■ ^C' ^ Srom f ^ feifitarg of Q0equcat3«b fig ^xva fo f ^ fet6rarg of (prtnceton S^^eofo^tcaf ^emindrg 135 rz'-Lb X.G-77 1846 ^^LSi^.^ i LECTURES ON THE FOUR LAST BOOKS OF THE PENTATEUCH ; DESIGNED 10 SHOW THE DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE JEWISH RELIGION; CHIEFLY FROM INTERNAL EVIDENCE. IN THREE PARTS. I. THE AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH OF THE HISTORY. H. THE THEOLOGICAL, MORAL, AND POLITICAL PRINCIPLES OF THE JEWISH LAW. 111. REVIEW OF THE EFFECTS OF JUDAISM AS PREPARATORY TO CHRISTIANITY. DELIVERED IN THE CHAPEL OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN, AT THE LECTURE ESTABLISHED BY THE PROVOST AND SENIOR FELLOWS, UNDER THE WILL OF MRS. ANNE DONNELLAN. BY i'HE LATE REV. RICHARD Graves, d.d. m.r.i.a. )KAN OF ARDAGH, PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY IN TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN. SEVENTH EDITION. LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1846. EXTRACT FROM THE REGISTRY OF TRINITY COLLEGE. DUBLIN. " Wliereas a Legacy of One thousand two hundred and forty- three Pounds, has been bequeathed to the College of Dublin, by Mrs Anne Donnellan, for the encouragement of Religion, Learning, and good Manners ; the particular mode of application being intrusted to the Provost and Senior Fellows : — " Resolved, " I. That a Divinity Lecture, to which shall be annexed a Salary arising from the interest of One thousand two hundred Pounds, shall be established for ever, to be called Donnellan's Lecture. " IL That the Lecturer shall be forthwith elected from among the Fellows of said College, and hereafter annually on the 20th of November. " III. That the subject or subjects of the Lectures shall be determined at the time of election by the Board, to be treated of in six Sermons, which shall be delivered in the College Cha- pel, after morning service, on certain Sundays, to be appointed on the 20th of November next, after the election of the Lecturer, and within a year from said appointment. " IV. That one moiety of the interest of the said ^£"1,200 shall be paid to the Lecturer, as soon as he shall have delivered the whole number of Lectures ; and the other moiety as soon as he shall have published four of the said Lectures — one copy to be deposited in the Library of the College, one in the Library of Armagh, one in the Library of St Sepulchre, one to be given to the Chancellor of the University, and one to the Provost of the College." INTRODUCTION. When the Friends of Irreligion and Anarchy in this country, Bome years ago, disseminated with a malignant industry the First Part of Mr Paine's " Age of Reason," containing a bold and virulent attack on the Scriptures of the Old Testament, the Heads of the University of Dublin judged that it might be expedient to direct the attention of the Students to the clear and convincing evidence by which this part of Revelation is sustained. On that occasion, the Subject of the following Lec- tures was selected for the ensuing year, when it was my duty to deliver them. But before that period arrived, so many able and satisfactory answers* appeared to Mr Paine's pamphlet ; and the extreme ignorance of its author, the futility of his rea- sonings, and the grossness of his misrepresentations, were so clearly exposed; that I judged it unnecessary to conduct my researches or form my arguments with any particular reference to the objections urged in that tract ; and determined on taking a wider range, and entering into a more radical discussion of the divine original of the Jewish Scheme, than I had at first * Amongst these, the excellent Apology of Bishop Watson undouUedly ranks the first. Ic this country, th* Rev. Mr Hincks, of Cork, produced a very useful compila- tion on the same subject; and Dr Stokes, of Trinity College, Dublin, published a briel but able answer to Mr Paine, which \vas circulated with excellent effect amongst the Students. VI INTRODUCTION. designed. For that purpose I resolved to examine the four last books of the Pentateuch with all the attention in my power, and discover how far they carried internal evidence of their genuineness and truth, in the detail both of the common and the miraculous events. The following Work is the effect of that determination. The Friends of Religion will, I trust, receive this attempt to explain and defend a part of Revelation most frequently assailed by infidels,* with candour and indulgence. I am deeply sensi- ble of the importance of the subject, and would not have pre- sumed to enter upon it, had I found it already pre-occupied by any writer of established reputation. But it appeared to me, that all, or very nearly all the distinguished authors, whose labours have been employed in illustrating the Old Testament in parti- cular, or stating the proofs of Revelation in general, have been in some degree led away from bestowing on this subject that continued attention which its importance deserved, and combin- ing the various characters of truth incidentally dispersed through the writings of the great Jewish Legislator, in one distinct vieu\ in which each would communicate new lustre to the rest. Such authors as have illustrated the Scriptures with continued com- mentaries, were, by the very nature of their undertaking, pre- vented from uniting in one view the many important observa- tions and proofs which the separate parts of the sacred text sug- gested. Those who were employed in refuting the objections of any one particular antagonist, were almost inevitably led to mag- nify these objections beyond their relative importance in any general consideration of the subject. The same writers also were * That infidels or sceptics still direct their chief attacks against the Old Testament, is daily experienced. The reader will see some very recent instances, in the publica- tions of the late Rev. Dr Geddes, and of Mr De Welti', noticed in the ArpENDix INTHOUUCl'lON. VU frequently induced to employ their attention almost exclusively on such passages, as seemed obscure or objectionable ; and pass with less distinct notice the clear and direct arguments and proofs, which were to be derived from those parts of the sacred history which scepticism itself could scarcely venture to attack : — thus suffering the adversary of revealed truth to lead its advo- cate from the strongest to the weakest ground ; and to prevent liim from employing those topics which would operate most powerfully on every candid and unprejudiced mind. Works con- structed entirely on this plan, have sometimes a most pernicious effect on the young, the uninformed, and the wavering. They lead them to consider Revelation as consisting chiefly of obscu- rities, and founded chiefly on questionable facts. While on the contrary, the great truths it establishes are as clear and intel- ligible as they are important : and the series of proofs on which it rests, when viewed in their natural order, are so firmly con- nected and plainly conclusive, that, if considered with attention and candour, they carry with them the fullest conviction. And when contrasted with the improbabilities which must be credited without proof, and the wild conjectures which must be admitted as certain, by those who reject all supernatural interposition in the history of religion, they render it evident that hlind credvr lity* is much more imputable to those who believe the sacred his- tory to be false, than those who admit it to be true : and that sound reason and philosophy, far from being opposed to religious faith, do in reality coalesce with and support it. In what I have now said, I beg that I may not be misunder- stood ; as if I undervalued the labours of those Writers, who have stepped forward with such manly and pious zeal, to repel * Vide for some instances of this, the Appeniiix, Sect. II. in the review of the man* Tier in wliich Dr Geddes attempts tn account for the Mosaic Miracles. Vlll INTRODUCTION. the assailants of Revelation. No, their exertions have been most praiseworthy and useful. They have shown, that the most obscure parts of Scripture admit a fair and natural explanation, and that the most plausible objections to it are founded on mis- conception and mistake. They have exposed in the strongest colours, the disingenuousness and the unreasonableness of infidel writers : and in various important particulars, have illustrated many truths of Revelation with great clearness, and strength- ened its evidence by new proofs. I only mean to say ; that works entirely or chiefly controversial, are not the best calculated for impressing conviction on the yet wavering mind of youth, or conveying that information which is most necessary to the uninstructed. They rather prepare the way for, and facilitate the labours of, the direct and general advocate for the truth of Revelation, than pre-occupy his office or supersede the necessity of his exertions. It was on this view I undertook, and with these feelings I composed, the following Treatise. In that part of it, which is entitled a Review of the chief Effects of Judaism^ as connected with and preparatory to Christianity^ I hope it will be found, that I have endeavoured to attend to the principles I have now stated; and to combine the answer to each objection with the statement of the positive evidence for the truth of the facts, or the rea- sonableness of the principles, objected to ; in such a manner, as may prevent this Work from having any tendency to perplex the minds, or unsettle the faith of that class of Students, to whom the different parts of it were separately addressed ; and to whom it is my most ardent wish and humble prayer that it may now be useful. If it be asked, why I have separated the evidences of Judaism from those of Christianity ? I answer, not only because the INTRODUCTION. IX admirable works of many eminent writers, particularly of Arch- deacon Paley,* had already exhibited the distinct evidence of the Gospel history in the clearest view ; but because I conceive the combination of these two subjects in most preceding works, in which the divine original of the Jewish Law has been defend- ed, has in some measure prevented the distinct evidence for this part of Revelation from being as fully and clearly stated as it ought to be. Where the Law and the Gospel are at once in a writer's contemplation, the immediate and as it were practical importance of the latter must appear so much greater than that of the former, that it is natural this should engross almost the whole of his attention. Besides, the proofs and principles of the Mosaic Law are so distinct from those of the Gospel, and the period of human history with which they are connected so dif- ferent, that it is not easy to combine them in one system of rea- soning with clearness and effect. At the same time, I am fully sensible of the inseparable connexion between these two grand parts of the divine economy of grace ; and that to represent either as independent of the other, would be to misrepresent and undermine it. I hope it will be found that this principle has not been neglected in the following Work.-f* If it be asked why I have exhibited the internal evidence of the Mosaic Law separate from the external? I answer, because I conceive it a completely distinct topic of argument, to which the external evidence is properly a supplement, which may be resorted to with much more advantage and effect when the in- ternal has been first distinctly considered. Besides, the external testimonies for the truth of the Mosaic history have been latel}! * In his Evidences of Christianity, and his Horn Paulina ; which last I consider as one of the most original, most convincing, and most important illustrations of the U-iith of the Gospel History, ever published. t Vide Part III. Led. V. & VI. X INTRODUCTION. examined and exhibited by many learned and able writers (par- ticularly by Mr Faber, in liis Horre Mosaicse) so fully, that it would be as unnecessary as it would be arrogant to attempt to supersede their labours, when I can do my reader so much more service by simply referring to them.* * As this Work may come into the hands of some theological Students desirous to acquaint themselves with the external evidences for the truth of the Old Testament, I annex the following references to some of the chief authors who have treated of them. JosEPHUS, in his first book against Apion, quotes many testimonies to the antiquity of the Jewish nation; the circumstances attending their emigration from Egypt, and the later periods of their history, from a number of authors then extant, and whom he appeals to as perfectly known, though only fragments of a few of their works now re- main. He appeals also to the public records of the Tyrians, " which (says he) are " kept with great exactness, and include accounts of the facts done among them, and " such as concern their transactions with other nations also." These records state the ouilding of the temple of Solomon, and the time it took place, and various circum- stances connected with it. — Josephus also quotes Manactho, Dius the historian of Phoe- nicia, and Menander of Ephesus, to the same purpose. He also quotes Berosus the Chaldean, " well known (says he) by the learned, on account of his publication of the " Chaldean books of astronomy, and philosophy among the Gieeks. This Berosus " therefore, following the most ancient records of that nation, gives us a History of " the Deluge of JVaters that then happened, and of the destruction of mankind thereby. " and agrees with Moses's narrative thereof ; he also gives an account of the Ark " wherein Noah the origin of our race was preserved, when it was brought down to the " highest part of the Armenian mountains; after which he gives a catalogue of the pos- " terity of Noah, and adds the years of their chronology, and at length comes down to " Nabolassar (or Nabopollassar) who was king of Babylon." — I earnestly recommend the entire Book to the perusal of the Student. The concurrence of the Sacred Records with those of Pagan history, and the pro- bable derivation of much of the ancient philosophy from tlie Scripture, is confirmed by Edsebios in his Praparatio Evangelica, much more fully than by Josephus — a work of such signal importance that it may be useful to give an Abstiact of its Contents, to excite the attention of the Student. In his first book, Eusebius exhibits a view of the Theology of the Ancients, particularly of the Phoenicians and Egyptians, and of the progress of idolatry, and the ancient opinions on the origin of the universe; in his second book he carries on his view to the Theology of the Greeks and Romans, the fables of the heroic age, and the Arcana of the mysteries; and also introduces a brief exposition of the absurdities of this theology, and these superstitions. In his third, fourth, and fifth books, he exposes at large the absurdities of the fables and superstitions attending idolatry, especially the fallacy of its divinations and oracles ; and though he intermixes opinions of his own in accounting for facts, of which a more enlightened philosophy will not approve, yet the facts themselves, and the original authorities ou which they are supported, are most highly important. In his sixth book, he exposes the pagan system of fate, &c. In his seventh and eighth books, he illustrates tiie superiority of the Jewish religion, in its theology, its moral principles, and its eflijcts. But in his ninth, he adduces what is most directly connected with the object of our INTRODUCTION. XI Some Friends, whose judgment I most highly respect, have Biated to me, that I ought to have included the book of Genesis in my plan ; and that even now I ought to prefix some prelimi- nary Lectures on this important part of Sacred History, before present enquiry, an accumulation of testimonies from works then extant, but very many of which are now lost, to confirm the sacred history. He here produces the strongest testimonies of Grecian writers to the excellence of the Hebrew principles of theology and morals,* to the vain attempts of the Egyptian magicians in opposition to Moses, f Abydenus's tradition of the deluge, $ and Tower of Babel, § Eupolemus's testi- mony to the history of Abraham, || and various other confirmations of the Jewish history preserved by Alexander Polyhistor — from Theodotus, to the history of Jacob; from Artapanes, to that of Joseph and of Moses, and a long and accurate testimony to the plagues of Egypt and the passage of the Red Sea;1I from the tragic poet Ezekiel, to the same facts; and Demetrius, to the same, in an abstract evidently taken from the sacred writings as unquestioned and certain records. I omit the testimonies to later facts in the Jewish history — the entire book is peculiarly worth the Student's attention. In the tenth book, he adduces many facts and arguments to prove the philosophy of the Greeks was borrowed from the Barbarians, and illustrates the superiority of the Jewish theo- logy. In his eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth books, Eusebius considers the system of Plato, and proves its agreement in a variety of particulars with that of the Jews, and its having been probably derived from that source; while at the same time he points out the degrading turpitude of Plato's moral theory in his Republic, and strongly < on- trasts it with the purity of the Mosaic code. The fourteenth and fifteenth books contain a view of the chief systems of philosophy among the Greeks, comparing them with the Jewish Law, and decidedly establishing the superiority of the latter. In a word, this great Work, though not entirely free from the prejudices and the errors prevalent at the period when its Author lived, yet exhibits a most important monument of the necessity and advantages both of the Jewish and Christian Revelations, the confirma- tion of the Sacred History by various records and authors extant at that period, though now in a great measure lost, and the probability that the Grecian philosophy derived its only just views, whether in theology or morals, from the lights of Revelation, though broken and obscured by the gross and impure mediums through which they were con- veyed. Amongst modem writers, Stillincfleet, in his Origines Sacra, has with gi-eat learning and acuteness " proved the reconcileableness of the account of times in Scrip- " ture with that of the learned and ancient heathen nations — the consistency of the " belief of the Scriptures with the principles of reason — and that no clear account can " be given of the origin of things, from the principles of philosophy without Scripture.'"' In liis sixth book, this learned Author has proved the uncertainty of ancient history, as opposed to the Scripture accounts: — in Book iii. chap, 4. he has confirmed the Scrip- Iwe accounts of the Creation, the Deluge, and the peopling of the world, by the testi- naenies of Heathen traditions and Heathen history: and in Book v. he has traced the origin of Heathen mythology to the corruption of the Scripture accounts. * In the first seven Clmiitera, \ Cap. viii. i Cap. xii. f Cap. XV. !|Cap. xTii. ^ Cap. xxviL Xll INTRODUCTION. I submit this Work to the Public. To them I answer, that the history of the four last books of the Pentateuch forms one subject perfectly distinct from the history of the book of Genesis, except BO far as it is connected Avith the account of the fall of man in Gale, in his Court of the Gentiles, has traced the original of human literature, both philologic and philosophic, from the Scriptures and the Jewish Church, with a great variety of argument, and a great extent of erudition. Vide his First Part, as to the traduction ot the Pagan literature and mythology from the Jews ; and his second, as to the original of philosophy. In this work, the zeal for carrying his system to a great extent has perhaps led this learned Author too far, but unquestionably he has collected a body of most important evidence, which establishes the truth of the Scripture His- tory. Bochart's Phaleg, tracing the dispersion of mankind; and Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology; confirm this coincidence. But the Works of Bochart and Bryant are perhaps too voluminous and learned for the generality of students. They will find the testimonies of antiquity to the truth of the Scriptures clearly but briefly exhibited, «y Grotius, in his Truth of the Christain Religion, with Le Clerc's valuable notes — Dy Allix, in his Reflections on Genesis xix. and xx., and on the Historical and Pro- phetical Books, Chap, ii., a work included in Watson's Tracts — by the Bishop of Lin- coln, in his Elements of Christain Theology, Part I. chap, i.— and especially by the learned Mr Fabek, in his Horce Mosatcte, Book I. Sect. 1. to whose work I refer, as superseding the necessity of my entering any further into this subject. It may not be inexpedient to observe here, that another topic from which the autho- rity and credibility of the Pentateuch, and indeed of the entire Old Testament, derives great confirmation, is the agreement of the manners and customs of the East, as they incidentally appear in the Sacred Records, with the manners and customs which history proves prevailed in the East at the period when the events related in Scripture took place; and from the great illustration which the Scriptures have received, by comparing them with the observations of modern travellers, on the productions, the manners, and the feelings prevalent in the East at this day; where, from the peculiar stability of established manners and customs, clear vestiges still remain of that state of society which the Scriptures describe. On this subject, I refer to Harmer's Observations on Scripture which have been judiciously added to, improved and applied, by Mr Bubder, in his Oriental Customs applied to illustrate the Scriptures. I will conclude this already too long, but I hope not useless note, by referring the Student desirous at once of extending his knowledge, and confirming his faith to the Rev. Mr Maurice's History of Hindostan, and to the accomplished Sir William Jones's Researches into the History and Antiquities of Asia, and those of his learned Colleagues; where he will find multiplied confirmations of the truth of the Scripture history, derived from the most unsuspected sources, and delivered with the greatest clearness and candour. To limit his search, I would direct the student particularly to consult Mr Maurica's History, Vol. I. chap. i. where he points out the striking circumstances of similairty between the Hindoo, the Hebraic, the Phoenician, the Egyptian, and the Grecian systems of cosmogony! as in their account of the incumbent wind or spirit agitating' the abyss — of water> being tlie primseval element. &.c. I would also refer to his second INTRODUCTION. the grand economy of grace. The evidence of the divine original of the Mosaic Law may therefore be clearly exhibited without including the consideration of the facts recorded in the book of Genesis. I add, that in the natural order of reasoning, the chapter, which shows that the Indian claims to antiquity are fallacious and cannot be opposed to the Mosaic history and the Hebrew chronology: to his tenth chapter, in which he conckides his learned and laborious investigation into the history of astronomy, and proves that the result of the whole survey, so far from subverting, gives a decided support to the Mosaic records. In the eleventh chapter, we find the Mosaic history of j4dam and the /aZZ confirmed by the ladian records and traditions — in the twelfth, the Mosaic account of the antedeluvians receives similar illustration; and in the thirteenth, the history of the deluge receives the most full, and I had almost said, irresistible con- firmation. In Vol. II. Book ii. chap. ii. the Student will find many solid arguments to prove that ancient Sanscreet writings corroborate the Mosaic records; and in Book iv. he will find it, I think, irrefutably established, that "immemorial traditions difiiised over all the East, and derived from a patriarchal source, concerning the fall of man, the original promise, and a future Mediator, had taught the whole gentile world to expect the appearance of a sacred and illustrious personage about the time of Christ's advent." Here also the opinions I have ventured to advance concerning Zoroaster and tha Magi,* are illustrated and confirmed; and the similitude between the life and con- duct of the Messiah and of Creeshna, the great Indian preserver, described and ac- counted for. And in the fifth chapter of the same book will be found ancient predic- tions traditionally preserved, respecting the day of judgment, and the destruction of the world by fire. From the Asiatic Researches I will point out some testimonies to the truths of the Sacred History, most directly connected with the subject of this work. — In the first volume, p. 229, we find a dissertation on the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India, in which Sir William gives his reasons for believing that " the fable of the life of Saturn " was raised on the true history of Noah, and translated from the Bhagavat. The " history of Menu or Satyavrata, an Indian king of divine birth, eminent for his piety '♦ and beneficence, whose story seems evidently to be that of Noah disguised by " Asiatic fiction, and of whom we may safely offer a conjecture that he was the same as " Saturn." On this epitome of the first Indian history which is now extant, Sir William Jones remarks: "it appears to me very curious and important; for the story, though whimsi- " cally dressed up in the form of an allegory, seems to prove a primaeval tradition in " this country, of the deluge described by Moses, and consequently fixes the time when " the genuine Hindoo chronology actually begins. In page 244, Sir William tells us, " that water was the primitive element and first " work of the creative power, is the uniform opinion of the Indian philosophers: but as " they gave so particular an account of the general deluge, and of the creation, it can " never be admitted that their whole system arose from traditions concerning the flood " oloce , and it must appear indubitable that their doctrine is in part borrowed frini * Vide Infra mXRODUCTION. divine mission of Moses should be proved by its peculiar evi- dence, hefore the truth of the antecedent facts can bo decid- edly admitted, because the credibility of the facts recorded in this history must always chiefly rest on the authority of their " the opening of Beresith or Genesis, than which a more sublime passage from the first " word to the last never flowed or will flow from any human pen — ' In the beginning " God created the earth, and the earth was void and waste, and darkness was upon the " face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters; and God " said, Let light be, and light was.' — The sublimity of this passage is considerably " diminished by the Indian paraphrase with which Menu, the son of Brama, begins his " address to the sages who consulted him on the formation of the universe: " This world (says he) was all darkness uiidescribable, imdistinguishable, altogetlier " as in profound sleep, till the self-existent irresistible God, making it manifest with " five elements and other glorious forms, perfectly dispelled the gloom: he desiring to " raise up various creatures by an emanation from his own glory, first created the " waters and impressed them with a power of motion — by that power was produced a "golden egg, blazing like a thousand suns, in which was born Brahma, self-existing, " the great parent of all rational beings. The waters are called Nara, since they are *' the offspiing of Nera or Iwara, and thence was Narayana named, because his first " ayana or moving was upon them. That which is the invisible cause eternal, self- " existing but uiiperceived, becoming masculine from neuter, is celebrated among all "creatures by the name of Brahma; that God havin;» dwelled in the egg through " revolving years, himself meditating on himself, divided it into two equal parts, and " from these halves formed the heavens and the earth, placing in the midst the subtle "ether, the eight points of the world, and tlie permanent receptacle of waters." " To this curious description with which the Manaya Sastra begins, I cannot refrain " (says Sir William) from subjoining the four first verses of the Bhagavat, and which " are believed to have been pronounced by the Supreme Being to Brahma. The fol- " lowing version is most scrupulously literal : ' Even I was at first, not any other thing, that which exists ujiperceived, supreme; • afterwards / am that which is, and he who must remain am I. ♦ Except the fiist cause, whatever may appear and may not appear in the mind, know that to be to the mind, mdyd, (or delusion) as light to darkness. ' As the great elements are in various beings, entering yet not entering, (that is, ' pervading, not destroying) thus am I in them, yet not in them. ' Even thus far may enquiry be made by him who seeks to know the principle of ' mind in union and separation, which must be every where, always.' " Wild and obscure (says Sir William) as these ancient verses must appear in a "naked verbal translation, it will perhaps be thought by many, that the poetry or my- "thology of Greece and Italy aflord no conceptions more awfully magnificent; yet the ' beauty and simplicity of the Mosaic diction are unequalled." I may be permitted to add, that these verses seem to have been composed by some one acquainted with the character in which Jehovah describes himself to the Jewisn Lawgiver, / am, that I am — / am hath sent you. At the close of this most interesting dissertation, Sir William Jones remarks: ' 'I am " persuaded that a connexion subsisted between the old idolatrous nations of Eyypt, INTROUL'CTIOX. XV inspired Historian, which I have here endeavoured to establislu I trust, therefore, this Work will be found one distinct and unmutilated system, embracing the full extent of the subject it professes to discuss. I will, however, candidly confess, the great cause why I nave not attempted to comply with the suggestions of my very respec- table but certainly partial friends, is ray inability to do so. The work they prescribe is on a subject of great importance and extent, and on which the daily increasing knowledge of Orien- tal literature and history, and the extension of physical and geological* discoveries are perpetually throwing new light. To " India, Greece, and Italy, long before they emigrated to their respective settlements, " and consequently before the birth of Moses ; — but the truth of this proposition will in "BO degree aflect the truth and sanctity of the Mosaic history ; which if confirmation *' were wanted, it would rather serve to confirm. " The Divine Legate, educated by the daughter of a king, and in all respects hir.lily "accomplished, could not but know the mythological system of Egypt; but he mi^h "have condemned the superstitions of that people, and despised the speculative absur- " dities of their priests, though some of their traditions concerning the creation and the " flood were grounded on truth. Who was better acquainted with the mythology of " Athens than Socrates ? who more accurately versed in the Rabbinical doctrines than " Paul ? who possessed clearer ideas of all ancient astronomic systems than Newton ? " in whom could the Romish Church have had a more formidable opponent than Chil- " lingworth, whose deep knowledge of its tenets rendered him so competent to dispute " them ? in a word, who more exactly knew the abominable rites and shocking idola- " tries of Canaan, than Moses himself ? yet the learning of these great men only in- " cited them to seek other sources of truth, piety, and virtue, than those in which they '♦ had long been immersed. There is no shadow then of foundation for an opinion that " Moses borrowed the first nine or ten chapters of Genesis from the literatm-e of Egypt. " Still less can the adamantine pillars of our Christian faith be moved by the result of " any debates on the comparative antiquity of the Hindoos and Egyptians, or of any ♦' inquiries into the Indian theology." For the remainder of this interesting article, I refer to the Work itself. * On this subject, my countryman and friend, the celebrated Mr Kirwan, has dis- tinguished himself; vide his Essay on the primitive State of the Globe and iti subse- quent catastrophe, in the 6th volume of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, p. 233; and his three Essays in support of it, in the beginning of the 8th vol.— Vide also the Rev. Mr Graydon's curious memoir on the fish inclosed in stone in Mount Bolca, vol. 5. p. 281. As to the universality of the deluac. I believe there is now no material difference of opinion among naturalists ; it is supportea oy pnenomena which carry with them de- cisive conviction. I will not presume to say that the formation of the earth from the INTRODUCTION. treat such a subject superficially, would be neither creditable nor useful. To examine and discuss it with any moderate de- gree of accuracy, would demand much research, much labour, and much time ; and I have no prospect of leisure for such a Work, were I even in other respects competent to it. In truth, these Lectures which I now venture to submit to the public, have been composed with so many interruptions, and amidst so many avocations, as have, I am sensible, produced many inaccuracies of style which a careful revision might have enabled me to avoid ; and too often, I fear, have prevented me from supporting my conclusions with as full an induction of facts, primitive chaos to the habitable state, has been yet so clearly explained by geologists, that we can appeal to any one theory as decidedly proved and clearly coincident with the Mosaic account; but sure I am, there is no theory decidedly proved and clearly contradictory to that account. The study of mineralogy (I do not think it is hitherto entitled to the name of science) is scarcely yet more than fifty years standing ; that of geology is still more modern. Let us not then rashly decide that either the Neptunian or the Volcanic theory is clearly proved, or that the credit of Scripture depends upon the admission of either. We certainly are not yet competent to decide the exact mode and order of the divine operations, in which Almighty Power must have proceeded in creating and preparing this world for the use of man. Possibly we may never be com- petent to ascertain it. A power must then have been exerted very different, at least, in the mode and degree of its operation, from that by which the ordinary course of nature is now conducted, and this last alone is the subject of our present observations. This I am sure of, that the progress of natural history, and the discovery of any laws of nature to which it may lead, will never be found ultimately subversive of the truth of Revelation. But prejudice, presumption, and rashness, may give plausibility and currency to conclusions apparently inconsistent with the truth of Scripture, and shake the faith of those in whom such dispositions prevail. Against such causes of error, I would earnestly warn my readers. Time was, when papal authority declared the theory of the earth's motion was so subversive of revealed religion, that the Jesuitt, who commented on the Principia of Newton, prefixed to the 3d Volume the following declaration : Newtonus in hoc libro, Telluris motae Hypothesin assumit, Autoris propositiones aliter explicari non poterant nisi eadem quoque facta Hypothesi. Hinc alienam coacti sumus gerere personam ; ceeterum latis a summis Pontificibus contra Telluris motum decretis nos obsequi profitemur Let this declaration stand as a monument of the rashness of supposing Scripture at war with a philosophic theory. The decrees of the Popes did not stop the motion of the earth, nor has this overturned the Christain faith, though it may have shaken Paptl infallibility. — Such, I am persuaded, will always be the final event. " Opinionum commenta delet dies, oaturse fet Revelationis) judicia confimiat." INTRODUCTION. and as great a variety of illustrations and authorities, as might have been adduced. But 1 trust these defects have not extended to the essential parts of the Work, and that my general system of reasoning may be approved by the friends of virtue and piety. For that system I hold myself strictly responsible. No man has a right to trifle with the eternal interests of his fellow-creatures, and produce unweighed conjectures and crude opinions on such a subject as that of the following Work. For such presumptuous temerity, no pressure of business can apologize, and no display of learning or talents could atone. I would not indeed have noticed a circumstance so unimportant to the reader as my pri- I beg leave to subjoin a remarkable instance of this, in the celebrated oljeetion ad- vanced with such confidence by Mr Brydone and others, to disprove the Mosaic account of the period when the world was formed, which allows not quite 6,000 years to have yet elapsed, while these philosophers thought they had found a full proof that at least 14,000 had elapsed. So that these philosophers complain, that Moses hangs as a dead weight upon them, and blunts all their zeal for inquiry. Their proof is this :* " The " Canonico Recupero, who is engaged in writing the history of Mount Etna, has dis- " covered a stratum of lava, which flowed from that mountain (according to his opinion) " in the time of the second Punic war, or about two thousand years ago. The stratum " is not yet covered with soil sufficient for the production of either com or vines. It " requires then, says the Canon, two thousand years at least to convert the stratum of " lava into a fertile field. Now in sinking a pit near Jaci, in the neighbourhood of " Etna, they have discovered evident marks of seven distinct lavas, one under the " other, the surfaces of which are parallel, and most of them covered with a thick bed " of rich earth. Now the eruption which formed the lowest of these lavas (if we may " be allowed, says the Canon, to reason from analogy) flowed from the mountain at " least 14,000 years ago. " In answer to this argument it might be urged, in the first place, that the Canon " has not established his main fact, that the lava in question is the identical lava which " Diodorus Siculus mentions to have flowed from Etna in the second Carthagenian *' war. And in the next place, it may be observed, that the time necessary for cuii- " verting lavas into fertile fields mu'st be very different, according to the different con- " sistencies of the lavas, and their different situations with respect to elevation and " depression, or their being exposed to winds, rains, and other circumstances (as for " instance, tiie quantity of ashes deposited over them after they had cooled,) &c. &c. -' tMst as the time in which heaps of iron flag which resembles lava) aie covered (vith " verdure is different at different furnaces, according to the nature of the flag and *' rituation of the furnace. And something of this kind is deducible from the account * Vide Watson's Apology, in Letters to Mr Gibbon, from p. 169 to 174. b XVIU INTBODUCrnON. vate aTocations, but from my anxious wish that the deficiencies of the advocate may not be mistaken on this occasion for proofs of weakness in the cause, which I am fully persuaded is the cause of truth and heaven ; a cause which might have been maintained with more advantage even by me, but for the unfavourable cir- cumstances to which I allude. But I have said too much of myself and of my Work. I can- not however commit it to my readers without anxiously remind- ing them, that the effect of every species of religious instruction, and consequently of this, depends much more on the disposition prevalent in the heart of those to whom it is addressed, than on " of the Canon himself, since the crevices of this famous stratum are really full of rich " good soil, and have pretty large trees growing upon them. But (says Bishop Watson) *' if all this should be thought not sufficient to remove the objection, I will produce the " Canon an analogy in opposition to his analogy, and which is grounded on more cer- " tain facts. " Etna and Vesuvius resemble each other in the causes which produce their erup- " tions, in the nature of their lavas, and in the time necessary to mellow them into soil " fit for vegetation ; or if their be any slight difference in this respect, it is probably " not greater than what subsists between different lavas of the same mountain. " This being admitted, which no philosopher will deny, the Canon's analogy will " prove just nothing at all, if we can produce an instance of seven different lavas (with " interjacent strata of vegetable earth) which have flowed from Mount Vesuvius within " the space not of 14,000, but of somewhat less than 1700 years, for then according to ** our analogy, a stratum of lava may be covered with vegetable soil in about 250 years, '« instead of requiring 2000 for that purpose. " The eruption of Vesuvius which destroyed Herculaneum and Pompeii, is rendered " still more famous by the death of Pliny, recorded by his nephew in his letter to Taci- " tus: this event happened a. d. 79. But we are informed by unquestionable autho- " rity,* that the matter v;hich covers the ancient town of Herculaneum is not the pro~ " duce of ONE eruption only, for there are evident marks that the matter of six eruptions " has taken its course over that which lies immediately over the town, and was the cause " of its destruction. These strata are either of lava or burnt matter, WITH veins of " GOOD SOIL BETWEEN THEM. " You perceive, says the Bishop, with what ease a little attention and increase of ♦' knowledge may remove a great difficulty ; but had we been able to say nothing in " explanation of this phenomenon, we should not have acted a very rational part, in " making our ignorance the foundation of our infidelity, or suffering a minute pbiloso- " pher to rob us of our religion." * " See Sir William Hamilton's remarks upon the nature of the soil of Napleg and its neigh- "bourhood, in the Philos. Trans. Vol. 61. p. 7." INTRODUCTION. XIX the degree of information conveyed to their understanding. Purity, seriousness, and humility of mind, are the only sure guides to the eternal temple of religious truth. The opposite qualities will ever lead to error and impiety. And who is there who can avoid observing the want of seriousness, and above all, of humihty of mind, in the opponents of Revelation ? Whatever other characters they possess, I may venture to affirm, that either seriousness or humility, or both, are almost uniformly wanting. And yet assuredly these are peculiarly required on subjects affecting the destiny of the entire human race, and lead- ing us to contemplate the nature and the dispensations of the supreme and incomprehensible God. May all who are led to peruse these pages be impressed with due feelings of seriousness and humility, and guided by that spiritual wisdom without which the "things of God appear to man fooHshness.'"* May they be disposed to study, to receive, and to obey the will of their heavenly Father, " with all their heart, and with all their soul, " and with all their strength."f Then will they be able to " know " of the doctrine whether it be of God ;":{: then will their under- standings be enlarged, their faith confirmed, their salvation secured : And at the great day of final account, may it bo found that he who thus warns and exhorts others, is not " himself a " cast-away." *1 Cor. ii. 14. f Mark xii. 30. $ John vii. 17. P. S. In page x. I have said, •' that the internal evidence of the four last books o« the Pentateuch was a subject not preoccupied by any writer of established reputation." The learned reader will easily see that f^arburton's celebrated work on the Divine Legation of Moses, was not forgotten when I made this assertion, as it appears to me to have increased, not superseded the necessity of reconsidering this subject with thu closest attention. Vide infra, where the system of this eminent writer is reviewed.* * Dr Graves's references are made to the 4to. edit of 1788, now perhaps in very limUed use;-» but the sections and other divisions of the work being specified, the references will become per- fectly facile to the recently pablibhed 8vo editiua. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. hi preparing for this Edition, I have endeavoured to avail myself, as far as I could, of the different kind and candid criti- cism which have been passed upon this Work. But it is par- ticularly gratifying to me to find that no criticisms have been offered, which rendered it necessary to alter my statement of facts, or my reasoning upon them, in any material particular. I have judged it expedient to add Three Lectures ; one on the OriginaHty and Design of the Jewish Eitual, which appeared necessary to complete the series of reasonings there adduced to confirm the divine original of the Jewish religion; — and the other two on the Accomplishment of Prophecy in the past his- tory of the Jews, and the expectations which the same prophe- cies appear to justify as to the future Conversion and Bestoration of this chosen People, and on the Circumstances of the World, at the period when these Lectures were written, which seemed preparatory to the accomplishment of these Expectations — a spe- culation into which the existence of those circumstances, together with the nature of the subject on which I had treated, almost irresistibly led me, but in which, I trust, it will not b€ found T have unreasonably or presumptuously indulged. CONTENTS. PART I. THE AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH OF THE HISTORY. LECT. I. The Jewish nation has received the Pentateuch, as containing the only authentic history of their Lawgiver and his institutions, from the very sera when these institutions commenced, to the present day. Arguments to prove the reception of the Penta- teuch, from the present day, back to the return of the Jews from the Babylonish Captivity — Arguments to prove the Pen- tateuch was not first compiled at that sera, or altered and modi- fied according to circumstances then existing ; but that it was a previously existing and acknowledged code — Pentateuch proved prior to the separation of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah — Prior to the establishment of the regal government in Israel — Not first compiled by Samuel — Acknowledged by Joshua - 1 LECT. II. The authenticity and truth of the four last books of the Penta- teuch proved from the subject and structure of the history, so far as the facts are not miraculous. Importance and peculiar na- ture of its various regulations concerning property — Publicity and importance of the main series of facts — Marks of truth in the minute detail of these facts — SimpUcity of style and narra- tive— Selection and arrangement of facts and circumstances, such as is natural if Moses were the writer, unaccountable other- wise— Impartiality — Comparison of the Pentateuch, in tliis res- pect, with Joseph us - - - - - V2 LECT. III. The authenticity and truth of the four last books of the Penta- teuch confirmed, by a comparison of the book of Deuteronomy with those of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Statement of the general argument deduced from this comparison — How far similar, how far dissimilar, to that used by Archdeacon Paley, in his Horag Paulinae — Its application to the history, so far as it relates events not miraculous — Instanced in general coinci- dences between the recapitulation in Deuteronomy, and the direct narration in the preceding books — In particular facts and circumstances — As to rules of purification — Directions for car- rying the tabernacle — Disposition of the tribes in camp, &c. — An apparent contradiction — How reconciled — As to the ap- pointment of inferior judges — And of the twelve spies - 40 LECT. IV. The argument stated in the preceding Lecture, applied to the nar- rative of miraculous events in the four last books of the Penta- teuch, in order to show that they are related with the same marks of truth as the common events — Instanced in the manner of referring to the delivery of the Law in Horeb — And to the punishment inflicted for the worship of Baal Peor — And to the delivery of the Decalogue — In the general manner of allusions to different miracles — In the account of various miracles wrought to punish opposition to the authority of Moses — Apparent con- tradiction as to the different statements of circumstances attend- ing the punishment of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram — Its expla- nation— Inference from thence - - - - 56 LECT. V. The common events of the Jewish history incredible, if separated from the miraculous, but when combined with them, form one natural and consistent narrative — Instanced in the history of Moses before he undertook the deliverance of the Jews — In the difficulties attending that attempt, from the Jews and from the Egyptians — His conduct as leader of the emigration unaccount- able if unaided by supernatural power — At the departure fro. ■ Egypt — At the Red Sea — On the return of the twelve spies from Canaan — In the detention of the Jews in the wilderness forty years _...-- CONTENTS. LECT. VI. Admitting the authenticity of the Pentateuch, the miracles recorded in the four last books of it are unquestionably true and clearly supernatural — Leslie's four marks of certainty — Their applica- tion to the Mosaic miracles — First character, the facts, public — Second, clearly supernatural — Various instances of this — Third and fourth, recorded by public monuments and com- memorative rites, commencing' at the time of the facts — Instanced in the Tribe of Levi — The three great feasts — The entire Jewish ritual — The form of government — The distribu- tion of property, &c. — Recapitulation, and Conclusion of the First Part - - - - - - 85 PART II. THE THEOLOGICAL, MORAL, AND POLITICAL PRINCIPLES OF THE JEWISH LAWr. LECT. I. THEOLOGY OF THE MOSAIC LAW. General subject and arrangement of this Part — Origin, nature, and effects of idolatry — Corruption of patriarchal religion — By the worship of the heavenly bodies — The elements — Deified men — ■ Egyptian hierogh'phics introduce the worship of animals and vegetables, &c. — Connexion of idolatry with magic, &c. —Ido- latry not to be checked by ordinary means — Vices attending it — Design of covenant with Abraham — Jewish scheme con- ducted according to the analogy of nature — Theology of the Mosaic Law — Declares the self- existence of God — His unity — His moral perfections — His providence — Such a theology affords a strong presumptive argument of a divine revelation - 104 LECT. II. MORAL PRINCIPLES OF THE JEWISH LAW. The ten Commandments due to the Mosaic Law — their extent — Their importance illustrated by the practices of the heathen world — The Jewish religion inculcates the two great principles, of love to God, and love to man — Also love to our enemies, as far as was practicable under the Jewish economy — It did not substitute outwai-d observances for internal piety — Proved from XXIV CONTENTS. the general principles of internal religion, which it establishes — From the conditions on which alone it proposes the forgive- ness of transgressions — From the connexion it points out be- tween the ceremonies of the ritual and internal religion — Recapitulation - - - - - 130 LECT. III. MORAL PRINCIPLES, &C.-CONTINUED. The penal code of the Jewish Law conformable to its moral and rehgious system— Capital crimes — Idolatry, and the various crimes connected with it — Strict prohibition of human sacri- fices— Supplementary sanctions, presupposing a special Pro- vidence— Jewish constitution a theocracy — Severity against idolatry justified — Jewish Law prohibits all impurity — Yet not unnaturally austere — Disobedience to parents, how punished — Wisdom of the Mosaic Law, respecting murder and man- slaughter— With respect to slavery- — And false witnesses — Principle of retaliation explained — Equity of punishment for the invasion of property — Mildness of Laws towards slaves — Form of trial — Consistence of the rehgious and penal code - 146 LECT. IV. POLITICAL PRINCIPLES OF THE JEWISH LAW. Importance of the mode in which property is distributed in a state ■^Agrarian Law of Lycurgus, &c. — Defects of the Spartan constitution in this point — Agrarian Law among the Jews — How guarded — Promoted agriculture and attachment to rural life — Jewish nobihty and gentry — Jewish yeomanry sufficient for defensive war — Offensive wars effectually discouraged by the Jewish constitution — Constitution of the tribe of Levi pe- cuhar to the Jewish scheme — Its great utility — Jewish Law guarded the rights and comforts of the very lowest classes^ — Of the stranger — The poor — The aged and infirm — Recapitula- tion . - o - - . . 161 LECT. V. ORIGINALITY AND DESIGN OF THE JEWISH RITUAL. Importance of the question. Whether the Jewish Ritual is opposed to the system of heathen worship, or in any degree borrowed from it? — The latter improbable, if Judaism is of divine ori- ginal— Spencer's opinion — grounded on supposed political wis- CONTENTS. dom of such a proceeding — Examples he adduces — mistaken as to these examples — as to reformation from Judaism to Christi- anity— and from Gentdisra to Christianity — Attempt to accom- modate Christianity to pre-existing customs, &c. — Its mischiefs — Reformation from Popery to Protestantism — Spencer's opi- nion contrary to Scripture — Parts of the Jewish Ritual more ancient than Moses — Origin of circumcision — Designed con- trast between Judaism and idolatry — Jewish Ritual a barrier against idolatry, proved by experience — Josephus — Tacitus — Spencer's opinion supported by insufficient evidence — How far Judaism resembles idolatry — Instances of contrast — Minute- ness of Ritual, how useful — and its sanctuary, priests, &c. — Ritual not burthensome - - - - -176 PART III. REVIEW OF THE EFFECTS OF JUDAISM AS PREPARATORY TO' CHRISTIANITY. LECT. I. SETTLEMENT OF THE JEWS IN CANAAN. Sect. I. — ^The objection arising from the treatment of the Ca- naanites considered, so far as relates to the Canaanites them- selves— Objection includes two questions — Doubt as to the extent of the severity exercised against the Canaanites — This severity justified by their crimes — Their idolatry not an error of judgment alone — Cruelties and pollutions it produced — Neces- sity of expelling them from the land in which the Jews were to settle — Their guilt incorrigible — The objection proved to lead to Atheism — Analogy between the general course of Pro- vidence, and the treatment of the Canaanites — In the suffer- ings of the innocent — Connexion of this measure with the entire scheme of the divine economy — Review of the considera- tions offered on the first part of the objection - - 192 Sect. II. — Second part of the objection which relates to the Jews — A clear divine command changes the moral character of the action — Jews mere instruments in the hands of God — Series of facts proving this — Jews not actuated by the common passions of conquerors — Avarice and licentiousness checked by the situ- ation in which they were placed — And sanguinary passions — Abhorrence of idolatry impressed upon them, but not a spirit of personal or national hostility — Proved by their conduct to the Canaanites — Necessity of employing the Jews as instru- KVl CONTENTS. ments of this severity — To alienate the two nations — To over- turn the grand support of idolatry — To impress a salutary terror on the Jews themselves — To supersede the necessity of a con- tinued series of miracles — Treatment of the Amalekites — Na- ture of their crime — Connexion of their punishment with the general scheme of the Jewish dispensation — General answer to all ohjections of this kind — This dispensation did not encourage a spirit of general persecution or conquest — Care taken it should not harden the hearts of the Jews — General laws of war among the Jews merciful— Great care to encourage a spirit of huma- nity— Conclusion - - - - - 192 LECT. II. CONDUCT OF THE JEWS. Sect, I. — Objection against the reality of the Mosaic miracles de- rived from the frequent idolatries of the Jews, invalid- — These idolatries did not prove any doubt of the divine original of the Mosaic Law — First species of idolatry by forbidden symbols, &c. — Whence so frequent — Imphed acknowledgment of Jeho- vah— Second species of idolatrous worship, in forbidden places and with idolatrous rites, implied the same — Third species, wor- ship of idols with Jehovah — Whence — Fourth, worship of idols without God — Yet not an absolute denial of God, or rejection of his worship — Defects and apostasies of the Jews confirm the certainty of a divine interposition, rather than weaken it — Ob- jection against the divine economy, from the temptations they were exposed to, unreasonable — Residence of Jews in Egypt considered — And the temptations from the surrounding Canaan- ites — Degree and duration of the divine interposition suited to the analogy of nature — Mr Gibbon accuses the Jews, falsely, of being indifferent spectators of the most amazing miracles - 226 Sect. II. — The conduct oi the Jews subsequent to the death of Joshua, is not inconsistent with the divine original of the Mo- saic Law — Situation of the Jews under their judges, adapted to the purposes of the divine economy — Expediency of placing them in this situation — Severity of the punishment inflicted by Providence for their offences, no valid objection — Establishment of the kingly government a confirmation of the authenticity of the Pentateuch — Why desired by the people — Why permitted by God — Theocrac,y preserved under the kings — Illustrates the nature of the divine control over the Jews — And of the Jewish character — Both show the credibility of the Jewish idolatries, notwithstanding the divine original of the Mosaic Law — Sepa- ration of the ten tribes an apparent objection — Its origin — Ido- latry of Solomon — Inference from it as to the idolatries of the Jews — Separation of the two kingdoms, why expedient — How effected — Its natural tendency — Abused by Jeroboam — Even his conduct confirms the divine original of the Mosaic Lavr — Schism he introduces consistent with that beUef — Gave occasion to ma- nifest the divine Providence in the history of the ten tribes — Effects of this separation on the two tribes — Instanced in the history of Abijah — Of Rehoboam — Of Asa — Of Hezekiah — General reflection on the providential government of the Jews — On the caution to be exercised in estimating the characters described in the Old Testament — And the effects of the Jewish scheme .--..-. 239 LECT. III. SANCTIONS OF THE JEWISH LAW. Skct. I. — Objections against the Mosaic Law, from its employing temporal sanctions — And visiting the iniquities of the fathers on the children — Warburton's opinion on this subject — His work incomplete — His reasoning not perfectly conclusive — How far I agree with, and how far I differ from, his opinion — Two conclu- sions seem true : first, that Moses employed temporal sanctions in his Law ; second, the history of the Old Testament shows he believed a future state, and contains a gradual development of it — Moses employed temporal sanctions, both nationally and individually — This accounted for — From the nature of the Jew- ish theocracy — Reality of the extraordinary providence exercised over the Jews proved in this work, without resorting to War- burton's medium — Temporal sanctions sufficient — Necessary to confute idolatry — Adapted to the intellectual and moral charac- ter of the Jews — Best mode of introducing the doctrine of a future state, with effect — A necessary part of the theocracy — exemplified to man the principles of God's moral government - 264 Sect. II. — Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children — In what sense to be understood — Not unjust — Necessary in a the- ocracy, as far as relates to temporal and national punishments — Chiefly denounced against idolatry — In this case not only just but merciful — Human tribunals not permitted by the Mosaic Law, to act upon this principle — Why — Analogous to God's general providence — A dispensation of mercy rather than seve- rity— Limited in its extent and application - - - 280 LECT. IV. KNOWLEDGE OF Av FUTURE LIFE AMONG THE JEWS. Sect. I. — Doctrine of a future state, though it does not form the sanction of the Mosaic Law, is yet contained in the writings ol Moses — Warburton's assertions on this subject, hasty and iiicon- XXVIU CONTENTS. sistent with each other — And with the Seventh Article of the Church of England — Future state intimated in the history of the creation and the fall — By the circumstances attending the death of Abel — By the translation of Enoch — By the command to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac — Future state must have been known to the Patriarchs, and infl.uenced their conduct — Attested in the Epistle to the Hebrews — Instanced in the history of Jacob — Of Moses — By our Lord's reply to the doubts of the Sadducees — The declaration of Balaam — Future state an object of popular belief among the Jews — From the laws relating to necromancers, &c. ------ 288 Sect. II. — Doctrine of a future state, why not more clearly and frequently inculcated in the Pentateuch- — Or under the Judges — Gradual improvement of the Jews — Future state gradually promulgated suitably to this improvement — By David, in Ps. xvi. svii. xxxvi. xlix. ciii. cxv. cxxxix. — By Solomon, in Proverbs, passim, particularly in ch. iv. viii. xiv. xxiv. : Still more fully in Ecclesiastes, of which work this doctrine is the basis, particu- larly in ch. iii. viii. xi. and at the conclusion of the book — How further impressed on the Jews by miraculous facts — By three resurrections from the dead — By the translation of Elijah — This doctrine frequently intimated, and gradually taught with the greatest clearness by the Prophets — Isaiah — Jeremiah — Ezekiel ■ — Hosea — Joel — Amos — Nahum — And above all, Daniel — And also in the book of Job ----- 308 LECT. V. EFFECTS OF JUDAISM ON THE GENTILES. Sbct. I. — Objection to Judaism, first from its being confined to a single nation — Secondly, from its implying mutability in God, as being opposed to Christianity — Answer to the first — Judaism not confined in its eftects to one nation, but intended, through the instrumentality of the Jews, to enlighten mankind — This efiect foreseen and attended to in the Jewish scheme — Various instances to show this — Solomon's prayer at the consecration of the temple estabhshes the same inference — The miracles wrought for the Jews made a strong impression on the Egyptians — On the Canaanites — On the Philistines — On the heathens in the reign of Solomon — But counteracted by the principles of idolatry • — Instanced in the history of the Samaritans — "Who were how- ever prepared by Judaism for Christianity — Effects produced by Judaism on the heathens during the Captivity — Instanced in the history of Jeremiah — Of Daniel — Of his three friends — Of Belshazzar — Of Cyrus — These facts publicly attested — Impor- tance of such attestations — Tracer of these effects in the East — Traces of the same effects in the religion of Zoroaster — Of Ma- CONTENT!?. XXlx hornet — Recapitulation — Universal reformation not to be ex- pected at that period of the world — Objection derived from partial effects of Judaism, erroneous in its statement of facts — Inconclusive in reasoning — A revelation not being universal, imphes no injustice in God - - ... 33(3 SECt. II. — Philosophy not introduced into Europe until near the period of the Babylonish Captivity — Tliales — Anaximander — Anaxagoras — Probability that some of their opinions were ulti- mately derived from the Jews — General circumstances in the history of Grecian philosophy and religion, render the same thing probable of them — Their sages travelling for learning into Egypt and the East — Connexion of tlie Jews with Egypt at this period — Early philosophers of Greece delivered their tenets dogmatically — Inference from thence — The higher we trace the philosophy and religion of Greece, the purer it is found — Infe- rencC' — Providence gradually prepared the world for the Gospel — Grecian language and literature — Connexion of Greece with Asia increased — Conquests of Alexander — Singular distribution of the Jews at this period — Jews in Egypt use the Greek tongue — Septuagint translation, its importance — Tlie formation of the Alexandrian library — Sects of Grecian philosophy — Their effect — Extension of the Roman empire — Facihtated the spread of Christianitv - - - - - - - 2G3 LECT. VI. JUDAISM PREPARATORY TO CHRISTIANITY Sect. I. — Objection derived from the supposed inconsistency of the Jewish and Christian schemes — The Law and the Gospel consistent — Jewish scheme intended, from the first, to introduce the Gospel — Proved from the promise to Abraham — Circum- stances attending the repetition of this promise, to show that Abraham was a type of Christ — Jacob's prophecy concerning Shiloh — Psalm ii. xxii. xlvii. Ixvii. and Ixxii. — Isaiah ii. and xhx, — These prophecies clearly prove the Mosaic Law was to intro- duce, and then give place to the Gospel — Why Moses did not expressly announce the intended abrogation of the Mosaic Law — He has intimated this in his promise of a prophet to arise " like unto himself" — Our Lord alone answers this character — Christ a priest after the order of Melchisedek — Meaning of this declaration explained in the epistle to tbe Hebrews — Argu- ment in this epistle, ch. x. — Jeremiah prophesies the substitu- tion of the Gospel for the Law — And the spiritual nature of the Gospel --.... 370 Sect. II. — The Law and the Prophets not only professedly design- ed to introduce the Gospel, but did in fact prepare the way for it — Necessity of the Law as a preparation for the Gospel, shown by considering the probable state of the world, if Judaism had never existed — Extreme difficulty of introducing true religion in such a state of mankind — Such universal degeneracy prevented by the Jewish dispensation — Proved by a brief view of the facts adduced in this work — Adherence of the Jews to their Law, proves the reality of a providential interposition — The prophecies delivered by Moses on this subject prove the same — The Law was typical and figurative of the Gospel — Instances — The moral character of the Law prepared for the Gospel — The connexion of the two schemes shown by various instances — The Jews employed as the immediate instruments for introducing the Gospel — Rejection of the Gospel by the mass of the Jewish nation does not disprove the connexion of the Law and the Gospel — Confirms the proof from prophecy — and from miracles 385 LECT. VTL THE PAST AND PRESENT STATE OF THE JEWS EXHIBITS THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF PROPHECY. Evidence from Prophecy applicable to Judaism — Prophecy of Moses — As to the prosperity of the Jews — As to the punishments they were to suffer — Considered in their variety — Their sources — their duration — The face of their country — These predictions antecedent to the events — Clearly applicable to them — Not such as human wisdom or political sagacity would have dictated — In- stanced in the three Jewish Feasts^ — The Sabbatic Year — The remoteness of their destroyers — The circumstances attending the destruction of Jerusalem — In their subsequent dispersion — In their present state and sufi'erings - . - - 403 CONCLUDING LECTURE. ON THE FUTURE CONVERSION AND RESTORATION OF THE JEWS.. Expectations of the Jews on this subjectr— justified by Prophecy — Prophecy of Moses — of Isaiah — Predicts a second restoration. . . and difi'erent in its circumstances from the Return from Babylon — After a larger period — more permanent— This restoration is to be connected with the extension of the Gospel — Present cu-- cumstances of the world consistent with this expectation — As to Palestine — Commercial character of the Jewish nation — The origin and circumstances of the Parisian Sanhedrim — Its ten- dency to remove Jewish prejudices — Society in England to pro- mote Christianity among the Jews — Other circumstances in the present state of the world, which seem to prepare the way for the accomphshment of the prophecies as to the final triumph of the Gospel — Conclusion - - - - - 419 CONTENTS. APPENDIX. SECT. I. The Texts which were collected by Le Clerc, as affording reason to doubt whether the Pentateuch was composed by Moses, con- sidered : with the answer to the objection founded on each text annexed to it - - - - - - 439 Dr Geddes's opinions on the authenticity of the Pentateuch, con- sidered— Specimens of his reasonings on this subject - - 452 An Article in the Appendix to the eighth Volume of the Critical Review for Sept, 1806, in which M, De Wette's Work on the Old Testament is briefly considered — An humble remonstrance to the Reviewers - - - - - -458 SECT. II. Remarks on some circumstances which have occasioned doubt as to the reality of some of the Mosaic miracles— General remarks on the improbability of objections which affect only some one miracle, not the entire series — Miracles in which the Magicians appeared to imitate Moses ; Mr Farmer's opinion on this sub- ject, and the arguments by which he supports it — The passage of the Red Sea attempted to be accounted for without a miracle, from a passage of Josephus — True import of this passage — Sup- plies no evidence against the miracle — It is represented by Moses, and was beheved by the Jews to be clearly miraculous — Inference from thence — Improbability of the Jews being able to escape by an extraordinary ebb of the sea — Dr Geddes's observations on this subject — The pillar of cloud and fire which accompanied the Israelites — Attempted to be accounted for without a miracle — Account entirely inconsistent with the circumstances of the his- tory, and with probability — Objection, from Moses's application to Hobab — Inconclusive — Miraculous preservation of the raiment of the Jews in the wilderness — Objected to — Why necessary — Review of the mode in which Dr Geddes accounts for the whole series of Mosaic miracles, without admitting any super- natural interposition — His account unphilosophic and incredi- ble - - - - - - 465 LECTURES ON TIIK FOUR LAST BOOKS OF THE PENTATEUCH. PART I. ON THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE PENTATEUCH, AND THE TRUTH OF THE HISTORY, BOTH OF COMMON AND MIRACULOUS EVENTS, CONTAINED IN THE FOUR LAST BOOKS OF IT. LECTURE I. The Jewish Nation has received the Pentateuch as containing the only authentic Uisiory of their Lawgiver and his Institutions, from the very Mra when these Institutions commenced at the present day. Arguments to prove the reception of the Pentateuch from the present day, back to the return of the Jews from the Babylonish Captivity — Arguments to prove that the Pentateuch was not first compiled at that jEra, or altered and modified according to circumstances then existing ; but that it was a previously existing and acknowledged Code — Pentateuch proved prior to the separation of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah — Prior to the establishment of the Regal Government in Israel — Not first compiled by Samuel — Acknowledged by Joshua. DEUTERONOMY, XXxi. 9, 10, 11. "And Moses wrote this Law, and delivered it unto the Priests the sons of Levi, which bare the " Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and unto all the Elders of Israel : and Moses commanded ••them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the " Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God, in the place " which he shall choose : thou shalt read this Law before all Israel, in their hearing." Such is the charge which the Jewish Lawgiver is related to liave delivered to his nation, while they were yet collected in one body under his command, on the borders of the land of their inheri tance ; solemnly publishing the volume of his law, and inculcating its constant preservation and periodical public recitation as a VOL. 11. A 2 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I. sacred duty, to which the priests and rulers of the people were bound most religiously to attend. It shall be the object of this lecture to examine, how far it can be proved, that the Pentateuch which our Bible contains, is in all material points the same as the book of the Law thus uninterruptedly received by the Jewish nation, as having been written and published by their Lawgiver at the period of their first settlement in the land of Canaan; a point of the highest importance, to establish the truth of the facts which this portion of the Scripture history contains, and the divine original of that Law which it promulgates. That the Jews have acknowledged the authenticity of the Pentateuch, from the present time back to the sera of their return from the Babylonish Captivity, a period of more than 2,300 years, admits not a possibility of doubt. The five books of Moses have been during that period constantly placed at the head of the Jewish sacred volume, and divided into fixed por- tions, one of which was read and explained in their syna- gogues, not only every Sabbath with the other Scriptures, but in many places twice a-week, and not unfrequently every even- ing when they alone were read. They have been received as divinely inspired by every Jewish sect, even by the Sadducees, who questioned the divinity of the remaining works of the Old Testament. Li truth the veneration of the Jews for their Scriptures, and above all for the Pentateuch, seems to have risen almost to a superstitious reverence.