goats, twenty he-g-oats, two hun-
" dred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milch
" camels, with their colts, forty kine and ten
" bulls, twenty she-asses, and ten foals."| His
sons are represented as feeding- their cattle from
place to place. At the invitation of Joseph,
* I do not, of course, intend to deny that the belief of a
Creator existed among the Israelites in Egypt, but to show
the improbability of such a belief prevailing among llu-m,
< \ttpt by original revelation.
j (Jtii. xxxii. 13.
OF THE ISRAELITES. 277
his family seem to have changed their place
of abode, with all the ease that characterizes
the removal of a shepherd's riches. " They
" took their cattle, and their goods which they
" had gotten in the land of Canaan and came
" into Egypt, Jacob and all his seed with
" him."*
The people whose manners most closely re-
semble this description at the present day, are
the Bedouin Arabs and the Tartarian hordes.
Accordingly, this correspondence has struck
the most intelligent travellers into those coun-
tries. " A Bedouin Shaik," says Volney, " who
has the command of five hundred horse, does
not disdain to saddle and bridle his own, nor to
give him barley and chopped straw. In his
tent, his wife makes the coffee, kneads the dough,
and superintends the dressing of the victuals.
His daughters and kinswomen wash the linen,
and go with pitchers on their heads, and veils
over their faces, to draw water from the foun-
tain. These manners agree precisely with the
* Gen. xlvi. 6.
POPULAR BELIEF
descriptions in Homer, and the history of Abra-
ham in Genesis."*
In the same way, the inhabitants of the im-
mense plains of Tartary have never attained
that degree of civilization which incorporates
a community in towns or cities, and is, in its
turn, promoted by a settled residence. This
uniformity of life has naturally produced a uni-
formity of manners.'f " All their wealth is
their flocks ; like those who lived in the early
ages of the world, they have camels, horses,
cows, and sheep. Of their religion (proceeds
the same author) I can say little : they are
downright heathens."t This, it seems, excited
in him no surprise. But if the same sensible
observer had found a nation so unimproved and
rude, possessing a clear and rational account of
the creation of the world, and its Creator,
* Travels in Syria, i. 405.
t Gibbon (vol. iv. p. 341) considers "the uniform stabi-
lity of their manners as the natural consequence of the im-
perfection of their faculties."
J Bell's Travels, vol. i.
OF THE ISRAELITES. 279
would he have recorded the fact with the same
indifference, and concluded that such a doctrine
had been inculcated among them by some phi-
losopher or lawgiver of their own ? Should
we not rather have expected him to inquire
from what communications of other more civi-
lized countries, a belief so pure and rational had
been introduced ? Why, but because reason
and experience alike deny the probability, that
a nation in so uncivilized a state could have
devised the idea of an immaterial Creator.
For, after the errors have been exposed by which
the greatest philosophers were bewildered, when
adventuring upon a theme so lofty, it will not
be disputed that the notion of one omnipotent
Being, who formed all things out of nothing by
his own individual will ; who cherishes them by
his goodness and upholds them by his power ; is
the most grand and sublime which the imagina-
tion of man can attain. He cannot have raised
his opinions of the powers of the human mind
upon experience, who supposes that the dis-
covery of such a Being, even if attainable at all
by reason, can be any thing but the final result
280 POPULAR BELIEF
of long- abstraction, the profound acquisition of
an improved and philosophic mind.
Now, the pastoral life, even that peaceable
state of it which the Israelites seem to have
enjoyed, though it is considerably raised above
that lowest condition of human society which
subsists on the produce of the chase, is never-
theless entirely unsuited to the arts which adorn
civilized communities, and to the sciences which
it is the business of philosophy to cultivate and
improve. It is in towns, which are almost
unknown to shepherds ; not under the tent, or
in the plain, that the collision of various in-
tellects has been universally observed to strike
out the most useful discoveries. Their unsettled
mode of life admits of no sedentary employ-
ment ; nor of that frequent recurrence of the
mind to the same object, which leads to the
results of philosophic meditation. Every part
of the population, from the highest to the lowest,
contributes its share towards the general ac-
tivity ; so that no opportunities are afforded to
learned leisure, no support is given to tho
OF THE ISRAELITES. 281
unproductive labourer in philosophy or litera-
ture. If genius is fostered at all in such a com-
munity, it is not the genius of the philosopher,
but of the poet. In uncivilized states, the
demand is not so much for instruction as for
amusement ; and it naturally follows, that the
tone of the writers is taken from the temper
of the community. Those will be held in the
highest esteem, who can celebrate the warlike
exploits of their countrymen in animated and
heroic song ; or paint a strong delineation of
their manners in satire, or on the stage.*
If we apply these general remarks to what
we actually know of those countries which have
only made the first advances towards civiliza-
tion, they will not be contradicted, but strength-
ened by farther inquiry. We shall find, that
to the Arabians, before the age of Mahomet,
* Est in Originibus (Catonis) solitos esse in epulis canere
convivas ad tibicinem de clarorum hominum virtutibus. Cic.
Tusc. Qu. 1. 1. Homer, and the Bards, are familiar in-
stances. This is illustrated at large l>y Lovvtb on the He-
brew Poetry, Lect. iv.
282 POPULAR BELIEF
though " their penetration was sharp, their
fancy luxuriant, their wit strong and senten-
tious, the arts of grammar, of metre, and of
rhetoric, were unknown.'** Their morality
was delivered in unconnected sentences ; their
philosophy was illustrated by fable. " But the
genius and merit of a rising poet was celebrated
by the applause of his own and the kindred
tribes." In that country too, with whose pro-
gress in refinement we have the most intimate
acquaintance, we know that Homer flourished
four centuries before the first historian whose
works have been preserved, and not much less
remotely even from the first prose writers whose
names have been recorded.t The philosophy
of those who have been distinguished as the
seven wise men, and who lived in the interme-
diate period, was never collected, like that of
their successors, into a system of physics or
* Gibbon, ix. 241.
-} The first who published a prose oration was Pherecydes,
a contemporary of Cyrus. See Lowth, Lect. iv. Hecataeus
and Cadmus, the Milesian historians, belonged to nearly the
same period.
OF THE ISRAELITES.
morals, but consisted, for the most part, of
sage or quaint observations on human life, which
perhaps owe their preservation as much to the
concise terseness of the Greek language, as to
their intrinsic merit or originality. The style
of Herodotus,* as well as that of the Old Tes-
tament, gives in many instances a curious ex-
ample of that intermediate step in the history
of language, before their respective styles have
been separately assigned to poetry and prose.
And although the manners of the two nations
among whom these works were produced, must
have been in some respects essentially different,
we shall certainly err in favour of the Israel-
ites, if we compare their degree of civilization
in the time of Moses, with that of the Greeks in
the age of Herodotus.
Yet it was in a state of society like this, and
to a people which, before their residence in
Egypt, had been certainly pastoral, that Moses
* A literal translation of some of the stories in Herodotus,
of that of Adrastus, for example, would greatly resemble
many of the narratives in Genesis.
284 POPULAR BELIEF
declared as a fact, what at a much later period
the wisest philosophers did not venture to affirm ;
what Aristotle, as we have seen, endeavoured
to demonstrate, and Xenophon and Cicero to
render probable by analogy. In the natural
progress of science, the last result of long
induction, or a series of demonstrations, is a
simple proposition.* That proposition, having
borne the test of repeated trials and examina-
tions, is added, as it were, to the capital stock
of general knowledge : but, in arriving at this
state, the simplest truths, such as the aberra-
tion of light, or the electricity of the clouds,
have cost their first discoverers the half of a
philosophic life. To this rule there is no excep-
tion. In moral and in natural philosophy, the
proofs must equally precede the deduction. But
on what authority does Moses, overstepping
the necessity of proof, declare, in simple and
* " De 1'aveu de presque tous les philosophes, les plus
sublimes verit^s, uue fois simplifies et reduites a leurs
inuindres termes, se convertissent en faits, et des-lors ne
presentcnt plus ti 1'espiit quo cette proposition: le blanc cst
l)l.inc, K noir est noir." Helvetius sur I'liommc, < hap. \\iii.
OF THE ISRAELITES. 285
positive terms, the existence of one God, as the
Creator of heaven and earth ? On the same
authority as that on which an astronomer of the
present day lays down as the foundation of his
system, the sublimest discoveries of Newton,
without insisting on the demonstrations of truths
which the world has generally acknowledged.
So the truth which Moses declared, it was un-
necessary, it would have been impertinent to
prove, when it was already recognised by the
whole Hebrew nation; among whom the memory
of the creation had been preserved by indubitable
records, handed down to them with the history
of their ancestors, and the power of the Creator
had been proved to the evidence of their senses
by recent interpositions.
I entirely agree with Hume,* that " nothing
could disturb the natural progress of thought
* Nat. Hist, of Rel. p. 1. There is no exception to this
remark in the history of Greece or Italy, India or America.
Mr. Hume had thought much of mankind as a philosopher,
Dr. Robertson as an historian ; and in this they perfectly
agree. " When the intellectual faculties are just beginning to
286 POPULAR BELIEF
which rises gradually from inferior to superior,
and, by abstracting from what is imperfect,
unfold, and their feeble exertions are directed towards a few
objects of primary necessity and use, it is preposterous to
expect that men should be capable of tracing any relation
between effects and their causes ; or to suppose that they
should rise from the contemplation of the former to the dis-
covery of the latter, and from just conceptions of one
Supreme Being, as the Creator and Governor of the uni-
verse." Robertson's India, 303. It is curious to observe
how Hume contrives to escape from the argument in favour
of the authenticity of the Hebrew Scriptures, which arises
as regularly from his course of reasoning as if he had written
his Natural History of Religion to prove it. " It is matter
of fact incontestible, that about 1700 years ago, all man-
kind were polytheists. The doubtful and sceptical princi-
ples of a few philosophers, or the theism, and that too not
entirely pure, of one or two nations, form no objection worth
regarding." That mind must have been strangely consti-
tuted, upon which neither the partial exception (the force of
which he has insidiously weakened by an interpolation) in
the most ancient times, nor the universal change introduced
1700 years ago, could make any impression.
The remark itself is much in the spirit of Julian, who
carelessly asks, TTOIOV eflcoc eort, irpos nw 9fw>', esw TOV,
'Ov TrpoffKvvTJvets Ocotc erepoc Kal row, Mvr/(70/;n rH>v aafl-
/3orwv, o fit) roc a'XXac oterat \privai tyvXarretv evroXac ;
These very laws, which are peculiar to the Jews, are the
object of the argument which the Emperor attempts to escape
from.
OF THE ISRAELITES. 287
slowly forms an idea of perfection : nothing
could disturb this natural progress of thought,
but some obvious and invincible argument which
might immediately lead the mind into the pure
principle of theism, and make it overleap at
one bound the vast interval which is interposed
between the human and the divine nature."
That argument was found by the Israelites in
their account of the creation, faithfully trans-
mitted by their own ancestors from age to age ;
was found in the repeated interference of divine
power, manifested to their nation ; and had
been lately confirmed beyond the possibility of
doubt, by their miraculous deliverance from
Egyptian slavery. On no other principle than
the general acknowledgment of this proposition,
can we account for the authoritative positive-
ness with which Moses published it to his peo-
ple : and on no other principle than its truth,
can we explain the superiority of his simple
statement over the elaborate arguments of phi-
losophers, to whom the evidence on which he
rested, was of course unknown.
288 POPULAR BELIEF
Reasoning, which concerns religious truths,
from the opposite interests which some find in
receiving, and others in rejecting them, is
sometimes blindly embraced, and frequently as
blindly refused. Let us attempt to compare
the case which has been now made out, with
some other fact which presents less to bias
our impartiality. It is possible to suppose,
that by some extraordinary revolution through-
out the civilized world, the discoveries familiar
to the present generation might be lost, and
science reduced to the low state in which it lay
three centuries ago. Suppose also, that, in
the process of ages, the progressive improve-
ment of the human mind should revive anew
the discoveries of Newton, so that they should
again be generally acknowledged, and com-
prised among the elements of astronomy. If
then, in some rude country, which had been
little known or examined, the curiosity of tra-
vellers should find an astronomical treatise with
this simple proposition for its basis, that our
earth and the other planets revolve round the
OF THE ISRAELITES. 289
sun, which, as the centre of the system, sup-
ports the whole : it would naturally and at once
be concluded, that this people either now pos-
sessed, or had formerly arrived at the proofs
of that truth, the recent discovery of which
among themselves had surprised the age, and
immortalized its author. Neither is the case
here supposed, altogether imaginary. A similar
deduction has been actually inferred from the
antiquity of the Indian astronomy. From the
accuracy of the tables of Trivalore, philosophers
and historians have not hesitated to pronounce
that a nation which we had been accustomed
to consider as overspread with barbarous igno-
rance, must have been acquainted with geometri-
cal science, and even with the higher branches
of the mathematics, at a time when the astro-
nomy of all the rest of the world extended no
farther than actual observation.*
If, therefore, we find acknowledged among
the Hebrews, an uncivilized people, at an early
* Asiat. Researches, vol. vi. and viii. Ed. Review, vol. x.
VOL. I. U
290 POPULAR BELIEF
age, a sublime truth which philosophers in after-
times much more imperfectly, and with far less
effect, promulgated as the gradual result of
long analysis ; what can we reasonably suppose,
but that there existed among them that unde-
niable evidence, either historical, or addressed
to the senses, or both, which first anticipated
argument, and afterwards superseded its neces-
sity ?
It is scarcely necessary to observe, in con-
clusion, that the farther we recede in order to
account for the introduction of this belief in a
Creator, the more we increase the difficulties
which embarrass any other explanation of its
origin than that to which it pretends. The
Israelites before the age of Moses had been in
a state of uncivilized life, unfavourable to the
expansion of the reasoning powers, even accord-
ing to their own history. But, according to all
other accounts of the existence of the world,
its inhabitants, the farther we look back, must
have been more and more savage, till the ima-
ginary period when the rude man first crept
OF THE ISRAELITES. 291
forth from among his brethren of the desert,
little superior to the brutes that moved around
him.*
After this consideration of the extraordinary
object professed by the Hebrew legislator, and
of the peculiarities attending his polity; of its
effect upon the people, displayed in their reli-
gious feelings, their writings, and their morals ;
and of the impossibility of accounting for the
singular excellence of the doctrines inculcated
in the law, independently of divine assistance :
it is not too much to assert, that all reasoning
drawn from the analogy of human manners in
similar circumstances, and all historical expe-
rience as to the course of the human mind, is
directly violated, if we deny that the law deli-
vered by Moses to the Hebrews was established
by divine interference, to keep up among that
people the memory of the creation.
On a general view, it cannot certainly seem
* Cum prorepserunt primis animalia terris,
Mututn ac turpe pecus. HORACE.
U 2
POPULAR BELIEF
an improbable case, that the Creator of the
world should maintain among 1 a particular peo-
ple the history of the original creation ; that
he should rescue that people from bondage by
miraculous interposition, in order to furnish
them with indubitable evidence of his protec-
tion and power ; that he should assign them a
specific residence, and prescribe to their ob-
servance peculiar ceremonies, as a memorial of
the extraordinary providence by which he had
proclaimed them the chosen depositories of the
truth intrusted to them ; or that he should pro-
hibit them, under pain of grievous national
misfortunes, from apostatizing to the senseless
idolatry of the neighbouring countries, but en-
join them to worship one God, as the Creator
of the world, who had given them such sensi-
ble evidence of his existence. This is the head
and front of the Hebrew story, which carries
with it, I must think, no strong offence against
probability ; even if no phenomena were solved
by its truth, and no difficulties embarrassed its
rejection ; even if the historical testimony were
less clear, or the internal evidence less decisive.
OF THE ISRAELITES.
It is worth while, on the other hand, to re-
capitulate here some of the articles of that
creed we must abide by, if we reject the divine
commission of Moses. We must believe, first,
that this lawgiver struck out an account of the
creation of the world confessedly more rational
and consistent than any other, but which none
of the ancient philosophers could arrive at,
even with all the advantages arising from the
collision of intellect in a thinking and reason-
ing age ; which none of them either taught
their disciples, or gave any evident proof of
believing themselves : that Moses, however,
was so firmly convinced of its truth, as to take
the singular resolution of instituting a civil
polity for the professed purpose of maintaining
it ; and that he enforced his belief with such
authority, as to persuade the nation to coincide
with his views, and to ratify a system of laws,
which supposed, throughout their whole fabric,
a deviation from the usual course of events,
and which must lead to national destruction if
events did not dimate from their usual order :
that they received statutes, for example, bind-
POPULAR BELIEF
ing- them, on pain of capital punishment, to ab-
stain on certain appointed seasons, not only
from business and amusement, but even from
hostility and self-defence, although they were
surrounded by inveterate enemies ; to leave
their land uncultivated every seventh year, and
to desert their abodes and go up to their capi-
tal annually, in commemoration of the creation
of the world, of which they knew no more
than the rest of mankind, and under dread of
the Creator's vengeance and power, of which
they had no other proof than their legislator's
word. Still, however, that nothing did occur
to contradict the assertions of the law, or the
belief it enjoined ; but that the effect of this
anomalous legislation was to produce, as it
were, a family of theists among a world of ido-
laters ; to exhibit a people in no other respects
superior to their neighbours, except in their
religious faith and worship, but in these points
leaving all other nations in comparative dark-
ness, while they enjoyed the light of the noon-
day sun : a people which served an immaterial
Creator, and maintained a firm reliance, both
OF THE ISRAELITES. 295
national and personal, upon his power ; and
who displayed, both in the principle and purity
of their morals, their individual sense of the
existence of a Creator and moral Governor of
mankind. Is this credible ? And yet all this,
and much more than this,* must be embraced
as true, unless we are content to acknowledge
that Moses acted under a divine revelation, and
that the people for whom he framed his laws
had personal proof of his delegated authority.
Can any thing be less consistent with true
philosophy than to see an unquestionable phseno-
menon before our eyes, and yet to reject the
only account that is offered, or can be offered,
for its solution ?
* I allude to the ordinances commemorating points of the
miraculous history, which did not fall within my course of
argument, and form the grounds of Leslie's irrefragable
treatise : as the stones set up at Gilgal, the brazen serpent,
the ark, Aaron's rod, &c. Can we imagine that a nation
existed, venerating monuments like these, and sacredly
observing certain institutions, in memory of certain events,
which events never really took place ; and annually cele-
brating a very particular ceremony like that of the passover,
and regularly consecrating all their first-born male children,
in memory of a deliverance, which deliverance never oc-
curred ?
296 POPULAR BELIEF, &C.
The point, therefore, of the existence of an
historical record declaring- the fact of the crea-
tion, has all the force of moral certainty. And
the nature of the case admits of no other than
moral evidence. It cannot be a matter capable
of demonstration, that Moses received commu-
nications from heaven. Neither can we receive
the sensible proofs of the fact, which were ma-
nifested to the Hebrews themselves when they
surrounded Mount Sinai. But the sources
which are open to us, and which terminate in
this moral certainty, are of the most unexcep-
tionable nature. They are almost independent
of direct human testimony : they are not found-
ed on tradition or uncertain annals j but the evi-
dence they furnish is derived from the internal
nature and genius of the law and writings them-
selves, when brought into comparison with the
genius of other writings, and nature of other
laws. The force of this species of evidence
may appear different to different readers : but
all must allow that it is less than other histori-
cal evidence subject to falsification or error.
297
CHAPTER IV.
Conclusions from the foregoing Argument.
IT only remains to review the steps we have
passed, and to bring into sight the conclusion
to which they have gradually led us.
It first appeared from metaphysical reason-
ing, that something must have existed from
eternity ; and that it is absurd to suppose that
something to have been the material world.
It was next briefly observed, that we should
violate all the rules of probability and all the
philosophical principles by which we are ac-
customed to form our judgment and direct our
inquiries, if we referred the various instances
298 CONCLUSIONS FROM THE
of design with which the world confessedly
abounds, to any chance or accidental concur-
rence of circumstances, or to any other cause
than the agency of an Intelligent Contriver.
From our own existence therefore, or that of
the material world, we are brought to the
knowledge of a Creator ; and from the proofs
of design in our own persons, or in the uni-
verse, we farther derive a conviction of the in-
telligence of the Creator.
The brief statement of these arguments, drawn
from the constitution of the world, led the way
to an enquiry, whether no historical record
had been preserved of an event in which man-
kind are so nearly interested as the creation.
And the result has proved to be a moral cer-
tainty, that the Creator did originally reveal
himself to the patriarchs of the human race,
and afterwards caused a mode of government
and a form of religion to be instituted, which
should commemorate the creation of the world,
and preserve the worship of the Creator.
FOREGOING ARGUMENT. 299
Thus we have demonstrative evidence de-
claring a fact that cannot be rejected without
absurdity, and analogical evidence accumulated
to the highest degree, declaring that same fact
probable, which historical testimony records :
historical testimony so strong from internal
and collateral evidence, that if it stood alone
and unsupported, and concerned the most im-
probable fact, we could not consistently reject
it as long as we admit any other recorded his-
tory - 9 but which demands immediate and un-
qualified assent, when it confirms and is mu-
tually confirmed by the deductions of our
reason, and the analogy of our experience : all
concurring to prove that the world we inhabit
was created by a self-existent and intelligent
Being.
Whether a fact which is supported by this
accumulated evidence, is one that ought to
bind the belief and influence the practice of
mankind, will hardly be thought a reasonable
question by those who consider the nature of
evidence in general, and of that evidence upon
300 CONCLUSIONS FROM THE
which mankind are accustomed habitually to
act and depend. The evidence throughout
is not certainly of such a nature, that it cannot
be denied without a contradiction. But what
evidence is of this nature? Our own ex-
istence, of which we are intuitively conscious,
and the abstract proposition derived from our
consciousness, viz. that something has existed
from eternity, are the only facts to the pre-
sent purpose which come under that descrip-
tion, or admit of infallible demonstration. If,
for instance, we advance one step farther,
and affirm that eternal something to be matter,
our progress is arrested by the sceptic, who
urges the fallibility of our senses, and our
ignorance of the mode in which matter can
act upon mind, and the consequent possibi-
lity, that what we imagine a material world
is no more than an airy nothing and a name.
If, again, we affirm the eternal something to be
spirit, we are questioned for a proof of the ex-
istence of spirit ; and are told that the same
matter which " crystallizes in the mineral, ve-
getates in the plant, lives and is organised
FOREGOING ARGUMENT. 301
in the brute ; feels, thinks and reasons in
man."*
It has, in fact, been the great object of infi-
delity, during- the last half century, to intro-
duce this sort of universal scepticism ; and to
throw an air of uncertainty over all those facts
which cannot be proved by what is called the
highest possible evidence. This resource re-
mained, when the rude and direct attacks against
theism and revelation had been made and foiled.
The researches of that pious philosopher to
whom his contemporaries ascribed " every virtue
under heaven," led the way to this sceptical
habit ; researches which ought rather to have
conducted him to the just conclusion, afterwards
formed by Reid, that the premises must be false,
which led to inferences so absurd. The great
danger of Mr. Hume's writings consists less in
any unsound principles which are supposed to
be there proved, than in the prevalent spirit of
scepticism which pervades the whole. And
whatever may have been the intention, which
* Academical Questions, p. ^51.
302 CONCLUSIONS FROM THE
those who know the author's own sentiments
are best able to estimate, this is the undoubted
tendency of a sceptical volume, which has re-
cently appeared under the title of Acade-
mical Questions ; from which a cursory reader
is likely to arrive at the tenet of the original
sect, that there is nothing certain in the world.
If the existence of an immaterial Creator is
not a subject of mere speculation, but a fact
upon which a certain course of action, and pecu-
liar duties, depend ; it is undoubtedly material
to inquire what degree of evidence might justly
be supposed to influence mankind, and bind them
to the performance of those duties. The high-
est degrees of evidence are generally acknow-
ledged to be intuition and demonstration.
But intuitive evidence only acquaints us with
our own existence : if, therefore, we admit this
species of evidence alone, we confine our know-
ledge, and limit our actions, to the deductions
from this single fact. If we expect demon-
strative evidence, the only truth relating to this
subject, which cannot be denied without in-
FOREGOING ARGUMENT. 303
volving a contradiction, is the naked proposi-
tion, something has existed from eternity. Can
it be reasonably argued, that we are to extend
our belief no farther, and that no actions are
binding upon us, that do not result from one
of these acknowledged facts ?
If common sense revolts against such a con-
clusion, and if it is inconsistent with the na-
ture of things, that intuitive or demonstrative
evidence should reach all the various truths
about which the human mind is conversant ;
it becomes an interesting object of inquiry, what
species of evidence ought to be deemed binding
upon mankind ; and whether, in the view
of moral obligation, there is any just ground
for that distinction between the degrees of
evidence which has been commonly acquiesced in.
If we consider the circumstances in which
mankind are placed, it appears that the several
kinds of evidence, that are derived from intui-
tion, from demonstration, from the senses, from
moral reasoning, and from human testimony,
304 CONCLUSIONS FROM THE
have each their respective provinces, and, if com-
plete in themselves, carry with them an equal
degree of assurance. Our own existence we
infer from consciousness. The existence of
other things we perceive by sensation. Ab-
stract truths we learn from demonstration. But
the use of moral evidence, and of that derived
from human testimony, is far more general j
and upon these we depend, and must depend,
not only in matters relating to the advancement
of science and learning, but in almost every
thing which concerns our conduct and directs
the management of our lives.