* Extracts from the JMosaic Law were written on pieces of parchment, and placed on the borders of their garments, or round their wrists and foreheads. Nay, they at a later period counted with the minutest exactness not only the chapters and paragraphs, but the words and letters, which each book of their Scripture contains. Thus also the translation, first of the Pentateuch, and afterwards of the remaining works of the Old Testament, into Greek, for the use of the Alexan- drian Jews, disseminated this sacred volume over a great part of the civilized world, in the language most universally understood, and rendered it accessible to the learned and inquisitive in every countr}^ : so as to preclude all suspicion that it could be raate- * Compare Deut. xxii. 12. and Numbers, xv. 3S aiid 39, with Matt, xxiii. 5. They are in use at this day. Vid. Picart's Ceremonies Religieuses, for the forms and modes in which they aro written and worn: Vol. I. (.'. 6. Part I. eh. xi. ■ . LoCt. T.] OF THE HISTORY. 3 rially altered by either Jews or Christians, to support their re- spective opinions as to the person and character of the Messiah ; the substance of the text being by this translation fixed and authenticated at least 270 years before the appearance of our Lord. But how far have w^e reason to believe that the Pentateuch was not first compiled after the Babylonish Captivity, from the indistinct traditions of the history of the Jewish nation, which, in an absence of seventy years from their country, may perhaps have lost all clear records of former events ? In answer to this suspicion I observe, that it is not supported by any semblance of probability, because the period of seventy years was not long enough to lose all clear public records of former events : nine- teen years of the Captivity of the Jewish nation had elapsed before the burning of the Temple, and the carrying away the last of the people; it is therefore perfectly credible that many individuals then alive may have survived the close of the Captivity, and witnessed the rebuilding of the second Temple ? and of this really having taken place we have direct testimony. " Many," says Ezra,* " of the Priests and Le- " vites, and chief of the Fathers, who were ancient men, that " had seen the first house; when the foundation of this house was " laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice ;" Doubtless from the melancholy contrast between the magnificence of the old Temple, and the infancy and poverty of the new. Still further. Not only the individuals who remained, could compare the circumstances which had existed before the Captivity, and thus could not be deceived by so gross an imposition as any attempt to fabricate, as the public code of the national religion and government, a new compilation never before heard of; but we know that writings of far less importance were preserved. For example; no priests were admitted to resume their offices, who could not trace back their genealogy to Aaron and the heads of the Levites contemporary with Moses. In the book of Ezra mIio presided over the Jews after their restoration from the Babylonish Captivity, the particular families are specified, " who sought their " register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, t but " they were not found, therefore were they, as polluted, put * Ezra, iii. 12, and Nehem. vii. C4. f Ezra, ii. 62. AUTHENTICITY AND TRl'TII. [Part r. "from the priesthood.*" Nor was this exactness in tracino; genealogies confined to the Priests ; we are told of others,* who " could not show their father's house and their seed, wlie- " ther they were of Israel." And the reason of this exactness is plain from this ; that such of the Jews as believed their prophets, expected a return into their native land after a period of seventy years, and preserved their genealogies,t as the titles on which they might resume their propei-ties, with the same care which they had always employed from the very first commencement of the state. Thus Jeremiah the prophet, for the express purpose of impressing upon the Jews the expecta- tion of their deliverance, is represented as " purchasing a field " according to the right of redemption, subscribing the evi- " dence, and sealing it before witnesses, and giving it to Earuch " the scribe,"" and charging him before all that were present, say- ing, "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel,^ Take " these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both that which "is sealed and that which is open, and put them in an earthen " vessel, that they may continue many days ; for thus saith the " Lord of Hosts, the God of Lsrael, houses and fields and vine- " yards shall be possessed again in this land." Now is it possible tliat the whole nation should lose all public records of their pul>- lic Law, when they preserved public records of the descent of private families ? Is it possible that the genealogies of the priests and their distinct offices should be preserved, while the Law that described these offices, and assigned them to different families, was forgotten? Is it probable the§ identical vessels and furniture of the Temple which had been carried away at the beginning of the Captivity, should be restored as they are recorded to have been, and that no one copy of whatever code existed to regulate the laws and religion of the whole nation, as well as the Temple worship, should be preserved l The only thing which gives the least plausibility to this suspi- cion is, that we are told that the Jews had during the Captivity * Ezra, ii. 59 and 60. "}■ To show the constant accuiapy of the Jews in preserving their genealogies, and the necessity of their doing so, vid. Numb. i. compared with ch. xxxiii. 54, and Jl.^h. xiv. Vid. also 1 Chrnnirles, the nine first chapters, particularly ch. v. 7 and 17, rind ch, ix. 1 and -22. i Vide Jeremiah, \xxii. 14. Vide the entire chai.tei- from vcr. G to the end. § Ezra, vi. 5. Lcci. I.J or TIIK IIISTOUY. (as these objectors any) lost tlieir l,'xii<:^iuigc ; lioncc it is rashly inferred, that they also lost all records in the language. Now the real fact is this, that the original language of the Jews had indeed degenerated among the great mass of the people, by the corrup- tion of foreign dialects ; but the learned part of the nation still perfectly understood it, and were able to interpret it with ease ; and the records contained in it * lost nothing of tlieir clear- ness or their use. Further, this very circumstance supplies no weak presumptive argument, that as the Pentateuch which now exists is written in pure Hebrew, it was composed before the Cap- tivity. This probable conclusion acquires almost resistless force, when we consider the direct testimony, first of the Jews, and next of the Samaritans. The tenor of their history after the Captivity represents the Jews, not as regulating their religion and policy by any new Law, but as reviving the observance of the old Law given by Moses, interpreting it with humble veneration, and sub- mitting to it with the most prompt obedience. Ezra is distinguished as the scribe, because he w\as a ready scribe in the Law of JSIoses, which the Lord God of Israel had given ; and very many others also are mentioned, " who caused " the people to understand the Law." The manner in which, by the assistance of those learned interpreters, it was read and explained to the people, is so decisive of the present point as to deserve our whole attention. We are told that t " all the people " were gathered together as one man ; and they spake unto " Ezra the Scribe, to bring the book of the law of Moses, Avhich "the Lord had commanded, to Israel; and Ezra brought the Law " before the congregation both of men and women, and all that " could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh " month — and he read therein from the morning until the niid- " day, and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book " of the Law. — And all the people went their way, to eat and to " drink, and to make great mirth, because they had understood "■ the words which were declared unto them ; and on the second " day were gathered together the chief of the fathers of all the " people, the Priests and the Levites, to Ezra the scribe, to under- "■ stand the words of the Law ; and they found written in the Law * Vid. Ezra, ]ia';siin ; iiarticiilarly ch. ii. 2. vi. 18. f Vid. Nchimiali, the entire clia[iters, viii. ix. aud x. 6 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I. " which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of " Israel should dwell in booths, in the feast of the seventh month ; " and all the congregation of them that were come again out of " the Captivity made booths, and sat under the booths ; for since " the days of Joshua the son of Nun unto that day, had not the " children of Israel done so, and there was very great gladness. " Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read " in the book of the Law of God ; and they kept the feast seven " days, and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly according " to the manner which the law prescribed." Undoubtedly it is probable that Ezra prepared for use new copies of the Mosaic Law, that a sufficient number might be ready to supply the demands of the people. In doing this he may have inserted some notes, to explain or complete passages obscure or defective. But what symptoms are there in this history of a new compilation, a code of doubtful authority, a collection of uncertain traditions ? How idle is it to talk of these things, when the fact is so plainly the reverse. We have yet a stronger proof that the Law thus offered to the people was not a selection and revival of such former laws alone as suited their present temper and situation ; such laws as were agreeable to the general wishes of the people, and therefore might be supposed to obtain general submission without any minute in- quiry into their authority. No, the case was otherwise ; the code thus received enjoined in some instances sacrifices the most severe and distressing to individuals, sacrifices which no politic governor would have ventured to propose, and which no people would have submitted to, if any doubt could have been raised as to the au- thority of the Law requiring them. For, as the Scribes read the book of Moses " in the audience of the people, therein was found " written,* that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come " into the congregation of the Lord for ever ; now it came to " pass, that when they had heard the law, that they separated " from Israel all the mixed multitude." Even this must have created great discontent, and excited much opposition, if the authority of the law requiring it had not been clear and unques- tioned. But there was yet a more trying proof of obedience required. The Mosaic code commanded that Jews should not intermarry * Nthumiah, xiii. 1 and 3. Lect. I.] OF Til K HISTOKY. 7 with any of tlie neighbouring idolatrous nations. On the dis- solution of the state and the dispersion of the people at the Captivity, this law was violated in numerous instances ; on the re-assembling of the people, the violation was too glaring to escape the notice of the zealous supporters of the divine code. The history of Ezra describes in the strongest colours the feel- ings of grief and alarm Avhicli this discovery excited, the vast numbers who were involved in this guilt, and the high rank and authority of many of the offenders.* " The princes," says Ezra, "came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the " Priests and the Levites, have not separated themselves from " the people of the Lands, doing according to their abominations; " for they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for " their sons, so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with " the people of those lands ; yea, the hands of the princes and " rulers have been chief in this trespass." " When Ezra," says the history, " had prayed, and when he " had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the " house of God, there assembled unto hira out of Israel, a very " great congregation of men, and women, and children ; and the " people wept very sore, and Shecaniah on the part of the chiefs " of the people, answered and said unto Ezra, VVe have trespassed " against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people " of the land, yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this " thing. Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God, " to PUT AWAY ALL THE STRANGE WIVES, AND SUCH AS ARE BORN OF " THEM, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those that " tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done " according to the Law. Then arose Ezra, and made the chief " priests, the Scribes, and all Israel, to swear that they should do " according to this word : and they sware." And proclamation was made unto all the children of the Captivity to enforce this law. The greatness of the sacrifice may be estimated by the se- verity of the penalty under which it was enjoined : " Whosoever " would not come within three days, to comply with this law, all " his substance was to be forfeited, and himself separated from the " congregation." And the ofienders assembled in great numbers, and certain of the elders and judges were appointed to examine * Ezra, the entire chapters ix. and x. & AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I. tlie matter, and so many did the enquiry extend to, that it held for three entire months ; and among the offenders we find many of the Priests and Levites : it was not therefore a contrivance of tneirs to strengthen their influence. In a word, I rely on this fact as a full proof, that the code the Jews received after the Cap- tivity was in all respects the very same they had been subject to before it ; not then newly compiled, not then artfully modified ; but brought forward exactly as they found it, in the known re- cords of the nation, and submitted to Avith scrupulous reverence, as of undoubted and divine authority. Strong as this proof is, we have another, which may perhaps be deemed even stronger ; the Samaritans,* we know, from the period of the Captivity became the most bitter enemies of the Jews ; this animosity was greatly enflamed at the close of the Captivity, because the Jews would not permit them to join in building the Temple. For they proposed to the chief of the fathers ; " Let us build with you, for we seek your God, as you " do, and we do sacrifice unto him, since the days of Esarhaddon, " king of Assyria, who brought us up hither." But their pro- posal was rejected witli contempt. These Samaritans must then have derived their knowledge of the Mosaic institutions from a code which existed at the commencement of the Captivity. According to the history,! which relates, " a priest from amonijst " the captive Jews was sent to teach the colony planted by the " king of Assyria in Samaria, the manner of the God of the " land, and he came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how " they should fear the Lord," undoubtedly by instructing them in the Mosaic law. They would never have received as the rule of their religion a new compilation, formed by their ene- mies at the very moment when they rejected their alliance, and would not acknowledge them as partakers of their religion, or admit them to worship at their Temple. And what is the code which the Samaritans acknowledged ? The Pentateuch, and no- thing but the Pentateuch. This they preserved, written indeed in a different character from that which the Jews use ; they have in some few places altered it, to support the claim of their Tem- ple to a precedence and a sacredness above the Temple at Jerusa- * 2 Kings, xvii. from ver. 24 to the end; and Ezra, iv.; Nehem. iv. and vi. f 2 Kings, xvii. 27, 28. LeCt. I.] OF THE HISTORY. 9 lem ; but in all other respects it is precisely the same with the Pentateuch which is preserved by the Jews with the same scru- pulous reverence, as of unquestioned divine authority. Does it then admit a doubt, that the code thus received by these two hostile nations, had been acknowledged by both as of divine authority before that hostility took place ? I conclude that the Pentateuch was the known sacred Law of the Jews before the Babylonish Captivity commenced, about 580 years before our Saviour"'s birth. Further : An argument of a similar nature brings us through a period of 377 years, and establishes the authority of the Pen- tateuch, from the destruction of the kingdom of Judali by the Babylonish Captivity, back to its separation from the kingdom of Israel under the son and immediate successor of Solomon. From the revolt of the ten tribes, it became the decided politi- cal interest of their monarchs, to alienate them as far as possible from the religion and the Temple of the monarch of Jerusalem. The very first king of Israel discerned this interest, and prose- cuted it to the utmost of his power, without the least scruple as to the religious or moral consequences of the means which he determined to adopt. For " Jeroboam* said in his heart, Now " shall the kingdom return to the house of David ; if this people " go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, " then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their Lord, " even unto Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they shall kill me, " and go again to Rehoboam, king of Judah. Whereupon the " king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto "them. It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold " thy Gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of " Egypt. And he made an house of high places, and made " priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons " of Levi : and he ordained a feast in the eighth month, like " unto the feast which is in Judah ; and he placed in Bethel the " priests which he had made." Such was the design of the first king of Israel ; a design almost uniformly adhered to by all his successors. Now, to the full and secure completion of this design, the Pentateuch interposed the great obstacle. It allows no such separation of the tribes ; it supposes them all united in one confederate body, governed by the same connnon counsel, * I Kiusi xii. 26. 10 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Pai't I. recognizing one High Priest, by whom they were to consult the oracle ; and commands all the males of the twelve tribes to repair three times a-year to their common Temple, to join in a common form of worship, in adoration of their common God. This system was therefore entirely unfavourable to the views of the kings of Israel. If, then, its authority had not been acknow- ledged before the separation of the two kingdoms would these monarchs, so watchful and so politic in guarding their separate sway, have permitted it to be introduced and received, to be fabricated and imposed upon the whole Jewish race, and pub- lished before the face of that part of it which they governed, as the system which both nations, when united, had acknowledged as of divine authority ? Would they, I say, have permitted all this, without making one effort to detect and expose an imposition so flagrant in itself, and so injurious to them I Nay, more, would they, in the very act of forming a new system of worship, while they indulged the gross ideas and idolatrous propensities of their people, by representing the true God un- der idolatrous symbols ; would they, at that very moment, have imitated the rites, and fasts, and sacrifices, of that very code, whose influence they wished to undermine ; " ordaining a feast " in the eighth month like unto the feast which is in Ju- " dah 1""* Assuredly not, except that code had been previous- ly and universally admitted as of divine original, which they knew their subjects had been long habituated to reverence and obey. I conclude from hence, that the authority of the Pen- tateuch was acknowledged antecedent to the separation of the kingdom of Israel and Judah, above 970 years before the birth of Clirist. But perhaps it may be asserted, that the support which the Pentateuch gives to the claims of the kings of Judah, renders it probable that it may have been compiled for the purpose of favouring their views : and that perhaps its authority was re- jected by the kings of Israel and their subjects, though the history of their opposition is now lost — the kingdom of Judah havinof lono; survived that of Israel, and reunited all the Hebrews under one common government ; and having perhaps taken care to obliterate all records that could justify the past or lead to a future separation. To this I answer, that the Samaritans, who, * 1 Kings, xii. S2. Lect. I.] OF THE HISTORY. 11 though hostile to tho Jews, acknowledged the Pentateuch, suc- ceeded to the ten tribes in the possession of' their country ; that they were intermingled with their posterity ; and that it is not possible such a circumstance could have taken place, as that the original Samaritans should have rejected the Law which the Jews received, and for a series of 230 years should have combated its authority ; and that immediately after, their successors should have received this Law, and this only, as of divine original, without preserving the least trace of its ever having been dis- puted; though an hostility as strong subsisted between them and the restored Jews, as had before the Captivity divided the separate kingdoms. Two particular examples, deserving peculiar attention, occur in the Jewish history, of the public and solemn homage paid to the sacredness of the Mosaic law, as promulgated in the Penta- teuch, and by consequence affording the fullest testimony to the authenticity of the Pentateuch itself: the one in the reign of Hezekiah, while the separate kingdoms of Judah and Israel still subsisted : and the other in the reign of his great grandson Josiali, subsequent to the Captivity of Israel. In the former we see the pious monarch of Judah,* assembling the Priests and Levites, and the rulers of the people, to deplore with him the trespasses of their fathers against the divine Law, to acknowledge the justice of those chastisements which according to the pro- phetic warnings of that Law had been inflicted upon them, to open the house of God which his father had impiously shut, and restore the true worship therein according to the Mosaic ritual ; (with the minutest particulars of which he complied, in the sin- offerings and the peace-offerings which in conjunction with his people he offered, for the kingdom and the sanctuary and the people, to make atonement to God for them, and for all Israel :) and thus restoring the service of God as it had been performed in the purest times. " And Hezekiah," (says the sacred narr;i- tivef) " rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the ' people : for the thing was done suddenly :" immediately on tho king''s accession to the throne, on the first declaration of his pious resolution. How clear a proof does this exhibit of the previous existence and clearly acknowledged authority of those laws which the Pentateuch contains ! * 2 Kings, xviii. 2 Cluoii. xxix. aiid xxx f lb. xxix. 3(i. 12 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [I*ait I. But a yet more remarkable part of this transaction still re- mains. At this time Hoshea was king of Israel, and so far disposed to countenance the worship of the true God, that he appears to have made no opposition to the pious zeal of Hezekiah. For he, with the concurrence of the whole congregation which had assembled, sent out letters, and made a proclamation, not only to his own people of Judah,* " but to Ephraim and Ma- " nasseh and all Israel from Beersheba even unto Dan, that " they should come to the House of the Lord at Jerusalem, to " keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel ; saying,t Ye " children of Israel, turn again to the Lord God of Abraham, " Isaac, and Jacob, and he will return to the remnant of you who " are escaped out of the hands of the kings of Assyria ; and be " not ye like your fathers and your brethren, which trespassed " against the Lord God of their fathers, who therefore gave " them up to desolation as ye see. Now be ye not stiff-necked " as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord, and " enter into his sanctuary which he hath sanctified for ever, " and serve the Lord your God, that the fierceness of his wrath " may turn away from you. So the posts passed from city to " city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even unto *' Zebulun." Now, can we conceive that such an attempt as this could have been made, if the Pentateuch, containing the Mosaic Code, had not been as certainly recognised through the ten tribes of Israel as in the kingdom of Judah ? The success was exactly such as we might reasonably expect if it were so acknowledged ; for, though many of the ten tribes laughed to scorn and mocked the messengers of Hezekiah, who invited them to the solemnity of the Passover, from the impious contempt which through long disuse they had conceived for it ; " Nevertheless," says the sacred narrative,! " divers of Asher, and Manasseh, and of Zebulun, " humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem. And there as- " sembled at Jerusalem much people to keep the feast of " unleavened bread in the second month, a very great con- " gregation. And they killed the Passover ; and the Priests " and Levites stood in their places after their manner, ac- " cording to the law of Moses, the Man of God. So there " was great joy in Jerusalem : for since the time of Solomon, * 2 Chron. xxx. 1. f IIj. xxx. G. &c. X lb. xxx. 11. Loct. I.] OF THE mSTOllY. 18 *' the Sou of David, king of Israel, there was not the like at " Jerusalem ;* and when all this was finished, all Israel that " were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the " images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down " the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin in " Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed " them all." Can any clearer proof than this bo desired, of the constant and universal acknowledgment of the divine authority of the Pentateuch throughout the entire nation of the Jews, not- withstanding the idolatries and corruptions which so often pre- vented its receiving such obedience as that acknowledgment ought to have produced ? Not less remarkable was the solemn recognition of the divine authority of the Pentateuch by king Josiah and the whole people of the Jews, whose pious monarch while he was " yet young be- "gan to seek after the God of David his father,"t destroying idols and banishing idolatry throughout the entire extent of his domin- ions, and proceeding to repair the House of the Lord, that he might restore his worship with due solemnity. On this occasion, says the narrative, when they brought out the money that had been brought into the House of the Lord (to receive which they had probably opened the most secret and secure place for a deposit in the Temple)^ " the priests found " a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses," (more accurately by the hand of Moses, possibly the Sacred autograph of Moses himself originally deposited in the Ark); "and Hilkiah said to " Shaphan the Scribe, I have found the book of the Law in the '' House of the Lord, and he delivered the book to Shaphan, who " read it before the king." The passage read, seems to have been that part of Deuteronomy which contains the prophetic declarations of the Lawgiver against the future apostasies of his people, which were so awful and severe as to excite the utmost terror in the young and pious monarch,^ " for he rent his clothes, and sent to enquire of the " Lord concerning the words of the book that is found ; for great is " the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our "forefathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do all " that is written in this book." And Huldah the prophetess, who was consulted, declared that God would certainly fulfil the * 2 Ciiioii. xxxi. i II). xxxiv. ;! . J II.. xxxiv. 14. §lb. xxxiv. 19, &c li AUTIIKNTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I. denunciations of that book ; but yet that, in consequence of the liumiliation and repentance of the king, "he should be gathered " to the grave in peace, neither should his eyes see all the evil " which God would bring upon Jerusalem, And the king,"" con- tinues the narrative,* " went up into the House of the Lord, " and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and " the Priests and the Levites, and all the people great and small, "and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the " Covenant that was found in the House of the Lord. And the " king stood in his place and made a Covenant before the Lord, " to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments and his " testimonies and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his " soul, to perform the words of the Covenant which were written " in this book ; and he caused all them that were present in Joru- " salem and Benjamin to stand to it : and the inhabitants of Joru- " salem did according to the Covenant of their God, the God of " their fathers." The sacred history proceeds to detail the particular circum- stances of the Levites being employed in their due courses,t and the solemn celebration of the Passover, " as it is written in " the book of the Covenant :" and there was no such Passover says the history, kept in Israel, from the days of Samuel the Pro- phet: probably because the recent captivity of the ten tribes awak- ened the fears and secured the universal concurrence of all Judah and Israel, who were present, as well as of all the inhabitants of Jerusalem ; who now concurred with the king, J " to perform the " words of the Law, which were written in the book that Hilkiah " the priest found in the house of the Lord." Which could not possibly have been any other than the Pentateuch of Moses ; probably the very copy written by himself. These facts and arguments seem sufficiently decisive. They may be confirmed by another argument from the internal struc- ture of the Pentateuch ; which I do not recollect to have seen noticed ; and which not only meets this objection, but goes fur- ther: and seems to prove it highly improbable, that the Pentateuch should have been compiled and received, if of a late date or doubtful authority, during any period of the regal government in Judah. The argument is this ; — that the civil form of govern- ment which the Pentateuch exhibits, is not regal. It is indeed * 2 Chron. xxxiv. 30. f 2 Chron. xxxv. 18. J 2 Kings, xxiii. 24. Lect, I.] OF TFIE HISTORY. 15 of a very singular kind. " It will easily appear," says the judi- cious Lowman,* "that the general union of the tribes as one *' body, may be conceived after this manner. That the congre- " gation of Israel or the whole people, enacted by themselves or " their representatives ; that the great council advised, consulted, " and proposed : that the judge presided in their councils, and had " the chiefhand in executing what was resolved in them; and that " Jehovah, by the oracle, was to assent and approve what was ro- " solved, and authorise the execution of it in matters of the greatest " importance to the whole state. So that the general union of the " whole nation may not improperly be thus expressed ; It w'as by "the command of the people, and advice of the senate; the judge " presiding, and the oracle approving." The Jewish govern- ment was, therefore, what no other ever was, a theocracy ; in which the last appeal was to Jehovah himself expressing his will by the oracle ; and in which there was no power either to make or repeal new laws, the laws of the nation being the laws of Jehovah. We must also observe, that the judge was rather an occasional than a constant magistrate, nominated, or at least approved by the oracle ; never invested with authority for more than his own life, and without the least idea of an hereditary right. Further : The Mosaic code does not merely appoint a constitu- tion, of which kingly government was no part ; but it notices this government as an innovation which the people would intro- duce, after the example of the surrounding nations : and it lays the kings under restraints which were equally irksome to their sensuality and their ambition.t " He shall not multiply wives " unto himself, that his heart turn not away : neither shall he "greatly multiply to himself silver and gold; neither shall ho " multiply horses to himself nor cause the people to return into " Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses ; forasmuch " as the Lord hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no " more that way.*" And the Law of Moses was to be in every point his guide: " and it shall be," saith the legislator, " when he " sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him " a copy of this Law in a book, out of that which is before the " Priests and the Levites : and it shall be with him, and he shall *Vi(]e Lowman on the Civil Govenimeiit of the Ilebruws, ch. vii. i" Deuteronomy, xvii. 10, tVc. IG AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I. " read therein all the days of his life ; that he may learn to fear " the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this Law and these "statutes to do them." When the Jews first solicited from Samuel* a king, after they had lived near 400 years under their original form of government, he was displeased, and represented this demand as in some degree a rejection of God as their king ; and he stated in strong terms the oppressions and the mischiefs they should suffer under the kingly government. Now it is re- markable, that the restraints imposed by the Mosaic Law were grossly and fatally violated by Solomon, the most renowned and powerful of the Jewish kings. On this fact then I argue; that if the Mosaic Law had not been universally known and revered as of divine authority long be- fore the time of Samuel, it could never have been compiled and received during the kingly government. He would not have ventured to oppose the wishes of the people in appointing a king, on the pretext of its being a rejection of God for tTieir king ; nor would he have attempted to impose such restraints on the monarchs of the Jews, if unsupported by a previously admitted authority. Such a fabrication would never have escaped detec- tion and exposure, either by Saul, who for the last years of his life was in constant enmity with Samuel ; or by Solomon, who amidst his power and prosperity must have felt his fame Avounded, and his passions rebuked, by the stern condemnation of the Mosaic Law. The preceding argument shows the extreme im- probability of a supposition which has been sometimes resorted to, that Samuel was the compiler of the Pentateuch. We have now ascended to within less than 400 years from the promulgation of the Mosaic Law ; — a period during which, the Jews had lived in the uninterrupted possession of the land, in which they were settled by Moses and his immediate successor ; and without any fundamental alteration in the form of that go- vernment, under which they were originally placed. And if we have reason to believe, that the Pentateuch was admitted as the true system of the Mosaic Law at the close of that period, no possible sera during its continuance can be pointed out, at which the fabrication of such a code may be supposed probable or so much as credible; no motive or circumstance can be assigned as the origin of such a fabrication, or to account for the ready and * I Samuul, viii. 10. LeCt. I.] OF THE HISTORY. 17 universal credit which it must have obtained ; no body of men, even no individual can be discovered, whose interest it was to form such a fabrication, or who could have had an influence sufficiently powerful and permanent to give it currency. The history of the Jews proves, indeed, that they were very far from adhering strictly to the Mosaic Law during that period. We find that they frequently violated it in the grossest manner, and fell into great disorders and idolatries, and in consequence suffered great calamities. But what was the general effect of these calamities ? That they repented of their disobedience, and again submitted to the Law of Moses as the Law of God. Now would this have been natural, if they entertained any doubts of the authenticity of the code containing that Law? Would the people and the rulers and the priests, on the authority of a new compilation, have received as the ancient constitutions of the land, laws and customs they had never before heard of, which condemned the vices and idolatries of every class in the strongest terms, and threatened them with the severest punishments ? Surely this is utterly improbable. That prosperity should cor- rupt a nation, and lead it to neglect the most sacred obligations, is credible. That, though corrupted and depraved, calamity should rouse them to repentance, is also credible. But that they should ascribe their calamities to the violation of a Law whose authority they had never acknowledged : that in the midst of vice and corruption a new code should be fabricated, condemning that vice and corruption, and imposed upon the nation as the known Law of their fathers without opposition, is surely most improbable and strange. We are not, however, driven to rest the universal reception of the Pentateuch on presumptive arguments or probable conjec- ture alone. We have the most decisive and uninterrupted, the most positive and direct external testimony. We have a num- ber of different tracts, acknowledged by the Jews as not only genuine, but divine. These works are, the latest of them, written during or shortly after the Babylonish Captivity, as their very language indicates. They take up the history of the Jews from that period, and carry it regularly back to their first settlement in their country by Joshua the successor of Moses, and thu!r> bring us into contact with the legislator himself. They are to a certainty written by a great variety of persons and for very B 18 AUTHENTICITY AND TKUTH [Part I. different purposes; some of them plain histories, and almost chronological annals : others of them prophetical and mysterious; others poetical and popular ; hymns in praise of God, his pro- vidence, and laws, or celebrating great national events or deplor- ing national calamities. And all these multiplied and various compositions unite in presupposing the existence and the truth of the Pentateuch : and uniformly refer to and quote it, as the only true and genuine account of the ancient history, and known laws of the Jews. They recite its facts, they refer to its laws, they celebrate its author ; they appeal to the people, to the kings, to the priests ; they rebuke and threaten them for neg- lecting the Mosaic Law, as it is contained in the Pentateuch ; and what is most decisive, they never once give the least hint of any rival law, of any new compilation, of any doubt as to its authenticity. To quote from all, would be as unnecessary as it would be tedious. I will adduce one or two testimonies from the book of Joshua, the immediate successor of Moses, Avhich will, I trust, be satisfactory and decisive. When Joshua is represented as receiving the divine commis- sion to undertake the command of the Jews, it was on this con- dition : * " Only be thou strong, and very courageous, that thou " mayest observe to do according to all the Law which INIoses my " servant commanded thee : turn not from it to the right hand " or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou "goest. This book of the Law shall not depart out of thy "mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that " thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written there- " in."" When he had conquered a considerable part of the pro- mised land, we find him forming a great assembly of the people, in compliance with the direction of the Law : and he " built an " altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal, as Moses the " servant of the Lord commanded the children of Israel, as it is " written in the book of the Law of Moses,-f- an altar of whole " stones, over which no man hath lift up any iron : and they offer- " ed thereon burnt-offerings unto the Lord, and sacrificed peace- " offerings. And he wrote on the stones a copy of the Law of " Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.:|: * Josh. i. 7. t lb. viii. 30. i This, as Mr Locke observes, is evidently a completion of the direction in Deuter- onomy, ch. xxvii. And the Law engraven on the plastered stones, now set up, was no Lect. I.] OP THE HISTORY. 19 "And all Israel, and their elders and officers and their judg- " es, stood on this side the Ark and on that side, before the " Priests and the Levites which bare the Ark of the Covenant "of the Lord, as well the stranger, as he that was born " among them ; half of them over against Mount Gerizin, and " half of them over against Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant " of the Lord had commanded before, that they should bless "the people of Israel. And afterwards he read all the words "of the Law, the blessings and cursings, according to all '* that is written in the book of the Law : there was not a "word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not " before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the "little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them." Such was the solemn promulgation of the Mosaic Law, at the very commencement of the settlement of the Jews in the land of their inheritance ; and in every subsequent transaction of Joshua, we find he acted according to the same Law.* " As the " Lord commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command " Joshua, and so did Joshua ; he left nothing undone of all that " the Lord commanded Moses." Moses had appointed the mode of distributing the land among the tribes, and according to his command was the mode adopted. He commanded the Levites should have no inheritance in land, and no inheritance was given them. He commanded that six cities of refuge for him who had been unintentionally guilty of manslaughter should be appointed, and they were appointed. He commanded that eight-and-forty cities should be given to the Levites out of the different tribes, by lot, and they were so given. When the conquest of the land was completed, and the people had rest, the soldiers of the two tribes and a half, whom Moses had planted east of Jordan, wished to be dismissed to their families ; Joshua dismissed them with this panegyric and this charge :f " Ye have kept all that Moses the servant of the Lord com- "manded you, and have obeyed my voice in all that I com- " manded you ; therefore now return ye, and get ye unto your more than the decalogue itself, or the formula of blessing and cursing in confirmation of the decalogue, conlaiued in twelve verses of that chapter, and to be solemnly pro- nounced by the twelve tribes assembled for that purpose at the erection of this public monument, of the solemn public reading and recognition of the Mosaic Law. * Joshua, xi. 15. -j- Joshua, xxii. 2, 4, 5. 20 AUTHKNTICITT AND TRUTH [Part I. " tents, and unto the land of your possession, which Moses the " servant of the Lord gave you on the other side Jordan. But " take diligent heed to do the commandment and the Law, "which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you, to love " the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep " his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him " with all your heart and with all your soul." And, to close all, when Joshua was old, and was conscious of his approach- ing death, he " called for all Israel, and for their Elders, and " for their Heads, and for their Judges, and for their Officers ;"' he Eecounts the benefits of God, he recapitulates the history and the warnings of the Pentateuch, and commanded them, " Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is "written in the book of the Law of Moses, that ye turn not " aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left. And the "people said unto Joshua, the Lord our God will we serve, " and his voice will we obey : so Joshua made a covenant with " the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance " in Shechem ; and Joshua wrote these words in the book of the " Law of God, and set up a monument of the transaction by the " sanctuary of the Lord."* Now what was this book of the Law ? Undoubtedly the same of which it is said, that "when Moses had " made an end of writing the words of the Law in a book, until " they were finished ; he commanded the Levites, and said, take " this book of the Law, and put it in the side of the Ark of the " Covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be a witness against " you." That book which he commanded to be read before all Israel, at the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, at the feast of tabernacles. This surely must have been the same with that which the Jews have received, from the present hour back to the Babylonish Captivity : which must have preceded that event, because it is also received by the hos- tile Samaritans, who were planted in Judea at the commencement of the Captivity; which must have preceded the division of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, because it was acknowledged ir both ; which must have preceded the establishment of the kings because it supposes no such form of government, but rather con demns it. In a word, that book of the Law, which every writer, * Joshua, xxii. 2, 6. xxiv. 24 — 26. Vide the entire twenty-third and twenty-fourth chapters. LeCt.J.] OF THE IIISTORT. 21 and every sect amongst the Jews have quoted and acknowledged, in every possible form of quotation and acknowledgment, from the present period, back to the immediate successor of Moses him- self, who solemnly attests its authenticity and divine original. I trust, therefore, I have sufficiently established the introductor;)! point I wished to prove ; even that the Jewish nation has re- ceived the Pentateuch, as containing an authentic account of the conduct and institutions of their celebrated legislator, from the very sera when these institutions commenced. AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part L LECTURE II. The Authenticity and Truth of the four last books of the Pentateuch, provea from the sub. jecf and structure of the history, so far as the facts are not miraculous. Importance and peculiar nature of its various regulations concerning property — Publicity and importance of the main series of facts— Marks of truth in the minute detail of these facts — Simplicity of style and narrative — Selection and arrangement of facts and cir cumstances, such as is natural if Moses were the writer, unaccountable otherwise — Impartiality — Comparison of the Pentateuch, in this respect, with Josephus. DEUTERONOMY, XXXi. 9. ' And Moses wrote all this Law, and delivered it unto the Priests, the eons of Levi, and uuto all the Elders of Israel." It is the object of these lectures, to prove the divine original of that Law which the Jewish legislator is stated to have thus solemnly delivered to his nation. The four last books of the Pentateuch contain this Law, and the history of the facts on which its authority is founded. It is therefore necessary to prove that these books are genuine, and the history they relate true. The proof of this may be deduced, either from the external testimony by which their truth and genuineness is supported, or from the internal structure of the works themselves. The former topic I have already noticed, and endeavoured to show that these books have been received by the Jews from the very first settle- ment of their nation, as containing an authentic and faithful account of their Lawgiver and his institutions. And if they have been so received, we can scarcely doubt the truth of the facts which they detail. For it must be remembered, that the history does not relate the origin of the Jews as a nation, after a length of time had elapsed, when we might suppose fiction may have been employed to conceal the weakness or the bar- barism of its infancy ; but that it was pubUshed and received Lect. II.] OF THE HISTORY. 23 while these events were transacting, or immediately after they had taken place ; and that it was incorporated with the system of Laws by which the religion of the people was from the very first regulated ; on which their liberties were founded ; by which the rights and privileges of every class and every profession were adjusted; and, above all, by which the distribution and the descent of property were determined. We may also remark, that the nature of several Laws concerning property, was such, that if they had not been enacted before its distribution among the people, and established as the tenure and condition on which it was held, their introduction at any subsequent period would have excited a great ferment and great opposition. Such was the Law of release from all debts and all personal servitude every seventh year ;* and that Law which ordered, that if the property of any family had been alienated by sale, it should be restored to the family every fiftieth year, or year of Jubilee. All who know the com- motions which attempts to discharge debts, and change the dis- tribution of property, have always excited, and who recollect the examples of Sparta, Athens, and Eome, in this matter, will be sensible, that a code, containing such regulations as these, could not have been established as the regular Law of the Jewish state, without opposition, except before the distribution of property, and as the condition on which it was held ; and therefore before the settlement of the Jews in the land of their inheritance. Another regulation as to property, occurs in Leviticus, of a sin- gular kind, " When," (says the Lawgiver-f-) " ye shall come into " the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then " shall ye count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised; three years " shall it be as uncircumcised unto you: it shall not be eaten of. " But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to " praise the Lord withal. And in "the fifth year shall ye eat of " the fruit thereof : I am the Lord your God." Now, would such a regulation as this have been observed, if it had not been es- tablished on clear authority, before the Jews took possession of the promised land ? And if it never had been established and ob- served, what motive could have induced a fictitious writer to load his account with so improbable and so apparently useless a cir- * Vide Deuteronomy, xv. and Leviticus, xxv. f Leviticus, xix. SS^'SS. 24 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I. cumstance ?* Does it not, therefore, supply a presumptive argu- ment, that the system of which it forms a part, was known and leceived by the Jewish nation before their settlement in the pro- .nised land? I now proceed to confirm the conclusion thus derived from the testimony of the Jewish nation, still farther, by considering the internal structure of the history itself. If the Pentateuch is not the work of Moses, it is a forgery imposed upon the nation in his name. It is totally impossible this should have been done during the life of the legislator, or immediately after his death, during the lives of his contemporaries. If then the Pentateuch was not the original record of Moses himself, it was the work of some compiler in a period long subsequent, who assumed the character, and wrote in the name of the Jewish Lawgiver, to answer some design diiferent from genuine truth. And if so, we can hardly fail of discerning, in the texture of the work itself, marks of a compilation long subsequent to the facts it relates. We cannot but perceive some traces of the particular purpose for which it was composed. If it was calculated to obtain fame for its author, as an elaborate and beautiful composition, this will appear in its style and sentiments. If it was intended to falsify the history, in order to gratify personal vanity, party interest, or national pride, this will be discernible. Let us then examine whether the four last books of the Pentateuch are liable to any such suspicions as these. Are the facts and institutions which they contain, so public and important that we cannot suppose any account of them materially false could at any time be fabricated and imposed upon the nation ? And if this be so evident that we must admit the main substance of the history to be true, yet can we be sure of truth in its minuter detail? Does this relation bear in it the marks of simplicity and undesignedness, of impartiality and sincerity ? Does it exhibit such particularity, and exact suitableness to the different situations in which the author is supposed to have been placed, as indicate a writer engaged in the transactions he describes, and recording them from his own personal knowledge with exact fidelity ? And finally, are the miraculous facts of the history so blended with, and * It was not, I am persuaded, really useless ; it may have been to give the trees age and strength, and to g'lvo the eaters a knowledge of what was wholesome or other- wise, which, after their long detention ia the desert, they might not be sufficiently fccquainted with. Lect. II.] OF THE HISTORY. 25 SO necessary to the common events, and related with such clear characters of simplicity and reality, as to form one inseparable, uniform, and consistent narrative, evidently dictated by nature and truth ? On the most cursory perusal of the four last books of the Pen- tateuch, it seems most evident that the main facts (considering at present only such as were not supernatural) were so public, so sin- gular, and so important, affecting in their consequences the most valuable rights and interests of every order of society, nay, almost of every individual ; that we cannot suppose any man could have ventured to fabricate a false account of them, and have been suc- cessful in gaining for such a fabrication, that universal credit and permanent authority, which it has been proved the Pentateuch, certainly obtained amongst the Jews from the very commence- ment of their state. The rapid *increase of the Jews in Egypt ; the severe oppression they sustained there ; the treasure cities, and other public works raised by their labours ; above all, the cruel edict to destroy all their male children, in order, gradually and totally, to exterminate the nation ; all these were facts, which must have been engraven on the hearts, and handed down in the traditions of every Hebrew family. Nor were the -fcircumstances which led to their departure from the land of bondage, less public and notorious. On the first application of Moses, united with the Elders of Israel, to Pharaoh, entreating him to permit their depar- ture, he was so incensed as to increase the severities under which they laboured, by a public order rigorously enforced throughout the land. The people complain heavily of this new grievance, many public interviews take place between the Jewish Lawgiver and the Egyptian monarch ; at length the obstinacy of the latter is overcome, he not only permits the Jews to retire, but his | people are eager to implore and hasten their departure. The Hebrews § demand of the Egyptians gold and silver and jewels, and the Egj^tians comply with the demand; the nation emi- grates in a great body, Pharaoh soon repents his having permitted them to retire, and pursues them with the chief force of his king- dom ; the Jews notwithstanding escape, Pharaoh and his host are destroyed. || Moses, instead of leading his people the shortest way *o the land which they hoped to possess, detains them forty * Exod. i. t Ibid. V. t Ibid. xii. 33. § Exod. xii. 35. Compare Exod. iii. 21. || Exod. xiv. 26 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I. years,* marching or encamped in the wilderness of Arabia. At the ■f-commencement of this period, he lays down a code of religious institutions and civil Laws ; he builds a tabernacle of great expense and elaborate structure for divine worship, to which all the nation contributed ; he sets apart a tribe for divine service, and for in- structing the people in religion. At the | close of their abode in the wilderness, Moses recapitulates all the Laws which he had before delivered in detail, and appeals to the people in attestation of the different events which had befallen them. He prescribes the mode in which they should divide the land they were proceed- ing to conquer.§ They take possession of so much of it as lay east of Jordan; II and before they proceed to the conquest of the rest, their legislator dies, having shortly before his death com- posed a popular song or hymn, % which he " spake in the ears of " all the congregation of Israel, and taught it them, that it should " not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed, but testify " against them,'" if they should attempt to forsake the Law and the God of their fathers. Such is the series of facts which the four last books of the Pen- tateuch detail, separated from the miracles to which many of them are ascribed. Now can we believe that these facts were not true, and yet that the Jewish nation should have universally received them as such ? Let it be remembered that this history does not recount the origin and gro\vth of an infant colony, or the emigra- tion of a savage horde, but the march of a numerous nation ; for they** " journeyed about 600,000 men, besides women and chil- " dren; and a mixed multitude went up also with them, and flocks "and herds, and very much cattle." While the magnificent structure of their tabernacle, the distribution of property, the tribe of the Levites set apart for ministers of divine worship and for public instructors, and the code of their religious and civil insti- tutions, prove that a great degree of civilization prevailed amongst ths Jews at the very time when these facts were said to have taken place. Now can we believe a nation so great and so civi- lized were universally and palpably deceived as to a whole series of facts, so pubUc and important as this history details ? * Compare Numb. xiv. 33, and Deut. i. 3. f Vide Exodus and Leviticus, passim. t ^^^^ Deut. i. § Numb, xxxiii. 54. Deut. xix. 3. Compare Josh, xviii. || Numb, xxxii. U Deut. xxxii. Compare xxxi. 21. ** Exod. xii. 37, and 38. Lect. II.] OP THE HISTORY. 27 If then the leading events of the Pentateuch were so pubhc, so momentous, and so recent, that the history detailing them could have found no credit had it not been true; if the laws and institu- tions it contains, were so important, and of such a singular nature, that had they not been derived from unquestioned authority they could never have been adopted : it remains to enquire how far the relation carries with it marks of truth, even in its minutest detail. Now in this view, the first character of the Pentateuch which strikes us, is the perfect artlessness and simplicity/ of its style and structure. Writers mix fiction with truth, either to form a beauti- ful and engaging composition, or to gratify some particular interest or passion. In either case it is impossible but the object always uppermost in the mind of the writer should frequently discover itself to the attentive reader. If to please and interest be his design, this will appear by his selecting such circumstances as are adapted to affect the passions and impress the imagination, and by his keeping out of the way, as far as is consistent with probability, every thing tediously minute and uninteresting. We shall find sometimes the sublime and sometimes the pathetic resorted to. In a word, the design will appear in the entire structure of the work, and in the effect which is evidently intended to be produced upon the mind. It is not unimportant to remark, that had this been the object of the writer of the Pentateuch, he undoubtedly might have pursued it with considerable success. In the triumphant * hymn which he has inserted on the deliverance of the terrified Israelites from the host of Pharaoh, we discover a boldness and sublimity of composition seldom excelled. In the -faddress to the assembled nation, supposed to be delivered by Moses shortly before his death ; in the blessings promised for obedience, and the curses denounced against offenders ; and especially in the song he taught the people, recapitulating the wonders of God''s providence which they had witnessed, and the judgments they might expect ; wo discover a judicious selection of striking circumstances, strong imagery, pathetic appeals to the tenderest feelings, and the autho- ritative language of the legislator -and the prophet combined so aptly, as prove the writer fully capable of commanding most powerfully the attention, and interesting the heart. * Exod. XV. •}• Vide Deut. iv. to ix. ; also from xxviii. to xxxiii.; particularly xxxii. and xxxiii. 28 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I. But nothing is more evident in the entire structure of the Penta- teuch, than its being written without the least eiFort to form an elaborate and engaging history, an impressive and beautiful com- position. A writer who had such a design, would have separated the history from the Laws ; the former he would have related with such a selection of circumstances as would most interest and affect his reader ; the latter he would have delivered in some regular system, and avoided minute detail and frequent repetitions. On the contrary, the author of the Pentateuch proceeds in such an order as was indeed most natural to a writer relating the different occurrences which took place, exactly as they took place ; but which renders his work exceedingly irregular, and even tedious as a composition. The history in Exodus is perpetually interrupted with exact details of the laws as they were occasionally delivered; with minute and even tedious, though necessary descriptions of the materials and work of the tabernacle and its furniture, of the altar, the ark, the dress of the priests, and the mode of offering the sacri- fices; these are detailed in the most inartificial manner, if we consider the book as intended for a finished or interesting composition. The description of the method* in which these things should be formed, is spread through near six chapters ; then the history proceeds for five more ; and then succeeds a relation of the fact, that each par- ticular directed to be made was made according to the direction given, in most cases word for word the same as the direction, and this extended through five long chapters. The measures of the curtains, and the boards, and the borders ; the number and size of the rings and the loops, of the tenons, and the pillars, and the sockets of the curtains and the hangings ; are enumerated with such exactness, as proves the detail was not at all designed to display in strong and glowing colours the magnificence of the objects described ; for such a purpose it is totally unfit, but it is exactly such as was necessary to instruct the workmen in the making of them. Now, I argue, that all this is just and natural, if Moses was really the author of Exodus, and if he detailed the circumstances at the time when they occurred. Because he con- ceived the formation of all this work according to a particular model,i- as a matter of important obligation, and worthy a pecu- liar record, when he tells us,| that " According to all that the * Exod. from xxv. to xxx. loth included; also from xxxvi. to xl. t Exod. xxv. 8, 9, and 40. t Exod. xxxix. 42 and 43. Lect. II.] THE HISTORY. 29 " Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel made all the " work ; and Moses blessed them." But such an enumeration would have been utterly irrational and unnatural in any other writer, or for any other purpose. Additional proofs, that the writer of the Pentateuch was care- less of ornament, and attentive to objects which no mere inventor of a fiction would have thought of, and no compiler even of a true history, who designed to interest and amuse his readers, would have dwelt on, may be derived from the manner,* in which, the rules about sacrifices, the distinctions of meats, clean and unclean, the difterent modes of contracting pollution, and the rules about purification, and in particular, about the symptoms and the cure of leprosy, are detailed. We must not forget that these rules continued to be observed amongst the Jews ; that they are so minute, they could scarcely have been remembered distinctly for any length of time, if they had not been written : that this ac- count of them must therefore have been published very soon after they were first observed ; that many of them are so tedious and burdensome, that they would not have been submitted to, if the authority inculcating them had been at all doubtful ; in short, if they had not been inculcated by the same authority which regu- lated the rest of that religious and civil system ofwhich they form a part. It follows, that they were observed from the time when the Jewish lawgiver established his code, and that they were published either by him, or immediately after him. The frequent genealogies-]- which occur in the Pentateuch, form another strong presumptive proof that it was composed by a writer of a very early date, and from original materials. The genealogies of the Jewish tribes were not mere arbitrary lists of names, in which the writer might insert as many fictitious ones as he pleased, retaining only some few more conspicuous names of existing families, to preserve an appearance of their being founded in reality. But they were a complete enumeration of all the original stocks, from some one of which every family in the Jewish nation derived its origin, and in which no name was to be inserted, whose descendants or heirs did not exist i possession of the property which the original family had poss^ sed at the first division of the promised land. The distribution . f property by trices and * In Deut. the first twenty-three chapters, t Vide Nnmh. i. ii. and iii. and especially xxvi. and xxxiv. . 