Any attempt to exalt one of these species of
evidence to the depreciation of the rest, is
scarcely less unphilosophical than to misapply
them. Des-Cartes has been generally ridiculed
for taking the pains to prove his own existence
by demonstration, which he knew from consci-
ousness. But it is, in fact, a similar absurdity
to require demonstrative proof of that which
we learn by sensation, as the existence of ex-
ternal things ; or to demand sensitive proof, or
FOREGOING ARGUMENT. 305
demonstrative proof, or intuitive conviction, of
that which is in its own nature incapable of
any other than what is called probable evi-
dence, viz. the existence of such or such a
person, or the occurrence of any particular
fact, at a thousand miles distance, or a thousand
years ago.
If it be argued, that this evidence is liable
to error, and may mislead us ; I answer, that
there is no evidence in which we may not be
mistaken ; and that it is our business to exa-
mine into it, and to take care that we are not
deceived. We may be deceived even by trust-
ing implicitly to intuitive evidence ; by which
it has been commonly asserted, that we im-
mediately acquire the knowledge of our own
existence. But Mr. Stewart* has acutely ob-
* Philos. Essays, Es. i. p. 8. " The exercise of consci-
ousness necessarily implies a belief not only of the present
existence of what is felt, but of the present existence of that
which feels and thinks. Of these facts, however, it is the
former alone of which we can possibly be said to be consci-
ous agreeably to the rigorous interpretation of the expres-
sion. The latter is made known to us by a suggestion of the
understanding consequent on the sensation."
VOL. I. X
306 CONCLUSIONS FROM THE
served, that it is not our own existence, which
we learn from consciousness, but the existence of
the sensation, from which the understanding-
infers the existence of the sentient being-.
Berkeley and Hume argue, that the senses
may be deceived, and therefore require other
and farther proof of the existence of a material
world.* But so may reason be deceived. How
grossly was the reason of the greatest philoso-
phers from the age of Aristotle to that of Reid
mistaken, in supposing that the ideas we possess
of external objects were resemblances of those
* It has often appeared to me that Berkeley's argument
as to the liability of our senses to be deceived, has been taken
too readily and implicitly. " It is granted," he says, " on
all hands, and what happens in dreams, frenzies, or the like,
puts it beyond dispute, that it is possible we might be
affected with all the ideas we have now, though no bodies
existed without." But what do these examples amount
to? A man out of his senses, or when his senses are asleep,
is brought in to prove that the senses may be deceived, when
sound and waking ; aud therefore that they never can afford
any complete or irrefragable proof of the real existence of ex-
ternal things. Surely there is nothing legitimate cither in
the argument or the conclusion.
FOREGOING ARGUMENT. gOy
objects ! It is no doubt true, that we cannot be
mistaken as to the notions of our own minds ;
but we may be mistaken as to their relation
to other notions, in which mode alone can
they furnish us with demonstrative knowledge.
Even with respect to mathematical truths, the
proper field of demonstration ; can any thing,
except imagination or theory, persuade a mathe-
matician, that he is more certain of the equality
or inequality of certain angles, which he proves
by demonstration, than of the real existence of
the pen with which he describes his diagram,
which he learns by sensation ?
The object of these remarks is by no means
to throw a doubt over the certainty of all evi-
dence, but to question the propriety of allow-
ing the justice of the distinction commonly
made between the several species of evidence.
In conducting the affairs of life, undoubtedly,
the proper inquiry is, not whether a particular
fact or proposition is supported by the highest
degree of evidence, but, whether the evidence
on which it rests is of the proper sort, and com-
x 2
308 CONCLUSIONS FROM THE
plete, according- to the matter about which it is
conversant. The world is so constituted, that
we must sometimes depend upon consciousness,
and sometimes upon our senses ; that in some
cases we must be guided by reasoning, whether
demonstrative or analogical, and in others by
human testimony : the force therefore of each
species of evidence is equal, and in their pe-
culiar province the power of each is paramount ;
and all that we can require is, to know the
truth according to the most infallible certainty
which the nature of the particular case can
yield.
Indeed, if it were not just and reasonable
to place effectual reliance on what is termed
probable evidence, the business of the world
would soon stand still. Human testimony is
the mainspring of all that is planned or done
in commerce, at the bar, or in the senate.
Moral probability is all that we attain, or seek
to attain, in politics or jurisprudence, or even
in most of the sciences. Nor is it too much
to affirm, that every individual risks without
FOREGOING ARGUMENT. 309
hesitation his health, or his life, or his fortune,
or reputation, daily in some way or other, on
the strength of evidence which, if it came to
be narrowly examined, would not appear to
have half the certainty which we may arrive
at, respecting the miraculous deliverance of the
Israelites from Egypt, and the veracity of the
Mosaic records.* The word probable, when
applied to evidence of this nature, " does not
imply any deficiency in the proof, but only marks
the particular nature of that proof, as contra-
distinguished from other species of evidence.
It is opposed not to what is certain, but to
what admits of being demonstrated after the
manner of mathematicians."!
* It must be remembered, that one only of the various
proofs which combine to establish the Jewish revelation, is
urged in this Treatise. Many of the points of internal evi-
dence, the whole external testimony, as well as the argument
from the accomplishment of the prophecies, and the cor-
roboration arising from the evidence of Christianity, have
either been passed over or very slightly alluded to.
-j- Stewart's Elements of the Phil, of the human Mind,
vol. ii. ch. iv. sect. 4. The remark which follows is no less
important ; " This difference between the technical meaning
of the word probability, as employed by logicians, and the
310 CONCLUSIONS FRO.M THE
The consideration as to what sort of evidence
mankind are at liberty to refuse, or bound to
receive, when applied to the being of a Creator,
is not one of speculative inquiry, but of im-
portant and awful responsibility. No fallacious
theory, no hypothetical distinction between the
several species of evidence, will be available on
that day, " when the last account betwixt Hea-
ven and earth is to be made." Now, since it is
not in the power even of Omnipotence itself to
give demonstrative proof of an historical fact,
the legitimate expectation seems to be, that the
evidence of the relation of mankind to the Cre-
ator, arising from the fact of the creation, should
be of the same nature and not less strong in
degree, than the evidence of those facts and
truths which mankind concur in believing, and
on which they confidently rely, not only in their
notion usually attached to it in the business of life, has led
many authors of the highest name, in some of the most im-
portant arguments which can employ human reason, to over-
look the irresistible evidence which was placed before their
eyes, in search of another mode of proof altogether unat-
tainable in moral inquiries, and which, if it could be attained,
would not be less liable to the cavils of spcctics."
FOREGOING ARGUMENT. 311
ordinary affairs, but in the conduct and manage-
ment of their lives. This evidence either con-
sists in inferences drawn by analogy, from ac-
knowledged facts to facts which cannot be
brought to the immediate test of demonstrative
or sensitive evidence, which is the nature of
most philosophical conclusions : or it consists
in the records of human testimony, conveyed to
us by the medium of letters, or communicated
by oral tradition. This, however, is precisely
the nature of the evidence which has been ad-
duced, first, for the existence of an immaterial
intelligent Creator, and, next, for the fact of his
having revealed himself to mankind, and pre-
served that orignal revelation through the instru-
mentality of a particular nation.
But uncertainty, it is said, attends all human
testimony, or human judgment. If it is meant
that we cannot be deceived with respect to our
own existence, or the existence of something
from eternity, or the equality of the angles of a
triangle to two right angles, but that we may
possibly be deceived respecting historical facts,
312 CONCLUSIONS FROM THE
which cannot be susceptible of demonstration ;
the proposition is undeniably true. But it can-
not be carried one step farther. If it were pro-
bable as well as possible, that we should be
deceived, why has the probability no influence
on our conduct? Why, in all matters depending
on such testimony,* which includes most of
the matters in which we are concerned at all,
do we not only reason and dispute, but act,
and shape our conduct, rather as if it were im-
possible than probable that human testimony
should deceive us? Our belief in it, in fact,
is so complete, that some philosophers have
* " In "astronomical calculations, for example, how few
are the instances in which the data rest on the evidence of
our own senses ; and yet our confidence in the result is not,
on that account, in the smallest degree weakened. Even in
pure mathematics, a similar regard to testimony, accompa-
nied by a similar faith in the faculties of others, is by no
means uncommon. Who would scruple, in a geometrical
investigation, to adopt as a link in the chain, a theorem of
Apollonius or Archimedes, although he might not have lei-
sure at the moment to satisfy himself, by an actual exami-
nation of their demonstrations, that they had been guilty of
no paralogism, either by accident or design, in the course
of their reasoning?" Stewart, Elem. vol. ii. ch. iv. s. 4.
FOREGOING ARGUMENT. 313
thought it too strong* to be accounted for by ex-
perience of its truth, and have attributed it to
an original principle.
Let a voyager, for instance, after some long
circumnavigation, publish the result of his obser-
vations respecting the situation of countries, the
existence of others before unknown, the degrees
of temperature, and the variations of the needle ;
his discoveries are enrolled among the annals
of our knowledge, and his experience furnishes
new inductions, on which philosophers will not
hesitate to found their conclusions. Voyagers,
with little hesitation, have considered as ascer-
tained what their predecessors have recorded ;
have judged the experience of former dis-
coveries equivalent to their own ; and have
made the limits of previous narrations the point
from which their own subsequent inquiries ought
legitimately to begin. The utmost incredulity
that is shown, supposing the fact to be very new
or very extraordinary, is to require the cor-
roborative testimony of a second inquirer. To
depend, therefore, on human testimony, unless
CONCLUSIONS FROM THE
the interest to deceive is so manifestly great,
that it may be supposed to sway the narration,
is neither unusual nor unphilosophical.
Should it still be urged, that, however this
may be in matters of inconsiderable import,
the case becomes very different where the bu-
siness and direction of life are affected ; we
must again appeal to experience. Trace the
progress of maritime discovery : demonstra-
tion could scarcely have added to the confi-
dence which Columbus placed in his analogical
reasonings. From the spherical figure of the
earth, he thought it evident that the continents
then known formed but a part of the terra-
queous globe. From the visible wisdom of the
Author of nature, he argued, that the unknown
tracts were habitable. He found also, on re-
cord, certain observations of modern naviga-
tors, tending to strengthen these conclusions.
" The force of this united evidence, arising
from theoretical principles and practical obser-
vations,"* was sufficient to induce Columbus
* Robertson's America, vol. i. p. 89.
FOREGOING ARGUMENT. 315
to risk the sacrifice of every thing that is valu-
able in existence. We may proceed, however,
still farther, and affirm, that, but for a systema-
tic confidence in human testimony, America
would have remained for ever half peopled
and uncivilized. The return of Columbus with
a few followers, and their relation of the course
of their voyage, and the new world they had
visited, was the signal to adventurers from various
countries to undertake an expedition of eight
hundred leagues.
Now, it could not in equity be allowed, that
a man should plead ignorance of a particular
law, if it were proved that in other instances,
he had availed himself of some of its provisions.
If the belief of a Creator is the source of peculiar
duties, for the performance of which mankind
are responsible ; and if the existence of a Creator
on which those duties depend, is proved by evi-
dence of the same nature as that upon which
we daily direct our actions, can it be justi-
fiable to withhold assent in the particular case
where assent is most important ? If a man will
316 CONCLUSIONS FROM THE
risk his reputation, his fortune, his lief on pro-
bable inferences ; and if multitudes are daily
risking 1 all that is dear to them on the truth of
human testimony; surely it must cease to be
argued, that these degrees of evidence are in-
sufficient to warrant our acquiescing in a con-
clusion " so important and so extraordinary,"
as the existence of an intelligent Creator. For
this, after all, is the fact on which scepticism
is so obstinate ; not one that militates against
reason ; that controverts our experience ; that
deranges our philosophy : unless reason is out-
raged by admitting a fact so congenial to the
human mind, that it has been at times supposed
to be naturally impressed upon it ; unless ex-
perience is contradicted by tracing effects to a
cause ; unless philosophy is deranged by the
introduction of a sufficient agency to account
for an acknowledged operation.
I conclude, therefore, from this united de-
monstrative, analogical, and historical testimony,
" that there is a Supreme Creator, by whom
every thing exists :" the proofs of which were
FOREGOING ARGUMENT. 317
proposed as the first object of this Treatise. I
shall, therefore, argue that point no farther,
but proceed to inquire into the attributes which
either naturally belong to such a Being, or are
evident from his works.
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX, No. I.
THAT THE MOSAIC HISTORY IS NOT INCONSIS-
TENT WITH GEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES.
IT may be said, that an argument founded on
the internal evidence of the Mosaic history,
cannot be complete without some notice, or
convincing without some refutation, or attempt
at refutation, of the principal objections which
have been urged against it. But if the posi-
tive evidence of the whole is incontrovertibly
strong, it cannot be invalidated by occasional
difficulties respecting the minuter details of the
history, still less by hypothetical difficulties,
of which nature are those usually alleged
against the Pentateuch. The object of this
Treatise certainly does not admit of a particu-
lar examination of the various attacks which
VOL. i. Y
MOSAIC HISTORY
have been aimed, from time to time, against
specific portions of the Mosaic law, and of the
history appended to it : and even if such an
examination would not lead me too far from
my main subject, the inquiry might well seem
superfluous : the most fertile ingenuity, or the
bitterest acrimony, can scarcely invent an alle-
gation which has not been refuted a hundred
times already ; and the valuable work of Dr.
Graves has recently brought the answers again
to public notice.
I shall, therefore, confine this Appendix to
the brief consideration of two subjects which
are sometimes popularly urged as affecting the
truth of the Hebrew cosmogony. The first of
these is its supposed inconsistency with recent
geological discoveries. This vague idea (for it
is little more) has been in some measure che-
rished by a certain jealousy of geological theo-
ries on the part of some friends of Revelation :
a jealousy, however, which may well be ex-
cused, since it arose from an apparent ten-
dency, on the other side, to attribute the va-
NOT OPPOSED BY GEOLOGY. 323
rlous catastrophes or revolutions, probable or
recorded, which can be traced in our globe, to
a sort of mechanical agency of its own ; in
other words, to natural causes arising out of
its constitution. The effect of such a philo-
sophy is, of course, to keep out of sight the
interference of the Creator ; and would be
more consistent in the advocates of the eternity
of the world, than in those who admit the fact
of its creation by an Intelligent Power.
In order to form any judgment upon this
question, we must begin by distinguishing what
is mere theory from what is actual discovery.
No doubt there have been speculations on the
formation, appearances, and revolutions of the
earth, which are either irreconcilable with any
fair interpretation of the Mosaic history, or
have left it altogether out of the question.
These, however, are not facts, but hypotheses :
framed in general with the intention of explain-
ing some one of the numerous phsenomena of
the globe, which appeared peculiarly promi-
nent in the view of the author, and enforced
Y 2
3<24 MOSAIC HISTORY.
with little consideration of the rest. These
theories have, therefore, fallen to the ground
successively, as legitimate science advanced.
Next to the consideration as to what is ascer-
tained in geology, must follow the inquiry as
to what is declared on the face of the history.
The account of the creation given by Moses,
does not profess to furnish any thing like a
systematic or elaborate detail of the mode in
which the materials of the earth were brought
to their actual form and situation. The warm-
est lover of geology would scarcely expect to
find this in the record ; the very terms in which
such an account could be expressed requiring
an advanced state of science ; and the infor-
mation, when conveyed, being altogether un-
profitable as to those uses which are the proper
objects of Revelation. To know his connexion
with the Creator and moral Governor of the
world is necessary to the virtue and happiness
of man. To investigate the regular laws to
which the created world conforms, or the pro-
cess by which it was reduced to that obedi-
NOT OPPOSED BY GEOLOGY. 325
ence, is a delightful exercise of the reason he
possesses; but is totally unconnected with those
higher interests which a revelation has in view.
But any curious information as to the struc-
ture of the earth ought still less to be expected
by any one acquainted with the general cha-
racter of the Mosaic records. There is nothing
in them either to gratify the curiosity, or re-
press the researches of mankind, when brought,
in the progress of cultivation, to calculate the
motions of the heavenly bodies, or speculate
on the formation of the globe. The expres-
sions of Moses are evidently accommodated to
the first and familiar notions derived from the
sensible appearances of the earth and heavens :
and the absurdity of supposing, that the literal
interpretation of terms in Scripture ought to
interfere with the advancement of philosophi-
cal inquiry, would have been as generally for-
gotten as renounced, if the oppressors of Ga-
lileo had not found a place in history. The con-
cessions, if they may be so called, of the
believers in Revelation on this point, have
326
MOSAIC HISTORY
been amply remunerated by the sublime dis-
coveries as to the prospective wisdom of the
Creator, which have been gradually unfolded
by the progressive improvements in astronomi-
cal knowledge. We may trust with the same
confidence as to any future results from geo-
logy, if that science should ever find its New-
ton, and break through the various obstacles
peculiar to that study, which have hitherto
precluded any general solution of its numerous
and opposite phenomena.
Without professing, therefore, to search into
the Mosaic account for any philosophical ex-
planation of the structure of the earth, it will
be useful to consider what we do actually find
in the record, whether of matter of fact or
description : that we may more distinctly
perceive how the case stands at present as to
the true bearing of geological discoveries upon
Revelation.
So far as relates to the subject before us,
the account in Genesis may be briefly summed
NOT OPPOSED BY GEOLOGY.
up in these three articles : First, that God
was the original Creator of all thing's : secondly,
that, at the formation of the globe we inhabit,
the whole of its materials were in a state of
chaos and confusion : and thirdly, that at a
period not exceeding five thousand years ago,
(whether we adopt the Septuagint or Hebrew
chronology is immaterial,) the whole earth
underwent a mighty catastrophe, in which it
was completely inundated by the immediate
agency of the Deity, and all its inhabitants
destroyed, except the remnant miraculously pre-
served to continue the species.
These are the great outlines drawn by the
sacred historian ; and if we add to them what
may be generally collected, that the materials
of the globe were in a fluid state previous to
its organization, and that the mode of its orga-
nization was not instantaneous, but a gradual
process, we shall have placed before us all the
important points which the records comprise,
or the most zealous believer in their inspiration
would think himself bound to maintain.
328 MOSAIC HISTORY
If such is the historical account, let us pro-
ceed to compare it with the appearances which
the world exhibits. The conclusions which a
natural philosopher of the highest authority
thinks himself justified in laying down as cer-
tain, are these ; first, " That the sea has at
one period or other not only covered all our
plains, but that it must have remained there
for a long time, and in a state of tranquil-
lity." Secondly, " That there has been at
least one change in the basin of that sea which
preceded ours ; it has experienced at least one
revolution." Thirdly, " That the particular
portions of the earth also, which the sea has
abandoned by its last retreat, had been laid
dry once before, and had at that time pro-
duced quadrupeds, birds, plants, and all kinds
of terrestial productions : it had then been
inundated by the sea, which has since retired
from it, and left it to be occupied by its own
proper inhabitants." *
* Cuvier on the Theory of the Earth, edited by Professor
Jamieson, p. 11, 13, and 14. Cuvier inclines to the belief,
that the internal structure of the earth or crust of the globe
NOT OPPOSED BY GEOLOGY. 329
It is thus evident that the account of Moses,
and the results attained by Cuvier, are so far
from being contradictory, that they mutually
coincide, and derive light and support from
each other. First, the prevalence of the waters
at the period of the creation described by Mo-
ses : * secondly, the separation of the land from
the waters, producing a revolution in the basin
of the sea : and thirdly, the irruption of the
sea over the continent, at a time when its inha-
bitants were not very different from those which
it still continues to support : are satisfactory
coincidences between the sacred historian and
the philosopher ; coincidences perhaps too
vague to be relied on solely as evidences of the
facts, but certainly sufficient to meet any objec-
tions which might be insinuated on the score of
geology against the other testimony to the truth
of the Mosaic writings.
bears signs of more than one revolution previous to the last,
or Deluge ; and of some previous to the existence of animate
beings. To this idea I shall allude hereafter.
* Gen. i. ver. 6 and 9. " Let the waters under the hea-
" ven be gathered together in one place, and let the dry land
" appear."
330 MOSAIC HISTORY
Respecting the deluge indeed, its effects,
and its universality, there is no uncertainty.
Whatever revolutions the materials of our globe
may have experienced, it arises from the nature
of such revolutions that the effects of the last
in order should be most distinctly and uni-
versally visible. Accordingly, it is from the
legible characters of the deluge recorded by
Moses, that geology furnishes the strongest
corroboration to his history. Geologers ac-
quaint us, that as soon as we pierce the vegeta-
ble mould and alluvial soil which form the usual
surface of the earth, strata of rocks appear of va-
rious descriptions, intermixed with an endless
variety of hardened earths, and of calcareous
and mineral substances ; strata so blended and
heaped together, as to baffle any hypothesis
hitherto devised as to their formation : the ac-
count which is satisfactory on a partial view,
or for a single district, being utterly inconsis-
tent with the phenomena of others.
On the other hand, the Mosaic history informs
us that not more than five thousand years ago
NOT OPPOSED BY GEOLOGY. 331
the whole inhabited world suffered a mighty
convulsion, and was inundated by waters co-
vering- the highest mountains for one hundred
and fifty days.
It is a problem of very difficult solution, to
determine how much of that appearance of
internal and external ruin which the earth uni-
formly exhibits is to be referred to the effect of
this catastrophe. To ascertain this point with
any approach to probability, we ought to be
acquainted with the means employed ; and the
operation by which the submersion was imme-
diately caused is only described by the historian
in the most general terms. The simplicity of
his expression is more suited to the awful event
which it relates, than satisfactory to a philo-
sophical inquirer : " The fountains of the great
" deep were broken up, and the windows of
" heaven were opened." From a description
of this nature it can only be collected, (what
the historian is evidently most anxious we
should understand,) that the event was not
occasioned by any agency belonging to the
332
31 OS A 1C HISTORY
common order of things, but by a supernatural
interference.* And to this conclusion we
must be brought by a moment's consideration
of its nature. Nothing, surely, short of the
most complete subversion of the whole globe
could raise the sea to a perpendicular height of
at least 12,000 feet beyond its ordinary level,
or cause an equivalent subsidence of the land.-|-
Even if we diminish in any allowable propor-
tion the height of the antediluvian hills, still
such an overthrow of the system could neither
have been effected without violence, nor have
taken place without corresponding devastation.
* The importance which Moses himself attached to the
fact of the deluge, is evident from the manner of his narra-
tion. He represents it as scarcely less vast and extraordinary
than the creation itself, and as requiring- equally the imme-
diate exertion of the Creator's power. He relates it very
particularly. He prepares us for the account of it, by a so-
lemn deliberation on the part of the moral Governor of the
world; and he closes the history of it by an assurance to
mankind, that the globe they inhabit should never again be
subjected to a similar catastrophe.
-j- The greatest depth of the sea, according to La Place,
is eleven miles, and the greatest height of mountains, three or
four.
NOT OPPOSED BY GEOLOGY. 333
When we call to mind the destruction which
is spread by a sudden alteration in the level of
a very inconsiderable collection of water, even
to the extent of fifty or a hundred feet, we
cannot easily assign limits to the effect of a
body of waters like the ocean pouring in over
the land when its level was destroyed. We are
at a loss to conceive what the power of such a
machine might be, when once in operation.
Were it allowable to risk a conjecture as to
the secondary agents employed in this super-
natural revolution, it might seem antecedently
probable that subterraneous fire would be prin-
cipally concerned in effecting it. The reasons
are obvious : the known existence of near two
hundred volcanic openings, is sufficient proof
of the extent of internal fire : the vast dis-
tance at which the shocks they occasion have
been sensibly felt, gives some idea of the ex-
tent of their force, which even an intervening
ocean cannot restrain.* Their accompani-
* The volcanoes of Etna and Vesuvius attest their inter-
nal communications by their simultaneous eruptions. The
334 MOSAIC HISTORY
ments are earthquakes, agitations of the sea, and
inundations. Their consequences are destruc-
tion. The earthquake that overwhelmed Callao
may have represented on a small and partial
scale, the universal deluge. If we multiply
that partial subversion of nature to the extent
required in order to raise the sea to the level
of the highest mountains, we may form some
conception of the magnitude of the convulsion,
though it would be impossible for us even then
to determine what effect such a total disruption
and submersion of all the parts which form the
fabric of our globe, might occasion upon the
materials of which it is composed.*
convulsions which shook Italy have been accompanied by si-
milar convulsions in Iceland.
* St. Peter, alluding to the deluge, seems clearly to have
entertained the idea of a complete overthrow of the parts of
the globe. " The world that then was, being overflowed
" with water, perislied." The term world would not necessa-
rily carry this argument with it, without the succeeding verse;
in which the Apostle proceeds to add, " but the heavens and
" the earth which are now, by the same word, are kept in
" store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment."
The contrast in the latter verse explains the ambiguous term
in the former. I2p. 2. ch. iii. ver. 6 and 7.
NOT OPPOSED BY GEOLOGY. 335
From these considerations it would appear,
antecedently, not improbable, that the crust of
the earth should exhibit traces of the agency,
perhaps I may add of the destructive agency, of
water and fire. And if geological researches
can be yet said to have arrived at any indis-
putable conclusion, it seems to be this, that
there are phsenomena in the strata of rocks and
mineral veins, &c. which can only be ascribed
to the agency of water and fire, and which may
be best explained, in some instances, if we sup-
pose those powerful agents to have been simul-
taneously employed.