30 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I. families proves, some such catalogue of families as we find in the Pentateuch must have existed at the very first division of the country. These must have been carefully preserved, because the property of every family was unalienable, since, if sold, it was to re- turn to the original family at each year of Jubilee. The genealogies of the Pentateuch, if they differed from this known and authentic register, would have been immediately rejected, and with them, the whole work. They therefore impart to the entire history all the authenticity of such a public register. For surely it is not in the slightest degree probable, that the Pentateuch should ever have been received as the original record of the settlement and division of Judea, if so important a part of it as the register of the genealogies had been known to exist long before its publi- cation, and to have been merely copied into it from pre-existing documents. Again, we may make a similar observation on the geographical enumerations of places in the Pentateuch ;* the accounts con- stantly given, of their deriving their names from particular events and particular persons ; and on the details of marches and en- campments which occur, first in the progress of the direct narra- tive, when only some few stations distinguished by remarkable facts are noticed, and afterwards at its close, where a regular list is given of all the stations of the Jewish camp. All this looks like reality. Whenever the Pentateuch was published, it would have been immediately rejected, except the account it gives of the origin of these names, and of the series of these marches, had been known to be true by the Jews in general. For the book states, that many of these names were adopted in consequence of these events, from the very time they took place ; and it also states, that the entire nation was engaged in these marches Now, the memory of such circumstances as these cannot long exist without writing. If the Pentateuch was not what it pre- tends to be, the original detail of these circumstances, it could not have been received. For, if it was published long after the events, and there was no pre-existing document of these details, which it delivers as things well known, how could it be received as true ? If it was copied from a known pre-existing document, how could it be received as being itself the original ? Besides, it * Vide Exod. xiv. 2. xv, 27. xvii. 7. And compare Numbers, xx. xxi. and xxxiii. xxxiv. XXV.; also Deut. i. ii. iii. Lect. II.] OF THE III8T0RY. 31 is natural for the spectator of events to connect every circumstance witli the place where it happened. An inventor of fiction would not venture upon this, as it would facihtate the detection of his falsehood ; a compiler long subsequent would not trouble himself with it, except in some remarkable cases. The very natural and artless manner in which all circumstances of this nature are intro- duced in the Pentateuch, increases the probability of its beino- the work of an eye-witness, who could introduce them with ease ; while to any body else it would be extremely difficult and there- fore unnatural ; since it would render his work much more laborious, without making it more instructive. All these things bespeak a writer present at the transactions, deeply interested in them, recording each object as it was sug- gested to his mind by facts, conscious he had such authoritv with the persons to whom he wrote, as to be secure of their attention, and utterly indifterent as to style or ornament, and those various arts which are employed to fix attention and engao-e reo-ard ; which an artful forger Avould probably have employed, and a com- piler of even a true history would not have judged beneath his attention. Now, though it does not at all follow, that where these arts are used, falsehood must exist ; yet their absence greatly in- creases our confidence, that we shall meet nothino- but truth. When the writer has no vanity, no anxiety about the eloquence or beauty of his composition ; when he writes without art, with- out any solicitous selection of circumstances to interest or o-ratify his reader ; what can he design, but to instruct and inform ? Must he not feel, that what he writes is true, and therefore ought to be told, and so important, that it is sure of being attended to? But the most decisive character of truth in any history is its IMPARTIALITY. And here the author of the Pentateuch is distin- guished perhaps above every historian in the world ; whether we consider the manner in which he speaks of the Hebrew patriarchs, the Jewish nation in general, or of its legislator and his nearest relations. Of the patriarchs, he speaks in such a way as not only did not gratify the vanity of his countrymen, but such as must have most severely wounded their national pride. He ranks some of their ancestors very high indeed, as worshippers of the true God, and observers of his will, in the midst of a world rapidly degenerating into idolatry ; yet there is not one of tliein (Joseph 32 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I. perhaps excepted) of whom he does not recount many weaknesses, which a zealous partisan would have been careful to suppress ; and to many he imputes great crimes, which he never attempts to palliate or disguise. In this point, the advocates of infidelity may be appealed to as judges. They dwell upon the weaknesses and crimes of the patriarchs with great triumph. Let them not deny then, that the scripture account of them is impartial and true in all its points, good as well as bad ; and we fear not but it will be easily proved, that, notwithstanding their weaknesses and even crimes, they were upon the whole, and considering the moral and religious state of the human mind in that age, characters not un- worthy of pardon and acceptance with God, and fit instruments for the introduction of the divine dispensations. Of the Jewish nation in general, the author of the Pentateuch speaks, it may be said, not only impartially, but even severely. He does not conceal the weakness and obscurity of their first origin, that " a Syrian ready to perish, was their father ;"* nor their long and degrading slavery in Egypt ; their frequent mur- murings and criminal distrust of God, notwithstanding his many interpositions in their favour ; their criminal apostasy, rebellion, and resolution to return to Egypt ; first, when they erected the golden calf at mount Sinai ;f and next on the return of the spies from the land of Canaan, when they were so afraid of the inhabi- tants, that they durst not attack them : J he repeatedly reproaches the people with these crimes, and loads them with the epithets of stiffnecked, rebellious, and idolatrous.^ He inculcates upon them most emphatically, that it was not for their own righteousness that God gave them possession of the promised land. He declares to them his conviction, that in their prosperity, they would again || relapse into their rebellions and idolatries, and imitate the foul vices of those nations, whom God had driven out from before them for these very crimes. Here again we may appeal to the judgment of infidels. They triumph in the apostasies and crimes of the Jews, and represent them as totally unworthy the divine protection and regard. Surely then they must confess, that the historian who has thus described them is strictly impartial ; and that as he has concealed nothing that would disgrace, we may also be confident that he has feigned nothing to exalt his country- * Deut. xxvi. 5. f Exod. xxxii. J Numb. xiii. and xir. § Vide in particular Deut. ix. also Exod. xxxii. || Vide Deut. xxxi. Lect. II.] OF THE HISTORY. 33 men. And admitting this wo may easily show that, notwit]> standing the crimes and the subbornness of the Jews, it was not yet unworthy of the divine wisdom to employ them as the medium of preserving the worship of the true God amidst an idolatrous world, and of preparing the way for the introduction of a pure and universal religion. The impartiality of the author of the Pentateuch, is not less remarkable in the mode in which he spoke of the nearest relations and connexions of the Jewish Lawgiver. His brother * Aaron, is related to have been engaged in the great crime of setting up the golden calf, to have joined with his sister -f- Miriam, in an unjustifiable attack on the authority of Moses, and to have of- fended God so much, that he was excluded from the promised land : and the J two eldest sons of Aaron are related to have been miraculously put to death by God himself, in consequence of their violating the ritual Law. The tribe and kindred of the Lawgiver are not represented as exempt from the criminal rebellion of the Jews on the return of the twelve spies. Caleb and Joshua, who alone had opposed it, were of different tribes, one of Judah, and the other of Ephraim. In a word, nothing in the narrative of the Pentateuch exalts the characters of any of the near rela- tives of Moses and Aaron, except only in the instance of |] Phine- has, the grandson of Aaron ; who, for his zeal in restrainino- and punishing the licentiousness and idolatry into which the Midiani- tish women had seduced his countrymen, was rewarded bv the high priesthood's being made hereditary in his family. Of tne family of the legislator we are told nothing, but that his § father- in-law, Jethro, was a wise man, who suggested to Moses some regulations of utility ; that his H wife was an Ethiopian woman, and as such the object of contempt and opposition even to his own brother and sister ; and that he had two sons, of whom, or their families, the history takes no notice, so that nothing about them is known, but that they were undistinguished from the rest of the Levitical tribe. How different is all this from the embel- lishments of fiction or the exaggerations of vanity ? How strongly does it carry with it the appearance of humility and truth ? The most decisive proof of impartiality is, however, found in * Exod. xxxii. f Numb. xii. t Numb. iii. 4, and Deut. x. 0. || Numb. xxv. § Esod. xviii. IT Numb. xii. 1. C 34 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I. the manner in which the Pentateuch speaks of Moses himself. To point out this more clearly, let us compare it with the account which Josephus has compiled of the same facts. He indeed, re- ceived the Pentateuch as authentic, true, and sacred ; he there- fore preserves all the leading events of his history, hut he some- times departs from its simple narrative, and in almost every in- stance of difference, we shall perceive a Avish, either to adorn with fictitious splendour the character of the Jewish Lawgiver, to in- crease the credibility of his miracles in the eyes of the Gentiles, or to disguise and palliate the misconduct of his countrymen. The entire account which the book of Exodus delivers of the private life of Moses, for the eighty years which preceded his divine mission to deliver the Israelites, is comprised in twenty- two verses.| All is plain and artless, full of the simplicity of patriarchal life, and unmixed with a single circumstance tending to exalt the personal character of the Lawgiver, or mark him out as peculiarly fitted for so high a destiny ; but one action of his maturer years is mentioned, " that he went out unto his bre- " thren, and looked on their burdens ; and he spied an Egyptian " smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren" (probably attempting to murder him ;) " and he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the " sand." When he finds the fact discovered, and that Pharaoh sought to slay him, he flies to Midian, marries, and remains there for a long series of years, unaspiring and unknown, till at the advanced age of fourscore, the divine command urges and compels him to become the instrument of executing the will of heaven, in the deliverance of his nation. Compare with this short and modest narrative, the embellish- ments which national vanity added in subsequent traditions, and which Josephus collected and adorned.-}- We are told that the sacred scribe of the Egyptians announces to their monarch, that about this time a child should be born to the Israelites, who would bring the Egyptian dominion low, and raise theirs ; who would excel all men in virtue, and obtain a glory Avhich would be remembered through all ages ; and to the terror arising from this prediction, (of which not one word occurs in the Pentateuch) Josephus ascribes the edict to put to death all the male children of the Hebrews. Nor is this all ; the birth of this future hero * Exod. ii. fVide Josephus's Antiquities, B. II. cli. x. xi. Lect, II.] or TiiK lusTOKY. 35 and legislator of the Jews, is granted to the prayers of his father, aud announced to him also in a prophetic vision. Even his brother Aaron's fame, and his dignity as high priest, is also pro- phesied. The original narrative, with a beautiful simplicity, notices the very natural circumstance, " that when the mother of Moses " saw he was a goodly child, she hid him three months."" On this single expression, Josephus raises the most extravagant description of the distinguished and captivating stature and beauty of his hero, and ascribes to this, some of the most remarkable events with which he embellishes his life. His understanding too, is re- presented as greater than his age ; the sports of his childhood are ominous of his future exploits. When arrived to maturity, he is said to have been appointed general in a war with the Ethiopians who had reduced Egypt to the extremest distress. His good con- duct aud success are represented as unparalleled, and such as to excite the most violent jealousy amongst the Egyptians, and especially to raise the envy and hatred of Pharaoh ; and to this Josephus ascribes his flight into the laud of Midian ; after which lie is compelled to adopt the narrative of the Pentateuch, which here becomes too particular, and on a subject too sacred, to allow any material deviation. Yet, even here, we find him in various minute circumstances, suppressing and softening different parti- culars which appeared uncreditable to Moses, but which the Pen- tateuch puts forward with the most faithful exactness. When the divine glory appeared to Moses in the burning bush, and commanded him to undertake the deliverance of his country- men, the Jewish Lawgiver displays a degree of reluctance and distrust which surprises us ;* after Grod had wrought three dif- ferent miracles, and enabled him to repeat them, Moses replies, " 0 my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since " thou hast spoken to thy servant : I am slow of speech, and of a " slow tongue. And the Lord said unto him. Who hath made " man's mouth ? have not I the Lord ? Now therefore go, and I " will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.'' Yet even to this gracious assurance, IMoses returns almost an absolute refusal to undertake the mission on any terms : for ho said, " 0 my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom ♦ Vide Exodus, iv 36 AUTHExXTICITY AND TRUTH {Part I. " thou wilt send."" We cannot be surprised to be told, that on this, " the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and " he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother ? I know that he " can speak well : and I will be with thy mouth, and with his " mouth ; and he shall be thy spokesman unto the people : and he " shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him " instead of God :" (that is, you shall direct and authorize him to act in the name of God.) Accordingly, when the people and elders of Israel were assembled, it was Aaron* who " spake all " the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the " signs in the sight of the people." And in every subsequent conference with Pharaoh, and the whole deliverance from Egypt, Aaron is the inseparable companion of Moses, and always acts the same subordinate, indeed, but yet necessary and important part. Now Josephus-f softens all this into a modest apology on the part of Moses, stating his natural incompetency : " Lord, " I am still in doubt, how I, a private man, and of no abilities, " should persuade my countrymen or Pharaoh."" Even this is represented as antecedent to the miracles which Moses saw, and was enabled to perform ; and not one word is said of God's anger being kindled against him, or of Aaron's being deputed to assist him ; nor in the whole history is any notice taken of the impor- tant part which Aaron bore in every subsequent transaction ; it is barely said, that by the command of God he met his brother, but Moses appears the sole ambassador of God to Pharaoh. Thus again we find, on the refusal of Pharaoh to comply with the first demand of Moses to let the Hebrews go, and on his in- creasiBg their burthens, the Pentateuch represents the people as angrily reproaching Moses and Aaron. " The Lord look upon " you, and judge you : for you have made us to be abhorred in " the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants, to put a sword into their " hands to slay us ;"" and immediately Moses as impatiently ex- postulates with God, " Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil-entreated " this people ? why is it that thou hast sent me ? For since I came " to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this " people : neither hast thou delivered thy people at alV'l Of all this, we find not one word in Josephus, Josephus also suppresses the signal crime of the Jews in set- * Exod. iv. 30. t Joseph. Antiq. Book II. ch, xii. § 2. t Exod. V. from 21 to 23. Lect. II.] OF THE msTORT. 37 ting up the golden calf. And, above all, he omits altogether th& ofllence which both Moses and Aaron were guilty of at Meribah, where the Pentateuch relates their being directed to bring watei out of the rock. Instead of doing this in the name and for the glory of God, they spoke unadvisedly, not manifesting a firm faith, or giving to God the glory of the miracle; for they gathered the congregation together before the rock, and Moses said unto them, " *Hear now, ye rebels ; must we fetch you water out of " this rock ? And Moses lifted up his hand, and smote the rock " twice ; and the water gushed out abundantly. And the Lord " spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to *' sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel ; therefore ye " shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have " given them." This offence, so frequently alluded to in the Pentateuch, and the punishment, of which Moses is represented as repeatedly deprecating, entreating to be permitted to enter the promised land, though in vain, is totally omitted by Josephus. While in the original, nothing can be more affecting than thft manner in which it is alluded to. It is expressed as if the heart was weighed down with sorrow for the disappointment of its fondest hope ; and as if occasions of venting this sorrow were in- dustriously sought, even a remote allusion or reference is enough; yet it concerned only himself ; it was not to his credit, but it was that which he felt most deeply, and which he only could feel so truly. • Thus we clearly perceive the difference between the genuine narration of Moses himself, and the cautious compilation of a remote historian. In short, we find Josephus doing what it is natural every compiler of history should do, when describing the character of a legislator whom he looked up to with reverence, and detailing the conduct of his countrymen whom he wished to place in the best light : we find him magnifying the talents and virtues of the one, and palliating or excusing the murmurs and idolatries, the obstinacy and crimes, of the other. Now, what I contend for is this, that if the Pentateuch had been compiled by any historian guided by the mere uncontrolled feelings and parti- alities of the human mind, we should discover them in his describing the character of the man who is represented as the * Numb. XX. 10—12, 38 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I legislator and head of the nation who were the chosen people o God. I could show by a minute induction, that nothing of this kind occurs in the Pentateuch, and that multiplied instances of it are found in Josephus, who is yet admitted to be an historian ot general veracity and integrity. But I forbear ; I trust I have said enough to prove that the Pentateuch is written with such strict impartiality as enables us to rely on the truth of its relation, even in the most minute particulars. I have but one further remark to make, and that is, that we find, although the subject-matter of Josephus is essentially the same with that of the Pentateuch, yet, in the selection and order of their circumstances they differ, exactly as we should expect the works of a compiler anxious to interest and keep up his reader''s attention, would, whenever composed, differ from the original narrative of an eye-witness, detailing (as Moses did) every circum- stance as it occurred, and totally careless of every thing but minute precision and strict fidelity. Josephus chooses to separate the Laws from the narrative ; he says,* he will " describe the form of government which was " agreeable to the dignity and virtue of Moses; these settlements, " says he, are all still in writing as Moses left them ; and we " shall add nothing by way of ornament, nor any thing besides " what Moses left us ; only we shall so far innovate, as to digest " the several kinds of laws into a regular system ; for they were " left behind him in writing as they were accidentally scattered " in their delivery, and as he, upon enquiry, learned them from " God." Thus also we find Josephus describes minutely and elaborately the tabernacle and its furniture, and the dress of the priests ;f but not like the detail of them in the Pentateuch, which is cal- culated to instruct the artists how to make them ; Avhile that of Josephus is calculated (as undoubtedly any man but Moses him- self would have calculated it) to describe the effect of what had been made, their beauty and splendour, their connexion and use. Thus also the account which Josephus givesj of the rites of puri- fication and sacrifice, is formed to be read with ease, free from the repetitions, and from the minute, and though necessary yet sometimes unpleasant, particulars of the original detail. * Joseph. Antiq. Lib. IV. viii. §. 4. f lb. Lib. III. vi. & vii. t lb. ix. X. & xi. Leet. II.] OK THE HISTOHY. 39 All these diflcrences, I contend, strongly illustrate and confirm the originality and the truth of the Pentateuch ; and tend to prove it was the work of an eye-witness, and even of an eye-wit- ness whose business and anxious care it was to superintend and direct every circumstance of what he was described : such an eye- witness was Moses, and Moses alone. If then he Avas the author, can we doubt the truth of the narrative ? Were not the leading facts too recent, too important, to admit of the least falsification? Is not the detail formed with such artlessness and simplicity, such particularity and minuteness, such candour and impartiality, that we cannot doubt of its truth, even in the most minute particu- lars ? This is the conclusion I wished, in this lecture, to estab- lish. But there is another mode of argument which seems to establish it still more decisively, which I shall adduce in the next lecture. 40 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I. LECTURE III. I'he Authenticity and Truth of the four last books of the Pentateuch confirmed, by a comparison of the book of Deuteronomy with those of Exodus, Leviticus, and Nu7nbert. Statement of the general argument deduced from this comparison — Mow far similar, how far dissimilar to that used by Archdeacon Paley, in his Horce Paulincu — Its appli- cation to the history, so far as it relates events not Miraculous — Instanced in general coincidence between the recapitulation in Deuteronomy, and the direct narration in the preceding books — In particular facts and circumstances — As to rules of purification — Directions for carrying the tabernacle — Disposition of the tribes in camp, Sfc. — An ap- parent contradiction — Hoio reconciled — As to the appointment of inferior judges — And of the twelve spies. DEUTERONOMY i. 1, 3. ' These were the words which Moses spake unto all Israel, on this side Jordan In the wilderness: " In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, Moses spake unto the children of Israel according " unto all that the Lord had given him in commandment unto them.'' This exordium to the book of Deuteronomy is exceedingly remark- able. It states, that it is not, like the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, a direct narration or journal of the various events which occurred to the Jewish legislator and nation, from the com- mencement of their deliverance from Egypt ; but that it was a recapitulation of every thing which Moses thought it necessary to notice, in addressing the people shortly before his death, at the close of the forty years, during which he had acted as their law- giver and judge. I beg leave to direct my reader's attention, to this peculiar character of the last book of the Pentateuch, because it seems to me, to supply the ground-work of an argument for the genuineness and truth of the entire, somewhat different from those which I have seen generally and distinctly noticed. In my two last Lectures, I endeavoured to collect the topics in proof of the authenticity and truth of the works ascribed to Moses; Lect. 111.] Of TlIK HISTORY. 41 from their general receptiou among the Jews ; from the important and public nature of the facts they relate ; from the simplicity of their style and structure; from the particularity of their narrative, natural to an eye-witness, and to an eye-witness alone ; and espe- cially from the admirable impartiality they every where display. But if the distinct nature and pui'pose, ascribed to the book of Deuteronomy, really belongs to it, a comparison of this, with the preceding books of the Pentateuch, ought to afford a distinct proof of the truth and authenticity of all, from the undesigned coinci- dences between them. Arguments of somewhat a similar kind, have been lately ap- plied by Archdeacon Paley,* with a force which seems unanswer- able, to confirm the authenticity and truth of the Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles of St Paul, by comparing them toge- ther, and pointing out the undesigned coincidence between the direct narration in the Acts, and the indirect allusions to the same facts in the Epistles ; and thus establishing the truth of both, on the same principle as that by which we yield entire credit to two unsuspected witnesses, who deliver accounts of the same transactions, if it appears that neither was acquainted with the testimony of the other, and yet that their evidence exactly agrees. An argument of precisely the same nature as this cannot be applied to confirm the truth of the Pentateuch, because we have not any cotemporary writings to compare with it ; all the works of the Old Testament (the book of Job perhaps excepted) being plainly subsequent to it, all presupposing its truth, deriving from it almost every account of the facts which it details ; and in al- most every allusion to these facts, adapted to the narrative which the Pentateuch delivers. This circumstance proves undoubtedly that the history of the Pentateuch was received by all subsequent Jewish writers, as the only authentic account of their nation; and thus establishes its truth exactly in proportion as it is improba- ble the whole Hebrew people should be mistaken in receiving such a narrative as true, if it were really fictitious ; an improbability which can scarcely be stated too high, if we consider the pubUc nature and great importance of the facts which the Pentateuch details, the high authority of the person to whom it is ascribed, * Vide I'aley's HorsB Paulina. 42 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Pftl't I. and the early period at wliicli it was received. But having touched upon these topics, I now dismiss them, and proceed to enquire, whether we maj not even from the internal structure of the Penta^- teuch, derive some arguments for its genuineness and truth; which, though not exactly the same with those of the distinguished writer to whom I have alluded, are yet somewhat of a similar nature. We cannot indeed compare the entire with cotemporary writers, and thus confirm it by the agreement of different and independent testimonies ; but we can compare the diff"erent parts of it together, and weigh the coincidence between the difli"erent parts of the same testimony. We may examine Avhether there exists a natural and exact agreement between the direct narrative and the various references to the same facts in the recapitulation, as well with each other as with the different situations in which the supposed author is related to have been placed, and the various views and feelings which these situations Avould naturally suggest. The direct narrative was written at the time of the transac- tions, as they were passing ; the recapitulation was delivered at a period long subsequent to many. The former was intended to record all the particulars of the events, most necessary to be known. In the latter, it was intended to notice only such particulars as the immediate object of the speaker, in addressing the people, rendered it expedient to impress upon their minds. In each, the laws are intermixed Avith the facts, and both laws and facts are referred to for difli"erent purposes and on diff'er- ent occasions. This gives room for comparing these statements and allusions, and judging whether they agree in such a manner as appears to result, not from the artifice which forgery or false- hood might adopt, but from the consistency of nature and truth. We laay thus weigh the different testimonies of the same witness, delivered at different times and on different occasions, and judge, as it were by a cross examination, of their truth. And we may remark, that if a coincidence appears in minute and unimpor- tant circumstances, it is therefore the more improbable it should liave been designed ; also, the more indirect and circuitous it is, the less obvious it would have been to a forger or compiler. If the situations in which the writer is placed, and the views with which at diff"erent times he alludes to the same facts, are different, and the terms which he employs are adapted to this difference, Lect. III.] OF THE HIPTOKY. 43 in an artless and natural manner, this is a strong presumption of truth. Finally, if the direct narrative, and the subsequent references and allusions appear in any instance to approach to a contradiction, and yet on closer inspection are found to agree, this very strongly confirms the absence of art, and the influence of truth and reality. Having thus expounded the general meaning of my argument, I proceed to exemplify it by some instances, which seem sufficient for establishing the conclusion contended for. Some presumption that the four last books of the Pentateuch were really composed by an eye-witness, at the time of the trans- actions, arises from their describino; the nation and the Lawcople. If thou shalt do " this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able " to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in " peace. So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law, " and did all that he had said. And Moses chose able men out " of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of " thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of " tens. And they judged the people at all seasons ; the hard " causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they "judged themselves." Such is the direct narrative. In the very beginning of his address to the people, Moses is represented as alluding to this fact, but with this remarkable difference; that he not only says nothing of Jethro, but that, instead of repre- senting himself as the person who selected these magistrates, he states that he had appealed to the people, and desired they should elect them. " I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not " able to bear you myself alone : The Lord your God hath multi- " plied you, and behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven " for multitude, (The Lord God of your fathers make you a " thousand times so many more as you are, and bless you as he *' hath promised you.) How can I myself bear your cumbrance, " and your burden, and your strife ? Take you wise men, and " understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make " them rulers over you. So I took the chief of your tribes, wise " men, and known, and made them heads over you. And I " charged your judges at that time, saying. Hear the causes be- " tween your brethren, and judge righteously between every man " and his brother, and the stranger that is v/itli him. Ye shall " not respect persons in judgment, but ye shall hear the small as well as the great ; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man, " for the judgment is God"'s : and the cause that is too hard fur * Exod. xviii. 17, &c. Lect. III.] OF TlIK HISTORT. 51 " you, bring it unto me, and I will hoar it."* There is a great and striking difference between these statements, but there is no contradiction : Jethro suggested to Moses the appointment ; he probably after consulting God, as Jethro intimates, " if Go() " shall thus command thee," referred the matter to the people, and assigned the choice of the individuals to them; the persons thus selected he admitted to share his authority as subordinate judges. Thus the two statements are perfectly consistent. But this is not all ; their difference is most natural. In first record- ing the event, it was natural Moses should dwell on the first cause which led to it, and pass by the appeal to the people as a subordinate and less material part of the transaction ; but in addressing the people, it was natural to notice the part they themselves had in the selection of those judges, in order to conciliate their regard and obedience. How naturally t.lso does the pious legislator in his public address, dwell on every circum- stance which could improve his hearers in piety and virtue. The multitude of the people was the cause of the appointment of these judges : How beautifully is this increase of the nation turned to an argument of gratitude to God ! How affectionate is the blessing with which the pious speaker interrupts the narrative, imploring God, that the multitude of his people may increase a thousand fold ! How admirably docs he take occa- sion, from mentioning the judges, to inculcate the eternal prin- ciples of justice and piety, which should control their decisions ! How remote is all this from art, forgery, and imposture ! Surely here, if any where, we can trace the dictates of nature, truth, and piety. A similar difference occurs between the direct narrative of the appointment of those who were sent to spy out the land of Canaan, and the manner in which Moses recapitulates this fact, when he addresses the people.-}- In the former it is stated, " The Lord spake unto Moses, saying. Send thou men, that they " may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the Chil- " dren of Israel : of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a " man, every one a ruler among them. And Moses, by the " commandment of the Lord, sent them from the wilderness of " Paran." The history then reckons up their names, and re- * Deut i. 9, to the tnd. +Niimh. xiii xiv. 52 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part 1 counts the evil report which they brought up of the land which they had searched ; the fatal effect it produced in exciting the congregation of Israel to rebel against their Grod ; the consequent wrath of God, who threatened to cut off the whole nation by the pestilence, and to raise up of Moses a people greater and mightier than they. It relates at full length, the intercession of Moses to avert this dreadful doom, and its being changed into a sentence of condemnation against the adults of that gene- ration, from twenty years old and upwards, that they should never enter into that good land, but should be detained in the wilderness for forty years, and there die. This relation takes up two long chapters. The recapitulation of this event, addressed to the children of that generation at the interval of forty years, is contained in half a chapter. It exhibits a view of the transac- tions materially different from the original narrative, yet recon- cileable with that narrative : and of such a nature, that (as it seems to me) every variation may be accounted for, from the peculiar views and feelings of the Jewish legislator in this address to the people. The recapitulation* begins with relating what took place when the people came to Kadesh Barnea, before any idea of sending spies had occurred. " Then," says ISIoses, " I said unto you " Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the " Lord our God doth give unto us. Behold the Lord thy God " hath set the land before thee : go up, and possess it, as the " Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee ; fear not, neither " be discouraged. And ye came near unto me, every one of you, *' and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us " out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must " go, and into what cities we shall come. And the saying pleased " me well : and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe, and they " turned and came unto the valley of Eshcol, and searched it " out." Here then the legislator reminds the people of two cir- cumstances omitted in the original narrative : one, that when they had first approached the promised land, he had commanded them to go up at once and possess the land, fearing nothing, for God was with them : the other, that the idea of delaying to do this, and sending spies to search out the land, had originated, not * Dent. i. from verse 19, to the end. Lect. III.] OP THE HISTORY. 53 with the legislator, but with the people ; and that it was in com- pliance with their own request, that God had commanded Moses to appoint the spies. This variation is extremely natural : it is not to be wondcreo. at, that Moses should omit these circumstances in the origma. narrative, where he was more intent upon the final event itoelf, than the subordinate causes that led to it ; but it was highly expedient, when addressing the people, that he should recall these circumstances to their memory, as they so strongly proved that the prime origin of this destructive event was found in their disobedience to the command of their legislator, and that they were themselves the authors of a scheme which terminated so fatally. As naturally can we account for Moses, in his recapitula- tion of his own conduct on this occasion, omitting altogether the menace of God, to disinherit the Jews, and raise up a nation from himself in their stead ; and for his taking no notice of his own successful intercession, on which God had deigned to wave the execution of this awful menace. To dwell on a fact so dis- graceful to the people whom he addressed, and so honourable to himself, would have served rather to wound the feelings and kindle the jealousies of his hearers, than to awaken them to piety and repentance, and would not have suited the character of him " who was the meekest of men ;"* though, in recording the dis- pensations of Providence for the cool reflection of his country- men, it was a lesson too important to be left out. And that this was the real cause of the omission here, we may be satisfied, from the singular circumstance of Moses sliding into this part of liis address to the people, a fact which took place at a quite difterent time, but which tended to conciliate his hearers by humbling himself in their eyes, and reminding them that he, as well as their fathers, had oftended God ; so that like them he was condemned never to enter into the promised land. For *'hen he states that God swore saying, " surely, there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good laud, • which I sware to give unto your fathers, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, because he hath wholly followed the Lord ;" he Jidds, " Also the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, saying, ' Thou also shalt not go in thither ; but Joshua the son of Nun, ♦ Vide Numbers, xii. 3, 64 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I. " who standeth before thee, shall go in thither ; encourage him, " for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.""* The introduction of this his own rejection, and the substitu- tion of Joshua, as the person destined by God to lead the Jew s to conquer the promised land, was here peculiarly natural and useful ; lest the people recollecting their former defeat, in at- tempting to invade that land when Moses did not accompany them, should dread a similar defeat now, when they were to be entirely deprived of him. But this awful menace of God to destroy the Jews, and raise from Moses, a nation mightier than they, is introduced on another occasion, when its introduction was indispensably necessary ; when he warns that people, " Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the Lord thy God " hath cast out this nation before thee, saying. For my right- " eousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land. " Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine " heart, dost thou go to possess their land : but for the wicked- " ness of these nations, the Lord thy God doth drive them out " from before thee, and that he may perform the word which " the Lord sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. *' Understand therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not *' this good land to possess it, for thy righteousness ; for thou " art a stift-necked people. Kemember, and forget not how " thou provokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness: " from the day that thou didst depart out of Egypt, until ye "came unto this placK ye have been rebellious against the " Lord.""-f- To inculcate deeply this humiliating, but necessary truth, nothing was more conducive than to state to them, that the greatness of their rebellion had almost induced that God in whom they trusted, totally to disinherit and destroy them, and raise up another nation in their place ; and therefore this circum- stance is here noticed.^ It is observable, that on two occasions, the whole nation had united in rebelling against God, and determining to return into Egypt : the first, when they caused Aaron to set up the golden calf ; the second, after the return of the spies from the promised land. And the direct narrative informs us, that on both occa- eions the divine menace against the Jews was accompanied with the same olfer to Moses, to raise up from him a mightier nation • Peut. i. 34—38. f Ibid. ix. 1—7. J Ver. 14. LeCt. I II. J OF THE IIISTOKT. 56 in their place. In reminding the people of their guilt on both these occasions, Moses mentions the great wrath of God against the Jews; but on one of them only does he imtice the divine * offer so honourable to himself, while he repeatedly alludes to his offence against God, and his consequent exclusion from the pro- mised land. Is not all this well worth our attention ? In every circum- stance which the legislator adds to his original narrative, or omits from it, do we not discern the feelings of nature, and the coin- cidence of truth? I might add different similar instances of such natural and undesigned coincidence ; but I trust I have adduced enough to confirm my position, so far as relates to the general history of common events. It shall be the object of my next Lecture to evince, that simi- lar characters pervade the accounts of the miracles which the Pentateuch contains, and connect them with the common events in one uniform and consistent narrative. * In Deut. ix. compare 14 and 25 with each other; and also Exod. xxxii. 10, and Numb. xJr. 12. 56 ACTHBNTICITT AND TRUTH [Part I. LEOTUKE IV. The argument stated in the preceding Lecture applied to the narrative of miracuhus events in the four last books of the Pentateuch, in order to show that they are related with the same marks of truth as the common events. Instanced in the manner of refer, ring to the delivery of the Law in Horeb — And to the punishment inflicted for the wor. ship of Baal Peor — And to the delivery of the Decalogue — In the general manner of allusions to different Miracles — In the account of various Miracles wrought to punish opposition to the authority of Moses — Apparent contradiction as to the different state- ments of circumstances attending the punishment of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram Jtt explanation — Inference from thence. DEUTERONOMY, xi. 2, 7. "Know ye this day, for I speak not with your children, which have not known and which hava "not seen the chastisement of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and hii " Btretched-out arm. But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which he did." Thus directly does the book of Deuteronomy purport to be the language of an eye-witness to all the miracles recorded in the preceding history of the deliverance of the Jews from Egypt, addressing a nation who were also themselves eye-witnesses to the same great acts. It is on this ground, and this ground only, the legislator claims obedience to his Laws as evidently of a divine authority. If then this character really belongs to the book of Deuteronomy ; if the miracles alluded to, were really performed in the sight of Moses, who thus addresses the nation, and in the sight of the entire nation which he addresses ; we shall certainly be able to find in the internal structure of this address, and in the nature of the allusions it contains, some proofs of this. We shall be able to perceive in the history of the miraculous events and the allusions to them, the same exact suitableness of the sentiment and language of Moses to the situations in which he is placed ; and the same natural and un- designed coincidence between the address to the people in Deu- Lect, IV.] OF THE HISTOKY. 57 teronomy, and the direct narrative of the preceding books, wliich we have before noticed in the history of the common events, and the alhisiona to them. Wo shall perceive, that the miracles and common events cannot be separated from each other, that they are all -woven into one uniform, natural, and consistent narrative ; that they are all mentioned with the same artlcssncss, the same precision and particularity, the same evident conscious- ness of truth. I shall now state a few instances where the undesigned coin- cidence, the exact suitableness, which we have been noticing in the recital of the natural events of the history, are also ob- servable in the relation of the miraculous facts and the allusions to them. We may remark then, that in the direct narrative, the miracles are related minutely and circumstantially. The time, the place, the occasion of each being wrought, are exactly specified ; and such circumstances are introduced, as, when considered, prove the miraculous nature of the fact, though no argument of that kind is instituted. The miracles also are related in the exact order of time when they happened, and the common and super- natural events are exhibited in one continued, and indeed, inse- parable scries. Now, had the recapitulation of events been formed, for the purpose of gaining credit to a doubtful narrative of supernatural facts, we should, I presume, perceive a constant effort to dwell upon and magnify the miracles, to obviate any objections to their reality ; we should find their writer accusing his country- men of obstinate incredulity, asserting his own veracity, and appealing in proof of the facts to that veracity. But it is most evident that nothing of this appears in the book of Deuteronomy. The people are never once reproached with having doubted or disbelieved the miracles, but constantly appealed to as having seen and acknowledged them ; though notwithstanding this, they did not preserve that confidence and that obedience to God, which such wonderful interpositions ought to have secured. The speaker never produces arguments to prove the miracles, but always considers them as notoriously true and unquestioned, and adduces them as decisive motives to enforce obedience to his laws. This is the only purpose for which they are introduc- ed ; and such circumstances in the history as, though not mirar 58 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I. culous, would show the necessity of obedience, are dwelt on as particularly as the miracles themselves. Thus the object of the three first chapters of Deuteronomy, is to assure the people of the divine assistance in the conquest of Canaan, and to convince them of the guilt of not confiding in that assistance. For this purpose the speaker alludes to the former disobedience of the people, when forty years before they had arrived at the borders of Canaan ; and mentions the miracles they had previously to that time witnessed, in general terms, merely as aggravations of their guilt. " I said unto you, dread " not, neither be afraid of them. The Lord your God, which " goetli before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that " he did in Egypt before your eyes : And in the wilderness, " where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, *' as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until " ye came to this place. Yet in this thing ye did not believe " the Lord your God, who went in the way before you to search " you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night to show " you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day."* He then states the denunciation of God, that all the men of that generation should be cut off", and that their little ones, who they said should be a prey, should go in to possess the promised land. He mentions the defeat of the Jews by the Amorites, when they went up presumptuously; and shows the deep im- pression these events made upon the minds of their fathers ; by their waiting for the divine permission before they changed their march, by their not attempting the territory of the Edomites, the Moabites, or the Amorites, because God had assigned these lands as their possessions. And he here mentions a fact never before noticed, but well fitted to encrease the confidence of the Jews in the divine protection ; even that the nations who had inhabited these countries before the children of Esau and of Lot, had been " great and many and tall," but that the Lord " had destroyed them before these nations."-}* He then notices the success of the Jewish arms against the kings of the Amorites and of Bashan, whom they attacked with the divine permission ; and concludes with assuring them, that Joshua was appointed by God to cause them to possess the land of their inheritance. Is not this whole exhortation natural ? Is not the brief inci- * Deut. i. 29—33. f Deut. ii. 10, &c. LeCt. ly .] OF THE lUSTOliY. TI) dental introduction of the miracles, and their being blended with other facts not miraculous, but tending to impress the same con- tusion, natural ? Does not the whole appear totally unlike the •imidity and artifice of fiction or imposture? It might be proved by a minute induction of every instance in which the miracles arc referred to in Deuteronomy, that the al- lusion is naturally suggested by the nature of the topic which the legislator wishes to enforce ; and that it is addressed to the people in that manner, which would be clear and forcible if they had been spectators of the miracle alluded to, and on no other supposition. Thus the whole miracle is never related, but that leading circumstance selected which suited the present subject. When, in the fourth chapter of Deuteronomy, he calls on the people to keep and do the statutes and judgments which he taught them, and to teach them to their sons, and their sons' sons ; his argument is derived from the solemn manner in which the people had heard them promulgated by the voice of God himself : " Especially," says he, " in the day when ye stood be- " fore the Lord your God in Horeb ; when the Lord said unto " me, Gather the people together, and I will make them hear " my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that " they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their " children. And ye came near and stood under the mountain, " and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, " with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. And the Lord " spake unto you out of the midst of the fire ; ye heard the voice " of the words, but saw no similitude, only ye heard a voice." We may ask why, of the many awful circumstances attending this dread appearance, is this of their Jiaving seen no similitude thus singled out ? The next paragraph explains : " Take there- " fore good heed unto yourselves, for ye saw no manner of " similitude on the day when the Lord spake unto you in Horeb " out of the midst of the fire ; lest ye corrupt yourselves, and " make you a graven image." Now here let me ask. Would it have been natural to ground this prohibition against making a graven image, not on the absurdity of it, not on the danger oi its leading them to forget God, but simply on this circumstance, of their having seen no similitude when God spake to them in fire from mount Horeb ? Would this, I ask, have been natural, if any doubt could have been raised on this particular fact, or if 60 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTU [Tart I. this account had been first published when all the generation who could be supposed to witness this fact had disappeared ? Another circumstance still more remarkable occurs m this exhortation. The Midianites had seduced the Israelites to join in their idolatry to Baal Peor. The original narrative relates ; the manner in which this took place ;* and states, that a plague from the Lord destroyed 24,000 Jews, and that it was stayed by the zeal of Phinehas, in putting two of the highest rank amongst the offenders to death. The legislator, in order to deter the Jews from idolatry, alludes to this fact ; but he notices no cir- cumstance of it but one, which, though in the original narrative not stated, was infinitely the most important to advert to on this occasion ; but which no persons but spectators of the fact, and perfectly acquainted with every individual concerned in it, could possibly feel the truth of. " Your eyes," says he,t " have " seen what the Lord did because of Baal Peor ; for ^ all the " men that followed Baal Peor, the Lord thy God hath destroy- " ed them from amongst you. But ye that did cleave unto the " Lord your God, are alive every one of you this day." It was extremely natural for Moses himself to use this argument ; but I confess it seems to me improbable in the extreme, that it should be used when nobody who had been witness of the fact remained alive ; or if a compiler had resolved to make this asser- tion at hazard, and put it in the mouth of Moses it seems very strange, that it is the only circumstance he should forget to notice in the direct narrative, and the only one he should notice in his reference to it. I add some few instances of incidental allusions to miracles, to show how naturally they are introduced, and how exactly the manner in which they are spoken of, suits the situation of Moses himself addressing the eye-witnesses of the fact. The Ten Commandments had been the only precepts of the Law, which God had distinctly proclaimed from mount Horeb to the assembled nation of the Jews ; the rest of it had beet promulgated by Moses himself, as the divine command. No'»- how does he argue with the people, in order to induce them to receive what he announced as the divine will, equally with that * Numb. XXV. -f Deut. iv. 3 and 4. J How decidedly does this statement justify the punishment extending to such a multitude ; a circumstance so often objected to. Lect. IV.] OF THE HISTORY. 61 which God himself liad directly proclaimed ? He might have urged that the miracles which God had wrought by him, estab- lished his divine authority ; that the Ten Commandments, being of pre-eminent importance, God had himself proclaimed them to impress them the more deeply, and chosen to employ him as the medium of conveying the rest of the Law. He might have urged the severe punishments which God had inflicted on those who had contested against his divine mission (as he does in another * passage,) and rested the point on these arguments ; but he chooses a quite different ground. He states, that the people had declined hearing the rest of the Law directly from God himself and had entreated that it should be conveyed to them through him. He recites the Ten Commandments, and adds, f " These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the " mount, out of the midst of the fire, and he added no more ; " and he wrote them on two tables of stone, and delivered them " unto me. And ye came near unto me, even all the heads of " your tribes, and your elders ; and ye said, This great fire will " consume us ; if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any " more, then we shall die. Go thou near, and hear all that the " Lord our God shall say : and speak thou unto us all that the " Lord our God shall speak unto thee, and we will hear it, and '* do it." Such is the ground on which INIoses claims the obedi- ence of the people to the statutes and judgments which he asserts the Lord commanded him to teach them. Now if this arofument had never been used by the legislator, if the fact had never occur- red, if the Pentateuch had been the invention of fancy, or even the compilation of some historian long subsequent to the events, what could lead him to clog his narrative with such a circum- stance as this ? In short, what but truth and reality could sug- gest such an argument, or gain it the slightest credit from the people to whom it was addressed ? Sometimes the allusions to the miracles are so brief, that their application to the topic which it is meant to enforce cannot be made without an intimate knowledge of the facts. Exhorting the people to loA'-e and obey God, it is said, " If ye hearken to " these judgments, the Lord will take away from thee all sick- " ness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt (which thou " knowest) upon thee."" j Commanding the people, that in the • Deut. xi. 6. t Ibid. v. 22, &c. X Deut. rii. 12 and 15; and Exod. xv. 28 62 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part 1. plague of leprosy they should do according to all that the Priests and the Levites should teach them — to confirm this injunction it is added, " Remember what the Lord thy God did unto Mi- " riara by the way, after that ye were come forth out of Egypt."* Threatening the people with punishment, if they should " at all " forget the Lord their God, and walk after other gods," it ia said, if ye do so, " I testify against you this day, that ye shall " surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroyed be- " fore your face, so shall ye perish."-}* Commanding the Jews to take care lest in their prosperity they forget their God, it is added. " God, who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, " the house of bondage, and led thee through that great and ter- " rible wilderness, where were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and " drought, where there was no water : who brought thee forth " water out of the rock of flint ; who fed thee in the wilderness " with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might hum- " ble thee. Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God : for it is he " that giveth thee power to get wealth.";}: And again, "Love the " Lord, and keep his charge ; for I speak not with your children " which have not known, and which have not seen the chastise- " ment of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, " and his stretched-out arm, and his miracles, and his acts, which " he did in the midst of Egypt, unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, " and all his land ; and what he did unto the army of Egypt, " unto their horses, and to their chariots, how he made the water " of the Red Sea to overflow them, as they pursued after you, " and how the Lord had destroyed them unto this day ; and " what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came unto " this place ; and what he did unto Dathan and Abiram the sons " of Eliab, the son of Reuben : how the earth opened her mouth " and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, " and all the substance that was in their possession in the midst " of all Israel. But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the " Lord, which he did. Therefore shall ye keep all the command- " ments which I command you this day."§ Is not this brief allusion to all the miracles which God had wrought, this more full statement of two, calculated, the one to inspire gratitude, and both to strike terror ? Is not resting the credit of the facts on * Compare Numbers, xii. with Deut. xiv. 9. f Deut. Tiii. 19, 20. i Deut. viii. 14—18. § Ibid. xi. 1 to 8. Lect. IV.] OF THE HISTORY 6^ the persons addressed, being themselves spectators of these facts, and not merely the children of those who had been spectators ; is not all this natural in Moses addressing his cotemporaries? Would it not be most unnatural in any body else, addressing the Jews at any subsequent period? In the promises of divine assistance which Moses announces to the people, I meet with one circumstance of a very singular nature. When he encourages the people not to be afraid of the nations of Canaan, as mightier than themselves, and declares God shall deliver them unto thee, and destroy them with a mighty destruction until they be destroyed, he interposes this limitation : " I will not drive them out from before thee in one year, lest the "land become desolate, and the beasts of the field multiply " against thee ; by little and little I will drive them out from be- " fore thee, until thou be increased and inherit the land."* Here is a remarkable instance of miraculous interference being extended no further than was absolutely necessary, and combined with a regard to the general analogy of nature and the regular course of Providence. Would the author of a fictitious narrative, the compiler of fugitive and uncertain traditions have thought of such a limitation, when his whole object must have been to exalt the divine power, whose interference he described as immediate and resistless 2 In the account of the return of Moses from Mount Sinai, after having received the tables of the Ten Commandments, a second time, a remarkable fact is related. " When he came " down from the mount, Moses wist not that the skin of his " face shone. And when Aaron and all the children of Israel " saw it, they were afraid to come nigh him. And Moses called " unto them ; and till he had done speaking with them, he put " a vail on his face. But when he went in before the Lord tc " speak with him, he took the vail off until he came out."+ This divine splendour caught, as it were, from the near approach to the glory of the divine presence, with which the inspired legislator had just been honoured, was admirably calculated to impress the Jewish people (ever strongly affected by sensible objects) with reverence for the Lawgiver and his Laws. But surely it was such a circumstance as no dealer in fiction, no compiler of traditions can be supposed to have thought of. We * Df lit vii. 22. tExod xxxiv. 20. &r. 64 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Pill't I. may further remark, that this circumstance is never again al- luded to, either in the direct narrative or the recapitulation in Deuteronomy ; though every other fact connected with it is re- peatedly noticed. Now supposing the fact true, and Moses the writer of the Pentateuch, this silence is perfectly natural ; it suited not the modesty of his character, who was the meekest of men, to dwell on such a circumstance. But if any one else had been the author of the narrative, supposing so singular a fiction to have suggested itself at all, is it likely he would notice it hut once f One miracle, and only one, occurs in the last exhortation of Moses, to the assembled nations of the Jews, of which no meiiv- tion is made in the direct narrative. " Thou shalt remember,"" says he, "all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty "years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee. " He suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna (which "thou knewest not) that thou mightest know that man doth " not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth " out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." He adds, " Thy " raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell " these forty years ;" or (as it is expressed in another subse- quent passage) " I have led you forty years in the wilderness ; "your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not " waxen old upon thy foot. Ye have not eaten bread, neither " have ye drunk wine or strong drink : that ye might know "that I am the Lord your God."* If Moses was really the author of the Pentateuch, he could not have noticed this miracle one day before he is said to have first mentioned it, even on the border of the land of Canaan, when the Jews were just pre- paring to enter it, and when natural means of procuring food and raiment being afforded them, all supernatural aid in these points was to cease. Their being fed with manna, is indeed frequently n>eutioned, because this was a miracle which, though constantly repeated, was in each particular instance plain and distinct. But the circumstance, of the raiment of the whole nation not waxing old for forty years, was a continued super- natural operation, which at no one period could have had its commencement distinctly marked : and therefore never could be noticed with such clear certainty and full effect when it was no * Deut. viji. 2 — 4 ; and xxix. 6 and 6. LeCt. IV.] OF THE HISTORY. 65 longer to continue, and its cessation would arrest tho attention of the most careless. Let me ask, what iniaginer of fiction, • what compiler of vague tales, would have thought of such a miracle at all ; or, if he did, would have thought of the propriety of not mentioning it till the very close of his narration ? Is not this coincidence of the matter and order of the narrative with that which would be natural if the facts were exactly true, and Moses himself the historian, and unnatural on any other supposition; — is not such coincidence a strong character of genuineness and truth ? Some of the most distinguished miracles were wrought to curb and to punish the opposition of the Jews to the commands or authority of their legislator, which some individuals occa- sionally raised. It is well worth remarking, that we can in every instance of this opposition discover some circumstance in the rank and situation of the individuals exciting it, which na- turally accounts for their admitting more readily than others that spirit of pride and jealousy in which this opposition origi- nated. We find Miriam and Aaron spake against ^Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married ; and they said, " Hath the Lord spoken only by Moses ? hath he not spoken " also by us f* Aaron was elder brother to Moses, and when on receiving the divine command to go to Pharaoh, he had complained of his slowness of speech, Aaron was appointed by God to supply this defect, and to be his spokesman to tho peo- ple. " He spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto " Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people." Through the whole history Aaron acts a part second only to Moses, and he was invested with the High Priesthood, a sacred dignity per- manent and hereditary in his family ; while the family of Moses had not been honoured with any hereditary dignity, but remain- ed undistinguished from the rest of the Levitical tribe, subordi- nate to the High Priest. Hence it was not unnatural that Aaron should be ready to avail himself of a circumstance in the conduct of Moses, which seemed to render him unworthy of any superiority over a person so much honoured of God as the High Priest conceived himself to be. But why should Miriam, a woman, join in such a contest ? Turn back to the first and only occasion in which the historian mentions her, and it seems to me * Compare Numbers, xii. 2, with Exod. xv. 20. €6 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I. to explain the reason. She was the only sister of Moses and Aaron, and on the signal deliverance of Israel from the host of Pharaoh at the Red Sea, when Moses pronounced his celebrated triumphal hymn in gratitude to God, accompanied by the thousands of Israel, Miriam was the person who headed the women in the triumphal procession. " Miriam the Prophetess, " the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand : and all the " women went out after her, with timbrels and with dances. " And Miriam answered them. Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath " triumphed gloriously ; the horse and his rider hath he thrown " into the sea."* Miriam, then, here appears to occupy the first rank amongst the women of Israel, and even seems to have joined in this triumphal hymn, actuated by a divine inspiration, which explains that remarkable phrase, uniting her with Aaron " Hath not Grod " spoken by us V It is very remarkable, the punishment was confined to her ; for God struck her with a sudden leprosy, which obliged her to be shut out from the camp, as unclean, seven days, thus effectually humbling her in the sight of all the women of Israel. Is it too great a refinement to suppose that this oppo- sition may have originated in her jealousy at the respect •f'which, perhaps, the women of Israel paid to the wife of their revered legislator, and that hence she may have been peculiarly prompt to remark and to bring forward the objection, of Moses being married to an ^Ethiopian woman ; thus designing to degrade her rival, even though, in order to do so, she must attack the character of the divine legislator? Does not the whole trans- action, which, at first, seems very singular and unaccountable, when thus explained, assume the appearance of nature and reality ? I We find Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not ; and there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. We are to remark that this event * Exod. XV. 20. •j- It appears from Exod. xviii. that the wife of the Jewish legislator nad not been brought to rejoin him by her father, until after the part Miriam had borne in the triumphal procession above recited. Perhaps on her arrival, Miriam found that respect which she had exclusively enjoyed, transferred to, cr divided with this stranger; and hence her jealousy. % Compare Exod. xxiv. 9, with Levit. ix. 24; also Lev. x. and Numb, iii. Lect. IV. J OF THE HISTORY. 67 took place immediately after Aaron and they liad been conse- crated to the service of God, and when God had miraculou.sly sent down a fire from heaven which had consumed the sacrifice, and from which the fire that was to be employed in future sacri- fices was to be taken. The offence, therefore, of Nadab and Abihu, seems to have been their despising this miracle, and em- ploying, instead of the sacred fire, common elementary fire ; as if they countenanced the reverence paid to that element, in oppo- sition to the reverence due only to God. It would seem also, that they had been betrayed into this act of presumption, by in- temperance at the feast upon the peace-ofterings ; for immediately after, and apparently in consequence of their fate, Moses delivers the injunctions against the priests drinking wine and strong drink when they approached the sanctuary. Perhaps also, their presumption may have been increased, by the high honour which they alone, of Aaron s sons, had enjoyed, when they, with Closes and Aaron, and seventy of the elders of Israel, were called up to Mount Sinai, to behold the glory of the God of Israel. This distinguished honour, may have puffed them up with the imagination, that they were not to be controlled by the restraints which the other priests were subject to, but that they might approach the altar without observing the strict regulations of the divine command ; a presumption which, if suffei-ed to pass with impunity amongst a people so prone to disobedience as the Jews, and just after the observance of the ritual Law had commenced with a public miracle, to attest its divine original, might have introduced a contempt of the system, and apostasy from God. But the most bold and open rebellion against the inspired Lawgiver, was that of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, Now the narrative no where notices the circumstances which led them in particular to unite in this rebellion ; but when minutely ex- amined we discover from it, that they had such pretensions from their rank, as may have encouraged them to resist the authority of Moses and Aaron. Korah was one of the chiefs of the family of Kohath, which it appears was* specially employed to carry the ark, and the Holy of Holies, though not permitted to look into them. They were therefore, amongst the Levites, the next in sacredness of function, to Aaron and his sons, and may there- * Numb. iii. 31. 