But, leaving these agents out of the ques-
tion, and adhering to the plain fact of the event
and chronology of the deluge, the general con-
clusion may be briefly summed up in the words
of the powerful authority before cited ; who is
of opinion that it is thoroughly established by
geology, " that the crust of our globe has been
subjected to a great and sudden revolution, the
epoch of which cannot be dated much farther
back than five or six thousand years ago : and
336 MOSAIC HISTORY
that the small number of men and other animals
that escaped from the effects of that revolution,
have since propagated and spread over the lands
then newly laid dry."*
It cannot, therefore, be denied, that the na-
tural philosopher and the sacred writer here
throw light upon each other. The one points
out the signs and remains of a catastrophe,
which the other relates as an historical fact. The
one shows us a mighty revolution of the order of
nature ; the other acquaints us with the agent,
by whose power that revolution was effected.
Having gone back thus far, it might perhaps
seem that any speculations on the revolutions
which the globe may have undergone previous
to that on record, would be superfluous. Re-
searches, however, are making, as to the indi-
cations remaining of a previous sera, and even
of a previous submersion. And the same great
Cuvier, Essay, p. 171. This subject has lately received
a great accession of interest and illustration from Professor
Auckland's Reliquiae Diluviana*.
NOT OPPOSED BY GEOLOGY. 337
naturalist does not doubt that he has discovered
numerous genera in a fossil state, which have
now no existence in the world ; and gives it as
the general result of his inquiries, that, " judg-
ing from the different orders of animals of
which we discover the fossil remains, the
countries which are now inhabited had proba-
bly, before the last deluge, experienced two or
three irruptions of the sea."
To attempt any explanation of a notion so
hypothetical, and founded on so partial an in-
duction as the chalk district in the neighbour-
hood of Paris, would be scarcely less idle than
to allow any such hypothesis or discovery to
militate against the moral or historical evidence
on which the Mosaic records rest their immov-
able foundation.*
* It might be worth considering, by those who have the
knowledge necessary for such a speculation, how far some of
these stratifications and deposits, which are supposed to be-
long to successive revolutions, can be accounted for by sup-
posing the shocks or convulsions which may have occasioned
or attended the deluge, to have been successive, with intervals
between them. It is worthy of notice, that the account of
VOL. I. Z
338 MOSAIC HISTORY
To account for any of the phenomena of
stratification, we must look for some agency
beyond the ordinary course of nature. No
causes, of which we know or witness the ope-
ration, can explain the state in which the sup-
posed remains of a former world have been
discovered. The Chinese chronology is as in-
sufficient as the Hebrew. The accumulation,
therefore, of facts like those which Cuvier has
collected, and the description of fossil remains
of unknown genera, form a curious and inte-
resting subject of speculation, but can never
interfere with the knowledge acquired from less
disputable sources of information. The alter-
nate revolutions which Cuvier supposes, are in
the science of geology what systems beyond
our own are in astronomy. They are matters
Moses rather favours such an hypothesis : " The flood was
" forty days upon the earth ; and ttie waters increased, and
" bare up the ark, and was lift up above the earth. And
" the waters prevailed a>i<l increased greatly upon the earth :
" and the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the
" waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth : and all the
" high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered."
Gen. chap. vii.
NOT OPPOSED BY GEOLOGY. 339
of curious reflection and sublime interest ; but
they lead us beyond the regions of legitimate
science or certain history, into those of vague
and speculative inquiry.
All, however, that I am concerned to esta-
blish, is the unreasonableness of supposing that
geological discoveries, as far as they have hitherto
proceeded, are hostile to the Mosaic account of
the creation. No rational naturalist would
attempt to describe, either from the brief narra-
tion in Genesis or otherwise, the process by
which our system was brought from confusion
into a regular and habitable state. No rational
theologian will direct his hostility against any
theory, which, acknowledging the agency of the
Creator, only attempts to point out the secondary
instruments he has employed. Hitherto indeed
those theories have had the fate of the monsters
of fabulous antiquity, and been destroyed by one
another, leaving the only record to which any
certain reference can be made, to triumph over
their fate. It may be safely affirmed, that no
geological theory has yet been proposed, which
z 2
340 MOSAIC HISTORY
is not less reconcilable to ascertained facts and
conflicting phenomena, than to the Mosaic
history.*
According- to that history, we are bound to
admit that only one general destruction or re-
volution of the globe has taken place, since
the period of that creation which Moses re-
cords, and of which Adam and Eve were the
first inhabitants. The certainty of one event
of that kind would appear from the discoveries
of geologers, even if it were not declared by
the sacred historian. But we are not called
* See Cuvier, p. 40 et seqq. Professor Kidd's observa-
tions on this subject are well worth attention. In conclusion,
he says, " From the endless discordance in the opinions of
philosophers on this point, from the manifest inadequacy of
the data we are at present in possession of, and from the
physical impossibilities which must for ever be a bar to any
thing more than a superficial knowledge of the earth's struc-
ture, it is preposterous to suppose that that high degree of
moral evidence, on which the credibility of Scripture rests,
can with any justice be weakened by our interpretation of
phaenomena, the connexion of which among themselves even
we certainly are at present, and probably ever shall be, in-
capable of explaining." Geolog. Essay, ch. i.
NOT OPPOSED BY GEOLOGY. 341
upon to deny the possible existence of previ-
ous worlds, from the wreck of which our
globe was organized, and the ruins of which
are now furnishing- matter to our curiosity.
The belief of their existence is indeed consistent
with rational probability, and somewhat con-
firmed by the discoveries of astronomy, as to the
plurality of worlds.
342 ON THE DESCENT OF MANKIND
APPENDIX, No. II.
ON THE DESCENT OF MANKIND FROM A
SINGLE PAIR.
ANOTHER subject connected with the Mosaic
account of the creation, in which the truth of
that record is apparently implicated, is, the
descent of mankind from a single pair. Some
writers, indeed, who defend the hypothesis of
distinct species, have disclaimed the idea of
considering that hypothesis as contradictory to
Revelation ; and appeal to the acknowledged
purpose, and indisputable conciseness, of the
history given by Moses, as rendering it unne-
cessary to adhere to so strict and literal an in-
terpretation of the text. But whatever possi-
bility there might be of reconciling the account
FROM A SINGLE PAIR. 34<3
of Moses with any other hypothesis than that
of the original creation of a single pair, and no
more ; it is evident that such is the plain and
natural interpretation of his history. And on
this ground a popular argument is sometimes
raised against his authority. It is asserted,
that the different characters of the several races
of mankind are inconsistent with the idea of a
common descent, and constitute distinct spe-
cies ; and in proof of this point stress is parti-
cularly laid upon the form of the skull, which
varies in the European, the Mongole, the Ne-
gro, the American, and the Malay race, very
remarkably in their respective extremes ; and
certain varieties in the bones are brought for-
ward, especially of the fore-arm and heel j to
which are added, the striking diversities of
colour. The exact details of this different or-
ganization properly belong to treatises written
expressly on this subject, and I must leave
them to be sought there. Without entering
upon it with anatomical accuracy, there is evi-
dently a considerable variety in the external
configuration, and enough to make it a natural
344 ON THE DESCENT OF MANKIND
question whether such varieties can be accounted
for on any other supposition than that of distinct
species.
This is a question which can scarcely, in the
present state of our knowledge, be treated in
any other mode than that of analogy. Are
there any varieties among brute animals, con-
fessedly belonging to the same original species,
approaching to those which are so evident
among mankind ? Are there any causes to
which we can confidently trace those varieties ?
Do similar possible causes of variety exist in
the circumstances of different branches of the
human race ? These are the only lines of ar-
gument by which we can approach the present
inquiry.
I. It is undeniable that the varieties which
spring up, and are perpetuated, among inferior
animals, are no less numerous or remarkable,
than those exhibited by the inhabitants of the
different corners of the globe. This is a fact
familiar to the most common observation. While
FROM A SINGLE PAIR. 345
the inhabitant of a sea-port, or crowded city,
is surprised by every possible shade of hue in the
human complexion, and such varieties of coun-
tenance as must naturally result from a difference
in the facial angle varying 1 from 85 to 70 de-
grees ; the traveller through the country finds
the brute creation exhibiting similar differences,
and deviations not less remarkable from the
original model. He sees, for instance, in almost
every country, a prevailing breed of oxen : the
red of Devonshire, the white-faced breed of
Herefordshire, the hornless breed naturalized
from Poland, the stately brown of Yorkshire,
the lean and ragged Alderney, the black heifer of
the Scottish hills. Among horses there is no less
variety ; as between the tall and bony draught-
horses of Lincolnshire, the Scotch galloway, the
Welsh or Shetland pony, and the breed of racers.
Again, we find an acknowledged difference in
the breed of sheep, as exhibited by the horned
breed, that of Leicestershire, the South- down,
and the Welsh, with all the intermediate va-
rieties. Hogs vary no less remarkably, in the
shape of the head, the length and size of the
346 ON THE DESCENT OF MANKIND
leg ; and one race, which is not uncommon in
some parts of England, has the hoof undivided.*
I do not instance the numerous races of dogs,
because, owing to the extraordinary difference
among them, some naturalists have controverted
Buffon's theory of a single species ; though even
if that belief is given up, very important devia-
tions will remain to be accounted for. The
smaller animals, as fowls, hares, rabbits, &c.,
afford similar examples of variety, which it is not
necessary to notice, except to show, that such
is the plan which Nature is universally accus-
tomed to follow.
Now, with regard to the degree of difference,
it must be confessed that the species which have
been alluded to, exhibit peculiarities no less
striking than those of the European or Negro.
A series of skulls, from the large head of the
wild horse to the short head of the Hungarian
breed, or the slender head of the English racer,
would form a more remarkable instance of de-
* Noticed also by Arislotle and Pliny.
FROM A SINGLE PAIR. 347
viation than that procured by the facial angle of
Camper or zygomatic processes of Blumenbach,
in the human race. No difference in the os calcis,
or ulna, between the American and European,
is so considerable as that which exists between
the comparative length of leg in different breeds
of hogs, or the size of the head and legs in pro-
portion to the rest of the body in sheep. The
nature of the covering of the animal, whether of
the wool among sheep, or of the hair in dogs
and goats, varies no less than the hair of the
human head. And the animals which have been
enumerated furnish as remarkable, and, ap-
parently, as arbitrary varieties of colour as we
find among mankind, from the Albino to the
New Zealander or African.
The difference, therefore, is not less in de-
gree, and it is the same in kind ; it consists in
the shape of the skull, in the length of some of
the bones, in the hair, and in the colour of the
skin. Yet the examples alleged have been con-
fined almost to a single kingdom. Take the
globe collectively, as in the case of man ; and
348 ON THE DESCENT OF MANKIND
the bison and buffalo will be added to the va-
rieties of the ox ; the argali, and Siberian sheep,
will be placed in contrast with our domestic
breed ; the Ceylon horse would be instanced,
which is not more than thirty inches high : and,
according to the most common opinion, the dog
would afford an example of the wolf or jackal in
a state of domestication. Perhaps the best
general idea of the natural tendency to variety,
which is found in all the species of land animals,
may be formed from those plates in books of
zoology which present a collective view of the
separate species j and as the advocates of dif-
ferent species in the human race take pains to
show us the features and complexion most dis-
similar to each other in frightful contrast, it is
reasonable to employ the same method in order
to counteract an erroneous impression.
II. It is evident from these instances, that
there is a great tendency in nature to run into
varieties of configuration, size, and colour.
The question, which respects the immediate
cause to which such physical diversities may
FROM A SINGLE PAIR. 349
be ascribed, is less easily answered. Analogy
must still be our guide. What are the acknow-
ledged circumstances which lead to accidental
deviation in those departments of nature where
our observations are most certain and familiar ?
In flowering plants and fruits, varieties abound,
and the art of producing them is well under-
stood. They are known to depend on the
nature of the soil which nourishes them, and
its comparative richness or poverty ; on climate
and exposure j on care or neglect of cultivation.