68 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I, fore the more readily have formed a scheme to contest with Aaron his exclusive right to the High Priesthood. Dathan, Abiram, and On, were cMefs of the tr'ibe of Reuhen, the first-horn of the sons of Jacob, and may, therefore, have conceived thera- Belves better entitled than Moses to pre-eminence in temporal power. If these reasons for the conduct of both parties are natural, the silence of the narrative about them, serves only to render it the more probable, that the coincidence arises from truth, not from artifice. A coincidence of a still more remarkable nature seems to me to occur, in comparing the narrative of the signal punishment inflicted on these rebels, with subsequent passages ; which I will state in the very manner in which it struck my own mind, that it may more truly appear, whether it be overstrained and fanci- ful, or natural and just. On reading the direct narrative of this punishment, I concei-ved that Korali, Dathan, and Abiram, and all their families, were destroyed. It relates,* that " Korah, " Dathan, and Abiram, took men, and rose up before Moses, "with certain of the Children of Israel. And they gathered " themselves together against Moses, and against Aaron, and " said unto them : Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the " congregation are holy, and the Lord is among them ; wherefore " then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord V Here they all seemed equally implicated in one common crime. In relating their punishment, it is said : " The Lord spake unto " Moses, saying speak unto the congregation, saying : Get ye up " from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; and " Moses rose up, and went unto Dathan and Abiram ; and he " spake unto the congregation saying : depart, I pray you, from " the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest " you be consumed in all their sins. So they gat up from the "tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side." Afterwards we are told, that the " ground clave asunder that was " under them ; and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed " them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained " unto Korah, and all their goods ; they, and all that appertained " to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed " upon them. And there came out a fire from the Lord and * Vide Numbers, the entire chapter xvi.; and cumpare xxvi. 9, II. Lect. IV.] OK THE iiis;touy. f>9 " consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense."^ On a cursory perusal of this narrative, I Avas quite certain that the tents and famiUcs of all three had been all equally destroyed. In the book of Numbers, when the names of the different families are reckoned up, on mentioning tiie names of Dathan and Abiram, it is said : " This is that Dathan and Abiram, who were "famous in the congregation, who strove against Moses and " against Aaron in the company of Korah, when they strove " against the Lord ; and the earth opened her mouth, and " swallowed them up, together with Korah, when that company " died, what time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men ; " and they became a sign."* But I was extremely surprised to find it added : " Notwithstanding, the children of Korah died " not." This seemed a direct contradiction. I returned to the original narrative, and on examination, thought I found that though it did not assert the preservation of the family of Korah, it plainly left room for implying it. Dathan and Abiram showed their rebellion in resisting the authority of Moses as temporal judge, refusing to come when called on to attend his summons : for " Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab ; " which said. We will not come up."-f- Korairs rebellion con- sisted in his laying claim to the High Priesthood ; and the direc- tion given for bringing his claim to a test, was, " that he and all " his company should take their censers, and put fire in them, " and lay incense thereon, and stand in the door of the tabernacle " of the congregation with Moses and Aaron ;" and it is said, that " Korah gathered all the congregation against them unto " the door of the tabernacle of the con2;regation." Here then a separation took place between these different parties. When indeed the divine command was given, that the congregation Hhould separate themselves from all three, speaking of them all collectively, because involved in one common crime, it is said : " Get ye up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and " Abiram." Yet in delivering this direction we find the separ- ation continued ; for Moses was, at the time he received it, standing at the door of the tabernacle with Korah and his com- pany : and it is said, " Moses rose up, and went unto Dathan " and Abiram," (undoubtedly leaving Korah where he was, at * Nunih. xxvl. 'J, and 10. f Ibid. xvi. 12. 70 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part 1. the door of the tabernacle) " and the elders of Israel followed " him ; and he spake unto the congregation, saying : Depart. I "pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch •' nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed in their sins. So they " gat up from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on " every side." Here they are united, as the people were to separate themselves from all three, as joined in a common cause. Yet they are again spoken of as still separate ; for it is said : " Dathan and Abiram came out and stood in the door of their " tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little children."" On this circumstance turns the explanation, which seems to ac- count for the final diflerence of the event. We here perceive that Dathan and Abiram collected their families round them, as their abettors in this rebellion, and as determined to abide all its consequences with themselves. But this is not said of the family of Korah, and the nature of the case shows the reason. Korah did not remain in his tent, but was at a considerable distance from it ; the tabernacle being in the centre of the camp, the tents of the Levites surrounding it on every side, and outside them the tents of the other tribes ; he had therefore no opportunity of col- lecting his children about him ; he only had all the men of his family who supported his rebellion, along with them at the door of the tabernacle. Now it is not said, nor is it a natural suppo- sition, that the wives and children of Korah and his followers should in their absence assemble of themselves, and stand at the door of their tents, in the same manner as Dathan and Abiram caused their families to do ; hence they escaped from being so openly and contumaciously involved in the guilt of this rebellion, and hence they escaped its punishment. The tents of Dathan and Abiram, who both belonged to the tribe of Reuben, were probably together ; and the earth opened her mouth, and swal- lowed them up. The tent of Korah, as belonging to the tribe of the Levites, must have been remote from theirs ; it displayed no such open rebellion as those of Dathan and Abiram, it therefore escaped. But Moses and the elders of Israel having quitted the door of the tabernacle, leaving there Korah and his rebellious company ; at the same instant that the earth swallowed up the tents and families of Dathan and Abiram, a fire went out from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who offered up incense with Korah at their head. And when in the Lect. IV.] OF THE HISTORY. 71 thirty-second verse it is stated that the earth swallowed them up, and tiieir houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods, it can only nieaji Dathan and Abirani, to whoso tents only Moses is said to have gone, and against whom only he has denounced this species of punishment. The word, " appertaining to Korah," means only that they belonged to his party, and supported his cause. For in the third verse after it is said, that the two hundred and fifty men who oftered incense perished by a fire from the Lord, amongst whom was Korah and all the men of his family. If indeed it had been said, that Moses went to the tents of Korah, and Dathan, and Abiram, there would have been a contradiction. But he only went to those of Dathan and Abiram, and could have no occasion to go to that of Korah, having just left him and all his company at the door of the tabernacle. Thus the narrative, though it seems to approach to contradiction, yet when examined accurately, it not only escapes it, but enables us to discover how the children of Korah, and they only, came to survive the punishment which involved their parents, and the entire families of Dathan and Abiram. Such a coincidence as tliis, so latent and indirect, is surely a character of truth. Such a narrative could scarcely have proceeded from any but the pen of an eye-witness. And what eye-wilnesa can we suppose to have been its author, but that Moses, to whom tlie Jewish race have universally ascribed it. and therefore admitted it as a code of their law, ana the rule o( their rehgion, and the only true ro<;ord of their Jtiistorv I 72 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I. LECTURE V. The common event* of the Jewish history incredible if separated from the miraculous, but when combined with them, form one natural and consistent narrative. Instanced in the history of Moses before he undertook the deliverance of the Jew*-~In the difficulties attending that attempt, from the Jews and from the Egyptians — His conduct as leader of the emigration unaccountable if xnmided hy supernatural power — At the departure from Egypt — At the Red Sea^ — On the return of the twelve spies from Canaan — fn the detention of the Jews in the wilderness forty years. EXODUS, V. 22, 23. ' And Moses returnpd unto the Lord, and »aid, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil-entreated tliis " people ? why is it that thou hast sent me ? For since 1 came to Pharaoh to speak in thy ■• name, he hath dune evil to this people ; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all." This was the expostulation of the Jewish legislator with the Deity, in the bitterness of his heart, at the severe disappointment he experienced, on his first application to the Egyptian monarch, in the name of the God of Israel, for permission to let his people go, that they might serve him. In the three last Lectures I endeavoured to deduce presumptive proofs of the authenticity and truth of the Jewish history, from the structure of the narrative in which it is presented to us : ana to show, that these proofs apply with equal clearness to the mir- aculous as to the common facts ; both being interwoven in one detail, and related with the same characters of impartiality, artlessness, and truth. This conclusion will receive great confir- mation, should it be found that the common events of the history, if we attempt to separate them from the miraculous, become un- natural, improbable, and even incredible, unconnected, and unac- countable ; while, if combined with the miracles which attended them, the entire series is connected, natural, and consistent. In order to lead the way to this conclusion, I have directed the attention of my readers to the singular narrative from which Loct. V.J Ol- THE HISTOllY. 73 this passage is taken : as introductory to an inquiry, Whether it appears probable or improbable, that the deliverance of the Jews from Egypt, the promulgation of the Jewish Law, and the establishment of the Jewish nation in the land of Canaan, can bo rationally and adequately accounted for, by unassisted human agency, using merely natural means, and taking advantage of natural occurrences? Or, whether on the contrary, the difficulties attending the accomplishment of these events, and the consequent establishment of the Hebrew polity, were not such as no mere human power could have overcome ; and whether it be not indis- pensably necessary to admit the account which the Sacred History delivers of a divine interposition, as the only cause fully adequate, to the production of effects so important and certain, yet so extra- ordinary, as the deliverance of Israel, the legislation of Moses, and the settlement of the Hebrew nation in the land of Canaan ? For this purpose, let us consider the objects to which this narra- tive naturally directs our attention ; the character of the Jewish legislator, the resistance he encountered from the Egyptian government, the disposition and circumstances of the Hebrew people, and impediments which presented themselves to their set- tlement in the land to which they emigrated. Let us review the narrative of these events, separating the leading facts not mira- culous, which form the basis of the history, from the miraculous ; and consider whether it be rational to receive the former, and re- ject the latter. Let us first contemplate the character and conduct of the leg- islator. Born at that period, when his nation groaned under the most oppressive and malignant despotism which ever crushed a people ; rescued by a singular providence from that death to which he was destined by the cruel edict of Pharaoh ; adopted by the daughter, and educated in the court, of that monarch ; there is reason to believe, with the inspired martyr Saint Stephen, that he was " learned in all the wisdom of tlie Egyptians," and that he may have been " mighty both in words and deeds :"* that is, con- versant in learning, skilled in writing, and judicious in conduct; for his own positive declaration prevents us from believing him elo- quent. When commanded to act as ambassador from the God of Israel to Pharaoh, he pleads as an apology for his reluctance, * Acts, vii. 22. 74 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I. to undertake the dangerous task, the want of this quality so ne- cessary for a popular leader.* And that he did not possess, or at least that he did not display, any military prowess, appears from his employing Joshua to head the Jewish troops, in the very first battle they had occasion to fight, whilst he stood on an eminence to secure to them divine aid, by holding up his hands to heaven.-f- But, notwithstanding these defects, it is not improba- ble that, in the vigour of manhood, and the ardour of his honest indignation, at the sufferings of his people, he may have con- ceived the project of rousing them against their oppressors, and rescuing them from Egypt. His religious principles were shocked with the idolatry and vices of the Egyptian court, as his humanity and patriotism revolted at the cruelty exercised against his wretched countrymen. He trusted that God would assist his praiseworthy intentions, and by him accomplish the promised dehverance. " By faith," says the Apostle,^ " Moses, " when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of " Pharaoh's daughter ; choosing rather to suffer affliction with " the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a " season ; esteeming the reproach of Christ " (the seed in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed, and to which he looked as the sure pledge of his nation's deliverance) " as greater " riches than the treasures of Egypt ; for he had respect unto " the recompence of the reward." Thus animated, he seems to have attempted that deliverance he hoped for. " When he was " full forty years old," says Saint Stephen,§ " it came into his " heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel, And seeing " one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him " that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian : for he supposed " his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand " would deliver them ; but they understood not." Indeed, this attempt, prematurely undertaken, and utterly unsuccessful, ter- minated in such a manner as seems to have banished every such idea totally from his thoughts, and to have rendered any such attempt in future, to all human judgment, desperate and im- practicable. For, " the next day he showed himself unto " two of his countrymen, as they strove, and would have set " them at one again, saying. Sirs, ye are brethren : why do ye * Exud. iv. 0. t I'''«^- ^vi>- 8—12. % Ihb. xi. 24— 2(i. § Acts. vii. 23—25. LeCt. v.] OF THE HISTOKY. 75 '* wrong one to another ? ]3ut he that did his neighbour wrong, " thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge " over us? Wilt thou kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian " yesterday f* " And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing " is known. And when Pharaoh heard this, he sought to slay " him ; but he fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the " land of Midian."f Thus exiled from his nation, his life exposed to the most im- minent hazard should he presume to return to Egypt ; forsaken by his countrymen, and persecuted by their enemies ; lie appears to have relinquished all hope of effecting their deliverance, and to have abandoned every idea of personal ambition or public enterprise. He marries ; two sons are born to him ; and he devotes forty years,]: the prime and the vigour of his days, to the humble and peaceful employments of rural life. His family and his flocks occupy the entire attention of the patriarch and the shepherd. If we exclude the idea of a divine interposition, we must believe that at the end of forty years, without any outward change of circumstances, merely from a rash and sudden im- pulse, this exile, so long appearing to have forgotten his people, and to have been by them forgot, resumes, at the age of four- score,§ the project which, in the full vigour of manhood, and the yet unabated ardour of youthful confidence, he had been com- pelled to abandon as desperate. He forsakes his family and his property, revisits his nation, determined again to ofter himself for their leader, and to attempt their deliverance. Yet he appears not to have cultivated in the interval, a single talent, and not to have formed a single preparation to facilitate his enterprise. Of eloquence he confesses himself destitute ; of military skill or prowess, he never made any display ; he appears to have formed no party among the Jews, no alliance with any foreign power ; he had certainly prepared no force. But it will be said, he employed an engine more powerful than eloquence or arms, with an unenlightened people, who looked upon themselves as the favourites of heaven, and who long had hoped for their deliverance by a divine interposition. * Acts, vii. 2fi— 28. t Exod. ii. 14, 15. t Compare Exod ii, 11—23, with vii. 7, and Acts, vii. 23 and 30. ^ Fvod. vii. 7 76 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I. He claimea the character of an ambassador commissioned by the God of their fathers, to free them from the bondage under which they groaned ; he supported his claim by some artful deceptions and mysterious juggling, which his former acquain- tance with Egyptian magic enabled him to practise ; and this was sufficient to gain the faith and command the obedience of a superstitious race, always credulous, and now eager to be con- vinced, of what they ^vished to be true. Thus we may account for his success. This mijrht appear plausible, if the only thing wanting was to prevail on his countrymen to quit the land of bondage ; but let it be remembered, that the great difficulty lay in the neces- sity of prevailing on the Egyptians to permit their departure.* Supposing the Hebrew slaves were willing to encounter the difficulties of emigration, and the dangers of invading a warlike nation (a point by no means certain ;) yet who shall prevail on their proud and mercenary lords to suffer themselves to be de- prived of their service ? Every circumstance which would enable a chief to establish his party with the one, would rouse suspicion, resentment, and opposition, in the other. As to forcing their way by arms, and thus vindicating their liberty, this was an attempt so hopeless and desperate, that it appears never to have been thought of. For near three hundred years had the Hebrews submitted to the yoke of servitude, without a single struggle to shake it off. Above fourscore years before, the malignity of their tyrants had proposed to destroy the nation, by cutting off all their male children, yet this cruelty had ex- cited no revolt. The operation of this dreadful edict had been some way or other eluded, and it had, in all probability, gra- dually ceased. But who could hope to rouse such a people, de- based and dejected M'ith long continued " bondage, in mortar, " and in brick, and in all manner of service in tne field,''"'f against one of the most vigilant and most powerful monarchies then existing in the world ; by Avliose forces they, their wives, and their children, might be immediately cut off if they at- tempted to unite and to resist 1 At all events, their aged leader * Vide Exod, xiv. 11. Numb. vi. 5, and Numb. xiv. 3, and xx. 6, which prove clearly how ready the Jews were to return to Egypt on any reverse of fortune, and how much they regretted the plenty and peare they enjoyed there, whenever afterwards at a loss for sustenance, or menaced by war. t Exod. i. 14. Lect. v.] OF THE HISTORY. 77 made uo such attempt ; he bore no arms, but that rod by whicli he professed Jehovah would enable him to work miracles ; and in the name of that God ho applied to the Egyptian monarch, to obtain permission for his people to go and hold a feast in the wilderness. The haughty tyrant, unacquainted with the name, and des- pising the majesty of Jehovah, rejected the demand with con- tempt. And Pharaoh said, " 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." And he said, " Wherefore do ye, Moses " and Aaron, let the people from their works ? get ye unto your " burdens. And Pharaoh commanded the same day the task- " masters of the people, and their officers, saying. Ye shall no " more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore ; let " them go and gather straw for themselves. And the tale of " the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon " them ; ye shall not diminish ought thereof : for they be idle ; " therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. " Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may la- " hour therein ; and let them not regard vain words."* This severe command was proclaimed, and obedience to it per- emptorily required : to execute it was found impracticable. But despotism roused to anger, and rejoicing to oppress, would not admit as an apology the impossibility of executing its will. " The " officers of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh's task-masters " had set over them, were beaten, and demanded. Wherefore have " ye not fulfilled your works, your daily tasks, as Avhen there " was straw ? And the officers came and cried unto Pharaoh, " saying, Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants ? But " he said. Ye are idle ; therefore ye say. Let us go and do sa- " crifice to the Lord. Go therefore now and work : for there " shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of " bricks. And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the " way, as they came forth from Pharaoh, and they said unto " them. The Lord look upon you, and judge ; because ye have " made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and " in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to " slay us."f On this distressing accusation, Moses, dejected with disap- * Exod. V, 2—9. t Ibid. v. 14—21. 78 AUTHENTICITY AXD TRUTH [Part I. pointment. and overpowered with the unexpected sufierlngs which he appeared to be instrumental in producing, poured forth his complaint before his God : he returned unto the Lord, and said, " Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil-entreated this people ? Why " is it that thou hast sent me ? For since I came to Pharaoh to " speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people ; neither " hast thou delivered thy people at all."* Here then is the first crisis, in which the attempt to deliver Israel from Egyptian bondage seems, if we consider human means, utterly desperate. Its author is resisted and scorned by the Egyptian monarch : deserted, and almost execrated by his countrymen, for involving them in new miseries, to which yet they submit without any attempt to shake off the yoke. He stands on one side, without arms, without followers, without resources of any human kind ; opposed to a mighty sovereign, surrounded by his wise men and priests, his counsellors, his officers, his armies, invested with despotic power, which he is determined to exercise, in opposition to the authority of that God, whose ambassador the Jewish legislator declares himself, and in contempt of those menaces which he denounces. Thus the claim of Moses, to a divine mission, is rejected and scorned, and he has no resource but those magical deceptions, which he is supposed to derive from his Egyptian education. But what hope of succeeding in these, when surrounded, watched, and opposed by all the masters of this art, by whom he himself must have been taught, the wise men, and priests, and magicians of Egypt, supported by the majesty of their monarch, and the power of their state ; while their opponent is without a single associate but his own brother to support or assist him I A very short period elapses, and what is the event? No human force is exercised, not a single Israelite lifts the sword or bends the bow ; but the Egyptian monarch is humbled, his people terrified, they urge the Israelites to hasten their depar- ture. These are now honoured as the masters of their late oppressors : they demand of the 'Egyptians, (the idea of borrow- ing, which our translation expresses, and which implies the hu- mility of a request, and an obligation to return, is wholly foreign to the original :) " The Israelites " (in obedience to the express injunction of Jehovah) "demand of the Egyptians silver, and * Exod. V. 22. 23. Le^t. v.] OP THE HIOTORY. 79 '' <;ol(l, and jewels,"* as the remuneration duo to their past un- requited labours, conceded by divine justice, and obtained by divine power ; as the homage due to their present acknowledged superiority, and the purchase of their immediate departure. The Egyptians grant every thing ; the Israelites begin their emigra- tion : " Six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and " children ; and a mixed multitude went with them, as Avell as " flocks and herds, and much cattle."-f- But, notwithstanding his unparalleled success in his main project, the leader of this great body acknowledges himself to have acted in a mode utterly destitute of the slightest human foresight or prudence ; for this multitude are so little prepared for their emigration, that they had not time so much as to leaven the bread which they brought out of Egypt ; " Because " they were thrust out, and could not tarry, neither had they " prepared for themselves any victual."! -^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ *^^6 first step to display his total neglect of every precaution which a wise leader would adopt, he is afraid of conducting them " by " the way of the land of the Philistines, though that was near, *' lest they should see war, and return to Egypt ;"§ yet he takes no care to guide them in such a course as would enable them to escape from pursuit, or contend to advantage with their pursu- ers. He leads them into a defile, with mountains on either side, and the sea in front. At this moment the Egyptians recover from the panic, under the influence of which they had consented to their departure ; and they said, " Why have we " done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us ? And " they pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, " and his horsemen, and his army,1I and soon overtook the " fugitives, for they were entangled by the land, the wilderness " had shut them in."!] Perhaps at this crisis, despair inspired them with courage ; No, all is dismay and lamentation ; they cried unto the Lord, and said unto Moses, " Because there were no graves in Egypt, " hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness ? Wherefore " hast thou thus dealt with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt ? " Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, " Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians ? for it had * Compare Exod. iii. 22, with xii. 35. t Exod. xii. 37, 38. J lb. ver. 39. § Exod. xiii. 17, IT Ibid. xiv. 5 and 9. || Ibid. xiv. 3. 80 AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I. " been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should " die in the wilderness."'''* Here now is a second crisis, in which no human hope or help appears to sustain their leader : on one side, a regular discip- lined army, assured of triumph — on the other, a rabble of women and children, and men as spiritless as they, expecting nothing but certain death, lamenting they had left their servi- tude, and ready to implore their masters to permit them again to be their slaves. But if their leader had betrayed unparalleled imprudence in exposing his host to such a danger, the high strain of confidence he now speaks in, is equally unparalleled ; " Fear ye not,"" (says he to the terrified multitude:) does he add, rouse yoiir courage; there is no way to avoid slavery or death, but by one manly efibrt ; turn then on your pursuers, and your God will aid you ? No ; his language is, " Stand ye still, and see the salvation of " the Lord, which he will show you to-day ; for the Egyptians " whom you have seen to-day, you shall see them again no " more for ever ; the Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold " your peace."'"'-!' What would this be in any mere human leader, but the ravings of frenzy ? yet, wonderful to relate, the event accords with it. The Israelites escape " by the way of " the sea ;"" the Egyptians perish in the same sea, we know not how or why, except we admit the miraculous interposition which divided the Red Sea, " the waters being a wall on the right and " left hand,"" to let his people pass free; and when the infatuated Egyptians pursued, overwhelmed with its waves their proud and impious host. Let us now pass by the intermediate events of a few months, and observe this people on the confines of that land, to estab- lish themselves in which they had emigrated from Egypt. Their leader, with his usual confidence of success, thus addresses them; " Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, " which the Lord our God doth give unto us. Behold the Lord " thy God hath set the land before thee ; go up, and possess it, " as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee ; fear not, " neither be discouraged."'"'^ But the people propose to adopt some precautions which human prudence would naturally dictate. " We will send men before us (say they) to mark out the land, * Ibid. xiv. 11 and 12. + Exod. xiv. 13, 14. J Deut. i. 20, 21. Lect. v.] or THE HISTORY. 81 " and bring us word again, by what way wc must go up, and " into wliat cities we shall come."'"' They are sent : they report ; * The land is a good land, and fruitful; but the people be strong " that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and verv " great : we be not able to go up against the people, for they are " stronger than we ; all the people that we saw in it are men of " great stature ; we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and " so we were in their sight.""* At this discouraging report this timid and unwarlike race were filled with the deepest terrors. " All the congregation " lifted up their voice, and cried ; and the people wept that " night. And they murmured against Moses and Aaron ; and " the whole congregation said unto them : Would to God we " had died in the land of Egypt, or would to God we had died " in the wilderness. And wherefore hath the Lord brought us " unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our " children should be a prey ? were it not better for us to return " to Egypt V In vain did IMoses and Aaron fall on their faces before all the congregation ; in vain did two of the chief men, who had searched out the land, and who adhered to them, re- present its fertility, and endeavour to inspire the host with a pious confidence in the divine protection. So incurable was their despair, and so violent their rebellion, that they resented, as the grossest crime, the advice of these honest and spirited men : for " all the congregation bade stone them Avith stones " till they die."" They even determine to abandon altogether the enterprise; to depose their leader in contempt of the divine authority which he claimed ; to elect another captain, and return to Egypt At this crisis, what conduct would human prudence have dictated ? No other, surely, than to soothe the multitude till this extreme panic might have time to subside ; then gradually to revive their confidence, by recalling to their view the miseries of that servitude from which they had escaped, the extraordinaiT success which had hitherto attended their eftorts, and the con- sequent probability of their overcoming the difficulties by which they were now dispirited ; then gradually to lead them from one assault, where circumstances were most likely to ensure victory to another, till their courage was reanimated, and the great object * For tliis entile ti-aiifacti<»ii \icie Numb. xii. ana \\v. 82 AUTHENTICITY AND TRLTH [Paxt I. of their enterprise might be again attempted with probability of success. But how strange and unparalleled is the conduct of the Jewish leader ! He denounces against this whole rebel- lious multitude the extreme wrath of God : instead of animating them to resume their enterprise, he commands them never to resume it : instead of encouraging them to hope for success, he assures them they never shall succeed : he suffers them not to return to Egypt, yet he will not permit them to invade Canaan. He denounces to them, that they shall continue under his command ; that he would march and countermarch them for forty years in the wilderness, until every one of the rebellious multitude then able to bear arms should perish there ; and that then, and not till then, should their children resume the invasion of Canaan, and infallibly succeed in it. " Say unto them, as " truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, " so will I do to you : jonr carcasses shall fall in this wilder- " uess ; all of you, from twenty years old and upward, which " have murmured against me. But your little ones which ye " said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall " know the land which ye have despised. And your children " shall wander forty years in this wilderness, until your car- " casses be wasted in it : I the Lord have said, I will surely do " it unto all this evil congregation that are gathered together " against me : in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and " there they shall die. Joshua and Caleb, they shall come into " the land, for they had not joined to make the congregation " murmur against the Lord." Now let me ask in seriousness and simplicity of mind, can we believe that such a denunciation as this could have been uttered by any human being, not distracted with the wildest frenzy, if it had not been dictated by the clearest divine autho- rity ; or if uttered, whether it could have been received by an entire nation, with any other sensation than that of scorn and contempt, if the manifestation of the divine power from which it proceeded, and by which alone it could be executed, had not been most certain and conspicuous ? But can we be sure, it is said, that it was ever uttered ? I answer, yes ; because it was assuredly fulfilled. And its accomplishment forms the last par- ticular I shall notice in the history of this unparalleled expedi- tion, as exhibiting a fact partly natural ; (for the existence of a LeCt. v.] OF THE HISTORY. 88 whole nation in a particular country for a certain length of time, is an event of a natural kind,) yet inseparably connected with a continued miraculous interposition, which if not real, no human imagination could have invented, and no human credulity be- lieved. 1 mean the miraculous sustenance of the whole Jewish nation of six hundred thousand men, besides women and chil- dren, for forty years, within the compass of a barren wilderness, wnere a single caravan of travellers couM nev<3r subsist, even marching through it by the shortest route, without having brought with them their own provisions. Yet so long the host of Israel remained in it. They had first refused to obey their leader"'s order to invade Canaan ; then when they heard the de- nunciation of divine vengeance, " all the people mourned greatly, " and early the next morning they rose up and said, Lo, we be " here, and we will go up to the place which the Lord hath " promised : for we have sinned." But " Moses said, Where- " fore now do you transgress the commandment of the Lord ? " but it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among " you ; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. But they " presumed to go up unto the hill-top : nevertheless, the Ark of " the Covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the " camp. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites which dwelt " in that hill, came down and smote them, and discomfited them, " even unto Hormah."* And " they returned and wept before " the Lord ; but the Lord would not hearken unto their voice, " nor give ear unto them. And ye abode," says their leader, (recapitulating the history of this event-f*) " in Kadesh (where it " took place) many days. And the space in which we came from " Kadesh, until we came over the brook Zered, was thirty-eight " years ; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted " from among the host, as the Lord sware unto them." Then, and not before, was the Jewish host permitted to invade the country in which they were to settle : then, and not before, were they permitted to combat and to conquer. In the interval, they were fed with food from heaven, even with;): manna, until in the plains of Jericho they did eat of the com of the land ; and the manna ceased the morrow after they had eaten the old corn of the land. * Numb. xiv. 39, &c. f Deut. i. 45, 46. and ii. 14. % Vide Exod. xvi and Josh. v. 12. 84 AUTHENTICM'Y Ar«) TRUTH [Part I. Here then I close this argument. And I contend, that the ex- istence of the Jewish nation in the wilderness for forty years, their submission during that period to the authority of their leader, without attempting either to return to Egypt or to invade Canaan, is a fact which cannot be accounted for, without ad- mitting the uninterrupted and conspicuous interference of the power of Jehovah, miraculously sustaining and governing this his chosen people ; and by consequence estabhshiug the divine oriffinal of the Mosaic Law. Jj'nM . \]. I OF TiiK niaroHY. 85 LECTURE VI. Admitting the authenticity of the Pentateuch, the miractet recorded in the four la$l books of it are unquestionably true, and clearly supernatural. Leslie's four marks of certainty — Their application to the Mosaic miracles — First character, the facts public ~-Second, clearly supernatural — Various instances of this — Third and fourth, recorded by public monuments and commemorative rites, commencing at the time of the facts — Instanced in the tribe of Levi — The three great feasts — The entire Jewish ritual — The form of government — The distribution of property, Sfc. — Recapitulation and Con elusion of the First Part. DEUTERONOMY, Vl. 20, &C. ** When thy son asketh thee in time to tome, saying. What mean the testimonies, and the sta- " tutes, and the judgments, which the Lord our God hath cummanded you? Then thou shalt " say unto thy son, We were Pharoahs bondmen in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of " Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon " Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes. And the Lord commanded " us to do all these statutes." Such was the injunction of the Jewish Lawgiver to his people. He addresses them as witnesses of the miracles wrought for their deliverance ; and they were to hand down to their children the statutes and judgments of their Law, derived from the com- mand of God, whose interposition these miracles proved. It shall be my object in this Lecture to show, that this appeal of the Jewish Lawgiver to his nation, as eye-witnesses of the mi- racles he had wrought, is just and conclusive ; that the super- natural facts he alludes to, must certainly have taken place ; the Law he established, being founded on the belief of these facts, and proving their reality. This has been a topic frequently discussed ; and it would but ill suit the importance of the subject, if, in a vain affectation of novelty, I were to decline adopting the clear and decisive node of reasoning, which Dr Leslie has employca on this sub- 8f) AUTHENTICITY AND TRUTH [Part I. ject, in his " Short Method with the Deists f which seems to me to comprise the substance of every thing material which can be adduced on this argument. I shall therefore do little more than state his mode of proof, and show the justice of its application to the Mosaic miracles. This celebrated Author establishes the truth of the Mosaic miracles, by applying to them four rules ; which, whenever they can be truly applied to v.iiv OTente, exclude every reasonable doubt of their reality. These rules are ; first, That the facts be of such a nature, as that men's senses can clearly and fully judge of them ; and in the second place, That they be performed publicly. These two rules make it impossible for any such facts to be imposed upon men at the time they are said to take place, because every man's senses would detect the imposture. The third rule is. That not only public monuments be kept up, but that some outward actions be constantly performed in memory of the facts thus publicly wrought ; and the fourth, that These monuments be set up, and these actions and observances be instituted, at the very time when those events took place, and continued without interruption afterwards. These two rules render it impossible that the belief of any facts should be imposed upon the credulity of after ages, when the generation asserted to have witnessed them, has expired. For, whenever such facts come to be recounted, if not only monuments are said to remain of them, but that public actions and observances had been con- stantly used to commemorate them, by the nation appealed to, ever since they had taken place ; the deceit must be immediately detected, by no such monuments appearing, and by the experience of every individual, who could not but know that no such actions or observances had ever been used by them, to commemorate any such events. The part of this argument which its able author places last, even that the books containing the account of the Mosaic mira- cles and institutions, were written at the time of the events, and by eye-witnesses, has been, I trust, sufficiently established. We are therefore, fully prepared to examine particularly the detail of the miracles themselves, and to enquire, how far the four marks of truth which have been enumerated, can apply to them. We may perhaps, in applying these rules to miraculous facts. Lect. VI.] OF THE HISIXJRY. 87 vary with propriety, the mode of expression their author has adopted, and state them to be, first, that the facts be performed publicly ; and secondly, that they be of such a nature, that men's senses can certainly perceive, both that the events are real, and their origin supernatural. Now, that both these cha- racters belong to the Mosaic miracles, is evident. That the facts were most public is undoubted. The plagues in Egypt were witnessed by the whole nation of the Jews, and felt by all the Egyptians ; at the Red Sea, the Jews passed through, and saw the whole host of Pharaoh perish ; for forty years were all the Jews sustained in the wilderness with food from heaven ; and for " forty years their raiment waxed not old, neither did their foot " swell.'"'* Sometimes they were supplied with water from the flinty rock; and always they beheld thef cloud of the Lord upon the tabernacle by day, and the fire by night, throughout all their iourneys. At the promulgation of the Law from Mount Sinai,;}: all the people perceived the thunderings and the lightnings, and the Qoise of the trumpets, and the mountains smoking. On the rebellion of § Korah and his company, the whole con- gregation . were gathered together, and saw the ground cleave asunder, and swallow them up ; " And all Israel," says the historian, " fled at the cry of them." And at Jordan, " the " waters stood and rose up upon an heap ; and all the Israelites " passed over on dry ground in the midst of Jordan." || Here then were a series of facts, witnessed certainly by above two millions of souls, who remained collected in one camp, for forty years ; an assembly so great probably never before or since remained collected in one body for so long a period. If then this whole nation had not been entirely without eyes and ears, if they were not bereft of reason and sense, it was im- possible that, at the time these facts were said to take place, they could have been persuaded of their existence, had they not been real. The frequent appeals to the whole nation, as eye-witnesses of them, with which the Pentateuch abounds, would have been refjarded as the raviu^ roil *.liis emphatic injunction, not to add to or diminish aught rrom tne Mosaic code, it appears that every part of it had a direct and necessary connexion with its main design ; and that in order to discover and to expound the purpose and the relation of its various parts, it is necessary previously to consider the origin and the nature of that idolatry, against which it was calculated to guard. « Duut \ii. C9, c<^c. 106 THEOLOGY OP [Paxt II. That the worship of the one true God was the rehgion of Noah and his posterity before the dispersion of mankind, admits not a doubt. In this primitive and patriarchal rehgion, as incidentally disclosed by Moses, we discover the leading characters of that worship which was afterwards restored and guarded by the Jewish institutions ; and which was calculated to preserve the knowledge of God, as the Creator of the world, by the observance of the Sabbath ; as well as to inculcate the heinousness of sin, and typify the death of Christ, by the use of sacrifice. These simple ceremonies, together with the observance of the great rules of morality, and the prohibition of blood, in order to excite a stronger abhorrence against shedding the blood of one another, formed the entire exterior of the religion of Noah. The higher we are able to trace the history of every ancient nation, and the nearer we approach the sources of Eastern tradition, the more plain traces do we discover of this pure and simple worship ; in which every father of a family acted as its priest, and assembled his progeny round the rustic altar of earth, to join in the sacri- fice and the prayers he ofi'ered to the Creator and Governor of the world ; to deprecate his wrath, and implore his blessing. But the corrupt imaginations of men's hearts would not per- mit them to rest satisfied with a religion so pure and a ritual so simple : they looked to the sun* in its glory, they observed the moon and the stars Avalking in their brightness : they felt the benefits which through their influence were derived to men. They perhaps first considered them as the peculiar residence, or the chief ministers, or the most worthy representatives, of the Divinity ; and in honouring and worshipping them, possibly con- ceived they were honouring the majesty, and fulfilling the will of their Creator. But they soon forgot the Creator whom they could not see, and gave his glory to the creature, whose existence was obvious to sense and captivating to the imagination. They seemed to have conceived these luminaries to be moved and animated by distinct and independent spirits,"!* and therefore fit * Vide Job, xxxi. 26, 27. Deut. iv. 19. Wisdom of Sol. xiii. 2, 3. Maimonides de Idololatria, the five first chapters. Diod. Siculus, Lib. 1. cap. 1. Euseb. Praepar. Evang. Lib. 1. cap. ix. Herodotus, Clio, cap. cxxxi. Plato in Cratylus, p, 397. — Vide also Banier's Mythology, Book IIL ch. iii. Leland's Advantage of Revelation, Part L ch. iii. And Bryant's Analys. of Mythology, who affirms, the gods of Greece were originally one god, the sun. Vol. I. 305. t Cicero de Natura Deorum, Lib. II. tap. xv. to xxiii. Lcct. I. THE JEWISH LAW. 107 objects of immediate worship. To represent them in their ab- sence, they erected piUars and statues on the tops of hills and mountains, or on pyramids and high buildings, raised for the purpose ;* as if they could tlius approach nearer the presence of their divinities. They set apart priests, and appointed times and sacrifices suited to the luminary they adored. Hence the rif>ing and the setting sun, the different seasons of the year, the new and full moon, the quarters of the heavens, the constellations and conjunctions of the stars, acquired a peculiar sacredness, and were conceived to possess a pecidiar influence. It now became the interest of the priests to persuade men, that the-f* pillars and statues set up as representatives of the host of heaven, partook themselves of the same spirit, and communicated the same influence, as the sacred objects which they represented. Thus degraded man bowed down to the senseless image which he had himself set up, and forgot " that there was a lie in his right " hand.""! From similar principles,^ other men adopted different objects of worship ; light and air, wind and fire, seemed to them active spirits, by whose beneficent energy all the operations of nature were conducted and controlled. Water and earth || formed the universal parents, from which all things derived their origin, and to which they were still indebted for their sustenance. Thus these also became the objects, first of gratitude and admiratiiDn, next of awe and reverence. They also had their temples and emblematic images, their priests and worshippers. But the folly of idolatry did not stop here. Not satisfied with adoring the host of heaven and the elements of nature, as the beneficent instruments of blessing ; human weakness led man, first to tremble with horror, and then to bow down with a base and grovelling superstition to objects of an opposite nature, to every thincr which seemed gloomy and malignant. Thell mix- * Rlaimonides More Nevochim, Pars III. cap. xxix. p. 423. Winder's History of Knowledge, Vol. I. cap. xii. sect. 3. f Maimonides ut supra. Herodot. Clio, cap. xiii. ; and as to the use of mountains by the Persians, Ibid. t Isaiah, xliv. 20. § Wisdom, xiii. 2. Herod. Clio, cap. exxx. Cicero de Natura Deorum, Lib. I. cap. xxviii. Hutchinson, Vol. I. p. 24, 25. II Cicero de Na^ra Deorum, Lib. I. cap. x. H Vide Vossius dc Idololatria, Lib. 1. cap. v. Vossius however imputes, as appeals lOS THEOLOGY OF [Part II. ture of good and evil in the world, suggested the idea of an evil principle, independent of and at war with the good, which it was necessary to soothe and conciliate. Darkness, storm and pestilence, the fates, the furies, and a multitude of similar objects, were honoured with a heart -debasing homage, by their terrified and trembling votaries. Nor was this yet the worst : * Gratitude to the inventor of useful arts, to the wise legislator, to the brave defender of his country, combined Avith the vanity of kings- the pride of conquerors, and even private affection and fond regret for the parent, the child, the consort, the friend, led men first to erect monuments to the memory of the dead, and then to worship them as divine. They sometimes trans- ferred to these their fellow-creatures, the names of the luminaries and elements of nature, whose utility and beneficence they con- ceived were thus best represented. Hence in process of time, arose a*)* communication of attributes and honours, of priests and worshippers. And, to close the degrading catalogue of idolatrous absurdities, and verify St Paul's assertion, that " professing " themselves to be wise they became fools," Egypt,|the chief seat of ancient wisdom and policy, of arts and letters, introduced objects of worship, still more grovelling and base than any which had preceded. In some instances, the policy of its kings led them to encourage the preservation of those animals, whose labours they employed in cultivating the earth, or whose useful activity they saw exerted in destroying the venomous reptiles and destructive animals by which they were infested. For this purpose, they sanctified them as emblematic of some divinity, to me, a much greater antiquity to this species of idolatry, than the testimony of history warrants. Vide the authorities quoted in the note, p. 106. * Cicero de Natura Deorum, Lib. II. cap. xxiv. Leland's Advantage of Revela- tion, Part I. ch. iv. •}■ Warb. Div. Leg. B. II. sect. vi. $ Vide Selden de Diis Syris. Prolegomena, cap. iii. p. 53; and Bryant's Analys. of Mythology, Vol. I. p. 331, &c. Warburton's Divine Legat. B. IV. sect. iv. Vol. III. p. 197. Cicero de Natura Deorum, Lib. I. sect, xxxvi. Cudworth's Intellectual System, ch. iv. sect, xviii. This last learned writer maintains, that the Pagans gene- rally acknowledged one supreme Deity. Admitting, however, his proofs to have all the force he himself attributes to them, they in no degree contradict the wide extent or practical mischiefs of idolatry, or the importance and necessity of a divine Revelation w counteract them. For, speaking of the difference which he supposes the Pagans generally to have made between the one supreme unmade Deity and their other inferior generated gods, he adds, " We are the rather concerned to make out this difference Loot. I.] TIIK JEWISH LAW. 109 or even worshipped them as in themselves divine ; while, on the other hand, the Egyptian priests, with an affectation of myste- rious wisdom, expressed the attributes of God, the operations of the elements, the motions and influences of the heavenly bodies, the rising and falling of the Nile and its effects, by symbolic representations derived from the known and familiar properties of animals and even vegetables. Hence these became first, representations of their divinities, and afterwards the direct objects of divine reverence. Thus man was taught to bow down to birds and beasts and creeping things, to plants and herbs, to stocks and stones. Nothing was too base for grovelling superstition to adore ; the heavens, the earth, the air, the sea, each hill, each river, each wood, was peopled with ima- gmary deities ; every nation, every city, every family, had its peculiar guardian gods. The name and reverence of the Su- preme Father of the universe was banished from the earth ; or, if remembered at all, men scrupled not to associate with him their basest idols ; and deeming him too exalted and remote to regard human affairs, they looked to these idols as the immediate authors of evil and of good ; they judged of their power, by comparing the degrees of prosperity their worshippers enjoyed. Was one nation or family more successful than another, their guardian gods were adopted by their rivals ; and every day extended more widely this intercommunity of folly and of blas- phemy. Connected with this worship was the opinion of the power of " because it is notorious that they did many times also confound them together : attri- " buting the government of the whole world to the gods promiscuously, and without " putting any due discrimination between the supreme and inferior. The true reason " whereof seems to have been this ; because they supposed the supreme God not to do " all immediately in the government of the world, but to permit much to his inferior " ministers : one instance of which we had in Ovid, and innumerable such others " might be cited out of their most sober writers." Cudvvorth further grants, " That ♦' the same names were used to express, sometimes the supreme God, sometimes the *' parts of nature, sometimes an hero or deified man." Vide Cudworth, p. 235. Amidst tliis confusion, the difference occasionally acknowledged by speculative men, to exist between the Supreme Intelligence, and the subordinate but more immediate agents in the government of the world, could produce no practical effect in checking the contagion of idolatry and its attendant crimes, and rather served to aggravate the guilt of those, who " knowing God, honoured him not as God," than to enlighten or reform mankind. 110 THEOLOGY OP [Part II. magic,* or the arts to which the priests pretended, of discover- ing and even directing the effects ascribed to the operations of the elements,"!* ^^^^ conjunctions of the stars, the influence of lucky and unlucky days, the power of invisible spirits, and the rabble of their idol gods. Connected with idolatry also was the trade of oracles and augurs, of diviners and sooth-sayers ; to whom the dupes of heathen priestcraft resorted, to cahn their fears of futurity, and direct their conduct in every enterprise of doubt or hazard ; while the babble of wretches distracted with fanaticism, or convulsed with intoxicating vapours, the flight and chattering of birds, the recollection of fleeting dreams, the inspection of entrails, and a thousand other modes equally capricious and absurd, were used by impostors, to blind and cheat their fol- lowers. Thus impious and absurd was the whole system of idolatry ; yet was it so extensive and deeply rooted, as to seem utterly incapable of being checked or reformed by any of the ordinary dispensations of Providence. There is reason to believe, that before the dispersion of mankind, a great part of them had apostatized from the worship of the one true God, and struck perhaps with the influence of the air and of the winds, in remedying the efiects of the deluge, had commenced the struc- ture of the tower of Babel ; not with the wild conceit of rais- ing it till its top should reach to heaven, but that its top should be sacred to the heavens, j the common temple of worship, and centre of their idolatrous union. And it is probable that their dispersion was designed to defeat this impious design, by con- founding not only their languages, but still more their idolatrous creed, and rendering their universal combination, in this base apostasy, impracticable and transient. But however this may be, it is certain that in the five centuries which elapsed from the birth of Abraham, to the Mission of Moses, idolatry had in- fected every part of the world, of which any records can be * Vide, for a full account of this subject, Banier's History of Mythology, Lib. IV.; and on the whole of this subject of idolatry, Leland's veiy useful work on the Advantage and Necessity of Revelation, Part I. ch. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. f Vide Stanleii Historia Philosophic Orientalis, cum notis Clerici, Lib. I. ch. xvi. xvii.; and from ch. xxiii. to the end of the first Book. J Vide Hutchinson's Works, i. 28, or the Abridgment of them by Duncan Forbes, in a Letter to a Bishop, p. 30 of his Works. Lcct. I.] THE JEWISH LAW 111 traced. It had been carried to the fullest extent of mischievoua and absurd impiety by the Egyptians, the wisest and most cele- brated nation of the then civilized globe : it had totally cor- rupted the Assyrians, and above all the Canaanites, who were the most warlike nations of the earth ; as well as the Pha;ni- cians, who conducted the commerce of the world, and who dift'used it wherever they extended their traffic, or planted their colonies. Unhappily indeed experience proves, that the progress of reason and science has ever been totally ineftectual in checking the pro- gress of idolatry. The order and beauty of the heavens ; the grateful vicissitudes of days, and nights, and seasons; the fertility of the earth ; all these, the more they were contemplated, instead of raising men"'s thoughts to the great first Cause, only rivetted more deeply the admiration and the idolatry which were paid to the host of heaven, and the elements of nature.* The ordinary judgments of God, famine and earthquake, sword and pestilence, were ascribed to the influence of the invisible and malignant powers and spirits, whom fear had created, and superstition adored. Pride and policy, gratitude and affection, daily added to the number of deified men : the whole system of paganism was defended by kings and legislators, who employed it as an engine of government, and derived from it sacredness and dignity ; as well as by priests and divines, who relied on it for subsistence. While to the great mass of the people it presented temples and statues, pomps and festivals, to interest the imagination, and gratify the sense ; it raised their curiosity, by the hope of prying into futurity ; it employed the influence of magical arts and ma- lignant powers, to work upon their fears ; while it interested their private partialities and prejudices, by local, national, and even flimily gods. But above all, idolatry recommended itself to degraded and corrupted man, by indulging and almost conse- crating every licentious passion, and every vicious propensity of the human heart. We have seen how man, who had been formed after the image of his Creator — man, who bore that sacred image stamped upon his soul in the bright characters of reason, truth, and virtue — forgot that Creator, and, stooping from his high original, degraded that sacred image, by bowing down to his fellow- * For a rtniaikable instance, vide Jer. xlir. 17. 112 THEOLOGY OF Part II. creature, and blasphemously deifying his fellow-man. Thus reason, and truth, and virtue seemed to vanish from his nature; folly, and error, and vice to triumph in their stead. When men were exalted into gods, every the basest passion and the foulest vice found an example to justify, and a patron to protect it.* Gods, whose characters and actions had been impure, revengeful, and cruel, were honoured by adopting, as parts of their worship, impurity, cruelt;y, and bloodshed. Demons, who were wor- shipped, not from love but fear, not because beneficent but malignant, it was natui-ally supposed could be appeased or conciliated, only by the suppliant inflicting suS"erings and death even on the object whom he held most dear. Hence " every " abomination to the Lord which he hatetli did the heathens do " unto their gods :" so that " even their sons and their daugh- " ters did they burn in the fire to their gods."*!- In truth, we know from other sources than the Scripture, that theft, blood- shed, and cruelty, that incest, adultery, and unnatural crimes, were sanctioned by the example of the heathen gods, and even consecrated as parts of their worship. We know that every species of lewdness was practised in the temples of some, and that I human sacrifices bled upon the altars of others, and this amongst the most polished and celebrated nations of anti- * Vide LuciaD passim — Hesiod, Homer, Euripides, and Sophocles passim — Ovid, Terence, &c. &c, — Cicero de Nat. Deorum, Lib. I. cap. xvi. Vide also Tertullian's Apology, ch. ii. 10, 15. Augustine de Civitate Dei, passim. The Octavius of Miiuitius Felix, especially sect. xx. to xxx. And Leland's Advantage of Revel, ch. vii. — Cicero's words are worth transcribing : " Exposui pene non philosophorum " judicia sed delirantium somnia (speaking of the stoics' opinions) nee enim multo *' absurdiora sunt quae poetarum vocibus fusa, ipsa suavitate nocuerunt; qui et ira "inflammatos, et libidine furentes induxerunt deos ; feceruntque ut eorum bella, "pugnas, proelia, vulnera, videremus; odia praeterea, dissidia, discordias, ortus, interi- " tus, querelas, lamentationes, effusas in omni intemperantia libidines, adulteria, "vincula, cum humano genere concubitus, mortalesque ex immortali procreates, cum "poetarum autem errore conjungere licet portenta magorum, ^gyptiorumque in " eodem genere dementiam, turn etiam vulgi opiniones quje in maxima inconstantia, " veritatis ignorantia versantur." Yet Cicero was a worshipper, nay s. priest, ni these very gods ! 1 t Deut. xii. 31. X Vide supra note ; also a full collection of testimonies to this fact, by my learned friend, Dr Magee, in his very able work on Atonement and Sacrifice, notes, p. 90 to p. 102. When we reflect on the facts briefly but faithfully sketched here, and in the authorities referred to, what must we think of the understanding, or the moral and religious feelings, of those who, to discredit Revelation, panegyrize heathenism, under the pretext of its tolerance ? Thus Mr Gibbon. History of the Decline of the Roman Lect. I.] THE JEWISH LAW. ] ] 3 quity ; amongst the Egyptians and Assyrians, the Canaanites and Phoenicians — and from them wore these abominations trans- ferred to Greece, and Carthage, and Rome. Thus foul and odious was the nature, thus wide the diffusion, and thus fatal the effects, of that idolatry ; to provide an anti- dote to which in the Jewish nation, a special divine interposition was employed. Former interpositions had been tried in vain ; the deluge, the dispersion of mankind, the divine comnmnica- Kmpire, Vol. I. ch. ii. sect. I. confesses indeed, that not only " every virtue, but even " vice acquired its divine representation ; that the philosopher could not adore as gods " those imperfect beings whom he must have despised as men." Yet he speaks with evident approbation of these philosophers who, *' viewing with a smile of pity and " indulgence the various errors of the vulgar, diligently practised the ceremonies of "their fathers; devoutly frequented the temples of the gods, and, sometimes conde- "scending to act a part on the theatre of superstition, concealed the sentiments of au "atheist under sacerdotal robes:" and tells us, "That tlie emperors, who always "exercised the office of supreme pontiff, were convinced that the various modes of " worship contributed alike to tlie same salutary/ purposes; and that in every country " the form of superstition which had received the sanction of time and experience was " the best adapted to the clunate and its inhabitants." The same Mr Gibbon tells us of " the mild spirit of antiquity, less attentive to the difference than to the reseni- " blance of their religious worship:" of "the elegant mythology of Homer (see it "described by Cicero in the last note,) which gave a beautiful and almost a regular "form to the polytheism of the ancient world:" of "the public festivals whii-U "humanized the manners of the people," (probably by accustoming them to obscene rites, or gladiatorial combats;) and of "the arts of divination, managed as a con- " venient instrument of policy." Of the same system of polytheism, Mr Hume* tells us in his Natural History of Religion, sect. xi. " That if we examine witiiout ''prejudice, the ancient heathen mythology, as contained in the poets, we snail not " discover in it any such monstrous absurdity as we may at first be apt to apprehend. "Where is the difficulty," (asks this cautious investigator ef probabilities) "in con- " ceiving that the same powers or principles, whatever they were, which formed this " visible world, men and animals, produced also a species of intelligent creatures of " more refined substance and greater authority than the rest ? That these creatures •' may be capricious, revengeful, passionate, voluptuous, is easily conceived ; nor is "any circumstance more apt among ourselves to engender such vices than the license " of absolute authority. And in short " (concludes this cautious academic investigator of truth) " the whole mythological system is so natural, that in the variety of planets and " worlds contained in this universe, it seems more than probable, that somewhere or "other it is really carried into execution. The chief objection to it with regard to "this planet is, that it is not ascertained by any just reason or authority. Tlie "ancient tradition insisted upon by heathen prit-sts and tluologers, is but a «eak "foundation, and transmitted also with such a number of contradictory reports, "supported all of them by equal authority, that it became absolutely impossible to "fix a preference among them. A few volumes, therefore, must coniain all tlie ♦ Vide Hume's E«ays, Vol. II. p. 412. 