What cultivation effects in the vegetable,
domestication effects in the animal world. The
wild animal, preserving the same habits, nou-
rished by the same food, sometimes in scarcity,
and sometimes in abundance, and exposed to
the vicissitudes of the seasons, assumes little
variety which may not easily be traced to the
operation of these causes : the same soil, cli-
mate, and subsistence, continue to produce a
similar race, and it is not till these are altered
that peculiar characters arise. But when the
.350 ON THE DESCENT OF MANKIND
animal becomes domesticated, all the stimu-
lants which are found by experience to affect
the breed are supplied : such as regular and
abundant nourishment, and protection from in-
clement seasons. " The consequence is, a lux-
uriant growth, the revolution of varieties, and
the exhibition of all the perfections of which
the species is capable."* And the varieties thus
springing up from time to time, whether in the
wool or hair, in the form of the limbs, or in
colour, are perpetuated in the offspring, and
subsequently increased by a careful selection of
the subjects most remarkable for the quality
which it is desired to improve. " These are
kept for the future propagation of the stock,
and a repeated attention is paid to the same
circumstances, till, the effect continually in-
creasing, a particular figure, colour, proportion
of limbs, or any other attainable quality, is es-
tablished in the race ; and the conformity is
* See Dr. Pritchard's Researches into the physical His-
tory of Man : a work containing a large collection of valuable
facts relating to this subject, from which the author reasons
with exemplary candour and moderation.
FROM A SINGLE PAIR. 351
afterwards maintained by removing from the
breed any new variety which may casually spring-
up in it."* Thus, in England, where the white
fleece is preferred, the black rams are killed ;
in other countries equal care is taken to exclude
the white variety. On the other hand, a diminu-
tion of size and deterioration of the fleece will al-
ways happen, where the greater and the less
copulate promiscuously, and the young animal is
restrained from growth by penury of sustenance.
III. The causes, therefore, of varieties among
inferior animals may be considered as tolerably
ascertained. If similar causes operate on man
also, which is now to be inquired, it is natural
to suppose, that we should find some traces of
their effect in the countries and localities most
* A curious instance of the tendency in nature to perpe-
tuate accidental varieties, appears in a breed of sheep, called
the Ankon, the fore-legs being bent in the form of an elbow.
By degrees a considerable number were obtained by selection
from the offspring of a ram which first showed the peculi-
arity, and the breed is now regularly propagated in New
England, because it is unable to get over the fences.
Pritchard, p. 71.
3,52 ON THE DESCENT OF MANKIND
favourable for its development ; notwithstand-
ing- the advantages which man enjoys in pro-
curing for himself artificial protection against
the seasons, and the frequent and uncontrolled
intermixture of families and tribes.
Accordingly, the effect of climate upon the
human race is undeniable. It is observed by
every traveller through extensive regions ; and
its influence alone has been very generally sup-
posed to regulate that most striking variety
which mankind exhibit, the diversities of co-
lour.* " The more exact as well as more ex-
tended observations which our enlarged ac-
quaintance with different countries has intro-
duced, so far contradict this hypothesis, as to
* This is the received idea from the time of Herodotus :
who calls the ^Ethiopians, dydpuirot uVo (cau/xaroc, /ue'Aayec
oVrec. ii. 2. De Pauw says, with great positiveness, " Le
teint plus ou moins obscur, plus ou moins fonce des habitans
qui essuient ces ditferentes temperatures de 1'air entre les
tropiques, prouve independamment de toute autre demon-
stration, que le climat seul colorie les substances les plus in-
times du corps humain." Recherches sur les Americaines,
p. 219.
FROM A SINGLE PAIR. 353
prove that the influence of heat of climate,
without other adventitious circumstances, is
insufficient to account for the phenomenon." *
The indigenous nations of America afford a
o
very ample field for this inquiry, scattered at
immense distances over a vast continent of a
most diversified surface, including- every va-
riety of habitable climate : and the result is,
that it is impossible to attribute the colour of
the skin to the effect of heat alone. The In-
dians of New Spain, says Humboldt, have a
more swarthy complexion t than the inhabi-
tants of the warmest climates of South Ame-
* Pritchard ubi supra. I have taken the liberty of select-
ing from this author several of the following quotations ; and
indeed have derived great assistance from his volume through-
out the whole of this discussion.
f It is understood, that the proximate cause of the differ-
ence in colour consists in the colouring matter of the rete
mucosum or reticular fabric ; a general capillary system
lying beneath the epidermis or external cuticle. This system
of vessels contains, in different people, fluids of different
shades. Humboldt says, that the rete mucosum of the Ne-
gro and American contains an " abundant deposition of car-
buretted hydrogen."
VOL. I. A A
354f ON THE DESCENT OF MANKIND
rica. There are tribes of a colour by no means
deep among- the Indians of the new continent,
whose complexion approaches to that of the
Arabs or Moors. We find the people of the
Rio Nesrro swarthier than those of the lower
O
Orinoco, and yet the banks of the first of these
rivers enjoy a much cooler climate than the
more northern regions. In the forests of Gui-
ana, especially near the sources of the Orinoco,
are several tribes of a whitish complexion; the
Guaicas, Guajaribs, and Ariques, of whom se-
veral robust individuals have the appearance of
true Mestizos ; yet these tribes have never
mingled with Europeans, and are surrounded
with other tribes of a dark brown hue. Her-
rera, Ulloa, and many Spanish writers, some
of whom are cited by Dr. Robertson, give the
same account. Ulloa's authority is of the more
weight, because he had personally opportunities
of making observations on the Indians in North
as well as South America ; and he reported
that there was no discoverable difference of
complexion which had any relation to climate.
FROM A SINGLE PAIR. 355
The Negro race affords us another example
of a stock of people spread over regions which
extend themselves into almost every habitable
climate, and preserving, like the tribes of Ame-
rican Indians, that general likeness which gives
a presumptive proof of connexion in race and
origin. Yet the general conclusion from a sur-
vey of Africa and the neighbouring islands, is in
contradiction to the supposed effect of climate
on the human complexion. There are indeed
variations from the deep black, as the tawny co-
lour of the Foulahs and Hottentots ; but the
lighter people live either among or in the vici-
nity of others, that are perfectly black, and
the variety cannot therefore be imputed to local
situation. The general complexion of savages
is black or a dark hue, and among the nations
which continue in that state, whatever cli-
mates they inhabit, though deviations occur in
individuals, yet these do not go to any great
extent, nor are they frequent enough to pro-
duce any general effect. They appear indeed
to occur more often in moderate than in very
hot climates.
A A
356 ON THE DESCENT OF MANKIND
It is certain, therefore, that the common
opinion which refers the difference of com-
plexion among mankind solely to the climate
under which they live, and the degree of heat
and cold they experience, gives at most only a
partial and inadequate account of the pheno-
menon.
At the same time no fact can be better as-
certained, than that local circumstances, de-
gree of exposure, quality and quantity of food
and state of civilization, all exercise an effect
upon the human constitution, which is distin-
guishable in the features, size and strength of
the individual. The facts observed by Ulloa
and Humboldt, as to the local varieties in the
American race, admit of no other explanation.
The latter says, " the same style of features
exists, no doubt, in both Americas ; but those
Europeans who have sailed on the great rivers
Orinoco and the Amazons, and have had oc-
casion to see a great number of tribes assem-
bled together under the monastical hierarchy
of the missions, must have observed, that the
FROM A SINGLE PAIR. 357
American race contains nations whose features
differ no less widely from each other, than the
numerous varieties of the race of Caucasus,
the Circassians, Moors, and Peruvians."
Mr. Jackson * has given a very minute de-
scription of the inhabitants of the different
provinces within the empire of Morocco.
Many of the ^discrepancies which he observes
are material to the present subject. The first
province from the shores of the Mediterranean,
where villages and walled habitations are met
with, is Haha : the neighbouring provinces be-
ing altogether inhabited by Arabs dwelling in
tents. Immediately following this remark, we
find the observation that " the Shelluks of Haha
are physiognomically distinguishable from the
Arabs of the plains, from the Moors of the
towns, and from the Berebbers of North Atlas,
and even from the Shelluks of Susa, though in
their language, manners, and mode of living
they resemble the latter."
* Morocco, p. 16.
358 ON THE DESCENT OF MANKIND
The extraordinary power of local circum-
stance over the human constitution, is well
exemplified by a passage in Mr. Turner's Em-
bassy to Tibet. He tells us, that " at the foot
of the Bootan mountains, a plain extends for
about thirty miles, choked, rather than clothed,
with the most luxuriant vegetation. The ex-
halations arising from the springs which the
vicinity of the mountains produces, collected
and confined by almost impervious woods,
generate an atmosphere which no traveller ever
passed with impunity. Yet even this spot is
not destitute of inhabitants, though its influence
has wholly debased in them the form, the size,
and strength of human creatures." A mes-
senger here met Mr. Turner, a being that
hardly bore the resemblance of humanity ; " of
disgusting features, meagre limbs, and diminu-
tive stature. He was of a mixed race between
the Bootean and Bengalee ; and it was won-
derful to observe how greatly the influence of
a pestilential climate had caused him to dege-
nerate from both." *
* Embassy to Tibet, p. 21.
FROM A SINGLE PAIR. 359
The effect of a precarious or insufficient
supply of food is described by Volney, in his
account of the Bedouin Arabs, whom he calls
a race of men equally remarkable in their
physical and moral character. " Their singu-
larity is so striking, that even their neighbours
the Syrians regard them as extraordinary
beings, especially those tribes which dwell in
the depths of the deserts. In general they are
small, meagre, and tawny : they also differ
among themselves in the same camp; and I
have remarked that the Shaiks, i. e. the rich,
and their attendants, were always taller and
more corpulent than the common class. This
difference can only be attributed to their food,
with which the former are supplied more abun-
dantly than the latter. It is an undoubted fact,
that the quantity of food usually consumed by
the greater part of them, does not exceed six
ounces a day."*
In countries inhabited by the European race,
the tribes that reside in hilly tracts are fairer
* Travels in Syria, i. 391.
360
ON THE DESCENT OF MANKIND
than the people of the plains and valleys. The
mountaineers of Sicily are remarkable for light
hair and blue eyes, characters which are not seen
in the low country on the coast.
The general complexion of the Scottish high-
landers is dark ; dark brown or black hair and
eyes are very prevalent among them ; and in
some spots of the northern highlands, red hair
is almost universal.
Johnson observes of the inhabitants of the
Hebrides, that they are commonly of the middle
stature ; and that the tallest men he saw were
among those of highest rank : adding, as a
general observation, that in regions of barren-
ness and scarcity the human race is hindered
in its growth by the same causes as other
animals. To the same purpose it has been
remarked, that the young men who offer them-
selves for the army in Ireland, are more gene-
rally below the given height than in England :
a fact not admitting of mistake, as the standard
is an infallible criterion.
FROM A SINGLE PAIR. 36l
These observations, which might be extended
without limit from every reputable book of
travels, establish beyond reasonable doubt the
effect of local causes upon the physical consti-
tution of mankind ; and lead to this general
conclusion, that penury of living, and exposure
to changeable and inclement extremes of heat
and cold, contribute to the coarseness, and what
may be called the deterioration of the species.
This is sufficiently shown by the examples which
have been alleged.
IV. But, in order to judge of the reasona-
bleness of attributing to the operation of these
causes the whole of the pheenomena under
inquiry, it ought to be considered whether a
reverse of the circumstances which have re-
duced the Bedouin or Bojesman to their state
of degradation, will also reverse their physiog-
nomical character ; and whether the comforts
and conveniences of civilization will produce a
tendency towards the European standard of
features and complexion.
ON THE DESCENT OF MANKIND
The inhabitants of the South Sea isles are
favourably circumstanced to assist us in this
question. The presumption, both from their
language, manners, and situation, is greatly in
favour of their descent from the same original
race ; and they are living under very various
circumstances of climate, and plenty, and ad-
vancement in the arts : some absolute savages,
and others with great advantages of comfort
and abundance. If, then, difference of civi-
lization affects the form and features, it will be
evident here : and here its effect is seen in the
features, hair, and complexion.
O-Taheitee and the adjacent Society Isles,
contain the fairest and best-proportioned peo-
ple of all the numerous clusters.* But their
inhabitants differ, according to their rank.
" The common people, who are most exposed
to the air and sun, exert their strength in agri-
culture, fishing, paddling, building houses and
canoes, and are stinted in their food, are blacker,
* Forsler's Observations on a Voyage round the World.
FROM A SINGLE PAIR. 363
their hair more woolly and crisp, their bodies
low and slender. But their chiefs and arees
have a very different appearance. The colour
of their skin is less tawny than that of a Spaniard,
and not so coppery as that of an American ; it
is of a lighter tint than the fairest complexion
of an inhabitant of the East India islands ; in a
word, it is of a white, tinctured with a brownish
yellow, however, not so strongly mixed, but
that on the cheek of the fairest of their women you
may easily distinguish a spreading blush. From
this complexion we find all the intermediate hues
down to a lively brown, bordering upon the
swarthy complexion. A few have yellowish
brown, or sandy hair." Dr. Forster saw one
man in O-Taha who had perfectly red hair, a
fairer complexion than the rest, and was sprinkled
all over with freckles. When it is remembered
that these people are universally acknowledged
to be of the same race with the New Zealand-
ers, who are perfectly black, and have every
characteristic in the form of the savage state
exhibited in their manners and customs, the
gradual effect of clothing, protection, regular
364 ON THE DESCENT OF MANKIND
sustenance, and comfort, will be distinctly
seen.