11 114 THEOLOGY or [Part 11. tion to Noah, and (we have reason to believe) to other patriarchs, the destruction of Sodora and Gomorrah all had been ineffectual. Idolatry extended, till there was scarce any apparent mode of preventing its involving all mankind in guilt and profligacy, effacing every trace of primeval piety, as well as of moral virtue, from the earth. So that if at any time the Deity should communicate a new revelation of his will to men, they would be totally unprepared to estimate the truth of its principles, and the weight of its evidence, in order to convince themselves of its divine original. If at any time the imposture and falsehood of heathen priests and oracles, and the vanity of idols, should be "polemical writings of Pagan priests; and their whole theology must consist more "of traditional stories and superstitious practices, than of philosophical argument " and controversy." This want of philosophical argument and controverey, to help out the ancient mythologists, and remove the objection against admitting the poetic polytheism of the lieathens in this our planet, must have been a disadvantage not a little to be lamented in the judgment of our philosopher, for he had told us in the preceding page, "That where the Deity is represented as infinitely superior to "mankind; this belief, though altogether just, when joined with superstitious terrors, " is apt to sink the human mind in the lowest submission and abasement, and to "represent the monkish virtues of mortification, penance, humility, and passive suf- " fering, as the only qualities which are acceptable to him. But where the gods are •'conceived to be only a little superior to mankind, and to have been many of them " advanced from that inferior rank, we are more at our ease in our addresses to " them, and may even without profaneness aspire sometimes to a rivalship and emu- *' lation of them: hence activity, spirit, courage, magnanimity, love of liberty, and " all the virtues which aggrandize a people." Alas! how lamentable the departure from so happy a state of things ! To bring it back would be the triumph of modem philosophy. Let us hear another minute philosopher, the Abbe Raynal, mourning over the ill- fated virtues of expiring polytheism, and indignant at the edict of Constantino, which prohibited Paganism in the entire extent of his empire. How destructive the conse- quence. I copy the words of the eloquent Abb6, Histoire Philosophique, Introduction, page 10. "Ces vastes contrees se trouverent couvertes d'hommes, qui n'etoient plus " lies entr'eux ni a I'etat, par les noeuds sacres de la religion et du serment: sans " pretres, sans temples, sans morale publique , quel zele pouvoient-ils avoir pour repous- " ser des ennemis, qui venoient attaquer une domination li laquelleils ne tenoient plus." The public morals of Paganism lost, all was lost! From this it seems pretty clear, that if idolatry had continued in this country to this hour, these philosophers would, to use the words of Mr Gibbon, " have condescended " to act their part on the theatre of superstition, that the interests of the priests, and "the superstition of the people, might be suffiriently respected.'' When such repre- sentations are disseminated by writers so eloquent and admired, I trust I shall be ex- cused for having dwelt somewhat at length on the absurdity, impiety, and atrocious crimes attendant on idolatry; which, it appears (particularly from their writings,) noihing but Revelation could have checked. Lect. I.] THE JEWISH LAW, 115 detected ; there yet would have existed no system of true reli- gion in the world, whence good principles and a pure worship could bo restored. To prevent an apostasy so fatal and irremediable, the moral Governor of the world determined to select one nation, amongst whom to cultivate the principles of true religion and consistent virtue. For this purpose Moses relates, that God selected Abra- ham,* a man of distinguished virtue and piety : he tried his faith and obedience in various ways, commanding him to quit his country and his kindred, and go into a strange land, which he promised to give unto his seed : he enters into a national covenant with him, that he and his posterity should serve the one true God alone and God promised on his part " that through " HIS SEED, ALL THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH SHOULD BE BLESSED ;" that so long as his descendants preserved their obedience, God would multiply them, and bless them with the possession of the land of Canaan, and every species of temporal prosperity. As the seal and record of this covenant, God prescribed circumcision to the Jews, which effectually distinguished and separated them from every other people Before this divine promise could be carried into full effect, it was necessary this family should multiply into a nation. The time for this, after which they were to take possession of the promised land, is fixed at the original formation of the compact ; " Know of a surety (says God to Abraham) that thy seed shall " be a stranger in a land which is not theirs, and shall serve them, "• they shall afflict them for four hundred years. And also that " nation whom they shall serve, will I judge : and after that they " shall come out with great substance."f At the close of the appointed period, Moses was raised up to accomplish the promised deliverance of this chosen nation from their land of bondage; to inflict the judgments God had menaced on the idolaters who had so long oppressed them ; to lead the chosen people to the land of their inheritance ; and to convey to them, from God himself, such a system of religious and civil government, as was suited to their situation, and to those designs for the accomplishment of which the Divine Wisdom had selected and preserved them : even to erect in the midst of this nation * Genesis, xii. tliree first verses — xiii. from v. 14, and ch. xv. xvii. and xxii. •}• Genesis, xv. 13 116 THEOLOGY OF [Part II. the standard of the one true God, iu opposition to idolatry ; to exhibit them as an example of divine providence, continually superintending their conduct, rewarding their adherence to piexy and virtue, and punishing their deviations into idolatry and vice ; and finally to employ them, in order to prepare the way for the introduction of that blessing, which it was promised should be conveyed through them to all the nations of the earth ; even the PROMISED SAVIOUR, CHRIST JESUS ; wlio at the appointed time ap- peared, to instruct, to reform, and to redeem all who would return and repent ; to break down the wall of partition between the Jews and the Gentiles ; to call all nations into one fold, under one shepherd, and turn men every where " from the " works of darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan " unto God."* Such were some of the chief purposes for which the Jewish race was selected, and the Mosaic law promulgated ; but in exe- cuting this purpose, it was necessary, according to the universal system of God's moral government, to treat the individuals who were to be employed in accomplishing it, as moral agents. In no instance does the Divinity control the actions of human beings by mere physical violence and compulsory restraint ; in no instance are men's moral characters wholly neglected and set aside, so as to compel them to sustain a part contrary to the dictates of their judgments, and the feelings of their hearts. No : when the God of nature interferes to direct the conduct of these creatures, whom he has formed with reason to judge and freedom to act for themselves, and whom he has made responsible for the application of that reason, and the exercise of that free will, he employs means adapted to that moral nature he has himself be- stowed. These means have for their immediate object, either to enlighten the understanding by instruction suited to the purposes of the divine economy, or to bias the will by such motives, and work on the affections by such instruments and influences, as are adapted to the general character and situation of the agent, as well as to the particular mode of conduct they tend to produce ; and to communicate such strength and aid, as, without disturbing the progress or subverting the principles of moral agency, may yet prevent men from being tempted above their power, but with Acts, xxvi. 18. Lect. I.] THE JEWISH LAW 117 the>i' temptation may make them a way to escape, that they may " be able to bear it."* If therefore we wish to estimate the authority of any supposed revelation, from its internal evidence, we are led to consider the nature as well of the instructions it conveys, as of the motives by which it engages the aftections and influences the will ; and to compare both with the situation and character of the moral agents to whom these instructions and motives are addressed. Let us apply these principles of enquiry to the Mosaic code, and first consider the purport of these instructions which it addressed to the Jewish people, on the existence and attributes of (Jod, and how far it adapted these instructions to the character and circumstances of the peculiar people for whom they were designed. If then we examine the Jewish Law, to discover the principle on which the whole system depends, the primary truth, to incul- cate and illustrate which is its leading object, we find it to be, that great basis of all religion, both natural and revealed, the self-existence, essential unity, perfections and providence, of the supreme Jehovah, the Creator of heaven and earth. The first line of the Mosaic writings inculcates this great truth : " In " the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." When the Lawgiver begins to recapitulate the statutes and judgments he had enjoined to his nation, it is with this declaration, " Hear, " 0 Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord ;"-f- or, as it might be more closely expressed, Jehovah our Elohim, or God, is one ^ehovah. And at the commencement of that sublime hymn, delivered immediately before his death, in which this illustrious Prophet sums up the doctrines he had taught, the wonders by which they had been confirmed, and the denunciations by Avhich they were enforced, he declares this great tenet with the sublim- ity of Eastern poetry, but at the same time with the precision of philosophic truth : " Give ear," says he, " O ye heavens, and " I will speak : and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. " My doctrine shall drop as the rain ; my speech shall distil as " the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the " showers upon the grass."| What, is that doctrine so awful, that the whole universe is thus invoked to attend to it ? So • 1 Cor. X. 13. t Duit. vi. 4. J Ibid, xxxii. 13, &c. ] ] 8 THEOLOGY OF [Part II. salutary, as to be compared with the principle, whose operation (litFuses beauty and fertility over the vegetable world ? Hear the answer : " Because I will publish the name of Jehovah ; ascribe " ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is per- " feet ; a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is " he." This then is one great leading doctrine of the Jewish code. But the manner in which this doctrine is taught, displays such wise accommodation to the capacity and character of the nation to whom it is addressed, as deserves to be carefully remarked. That character by which the Supreme Being is most clearly dis- tinguished from every other, however exalted ; that character, from which the acutest reasoners* have endeavoured demonstra- tively to deduce, as from their source, all the divine attributes, is SELF-EXISTENCE. Is it not thcu highly remarkable, that it is under this character the Divinity is described on his first mani- festation to the Jewish Lawgiver ? The Deity at first reveals himself unto him as the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob ; and therefore the peculiar national, and guardian God of the Jewish race. Moses, conscious of the degeneracy of the Israel- ites, their ignorance of, or their inattention to the true God, and the difficulty and danger of any attempt to recall them to his exclusive worship, and to withdraw them from Egypt, seems to decline the task ; but, when absolutely commanded to undertake it, he said unto God, " Behold, when I come unto the Children " of Israel, and shall say unto them. The God of your fathers " hath sent me unto you ; and they shall say to me. What is " his name ? What shall I say unto them ? And God said unto " Moses. / am, that I am : and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto * Vide Dr Clarke on the Attributes ; Wollaston's Religion of Nature, sect. v. Bishop Gastrell Boyle's Lectures, sub initio. And particularly, vide Dr Hugh Hamiltoti (once a Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and late Bishop of Ossory,) On the Being and Attributes of God. I gladly embrace this opportunity of paying my humble tribute of respect to the memory of a man, who applied the most powerful talents to the most useful purposes ; equally eminent in mathematical and theological learning (for he was the author of a Treatise on Conic Sections, one of the most original and beautiful specimens of pure geometrical reasoning ever exhibited, and as such generally adopted.) Highly respectable also for his private virtue, he will ever rank as a most distinguished ornament of the University of Dublin, and the church of Ireland. And as his life was estimable, so its close was enviable; he died full of years and of honours, encircled by a virtuous and respectable family, trained by his orecepts to emulate his example. Led. I.] THE JEWISH LAW. 119 " the Children of Israel, / am luatli sent me unto you,"* Here we observe, accordins^ to the constant method of the divine wisdom, when it condescends to the prejudices of men, how in the very instance of indulgence it corrects their superstition. The religion of names arose from an idolatrous polytheism ;+ and the name given here directly opposes this error, and in the ignorance of that dark and corrupted period establishes clearly that great truth, to which the most enlightened philosophy can add no new lustre, and on which all the most refined speculations on the divine nature ultimately rest, the self-existence, and by consequence, the eternity and immutability, of the one great Jehovah. If we adopt the opinion of those interpreters,^ who discover in this passage not only a declaration of the self-existence and im- mutability of the Deity, but an intimation of that great deliverer, " who was, and is, and is to come, the same yesterday, to day, " and for ever ;" the indication of a truth so certain, and yet to mere human imagination so unthought of at that early period, would confirm, beyond possibility of doubt, the original of a de- claration, which divine wisdom alone could promulgate, and divine power alone could fulfil. The progress of this interesting narrative supplies new proofs of the wisdom with which this revelation was adapted to the nation to whom it was address, .?u. 128 THEOLOGY ov [Part II when the whole world was deeply infected with idolatry ; when all knowledge of the one true God, all reverence for his sacred name, all reliance on his providence, all obedience to his laws, were nearlv banished from the earth ; when the severest chastise- ments had been tried in vain ; when no hope of reformation ap- peared from the refinements of civilization or the researches of philosophy ; for the most civilized and enlightened nations adopted with the greatest greediness, and disseminated with the greatest activity, the absurdities, impieties, and pollutions of idol- atry. Then was the Jewish Law promulgated to a nation, who, to mere human judgment, might have appeared incapable of in- venting or receiving such a high degree of intellectual or moral improvement; for they had been long enslaved to the Eg}"ptians, the authors and supporters of the grossest idolatry ; they had been weighed down by the severest bondage, perpetually harassed by the most incessant manual labours ; for the Egyptians " made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in " brick, and in all manner of service in the field."* At this time, and in this nation, was the Mosaic Law promulgated, teaching the great principles of true religion, the self-existence, the unity, the perfections and the providence, of the one great Jehovah ; reprobating all false gods, all image-worship, all the absurdities and profanations of idolatry. At this time, and in this nation, was a system of government framed, which had for its basis the reception of, and steady adherence to, this system of true religion ; and establishing many regulations, which would be in the highest degree irrational, and could never hope to be received, except from a general and thorough reliance on the superintendence of Divine Providence, controlling the course of nature, and directing every event, so as to proportion the pros- perity of the Hebrew people, according to their obedience to that Law which they received as divine. In the mode in which the doctrines of their religion were pro- mulgated, we find a minute attention to the moral and intellec- tual character of the nation for whom it was designed, and the most admirable precautions used, to impress attention and com- mand obedience, if the authority of the Lawgiver was in realitv divine ; but precautions of such a nature as would render hia whole scheme abortive, and expose it to derision and contempt, * Exod. i. 14. Lect. I.] THE JEWISH LAW. 129 if he had contrived it only by human artifice, and relied on no- thing but human aid. Here then, I rest the first presumptive argument for the divine original of the Jewish scheme. And I contend that the promul- gation of such a system of theology, at such a period, and to such a people, so connected with the form of its government, and adopting such extraordinary regulations and precautions, cannot be satisfactorily accounted for, without allowing the truth of the Mosaic history, the deliverance of Israel by supernatural aid, and the establishment of their religion and government by divin** authority. 130 MORAL PRINCIPLES [Part II. LECTURE II. The Ten Commandments due to the Mosaic Laic. Their extent. Their importance illu*. trated hy the practices of the heathen world. The Jcivish religion inculcates the two great principles, oj love to God, and love to man — ^Iso love to our enemies, as far oi was practicable under the Jewish economy. It did not substitute outward observances for internal piety — Proved from the general principles of internal religion which it establishes — From the conditions on which alone it proposes the forgiveness of trarum gressions — From the connexion it points out, between the ceremonies of the ritual and internal religion. Recapitulation. DEUTERONOMY, iv. 8. " What nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgements so righteous, as all this Latv which I set before you this day?" It shall be the object of this Lecture to enquire, how far this character, which the Jewish Legislator ascribes to his Law, is justified by the nature of the general moral principles which it inculcates, and the specific precepts it lays down, compared with the period at which they were promulgated, and the dis- position and capacity of the nation for whom they were designed. In the first place, then, it is an obvious, but it ia not therefore a less important remark, that to the Jewish reli- gion we owe that admirable summary of moral duty, contained in the Ten Commandments. All fair reasoners will admit, that each of these must be understood to condemn, not merely the extreme crime which it expressly prohibits, but every inferior offence of the same kind, and every mode of conduct leading to such transgression ;* and on the contrary, to enjoin opposite conduct, and the cultivation of opposite dispositions. Thus, the command, " Thou shalt not kill," condemns not merely the * That the Ten Commandments were understood in this extensive sense by the Jews themselves, is evident, not only from the various declarations of the inspired Psalmist and the Prophets, but from the testimonies of such Jewish writings as have reached us, particularly those of Josephus and the celebrated Philo. I refer in parti- cular to the following passages: — Psalms iv. xv. and xix. 12, 13.; Psalm x. 16, to the end, particularly 23.; Psalm Ixxxii. 2, 3, 4.; Psalms ci. and cxix. passim, par- ticularly 151. 163, 172.; Isaiah, i. from 10 to 20; also Ivi. Iviii. Ixi.; Jeremiah, vii. Lect. II.] OF THE JEWISH LAW. 131 single crime of deliberate murder, but every kind of violence, and every indulgence of passion and resentment, which tends either to excite such violence, or to produce that malignant disposition of mind, in which the guilt of murder principally con- sists : and similarly of the rest. In this extensive interpretation of the Commandments, we are warranted, not merely by the deductions of reason, but by the letter of the Law itself. For the addition of the last^ " Thou shalt not covet," proves clearly that in all, the disposition of the heart, as much as the immediate outward act, is the object of the Divine Legislator ; and thus it forms a comment on the meaning, as well as a guard for the ob- servance of all the preceding commands. Interpreted in this natural and rational latitude, how compre- hensive and important is this summary of moral duty. It in- first sixteen verses. All these passages show clearly, that sincere and heartfelt piety and virtue, not Pharisaical strictness or mere ceremonial worship, was demanded by the Jewish law. In confirmation, consult Josephus, Book II. against Apion, from sect. xvi. to the end. The following beautiful and important passage is very full and express: — "The " reason," says he, " why the constitution of this legislation was ever better directed " to the utility of all, than other legislations were, is this : that Moses did not make " religion a part of virtue, but he saw and he ordained other virtues to be part of " religion : I mean justice, and fortitude, and temperance, and an universal agreement *' of the members of the community with one another ; for all our actions and studies, " and all our words (in Moses's settlement) have a reference to piety towards God." And again, sect, xxiii. " What are the things then that we are commanded or for- " bidden ? They are simple, and easily known. The first command is concerning '• God, and afBrms that God contains all things, and is a Being every way perfect " and happy, self-sufficient, and supplying all other beings ; the beginning, the middle, " and the end of all things. He is manifest in his works and benefits, and moro " conspicuous than iny other. Being whatsoever. But as to his form and magnitude, "he is most obscure; all materials, however costly, are unworthy to compose an "image for him; and all arts are unartful, to express the notion we ought to have of "him: we can neither see nor think of any thing like him, nor is it agreeable to piety *' to form a resemblance of him. We see his works — the light, the heaven, the earth, " the sun and the moon, the waters, the generations of animals, the productions of "fruits: these things hath God made, not with hands, not with labour, nor as wanting " the assistance of any to co-operate vrith him; but as his will resolved they should be "made, and be good also, they were made and became good immediately. All men "ought to follow this Being, and to worship him in the exercise of virtue; for this way " of the worship of God is the most holy of all others." In explaining the other princi- ples of moral duty, he combines the direct commands of the Decalogue with their various additions, explanations, and improvements, which are dispersed through the entire Pentateuch; thus applying them in the most extensive latitude. The view which Philo takes of this siibiect. in his Tract on the Decalogue, and th<* 132 MORAL PRixciPLEs [Part II. culcates the adoration of the one true God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is ; who must, therefore, be infinite in power, and wisdom, and goodness ; the object of exclusive adoration, of gratitude for every blessing we enjoy ; of fear, for he is a jealous God ; of hope, for he is merciful. It prohibits every species of idolatry ; whether by associating false gods with the true, or worshipping the true by symbols and images. Commanding not to take the name of God in vain, it enjoins the observance of all outward respect for the Divine authority, as well as the cultivation of inward sentiments and feelings, suited to this outward reverence ; and it establishes the obligation of oaths, and, by consequence, of all compacts and deliberate promises ; a principle without which the administration of laws would be impracticable, and the bonds of society must be dissolved. two subsequent Tracts on the special Laws connected with the different parts of it, is equally extended. He says, "The commands which God himself proclaimed, are not '•only Laws, but tlie summaries or general heads of particular Laws; and those which •' he promulgated by his prophet Moses, are all to be referred to the former."* On the first and second commandments,! he argues at large against the absurdity and guilt of idolatry in all its points; on the third, J he impresses with the greatest earnest- ness, the guilt either of perjury or rash swearing in conversation: "He who is about " to swear," says he, " ought diligently to examine all the circumstances attending the "subject about which he is to swear; whether it be important, whether it be true, " whether it be certainly apprehended by him. Next he ought to consider himself, " whether his soul is pure from guilt, his body from pollution, his tongue from evil- " speaking; for it is criminal to permit anything unworthy to be uttered by that " mouth, which pronounces the most holy name." Considering the Ten Command- ments as summaries of general Laws, he observes, || that " To the fourth is to lie refer- " red every thing relating to festival days aud sabbaths, vows, sacrifices, purifications, " and every other part of religious worship." On the fifth he observes, " That in the " precept, ' Honour your parents,' are included many Laws, prescribing the duties of "the young to the old, of subjects to magistrates, and servants to masters, and those who have received benefits to their benefactors." And thus of the rest. I have made these quotations, to prove that the Mosaic Law effected the purpose, which I have contended it was calculated to promote ; by rectifying and enlarging the moral views of the reflecting and enlightened ^'part of the Jewish nation, to a degree far superior to that which Pagan morality had attained; a circumstance particularly re- markable, in the extent which Philo (p. 592, Letter/,) gives to the command, "Thou "shalt not commit adultery," as prohibiting any irregular desire and licentious iiiduJ gesce. A strictness utterly unknown to the heathen world. * Vide Philonis Opera, p. 576, Letter c. t Ibid, from p. 579, Letter/, to 583. Letter e. X Philo, p. 583, Letter/, and 584, Letter e. M Ptilloait Opera, p. 590, from Letter/, to the end of the Tract on the TOeeaKiyu* Lcct. II. I OF nij; jEWL'ia law 133 By commanding to keep holy the sahbath, as the memorial of the creation, it establishes the necessity of public worship, and of a stated and outward profession of the truths of religion, aa well as of the cultivation of suitable feelings : and it enforces this by a motive which is equally applicable to all mankind: and which should have taught the Jew, that he ought to consider all nations as equally creatures of that Jehovah whom he himself adored ; equally subject to his government, and if sincerely obe- dient, entitled to all the privileges his favour could bestow. It is also remarkable, that this commandment, requiring that the rest of the sabbath should include the man-servant, and the maid- servant, and the stranger that was within their gates, nay, even their cattle, proved that the Creator of the Universe extended his attention to all his creatures ; that the humblest of mankind were the objects of his paternal love ; that no accidental differ- ences, which so often create alienation amongst different nations, would alienate any from the divine regard : and that even the brute creation shared the benevolence of their Creator, and ought to be treated by men with gentleness and humanity. When we proceed to the second table, comprehending more expressly our social duties, we find all the most important prin- ciples on which they depend, clearly enforced. The command- ment which enjoins, " Honour thy father and mother,"" sanctions the principles, not merely of filial obedience, but of all those duties which arise from our domestic relations ; and, while it requires not so much any one specific act, as the general disposi- tion which should regulate our whole course of conduct in this instance, it impresses the important conviction, that the entire Law proceeds from a Legislator able to search and judge the heart of man. The subsequent commands coincide with the clear dictates of reason, and prohibit crimes which human laws in general have prohibited as plainly destructive of social happiness. But it was of infinite importance to rest the prohibitions, " Thou " shalt not kill — Thou shalt not commit adultery — Thou shalt not steal — Thou shalt not bear false witness," not merely on the deductions of reason, but also on the weight of a divine authority. How often have false ideas of public good in some places, depraved passions in otU rs, and the delusions of idolatry in still more, established a law of reputation contrary to the 134 MORAL PRINCIPLES [Part II. dictates of reason, and the real interests of society? In one country we see theft allowed, if perpetrated with address : * in others piracy and rapine honoured, -f* if conducted with intre- pidity. Sometimes we perceive adultery permitted, | the most unnatural crimes committed without remorse or shame ; § nay, every species of impurity enjoined and consecrated, as a part of divine worship. In others, we find revenge honoured as spirit — and death inflicted at its impulse, with ferocious triumph. Again, we see every feeling of nature outraged, and parents || exposing their helpless children to perish, for deformity of body or weakness of mind, or, what is still more dreadful, from mercenary or political views ; and this inhuman practice fami- liarized by custom, and authorized by law. And to close the horrid catalogue, we see false religions leading their deluded votaries to heap the altars of their idols with human victims : H the master butchers his slave, the conqueror his captive ; nay, dreadful to relate, the parent sacrifices his children, and, while they shriek amidst the tortures of the flames, or in the agonies of death, he drowns their cries by the clangor of cymbals and the yells of fanaticism. Yet these abominations, separate or combined, have disgraced ages and nations which we are accus- tomed to admire and celebrate as civilized and enlightened — Babylon and Egypt, Phoenicia and Carthage, Greece and Rome. Many of these crimes legislators have enjoined, or philosophers • Vide Universal Hist. B. I. ch. xix. Vol. I. p. 564 ; and Plutarch in Lycurgus. •f Thucyd. Lib. I. sect. v. J Universal Hist. Vol. I, 562; and Plutarch in his life of Lycurgus. § The proofs of this melancholy fact are unhappily too numerous. The second Eclogue of the correct Virgil is instar omnium. Vide also Plutarch in Lycurgus com- pared with Xenophon's Vindication, acknowledging that such guilt was authorized in many places, by the public Laws. Vide Leland's Advantage of Revelation, Part L ch. vii. and Part H. ch. iii. II Vide Plutarch in Lycurgus, who made it a Law, that the father was obUged to submit his child to the inspection of certain judges, to determine whether it should be preserved, or cast into a deep cavern to perish. Plutarch passes no censure on it. Vide also, the Self-Tormentor of Terence, Act iii. scene 4. Plato and Aristotle ap- prove this cruel violation of natural duty and aflection. Vide Plato de Republica, Lib, V. pp. 25 and 28; and Aristotle Politic. Lib. VH. cap. xvi. and Cicero de Legibus, Lib. HL cap. viii. by which it appears, this practice was enjoined ty a law of the Twelve Tables at Rome. H Vide the authorities quoted in the last Lecture, note, pp, 193, 194, and 195, &c. ; and Dr Ryan's useful Work on the Effects of Rtligioii, Vol. I. p. L7, and seq. Lect. II.] OF THB JEWISH LAW. 135 defended. What indeed could be hoped from legislators and philosophers, when we recollect the institutions of Lycurgus, especially as to purity of manners,* and the regulations of Plato on the same subject, in his model of a perfect republic ; when we consider the sensuality of the Epicureans, and im- modesty of the Cynics ; when we find suicide-f applauded by the Stoics, and the murderous combats of gladiators defended by Cicero, and exhibited by Trajan 1 Such variation and incon- stancy in the rule and practice of moral duty, as established by the feeble or fluctuating authority of human opinion, demon- strates the utility of a clear divine interposition, to impress these important prohibitions ; and it is difficult for any sagacity to calculate, how far such an interposition was necessary, and what effect it may have produced by influencing human opinions, and regulating human conduct, when we recollect that the Mosaic code was probably the first written law ever delivered to any nation ; and that it must have been generally known in those eastern countries, from which the most ancient and celebrated legislators and sages derived the models of their laws and the principles of their philosophy. Such is the substance, and such the importance, of the De- calogue.:}: Shall we then censure and despise the Jewish law, as a system of mere external and useless ceremonies ; when it evidently places this great summary of moral duty at the head of all its institutions : and, in the very mode of its promulga- tion, stamps it with a sacreduess and authority suited to its natural pre-eminence ? For let it be remembered, that the * Vide Plutarch in Lycurgus; and Plato de Republica, Lib. 5. Tliis last exhibits the melancholy and humiliating spectacle, of the most enlightened of heathen philoso- phers coolly adopting and recommending as the perfection of public morals, a system of more brutalizing turpitude and unnatural cruelty, than ever in fact disgraced human nature in its most depraved state, or polluted the pages of the most licentious writer. Vide Vol. VIL from p. 17 to 28, Editio Bipontina. Alas! how striking a proof of the importance of Revelation. f Vide Cicero de Finibus, Lib. III. cap. xviii ; Lelaiid, Part IL ch. xi. J How strongly is this expressed in the language of some East Indians, to the English! " If you send us a missionary, send us one who has learned your Ten Com "mandments."' Vide Dr Buchanan's Essay on the establishment of an Episcopal Church in India, p. 61, a most interesting and important Work. Vide in the same Work, the cruel and immoral practices sanctioned by the Hindoo superstition, which supply an additional proof of the necessity of Revelation to rectify errors, and to regu- late the conduct of man. ] 36 MORAL PRINCIPLES [Part II. Decaiogue alone was promulgated to the Jews, not by the inter- mediate ministry of their legislator, but directly to the assembled nation by the voice of God, issuing from the glory on the top of Smai. Thus does the Jewish legislator appeal to his nation in attestation of this fact : "Hear, 0 Israel, the statutes and jud^;- " ments which I speak in your ears this day. 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, saying, I am the Lord thy " God.""* Moses then repeats the Ten Commandments, and adds, " These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in " the mount, out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of " the thick darkness, with a great voice ; and he added no more : " and he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them " unto me." Thus awful was the promulgation of the divine Law, enjoining these great principles of duty both towards God and man ; first, to the J6ws, and through them, we may truly assert, to all the nations of the earth. And was not this an occasion worthy of the direct interposition of the Deity? May we not, without derogating from the wisdom and beneficence of the Divinity, ascribe to him such a law, so promulgated ; But the Jewish religion promoted the interests of moral virtue, not merely by the positive injunctions of the Decalogue ; it also inculcated, clearly and authoritatively the two great principles on which all piety and virtue depend, and which our blessed Lord recognized as the commandments on which hang the Law and the Prophets ; — the principles of love to God, and love TO OUR NEIGHBOUR. The LOVE OP GoD is cvcry wlicre enjoined in the Mosaic Law, as the ruling disposition of the heart, from which all obedience should spring, and in which it ought to terminate. With what solemnity does the Jewish Lawgiver impress it, at the commencement of his recapitulation of the divine Law ; " Hear, 0 Israel ; the Lord our God is one Lord : " and thou slialt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, " and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."-f- And again, " And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, " but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to • Deut. V. 1, &c, f Deut. vi. 4 and 5. Led. II.] OF THE JEWISH LAW. 137 " love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, "and with all thy soul r* Nor is the love of our neighbour less explicitly enforced : " Thou shalt not," says the Law, " avenge, nor bear any grudge " against the children of thy people ; but thou shalt love thy " neighbour as thyself : I am the Lord."*!' The operation of this benevolence thus solemnly required, was not to be confined to their own countrymen ; it was to extend to the stranger, who, naving renounced idolatry, was permitted to live amongst them, worshipping the true God, though without submitting to circum- cision or the other ceremonial parts of the Mosaic Law. " If a ' stranger," says the law, " sojourn with thee in your land, ye ' shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you, " shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love ' him as thyself ; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt : I " am the Lord your God."";}: Nay further, the Jewish law recognised that exalted princi- ple, of loving our enemies, and doing good to them that hat© us ; where it commanded, " If thou meet thine cnemy"'s ox or " his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him " again. If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee, lying *' under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him ; thou " shalt surely help with him."§ It may however be questioned, from the nature of the good offices here enjoined, as well as from the corresponding passages, which speak of a brother or fellow-Jew in this case, whether this injunction could be under- stood to imply more, tlian that no private enmity between one Jew and another should interrupt that intercourse of good offices which ought to subsist between the professors of the same religion, and members of the same community. But even thus, the Jewish religion introduced and inculcated that great principle of benevolence, as far as it was possible to practise it under the circumstances in which the Hebrew people were placed, and the design for which it was selected. All the sur- rounding nations were idolaters, any intimate society with whom they were commanded to avoid ; and no strangers could be [permitted to dwell amongst them, until they had renounced idolatry ; for such permission would have exposed the Jews to * Deut. X. 12. t Lev. xix. 18. } Lev. xix. 33 and 34. § Exod. xxiii. 4 and 5. 138 MORAL PRINCIPLES [Part II. temptations too powerful for them to resist, as subsequent experience clearly proved. Hence the Law particularizes the children of their people, and the stranger who dwelt among them having renounced idolatry, as the objects of their bene- volence, lest it should be conceived to contradict those injunc- tions of the same Law, which prohibited all connection with their idolatrous neighbours, and all tolerance of idolaters within their own community. For it cannot be doubted, that had the Jews been expressly commanded to love their neighbours, though idolatrous, they would have mistaken the precept as a permission to tolerate their worship, and to partake their festi- vities : so incapable was this gross people of understanding refined distinctions, or receiving that sublime doctrine of uni- versal benevolence, which pervades the Gospel of Christ. All, however, that was possible to do, was done. The principle, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,"" was clearly laid down, and its operation was, by direct command, extended to all mth whom a Jew was permitted to hold any permanent or close connexion ; so that, so far as it could serve to subdue selfish feelings, and train the mind to benevolence, by a perpe- tual series of benevolent actions, it was fully operative. A more universal precept, a more refined and jxalted theory, would probably have led that dull and obstinate race into errors and transgressions, subversive of all the designs for which Divine Providence established the Jewish economy. It was reserved for HIM TO PREPARE THE WAY, FOR WHOM that ocouomy was designed ; the expected Messiah, the God of love and op MERCY, to extend and enforce the principle of benevolence ; to teach men to regard all human beings requiring their aid, as friends and brethren, however difierent their country, however opposite their faith ; to teach them to love their enemies, to return blessing for cursing, and good for evil ; to imitate the example of their Redeemer, who laid down his life for his friends, and in the agonies of death prayed for his persecutors. Thus it was strictly true, that the commandment of our Lord, " To love one another, even as He loved us," was new.* New in the universality of its application, new in the all-perfect example by which it was illustrated, new in the sanction by which it was enforced, and the pre-eminence which it obtained in the scheme * Jolui, xiii. 34. LeCt, II.] OF THE JEWISH LAW. 139 of gospel duties ; where it is ranked as the peculiar characteristic of the followers of Christ, and an essential condition of obtaining forgiveness from God. But the principle was recognised in the Mosaic Law, and applied as extensively as existing circumstances would permit. It is frequently charged on the Jewish scheme, and I believe too generally and incautiously admitted, that it represents the Divinity as requiring from his worshippers, outward rites, rather than internal heart-felt piety; thus leading men to substitute the shadow for the substance, and attend more to unimportant circumstances, and superstitious observances, than to the great principles of judgment, justice, and truth. That the Jews, in the decline of their religion, did so pervert and corrupt their Law, by adopting such sentiments, is true ; but most certain it is, they could find nothing in their original Law to justify such sentiments or practices. No : They could have found no sanc- tion for mere external and superstitious worship, except in those traditions by which they obscured and perverted the original scheme of their religion. Nothing is more cautiously guarded against in the Mosaic Code, than resting in mere outward obser- vances ; nothing was more expressly and forcibly required, than internal devotion and practical piety. The Jew was called on, " to love his God with all his heart, and all his soul, and all his " might."* " The words which I command thee this day," says the Legislator, -f- " shall be in thine heart : and thou shalt teach " them diligently to thy children, and talk of them when thou " sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, " and when thou licst down, and when thou risest up." Could any thing be more remote from mere outward observance, than that heart-felt and habitual reverence for the divine commands here required 1 How opposite to mere ceremonious obedience is that which is enjoined in such precepts as these : " Ye shall be "holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.""! " If ye will obey " my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a " peculiar treasure unto me above all people : for all the earth is " mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an " holy nation."§ * Dcut. vi. 5. t lb- ^"- 6 and 7. \ Levit. xix. 2, or xx. 7, § Exod. xix. 5 and 6. 140 MORAL PRINCIPLE? [Part II. The indispensable necessity of not resting m mere external observances as the means of acceptance with the Deity, appears peculiarly conspicuous, in the conditions on which alone the Jews were taught to hope for reconciliation with their God, whenever their disobedience should provoke him to banish them from the land of their inheritance, disperse them through the nations, and load them with all those punishments which their Lawgiver denounced would attend their apostasy. " It shall " come to pass," says he, " when 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 confess your " iniquity and the iniquity of your fathers ; and if therefore " your uNciRcuMcisED HEARTS BE HUMBLED, and you acccpt of the " punishment of your iniquity, and shall return unto the Lord " thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I com- " mand thee this day, 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 the Lord thy God will circumcise " thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy " God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou " mayest live."* Here it is well worth observing, not only that reconciliation could be obtained only by repentance, and that no repentance would be accepted, which did not prove its sincerity by practical reformation ; but that the most important and distinguishing rite of the Jewish religion, circumcision itself, is represented as emblematic of that purity of heart, which ought to be culti- vated by all who adopted this external sign. And if this was true of that rite which was the badge of the Jew*'s religious pro- fession, and the seal of his covenant with God, the same prin- ciple must, by necessary inference, be applied to every subor- dinate rite and ceremony.-j- Indeed, were we to consider the * Deut. XXX. 1, &c. •f That all the rites and sacrifices of the Jewish religion were incapable of concili- ating divine favour, where internal piety was wanting, and were represented and considered in this light by the Jewish Lawgiver, is evident from the passages and observations adduced in this Lecture. It is equally certain the same principles arn inculcated in every other part of the Old Testament Vide the passages referred i/t in note p. 226. Led. II. OF THE JEWISH LAW. 141 Hebrew Ritual distinctly, it would I am confident be easy to prove that all its rites were either commemorative of such facts, or emblematic of such dispositions, as were best calculated to But it may be useful to show, that the most respectable Jewish uninspired writers viewed the Mosaic Ritual in the same light, acknowledged that sincere piety and purity were necessary to conciliate the divine favour, and considered the various rites and ceremonies of their religion, as intended to cultivate holy and virtuous af- fections. Thus Josephus,* speaking of sacrifices, says, " When we offer sacrifices to him, we " do it, not in order to surfeit ourselves and be drunken, for such excesses are against "the will of God, and would be an occasion of injuries and luxury; but by keeping " ourselves sober, orderly, and ready for our other occupations, and being more tem- " perate than others, and for our duty and the sacrifices themselves, we ought in the " first place to pray for the common welfare of all, and after that for our own ; for we •' are made for fellowship one with another, and he who prefers the common good be- " fore what is peculiar to himself, is above all acceptable to God: — and let our prayers " and supplications be made humbly to God, not so much that he would give us what " was good, for he hath already given that of his own accord, and hath proposed the '' same publicly to all, that we may duly receive it, and when we have received it, "may preserve it." On this passage, Whiston judiciously and truly remarks— '* That we may here observe, how known a thing it was, that sacrifices were still ac- " companied with prayers ; — whence came those praises — of the sacrifice of prayer — " of praise — of thanksgiving." And he remarks, " that in Solomon's long and famous "form of devotion, at the dedication of the temple, where all sacrifices were to be " offered up, yet there is no mention of the sacrifices themselves, but of prayers only." On the purification after a funeral, Josephus observes, + " That every one may thence " learn to keep at a great distance from the thoughts of being pure, if he hath been once " guilty of murder." On the priests, Josephus observes,^ " Moses not only enjoined " them to observe purity in their sacred ministrations, but in their daily conversation, "that it might be unblamable also; on this account it is, that they who wear the " sacerdotal garments are without spot, and eminent for their purity and sobriety, nor " are they permitted to drink wine so long as they wear those garments ; moreover, " they ofler sacrifices that are entire and have no defect whatsoever." Philo in his comments on the significancy of the dress of the priests, the sacrifices, and all the various circumstances of the Ritual, is full of the same moral and religious spirit. Indeed the inscription on the holy crown of Aaron, of holiness to the lord,§ naturally suggested such ideas to every pious and reflecting Israelite ; and Pliilo has pur- sued them certainly often with overstrained refinement and fanciful ingenuity. But his writings show, that the enlightened Jews, when Christianity was introduced, (for Philo was contemporary with the Apostles) were much addicted to spiritual and moral vieNvs of their Ritual and Law. Speaking of the sprinkling the garments of Aaron and his sons, and the altar, &c. Lev. viii, 10, 11, 12, and 30, he remarks, '* Moses did this, wishing they should be " holy, not only externally and visibly, but internally ; since all things, even in the in- " tenor of the temple, were purified by this holy oiritment."ir On the brazen laver « Lib. II. contra Apion, spct. xxiv. f Josephu?, contra Apion, Lib. II. sect, xxri^ I ;*ntiquities, Lib. III. ch. xli. sort. iii. \ Exod. xxxix. 30. 1 Fhilonis, Lib. III. de Vita Mosis, p 521,/ and 523, b. I have endeavoured to translate Philo' 142 MORAL PRINCIPLES [Part IT. form the mind to steady rectitude, internal purity, and sincere devotion. One instance as more immediately connected with this subject, I will briefly mention,* For every transgression, the Levitical Law prescribed a trespass -offering : where the transgression was of a mere ritual precept, and committed without deliberation or design, when discovered the trespass-oflfering was sufficient alone ; for this which had been made of brazen mirrors he remarks, " The priests, who were about to •' enter the temple, were to purify themselves, washing their hands and feet as a symbol " of innocency of life, and of a pure livelihood, obtained by praiseworthy means : and " each should remember that the materials of this vessel were mirrors ; so that each " should contemplate his own mind as it were in a mirror ; and if he should discover in " it the turpitude of irrational affection, or the immoderate love of pleasure, or grief " depressing him to excess, or turning him from rectitude, or desire stimulating him to " any thing forbidden, he should reform and cure it, and study to acquire the pure and " genuine beauty of the mind." But all Philo's works are so full of this, especially this beautiful Tract on Philanthropy or Charity,+ that it is unnecessary to multiply quotations. The celebrated Maimonides, in his " IMore Ncvochim," or " Instructor of those " who are perplexed," a work containing many judicious and learned elucidations of Scripture difficulties, and particularly an excellent exposition of the grounds and reasons of the Mosaic Laws ; and who, having published a laborious comment on the Rlischna or system of Jewish traditions, may be supposed to speak the general sense of the Jewish Rabbinical doctors, has an express chapter, (Part III. ch. xxxiii.) to show, " That the prohibition of external uncleanness and impurity by the Law, is instru. " mental of and subservient to the purification of the heart :" and has these strong words : •' Cleanliness of dress, washing of the body, and the removal of all dirt and squalidnesa, " is certainly the intention of the Law ; but subordinate to the purification of the con- " duct and the heart, from depraved opinions and corrupt morals. For, to think that " exterior purity, by ablutions of the body and the dress, can be sufficient, though in " other respects a man indulges himself in gluttony and drunkenness, is the extreraest " madness." Such are the sentiments of this celebrated Rabbi, conformable to the obvious inten- tion of the Law, and we may be assured, to the sentiments of all pious and reflecting Jews, in every period of their nation. Consult, on this subject, Mr Moses Lowman, on the Hebrew Ritual. If the student wishes for a still more learned disquisition, he will find it in Maimonides More Nevochim, Part III. from chap. xxvi. to the end ; Spencer de Legibus Hebraeorum, Lib. I. from ch. iv. to the end, and the entire of the second book ; observing, however, that the system of this learned writer is in many points successfully combated by Witsius. Vide Witsii .ffigyptiaca. Lib. III. who ap- pears to establish his opinion, notwithstanding that Warburton has espoused the scheme of Spencer. Vide the Fifth Lecture of this Part ; also, the Divine Legation, B. IV. sect. vi. • Vide Levit. ch. v. and vi. ; also Numb. v. 7, &c. words as closel y as I could . No part of his works has been translated into English, (so far as I know J thouffh certainly many parts deserve it— For Jotephus, 1 generally adopt Whiston's Translation. t Vide his Works, o. 539. Lect. II.] OF THE JEWISH LAW. 143 showed that the offender acknowledged the authority of the Law which he had unintentionally violated. But where the transgres- sion included any encroachment on the rights of another, the trespass-offering could not be received, except it was accompanied by a public acknowledgment of the offence, a resignation of the usurped property, and a restitution to the person injured, if he or his heir could be found ; if not, the usurped property was to be consecrated to pious uses, as the offender could not procure pardon while he retained it. What regulation could point out more clearly the inefficacy of sacrifice, where guilt was not un- feignedly repented of, and all the advantages, which had tempted to its perpetration, renounced and resigned, and where full resti- tution to the injured individual did not accompany humiliation before God? Another observation on this subject, of great weight is, that the reverence which the Jew was taught his God required, is per- petually represented not as terminating in prayers and religious services alone : but as a practical principle, which was to regulate his conduct towards his neighbour, and display itself by judg- ment, by justice, by humanity, and particularly by showing mercy to the poor and the stranger, the Avidow and the fatherless, to whom God is represented as bearing the peculiar relation of patron, protector, and friend. I might adduce numerous passages to establish this significancy of circumcision, and this practical application of the reverence due to God. But I shall content myself with one decisive of both ; even the solemn requisition of their Legislator when he recapitulates their Laws, and denounces the curses which should follow their violation, and the blessings which should reward their observance — a passage* which includes and contains all the arguments I have advanced on this topic. " And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, " but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to " love him, and to serve the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, " and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord " thy God, and his statutes which I command thee this day for " thy good ? Behold the heaven and the heaven of heavens is " the Lord thy God's, the earth also with all that therein is. " Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and * J)uit. X. 12. ,\v. 144 MORAL PRINCIPLES [Part 11 " he chose their seed after them, even you, above all people, a3 '' it is this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin op your ** HEART, and be no more stifihecked. For the Lord your God " is God of gods, a great God, a mighty and a terrible, which " regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward. He doth execute " the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the " stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Love ye therefore " the stranger ; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. " Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God ; him shalt thou serve, and " to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name. He is thy " praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great " and terrible things which thine eyes have seen. Thy fathers " went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons ; and " now the Lord thy God hath made thee as the stars in heaven *' for multitude. Therefore shalt thou love the Lord thy God, " and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments and *' his commandments alway " Thus on a review of the topics we have discussed, it appears that the Jewish Law promulgated the great principles of moral duty in the Decalogue, with a solemnity suited to their high pre- eminence : that it enjoined love to God with the most unceasing solicitude, and love to our neighbour, as extensively and forcibly, as the peculiar design of the Jewish economy, and the peculiar character of the Jewish people, would permit : that it impressed the deepest conviction of God's requiring, not mere external ob- servances, but heartfelt piety, well regulated desires, and active benevolence : that it taught sacrifice could not obtain pardon without repentance, or repentance without reformation and resti- tution ; that it described circumcision itself, and by consequence, every other legal rite, as designed to typify and inculcate internal holiness, which alone could render men acceptable to God : that it represented the love of God as designed to act as a practical principle, stimulating to the constant and sincere cultivation of purity, mercy and truth : and that it enforced all these principles and precepts by sanctions the most likely to operate powerfully on minds unaccustomed to abstract speculations and remote riews, even by temporal rewards and punishments ; the assurance of which was confirmed from the immediate experience of similar rewards and punishments, dispensed to their enemies and to themaelvt's, by that supernaturiil Powpr which had delivered to Lect. II.] OF THE JKWISH LAW. 145 Hebrew nation out of Egypt, conducted them through the wil- derness, planted them in the land of Canaan, regulated their government, distributed their possessions, and to which alone they could look to obtain new blessings, or secure those already enjoyed. From all this I derive another presumptive argument for the divine authority of the Mosaic Code ; and I contend, that a moral system thus perfect, promulgated at so early a period, to such a people, and enforced by such sanctions as no human power could undertake to execute, strongly bespeaks a divine oriirinal. 146 PKNAL CODE [Part II. LECTURE III. W« Penal Code of the Jewish Law conformable to its moral and religious system. Capital crimes. Idolatry, and the various crimes connected teith it. Strict prohibi- tion of human sacrifices. Supplement a'-y sanctions, presupposing a special Providence. Jewish constitution a Theocracy. Severity against idolatry justified. Jewish Law Prohibits all impurity — yet not unnaturally austere. Disobedience to parents how punished. Wisdom of the Mosaic Law, respecting murder and manslaughter — with respect to slavery — and false witnesses. Principle of retaliation explained. Equity of punishment for the invasion of properly. Mildness of Laws towards slaves. Form of trial. Consistence of the Religious and Penal Code. EXODUS, xxi. 14, " If a man come presumptuously upon liis neighbour, to slay him with guile : thou shall take him from mine altar, that he may die." In the last Lecture we reviewed the Moral Precepts of the Jewish Law, and the practical tendency of the Jewish Ritaal ; which appeared worthy of that divine original to which they are ascribed. But these religious commands and general principles of morality, however useful and important, could not alone be sufficient to form the character, and regulate the conduct of the nation, if unsupported by civil laws. And as the entire consti- tution of the Jews, civil and religious, was attributed to the same divine authority ; in order to show it was not unworthy of such a sacred origin, it is necessary to examine how far the PENAL CODE* of the Jcwish Law was conformable to the prin- ciples of its religious system, and the moral instructions of its Legislator. In examining the Mosaic penal code, we find that at the head of its capital crimes was placed idolatry.-j- Not only the act itself, but every attempt to seduce men to it, and every mode oi conduct which presupposed or obviously led to it. Against this offence the strictest rigour was exercised : no partiality for the dearest relative was to induce concealment ; no dignity to silence * Consult on this subject Maimoiiides More Nevocliim, Pars III. cap. xli.; and Spencer's Di^sertatio fie Theocratia JuHaica, priccipue cap. vi. p. 204. •f Vide Maimomdes More Nevochim, cap. xxxii. LeCt. IIl.^ OF THE JEWISH LAW. 147 accusation ; no multitude ot ottendt- rs to deter from punishment. "If (says the Lawgiver) thy brother, the son of thy mother, or "• thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy "■ friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly saying, " Let us 2:0 and serve other gods ; thou shalt not consent unto " him, nor hearken unto him ; neither shall thine eye pity him, " neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him : but " thou shalt surely kill him : thine hand shall be first upon him " to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. " And if thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities. Certain men, " the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and " have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying. Let us " go and serve other gods, then shall ye enquire, and ask dili- " gently ; and behold if it be truth, and the thing certain, that " such abomination is wrought among you ; thou shalt smite the " inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying " it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with " the edge of the sword. And thou shalt gather all the spoils " of it into the midst of the street thereof; and shalt burn with " fire the city, and all the spoil thereof, every whit, for the " Lord thy God ; and it shall be an heap for ever, it shall never " be built again."* One species of idolatry is marked with peculiar abhorrence, that of giving their seed unto Moloch, or burning their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. This the Deity directs to be punislied with death. If the punishment is neglected, he denounces that he will himself execute vengeance, as well on the offender, as those who designedly suffered him to escape with impunity : thus marking with peculiau abhorrence the ex- ecrable CUSTOM of human SACRIFICES, -I* which to the disgrace of reason and humanity, so long polluted the earth even in nations and periods which we are accustomed to honour with the epithets of enlightened and civilized, j Any imitation of such horrid rites in the worsliip of the true God, the Law thus expressly forbids : •' When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before " thee, take heed to thyself that thou enquire not after their gods * Deut. xiii. 6, &c. + Vide Jewish Letters to Voltaire, part III. Let. vi. Vol H. p. 68; and Findlay's Answer to Voltaire, Part II. ch. ii. sect. vi. and vii. p. 137 ; and Doddridge, Lect. Xlviii. sect. 8. t Vide supra, Part II. Leet, I. pp. 195, 19G. 14S PEXAL CODE [Part II " saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I " do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God " for every abomination to the Lord which he hateth have they " done unto their gods ; for even their sons and their daughters " have they burnt in the fire to their gods.*"* On the same principle of preserving the allegiance due to the supreme Jehovah, resorting or pretending to resort to super natural agency, in order to discover or to control future eventj as it implied a dependence on inferior spirits, was a violation of allegiance to the true and only God, who declai-ed himself the peculiar guardian of this people, ever ready to assist them in any distress, and communicate to them any necessary information as to futurity, when piously and humbly consulted according to the regulations-)- of his Law. Hence those who had (as they asserted or supposed) familiar spirits, those who practised enchantments or witchcraft, were to be punished with death. On the same principle, the blasphemer, and the deliberate presumptuous sabbath-breaker,;!: and the false prophet, as they openly shook oft' all reverence for the great Jehovah, were also to suffer death. * Deut. xH. 29, &c — Compare with this text the energy with which Jeremiah, vii. 29 — 34, reprobates the Jews for transgressing its prohibition: "The Lord," (says the Prophet) " hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. For the chil- " dren of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the Lord: tliey have set their abomi- " nations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it. And they have built "the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the sou of Hinnom, to burn "THKIR SONS AND THEIR DAUGHTERS IN THE FIRE; WHICH 1 COMMANDED THEM NOT, " NEITHER CAME IT INTO MV HEART. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the " Lord, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, "but, The valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place. " And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the " beasts of the earth ; and none shall fray them away. Then will I cause to cease " from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and " the voice of gladness, the voice of the biidegroom, and the voice of the bride ; for the " land shall be desolate." Yet, notwithslanding the direct prohibition of the legislator, the condemnation of the Prophet, and the interposition of Providence to punish the ofi'ering of human sacrifices, infidel writers, particularly Voltaire, have had the hardi- hood to charge the Mosaic Law with demanding, or at least permitting them. IIo\t unreasonably, vide the works referred to in the last note. •{• Vide Numbers ix. 7 and S, and xxvii. 21. compared with Joshua ix. 14. Judges i. 1 . ard 2 Sam. v. 23. And consult Lowman on the Civil Government of the Hebrews, ch. xi. ; and Spencer's Dissertatio Septima de Uiim et Thummim. X Vide Numbers xvi. 3S?. Deut. xvii. 12. and xviii. 20. loot. III.] OF THE JEWISH I, AW. ]^q 111 other cases of disobedience, proceeding from similar dis- regard to the Divine Authority, but not manifesting itself by acts so plainly cognizable by human tribunals, the Legislator de- nounces, " That the perpetrators should bear their iniquity, and " should be cut off from their people :"" that is, God would either cut them off from the communion of his people, and all the advantages of that covenant lie had entered into with them ; or he would interfere, and punish their crime by a supernatural and premature death. Thus, " if a man hide his eyes from him " who giveth his seed unto Moloch, and kill him not ; then will " I set my face against that man " says the Lord, " and against " his family, and will cut him off"."* The Lord also threatens to cut off* the man who did not afflict his soul on the great day of atonement :-f- the man who did not celebrate the Passover, or who broke its solemn regulations : these, and other actions or omissions, not easily discoverable by, or proveable before human tribunals,! are prohibited under a similar penalty. An equally special interference of Providence, for the detection and punish- ment of guilt, is implied in the trial by the waters of jealousy. || and in the penalty denounced against particular acts of impurity; that the perpetrators of them should bear their iniquity, and § die childless. * Lev. XX. first five verses. f Lev. xxiii. 29, 30. also Exod. xxxi. 14. of tlie violation of the Sabbath; Numbers XV. 30. of the presumptuous otlender; Numbers xix. l.S, of liim who defiled the taber- nacle; Lev. xviii. and xx. of unnatural crimes; also Numbers xix. 20. Lev. xxii. 3, and Exod. xii. 15 and 19. t Vide, on the reasons of snch of these precepts as relate to actions of a less criminal nature, Maimonides More Nevochim, Pars III. cap. x!i. p. 463; and for others, cap, xxxvii. p. 447, where he notices that the prohibition. Lev. xix. 27, against rounding the comer of the hair on the head and the beard, was given because the idolatrous priests were accustomed to use that particular tonsure. He assigns a similar reason for the precept nf not using a garment of linen and woollen mixed together, Lev. xix. 19, this being a particular dress in idolatrous rites; and for the precept, Deut. xxii. ,">. that the woman should not wear the dress of a man, or vice versa. Besides its obviou; tendency to preserve irjodesty snd pun'fy of manners, Maimonides observes, that a ma i dressed in a coloured female dress in honour of Venus, and a woman dressed in armnu.' worshipping at the shrine of the statue ot Mars. Jl Numbers, ch. v. — It has been well remaiked, that this species of ordeal cou I not injure the innocent at all, or punish the guilty except by a miracle; while, in the ordeals by fire, &c., iu the dark ages, the innocent could scarcely escape, but _, a miracle. Levit. XX. 20 1-50 PENAL CODE [Part II. I have thus particularly noticed the severity of the Laws against idolatry, and the peculiar circumstances, of the Mosaic code sanctioning many of its prohibitions by penalties which the direct interference of the Deity alone could inflict ; because the submission to laws so severe, and the promulgation of prohibi- tions so sanctioned, appear unaccountable, if we do not admit the truth of the Mosaic history; which declares, that the Jewish government was founded on a solemn covenant with God, when, on mount Horeb, the divine glory appeared to the assembled nation, and the Lord talked with them face to face out of the midst of the fire, and delivered the ten commandments, and declared unto the people : " If ye will obey my voice indeed, " and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure " unto me above all people ; for all the earth is mine. And " ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. " And Moses came, and called for the elders of the people, " and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord " commanded him. And all the people answered together, and " said. All that the Lord hath spoken, we will do.''* On this solemn compact was founded the Jewish government in which the Lord Jehovah appeared as the immediate sovereign, and the Jewish people his immediate subjects. . Hence such prohibitions as human tribunals could not easily take cognizance of, were sanctioned by penalties which God, their sovereign, undertook to execute. Hence, no authority, by the Mosaic constitution, was vested in any one man or body of men in the Jewish govern- ment, nor even in the whole nation assembled, to make new -f-Laws, or alter old ones, their sovereign, Jehovah, reserving this power to himself. Hence the Jewish constitution recog- nized no one hereditary chief magistrate ; and no power was given to any one body, or even to the whole nation, to elect any supreme governor. It was reserved to Jehovah, their sovereign, to appoint as he pleased who was to preside under the title of iud- plies one instance of its happy operation. If, on the other hand, it be maintained, that the crimes of adultery, obstinate disobedience to parents, and perjury when intended to destroy the innocent man's life, cannot now be capitally punished, for that penal laws 156 PENAL CODE [Part II so extremely rigorous would never be executed, and therefora would be ineffectual ; while we daily see our scaffolds loaded with criminals prosecuted and condemned for violations of property, will the conclusion be favourable to modern manners ? Can we avoid suspecting, that our hearts are more anxious for money, than for virtue ; and that such lenity proves we slight the crimes to which we are thus indulgent, notwithstanding the holiness of that religion we profess, rather than that we act from pure mercy to the criminal ? It further deserves to be noticed, that the penal code of the Jews guarded the person of the servant and the slave, as well aa of the freeman:* that the injunction, " Whatsoever smiteth a " man, that he die, shall surely be put to death,""*!- equally pro- tected all. If, by an extreme severity of chastisement, the mas- ter caused the death of his slave, " he was surely to be punished i'* if the violence offered maimed the servant, even so slightly as by the loss of a single tooth, he was to be recompensed by obtaining immediate freedom. J The chastity of female slaves was guarded by strict regulations ; § and no Jew could be a slave for longer than seven years ; and at the end of that period, the Law enjoined, " When thou sendest him out from thee, thou " shalt not let him go away 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 remember " 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." I) Compare such Laws and regulations with the Spar- tans butchering the Helots in cold blood — with the Komans tor- turing their slaves without mercy for trifling offences, or putting whole families to death on the slightest suspicion of more atro- cious guilt ; or compelling them to butcher each other in gla- diatorial combats, for the sport of the populace. Compare the * Vide Jew's Letters to Voltaire, Part III. Letter iv. Vol, IL p. 39, &c.; Mai- monides More Nevochim, Pars III. cap. xxix. p. 455.; and Levis's Defence of the Old Testament, p. 68. t Exod xxi. 12. X lb. ver. 20 and 26. ^ Exod. xxi. 7 — 10. Vide also the Jew's Letters to Voltaire, Part III. Letter i. svct iv.: and Philo de Charitate, p. 545. letter./". Vide on the Slaves of the Romans, Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws, Book XV. ch. xi. II Deut. xiv. 13—15. Lect. III.] OF Tiir: jnwisii LAW. 1,'7 Mosaic regulations respecting female slaves, with the universal and abominable licentiousness which polluted every ancient na- tion in their intercourse with slaves. Observe, on one side, the* rebeUions of this wretched class of beings in Greece and Eome, — which, while they proved the misery of the individuals, endangered the safety of the state — and on the other side, the uniform public tranquillity in this instance among the Jews ; and then decide, whether such regulations at that early period, in an Asiatic nation, do not bespeak a wisdom and benevolence far superior to what we could rationally expect from a mere human Legislator. -f It may confirm us m this conclusion, to observe other cir- cumstances connected with the administration of penal justice amongst the Jews. Their trials were public, in the gates of the city. Their Judges, the Elders and Levites, were taken as our jurors, from the general mass of citizens, and therefore, like them, likely to be thoroughly acquainted with the character of the parties, the credit of the witnesses, and every circum- stance which ought to be considered in determining the crime and estimating the punishment. No torture before conviction, no cruelty after it, was permitted by the Mosaic code ; the law * In the two servile wars in Sicily against the Romans, it is computed a million of slaves were destroyed, and several Roman generals were defeated. Vide Hook's Roman History, Book VH. ch. iv. Vol. VH. p. 133. Vide also the Jew's Letters to Voltaire, Part HI. Letter iv. Vol. ii. p. 40. — Montesquieu observes, "That in the "degenerate age of the Romans, they lived among their slaves as among enemies; " they made the Syllanian Senatus Consultum, and other laws, which decreed, that " when a master was murdered, all the slaves under the same roof, or in any place so " near the house as to be within the hearing of a man's voice, should without distinc- " tion be condemned to die." Spirit of Laws, Book XV. ch. xvi. •|" Unhappily, we may illustrate the superiority of the Jewish institution as to slaves, by comparing them with the atrocious crimes and cruelties committed in ob- taining and managing slaves by the enlightened nations of Europe in our own times; who, disregarding the benevolent spirit and clear authority of that religion they pro- fess, persevere to accumulate on themselves and their countries such aggravated guilt, as fills the minds of the pious and reflecting with the most alarming expectation, that the signal judgments of God will awfully chastise such depravity, publicly known and nationally tolerated! May the numerous and illustrious advocates in the cause of mercy and Christianity, so violently outraged by the miseries of the wretched Afri- cans, every where speedily and completely effect their glorious purpose; and especially in England, where the principles of civil liberty and true religion, so generally and strongly felt, seem only to aggravate the guilt of their violation in this melancholy iostaDce! I rejoice that the merchants of Leland Irave not (at least as far as I can 158 PENAL CODE | Part II. limited the number of stripes Avhicli might be inflicted on a cri- minal. " Thou shalt not punish thy brother with more than " forty stripes, lest he seem vile unto thee.*"* was its injunc-- tion, at once humane and wise. It guarded innocence against the insidious attacks of false accusers, by directing that no man should be capitally convicted, except by the concurrent testi- mony of two unimpeached witnesses ;f as well as by inflicting on the witnesses convicted of falsehood, whatever punishment or loss his testimony, if credited, would have brought down upon the innocent. Such was the Penal code of the Jewish Legislator. And do we not perceive that it is founded on the same principles as his moral and religious system, and that both display a spirit of wisdom, rectitude and piety, far superior to any which could naturally be expected at that early period, in an Eastern peo- ple, long debased by slavery, and exhibiting in their national character no traces of superior natural ingenuity, or intellectual refinement ? Yet at that period, and in that nation, a system ot morals and religion was established, which promulgated the admirable summary of moral precepts enforced in the Deca- logue ;J which inculcated love to God, love to our neighbour, kindness even to enemies ; which taught the necessity of repent- ance for offences, and of restitution for injuries ; which declared that God could not be conciliated by mere external observances, discover) disgraced themselves by engaging in this dreadful traffic. It was, I under- stand, once proposed in a northern town of Ireland, but it was indignantly rejected. Since the publication of the first edition of this Work, Providence has blessed the Advocates for the abolition of the Slave Trade with that success, which their tiuly Christian perseverance in this cause of mercy so eminently merited. The English Parliament has wiped off this foul stain from their country, and the sons of Britain are in every part of the world the guardians of freedom, and seem prepared to be the instruments for diffusing civilization, Christianity, and liappiiiess. The continued exertions of the Society which combined to abolish the Slave Trade, and now watches to secure the execution of that glorious measure, and to repair the injuries which Europe has inflicted on Africa, by promoting the civilization and happiness of its in- habitants— The Sierra Leone Company, labouring for the same beneficent purpose — The various Societies for disseminating the Scriptures, and establishing Missions for spreading the light of the Gospel through the remotest lands — The Society for promot- ing Christianity amongst the Jews both in England and Ireland — all these supply in- stances of this most gratifying truth — and seem like the dawning of a brighter day now opening on those regions of the earth, which had been so long darkened by infidelity and barbarism. * Deut. XXV. 3. t lb. xvii. 6. J Vide the last two Leetiu-es. Lect. III.] OF THE JEWISH LAW. 159 but that all ceremonies were intended to excite, and ouf^^ht to be accompauied by, sincere purity and piety, by obedience and benevolence ; and that the love of God was not to rest in mere outward worship, or even in religious feelings and devotion alone, but to operate as a practical principle, inspiring moral virtue and rousing to active benevolence, particularly towards the stranger and the poor, the fatherless and the widow, to whom the Deity was declared to bear the relation of peculiar protector and friend. In addition to these general religious commands and moral principles, we have examined into the penal code of the Jews. And it has, I trust, appeared, that this equally tends to guard true religion, and enforce virtuous conduct ; punishing capitally idolatry, with its train of profanations and crimes — adultery and impurity in all its pollutions, with a rigour unexampled in any nation of Asiatic origin, and yet uncultivated minds — mur- der— obstinate disobedience to parents — presumptuous defiance of the divine Law, and resistance to the supreme authority of the state. We have observed, that while the Jewish constitution allowed no asylum for atrocious criminals, it provided with ad- mirable wisdom for the fair trial of those who were only guilty of manslaughter. That it punished inferior offences, whether against the person or property, with mildness and equity. That it protected the slave as well as the freeman. That in its judges, the form of its trials, and its regulations as to witnesses, it was admirably calculated to promote justice, and to guard innocence; and that the whole scheme and universal spirit of its penal code, and its judicial system, was strictly conformable to the tenor of the religion which was taught, and the moral principles which were inculcated from divine authority. This conformity seems to me to supply a strong presumption in favour of the sacred original of the Jewish constitution, both religious and civil. A system so pious, so pure, so strict, so wise, so equitable, so humane, so superior to every thing which could naturally be expected at such a period, in such a climate, and amongst such a people, seems unaccountable, if we reject the opinion of its sacred original, and attribute it merely to human artifice and pious fraud. This conclusion will, I trust, derive additional support from examining into the political principles of the Jewish gov- ernment, and inquiring how far these were calculated to promote 160 PENAL CODE [Part IL virtue, freedom, and union, in the state, and secure to every rank in society their just and natural rights. This, therefore, shall be the subject of our next inquiry. L'^ot. I\'.j OF Tin: JEWISH LAW. Itjl LECTl'Kl-: IV. The political principles of the Jewish Law. Importanre of the mode in which property it distributed in a stale — Agrarian Law of Lycurgus, S;c. — Defects of the Spartan constitution in this point — Agrarian Law among the Jews — how guarded — promoted agriculture and attachment to rural life. Jewish nohility and gentry. Jewish yeomanry sufficient for defensive tear — Offensive wars effectually discouraged by the Jewish constitution. Constitution of the tribe of Levi peculiar to the Jewish scheme — Its great utility. Jewish Law guarded the rights and comforts of the very lowest classes — of the stranger — the poor — the aged and infirm. Recapitulation. NUMBERS, XX\1". •* And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Ye shall divide the land liylot for an iiihei itani-e anioni; " your families ; to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer ye shall give "ilie less inheritance : according- to the tribes of your fathers ye shall inherit." As the Scriptures ascribe not only the religious and moral part of the Jewish Law to a divine original, but also the civil code and political constitution of the Jewish government ; which, it has been proved,* was a direct theocracy ; it becomes necessary to examine how far this constitution was calculated to guard the freedom and union of the Jewish state, to secure to its subjects of every rank their just and natural rights, and to diftuse a uni- versal spirit of industry, virtue, and peace. This, therefore, shall be the object of our inquiry in this Lecture ; and if it leads me to reflections which shall at first appear rather historical and political, than theological and religious, yet the close connexion of the topic with the vindication of so important a part of Reve- lation, as that which describes the Jewish economy, will, I trust, plead my excuse. The mode in which property is distributed has, perhaps, the chief influence in every state in determining the character and * Vile supra, p. 25, and the last Lecture. 162 POLITICAL PRINCIPLES [Part IL effects of its constitution. Property carries with it authority and power. Where the lower classes are wholly destitute of it, they are generally dependent and servile ; while those who mo- nopolize it are too often arrogant and corrupt. If there exists no rank of citizens possessing moderate shares of it, with a secure tenure, there is little probability of finding any class of society exhibiting the purest virtues, the most useful industry, and the most independent spirit. Nor does any circumstance tend to inflame domestic feuds, or expose to foreign violence, more than an extremely unequal distribution or uncertain tenure of property. In confirmation of these observations, I need only hint at the discord and misery which the want or the violation of an Agra- rian Law produced in Eome, and the praise which has been ever given to the Agrarian Law of Lycurgus. Yet, notwithstanding the comparative superiority of the Spartan institutions in this particular, they were certainly attended with considerable de- fects. The division of lands was there guarded, by abolishing the use of money,* and discountenancing all commerce ; regu- lations forced and unnatural, tending to retard all improvement, and fix the nation to that state of semi-barbarism in which the Legislator found it. Further, in order to remove the tempta- tions to accumulate wealth, by banishing the enjoyments which usually attend it, as well as to promote the hardihood of his people, the Spartan legislator established public tables, where all the citizens fed in common, on homely food ; and he wrested children from the mild superintendence of parental care, and placed them under a system of public education and rigorous discipline. These regulations produced, undoubtedly, the eSect he designed ; they formed a hardy multitude of citizens, who regarded the state as their common parent, and considered each other as equals. But they also tended to weaken all domestic Sittaouiueiiis and do—xcatic virtues — parental fondness and autho- rity, filial love and obedience, fraternal affection, and all the amiable charities of domestic life, could have little place in such a system. But this was not yet the worst. What might have been most reasonably expected as a necessary effect of an Agra- rian Law, seems to be a race of laborious peasantry, employed * Vide Plutarch in Lycurgus, and Polybius, Lib. VL Vide also Montague on Iha Rise and Fall of the ancient Kepublics, ch. i. LeCt. IV. j OF THE JEWISH LAW. 103 in agriculture, and possessing all that simplicity, industry, and peaceable turn of mmd, which such a class of men naturally acquire. But no such existed at Sparta. The citizens who were the proprietors of the soil, disdaining agriculture, com- mitted the care of their lands to their slaves ; they were them- selves excluded from commerce, they were ignorant of letters, they possessed no amusement or occupation but their public meetings and their military exercises. Unaccustomed to peace- ful arts and industry, they were ambitious of no praise, but such as arms could acquire ; and this circumstance gradually led to the neglect of their legislator's institutions, and the con- sequent destruction of their polity. In vain did Lycurgus, when he formed all the freemen into a national militia for the defence of the state, forbid all offensive wars and all distant conquests. A nation with whom war was the sole business and the ruling passion of their lives, were too ambitious and too fierce to submit to any such restraints. They rushed into offen- sive wars, they extended their dominions ; money was thence in- troduced first for public, then for private use ; luxury crept in, the Agrarian Law was violated, and the Spartan constitution •verthrown. I have thus particularly noticed the Spartan polity ; because, in its great basis, the distribution of landed property, it ap- proaches nearer than any other I know of, to the Hebrew go- vernment, which was founded on an equal Agrarian Law. For, when the Children of Israel were numbered, immediately before their entrance, into the promised land, and found (exclu- sive of the Levites) to exceed six hundred thousand men, the Lord said unto Moses, " Unto these the land shall be divided " for an inheritance, according to the number of names. To " many thou shalt give the more inheritance, and to the few " thou shalt give the less inheritance ; to every one shall his " inheritance be given according to those that were numbered of " him. Notwithstanding, the land shall be divided by lot : " according to the names of the tribes of their fathers shall they " inherit."* By this regulation, provision was made for the support of six hundred thousand yeomanry,-f with from six to twenty-fiye * Numbers, xxvi. 53, &c. f Numbers, xxvi. 51, and xxxiii. 54. 16 i POLITICAL PRLXCIl'LES [Part II acres of land each.* This land they held independent of all temporal superiors, by direct tenure from the Lord Jehovah, their Sovereign, by whose power they were to acquire their territory and under whose protection only they could retain it. On this principle, the lands so distributed were unalienable : *' The land shall not be sold for ever,"" says the Law, " for the " land is mine saitli the Lord : ye are strangers and sojourners " with me."-f- Thus the basis of the Hebrew constitution was an equal Agra- rian Law. But this law was guarded by other provisions most wise and salutary. The accumulation of debt was prevented, first by prohibiting every Jew from accepting of interest J from any of his fellow citizens ; next, by establishing a regular re- lease of all debts every seventh year ; and finally, by ordaining that no lands could be alienated for ever, but must, on each year of jubilee, or seventh sabbatic year, revert to the families which originally possessed them. Thus, without absolutely depriving individuals of all temporary dominion over their landed property, it re-established, every fiftieth year, that original and equal distribution of it, which was the foundation of the national polity ; and as the period of such reversion was fixed and re- gular, all parties had due notice of the terms on which they negotiated ; there was no ground for public commotion or private complaint. One part of the regulation respecting the release in the year of jubilee, deserves our notice : it did not extend to houses in cities ; these, if not redeemed within one year after they were sold, were alienated for ever.§ This circumstance must have given property in the country || a decided preference above pro- perty in cities, and induced every Jew to reside on and improve his land, and employ his time in the care of flocks and agricul- ture, which, as they had been the occupation of those revered patriarchs from whom the Jews descended, were with them the * Vide Lowman on the Hebrew Government, ch. iv. — Vide also Ciinaeus de Re- publica Hebraeorum, cap. ii.; De Lege Agraria, et inaestimabili ejus Utilitate; and Li'deyker de Republica Hebrffiorum, Lib. V. cap. xi. xii. xiii.; and the Universal History, Vol. I. p. 617. •j- Lev. XXV. 23. 4: lb. ver. 35, 36. ; and see the entire chapter. ■S lb. ver. 29 and 30. j; Vide Jew's Letters to VoUairc, Part HL Let. i. § 5, note. Let-t. IV.] 01- Tiu: jKwisii i.AW. 165 most liouourable of all employ nieuts.* Further, the original division of land was to the several tribes according to their families, so that each tribe was settled in the same county, and each family in the same barony or hundred. Nor was the estate of any family in one tribe permitted to pass into another, even by the marriage of an heiress. t So that, not only was the original balance of property preserved, but the closest and dearest connexions of affinity attached to each other the inhabi- tants of every vicinage. Thus, domestic virtue and affection had a more extensive sphere of action : the happiness of rural life was increased, a general attention to virtue and decorum was promoted, from that natural emulation which each family would feel to preserve unsullied the reputation of their vicinage ; and the poor might every where expect more ready assistance, since they implored it from men, whose sympathy in their suf- ferings would be quickened by hereditary friendship and here- ditary connexion. But while the Jewish Agrarian Law secured the perpetual maintenance of a numerous, virtuous, and independent yeomanry, it did not prevent the existence of an higher rank of men, who should possess superior property and influence ; a rank so es- sential to the subordination and tranquillity of social life. Such a rank of men had always existed amongst the Jews ; we find them bearing their due part in the solemn act of allegiance, by which all Israel submitted to the sovereignty of Jehovah : " Ye stand all of you this day," says the legislator, " before the " Lord your God ; your captains of your tribes, your elders, " and your officers, and all the men of Israel ; that you should " enter into covenant with the Lord your God." J We find re- peated notice taken of the princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel ; the rulers of thousands, of hun- dreds, of fifties, of tens, who were civil judges in lesser causes, and also entrusted with the various gradations of military com- mand. VV"e find twelve princes of the tribes, and fifty-eight heads of families, forming the first model of the celebrated San- * Vide Fleury on the Manners of tlie Israelites, cli. iii. f Vide Numbers, xxvii. which directs a due portion of the inheritance of their tribe to be given to the dauphters of Zelophehad, he having no sons ; and Numbers, xxxvi. which directs the marriages of l:eiresses wiijiin their (nvn tribe. J Deut. xxix. 10; also Nunilitr?, i. vnd xi. If, and xwiv. IGG POLITICAL PRINCIPLES [Pai't II. hedrim, and, by the divine appointment, sharing the authority of the legislator. The princes of the tribes presided at the original distribution of the lands ; and the instance of Caleb, who obtained for his own portion the mountain of Hebron with its cities, proves they were attended to, as it was natural they should, in the distribution of the national property. And it has been proved by geographical researches, that the computa- tion of territory which supposed a distribution of from sixteen to twenty-five acres* for each of the six hundred thousand yeo- manry, still left an abundant overplus to supply the nobility and gentry with estates suitable to their rank, in an age and country where the most honourable personages employed themselves in agriculture, and, though hospitable and generous, were unac- quainted with that expensive splendour and ostentatious mag- nificence, which consumes the revenues of provinces, in tiie erection of palaces, the support of equipages, and the indulgences of luxury. Another effect of the Mosaic Agrarian Law, which it is ne- cessary to notice, was the invincible barrier which it opposed against all attacks of hostile violence, and all internal attempts on Vao freedom of the Jewish state. It appears, that every freeholder-f* was obliged to attend at the general muster of the * Vide Lowman on the Hebrew Government, ch. iii. The lowest computation of tlie extent of the land of Judea, makes it IfiO miles in length, by 110 in breadth, containing 11,264,000 acres, and giving above sixteen acres to each of the 600,000 yeoman freeholders, with an overplus of 1,264,000 acres for the Levitical cities, the princes of tribes, the heads of families, and other public ii'^c^s. The autliors of tlie Universal History state the length to have been about 70 leagues or 210 miles, the breadth about 30 leagues or 90 miles. This would give a greater extent, viz. 18,900 square miles, instead of 17,600. Vide Ui'ivtrsal History, Vol. 1. p. 580. ; and the Abbe Fleury on the Manners of the Israelites, Part H. chap. iii. •f Deut. XX. 5. — These directions to the officers to " speak to the people, saying, " Wliat man is there of you that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it ? " Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in battle, and another man dedicate " it," &c. prove two things : — First, that all were obliged to attend the summons to war, and not depiit until excused by the authority of the commanders: And next, that the obligation to such attendance was not limited to the immediately approaching war on the invasion of Canaan, but was to be perpetual ; for it would have been idle to talk of exempting those who had built a house and not dedicated it, or planted a vineyard, and not eaten the fruits thereof, from going to war, at a time when the whole nation was collected in camp, before they had so much as entered on the land tiiey were to settle in, and when not a single man of them (at least of nine tribes and a half) could have possessed either house or vineyard. Lect. IV.l OF THE JEWISH LAW. 167 national army, and to serve in it as long as occasion required, except only such as could plead certain specific excuses, stated by the Law, and which were formed with a wise and benevolent attention to the natural feelings, and even to the pardonable weaknesses of the human mind. This being the condition on which all landed property was held, the Agrarian Law secured a body of six hundred thousand men inured to labour and in- dustry, and ready to offer themselves at theii country's call. And to facilitate every military array,* the princes of the tribes, the heads of families, the rulers over thousands, and hundreds, and fifties, and tens, who in peace exercised certain civil offices, united with these offices proportionable military commands, heading their respective tribes and families, and determinate portions of the militia of their vicinage. This great body of national yeomanry, in which every private landholdi^r possessed an independent property, was commanded by men equally in- dependent, respectable for their property, their civil authority, and, above all, their revered ancestors ; and acquiring their military rank, almost by hereditary right. Such a body of men, so commanded, presented an insuperable obstacle to treacherous ambition and political intrigue, on any design to overturn the Hebrew constitution, and assume despotic power, too strong to * Vide Lowman on the Civil Government of tlie Hebrews, p. 73, from comparing Exodus xviii. 21. with Num. xxxi. 14. that the division of the people for civil pur- poses was exactly the same as that for military purposes. In both cases they were divided into thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens, and the chiefs of these numbers are in both places expressed by the same Hebrew word, in«f ; and in the Septuagint translation, the same Greek words, expressive of military command, are applied to both. It may appear an objection, that in Deut. xx. 9, it is said in our translation, •' That when the officers had made an end of speaking unto the people they shall make " captains of the armies to lead the people." But the original Hebrew appears clearly to mean, that then the captains shall take their post, npBi, at the head of the army. Wich which sense the Syriac version agrees ; vide Biblia VValtoni. Patrick observes (without having the present question at all in contemplation) " And if we *' translate the words as they may be out of the Hebrew, they shall place or set " captains of the hosts in the head or the front of the people." The rotation of 24,000 men, appointed to attend on David every month, are described so as to indicate their being arranged by this old and familiar division ; 1 Chron. xxvii. 1. '• Now the Children of Israel, after their number, the chief fathers and captains of " thousands and hundreds, and their officers," &c. Lowman quotes the authorities of Harrington, Sigonius, Menochius, and Calmet ; to which we may add Leydekkcr, p. 410, whose opinion is of great weight ; and the authors of the Universal History Book I. ch. vii. Vol. I. p. 701. 1 08 POLITICAL PRINCIPLES [Part II. be terrified, too opulent to be bribed, too attached to each other and to their officers to be disunited, any attempt to enslave such a people, or subvert a constitution so guarded, would have been the extremity of madness ; and we may safely pronounce, no state ever existed where the constitution was more stable, and the na- tional liberty more perfectly secure than amongst the Jews, while they obeyed the statutes ordained by their inspired legislator. Nor were these institutions less wisely adapted to secure the state against foreign violence, and at the same time, prevent offensive wars and remote conquests : pursuing in this, but by means infinitely more wisely contrived, and permanently efiectual, the same objects which Lycurgus afterwards attempted. He in vain prohibited from engaging in oftensive wars, a people who were trained to no other business tlian military exercises, and sought no other distinction than military glory. Far dif- ferent was the efli"ect of the Jewish Agrarian Law ; it provided, indeed, a hardy body of six hundred thousand yeomanry, ever ready to protect their country when assailed ; but, perpetually employed as they were in agriculture, attached to domestic life, enjoying the society of friends and relatives, by whom they were encircled, all war must have been to them in the highest degree wearisome and odious. Religion concurred with their mode of life to prevent them from being captivated by the false splen- dour of military glory. On returning from battle, even if vic- torious, in order to bring them back to more peaceful feelings after the rage of war, the Law ordered that they should consider themselves as polluted by this perhaps necessary slaughter, and unworthy of thus appearing in the camp of Jehovah ;* they were therefore to employ a whole day in purifying themselves, before they were admitted. Besides, their force was entirely infantry, the law forbidding even their kings to multiply horses in their train; and the ordinance requiring the attendance of all the males three times every year at Jerusalem, proved the in- tention of their legislator to confine the nation within the limits of the promised land, and rendered long and distant wars and conquests impossible, Avithout renouncing that religion which PS incorporated with their whole civil polity, the charter by 1 ich they held all their property, and enjoyed all their rights. In the circumstances of tlie Jewish polity we have hitherto * Vide Numbers, ch. xi.x. 13 to 16. ; and xxxi. 19. LeCt. IV.] Ol- Till-: JKWISIl LAW . 169 considered, there is sonic resemblance to the institiitions of sub- sequent Lawgivers ; yet how decided is the superiority of the Mosaic code. But in the regulations as to the tribe of Levi, we see an object pursued, which until Christianity was established, no Lawgiver but the Jewish thought of attending to. Ministers of religion are indeed found in every state. Wherever any idol was worshipped, there must have been altars and priests, there generally were soothsayers and diviners ; but such men never attempted any thing beyond the immediate performance of re- ligious ceremonies, or employing that influence over the public mind, which their sacred functions gave them, to promote private gain, or, in some instances, political views. Religious and moral instruction to the great mass of the people, they never attempted, and never desired. But the Jewish legislator set apart the entire tribe of Levi, one twelfth of the nation, not merely to perform the rites and sacrifices which the ritual enjoined, (a purpose which I do not now particularly insist on) but to diffuse over the great mass of the people, religious and moral instruc- tion, for which they were expressly set apart. " Of Levi," says the legislator, (when in his last solemn hymn he sketches the characters and the fortunes of the different tribes) " Let " thy Urim and thy Thummim be with thy holy one ; they have '' observed thy word, and kept thy covenant ; they shall teach " Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law : they shall put in- " cense before thee, and whole burnt-sacrifice upon thine altar."* To them was the custody of the sacred volume consigned, with the ark of the covenant : and Moses commanded the priests, the sons of Levi, and the elders of Israel, " At the end of every " seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the " feast of tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before " the Lord thy God, in the place which he shall choose ; thou "■ shalt read this Law before all Israel, in their hearing.f " Gather the people together, men and women and children, " and the stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, * Deut. xxxiii. 8—10. f Among the various wise reasons for choosing this period, one most principal ap- pears to be, its being the year of release, when the general abolition of debts and dis- charge from personal slavery, periodically took place; circumstances which would necessarily secure constant attention to this solemnity, and contribute to insure the observance of this command. Thus closely were the rtligious and civil parts of the Mosaic code connected. 170 POLITICAL PRINCIPLES [Part II' " and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and " observe to do all the words of this Law ; and that their children " which have not known any thing, may hear and learn to fear " the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land whither " y^ S^ to possess it.""* This public and solemn periodical in- struction, though eminently useful, was certainly not the entire of their duty ; they were bound, from the spirit of this ordi- nance, to take car« that at all times the aged should be improved and the children instructed in the knowledge and the fear of God, the adoration of his Majesty, and the observance of his Law : and for this purpose the peculiar situation and privileges of the tribe of Levi, as regulated by the divine appointment, admirably fitted them. Possessed of no landed property, and supported by the tithes and offerings which they received in kind, they were little occupied with labour or secular care : de- riving their maintenance from a source which would necessarily fail if the worship and the laws of God were neglected, they were deeply interested in their support. Their cities being dis- persed through all the tribes -j* and their families permitted to intermarry with all, they were every where at hand to admonish and instruct ; exclusively possessed of the high-priesthood, as well as of all other religious offices, and]: associated with the high-priest and judge in the supreme court of judicature, and with the elders of every city in the inferior tribunals, and guardians of the cities of refuge where those who were guilty of homicide fled for an asylum, they must have acquired such in- fluence and reverence amongst the people, as were necessary to secure attention to their instructions : and they were led to study the rules of moral conduct, the principles of equity, and above all, the Mosaic code, with unceasing attention ; but they were not laid under any vows of celibacy, or monastic austerity and retirement, and thus abstracted from the intercourse and the feelings of social life. Thus circumstanced, they were assuredly well calculated to answer the purpose of their institution, to preserve and consolidate the union of all the other tribes, to in- struct and forward the Jews in knowledge, virtue and piety ; " To teach Jacob the judgments, and Israel the law of Jehovah ;"'^ that they might hear and fear, " and learn to obey the will of " their Sovereign and their God."" And as no more important * Deut. xxxi. 10 — 13. f Numbers xxxv. J Deut xvii. 9. and xxvi. 8. Lect. IV.] OF THE JEWISH LAW. 171 object could be aimed at by any Lawgiver, so the almost total neglect of other legislators in this respect, and the caution and wiiSdom of the Jewish institutions for this purpose, seem to sup- ply one important prcsumotive argument for the divine original of the Mosaic code. Hitherto we have considered the Jewish Law chiefly as it se- cured the rights and promoted the happiness of the higher and middling classes of society, the nobility and gentry, the Levites and the great mass of the Jewish yeomanry or freemen.* But the Mosaic Law extended its paternal care to the very lowest classes, the stranger and the slave, the poor, the fatherless and the widow. These it represents as the peculiar objects of the divine care, and denounces against any injury to them peculiar indignation and punishment from God. " If a stranger sojourn " with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him; but the stranger " that dwelleth among you shall be unto you as one born among " you and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers " in the land of Egypt : I am the Lord thy God.^-f- " The " tithes of the third year thou shalt give to the Levite, the " stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat " within thy gates, and be filled." | That part of the Hebrew constitution which forbade the ac- ceptance of interest § from a fellow-citizen, and established a septennial abolition of debts, and a periodical restitution of all lands which had been alienated from their original proprietors, though necessary for the general balance and security of the Hebrew Government, might yet have operated to increase in some instances the pressure of poverty, by rendering it more difficult to obtain immediate relief. It is therefore important to observe how anxiously the Legislator guards against any such effect from these regulations. " If there be among you," says the Law, " a poor man, one of thy brethren, within any of thy " gates, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou " shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy * Vide the Jewish Letters, Part III. Letter iv. Universal History, B. I. ch. TJi. sect. 4. on the Laws relating to the sabbatic and jubilee years, p. 613 and (517. t Lev. xix. 33, 34. t Deut. xxvi. 12. § Interest from any one not a ftiiow-citiEen, was permitted, but subjei t to the limitation of using him with the strictest regard to equity and biiievolencf, "liiih the passages quoted in the last paragraph require. ] 72 POLITICAL piuxciPLEs [Part II. " poor brother. Nor let there be a thought in thy wicked heart, " saying, The seventh year, the year of release is at hand ; and " thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest " him nought, and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be " sin unto thee. Thou shalt surely give, and thine heart shall " not be grieved when thou givest unto hira ; because that for " this thing the Lord thy God will bless thee in all that thou " puttest thine hand unto. For the poor shall never cease out " of thy land ; therefore, I command thee, saying. Thou shalt " open thine hand wide to thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy " needy in thy land." * With equal energy does the Law maintain the cause of the hired labourer : " Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that " is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy " strangers that are in thy land within thy gates. At his day " thou shalt ffive him his hire ; neither shall the sun ffo down " upon it for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it, lest he " cry unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee."-!" Thus, also, how are the feelings, as well as the wants of the poor consulted, in that precept which directed, " When thou " dost lend thy brother any thing, thou shalt not go into his " house to fetch his pledge :" :|: as if the Legislator said. Intrude not into his abode, if he is not willing to expose to the stranger's eye the humiliating circumstances of want and nakedness which attend his destitute state ; or perhaps there is some little monu- ment of his better days, which he reserves to console his misery, which he would not wish the person from whom he implores aid to see lest he should demand that in pledge, and either, if denied, refuse relief, or, by tearing away this almost sacred relic to which his heart clings, embitter his distress. No, says the Law, the hovel of the poor must be sacred as an holy asylum; the eye of scorn and the foot of pride must not dare to intrude : even the agent of mercy must not enter it abruptly and unbid, without consulting the feelings of its wretched in- habitant. " Thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge; " thou- shalt stand abroad, and the man to whom thou dost lend " shall bring out the pledge unto thee.'"§ In the same strain of humanity the Law goes on : "If the • Deut. XV. 7—11. t Th. \xiv. U and 13. + Tiput. xxiv. 10. § lb. VU-. 11. Loct. IV.J or TflK JKWl.Sll LAW. 173 " man be pour, tliou slialt not sleep "witli his pledge. In niiy " case thou jjluilt deliver him the pledge again when the .sun " goeth down, that he may sleep in his own raiment, and bless " thee : and it shall be righteousness unto thee before the Lord "thy God."* The same spirit of benevolence was to regulate the conduct and soften the heart of the husbandman in all his labours. " If " thou cuttest down the harvest of thy field," says the Law, " and hast forgot a sheaf, thou shalt not turn again to fetch it: " if thou beatest thine olive-tree, thou shalt not go over the " boughs again : Avhen thou gatherest thy grapes, thou shalt not " glean it afterward : it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, " and the widow, that the Lord thy God may bless thee in ail " the work of thy hands." -f* With equal solicitude does the Law impress reverence for the authority, and attention to the wants of the aged, delivering as the direct command of Jehovah : — " Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face " of the old man, and fear thy God : I am the Lord."! How much praise have the Spartan institutions justly obtained for cherishing this principle ; yet, how much more energetic and authoritative is the language of the Jewish Lawgiver. With a similar spirit the same Lawgiver inculcates in the strongest man- ner the duty of showing tenderness to those who labour under any bodily infirmity : " Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put " a stumbling-block before the blind, but shalt fear thy God : I " am the Lord."§ And with a still more exalted sense of the im- portance of virtue above every external advantage and the pro- portionable obligation of promoting it in all with whom we have any intercourse, the inspired Lawgiver considers the neglecting to do so as a proof of criminal malignity : " Thou shalt not hate '• thy brother in thine heart : thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy " neighhour and not suffer sin upon Mm. Thou shalt not avenge, " nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but " thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself : I am the Lord." || How admirably are such language and such sentiments as these suited to the sacred original from whence they are supposed to flow ! How strongly do they attest the divine benevolence, * Deut. xii. 12 and 13. f Dent. xxiv. 19—21. J i.evit. xix. y2. (^ r>evit. xix. 14. |l Lovit. xix. i: an.l IS. 174 POLITICAL PRINCIPLES [Part IL which dictated the Jewish law, and the divine authority which alone could enforce such precepts by adequate sanctions, and impress such sentiments upon the human heart with practical conviction ! If the intermixture of such sentiments and pre- cepts with the civil code, and the union of political regulations with moral instruction and religious observances, is unparalleled in any other country, and by any other Lawgiver — does not this circumstance afford some presumptive evidence of the divine original of the Mosaic code. To REVIEW THE SKETCH WE HAVE EXHIBITED OF THE JeWISH Constitution, we have seen that it provided for the settlement of 600,000 freeholders, with independent properties, derived not from any human superior, but held in fee from the Sovereign of the Jewish state, even God himself. This distribution of property was guarded by preventing the accumulation of debt, and, if alienated for a time, securing its reversion to the family of the original proprietor at regular periods. The distribution of this body of freeholders through the land, by their tribes and families, forms an additional provision for their union and hap- piness. They are employed in agriculture, attached to domestic life, estranged from war, but bound to assemble for their coun- try ""s defence, and thus forming a secure barrier against hostile violence or insidious ambition. They are governed by a nobility, by magistrates and by elders, possessing properties suited to their several ranks, respected for their patriarchal descent, uniting in their persons civil and military authority, by an hereditary riijht which precluded jealousy and discord. The whole tribe of Levi is set apart to attend to the religious and moral instruction of the nation, for which they have the fullest leisure, and to which they are bound by the strongest interests ; dispersed over the whole, and forming a cement and bond of union between the remaining tribes. In this domestic and family government, as it has been justly termed, population is encouraged, freedom secured — agriculture and residence in the country, and, by con- sequence, purity and simplicity of manners provided for — do- mestic virtue, reverence to the aged, kindness to the stranger, bounty to the fatherless and the widow, justice to all, are incul- cated in the most forcible manner, and with the most awful sanctions, even the favour or the displeasure of the Lord Jehovah, who is the immediate Sovereign under whom this government JjeCt IV.] OF THE JEWISH I.AW. 175 18 exercised, by whom its Laws are formed, from whom all pro- perty is held, to whose powerful interposition the nation owed its settlement, and on whose protection it depended for its continu- ance. All the blessings, therefore, which the Jew enjoyed under this constitution, and by this government, ought to have had the eftect of animating his gratitude and piety to God, and enlarging nis benevolence to the poor and the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, those peculiar objects of the divine patronage and protection. Is not such a scheme of government worthy of the divine Author to whom it is ascribed ? and does not its establish ment at so early a period, and amongst a people so apparently incapable of inventing it as the Jews, strongly attest its heavenly original. 176 ORIGINALITV AND DESIGN ( I'iirt II LECTURE V. fmi^rlance of the question, whether the Jewish Ritual is opposed to the system of Heathen worship, or in any degree horroiced from it ? — The latter improbable, if Judaism is of divine original. Spencer's opinion — grounded on supposed political wisdom of such a proceeding — Examples he adduces— mistaken as to these examples— as to reformation from Judaism to Christianity^ — and from Gentilism to Christianity. Attempt to accom- modate Christianity to pre-existing customs, ^c. — its mischiefs — Reformation from Popery to Protestantism. Spencer's opinion contrary to Scripture. Parts of the Jewish Ritual more ancient than Moses — Origin of circumcision — Designed contrast between Judaism and idolatry — Jewish Ritual a barrier against idolatry, proved by experience — Josephus — Tacitus. Spencer's opinions supported by insufficient evidence. How far Judaism resembled idolatry — Instances of contrast. Minute- ness of Ritual, how useful — and its sanctuary, priests, ^c. Ritual not burthen- ORIGINALITY AND DESIGN OF THE JEWISH RITUAX In the preceding Lectures an attempt has been made to con- trast the theological, moral, and political principles of the Mosaic Law, with the idolatries and corruptions almost univer- sally prevalent at the period of its promulgation, as well as with the carnal temper and short-sighted views of the Jewish people, and their proneness to imitate the worship, and sink into the corruptions of their idolatrous neighbours. And it has been inferred, that the establishment of such a system, at such a period, amongst a people so apparently incapable of inventing it, as the Jews, and so evidently unwilling to submit to it, strongly attests its heavenly original. In the prosecution of this argument, I did not judge it necessary minutely to examine a question which has been agitated by writers of considerable note. How far the apparent resemblance between certain parts of the Jewish Ritual, and certain pra-jtices of the Egyptians, Lect. v.] oi' Tin: ji:\visii RiTUAf.. 177 and other idolatrous nations, should induce a doubt ol iho orifjinaltti/ of t\io Jewish. Law; and lead us to believe that the Legislator of the Hebrews borrowed many of hi^ rites froui the practice of the Egyptians, and others of the surrounding nations, in order to accommodate his Ritual to the habits and propensities of his countrymen, by preserving a similarity between his institutions and those idolatrous rites and customs to which they had been familiarized and attached ; and, many of which he in a great measure, retained, (as these writers suppose) only altering them so far as to change their object, appropriating them to the service of the true God, and blending them with the rites which originated solely in the divine appointment. Some judicious and candid critics have considered my omitting to notice this question, as a defect in this work. And in deference to their judgiuent, I feel myself called on to adver:^ to it as far as I judge it necessary in my present view of the subject. In the first place, then, if the principles and reasonings ad- duced in the preceding Lectures, and confirmed in those which follow, are just and conclusive, the supposition which we are now considering, becomes totally superfluous, and even in the highest degree improbable. If the great Jehovah, the moral Governor of the world, did in reality separate the Jewish nation to be the depositaries of true religion and sound morality, in the midst of an idolatrous world, and for this purpose brought them forth out of Egy})t by a series of stupendous and uncon- trolled miracles : if he promulgated to them the Moral Law of the Decalogue, with the most awful display of divine power and majesty ; if he established over them, as their form of national government, a Theocracy, which could not be sup- ported witliout the continued interposition of an extraordinary providence ; if he retained them in the wilderness for forty years, to discipline and instruct them, until the entire genera- tion, which had been familiarized to the idolatry and corruptions of Egypt, had perished ; and if he then planted them in the land of Canaan by a supernatural power, driving out before them its inhabitants, or compelling the Jews to exterminate them, as a punishment for their inveterate idolatry and its attendant crimes, commanding them carefully to avoid all simi- lar profanation and guilt, under the terror of suffering similpj" 178 OniGINALITY AND DESIGN [Part II. punishment ; — if these facts have been established, so as to prove that the Jewish Lawgiver was clearly delegated by God to institute a particular form of worship, with a variety of regu- lations and rites, to preserve the separation of this chosen people from the surrounding nations ; — then the supposition that he should borrow any thing from these rites and customs, in order to accommodate his system to the prejudices, habits, and propen- sities of his countrymen, becomes unnecessary, in proportion as we more clearly discern that he possessed authority to conciliate attention and enforce obedience without resorting to any such artifice. And if such an expedient was unnecessary, surely its adoption is extremely improbable. Thus to blend divine ap- pointments and human inventions ; to degrade the worship of the great Jehovah with the intermixture of rites, originally designed to honour the basest idols ; to reprobate the whole system of idolatry, all its profanations and crimes, with the most vehement and indiscriminate condemnation, and pro- hibit every attempt to introduce any part of it, under the severest penalties ; and yet secretly, as it were, pilfer from it some of its most attractive charms, varnish them with a new colouring, and exhibit them as the genuine features of true religion ; this seems altogether irreconcilable with the dignity of an inspired Legislator, and the purity of a divine Law, and indeed forms a scheme so jarring and inconsistent, that it appears utterly incredible it should be adopted by Divine Wisdom. The learned Spencer,* the most distinguished champion for this opinion, of the rites of the Jewish Law having been bor- rowed from those of the Gentiles, especially the Egyptians, argues from the political wisdom of such a gradual reformation, by grafting new institutions on customs already familiarized; and he adduces examples from "the triple reformation, first " from Judaism to Christianity ; next from Gentilism to Chris- " tianity ; and lastly, from Popery to Protestantism : in each of " which (as he truly alleges) many instances occur, in which " the rites of the old religion were retained or imitated in the " new.^-f- But in this reasoning he seems entirely to overlook the real bearing of the very examples he adduces. Christianity * Spencer de Legibus Hebraeorum, Lib. III. Hogae Comitum — a. d. 1666. f Spencer^ ut supra, Lib. IIL cap. ii. sect. 4, p. 27. Lect. v.] OF THE JEWISH nTTi'Ar,. 179 borrowod from Judaism, hccaiise it was tlio completion of that system which in Judaism had been bci^un. Christ came, " not " to destroy the Law and the propliets, but to fulfil them."* Hence the moral precepts of the Old Testament were preserved and perfected in the New ; the rites and ceremonies of the Law were typical of the grand events and leading truths of the Gos- pel ; and the chief festivals of the Jewish church were succeeded and superseded by corresponding festivals in the Christian. But the moment that human prejudice in favour of ancient usages would have overstepped the bounds prescribed by scriptural truth, and obtruded upon Christians the observances of a national and ceremonial law, inconsistent with the character of a univer- sal religion and a purely spiritual worship, that moment Divine Wisdom interposed its direct prohibition against an abuse so mistaken and so mischievous.-f- And can we suppose the same wisdom would have acted so opposite a part at the establishment of the Jewish Law, as to permit this chosen people to receive by divine appointment a Ritual, which, by its similarity to idola- trous rites, could scarcely fail to make them regard such profan- ations with respect, and throw in their way a most seductive temptation to imitate them more extensively? — Human policy, short-sighted in its views and defective in its authority, might, to facilitate its immediate objects, find it necessary to employ an expedient attended with so much future hazard ; but surely this were unworthy of a Divine Lawgiver. The second example appealed to by Spencer — the reformation from Gentilism to Christianity, as conducted by the well-mean- ing, but weak and mistaken men, who influenced the proceed- ings of the Western Church in the fifth and sixth centuries, exhibits a memorable and melancholy instance of the corruptions originating from thus preferring the crooked artifices of human policy, to the plain dictates of divine truth. From what other source than this were derived the errors and idolatries adopted and sanctioned by the Church of Rome I which for so many ages obscured and disgraced the whole system of the Christian faith, till the wise and manly zeal of the Protestant Reformers tore off this disfiguring mask of Pjiganism, and again exhibited • Matt. V. 17. f Acts X. xi. and xv. i Vide Middleton's Comparison of Popery and Paganism, 4th edit. Lond. 1741. 180 ORIGIN A LIT V AND DESIGN [Part II the unadulterated beauties of genuine Christianity, to attract the admiration and command the reverence of mankind. But. says Spencer,* even in this reformation, many of the principles and usages of the Romish church were retained, and the pro- gress of that reformation thus accelerated. True ; the Christian world will always remember with gratitude, that though the Eoman Church introduced many most injurious innovations, and loaded Christianity with a multitude of errors and supersti- tions, still she preserved all the great truths of the Gospel, and handed down to posterity many of the most valuable rites and usages of antiquity. These, therefore, it became the duty and the wisdom of the Reformers to retain, and only to reject those novelties and corruptions which artifice and superstition had introduced. And admirably indeed did the venerable founders of the Church of England execute this important discrimination. But they succeeded, because they made it their object to clear the divine Law from all intermixture of human depravation ; not, as Spencer supposes of the inspired Lawgiver of the Jews, to debase the divine institutions to the level of idolatrous profa- nations. But if the patrons of this system cannot defend it, as being evidently reasonable and useful, and recommended by examples of sufficient authority ; still less can they support it by the au- thority of Scripture. Its greatest advocate indeed acknowledges, " It is no where in Scripture asserted in express words, that the " rites used among the Heathens gave occasion to any of the " Jewish institutions." He adds this reason for such silence : " perhaps because this circumstance could easily be discerned " by men of more penetrating sagacity ; or because, if Grod had " openly declared this origin and reason of the Mosaic Laws, " they would have fallen into contempt with tlie vulgar part of " mankind, who are wont to despise what is plain, and revere " only what is mystical and obscure."'''-f- It is obvious to mark liow inconsistent this observation is with the general scheme ot this writer. The sole purpose of such imitation of Heathen rites, is supposed to be its tendency to attach the multitude by the adoption of customs to which they were already familiarized. Could it produce this effect, if it was not discernible by that * Ut supra, Lib. III. cap. iii. sect. 4. p. 27. •j- Spencer, Lib. IH. cap i. initio. Lect. v.] OF THE jKwisri ritual. 181 multitiido ? or if disfornod, it would expose tlie Law to con- tempt. Or could the similarity be obvious, and the design to imitate unseen? Spencer however affirms, that, though it is not directly asserted, it is not obscurely intimated by some pas- sages of Holy Writ ; and at the head of these ho places the sublime appeal of the Jewish Lawgiver to his people ; " What " nation is there so great, that hath God so nigh unto them, as " the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for 2 " And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and " judgments so righteous as all this Law which I set before you "this day?""* — "In this passage,*" says this learned writer, " Moses, in order to attach the Jews to God and his institu- " tions may be considered as thus addressing them — I know " that you earnestly desire a God not hid in clouds or removed " to a distance from you, and to be perceived only by the " mind's eye, but a God who may prove his presence by prodi- " gies, oracles, and illustrious signs, and almost exhibit himself " to your sight. I know that you look with a desiring eye on " the manners and sacred rites of other nations, and that nothing " can be more grateful to you, than that you, like other nations, " should have a religion full of rites and observances. And " assuredly God has proved so compliant and indulgent to your " desires and wishes, that I now confidently ask you. What " nation is there which hath its gods so near, or exhibiting to " their worshippers such illustrious proofs of their presence and " their favour ? And if you view the institutions of foreign " nations, learn, even such of you as regard with the greatest " partiality and attachment the rites of other religious, what " nation is there which celebrates the worship of the Divinity ' with rites so conspicuous for purity, dignity, and splendour ; " for we do not worship the supremo and glorious God with * that barbarous mixture of ceremonies, in which the ignorance " and superstition of the Heathens had combined so many ' things ridiculous and impure, but with rites amended, and *' that have undergone the correction of the most wise God, " which are yet retained in the worship of the Heathens entire, " and without any correction."" The latter part of this para- phrase, containing the peculiarity of this author's opinion (which I cannot but deem erroneous) assuredly receives no sup- * Detit. iv. 7 and 8. 182 ORIGINALITY AND DESIGN [Part II. j)ort from the passage of Scripture on which he here attempts to found it. Indeed were I to select a passage decidedly con- trasting the whole Mosaic Law with the religions of every surrounding nation, it would be the entire chapter from whence this is selected. With what energy does the inspired Lawgiver warn his countrymen to hearken to the statutes of their God, statutes which they were not to presume, in the least degree, to alter — " Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, " neither shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye may keep the " commandments of the Lord your God." * With what solem- nity docs he caution them against the impure and seductive pro- fanation of Baal-peor, which had already brought down upon them the wrath of God ;-f- — against the use of every graven image, as a similitude of the Divinity ; | — against the adoration of the sun and moon, and host ol lieaven,§ which at that period was so universal in a deluded world. How incredible is it, that while every principle and species of idolatry is thus repro- bated and condemned, any practices or ceremonies of that very idolatry should be adopted and consecrated in the worship of the great Jehovah. The more we examine the Mosaic institutions, the more strikingly conspicuous do the characters ot originality and designed contrast to the principles and rites of idolatry appear ; as far at least as I can investigate or judge of them. It is true, some pai'ts of the Jewish religion derived their origin from an authority more ancient than that of Moses : the obser- vance of the Sabbath appears to have been coeval with the cj-eation, and the use of sacrifice to have been instituted by God immediately after the Fall. || These, therefore, it is per- fectly natural to suppose, had been received by other nations from the remotest antiquity, and when adopted into the Mosaic insti- hitions, it was only requisite to free them from the superstitions and corruptions with which they had been blended, restore them to their original purity, and direct them to their true object. The rite of circumcision had been the peculiar seal of the cove- nant with Abraham, had been given four hundred years before the Mosaic Law, had been received by all the numerous descen- * Deut. iv. 2. t lb. ver. 3. t lb- ver. 16. § lb. ver. 19. ll Vide Gen. iii. 21. and iv. 3 and 4; and on this subject Dr Magee's very able and 'larned Work on Atonement and Sacrifice, Disc. II. with tlie proofs and illustrations, •di\ edit. Dublin, 1809 Lect. v.] OF TUB JKWISH UITUAL. 183 dants of that illustrious patriarch, and may have been reconi- niended even to others, who were not his descendants, by the fame of his wisdom and sanctity, and his distinguished prospe- rity and success. But to suppose, as has been argued,* that it was not to him an original and peculiar divine appointment, is to reject equally probability and Scripture. How could it have been given as the token of the covenant newly established by God with the patriarch, if it had boon long in use with nations excluded from that covenant ? Why provide that every stran- ger should submit to this rite, in order to bo naturalized amongst the Hebrews, if it were already in use amongst a multitude of strangers ? In short, the supposition is utterly unfounded and untenable. But its defenders allege, that cir- cumcision was in use amongst the priests in Egypt ; and affirm that they were too proud to borrow it from any other people, nuich less from a nation of slavcs.-f- Wo may answer, that there were two periods when the pride of the Egyptians may easily have been induced to borrow this rite even from the Hebrews ; the first, during the exaltation of Joseph, who in- termarried with the family of the priests of the supremo Egyp- tian deity. On, and the adoption of whoso religious principles was so strongly recommended by the hope of thus sharing his distinguished power of penetrating into the secrets of futurity ; — and again, when the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, closing the series of sufferings which had nearly destroyed Egypt, may have easily induced the terrified survivors to attempt averting the wrath of the all-powerful and victorious God of the Hebrews, by adopting, as an honorary badge of their priesthood, the seal of his followers. Surely this or almost any mode of accounting for the Egyptians having adopted this rite is more probable than that the great Jehovah should borrow from idolaters such a practice (as circumcision) to form the right of admission into his church, and the distinguishing characteristic of his worshippers. • Vide these arguments, collected and compared with those supportitif^ the opposite opinion, by Spencer, Lib. I. cap. iv. sect. 4. — On this point, Spentir, though support- ing the opinion, that Abraham first received this rite from a divine appointment. Lib. L cap. iv. sect. 2, initio, with what appear to me decisive proofs, yet declines giving any positive determination of his own. t Spencer, Lib. L cap. iv. p. 31- 184 ORIGINALITY AND DESIGN [Part II, In truth, the whole tenor of the Jewish Law exhibits not a studied imitation, but a studied opposition to the principles and rites of idolatry. That law required the worship of the one true God exclusively ; idolatry worshipped a rabble of deities. The Law proscribed all use of images, or resemblances of any creature, as emblems of the Divinity ; idolatry multiplied them. The Law abhorred and condemned all impure rites and all hu- man sacrifices : idolatry too frequently employed them. The Law forbade all necromancy and divination ;* it made no use of tlie inspection of the entrails of victims, or the observation of the flight of birds, to discover future events ; it relied for this, when necessary, on the divine oracle consulted by public autho- rity, and answering from the sanctuary, when the divine glory was displayed, by a distinct and audible voice.-|- The Law for- bade a variety of practices, in themselves apparently innocent, but which we know were employed in the superstitions of idolatry ; such as worshipping in high places or in consecrated groves. Thus Maimonidesj notices that the prohibition against round- ing the corners of the hair on the head and the beard § was given because the idolatrous priests were accustomed to use that particular tonsure. He assigns a similar reason for not making * Dt'ut. xviii. 9 — 12. t During the life of Moses, the oracle answered by a distinct and audible voice : Vide Numbers vii. 89. Joshua was to stand before the High Priest, who was to " ask "counsel for him by the judgment of Urim before the Lord.'' Numb, xxvii. 21 Interpreters have differed in explaining this passage. To me it appears to mean, that the High I'riest was to put on his sacred robe whenever he was to consult the oracle, as it would be criminal to enter the sanctuary, except he was thus robed. The dis- tinguishing ornament of this robe was the breastplate, containing the Urim and Tliummim ; that is, as I conceive, the twelve precious stones containing the names of the twelve tribes, as whose representative the High Priest appeared when thus con- sulting on some question of a national concern. When so consulting, he appears to have been accompanied by the supreme judge, at whose instance the oracle was resorted to; and it appears to me the response was delivered by an audible voice — Compare Exod. xxviii. from verse 15 to the end, with Exod. xxxix. 8 to 22 ; Levit. viii. 8. Compare also 1 Samuel xxiii. 9 to 12, and xxx. 7 ; 2 Samuel v. 23 ; also Judges i. 1, and the entire chap xx. See on this subject, Lowman on the Hebrew Govern, ch. xi. ; Spencer, Lib. III. dissert, vii. de Urim and Thummim, particularly the 2d section. In his opinions on this subject, Spencer has adopted an hypothesis as to the nature of the Urim and Thummim, which appears to me most contrary to truth and Scripture, and to be fully confuted by Witsius in his .flSgyptiaca, Lib. II. cap x. xi. xii. ; Lib. III. cap. xi. i Vide Maimonides More Nevochim, Pars III. cap. xli. p. 463 ; and for others, cap. xxxvii. p. 447. § Lev. xix. 27. Lect. v.] OF THE JEWISH rhual. 