Among the Negro race a corresponding dif-
ference is found. The Foulahs, according to
Park, are distinguished from the surrounding
tribes in Africa. They are not black, but of
a tawny colour, which is lighter and yellower
in some states than others. They have small
features, and soft silky hair, without either the
thick lips or the crisp wool which are common
to the other tribes. Again, they are much
more civilized than the rest of the African
nations, and their manners are gentle and
pastoral.
A similar tendency appears in the same
Negro race, when transplanted to America ; in
those individuals, at least, who with the coun-
try are allowed to change the manners of their
African progenitors. " The domestic servants,
whose condition is little different from that of
the lower class of white people, alter perceiv-
ably in the third generation ; they have the nose
FROM A SINGLE PAIR. 365
raised, the mouth and lips of moderate size, the
eyes lively and sparkling 1 , and often the whole
composition of features extremely agreeable.
The hair grows sensibly longer in each succeeding
race : it extends to three, four, and sometimes to
six or eight inches."*
In Hindostan, the higher caste, or Brahmans,
who live in a state of ease and affluence, differ
widely from the rest, not only in a distinct turn
of features, but in their complexion also, which
is of a much lighter shade than that of the in-
ferior orders, both in the northern and southern
provinces of India. These examples sufficiently
prove the effect of civilization in bringing the
complexion and features gradually towards the
European standard.^
* Dr. Smith.
t " All Asiatics attach an idea of rank to fairness of colour.
Why, I know not, unless it is that their chiefs are usually
fairer than the commonalty : this may perhaps be owing- to
their being brought up with greater care, immured and shel-
tered from vicissitudes of climate and season : in their mature
age also they are less liable to exposure." Pottinger's Travels
in Beloochistan and Sinde, 150.
366 ON THE DESCENT OF MANKIND
If the history of different nations should ever
be so clearly traced as to be matter of certainty
instead of conjecture, which may be the case
when we attain a more intimate acquaintance
with their language and annals, written or tra-
ditional, it is probable that the effect of climate
and moral habits in the change of character
and configuration would appear undeniably, by
tracing its progress through different migra-
tions.* It does, indeed, already show itself
clearly, in many undisputed instances. The
language of the Turks remains an indelible
monument of their origin from a tribe of Tur-
comans. Yet they have long since lost their
Tartar configuration ; and the flat faces and
squat bodies of their ancestors are no longer
* Dr. PritcHard has entered upon this subject with great
ingenuity and research, and gone far towards proving a com
raon origin, in particular, to all the nations from Kgypt to
the Ganges. Mr. Townsend likewise, in a recent volume,
traces a connected chain of languages, which every where
exhibit a common origin, and differ only in dialect, extend-
ing from Cape Comorin to Iceland and Scandinavia; whence
the conclusion follows, that all these nations were colonies
from some eastern country.
FROM A SINGLE PAIR. 367
found among- them, and have been succeeded
by high features and admirable forms.
V. The tendency in the different varieties
of the human race to return to the same model,
leads strongly to the same conclusion with the
former instances. This is perfectly understood
in the Spanish provinces of South America,
where the regnlar gradations from the alliance
between a native and an European are regularly
traced. The fifth generation, called Quinte-
rone,* is the last stage, there being no visible
difference between them arid the whites, either
in colour or features. Mr. Barrowf states a
fact of the same nature with regard to the Hot-
tentots : " Those who marry have seldom more
than two or three children, and many of the
women are barren. This, however, is not the
case when a Hottentot woman is connected with
a white man. The fruit of such an alliance is
not only, in general, numerous, but are beings of
a very different nature from the Hottentot ;
men of six feet high, and stout in proportion,
* Ulloa, vol. i. p. 31. -j- Account of the Cape.
368 ON THE DESCENT OF MANKIND
and women, not ill-featured, well made, smart,
and active." It tends to the same purpose, that
the peculiar configuration of the Tartar or
Negro is often found among individuals in every
country. It is allowed even by Blumenbach,
that no national form is so constant and un-
varied, but that it exhibits instances of great
deviation ; so that we every where observe
among Europeans a frequent similarity to the
Ethiopian or Calmuck form.
The particular occasion and nature of the
process by which these and all the varieties of
which every country in the globe furnishes ex-
amples, are first produced, and afterwards
perpetuated, is confessedly a secret which no
researches have yet penetrated completely.
It is probable that the mind is materially con-
cerned. The perception of beauty, which
seems peculiar to the human race, must have
considerable effects upon the physical character,
and act as a constant principle of improvement.
Many of the instances which have been addu-
ced also confirm the opinion of Johnson, who
FROM A SINGLE PAIR. 369
remarks,* that "to expand the human face to
its full perfection, it seems necessary that the
mind should co-operate by placidness of con-
tent, or consciousness of superiority." But,
without attempting to account for the fact, the
fact itself is indisputable, that in every climate,
every tribe, and every individual family, there
is a tendency to variety in the midst of general
uniformity, and some secret law of nature by
which accidental varieties become permanent
and hereditary.
In families, this is universally acknowledged.
In nations, it is matter of common observation.
In different provinces of the same nation, it is
not unfrequently remarked. Travellers in
Italy assert, that the people of every different
state have their peculiar form of features, or
characteristic physiognomy. The different castes
in Hindostan, who have been prevented by their
religion from intermarriages, have each acquired
a distinct set of features, and are all easily dis-
* Journey to the Western Islands, p. 191.
VOL. 1. B B
370 ON THE DESCENT OF MANKIND
tinguished by people who are conversant with
them. This must evidently be ascribed to some
natural principle, which we can only pretend to
trace in its effects.
But whatever this secret influence may be,
it is material to remark, that in the earlier ages,
in those, for instance, which succeeded the
deluge, two circumstances would greatly con-
tribute to perpetuate those varieties which local
causes might produce, and, perhaps, to fix those
strong characteristic features, which, in their
extremes, so widely separate the different races
of mankind. First, the protracted period to
which the lives of the patriarchs were extended ;
which would, of course, allow more scope for
the operation of those causes, whatever they arc,
which influence the form and features : the
peculiarities dependent on those causes would
from hence become more deeply seated in the
individual, and more remarkably continued in
the offspring.
Secondly : the effect produced by these means
FROM A SINGLE PAIR. 371
Would be greatly increased by the universal
custom of adhering to one family in forming
matrimonial alliances. This custom is a natural
result from the patriarchal mode of life, and is
always found co- existent with a certain state of
civilization. The anxiety of Abraham, lest
Isaac should take a wife from among the daugh-
ters of the Canaanitcs, with whom he dwelt, is
recorded in Scripture : he solemnly enjoins his
servant, that he " should go unto his own coun-
" try and his own kindred, and take a wife for
" his son."* We find the same related of Isaac,f
who charged his son Jacob to go to Padan-Aran
to the house of Bethuel, his mother's father,
and take a wife from thence of the daughters of
Laban, his mother's hr other. There can be no
doubt but that, in a state of civilization and of
manners when this care to prevent intermarria-
ges was general, the peculiar characters would be
more strongly marked, and indelibly fixed, than
we can expect to find them in any modern ex-
amples.
* Gen. xxiv. 7 Gen. xxviii.
13 B
372 ON THE DESCENT OF MANKIND
VI. With so many facts before us, both direct
and analogous, by which the varieties appearing
among the human race may be accounted for,
and have been accounted for by our greatest and
most unbiassed naturalists, it will hardly be ar-
gued that his report of the descent of mankind
from a single pair can form a solid objection to
the history given by Moses of the creation. But
suppose an objector to embrace the other side
of the question, and maintain, that the differ-
ences existing among the human race are specific
differences, and not accidental varieties ; it is
important to see that he has not at all advanced
the inquiry, or removed the difficulty. If we once
have recourse to different species for an expla-
nation of the phaenomena, the species must be
multiplied beyond what the warmest partizans
of that hypothesis will be disposed to allow, or
they are reduced to the very difficulties from
which they endeavour to escape by such vio-
lent means.
" The Negro, the American, some of the
Asiatic tribes, and the European, seem evi-
FROM A SINGLE PAIR. 373
dently to be different species," says Mr. White.*
But what is gained by this admission, if the
supposed impassable boundaries, features, and
colour, are overstepped in innumerable instances
within the several regions to which these dif-
ferent species are allotted ? In Africa, there
are many tribes with Negro features, but a
tawny, or yellow, or copper colour :f America
has her white as well as her copper and swarthy
race. In Asia, what a marked discrepancy be-
tween the Circassian and the Calmuck ; the inha-
bitants of Hindostan, and of China ; the Arabs
and the islanders of the Pacific ! Must we sup-
pose a distinct creation for each of these, and a
hundred other tribes, which cannot be ascribed to
common origin, if it is determined that features
and complexion have never deviated from the
mould in which they were first cast, six thou-
sand years ago ?
What shall we say of the difference between
the erees, or nobles, and lower classes in the
* On the Gradations in Man. -j- Park.
>71 ON THE DESCENT OF MANKIND
islands of Australasia ? " The former," says
Captain Cook, " were, without exception, per-
fectly well-formed ; whereas the lower sort,
besides their general inferiority, are subject to
all the variety of make and figure that is seen
in the populace of other countries."
By the advocates of distinct species the well-
known difference between the noble families of
Persia and the inferior classes must be sought
for in the history of their ancestors, and not
ascribed to the cause to which it is generally re-
ferred, their selection of the most beautiful Cir-
cassians for their harams.
Travellers in Africa agree in relating, that
almost every tribe has its distinct physiognomy.
The JalofFs are jet black, but their features
approach the European model. The Foulahs,
who adjoin them, rank themselves among the
white people. The colour of the people of
Congo differs greatly in depth of dye. Their
hair is in general black and curled ; but, in
some instances, of a dark sandy colour. They
FROM A SINGLE PAIR. 3J5
have neither flat noses nor thick lips, like other
Negroes. The island of Madagascar is inha-
bited by races of people who differ consider-
ably in their physical characters. Some tribes
are of a deep black colour, with crisp or woolly
hair ; in short, true Negroes. Other tribes have
dark and smooth hair, and are tawny. Some
are copper-coloured. The people of Natal, on
the eastern shore of Africa, are of a middle
stature, well-made, and of graceful aspect. Their
faces are oval, and noses neither flat nor high,
but well-proportioned. Passing to the opposite
side of Africa, we are informed, that the com-
plexion of the Moors is of all shades, from black
to white. The women of Fas are as fair as
Europeans, with the exception of their eyes
and hair, which are universally dark. " It is
extraordinary," says Mr. Jackson,* " that the
inhabitants of two cities, situated within a day's
journey of each other, should discover such a
physiognomical difference, as is apparent be-
tween the females of Fas and those of Mequinas j
* Accouut of Morocco, p. 137.
3J6 ON THE DESCENT OF MANKIND
the former being generally of a sallow or pale
complexion, while the latter unite that beautiful
red and white so much admired by foreigners in
our English ladies. The men of the neighbour-
ing district of Temsena are of a copper colour."
Similar difference, both in colour and form,
without any discoverable cause, are remarked
by Ulloa and Humboldt in America. The na-
tives of Guayaquil are not tawny, though the
heat there is equal to that of Panama or Car-
thagena : they are fresh-coloured, and so finely
featured as to be justly called the handsomest
of all Peru.* Again, some of the Mestizoes,
born at Quito, are as tawny as the Indians
themselves ; others have so fine a complexion,
that they might pass for whites till viewed at-
tentively.t In North America, under 54 10'
north latitude, at Cloak Bay, in the midst of
copper-coloured Indians, with small long eyes,
there is a tribe with large eyes, European fea-
tures, and a skin less dark than that of our
European peasantry.
* Ulloa, i. 164. f Ulloa, i. 277.
FROM A SINGLE PAIR. 377
There is a like diversity in the Finnish race.
The Laplanders are diminutive and deformed ;
have black hair and a swarthy brown com-
plexion. The Finns, though nearly related to
them, are much stouter and better made : they
have fair complexions, and very generally red
hair.
This cursory view of the diversities existing
between nations closely adjoining each other,
and bearing every presumptive proof of a com-
mon origin, is quite enough to show how little
would be gained towards a consistent theory,
by adopting the hypothesis of several species
of the human race. If we once admit the idea,
that the varieties of colour and features are
specific, it is impossible to assign a limit, and
a thousand different tribes in every extensive
district crowd upon us, each claiming, and
with almost equal right, the distinction of a
separate creation. The European is not more
unlike the Caifre, than the CaiFre differs from
the Bojesman, or the Hottentot, from whom
they are separated only by a range of hills.