185 a garment of linen and woollen mixed together,* this bein*" a particular dress in idolatrous rites. Hence also he accounts for the prohibition against eating the fruits of the trees they should find iu the land of Canaan for three years,-|- which by the plant- ers had been consecrated to idols. Thus also idolaters wero brought to believe that it was acceptable to their gods to sow the ground on particular occasions with certain mixtures oi seeds, which was therefore prohibited.| Idolaters were accus- tomed to use blood in consulting the dead, to consecrate bats § and mice, and other insects, as a sacrifice to the sun : these^ therefore, were pronounced unclean. Indeed Spencer || has himself distinctly shown that many of those precepts which at first view might appear trivial or irrational, were indispensably necessary to check the idolatry of the Sabeans, who worshipped the sun, and moon, and stars. And it is abundantly evident, that all the peculiarities of the Ritual, as to its rites, sacrifices, and purifications, and its distinctions between things (.ean and un- clean, contributed to guard against the infection of idolatry ; not only by an opposition of rites and sacrifices, which would make the worshippers of Jehovah regard with habitual horror and contempt the rites and sacrifices of idolaters, but by estab- lishing a similar opposition even in the customs of common life, and the use of even daily food, which would render all familiar intercourse between the peculiar people of Jehovah and idolaters impracticable. This effect really followed wherever these pre- cepts of the law were observed. Thus, according to Josephus,1F when the Midianite women are represented as conferring with the young men whom their beauty had captivated, stating their fears of being forsaken by their lovers, and receiving their as- surances of attachment, they go on, " If then," said they, " this be your resolution, not to forsake us, since you make use " of such customs and conduct of life as are entirely different " from all other men, insomuch that your kinds of food are " peculiar to yourselves, and your kinds of drink not common * Lev. ver. 19. t lb. vcr. 23. J lb. ver. 19. § Lev. xi. — Vide also Patrick on Lev. xi. 19. Deut. xiv. and the corresponding liassages. II Vide Spencer, Lib. I. from cli. v. to xi. and tlie entire 2d Book. — Consult also Lovvman on the Hebrew Ritual, Part I. ch. ii. pp. 34, 44, and 45, and ch. iii. p. 53, with Fart II. ch. iii. iv. and v H Jusq.h. Aiili.i. B. IV. ch. VI. sect. 8. 186 ORIGINALITY AND DESIGN [Part II. " to others, it will be absolutely necessary, if you would have " us for your wives, that you worship our gods ; nor can there " be any other demonstration of the kindness which you say *' you already have and promise to have hereafter for us, than " this, that you worship the same gods that we do. For has " any one reason to complain that, now you are come into this " country, you should worship the proper gods of the same " country, especially while our gods are common to all men, " and yours such as belong to nobody else but yourselves ? So " they said they must either come into such methods of worship " as all others came into, or else they must look out for another " world, wherein they may live by themselves, according to " their own laws."" The same feeling of aversion and contempt from this studied opposition, not only in religious rites, but in the customs of common life, was universal amongst the heathens towards the Jews. Tacitus,* in his. eloquent but ignorant and gross misrepresentation of their origin and manners, expresses :,t strongly : " Moses,'' (says he) " thai, he might attach the " nation for ever to himself, introduced rites new and in oppo- *' sition to the rest of mankind : all things we hold sacred, are " there profane ; and what wo deem abominable, are with them *' permitted." And again, " they slaughter the ram in sacrifice, " as if in contempt of Ammon ; and they also offer up an ox, " which the Egyptians worship under the name of Apis." The decided feeling of opposition and hostility which the whole Jew- ish system excited, not merely in the vulgar, but in the most enlightened heathens, is evident in the passage already quoted from this philosophic historian : and still more in those which follow, where he terms their " rites perverse and polluted ;" and while he remarks the good faith and benevolence for which they were noted in their intercourse with each other, charges them " with an hostile hatred towards the rest of mankind," — and declares that " those who adopt their principles and cus- " toms, not only use circumcision, but are taught to despise " their own gods, to renounce their country, and to hold in con- " tempt brothers, children, parents." And though he observes a similitude between the Jewish ideas of a future state, and the Egyptian opinions, he gives this noble testimony of the superi- ority of the Jewish theology : " With regard to the gods (says ♦ Histoiiaixim, Lib. V. sect. 4. Lect. v.] OF THE JEWISH RITUAL. 187 " he) their opinions are directly opposite : tlio Egyptians sot up "and adore a number of animals and graven images; the Jews " conceive the Divinity as one, and to be understood only by " the mind : they deem those profane, who form any images of "the gods, of perishable materials, and after the likeness of " men : the Divinity they describe as supreme, eternal, un- " changeable, imperishable ; hence there are no images in their " cities or their temples : with these they would not flatter " kings, or honour Caisars." How illustrious this testimony ; how strange that this sagacious historian could not perceive how grossly he contradicted himself, when, notwithstanding this, he countenanced the vulgar calumny of an ass"'s head having been found in the most holy place ; and when afterwards, comparing the Jewish rites with those of Bacchus, he speaks of these as festive and cheerful, while he brands the religion of the Jews as sordid and absurd. Thus necessary was the authority of an acknowledged Revelation to give the truths of religion, even amongst the most enlightened heathens, their due weight and practical influence. Thus decided was the contrast between not only the general principles of Judaism and idolatry, but also the particular rites of each — a contrast by which the Jewish Ritual so effectually contributed to the end for which it was ori- ginally designed, even to serve as a partition-wall to separate the chosen people of God from the surrounding nations, and form a barrier against the corruptions of heathenism — a pur- pose with which the supposition, that it borrowed and conse- crated many of these rites and practices, appears to be entirely inconsistent. The evidence on which this supposition is founded, has been proved to be as inconclusive as the supposition itself appears to .e improbable. Witsius* has shown, with a clearness which renders it altogether unnecessary to discuss the subject afresh, that the authors on whose testimony the superior antiquity of the Egyptian religion has been maintained, and who have as- serted or supposed that the Mosaic Law derived from this source many of its principles and rites, lived so long after the facts, * Witsii ^gyptiaca, Lib. III. cap. i. ; this examines the credibility of the authiirs relied upon by Spencer, cap. ii. iii. iv. and v. ; adduces the testimony of antiquity in proof that Heathenism borrowed from Judaism, not Judaism from Ileatkenism ; which he establishes in a variety of instances, and by very strong Proofs 188 origixality and design [Part IT were so grossly ignorant of tlie Jewish history and system, sii rash or so prejudiced, that their testimony can have no authority 10 obtain credit, not merely, as he expresses it, with a strict in vestigator of antiquity, but " even with any man of plain sense " and moderate erudition.""* In truth, the fancied resemblance between the rites of Judaism and idolatry amounts to little more than this, that in both were priests, temples, altars, sacrifices, festivals, calculated to catch the attention, captivate the senses, and engage the imaginations of the worshippers by their splen- dour or their solemnity. But we have sufficiently proved that these were all directed to opposite objects of worship — the former to the one supreme God, the latter to the basest idols. And as the objects of worship, so the rites employed, we have seen, were desi divine orijjinal ofllic Mosaic Law are coubiderel. LECTURE I. SECT. i. — The Objection arising from the treatment of the Canaanitet considered, to far as relates to the Canaanites themselves. Objection includes two questions — Duubf as to the extent of the severity exercised against the Canaanites— This severity justified by their crimes — Their idolatry not an error of judgment alone — Cruelties and pollu- tions it produced — Necessity of expelling them from the land in which the Jews were to settle^Their guilt incorrigible. The objection proved to lead to Atheism. Analogy tetween the general course of providence, and the treatment of the Canaanites — In the sufferings of the innocent — Connection of this measure with the entire scheme of the divine economy. Revieio of the considerations offered on the first part of the objection. SECT. II. — Second part of the objection which relates to the Jews. A clear divine command changes the moral character of the action. Jews viere instruments in the hands of God — Series of facts proving this. Jews not actuated by the common passions of conquerors — Avarice ana licentiousness checked by the situation in which they were placed — And sanguinary passions — Abhorrence of idolatry impressed upon them, but not a spirit of personal or national hostility — Proved by their conduct to the Canaan- itet. Necessity of employing the Jews as instruments of this severity — To alienate the two nations — to overturn the grand support of idolatry — to impress a salutary terror on the Jews themselves — to supersede the necessity of a continued series of miracles. Treatment of the Amalekites ■ Nature of their crime— Connection of their punishment with the general scheme of the Jewish dispensation. General anstcer to all objections of this kind — This dispensation did not encourage a spirit of general persecution or eon- quest — Care taken it should not harden the hearts of the Jews — General laws of war among the Jewt merciful- Great care to encourage a sjnrit of humanity. Conclusion. DEUTERONOMY, XX. 16, 18. • Of the citioB of these peopi., which the Lord thy God doth give inee for an inheritance, thou " Shalt save nothing- alive that breatheth ; that they teach you not to do after their abominations " which they have done unto their gods, so should ye sin against the Lord your God." In reviewing tlie effects of Judaism, our attention is, in the first instance, necessarily directed to the consequences attending the first settlement of the nation in the country assigned them Lcct. I.] JEWS IN CANAAN. 193 by God for their inheritance : a substance of the utmost impor- tance, because this command to exercise such extreme severity against the nations of Canaan, whose land the Jews were to possess, has been always considered as the strongest objection to the divine original of the Mosaic Law ; and therefore demands a candid and full discussion. For this purpose it seems necessary to inquire, whether this transaction can be reconciled with just ideas of the attributes and providence of God, so far as it af- fected the Canaanites ; or, in other words, whether the severe punishment inflicted on these nations, was justified by their crimes ; and whether it is credible, that their destruction and the settlement of the Jews in their room, should form a part of the divine economy. The next question that arises seems to be, whether the mode in which this punishment was inflicted, and this settlement of the chosen people of God secured, is recon- cileable with just ideas of divine wisdom and mercy, so far as it regards the Jews ; or, in other words, whether it is credible God should directly command the extirpation of the Canaanites by the sword of the Jews, rather than effect it by any other means. These two inquiries seem to include every question which can arise on this important subject. Let us then first examine, how far the severe punishment * inflicted on the nations ot Canaan was justified by their crimes ; * Before my reader proceeds in this inquiry, it '"3 expedient to remark, that con- siderable doubt exists as to the real purport and meaning uf the commands delivered by the Jewish Lawgiver on this subject, and the true extent of the severity ordered to be exercised against the Canaanites. The vi'hole passage runs thus: "j- " When '* thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. And " it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be " that all the people that is found therein, shall be tributaries unto thee, and they "shall serve thee. And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make wai- 'against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: and when the Lord thy God hath deliv- " ered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the "sword. But the women and little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, ■'even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the •spoil of thine enemies, which the Lord thy God shall give thee. Thus shalt ■'thou do unto all the cities which are very far cS from thee, which are not of the ' cities of those nations. But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God 'doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth; 'but thou shalt utterly destroy them, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee: ' that they teach you not to do after their abominations, which they have done unto ' their god?, so should ye sin against the Lord your God." On this passage there are t Deut. XX. from 10 tn 18. N 194 SETTLEMENT OF THE [Part III. and whether it is credible, that the settlement of the Jews in their room, should form a part of the divine economy. What then were the crimes, which, it is asserted in the two opinions : one, that the injunction, " When thou comest nigh unto the city, to " fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it," extends only to the cities of the nations afar oflF, but does not apply to the cities of the seven nations; who, according to the opinion of these commentators, were to be utterly destroyed without any offer of peace. The other, that this injunction applies to every city alike, which the Israelites approached against, even of the seven nations ; and that the difference of treatment was not to take place until after this proffer of peace was rejected, and the city in consequence subdued ; when, if it were a lemote city, they were permitted only to put to death those who bore arms against them, who, at that period, were all the adult males ; but that if it were a city of the seven nations, all its inhabitants should be utterly destroyed ; lest if permitted to remain, they should infect the chosen people of God with the contagion of that obstinate idolatry, to renounce which was always one of the conditions of that peace which they had presumptuously rejected. On this last supposition, the Israelites were to offer peace to the Canaanites and spare their lives, on condition of their emigrating for ever from their country, or renouncing idolatry, adopting the principles of the patriarchal religion, contained in the precepts of Noah, resigning their territory, dissolving their national union, and submitting to become slaves. For it is evident that they could not tolerate idolatry, nor enter into any equaj leagues with the idols, who were worshipped as the guardian gods of the adverse party, must be supposed to witness and sanction ; nor leave in the possession of their cities and lands those nations, whose country the great Jehovah had assigned to them as their peculiar inheritance, to be entirely divided among their several tribes. But that if the nations of Canaan had renounced idolatry, and submitted to slavery or emi- gration they might have been saved from extermination, is strongly confirmed by that passage of the sacred history, which after relating the war carried on by Joshua against the confederated kings of these nations, and stating that " all the cities of those kings, " and the kings of them, did Joshua take, and smote them, with the edge of the sword, " and utterly destroyed them, as Moses, the servant of the Lord commanded ;" adds this remarkable observation ;* " Joshua made war a long time with all these kings : there " WAS NOT A CITY THAT MADE PEACE WITH THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, Save the " Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon : all other they took in battle. For it was of the " Lord to harden their hearts, that they might come against Israel in battle, that he " might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that he might "destroy them, as the Lord commanded Moses." This passage evidently implies, that it was in the power of these nations, by accepting peace, to escape extermination ; but that they were permitted to harden their hearts against all the wonders of divine Providence, in behalf of the Jews, and by this obstinacy exposed to suffer the full weight of that punishment which their crimes deserved, and which God had denounced against them. All who are conversant in the language of the Old Testament know, that it speaks of every event which God permits, as proceeding directly from him ; and describes him as hardening the hearts of those who abuse the divine dispensations, to harden their own hearts in guilt ; though these dispensations display a plain natural tendency to soften and reform them. « Joshua, xi. 18, 20. Lect. I.] JEWS IN CANAAN^. 195 Mosaic History, drew down upon the nations of Canaan that punishment which the Jews were commanded, nay, compelled hy God to execute? In the first place, a total apostasy from the worship of the true God; substituting in his room the sun If this interpretation of the various commands, relating to the conduct of tho Israelites towaids tlie nations of Canaan, be admitted, the true state of the question will be, whether it appears consistent with the divine attributes to dispossess of their country a nation sunk in idolatry and vice, in order to place in it another people, selected to preserve a knowledge of the true God, and the principles of moral virtue? And if the guilty nation refused to renounce idolatry, or to submit to the settlement of this chosen people, whether it was inconsistent with the divine mercy to authorize the affliction of the severest punishment, even to exter- mination? If, on the other side, we adopt the rigorous interpretation of the passage before us, and suppose the total extermination of the nations of Canaan commanded, without offering them any previous choice of renouncing idolatry, and submitting to the settle- ment of the Jews, it will remain to inquire, Whether we can reconcile with the divine attributes, this infliction of the severest punishment, in consequence of the long con- tinued and incorrigible impiety and profligacy of this idolatrous race, without affording them at that time any farther probation, any immediate offer of pardon and mercy? I am indeed myself persuaded, that this was not the real state of the case. But the commentators who maintain a contrary opinion are so numerous, that I should not tliink it right to rest the defence of the Jewish Law on the former interpretation, which I adopt, though this is supported by still stronger authorities. The chief oljection to this interpretation appears to arise from the Gibeonites having judged it necessary, in order to obtain mercy, to pretend that they came from a far country ; which seems to imply, that had they been known to have formed a part of the seven nations, they could not have obtained it. But to this it is answered by Maimonides, that the Gibeonites had, in common with the other Canaanites, refused the first offers of peace, and were therefore exposed to the same fate with them ; but that afterwards, terrified by the miraculous destruction of Jericho, and the fate of Ai, they determined to sue for mercy, and had recourse to the artifice related, lest their former rejection of peace should be objected to them. Vide Maimonides, Halack Melakim, cap. vi. ; also Cunteus de Republica Hebrjeorum, Lib. ii. cap. xx. Another reason why the Gibeonites had recourse to this artifice appears to have been, that they might form an equal league with the Jews, which was not permitted to any of the seven nations. This is the opinion of Masius, vide Poli Synopsis in locum. The error of the princes of the Jews, in granting the requests of tho Gibeonites, appears to have been, in not consulting the oracle, and thus being led to form an equal league with this part of the seven nations, without insisting on the possession of their terri- tory; but the Gibeonites had certainly* acknowledged the authority of Jehovah, and therefore must have renounced idolatry. Vide in confirmation of this, Grotius de Jure Belli et Pads, Lib. II. cap. xiii. sect, iv. In confirmation of the milder interpretation which I prefer, Selden de Jure Na- tural! Juxta Hebracos, Lib. VF. cap. xii. ^'ol. I. p. fifiS, remarks, that in the old com- 196 SETTLEMENT OF THE [Part III and moon, and host of heaven, as well as the fire and air, and the other elements of nature, in process of time deifying their ancestors ; and finally, worshipping stocks, and stones, and creep- ing things — idols the most absurd and abominable. But their mentaries of the Jews it is related, that Joshua, before he invaded any of the seven nations, accompanied his declaration of war with a threefold proclamation, which he quotes from the rabbi Samuel Ben Nachman, who says, " Joshua sent three letters t* .' the land of the Canaanites, before the Israelites invaded it, or rather proposed three .'things: Let those who choose to fly, fly; let those who choose peace, enter into •'treaty; let those who choose war, take up arms. In consequence of this, the Gir- "gashites, believing the power of God fled away, retreating into Africa; the Gibeo- " nites entered into a league, and thus continued inhabitants of the land of Israel ; the " one-and-thirty kings made war and fell." Selden remarks, "That what is here re- " lated of the flight into Africa, wonderfully agrees with the history in the Talmud, " according to which, the Africans applied to Alexander the Great, and laid claim to " this part of the land of Israel, as their paternal territory, on this very pretence ; and " also agrees with that ancient manuscript in Mauritania Tingitana, preserved by Pro- "copius, which declares, that the ancient inhabitants had fled thither from the face of " Joshua the son of Nun. But this emigration of the Girgashites may not have been " universal, as their name occurs in the list of the nations who fought against Israel, " Joshua xxiv. 11." Yet as it occurs only this once, while the other six nations are constantly enumerated as carrying on the war, this mention of them seems a recapi- tulation of the nations whose laud God delivered into the hands of the Jews, according to his promise, Deut. vii. 1, and Joshua iii. 10, rather than a positive assertion of their having been perseveringly engaged in the war. If they fled at its very commencement, this accounts for having been mentioned exactly as they are, before the invasion under Joshua began, in the divine promise that the seven nations should be cast out, and in this recapitulation, but no where in the distinct history of the war ; a coincidence which strongly confirms the tradition of their flight, and of the cause to which i« is imputed, the warning given them by the proclamation of Joshua mentioned above. If the reader wishes to see the arguments for the milder interpretation stated mo'? at large, he will find them in Maimonides, Cunaeus, Selden, and Poli Synopsis, «» quoted in this note ; the Universal History, Vol. I. p. 531, note p; Grotius de Jure Belli et Pacis, Lib. II. cap. xii. sect. ii. and iii. ; Bibliotheca Biblica on Deut. xx. 10, 15 and 16; Patrick on the same texts, and Joshua xi. 18; also Calmet on the same texts, who states fully the reasons for both interpretations, but appears to lean to the rigorous one, as does Leydeker de Republica Hebrseorum, p. 257 and 259 ; Le Clerc also, in his notes on Deut. xx. 10, &c. adopts the more rigorous interpretation: yet in a note on Joshua xi. 18, he admits, " That if any city of the seven nations had " wished for peace, they might have had it, according to Deut. xx." Dr. Gill agrees with Le Clerc. Vide also Dodd's Commentary on the above passages, particularly his Reflections on the destruction of the seven Nations of Canaan, annexed to the twentieth chapter of Deuteronomy, with a citation from which I shall conclude this already too long note : " Since therefore, as has been remarked, neither David with " all his power, nor Solomon, did destroy this people, since they subsisted in the "country from the days of Moses for upwards of four hundred and fourscore years; " since they were so far subdued as to become tributaries of service as well as of Lect. I.] JEWS IN CANAAN. 197 apostacy and idolatry was not, as some aflfect to consider it, a "* mcvo error of judgment^ which called rather for instruction to enlighten than punishment to correct it. No ; it was connected with every vice that can degrade human nature, and pollute society ; the crimes which it produced are briefly but forcibly pointed out to the abhorrence of the Jews by their divine Law- giver, as plain and notorious facts. f" Inquire not thou after " the gods of these nations, saying, How did these nations serve " their gods ? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so " unto the Lord thy God ; for every abomination to the Lord " which he hatetli have they done unto their gods : for even " their sons and their daughters have they burnt in the fire to *' their gods." And as their idolatry thus led them to the most ferocious and unnatural cruelty which could outrage humanity, so it encouraged and sanctioned the basest pollutions. The Jewish Legislator enumerates in the black catalogue, the crime against nature, bestiality, incest, adultery, in a word, every crime of this kind which can disgrace and degrade human nature ; and adds, " Defile not yourselves in any of those 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 inhabi- " tants. Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye com- " mit not any of those abominable customs which were committed " before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein : I am " the Lord your God."J The means by which the Midianitish "money; and since they might therefore have been absolutely destroyed, because " conquered, and yet were kept alive ; it seems to follow, that these people were not " to be absolutely cut oflf, men, women, and children, without mercy, but only were to " be destroyed as nations ; and that if any submitted and became subject to the Jews, " and relinquished their idolatry, they were not to be deprived of life. For did none »' of the Jews in all this time understand the command ? Did none of their generals '' or successful warriors understand that their business was to destroy all these people ? " Had they no opportunity, not even when they made them tributaries ? and were " Joshua, Samuel, and David, such strangers to the Law ?" Vide also Grotius de Jure Belli et Pacis, Lib. I. cap. ii. sect. ii. and Lib. IlL cap. xiii. sect. iv. • Thus Bayle represents it; Vide Warburton's Divine Legation, p. 159; and Tyndal and Bolingbroke frequently. And the intolerant spirit of the Jewish religion is the perpetual object of Voltaire's declamatory and virulent abuse ; at the same time, Jtith his usual inconsistency, he labours as vainly to prove it tolerated idolatry. Vidt* ifew's Letters to him. Vol. L p. 267, compared with 287. t Deut. xii. 30, 3L I Lev. zviii. 24, 25, 30. 198 SETTLEMENT OP TMB [Part III. women, at the instigation of a wicked king and a false prophet,* seduced the Jews first to indulge in impurity, and then to apostatize to idolatry ; the -j- influence of his foreign wives on Solomon, and of :j: Jezebel on Ahab, afford striking proofs of the necessity of rooting this depraved and impious race from the land in which the Jews were to settle, as a preparation necessary to preserve the chosen people of God from the con- tagion of their crimes and their idolatry: and explain the necessity of the command so solemnly proclaimed by the Jewish Legislator, so far as it respects the Canaanites : § " When the " Lord thy God shall deliver these nations before thee, saith " the Lord, thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them ; " thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy " unto them : neither shalt thou make marriages with them, for " they will turn away thy sons from following me, that they " may serve other gods ; so will the anger of the Lord be kindled " against thee, and destroy thee suddenly." Such were the idolatry, and such the crimer. of the Canaanites, which no examples of previous judgments had been able to correct. The terror of the Deluge had been long forgotten ; the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, in the very midst of the land of Canaan had been disregarded ; the instruction and example of Abraham and the pati-iarchs had produced no effect. These crimes and apostasies grew with their growth, and strengthened with their strength, till at the time of the invasion of the Jews |1 " their iniquities were full," and their obstinacy incorrigible. In vain did they hear of the divine terrors exhi- bited in the plagues of Egypt, the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, the miraculous passage over Jordan, and the overthrow of Jericho. A single nation (the Gibeonites) submitted to renounce idolatry, and court the protection of the Jews. Far from feeling any disposition to imitate their example, this suomission roused the rage, and accelerated the confederacy of the remaining Canaanites against the Jews : " For the king " of Jerusalem sent unto all the surrounding kings, saying, " Come up unto me, and help me, that we may smite Gibeon ; * Vide Numbers xxv. compared with xxxi. particularly rer. 16. t Vide 1 Kings xi. % 1 Kings xvi. 31. § Deut. vii. II Compare Genesis xv. with Lev. xviii. 25. Lect. I.] JEWS IN CANAAN. 199 " for it hath made peace with Joshua, and with the Children of " Israel."* The idolatry, the depravity, and the incorrigibleness of the nations of Canaan, being such as we have now seen, can we make it a question, whether the moral Governor of the universe acted consistently with his justice and mercy in exterminating this people, and planting in their stead a nation, in which the worship of the one supreme God, and the principles of moral virtue were to be preserved, and from whence the light of true religion, and the mercies of the Christian scheme were in due time to be diffused over the whole civilized world. If the Deist objects to the believer in revelation, because he conceives it inconsistent with the divine attributes, that such should be the declared scheme and manifest interposition of Pro- vidence in the Scriptures ; on the very same ground may the Atheist object, that in the natural course of things, which the Deist contends is regulated by the secret providence of God, whole nations are frequently cut off, and succeeded by those who have destroyed them : and that to suffer such destruction to take place, or allow the conqueror to reap any advantage from it, disproves the justice and mercy of the supposed Ruler of the universe ; or rather proves, that no such Ruler exists, but that blind chance, or mere human agency, determines the fates of nations and the course of events. Undoubtedly the Deist will truly reply, that we generally perceive impiety and depravity prepare the way for the destruction of states ; and that, though the conquerors sometimes appear little superior in religion or morals to the conquered, yet in the progress of time, we frequently discern-f* moral good arising from this troubled scene ; and, that the various revolutions of nations have contributed in • Joshua, X. 3 and 4. ■j" My readers will probably be as mucb gratified as I have been, at seeing the principle here stated, advanced in the most attractive form, and adorned with all the charms of numbers, by the late Rev. J. D. Carlyle, in his beautiful poem written on the banks of the Bosphorus ; a scene, as he observes, celebrated " for transactions which " embrace the most interesting parts of human history," and from which the author satisfactorily illustrates the moral deduction here maintained ; teaching men to " Hail that Power, whose gracious will Wakes the tempest, pours the flood ; Taught by Him, each germ of ill Blossoms in expansive good." 200 SETTLEMENT OF THE '^Part lit what seems to have been the most effectual method to advance the progress of civiHzation, morality and religion, and forwait) the gradual improvement of the human race ; while any a{^ parent inequality or severity with respect to individuals, can supply no shadow of objection to the justice and mercy of tho Divinity, if we take into account, that all inequality will bi perfectly rectified in a future life, for which the present is only a preparatory scene of discipline and trial. Exactly on the sama principles does the advocate for revelation answer the Deist, who objects to the extermination of the Canaanites, and the seizure of their country by the Jews, under an express divine command ; that in this event Divine Providence acted in a manner strictly analogous to the general course of that moral government, con- stantly exercised in the world ; with this only difference, that the same measures of divine administration, which in other cases are carried into effect by the secret influence, and, as it were, tacit permission of the Supreme moral Governor, were here exe- cuted by his avowed interposition and immediate authority. If, then, the general system of events is not inconsistent with the belief of a superintending Providence, neither is this particular fact. If the divine Governor constantly chastises public de- pravity by public punishment ; and when nations become so impious and immoral, that their further existence is subversive of human virtue and human happiness, destroys them by the hand of some other nation, which is better adapted to forward and assist the views of the Divinity in the melioration of man- kind; it is perfectly credible that the same divine Governor should directly assist the extermination of the most signally and incorrigibly-impious and depraved nation that perhaps ever existed ; in order to promote, in the most decisive manner, the purposes of the divine economy, by planting in their country a chosen people, evidently protected and controlled by Divine Providence, expressly appointed to be the depositaries and pre- servers of true religion and moral virtue, and by whose instru- mentality all the nations of the earth have been blessed : blesseti ny the establishment of the Christian scheme, which, through this chosen nation, was communicated to mankind. It is necessary thus to take into our consideration the whole purpose and progress of the divine economy, when we would account for and defend the particular part of it we are now Lect. I.] JEWS IN CANAAN. 201 considering (the extermination of the Canaanites, and the seizure of their country by the Jews ;) because this is undoubtedly one chief reason of the departure from the usual tenor of the divine Government, in directly assisting and authorizing what, in other cases, it only silently permits and secretly controls. The nature of the Gospel scheme required, and its importance justi- fied, a continued and avowed interposition of divine power, to prepare for and introduce it. The establishment of the Jewish nation in this country, and at this period, was undoubtedly an important and essential step of this necessary preparation ; and thence it was, that it was effected by the direct assistance and express command of God. This is not taking for granted the divine original of the Gospel in order to defend Judaism; but re- quiring that the whole scheme of revelation shall be considered together, and not in separate parts, and each part condemned ; because, if thus separately viewed, as unconnected with any pre- ceding dispensations, and unnecessary to any subsequent good effects, it would be strange and unaccountable ; whereas it is by this connexion explained and justified. But this command, it is said, confounds the innocent with the guilty ! " What ! command to leave nothing alive that breatheth. "Destroy all the smiling infants, all the innocent babes T'* No, surely : it is impossible that God should permit, much less command, the innocent thus to suffer. Let us weigh this objec- tion so far as it relates to the sufferers : (how far such a com- mand can be justified as it regards the Jews, we shall consider hereafter.) Now, that God may permit the innocent thus to suffer, is certainly credible, because He constantly does permit it, as well in the regular course of human affairs, as in the pro- gress of those signal and awful judgments, which we do not hesitate to ascribe to a more marked and direct intei-ference of Divine Providence. Guilty parents frequently entail diseases and poverty on their infant children ; the felon and the murderer, who forfeit their lives to public justice, sometimes leave their in- fant progeny exposed to the severest sufferings : and, to take a more extensive view, when the famine and the pestilence, those dreadful ministers of the divine chastisement, desolate a guilty land, do they spare the smiling infant and the innocent babe ? • This is the language of Paine. 202 SETTLEMENT OF THE [Part III When the deluge, the conflagration, or the earthquake, reduce ta ruins some flourishing city, do not infamy and innocence sink equally with guilt and age into the common grave ? Can this be considered as an imputation on divine justice and mercy, except we forget that this premature, and, to our view, deplorable fate, is really nothing more than a transitory shock, which attends the escape of those innocent ones into another and a better world, where all tears shall be wiped from ihoir eyes, and they shall repose for ever in the bosom of their Father and their God ? In a word, admit a future life, and all such difficulties vanish at once : deny it, and the entire scheme, not only of revelation, but of nature itself, is an explicable enigma. Assuredly then, as to the sufferings of those innocents, whom we may suppose to have perished at the destruction of the Canaanites, we may admit them credible, because they are analogous to the whole course of nature and the tenor of providence ; and we may rest assured, the same divine power which commanded their infliction, has abundantly repaid them by an eternal recompense. They form therefore no impeachment on the justice or mercy of God. Thus we have considered how far this part of the divine eco- nomy can be vindicated, as it regards the Canaanites themselves. And I trust it has appeared, that the idolatry, pollutions, and cruelty, of these nations, were so abominable, and at the same time so incorrigible, as to justify the moral Governor of the uni- verse in inflicting on them the most signal and severe punish- ments, even to extermination, without affording any longer period of trial, or any immediate ofler of pardon and mercy; though there is a strong probability, that, previous to this infliction of final vengeance, an opportunity was given them of accepting the peace ofiered by the Israelites, on condition of re- nouncing idolatry, and yielding their country to the chosen people of God, to whom the Governor of the world had assigned this promised land, by a grant as clear as the divine authority from which it proceeded was supreme : a grant confirmed by the most signal miracles, which were certainly known to the inhabitants of Canaan, who were thus forewarned of the divine authority on which their submission was required, and the punishment which would await their resistance. That this national punishment, provoked by r.ational guilt, Lect. I.] JEWS IN CANAAN. 203 should involve innocent individuals, even smiling babes and infant children, is perfectly analogous to the general course of Providence, and forms no objection to the justice or mercy c^ that God, who will assuredly take care to rectify all inequality of this life, at that final manifestation of His majesty, when He shall take to himself all power and reign, by rendering to every one according to their works. 204 SETTLEMENT OF THE [Part 111 LECTURE I. SECT. II. — It is not incredible that God should have chosen to exterminate tht Canaanites by the sword of the Jews, rather than by any other means, and thai He should have commanded the Jews to inflict such extermination. DEUTERONOMY, vii. 2, 4. " When the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them, and utterly de " stroy them— for they will turn away thy sons from following me, that they may serve othei " gods : 80 will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly." I NOW proceed to discuss that which, I am well aware, is the most plausible part of the objection to this part of the Jew- ish scheme. It will still be maintained, that though the expul- sion, or even the destruction of the Canaanites, may have been merited and necessary, yet it is incredible God should command their extirpation by the sword of the Jews, for this would be to sanction plunder and ferociousness, national violence and personal cruelty by a divine authority. But is it not evident, the advancers of this ot)jection forget that a clear divine inter- position plainly requiring a particular act of obedience to an immediate divine command, so materially affects the principle on which that action is performed, the motives from which it proceeds, and the effects it produces on the minds of those who are thus employed by the Divinity,* that it may altogether * This is expressed, with his usual acuteness and closeness of reasoning, by Bis- hop Butler, in his Analogy, Part II. ch. iii. on the credibility that a Revelation should appear liable to objections. After clearly establishing this general conclusion, by proving, p. 250 and 251, " We are incompetent judges even of the constitution ct " nature, which is very diflerent from what, before experience, would have been ex- " pected ; and such as, men fancy, there lie great objections against, which renders it " beforehand highly credible, that they may find the revealed dispensation likewise, " if they judge of it as they do of the constitution of nature, very diflerent from ex- " pectations formed beforehand; and liable, in appearance, to great objections. And " thus, as we fall into infinite follies and mistakes, whenever we pretend, other- " wise than from experience and analogy, to judge of the constitution and course of "nature; it is evidently supposable beforehand, that we should fall into as great in Lect. I,] JEWS FN CANAAN. 205 change the moral character of the action itself. A distinction similar to this, is admitted uniformly in common life. If an individual, hurried on by ferocious resentment, and unsanctioned by public authority, avenges the wrong he has sustained, by inflicting death upon his enemy, we stigmatize him as a mur- " pretending to judge, in the like manner, ronrcrning Revelation. Nor is there " any more ground to expect that this latter should appear to us clear of objections •' than that the former should." After illustrating this principle by a variety of in- stances most striking and conclusive, he applies it to that part of the revealed scheme now before us, p. 266: "And now what is the just consequence from all these "things? Not that reason is no judge of what is offered to us, as being of divine " revelation. For, this would be to infer that we are unable to judge of any thing, " because we are unable to judge of all things. Reason can, and it ought to judge, '• not only of the meaning, but also of the morality and the evidence of revelation. "First, It is the province of reason to judge of the morality of the Scriptures; t. e. "not whether it contains things diflerent from what toe should have expected from a "wise, just, and good Being; for objections from hence have been now obviated: "but whether it contains things plainly eontradietory to wisdom, justice, or goodness; " to what the light of nature teaches us of God. And I know nothing of this sort " objected against Scripture, excepting such objections as are formed upon supposi- " tions, which would equally conclude, that the constitution of nature is contradictory " to wisdom,, justice, or goodness ; which most certainly it is not. Indeed thiso are " some particular precepts in Scripture, given to particular persons, requiring •..-.tions, " which would be immoral and vicious, were it not for such precepts. But it is easy " to see, that all these are of such a kind, as that the precept changes the whole nature " of the case and of the action ; and both constitutes, and shows, that not to be unjust " or immoral, which, prior to the precept, must have appeared, and really have been *'so; which may well be, since none of these precepts are contrary to immutable "morality. If it were commanded, to cultivate the principles, and act Jrom the "spirit of treachery, ingratitude, cruelly; the command would not alter the nature " of the case or of the action, in any of these instances. But it is quite otherwise in "precepts which require only the doing of an external action: for instance, taking "away the property or life of any. For men have no right to either life or property, " but what arises solely from the grant of God: when this grant is revoked, they cease "to have any right at all, in either: and when this revocation is made known, as "surely it is possible it may be, it must cease to be unjust to deprive them of either. " And though a course of external acts, which without command would be immoral, "must make an immoral habit: yet a few detached commands have no such natural " tendency. " I thought proper to say thus much of the few Scripture precepts, which re- "• quire, not vicious actions, but actions which would have been vicious, had it not "been for such precepts; because they are sometimes weakly urged as immoral, "and great weight is laid upon the objections drawn from them. But to me there " seems no difficulty at all in these precepts, but what arises from their being offences : "i. e. from their being liable to be perverted, as indeed they are, by wicked designing " men, to serve the most horrid purposes ; and perhaps, to mislead the weak and "enthusiastic. And objections from this head are not objections against Revilalion; 206 SETTLEMENT OF THE LPiirt III. derer; but if a criminal is convicted of atrocious guilt, con- demned by the solemn decision of the Law, and the execution of the sentence committed to the minister of public justice, the infliction of death in this case is a duty, not a crime. Now what we contend for is, that with regard to the Canaanites, the Jews stood exactly in the relation of ministers of justice, plainly commanded, nay irresistibly impelled by the Supreme Ruler of "but against the whole notion of religion, as a trial; and against the general oon- " stitution of nature." Oa this subject of a state of trial, vide Butler, Part I. ch. iv. and V. Equally important is the observation of the celebrated Cumberland on this sub- ject, in the twenty-fourth section of the Prolegomena to his profound and compre- hensive work on the Law of Nature, pp. 29 and 30; in which, after having previously reduced all the precepts of that Law to one general principle, even the " steady " pursuit of the common good of the whole system of rational beings, as far as it is in " our power," he observes among the various advantages arising from this simplifica- tion, that it enables us to deduce that subordination amongst the various particular laws of nature, according to which, that of prior obligation frequently limits the appli- cation of an inferior precept; he proceeds, "Ex hoc ordine inter leges naturoe, quo " speeiales omnes general! subordinantur, et illarum posteriores prioribus, commo- " dissime ostendi posse videtur, de illarum nulla unquam a Deo dispensatura " esse ; sed in iis casibus, in quibus posterioris obligatio toUi videatur, materiam ita "mutari ut priori tantum legi observandae locus sit. Sic patet non dispensari de "lege dominiorum divisionem stabiliente, et alieni invasionem prohibente; si Deus " licitum faciat Israeli tis, Cananseoruminipsum delinquentium terram invadere. Quippe ♦' eadem ilia lex decernit, necesse esse ad bonum commune, ut Deo imprimis tribuatur " dominium illud eminens in omnes et omnia, cujus vi ipse, quoties ad summum finem " conducere videbitur, auferre potest dominium cujusvis creaturse in suam vitam ac " bona, et illud in alteram transferre per idonea /oluntatls sua signa : quod in casu "proposito factum fuisse legimus; unde Israelitse sua sibi vindicabant, non aliena "invadendi potestatem accipiebant. Pariter etiam non dispensatur de lege quae "propter bonum commune vetat innocentibus nocere, si quando jubeator innocens, " (cum ad hunc finem necessarium est) periculum noxse, ipsamve mortem subire ; Deo " prsesertim voluntatem suam hac in re satis aperte indicante. Hinc enim et Deo " omnium regi suus defertur honos, ep aptissime (quia secundum ipsius judicium) " summo fini consulitur." Vide also Grotius de Jure Belli et Pacis, as quoted in the last note. But Grotius, Cumberland, and Butler, appear shallow reasoners to such writers as Messrs Tyndall and Morgan, Chubb and Bolingbroke, Voltaire and Paine, and narrow-minded bigots to Dr Geddes, who, to the assertion that God could dispense with any moral law, by giving authority in a special instance, to take away the life or property of any human being, declares, " I might obstinately deny this assertion, and "maintain that he could not without being unjust; nor do I see what solid argument •' could be adduced to prove the contrary." Vide Critical Remarks, p. 423. It is to be hoped few will be found to imitate this obstinacy of the Doctor's : to affirm that God cannot without injustice authorize the infliction of punishment on guilt, is a discovery in natural religion so novel, it ought to be maintained with diffidence not abstinaey. LeCt. I.] ""^^^'^ *^^' CANAAN. 207 the world, to execute upon that nation His solemn sentence of confiscation and death. They obeyed this command of neces- sity, driven by the terror of immediate and severe punishment from God, if in the smallest item they relaxed the rigour of the sentence. On their first approach to the land of Canaan, their ius])ired Lawgiver had commanded them immediately to attack it : but the people distrusting the divine power, proposed to send spies to view the land; who reported that the people "were " great and tall, and the cities walled up to heaven."* This completely terrified the unwarlike Jews : they were seized with the most unmanly, and, in their situation, impious panic.-f* At this moment of mad rebellion, from infidelity and cow'ardice com- bined, the glory of the Lord appeared. " As I live, saith the " Lord, all this evil congregation that are gathered together " against me, in this wilderness, they shall be consumed, and " there they shall die." And to confirm this menace, the ten spies, who had brought this evil report upon the land, died instantly by a plague before the Lord ; but Joshua and Caleb lived still. Astonished at the appearance of the divine glory, appalled by the instant punishment of the spies Avho had misled them, shocked at the idea of wandering forty years in the wilderness, and there perishing, they mourned greatly, and said, " we have sinned against the Lord ; we will go up and fight as " the Lord commanded us. But the Lord would not be entreated. " Moses said, Go not up, for the Lord is not among you, and ye " shall fall by the sword." Again obstinate and rebellious, they went up presumptuously ; but Moses and the Ark of God de- parted not out of the camp : and the Canaanites smote them and discomfited them. Convinced by such decided experience of their total dependence on the God of Hosts, they submitted to his power: forty years they continued to wander in the wilderness, without making another effort, either to return into Egypt or to invade Canaan. And now, when of all that generation who had distrusted the Divine Power not one survived, save the pious and intrepid Joshua and Caleb, " For the hand of the Lord was against " them to consume them," the host of Israel is again commanded to go up and take possession of the promised land, under the ex- * Comoare Numb. xiii. and xiv. with Deut. i. frim ver. 19. t Vide Part I. Lett. v. 208 ' SETTLEMENT OF THE [Part III press condition of their consuming all the people which the Lord their God should deliver them. * " The Lord thy God," says the Lawgiver, " shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy thera *• with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed. And he " shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy " their name from under heaven : there shall no man be able to *' stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them. The graven " images of their gods shall ye burn with fire : thou shalt not de- " sire the silver nor the gold that is on them, nor take it unto theo " for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God." On these con- ditions, and under this command, they approach the river Jordan ; it is miraculously divided to make way before them : they encamp before Jericho, which is pronounced accursed,-f- or rather devoted to the Lord: "Even it, and all that are therein. And keep ye," says their inspired Judge, " from the accursed thing, lest ye " make yourselves a curse when ye take of the accursed thing, " and make the camp of the Lord a curse, and trouble it. Only " the silver and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are conse- " crated unto the Lord; they shall come iuco the treasury of the " Lord." Thus was Jericho placed under a solemn anathema ; its walls, otherwise impregnable, are miraculously, and in a mo- ment, levelled to the ground, so that the people " went up into " the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city." Now, I ask, are we to consider their conduct in such circum- stances as the result of their own natural unbiassed choice, or as the conduct of men feeling themselves under the direct control of Omnipotence ? Are we to impute it to a spirit of cruelty, that in this instance they utterly destroyed all that was in the city with the edge of the sword, according to the divine com- mand ? Or was it a spirit of plunder that instigated them to de- stroy not only the inhabitants but the spoil, the sheep and oxen : in a word, to burn the city and all that was therein ? Only the silver and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, they brought into the house of the Lord. Assuredly they were impelled neither oy cruelty nor by avarice ; they acted not from the common feel- ings, or in the usual manner, of human conquerors ; they felt themselves bound to obey the Lord God of' Hosts, whose sen- tence they executed, and by whose power they conquered. * Deut. vii. 23, 25. + .Ti.shiia. vi. 17. 19. Loi.'t. I.] JKWS l.N CANAA.V. 209 Let US now mark the so(juel. A siui^lo individual* traii.s- grcssed the divine command, by obedience to wliich only thev could hope for success. The divine support was therefore with- drawn ; and though the next enemies whom they encountered, were apparently so inconsiderable that they despised them, yet " they fled before the men of Ai : and the hearts of all the people *' melted like water." Even Joshua was heart-struck with terror, " and rent his clothes, and fell upon his face before the Lord, " he and all the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads. *' And Joshua said, Alas, 0 Lord God, wherefore hast thou " brought this people at all over Jordan, to deliver us into the " hands of the Amorites, to destroy us ? For the Canaanites, " and all the inhabitants of the land, shall hear of us, and shall '• environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth. And " the Lord said. Get thee up ; wherefore liest thou thus upon " thy face ? Israel hath sinned, and hath transgressed my " covenant which I commanded them : they have even taken of " the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and have put it amongst " their own stuff. Therefore the Children of Israel could not " stand before their enemies, because they were accursed. " Neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the " accursed thing from among you. Up, sanctify the people : " and on the morrow the Lord will by lot take first the tribe, " next the family, and lastly the man who hath taken the " accursed thing : and he shall be burnt with fire, and all that " he hath, because he hath taken the accursed thing." The solemn inquisition is made ; the lot is cast ; the criminal is found ; he confesses that he had taken part of the spoil of Jericho, even gold and silver and raiment, and that they were hid in his tent : they are found ; the congregation stone the criminal, and burn him with fire. Now the Lord is reconciled ; victory again crowns the host of Jehovah, the elements of heaven war for Israel i and in a great battle more of their opponents fall by hailstones of supernatural magnitude than by the sword. After all these proofs of a divine interference, could the Jews avoid being fully convinced that their God, the omnipresent and all-powerful Lord of heaven and earth, had commanded the extermination of the Canaanites ; or could they venture to dispute the command ? Let us then reflect on the feelings • Jushua vii. 18. 210 SETTLEMENl OF THK [Part III. wliich must have influenced them while acting under this com- mand, the natural effects it may have produced on their moral character and conduct, and the probable reasons why such a mode of executing the divine judgments formed a part of the Jewish dispensation. In the first place, is it not evident that the Jews, considering themselves as nothing more than instruments in the hands of Jehovah, to execute his sentence on the condemned nations of Canaan, were not actuated by any of those depraved motives which almost universally attend the prosecution of war ? The whole series of events which occurred while they were thus obeying the plain mandate, or rather yielding to the resistless impulse of Omnipotence, was a continued trial of their humble reliance on the divine protection, their confidence in the divine promises, and their submission to the divine will : to which they Were to sacrifice every personal indulgence, and subjugate every passion of their soul. The thirst of plunder, and the indulgence of licentious desires are too frequently the most powerful stimulus to war and conquest, with the bulk of every soldiery : but with the Jews, these motives were on this occasion wholly set aside. The entire spoil however rich, the captives however numerous or desirable, were wholly devoted to the Lord, condemned to destruction with the city or people to whom they belonged. Avarice and licentiousness therefore were checked, not cherished, by this system in the Jewish people. They acted not from their own choice, they indulged not their own desires, they merely obeyed the immediate direction of Almighty Power, not daring either to destroy or to show mercy, to consume or to spare, any thing animate or inanimate, but according to the strict letter of the divine instructions. Further, as all avaricious and licentious propensities were upon this occasion checked and disappointed, so it is scarcely to be conceived that, circumstanced as the Jews were, sanguinary passion could find access to their minds, or be cherished and encouraged from the part they were compelled to act. The greatest care was taken to mark out the crime of idolatry in general, not the peculiar individuals with whom they were then at war, as the object of abhorrence. Every thing connected with such false worship, animate and inanimate, was stigma- tized as an abomination to the Lord : the image, the altar. LeCt. I.] JEWS l.\ CANAAX. 211 the grove around it, tlio silver, the gold, the houses which were the property of idolaters, as well as the idolaters them- selves, were to be utterly destroyed. And in order that the feelings of detestation and abhorrence might bo inseparably associated with the crime of idolatry, not with the persons of the Canaanites ; in order to prove to the Jews that they were commanded to exterminate the seven nations, not from any principle of personal resentment or national hostility, but merely as criminals, condemned by God ; they were solemnly bound to exercise exactly the same severity towards any of their own nation,* who should apostatize to idolatry. The idolatrous HEBREW crrv, or hebrew tribe, was to be totally exterminated AS well as the nations op CANAAN. If the most beloved brother, or the chosen friend of the Jew, the wife of his bosom, or the child of his hopes, should worship false gods, it was commanded that he should pursue this dearest object of his affection even unto death : " His eye was not to spare, neither was he to show " pity unto him." Acting under such a system, it seems probable that ferocious passion, personal resentment, and even national hostility, could not prevail in the Jewish host, with the same force as in any other conquering' army ; and if there is in human nature any tendency to pity the sufferings of criminals, where the crime hurts not ourselves, it was probably felt on this occasion by the Jews. Indeed we have decisive proof, that it was with reluc- tance, and almost by compulsion, that the Jews executed the sentence of divine justice on the condemned nations. Because it is certain, that as soon as the terror of immediate punishment on themselves was in any degree withdrawn, they neglected to execute the divine command, they spared the remaining Canaan- ites, they indulged their own indolence by reposing in peace, or their pride and avarice, by reducing their enemies to slaves or tributaries ; and in process of time began to regard them with affection, to court their alliance, to imitate their manners, and finally, participate in their idolatry and their licentiousness. If then the severities which at first they were compelled to exercise against these idolaters had a tendency to excite in the minds of both parties, sentiments of alienation and hostility to- wards each other ; let it be remembered, that this tendency was * Vide Deut. xiii. and Vol I Part II. Lect. III. at the beginning. 213 SETTLEMENT OF THE [Part III. useful and necessary ; and that these severities, far from being continued longer, or carried farther, than was essentially re- quisite for the purposes of the divine economy, would at first seem not to have been carried far enough. If the Jews could not be entirely prevented from mixing with the Canaanites, even by the mutual hostility which such measures as they were com- manded and compelled to employ, appear calculated to produce, how instant, and total, and inseparable, would have been the union of those nations, had any milder measures been employed ; and how entirely would the scheme of setting apart a chosen and peculiar people, to preserve the worship and the oracles of God, have been defeated. How impracticable would it have been to mark out one peculiar nation, tribe or family, from whom the Messiah might be proved to descend, by whom the word of pro- phecy might be preserved, and its accomplishment attested. In a word, suppose this part of the Jewish dispensation changed ; and it appears probable, as far as human sagacity can determine, that the whole scheme must have been abandoned, or affected by means to us inconceivable. When, therefore, we ask. Why the sword of the Jews was employed for the punishment of the con- demned nations of Canaan, rather than any other means? we answer,* that no other mode of punishment could have so effectually guarded the Jews from being seduced by the allure- ments of idolatry, and involved in all the guilt and profanation, all the multiplied cruelties and impurities, which idolatry neces- sarily introduced. The degree of alienation and hostility thus excited in both parties accomplished this purpose of the divine administration as far as was indispensably necessary, with less extensive infliction of miraculous punishment than any other conceivable mode. All the nations of Canaan might have been swept off by a pestilence, and the Jews placed, without re- sistance, in the possession of their territory. But even with this most extensive destruction of the condemned nations, would the Jews have been equally guarded against the contagion of idolatry, from every surrounding state? Would they have been filled with the same terror of impiety, superstitious cruelty and licen- tiousness, as when they themselves were compelled to become * It has gratified me to find that the reasons here adduced, agree with those of ^Tr Csppe, in his Essay on the idea of Judaism, and his Critical Remarks, Vol. II. p. 221. Lect. I, J JEWS IN CANAAN 213 executioners of divine vengeance for these crimes? Assuredly not. With the strong tendency to imitate the manners, and adopt the corruptions of idolatry, which the Jews afterwards displayed, it seems probable that if this scheme had not been adopted to alienate them as strongly as possible from its votaries, nothing could have prevented their immediate and total apostasy but miraculously rendering the surrounding world a wilderness, or restraining the Jewish nation by some uninterrupted and supernatural force, from all commerce with every other people. Thus wild, unnatural, and impracticable, are the expedients which seem necessary to be substituted, when we suppose any departure from what has been the real process of the divine dis- pensations. Is it not then irrational and unjust, to accuse this part of the divine economy as too severe, when it is certain it was barely severe enough to effect the preservation of the word and worship of the one true God, in a single nation ? Is it not unjust to charge it with a tendency to deprave the morals of the Jews, when it seems to have been the only effectual me- thod of inspiring them with a detestation of all the foulest crimes to the seduction of which they were most exposed, and impress- ing a fearful apprehension of the punishment which must attend their perpetration ? But the punishment of the Canaanites by the sword of the Jews, rather than by any other mode, seems to have promoted the objects of the divine economy, not only by rendering it more practicable to keep the chosen people a separate race, alienated from the society and guarded against the seductions of idolaters, but by PREPARING THE WAY, FOR TERMINATING THE MIRACULOUS INTERPOSITION UNDER WHICH IT HAD BEEN NECESSARY TO DISCIPLINE THE JEWISH NATION, leaving at the same time such deep and awful impressions on their mind as ought to preserve them permanently obedient to the divine Law. The great support of idol worship was the fixed opinion, that the idols of each nation were its faithful guardian gods, securing its temporal prosperity, and above all, its success in war ; com- bating on the side of their votaries, with an effect proportioned to the power of their supposed divinity, and establishing the value of their protection by the greatness of the victories they achieved. This strong principle of idolatrous seduction, nothing could so effectually counteract, as the abundant expcriuieutal 214 SETTLEMENT OF THE [Part III. proof which the Jews received, that the one only true God, Jehovah, their guardian God, and immediate sovereign Lord, was in this, as in every other respect, decidedly superior to all the Gentile idols confederated together ; and that as He had promised to be " an enemy to their enemies, and an adversary " to their adversaries," so he was able effectually to fullil his promise of " sending his fear before them, and destroying all the " people to whom they should come, and making all their " enemies turn their backs unto them."* And as their con- fidence in the divine protection was thus established, by their being made tne instruments of exterminating the Canaanites, more than it could have been by any other possible mode of effecting their settlement in the promised land ; so by the very same dispensation was a salutary terror impressed upon them, preparing them for being governed without any further con- tinued miraculous interposition. Their God had denounced against them, that if they forsook his worship and violated his Law, he would cause them to be"f* " smitten before their ene- " mies ; that they should go out one way against them, and flee " seven ways before them : and that they should be removed " into all the kingdoms of the earth." They now clearly perceived the full power of God to execute this dread denun- ciation, they now felt practically and decisively the power of Jehovah to make man the instrument of punishing idolatry^ hoic- ever previously unwilling, or apparently unable, to inflict this pun- ishment : they were now experimentally convinced that no mili- tary superiority of multitude or discipline could protect them from the sword of their enemies, or preserve their nation from total destruction, if they forsook the covenant of their God. Hence, after their settlement in the land of Canaan, the terror which the hostility of the surrounding nations inspired was fitted to be- come the principal check to restrain them from idolatry ; they were prepared to recognise in their defeats the effects of divine displeasure, and the arm of man was fitted to become the in- strument of that punishment which their God might deter- mine to inflict. Thus the scheme of discipline and correction which Divine Wisdom judged it necessary to exercise over his chosen people, was conducted, by a system which was easily con- nected with the common course of events, and assimilated to * Fxod. xxiii. 2v t l^eut. xxviii. 25. Lect. I.] JEWS IN CAXAAV. 