378 ON THE DESCENT OF MANKIND, &C.
Upon the whole, I think we are justified in
concluding", that although the mode by which
peculiar features and complexion become per-
manent, is still involved in much obscurity, yet
the account of the origin of the human race,
contained in the Mosaic history, agrees better
with the general results concerning the appear-
ance of mankind in different countries, than
any other theory which has hitherto been pro-
posed.
379
APPENDIX, No. III.
ON THE AUTHENTICITY AND ANTIQUITY OF
THE PENTATEUCH.
AMONG the points which have been confes-
sedly proved already, beyond the dpubt of any
reasonable man, I must be allowed to reckon
the antiquity and authenticity of the Penta-
teuch. " Common sense requires that every
thing proposed to the understanding, should
be accompanied with such proof as the nature of
it can furnish. He who requires more, is
guilty of absurdity ; he who requires less, of
rashness." That any part of the premises on
which the argument depends, may not appear
to be quite overlooked, I will briefly show
that these demands of Bolingbroke are in the
present instance strictly satisfied.
380 ON THE AUTHENTICITY AND
The authenticity has been proved,* first, by
a comparison of the style of the early historical
books with that of the rest of the Old Testa-
ment. " No language continues during many
centuries in the same state of cultivation ; and
the Hebrew, like other tongues, passed through
the several stages of infancy, youth, manhood,
and old age. If, therefore, on comparison,
the several parts of the Hebrew Bible are
found to differ, not only in regard to style, but
also in regard to character and cultivation of
language ; if the one discovers the golden,
another the silver, a third the brazen, a fourth
the iron age ; we have strong internal marks
of their having been composed at different and
distant periods. No classical scholar, inde-
pendently of the Grecian history, would be-
lieve that the poems ascribed to Homer were
written in the age of Demosthenes, the ora-
tions of Demosthenes in the time of Origen,
or the commentaries of Origen in the days of
Lascaris and Chrysoloras. For the very same
* See an excellent pamphlet, " The Authenticity of the
Five Books of Moses vindicated," by Bishop Marsh.
ANTIQUITY OF THE PENTATEUCH. 381
reason, it is certain that the five books ascribed
to Moses were not written m the time of David,
the Psalms of David in the age of Isaiah, nor
the prophecies of Isaiah in the time of Malachi.
But as the Hebrew ceased to be the living lan-
guage of the Jews during the Babylonish cap-
tivity, the book of Malachi could not have
been written much after that period : before
that period, therefore, were written the pro-
phecies of Isaiah, still earlier the Psalms of
David, and much earlier than these the books
which are ascribed to Moses." *
The difference of style, here argued upon,
is of course a subject of very nice and critical
observation. The most popular proof of it is
the remarkable simplicity which pervades the
narrative part of the Pentateuch, and is a cha-
racteristic, in all countries, of the infancy of
literature. Herodotus, the oldest profane his-
torian of whom we have any considerable
remains, bears a stronger resemblance to Moses
in this respect than is to be found between
* Marsh, p. 6 and 14.
382 0\ T THE AUTHENTICITY AND
any two other authors of a different age and
country. Expressions and idioms also occur
in the Pentateuch, which had become obsolete
as early as the time of David. What is still
more decisive, is the use of Egyptian words,
confirming the place of birth and education of
the writer : and used to express things which
subsequent authors expressed, as might be ex-
pected, in their native Hebrew.
The second and most powerful argument is
derived from the unanimous consent of the
Jews, who undeniably ascribed to Moses the
books in question, from the period of their
conquest of Palestine and first observance of
the law, as long as they continued to be a
people. " We are reduced, therefore, to this
dilemma ; to acknowledge, either that these
laws were actually delivered by Moses, or that
a whole nation during fifteen hundred years,
groaned under the weight of an imposture
without once detecting, or even suspecting the
fraud."* If we dispute the evidence of liis-
* Marsh, p. 8.
ANTIQUITY OF THE PENTATEUCH. 383
tory so clear as this, we may at once throw off
the mask, and reject the belief of all facts with
which we are not made acquainted by personal
observation. The only narrative we possess of
any part of the siege of Troy, is that of a poet
who lived about two hundred years after the
supposed events, and whose poems were not
collected, or, as some conjecture, not even com-
mitted to writing-, till three hundred years later.
That this poetical narrative abounds with incon-
sistencies and improbabilities which render it
utterly undeserving of historical credit, has been
shown not more ingeniously than satisfactorily.*
And yet the idea of rejecting, on that account,
the concurrent testimony of antiquity which
tells us that Troy was taken by an armament
fitted out from Greece, has been always justly
treated as a learned delirium. Why is this, but
because the concurrent testimony of successive
generations, from the supposed event to the
time we dispute about it, is exactly the sort of
evidence which we want, and which the case
* Bryant's treatise on the Siege of Troy.
384< ON THE AUTHENTICITY AND
allows ? so that to require more, becomes, as
Bolingbroke justly says, absurd.
Against the whole weight of this evidence it
is merely alleged, that a few expressions and
passages are found in the Pentateuch which
must have been written after the time of Moses :
such as that a city which was originally called
Laish, but changed its name to that of Dan,
after the Israelites had conquered Palestine, is
yet denominated Dan, in the book of Genesis ;*
and that an allusion is made in Genesis j" to the
kings of Israel, which implies a writer subse-
quent to the establishment of the monarchy.
* Gen. xiv. 14. See Marsh, p. 15.
-{- ' These are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom
" before there reigned any king over the children of Israel,"
Gen. xxxvi. 31. Another passage occurs, in which the intru-
sion of a marginal remark is still more evident : Deut. iii. 14.
" Jair the son of Manasseh took all the country of Argob
" unto the coasts of Geshuri and Maachathi, and called them
" after his own name, Bashan-havoth-jair, nnfo f/iis day." On
a less honest principle, but leading to similar variations, the
Samaritans introduced into their copy of the Pentateucli
some readings intended to justify their pretensions as to the
sacredness of Mount Gerizim.
ANTIQUITY OF THE PENTATEUCH. 385
That the modern name, in the first instance,
was substituted for the obsolete term Laish, by
a transcriber who was more anxious to be easily-
understood by his readers, than to preserve the
integrity of the text, it is abundantly natural to
suppose : and the clause in Genesis xxxvi. has
every appearance of being 1 interpolated, perhaps
from some remark at first added as a marginal
note, by an inconsiderate copyist in a later age.
Similar errors are of most frequent occurrence
in every ancient writer ; and their effect is to
furnish strong presumption against the authen-
ticity of the passage itself; but no critic would
venture to question the reputation of the work
in which they are found, on grounds so slight
and easy of solution, even if its authenticity
depended on no other evidence than the general
testimony of antiquity.
Yet such are the trivial errors, which are some-
times alluded to in general terms, as sufficient to
overbear the various concurrent evidence in
favour of the authenticity of the Pentateuch, and
to give probability to the spurious account of an
VOL. i. c c
,386
ON THE AUTHENTICITY AND
apocryphal book, which states that the books
originally written by Moses and Joshua, had been
destroyed, and the deficiency supplied by inspira-
tion delivered to Ezra.*
It is familiarly known to all who have turned
their thoughts to this subject, that the book of
Esdras has never been considered as possessing
the least claim to authority, and gives the
strongest grounds for suspicion from the inter-
nal evidence of both style and matter. But
there is no occasion for recourse to such dispu-
table arguments. The providential preservation
of the Samaritan Pentateuch, agreeing in all es-
sentials with the Hebrew, affords an irrefraga-
ble proof of the authenticity of both :'|" for it is
known, first, how long before the Babylonish
captivity, the ten tribes under Rehoboam sepa-
* See Apocrypha, 2 Esdras, chap. xiv.
-}- " As the Pentateuch is the only part of the Bible which
is received by the Samaritans, their copies of it must have
been derived, if not from those of their ancestors, who se-
ceded from the tribe of Judah, at least from some copy ante-
cedent to the Babylonish captivity." Marsh's Lectures,
p. ii. 1. x.
ANTIQUITY OF THE PENTATEUCH. 38?
rated from their brethren : and secondly, how
inveterate an enmity existed between the two
branches of the Hebrew stock. If, therefore,
the authority of the uncanonical Esdras is to be
admitted, the entire agreement between the
writing's which he pretends to have restored to
the Jews, and the Samaritan copy of the law,
remains to be accounted for ; and can only be
ascribed to one of the following causes : either
he adopted a copy from the Samaritans, which
had been received and observed by them from a
remote period as sacred and authentic ; or he
persuaded the bitter enemies of the tribe of Judah
to credit his pretended revelation, and accept a
history bearing- the name of their revered ances-
tor and legislator ; or the account given of him-
self by Esdras must be received as literally true,
and the agreement between the copies ascribed
to his miraculous inspiration. There is unques-
tionably a phenomenon which can only be ex-
plained by one of the solutions, and we may
safely leave objectors to take their choice among 1
them.
388 ON THE AUTHENTICITY, &C.
The authenticity of the Pentateuch implies of
course, its antiquity. Still the questions are
separate. The latter is briefly considered in
Sect. III. It has become the less necessary to
go at length into either of these subjects, since
the recent publication of Dr. Graves ; who em-
ploys the six first of his valuable Lectures in
alleging the evidence for " the authenticity and
truth of the Pentateuch ;" and has besides, in his
Appendix, minutely considered the texts origi-
nally urged against it by Le Clerc, subsequently
refuted by Witsius, and most of them retracted
by Le Clerc himself, together with the conclu-
sions he had grounded on them.
THE END x-
LONDON
IBOT80N AND PALMEH, I'KINTEllS, SAVOY STHEET, SFHANI).
The Jewish Sense of Responsibility.
The Rev. Morris Joseph in Reply to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Rev. MORRIS JOSEPH devoted his sermon at the Berkeley Street Syna-
gogue on Sabbath last to an examination of some remarks made by the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury at the recent World's Temperance Congress. The Arch-
bishop implied that the Jewish sense of responsibility in regard to evils like
intemperance was feebler than the Christian. As against this idea Mr. Joseph
niti-d the great Mosaic precept, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
Those who received that precept, he said, were introduced into a region of
boundless social obligation. Never could they shelter themselves
behind the plea that the woe of the world was no concern of
theirs. It was just as much their concern as was their own pain,
true Israelite, even in the Mosaic age, could ask, " Am I
my brother's keeper ? " He was warned " Thou shalt not see thy
brother's ox go astray ; thou canst not hid<5 thyself as a son of God, as a
moral being, thou canst not." And as the parallel passage in Deuteronomy
proved, the word " brother " included even an enemy. The Prophet had tersely
expressed the warning : " Thou sbalt not hide thyself from thine own flesh."
What the Law taught the Rabbins^amplified. We are bound, they said, to
relieve the poor of the Gentiles, toT;are for their sick, to bury their dead, to
comfort their mourners, equally with our own. "Saparate not thyself from the
community," they enjoined us. No one, they declared, has the right to
iate himself from its interests, to withdraw from the task of bearing its
burdens, of curing its ills, of righting its wrongs. And this duty was of "the
widest. The Jew was admonished to identify himself with the welfare of the
country in which he lives, to pray for its prosperity, seeing that its prosperity is
the guarantee of the peace and security that are the foundations of the social
order. Within tha last century, representative Jewish assemblies had met at
various times to set forth the tenets of Judaism, and in every case the duty of
zealously promoting the general weal was placed in the forefront of the pronounce-
ment. The foundation of the social ethics of Judaism was the eternal principle
of the common brotherhood of humanity. " Let no man urge," the llabbins say,
"'because I am vile, ray neighbour shall be vile also: rememb. r that RO to
argue is to despise God's image, which is imprinted upon thee and thy neighbour
alike." Such was Jewish theory ; what of Jewish practice .' Did Jews make
excuses, and say, " this or that social evil does not touch me ; therefore, I will
not move a finger to cure it " ? Was not Hospital Sabbath itself a living proof
that the Synagogue takes its place by the side of the Church in the noble work
of alleviating human suffering ? And that was but a typical example. Were
Jews ever behind their neighbours when any common work of beneficence was
to be done ? No ; the memory of the long drawn-out agony of their race, far
from forbidding their co-operation, only served to stimulate their compassion for
woe like that which was appealing to them that day. If there was one charge
that mieht truthfully be brought against some of their number it was rather
the tendency to indulge the humanitarian sentiment to the neglect of the
specifically Jewish. Israel, said Jehudah Halevy, was the heart of the nations,
the most sensitive part of the great organism of humanity. He felt every
experience, every emotion, every sorrow of mankind, with especial keenness.
And the evincing of such sensitiveness was the best refutation of all such
charges as that to which the Archbishop had lent his sanction. Let them, then,
generously respond to the cry of the Hospitals, first because of their kinship
with the sull'erers, but also because they were Jews, bound to vindicate the
good name of their faith and their race.
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