215 aud blended with the general, and as it were, natural progress of the providential administration of human affairs. In this view, the punishment of the Canaanites by the sword of the Jews, rather than by any other means, seems a necessary •part of the divine economy ; and the event proves, that the rigour and extent of that punishment were not greater than the objects of that economy indispensably required ; for if the dreadful example thus exhibited in all its terrors to the Jews, and imprinted, one would suppose, indelibly on their hearts, was yet insufficient to prevent them from yielding frequently to the seductions of idolatry, what must have been the result, had no such severity of discipline been employed? Assuredly the ex- clusive worship of Jehovah could not have been preserved beyond a single generation, or restored by a less signal or prolonged display of miracles, than that which was first employed to establish it. Now, either the total abolition of true religion, 01 its repeated restoration by such repeated aud continued in- terruptions of the course of nature, and the regular tenor of the providential government of man, seem utterly inconsistent with the purposes of the divine dispensations. The TREATMENT OF THE Amalekites lias also boen consi- dered as a great difficulty. Much of what has been said as to the treatment of the Canaanites applies to it ; but it has its par- ticular circumstances, which it becomes necessary briefly to consider. The first notice of the Amalekites is in Exodus, where it is said,* " Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Re- " phidim." Their miraculous defeat is there recorded, and the monument which Moses set up to preserve the memory of it, and the order of God concerning it. " And the Lord *' said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, " and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua : for I will utterly " put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. " And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah- Nissi;t for he said, Because the Lord hath sworn, that the * Exod. xvii. from 8 to the end. f "The Lord my banner." The next verse ought, as seems to me, to be translated, " For he said, Because the hand of the Lord shall be for ever \ipon tlie banners ** of war against Amalek." This translation is justified, by changing 03 " a throue," " into D3 " a banner;" the alteration was proposed by Houbigant, and seems prefer- 216 SETTLEMEMT ut' THE [I'jirtlll. *' Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to gcnera- " tion." But in the recapitulation* of this history, Moses mentions the particulars, which prove this to have been an hostility on the part of the Amalekites totally unprovoked, and attended with very aggravating circumstances, "Remember,"'" says he, " what Amalek did not unto thee by the way, when ye " were come forth out of Egypt ; how He met f thee by the " way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were " feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary ; and he " FEARED NOT GoD. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy " God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, " in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inhe- " ritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance " of Amalek from under heaven : thou shalt not forget it." Here then the Divine command to exterminate Amalek as a nation, is grounded, first, on their conduct towards the chosen people of God. They had displayed in their attack on them, a spirit of unprovoked, cruel, treacherous and inveterate hostility It was unprovoked, because there appears no reason to believe that the Jews had the remotest intention of either injuring their persons or seizing on their territory ; whicli does not appear to have formed J any part of that land of which the Jews were commanded by God to take possession. Accordingly we never find the Amalekites mentioned among the nations who were to be expelled from the promised land. It was a cruel, treacherous and inveterate hostility, because they attacked the Jewish host, as appears, by surprise, so as to cut off the hindmost, who were feeble and weary and faint. And surely an enemy acting in such a manner as this, might at that time liave been regarded as an inveterate and malignant foe, whose destruction might be con- sidered as almost necessary to the safety of those whom they at- ftble to any other. Those readings, proposed by Le Clerc in locum, and by Shuck- ford, Vol. III. p. 31, seem, though ingenious not so natural. Vide Dodd's note on the passage. * Deut. XXV. 17. "f In 1 Samuel xv. 2. it is " how he laid wait for him in the way." X Vide Patrick on Exod. xvii. 8, and Deut. xxv. 17, &c. Universal History, VoL I . p. 318. Most commentators consider these Amalekites as the descendants of Esau, who would therefore, but for their own misconduct have enjoyed the same exemption from all attempts of the Jews on their territory, as the children of Edom. Vide Deut. ii. 5. But this seems uncertain. LeCt. I.] JEWS IN CANAAN. 21 7 tacked. "But this was not the chief cause of the doom denounced against them ; it was not so much the cruelty of their conduct, as the impiety of their motive which drew down upon them the divine vengeance : " they feared not God." The Amalekites could not but have known the signs and wonders, by which Je- hovah had rescued his chosen people from Egyptian slavery, and declared himself openly their guardian God. They must particularly have known the recent destruction of the Egyptian host in the Red Sea. But the Amalekites, notwithstanding all this, " feared not the God of the Jews."" They set themselves voluntarily and audaciously in direct defiance of the power of Jehovah, and this at a period when this kind of opposition was peculiarly repugnant to the purposes of the divine dispensations. For we are informed, that " God led not his people through the " way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near ; " for God said. Lest peradventure the people repent when they " see war, and return to Egypt."* Under these circumstances, the unprovoked, inveterate and presumptuous attack of the Amalekites, must have been considered both by them and the Jews, as a direct insult to the majesty of Jehovah, in his character of peculiar guardian and immediate Lord of his chosen people. It was not consistent with the purposes of the divine economy to vindicate the honour of Jehovah by any general punishment of the Amalekites at that time : their attack was repelled, but not retaliated, nor was their territory invaded. This contemp- tuous defiance of the power and Majesty of God would therefore have appeared to escape with impunity, if no further notice had been taken of it ; a circumstance which might have degraded the Deity in the estimation of the Jews, who judged of his power, as all other nations then judged of their guardian gods, by his vigour and promptitude in defending his people and punishing their enemies. This seems to be a reason why God iudged it necessary to announce to the Jews, that though he would not at present punish the insult of the Amalekites, he yet would not suffer it to pass finally unpunished ; but that he would authorize and employ them to inflict at a remote period, the punishment it merited ; thus impressing the Jews them- selves with the salutary conviction, that where the Majesty of * Exod. xiii. 17. 218 SETTLEMENT OF THE [Part III. Jehovah was insulted,* present delay of punishment afforded no presumption of final impunity. In addition to this I would remark, that this sentence was a prophecy as well as a command, repeated afterwards bv Balaam,f and in which the Jews were made the instruments of executing the will of their God, and supplied with a striking proof of the divine foreknowledge of their legislator : which being recalled to their remembrance 400 years after, when Saul was commanded to carry this sentence into execution, tended to impress upon them a salutary awe for the authority, and an humble obedience to the precepts, of the Mosaic Law ; a lesson peculiarly necessary at the heginning of the regal govern- ment^ which the people had called for from a certain degree of impatience under that theocracy which God by Moses had esta- blished ; " When," says Samuel, '" ye saw that Nahash the king " of the Children of Amnion came against you, ye said unto me, " Nay, but a king shall reign over us ; when the Lord your " God was your king. Now therefore, behold the king whom " ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired ; and behold, " the Lord hath set a king over you. If ye will fear the Lord, *' and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the " commandment of the Lord, then shall both ye, and also the " king that reigneth over you, continue following the Lord your " God. But if ye will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel " against the commandment of the Lord, then shall the hand of " the Lord be against you, as it was against your fathers."| As the great criterion of this obedience, Samuel enjoins on Saul the execution of this command against the Amalekites. They had joined with his numerous and inveterate enemies to destroy him in the miancy of his reign ; and the divine aid had given him a victory over the Philistines, and enabled him to extricate himself from his enemies on every side : and now Samuel reminds him,|| " That God had anointed him king " over Israel," and informs him, that he in consequence re- quired him to execute his judgments on Amalek. And that the tfews might feel they were acting merely as executioners of the divine sentence^ and that the war was not undertaken or to be * Vide Butler's Analogy, Part I. ch. ii. p. 256. + Numbers xxiv. 5 % 1 Sam. xii. 12—13- II 1 Sam. xv. 1, &i Lect. I.J JEWS IN CANAAN. 219 carried ou from the common motives of conquest, they were for- bidden to make any prisoners, or take any spoil. Saul violated this part of the command, saving the king of the Amalekites, and permitting the people to take of the spoil, under the pretence of offering it to God. But Samuel exposes the shallow pretext, for he said,* " Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings " and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord ? Behold, " to obey is better than sacrifice ; and to hearken, than the fat " of rams : for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stub- " bornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast re- " jected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from " being king." Thus the original sentence against the Amale- kites, and still more its final execution, appears to have tended to impress powerfully upon the Jews, the necessity of obedience to the will, and awe for the majesty of Jehovah ; and may there- fore have formed a necessary link in the great series of the divine dispensations This is the light in which this transaction strikes me. Other writers have observed,*!* ^^^ certainly with truth, that the ap- parent severity of this sentence is greatly diminished, when we consider that the Amalekites continued to manifest the most hostile disposition to the Hebrew nation, by attacking them whenever they had an opportunity, and joining their enemies upon all occasions to oppress and enslave them. J They joined the Canaanites, and destroyed many of the people upon their first attempt to enter into Canaan ; they,§ with the Moabites, went and smote Israel, dispossessed them of the city of Palm- trees, and helped to reduce them to an eighteen years' servitude : they also joined with the Midianites to oppress them, and utterly impoverished the Jews by their rapines and plunders, || destroying the increase of the earth, and leaving no sustenance for man or beast; and afterwards in conjunction with the Midi- anitish army, attacked them in battle. Under SauFs reign, they continued their ravages and violence ; and when he had repulsed * 1 Samuel, xii. ver. 22 and 23. t Vide Patrick on Exod. xvii. 8. and Deut. xxv. 17 ; also Poli Synopsis, and Dodd ; vide also RIaimouides More Nevochim, Pars III. cap. xli. p. 466; Leland's Answer to Tindal Vol. II. p. 36; Chandler's Life of David, Vol. I. Book I. ch. iv.; and Lec- tures on the Old Testament, by Samuel Parker, sect, vil n. 122. X Numbtrs, xiv. 4j. ^ Ii:dge^, iii. 18 and 14. I| Judges, vi 3 220 SETTLEMENT OF THE [Part III. them, he proceeded, in compliance with the divine sentence, utterly to extirpate them. Thus from the first step to the last, they appear to have pursued the chosen people of God with a deep and unwearied malignity, originally unprovoked, and never to be satisfied, so that, humanly speaking, they drew their own fate upon themselves. Their conduct being foretold, and their final punishment being authorized by God, can scarcely be matter of surprise ; when we consider the peculiar relation in which Jehovah stood to the Jews, as their tutelary God, and even their natural Sovereign. And Dr Chandler well remarks concerning this order of God, " If he foresaw that the safety of " his people materially depended upon it, the order was wisely " and justly given ; and if they were ripe for that vengeance, " with which they had been threatened above four hundred years " before, and which had been so long mercifully delayed by the " patience of Almighty God, I presume, it was no injustice in " him, who best knows the proper seasons of his own conduct, " and is the best judge of the means and instruments to execute " his own purposes, to put the sword of justice into SauFs hand, " and command him to cut off those whom he thought fit to " make examples of, for the numerous vices, oppressions, and " cruelties, of which he knew them to be guilty. Samuel terms " them, those sinners the Amalekites, to denote, that even at that " time they were a very wicked people : that they themselves " were ripe for the judgments of the Almighty, and that they " were punished for their own sins, though mention is made of " the evil conduct of their ancestors ; and it had been long pre- " dieted that Amalek should be destroyed." The observations here adduced, with regard to the treatment both of the Canaanites and Amalekites, may, it is hoped, diminish somewhat that appearance of contrariety to the bw nignity of the divine attributes, which at first sight they bear ; and tend to develope the connexion of these transactions with the entire scheme of that dispensation of which they form a part. But the true refutation of the objection derived from these events, is undoubtedly founded on that principle stated in pp. 26 and 27, and defended by Butler and Cumberland in the an- nexed note. Even the absolute dominion of the Supreme God over the lives and properties of all human beings, and his power to transfer that dominion to whomsoever his infinite wisdom Loot. I. JEWS 1\ CANAAN. 221 shall judge meet, by a clear promulgation of his sovereign will ; rendering actions performed in obedience to that will, not only innocent, but instances of obedience and piety ; which witliout such an authority, must have originated from unjustifiable motives, and therefore have been deservedly condemned as crimi- nal. To expect that the supreme Governor of the world should, in every instance, disclose to beings such as we are, not only that a particular mode of conduct is certainly commanded, but also all the reasons why it is commanded, is surely most irrational and presumptuous ; though, wherever he has thought fit to com- municate the reasons of his dispensations, we are bound to trace them with caution, to contemplate them with humilitv, and to acquiesce in them with gratitude. It is further objected, that the destruction of the Canaanites by the sword of the Jews, would aftbrd precedent for continued persecution and butchery, under the pretext of religious zeal ; and encourage the Jews to invade, pillage, and exterminate all their weaker neighbours, under the pretence of supporting the dignity, and extending the worship of Jehovah. In answer to this, let it be remembered, that the same divine authority which granted the chosen nation the land of Canaan, fixed limits to their conquest, positively restrained them, as well during their approach to the promised land, as after their settlement in it, from attacking the neighbouring nations. The circumstance of the inhabitants being idolaters did not justify them in invading any country. They were allowed only to take possession of such territories as Jehovah expressly assigned to them. Thus, in their march towards the promised land, they were strictly commanded to take good heed to themselves with respect to the children of Esau. " Meddle not with them," saith the Lord, " for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot " breadth ; because I have given Mount Seir unto Esau for a " possession.""* With equal strictness were they prohibited from dispossessing the children of Moab and the children of Ammon ; yet these three nations were involved in gross idolatry. Indeed the whole constitution of the Jews, religious and political, was admirably calculated to check all spirit of invasion and conquest, though it prepared them effectually for self-defence. The whole * Deut. ii. 5, and 19. 222 sETTi.E.MKXT OK thf; [Part IH nation was so busied in agriculture, as to have neither time noi inclination for war. Prohibited from multiplying horses, and obliged to assemble three times a year at the place which the Lord should choose, distant conquests and tedious wars were utterly impossible. So that there was no danger the Jews should conceive they had the smallest right to inflict on other nations punishments for idolatry, similar to those which they were made the instruments of inflicting on the Canaanites ; and the entire tenor of their history proves that such an idea never entered their thoughts. This objection therefore is refuted by the direct letter of the Mosaic Law, and the whole history of the Jewish dispensation. otill it may be suspected, that to employ the chosen people of God to be the instruments of divine vengeance on a whole nation, however atrocious their guilt, had a tendency to train the people thus employed to deeds of blood, to harden their hearts, and deprave their character. It may be admitted, this objection would have considerable weight, if no care had been taken to guard against this efiect : but nothing is more conspi- cuous than the wise and efiectual precautions of the Jewish Law- giver for this purpose. It has been shown, that the tenor of the command given to punish the Canaanites, taught the Jews to regard with abhorrence, not so much the persons of idolaters, as the crime of idolatry ; while every thing connected with such false worship, animate and inanimate alike, was devoted to destruction. It has been shown that the thirst of plunder, and the indulgence of licentious desires, were completely checked and defeated in the Jewish soldiery by the very conditions on which alone they were enabled to subdue the condemned nations ; and that the feelings of national hostility and personal animosity, were controlled and mitigated, by solenin-ly enjoining the exer- cise of as great severity in punishing idolatry among the Jews themselves, as they were compelled to exercise against the con- demned nations of Canaan. And it is evident from the event, that it was with reluctance, and only by compulsion, tiiey exercised these severities, because, as soon as the impulse of divine control ■v^as withdrawn, they ceased to exercise any such severity; and, on the contrary, treated with culpable lenity, and regarded with a * Vide supra. Lcct. I.j JKWS J.\ CANA.W. 228 dan^eioue complacency, tlie roniuants of these impious nations, whose total extermination they had been warned was necessary to guard against the contagion of their vices and idolatries. It has also appeared,* from an examination into the established principles and direct precepts of the Jewish Law, that it was calculated to inspire a spirit of universal and active benevolence even to enemies, as far as the peculiar situation of the chosen people would allow ; and that it tended to soften and humanize tile soul, by cherishing sentiments of sympathy and tenderness, even to the brute creation. The laws of war-f of the Jews towards all nations (the Canaanites and Amalekites excepted) were, for that period of the world, peculiarly humane. No enemy was to be attacked till peace had been oftered. On conquest, only the males who had borne arms, were permitted to be put to death, and even of these they might make prisoners : women and children were protected : female captives were guarded from abuse and treated with tenderness and respect: all unnecessary waste and havoc were strictly forbidden. Strangers and slaves were objects of peculiar attention in the Mosaic Law, and their interests and rights guarded with the most tender humanity. " Thou shalt " not oppress a stranger," says the Law, " for ye know the " heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of " Egypt. Ye shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. " If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me. * Vide Vol. I. .Part 11. Lect. II. III. and IV. + Concerning these laws of war, consult Josephus's Antiq. Book IV. sect. xlii. and contra Apion, Book II. sect. xxx. In concurrence with the most respectable rabbies, and the general tradition of the Jews, he interprets Deut. xx. 13. only to imply a permission, not a command, " Thou mayest kill (not thou shalt kill) the " males, that is, the adult males;" or as Josephns interprets it, " those who had ' borne arms against them," which at that time included all the adult males. Com- pare 2 Kings, vi. 22. which, however interpreted, shows an instance of mercy to prisoners by express divine authority. Selden, de Jure Gentium apud Hebracos, Lib. VI. rap. xvi. Vol. I. p. 673, quotes various authorities to show the Jews were authorized to spare all prisoners who would become proselytes (even of the seven nations,) as there would then be no danger of learning abominations from them ; Deut. XX. 18 ; and he proves it was an ancient tradition among the Jews, that in besieging a city, an interval was to be left, .to give the besieged an opportunity of escaping. For the treatment of female captives, consult Philo de Charitate, p. 547. And on the Laws of War, vide Jew's Letters to Voltaire, Vol. IL Letter III.; and Leland's Answer to Morgan, eh. iv. 224 SETTLEMENT OF THE [Piirt III. ** saith the Lord, I will surely hear theiv cry ; and my wrath " shall wax hot, and I will smite you with the sword ; and your " wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless. If thou " meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt " surely bring it back to him again. If thou see the ass of him " that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear " to help him, thou shalt surely help with him." * Thus also the most sacred ordinances of religion, were stated to have a reference to the comforts of the poor, and the ease even of in- ferior animals. When the land was to rest each Sabbatic year, the Lawgiver assigns as a reason, " Ye shall let it rest ; that the " poor of thy people may eat : and what they leave, the beasts " of the field shall eat."t Thus also as to the Sabbath day: " Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou " shalt rest; that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son " of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed,"! " Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.§ If " a bird's nest chance to be before thee, and the dam sitting upon " her young, thou shalt not take the dam with the young : thou " shalt in any wise let the dam go, that it may be well with thee, " and that thou mayest prolong thy days." || These were pre- cepts inculcating humanity to the most helpless of inferior ani- mals, with an anxiety and solemnity unparalleled, I do not hesitate to say, in any code of laws ancient or modern. And shall we notwithstanding all this, stigmatise the Jewish system as sanguinary and cruel : because under an express divine com- mand, and for the important purposes of establishing in one chosen people the worship of the true God, and the principles of pure morality, and above all, for the purpose of preparing for the gospel scheme, it commanded the extermination of one impious, polluted, and cruel nation ; thus inculcating the horror of idolatry on the Jews who were to be treated with similar severity for similar crimes; thus also proving the superiority of Jehovah over the idols of Canaan, and the terrors of the divine wrath against the vices pursued with such signal vengeance, in the only way at once intelligible and impressive, amidst a people dull and worldly minded, seldom extending their views beyond • Zicd. xxiif. 9. xxii. 22-24. xxiii. 4, G. f Kxo^I. "iii. 11 i Exod. xxiii. 12. § Deut. xxv. 4. || lb. xxii. 6 Lect. I.] JEWS IN CANAAN. - 225 temporal rewards and punishments, and who by these means only could be disciplined and controlled, so as afterwards to bo governed in a mode coincident with the general course of divine administration ? Surely to neglect the various circumstances which thus explain and vindicate the severity exercised against the Canaanites by the divine command, and on account of these reject the whole scheme of revelation, would be a degree of incredulity and presumption, equally irrational and irreligious. Far be this from us, my brethren : be it ours to weigh the dis- pensations of Pi'ovidence with more humility, and derive, from the severity, as well as the mercy, of the divine administration, new motives to persevering watchfulness and holy obedience. 226. CONDUCT OF [Part III. LECTURE II. CONDUCT OF THE JEWS. Sect. I. — Objections against the reality of the Mosaic miracles, derived from the frequent idolatries of the Jews, invalid — These idolatries did not prove any doubt of the divine original of the Mosaic Law. First species of 'idolatry by forbidden symbols, SfC. — Whence so frequent — Implied acknowledgment of Jehovah. Second species of idolatrous worship, in forbidden places, and with idolatrous rites, implied the same. Third species, worship of idols with Jehovah— Whence. Fourth, worship ■ of idols without God^Yet not an absolute denial of God, or rejection of his worship. Defects and apostasies of the Jews confirm the certainty of a divine interposition, rather than weaken it. Objection against the divine economy, from the temptations they were ex. posed to, unreasonable. Residence of Jews in Egypt considered — And the temptations from the surrounding Canaanites. Degree and duration of the divine interposition suited to the analogy of nature. Mr Gibbon accuses the Jews, falsely, of being indif- ferent spectators of the most amazing miracles. JOSHUA, xxiv, 31. " And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that oyer-lived " Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord, that he had done for Israel." It has frequently been asserted by infidels, that the repeated relapses of the Jews into idolatry, at various periods of their history, render the reality of the Mosaic miracles suspicious. For, as these writers conceive, it is not credible that the witnesses of such stupendous miracles, or their immediate posterity, could have so soon forgotten the divine power thus plainly manifested, or apostatized from a religion thus awfully enforced. But these reasoners entirely mistake the nature of this apostasy, and forget the character of the people among whom, and the period when, it took place.* These relapses into idolatry never implied a rejection of Jehovah as their God, or of the Mosaic Law, as if they doubted of its truth. The Jewish idolatry consisted, first, in worshipping the true God by images and symbols ; such were the golden calf of Aaron, those afterwards set up by Jeroboam in Israel, the ephod of Gideon, and the ephod, the teraphim, and the images • Vide Warburton's DWine Legation, Book V. sect. ii. v. vi. 197 to 201. Lect. II.j THE JKW3. 227 of Micah. But in every one of those instances, far from rejecting Jehovah as their God, the images, symbols and rites employed, were designed to honour him, by imitating the manner in which the most distinguished nations the Jews were ac- quainted with, worshipped their supreme divinities ; or they were assimilated to the Mosaic institutions, as far as the pecu- liar views of their authors would admit. Thus the golden calf which the people compelled Aaron to form, was probably an imitation of the Egyptian representative of Osiris, but cer- tainly intended as a representative of that Jehovah, who had brought* the Jews out of Egypt; as on forming it, Aaron proclaimed a feast to be held to Jehovah. The golden calves set up by the first king of the ten tribes, were also probably imitations of the Egyptian symbols, with which Jeroboam must have been familiarized during his residence in Egypt,-f- for the five last years of Solomon's reign ; but certainly intended to represent the same God who was worshipped at Jerusalem, who had brought Israel out of Egypt, and in imitation of the Mosaic institutions ; the king ordaining a feast like unto the " feast (of tabernacles) that is in Judah." And of Micah we are told, that the silver of which the images were made,| " had been wholly dedicated to Jehovah, to make a graven " image and a molten image." And when he had found a Levite to officiate as his priest, he is represented as declaring, " Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have " a Levite for my priest f — so obstinate was the attachment or the Jews to idolatrous symbols, and so dull their sense of the necessity of worshipping their God in that manner which he himself required. A principal cause of this inattention to the divine prohibitions seems to have been, that the law was not read, as it regularly should have been to the people. And when the Shechinah, or visible splendour of the divine glory, had ceased to appear in the tabernacle, and the unsettled state ot society, and frequent wars under the Judges, and the permanent hostility between the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, rendered it difficult or inconvenient to meet at that place which the Lord had chosen, each tribe or family adopted the idea of mak- ing a sanctuary in their own city or their own house, and setting up there some symbol of the Divine Presence imitated • Esod. xxxi!. 4. t 1 Kings, xi. 40. J Judges, xvli. 8, 13. 228 CONDUCT OF [Part III. from their neighbours, as a substitute for the Shechinah, and some rites of worship in imitation of the worship at the taber- nacle. But this no more impHes a rejection of the Mosaic Law, than the idolatry of Roman Catholics implies a rejection of the Gospel. The next species of idolatry was worshipping the true God in forbidden places, on high hills and under groves ; which it is yet certain did not proceed from any doubt of the existence or divinity of the true Jehovah, but from the same proneness to admire and imitate the superstitions of the neighbouring nations, which we noticed in the former case. Many of these superstitious observances, we find, prevailed during the reigng of Asa and Jehoshaphat, who yet utterly prohibited and strictly punished all direct idolatry ;* but could not overcome the rooted attachment of the people to these favourite places of worship. " The high places were not taken away ; for the " people offered and burnt incense yet in the high places." And in another passage we find this remarkable and decisive testimony on this subject : " Nevertheless the people did sacrifice still upon " the high places, yet unto the Lord their God only." A similar observation may be made on the observance of idolatrous rites, which, instead of implying a rejection of the Mosaic ritual, were, however strangely and criminally, yet not unfrequently, combined with it. Thus we are told,-f- " four- " score men, having their beards shaven, and their clothes rent, " and having cut themselves," (contrary to the express direction of the Law, yet) proceeding " with oflerings and incense in " their hands, to bring them to tlie house of the Lord." Thus Isaiah I complains, " I will recompense into their bosom yout " iniquities, and +lie iniquities of your fathers together, saitli " the Lord, which have burnt incense upon the mountains, and " blasphemed me upon the hills." Another and more criminal species of idolatry was, § joining the worship of God and idols together ; a practice which the principle borrowed from the heathens, of an intercommunity • 1 Kings, XV. 13, 14, and xxii. 43. 2 C'hion. xxxiii. 17. + Compare Duut. xiv. 1. and Lev. xix. 27, 28. with Jeremiah, xh". 5. $ Isaiah, Ixv. 6, 7. ^ Vide on this subject Warburton's Divine Legation, B. II. Sect. vi. and B. V. Sect. ii. Vol. IV. f 212; and Law's Theoiy of Religion, p 85 Vide Lect. II.] THR jKws. 229 of gods, sanctioned; and tlio apparent policy of conciliating the guardian gods of Canaan encouraged ; but which still preserved the acknowledgment and worship of Jehovah. " In these principles of intercommunity,*" says VVarburton, " they saw the whole race of mankind agree ; and from the " practice of them in the worship of tutelar deities, they thought " they saw a world of good ready to arise. But not only the " hope of good, but the fear of evil drew them still more " strongly into this road of folly. Their Egyptian education " had early impressed that bugbear notion of a set of local " deities, Avho expected their dues of all who came to inhabit " the country which they had honoured with their protection, " and severely resented the neglect of payment in all new " comers. This will easily account for the frequent defection of " the Israelites, in the divided service of the gods of Canaan." The last and most flagrant species of idolatry, was the wor- ship of idols without God. Yet even here they did not so much reject the true God, as conceive that intermediate and subordinate deities were those only with whom they had immediate concern, and from whose hand they must expect all temporal blessings. In truth, the temptations to some or all those kinds of idolatry were so powerful, from errors in opinion wide spread, and sanctioned by the Egyptians, the wisest, and the Canaanites, the most warlike people in the world, and strengthened by the habitual attachment of the Jews to the idols, the symbols and the rites of Egypt, as well as the sensual allurements of idolatrous worship, and the overpowering terrors of idolatrous superstitions ; that we have reason to wonder that the Jews, dull, sensual, and stubborn as they were, could by any system of discipline be effectually corrected and ultimately reformed, so as at length to forsake idolatry, (as after the Baby- lonish captivity they certainly did), rather than just cause to suspect that no such system of divine superintendence and control was really exercised, because they frequently relapsed into it. also Mede's Apostasy of the Latter Times, Part I. chap. ii. Vol. II. of his Works, p. 772, and ch. ix. p. 795. Thus JErmas, on his landing in Italy, iEneid, Lib, VII. 135:— ." Geniumque loci, primamque Deorum, " Tellurem, nymphasque et adhuc ignota precatur " Niimina Vide also Macrobii Saturnalia, Lib. III. cap. ix. de Evocandis Diis tutelaribua. 230 CONDUCT OF [Part III. In reality the defects, and even the apostasies of the Jews magnify the divine power and wisdom, which, by such appa- rently inadequate instruments, effected the gracious purpose of preserving in the world the principles of true religion and sound morality, when all the philosophic and celebrated nations of the earth sunk every day deeper in idolatry and corruption of manners. Had a nation as celebrated for mystery and wisdom as the Egyptians, for literature and genius as the Greeks, for policy and success as the Romans, been made the channel of conveying to us the revelations of God, it would have been difficult to persuade the sceptic that the scheme had not originat- ed in the wisdom and policy of the first rulers of the state ; and had not been acquiesced in, from the admiration with which the enlightened part of the people regarded the system and its authors, and the credulity with which the multitude received a scheme flattering to their national vanity, and adapted to their intellectual character and taste. But amongst the Jews, parti- cularly under their judges, the Mosaic law received no support from any permanent authority, or the influence of any set of men possessing a decided mental superiority ; while it was evi- dently contrary to the sensual appetites and idolatrous propensities of the great bulk of the nation. But the most remarkable circumstance in the various Jewish apostasies, seems to be this, that it was only in their prosperity the Mosaic Law was neglected and violated. In adversity, when reflection was awakened, and seriousness restored, they always cried to their God as the only sure source of deliverance, and as uniformly received the deliverance they sought. Surely this can be accounted for only on the supposition, that the Mosaic Law was really dictated by a divine authority, and continually supported by a divine interposition. It may however be asked, Why did God expose the Jewish people to such multiplied temptations to forsake his law? Why suff"er them to continue in Egypt, until they contracted so strong an attachment to Egyptian manners, symbols and idol- atries 2 Why afterwards permit so many remnants of the idolatrous and depraved Canaanites to remain in the midst of them ? And why leave them at any time without a regular supreme judge evidently invested with such plain divine autho- rity as would retain them in constant obedience ? To all this, Lect. II. J THE JEWS. 231 it may be answered, that if we could give no solution to those queries, it would not aftect the direct proofs that the Jewish scheme was really a divine dispensation ; and that so long as these proofs remain unconfuted, it is more presumptuous than wise to insist upon knowing why God did not act differently from what he has done. But though this would be a rational and adequate answer to objections of such a nature, yet in the instances alluded to, it has pleased Divine Providence to allow us some insight into the direct reasons of its dispensations which we may without presumption endeavour to develop, in order to the best of our power to " vindicate the ways of God to man." To the query. Why did God suffer his chosen people to con- tinue in Egypt until they contracted so strong a relish for Egyptian manners and Egyptian idolatries ? it may be answered, That when God determined to preserve in one nation the prin- ciples of true religion and moral duty, in opposition to the universal idolatry and corruption of mankind, the mode of effecting this purpose, most analogous to the regular course of nature, was, by selecting a particular individual of distin- guished piety and virtue, raising from him a family, and from that family a nation, which, by the regular transmission of parental instruction, should be trained up in the principles of their first ancestors ; and being protected and disciplined by the peculiar care of Providence, should remain the depositary and example of true religion, until, the fulness of time, when Divine Wisdom perceived this sacred treasure might be opened to mankind in general, with advantage and effect. But as all God's dispensations are in a moral way, and adapted to the nature of rational agents, all these methods of instruction and discipline would be so conducted, as to leave human actions in their former state of freedom. Hence this chosen family and people must be subject, like all others, to the influence of example, and the trials which the state of mankind in that age would naturally induce. In their progressive increase from a family to a nation, they must, icherever they were placed, in a world iiniversally idolatrous and depraved, have been exposed to the contagion of irreligion, and vice. The objection, that they had been so exposed, would therefore have been equally plausi- ble and equally false, vary their situations as you please. Except indeed these objectors to revealed religion, because founded in a 232 CONDUCT OP [Part III. miraculous interposition, conceive this chosen family should have been miracuhiisly placed in solitude, and secluded from all com- merce with the rest of mankind, till, by a perpetual exertion of miraculous instruction, miraculous civilization, and miraculous support, which such a solitude would have required, they had inultiplied to a nation, and thence were miraculously produced, to astonish and reform the world, notwithstanding their total ignorance of the character of those whom they were designed to instruct, and theii entire unacquaintedness with, and consequent unfitness to resist, those temptations to which they must be ex- posed. Such are the wild ideas on which superficial thinkers object to the divine economy. But why, it is asked, was Egypt chosen as their residence, the parent of idolatry and superstition ? To this it may be answered, that there was no spot in the civilized world where so many causes concurred to prevent the Israelites from im- bibing deeply and permanently the contagion of idolatry, or from being seduced by the depraved examples around them, as in Egypt. At their very first introduction into the country they were as shepherds, peculiarly mean and contemptible, or, as the sacred text expresses it,* " an abomination to the Egyp- " tians :" and so strong was this aversion, that " the Egyptians " might not eat bread with the Hebrews ; for that is an abomina- " tion to the Egyptians." Their religion was not less an object of aversion than their profession, for they used, in sacrifice -f- to God, the same animals which the Egyptians worshipped, and thus " sacrificed the abomination of the Egyptians." Add to * Genesis xlvi. 34, and xliii. 32. •}• Exod. viii. 26. That the idolatrous worship of different animals amongst the Egyptians was the source of jnutual aversion, sometimes even stimulating them to mutual war, we have the testimony of Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride ; and of Juvenal, Sat. XV. line 33:— •Summus utrinque Inde furor vulgo, quod numina vicinorum Odit uterque locus, cum solos credat habendos, Esse decs quos ipse colit, &c. And Tacitus, noticing the opposition between the customs of the Jews and the Egyptians, remarks, " Caeso ariete velut in contumeliam Hammonis, bos quoque " immolatur quern ^gyplii Apim colunt." Herodotus, Euterpe, cap. Ixiv. p. 107, 108, notices this diversity of animal worship, and the aversion of some Egyptians to the persons employed to attend certain animals. And it is possible, from this diversity of sentiment, that Pharaoh might have flocks and herds, and might at the same time wish to employ persons dillerent from the jiative Egyptians, in the vho have collected tlie various opinions on this subject, iNfr Bryant, in his Observa- tions on the ancient History of Egypt, has a distinct Dissertation on the Shepherds of Egypt and the Land of Goshen, p, 140; and from a minute examination of an- cient history, particularly of Manetho and Josephus, seems to account much more satisfactorily than any preceding writer, for the circumstance mentioned in the sacred history. I will conclude this note by citing one passage from him, which contains his chief conclusion on this subject. After citing Exodus viii. 2G, he observes, " The abomination of the Egyptians was a sacrifice of blood ; which " offering was so offensive to the Egyptians, thai the Jsraelites could not venture ♦' on it. The offerings of the Egyptians consisted in the fruits of the earth ; on '* the other hand, the sheplierds increase was from the fold only, and his olibrings " were the firstlings of his flock. This made the Egyptians dislike shepherds, not " their occupation, than which nothing v.as more innocent or necessary. Besides, " they had flocks of their own, and consequently people to tend them. But they "disliked foreign shepherds, on account of their different rites and customs ; which " hatred must have arisen from an intimate intercourse, for we do not abominate " what we are little acquainted with. We may dislike at a distance, and disap- *' prove; but this was a total abhon-ence, it was a general and national disgust, " 10 promote which, many things must have concurred. la the first place, the " Egyptians were a fastidious people from the beginning, and held every nation but " their own in low esteem. The Egyptians (says Herodotus) call all men barba- " rians, who do not speak the same" language with themselves. This contempt was *' carried into disgust, by the contrariety in their religious customs; and this still ~ " heightened and embittered by the tyranny of the pastor kings, and the cruel usage " that the Egyptians experienced from them; particularly when they broke down the " shrines of their gods, and overturned their altars. Hence arose that fixed hatred " we have been speaking of, which was prior to the coming of the Israelites; for "' every shepherd was an abomination to the Egyptians,' before they knew Joseph. " The reigns therefore of the Cusean kings were antecedent likewise." On these pastor kings, vide Bryant, p. 143, &.c. On the situation and fertility of the land of Goshen, vide ibid. p. 154, et seq. * Exod. i. 14. -34 CONDUCT OF [Part J 11. ordering all their male children to be put to death. Surely all this naturally tended to inspire the Jews with aversion to the manners, the idolatry, and the vices of their oppressors, and led them to accept with joy the promised settlement in the land of Canaan, combined with submission to that system of religion and government which God meant to establish. If they still re- tained some veneration for Egyptian manners and idolatry, because they were the manners and the idolatry of a great and celebrated nation, the mode in which God delivered them from this land of bondage was calculated to counteract this effect. For they beheld Jehovah with a mighty hand inflicting the severest plagues on Pharoah and all his people ; making the elements and the creatures which they worshipped, * the in- struments of their chastisement, and involving the animals, whom they adored as gods, in one common punishment with their deluded votaries : " Executing judgment" (as the sacred historian declares) "upon the gods of Egypt." -|- Thus chas- * Vide on this subject Hutchinson's Essay towards a Natural History of the Bible, or Bryant's learned and ingenious treatise on the Plagues of Egypt. I con- sider the coincidence between these works as a strong confirmation of the truth of the arguments they adduce, for I am fully persuaded, Mr Bryant did not know any such observations had been made by Hutchinson. Vide his preface. Idolaters, says Hutchinson, ascribed all power to the machine of the heavens, in the condi- tion of fire, light and air: hence at the establishment of the Mosaic economy, God appeared to Moses in the bush in the form of fire, &c. : hence the multiplied mira- cles in Egypt showed the superiority of Jehovah over all the Gods of the Egyptians, in their pretended attributes and power; thus the river turned into blood, though emblematically sacred; the wi?id brought locusts to destroy the votaries of the wind; the air rendered pestilential ; the dust of the earth noxious ; the wind made the waters of the Red Sea stand on an heap ; the plague of darkness showed the abso- lute power of God over the air; the murrain was on beasts, who were the repre- sentatives of the Egyptian gods, thus destroyed through the instrumentality of that air which was itself considered as divine ; thus the first-bom had, in many cases, as Hutchinson thinks, been sacrificed to the false gods, and were now in punishment destroyed by Jehovah. Vide Hutchinson, Vol. I. p. 126, and sequel. Mr Bryant, without adopting the particular system of Hutchinson, or even (I am persuaded) knowing that he had thus supported it, was led on by his own re- flections and researches to form the same opinion, and has established it, as it ap- pears to me, irrefutably, by a variety of facts and illustrations ; proving \as principle by showing its application to every one of the plagues inflicted on the Egyptians; for instance, in the circumstance recorded, that the " fish in the river died," see his proofs of the idolatrous veneration in which the fish of the Nile were held, p. 27 to 35; and on the plague of flies, which he also proves were objects of worship from p. C5 to 84. But for full conviction, I refer my reader to the Work itself. t Exod. xii. 12. Lcct. M.] THE JEWS. 235 tising superstition in the very country that was its source, and magnifying the majesty of God on the most conspicuous stage then in the world, in the country the most famed for arts and learning, and most frequented by men of genius and curiosity. It is further admitted, that the system of the Jewish ritual in various respects, was calculated to proscribe and counteract * the idolatries and superstitions of Egypt. That all these judg- ments and all these precautions did not produce, upon the dull and carnal-minded Jews, such decisive eftects as to root out all propensity to imitate or adopt the superstitions of Egypt, which they had seen admired and practised by this the most celebrated nation in the world, is not wonderful. But surely no human wisdom can presume to assert, that any other scheme of settle- ment or discipline could have been better calculated to prevent amongst the Jews the growth of idolatry and its attendant crimes. The defeat of the warlike Canaanites, who were f " great " and tall, and their cities walled up to heaven," by the unwar- like Jews, and this by means proving a supernatural inter- ference, had a similar tendency to establish the superiority of Jehovah over all the celebrated idols of Canaan ; nor can we conceive any mode of providence- better calculated to preserve among the chosen people the observance of the divine institutions. As to the trials the Jews were exposed to from the example of the neighbouring countries, and particularly from the corruptions of the Canaanites, many of whom they permitted to remain amongst them ; it is evident, that icherever they were settled in an idolatrous world they would have been exposed to similar danger, from the depraved examples of the surrounding nations. But it seems impossible to conceive any system more wisely calculated to check such contagion, than that which was adopted in the settlement of the Jews in the promised land. They were previously disciplined forty years, until the generation wlio had from their birth been infected by the contagion of Egyptian idolatry, and debased by the degradation of Egyptian slavery, had completely perished, and made way for a more pure, free- * Some instances of this are adduced, p. 149, in the note. Consult also Witsii Egyptiaca, Lib. III. cap. xiv. from sect. iv. to x.; Lovvman on the Hebrew Ritual, Part I. eh. ii. and iii. and Part II. ch. v.; and Grotius on Exod. xx. and Lev. x?Ui. but especially Maimonides More Nevochim. Pars III. cap. xlvi. to xiix. t Deut. i. 28. 236 CONDUCT OP [Part III. born, and noble-minded race, who might be trained under the immediate miraculous control of God in the \vilderness, to sub- mit implicitly to the divine direction, and aspire after the divine favour. They were defeated by the Canaanites when they attacked them without divine permission, to make them feel ex- perimentally, that they must ascribe all their future success against them to the protection of Jehovah. The conquest of the promised land was effected by the miraculous assistance of God, who declared, that the Canaanites were to be exterminated in consequence of their idolatries and crimes, and commanded the Israelites to execute the divine sentence. They were punished by certain defeat when they violated, and crowned with certain victory when they obeyed, this direction of their God; until their settlement in the promised land was so far completed, that the few remaining Canaanites Avere totally in their power, and all necessity for supernatural assistance to their arms, in the ex- ecution of the divine command, had plainly ceased. Thus far Providence had, as it were, compelled them to proceed ; still however observing in this, as in every other supernatural dispensation, a due analogy to the regular course of nature, and the moral agency of man. " The Lord thy God (says their legislator) " will put out these nations before thee by little and " little : thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts " of the field increase before thee : but the Lord thy God shall " deliver them unto thee ; and destroy them with a mighty des " truction until they be destroyed."* And in another place we perceive an effect of leaving some remnants of the Canaanites perfectly analogous to the course of nature, assigned as a reason why God permitted it ; " That the generations of the Children " of Israel might know, to teach them war ; as many as had not " known all the wars of Canaan. ■"-[- Thus the Canaanites were expelled as rapidly as the nature of things could admit. The Jews were strictly commanded to complete their expulsion, fully empowered to do so, and warned of the guilt of neglecting it ; the temptation it woiild expose them to, and the certain punishment that would await their transgression ; but they disobeyed the divine command.^ " Ii '• came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the * Deut. vii. 22 and 23. t Judges iii. 1 and 2. J Judges i. 28- Vide the eaitiie second and third cliajjlei-s of Judijes. Lcct. II.] OF THE JEWS 237 *' Canaanitcs to tribute, and did not utterly drive them out.'" Or, as their historian Josephus* more fully explains it, " Con- " tenting themselves with the tributes which were paid them, " they grew effeminate as to fighting any more against their " enemies ; but applied themselves to the cultivation of their " lands, which producing them great plenty and riches, they *' neglected the regular disposition of their settlement, and in- " dulged themselves in luxuries and pleasures." And now the Lord sent an angel unto them, who reminded them of the divine command : -f- " I said, ye shall make no league with the in- " habitants of this land ; ye shall throw down their altars ; but " ye have not obeyed my voice : why have ye done this ? " Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before " you ; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods " shall be a snare ic'^to you;" or, as it is more fully expressed in another passage X vvhere the sacred historian relates, that on account of thei; evil ways, " the anger of the Lord was hot " against Israel ; and he said, Because this people hath trans- " gressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and "have not hearkened unto my voice; I also will not henceforth " drive out from before them, of the nations which Joshua left, " when he died : that through them I may prove Israel, whether " they will keep the way of the Lord, to walk therein as their *' fathers did keep it, or not. Therefore the Lord left those " nations without driving them out hastily ; neither delivered he *' them into the hand of Joshua." Thus God continued his miraculous agency only so long as was indispensably necessary to introduce and settle the Jewish nation in the land of their inheritance, and establish this dispen- sation, so as to answer the purposes of the divine economy. After this, he gradually withdrew his supernatural assistance ; he left the nation, collectively and individually, to act according to their own choice, not unnaturally and violently counteracting their moral character, and destroying their free agency. The people, at the rebuke of the Lord, mentioned above, " lifted up " their voices and wept, and they sacrificed there unto the " Lord." " But," says Josephus, " though they were in heavi- " ness at these admonitions from God, they were still very * Vide Josephus's Aiitiquiliis, Book V. sect. vii. + Judges, ii. 1.3. X II.. ver. 20—23. 2S8 CONDUCT OF [ Fart III, •• unwilling to go to war." Yet though thus left to themselves, the effect of the wonders they had already seen, and the dis- cipline they had been trained under, produced on that generation a decisive and permanent effect ; " For the people served the Lord " all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that out- " lived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord that " he did for Israel." Lideed we cannot desire a stronger proof of the zeal of the whole nation for the observance of the divine Law, than the transaction between the two tribes and a half who were settled beyond Jordan, and the remaining tribes ; on the termination of the general war against the Canaanites, and the dismissal of the several tribes to their respective inheritance. Here we see the two tribes and a half building an altar at the passage of Jordan, a pattern (or after the pattern) of the altar of the Lord.* The remaining congregation, alarmed at the idea of this being a rebellion against God who had commanded that there should be only one altar for all his people, prepared to punish it by instant war, but first send ambassadors to expostulate ; " Thus saith " the whole congregation of the Lord, What trespass is this that " ye have committed against the God of Israel, to turn away " this day from following the Lord, in that you have builded you " an altar, that ye might rebel this day against the Lord ? Is " the iniquity of Baal Peer too little for us, from which we are " not cleansed to this day, although there was a plague in the " congregation of the Lord ? and it will be, seeing that ye rebel " agamst the Lord, that to-morrow he will be wroth with all " the congregation of Israel." And the two tribes and a half answered : " The Lord God of gods, the Lord God of gods " knoweth, and Israel he shall know, if it be in rebellion, or if " in transgression against the Lord (save us not this day) that " we have built us an altar ; but that it may be a witness " between us and you, and our generations after us, that we " might do the service of the Lord, before him ; that your " children may not say to our children. Ye have no part in the " Lord. God forbid that we should rebel against the Lord, and " turn this day from following the Lord, to build an altar for " burnt-oiferings, for meat-offerings, or for sacrifices, besides the " altar of the Lord our God before his tabernacle." So deep * Joshua, xxii. Lect. II.] THE JEWS, 239 was the impression whicli the judgments of God had made on the whole nation; so watchful their anxiety to fulfil the Law, and avoid the wrath of Jehovah, at once their Sovereign and their God ; and so gross is the misrepresentation of Mr Gibbon^* when he asserts, that " the cotemporaries of Moses and Joshua " beheld with indifference the most amazing miracles."" The very reverse of this assertion is evidently the truth. SECT. II. — The conduct of the Jews, subsequent to the death of Joshua, is not incon tistent with the divine original of the Mosaic Law. Situation of the Jews under (heir judges, adapted to the purposes of the divine economy — Expediency of placing them in this situation.— Severity of the punishment inflicted by Proridence for their offences, no valid objection. Establishment of the kingly government a confirmation of the authenticity of the Pentateuch — W7iy desired by the people — Why permitted by God—' Theocracy preserved under the kings— Illustrates the nature of the divine control over the Jews — And of the Jewish character — Both show the credibility of the Jewish idol- atries, notwithstanding the divine original of the Mosaic Law. Separation of the ten tribes an apparent objection — Its origin — Idolatry of Solomon — Inference from it at to the idolatries of the Jews — Separation of the two kingdo7ns, why expedient — How effected — Its natural tendency — Abused by Jeroboam — From his conduct confirms the divine original of the Mosaic Law — Schism he introduces consistent with that belief — Gave occasion to manifest the divine providence, in the history of the ten tribes — Effects of this separation on the two tribes — Instanced in the history of Abijah — Of Heholoam — Of Asa — Of Hezekiah. General reflection on the providential government of the Jews— On the caution to be exercised in estimating the characters described in the Old Testament — And the effects of the Jewish scheme. In the former section we noticed the strong impression which the divine interposition had made on those who were witnesses of them ; insomuch, '• that the people served the Lord all the " days of Joshua, and of the elders who outlived Joshua, who " had seen the great works of the Lord." That this impression, however, should not be permanent enough to preserve the Jews from corrupting their religion and their morals, by imitating the idolatries and vices of the Canaanites, their neighbours, will not seem wonderful, if we consider that the Jews were, at this period, mere children in moral and religious conduct, as is most evident from the whole tenor of the Scripture narrative. They were very inattentive to the history of past transactions, so that many of the very next generation after Joshua, " knew • Vol. I. ch. XV. p. 457 240 CONDUCT OF [Part IIT. " not," that is, they considered not, and therefore acted as if they had not known, the wonders which God had wrought for Israeh The temptations to intermarry with their neighbours, and adopt their manners and worship, were too powerful for their unsteady and carnal minds. The beauty of the women ot Canaan ; the pomp and gaiety of their festivals ; the voluptu- ousness of their impure rites : the hope of gratifying their curiosity for prying into futurity, by idolatrous divinations ; the overpowering fears impressed on their souls by idolatrous super- stition ; their anxiety to conciliate the favour of those divini- ties, who were represented to them as the peculiar guardian gods of the country which they were newly settled in ; these and other similar motives, adapted, if I may so speak, to childish understandings, childish feelings, and childish appe- tites, demanded an immediate and strict discipline to counter- act their influence, and preserve, amidst this backsliding and unstable people, the main principles of religion and morality ^ notwithstanding their continual propensity to corrupt the purity of both. And wo evidently perceive, that the system of divine government exercised over the Jews, under their judges, was exactly adapted to their situation and their moral character. For the sacred history relates,* that " the children of Israel dwelt " amongst the Canaanites, and took their daughters to be their " wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served " their gods, and did evil in the sight of the Lord. And the " anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he sold " them into the hands of their enemies, as the Lord had said " and as he had sworn unto them : and they were greatly dis- " tressed. And when they cried unto the Lord, he raised up " judges ; and then the Lord was with the judge, and delivered " them out of the hands of their enemies all the days of the " judge. And it came to pass when the judge was dead, that " they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their " fathers ; and ceased not from their own doings, nor from " their stubborn way." That the government of the Israelites required this occasional interposition of God, in appointing the supreme magistrate, appears as well from the tenor of the sacred history, as the testimony of Josephus ;-|- who remarks, " That as they got largo tributes from the Canaanites, and were " indisposed for taking pains, by their luxury, they suffered their * Judges ii. iii. t Joseph. Antiq.Book, V. sect. vii. Lect. IT.] OF THE jews. 241 " aristocracy to be corrupted also ; and did not ordain thcm- " selves a .senate, nor any other such magistrates as their laws " had formerly required." Here then either the Divinity must have incessantly interposed, never suffering a moment to pass without placing at the head of the Jews a vicegerent supported by all the terrors of the divine power, to restrain them forcibly from yielding to their idolatrous and vicious propensities, thus counteracting their whole moral character ; — a mode of proce- dure altogether unexampled in God's government, and indeed it should seem inconsistent with the very idea of a moral gover- nor— or, ho must altogether have abandoned them to the influ- ence of those propensities, which would have speedily plunged them irretrievably in idolatry and vice with the rest of the world, and defeated the entire purpose of the divine economy ; or, lastly, he must have taken that course which the sacred history declares he did, appointing occasionally vicegerents, as circumstances called for their interposition ; and supporting the authority of his law, by thus visibly controlling the nation, and proportioning their prosperity and adversity to the degree of obe- dience which they voluntarily yielded to that law ; and habitua- tino; them to look up immediately to his protection, without terposing any permanent human authority on which they miglW, be too apt exclusively to depend, and thus forget their God. Such was the system of divine administration over the Jews under their Judges. Thus the chosen people, who were, as it should seem (like all the nations of that period) mere children in religion and morality, were treated as children, kept in a state of tutelage under the constant guardianship and occasional cor- rection of their heavenly Father ; taught to feel experimentally their total dependence upon his protection ; taught to feel that none of their chiefs or elders possessed power or wisdom to govern and defend them, except as they were raised to the supremo authority, and maintained in it by God himself. That this system was as eftectual in securing the obedi- ence of the Jews to the divine law, as from their situation and character we could reasonably expect, may appear, when we recollect, that of* four hundred and fifty years which elapsed from the settlement of the Israelites in Canaan by *It is not easy to be accurate in the statement of these periods of prosperity idid good conduct, adversity and punishment; because that sometimes /)oW of the VOL. H. Q 242 CONDUCT OF [Part III. Joshua, to the first election of a king in the person of Saul, when taken together, distinct from the intervals of occasional relapses into idolatry, above tliree hundred and fifty seem to have passed under the government of the various judges, whom God raised up at different periods, to recall his people from their errors, and retain them in the observance of his Law. And children of Israel transgressed the divine Law, and were punished distinct from the rest. Thus it is recorded, Judges, x. 7. 8, "That the Lord delivered Israel into '' the hands of the children of Ammon, and they oppressed them eighteen years, all " the children of Israel which were on the other side Jordan, in the land of the " Amorites." Something similar to this appears to have been the case in the deliverance wrought by Shamgar, Judges iii, 31 ; and even the servitude to Jabin, king of Canaan, Judges iv. 2, does not appear to have been universal, though it is said he mightily oppressed the children of Israel ; for it is said " Deborah judged Israel at that time." But the following periods appear to have been clearly periods of tran- quillity, during which the Israelites lived under their own law. From the time when Joshua took the whole land, and the land rested from war, Joshua, ch. xi. 23, about 1445 years before Christ, to the time when God delivered them into the hands of the king of Mesopotamia, about the year A. C. 1410 ....-..- 35 years. Judges, iii, 11 — the land had peace under Othniel - _ - 40 ditto. iii. 30 — under Ehud and his successois ■ - _ 80 ditto. V. 31 — under Deborah and Barak, and their successors - 40 ditto. viii.2S — under Gideon - - . _ . 40 ditto. X. 2— under Tola ----- 23 ditto. X. 3 — under Jair _ - _ _ - 22 ditto. xii. 7 — under Jephthah _ - . _ . 7 ditto. xii. 9 — under Ibzan - - - . . 7 ditto. xii. 11 — under Elon - - - - - 10 ditto. • xii. 14 — under Abdon - _ - _ - 8 ditto. Under Samuel, at least ------ 25 ditto. Total 337 Without taking into the amount the forty years during which Eli had judged Israel, 1 Sam. iv. 18, during which the worship of the true God, and the observance of the law, had been in a great measure preserved, though not perfectly ; this would make the period during which the law of Moses was the regular established religion of Israel, 377 years out of the 450 under the Judges; and it must be re- collected, that it was always the religion of probably a great multitude of the people, though the public idolatry of others brought down the judgments of God : and above all, let it not be forgotten, that those idolators did not renounce the worship of Jehovah, but only added to it the worship of idols. They corrupted, but never entirely forsook, their national religion; and such corruption never implied any doubt of its divine original, or any positive disbelief of the Mosaic miracles. If with Usher in his Chronology, and others, we suppose the periods of tranquillity above to have been only partial, we must also admit the idolatries through the entire period of the Judges to have been also partial, and the argument will be un- atiected. Lect. TI.] TiiK JEWS. 2-l-.*5 that (luring the lives of e.ich of tiieso judges, tlioro was vr} Jiiaterial apostasy from the national religion, and no material interruption of the public tranquility and prosperity by these punishments, which always attended such apostasy. It is pecu- liarly necessary to notice this circumstance, because, by a super- ficial reader of the sacred history, the whole period under tho judges may bo easily mistaken as one uninterrupted series of idolatries and crimes ; from his not observing that the lapses which incurred punishment, and the divine deliverances which attended repentance, are related so fully and distinctly as to occupy almost the entire narrative ; while very long periods, when, under the government of their judges, " the people followed " God, and the land enjoyed peace," are passed over in a single verse, as productive of no occurrence which required a particular detail. The situation of the Jewish nation, during the government of its judges, seems calculated to promote the efficacy of that system of discipline under which it was placed, by the very circumstance which at first view appears most repugnant to it, the want of a close union and common interest between the different tribes. If, on the one side, this prevented them from regularly uniting under a common leader, except when such a one was pointed out by some clear manifestation of the divine will in his appointment, and divine aid in his support, and thus left them both as tribes and individuals, to do what was " ri^ht in their own eyes^''* with- out any immediate visible and regular control ; this very cir- cumstance on the other hand, enabled the Deity to exhibit more conspicuously the operation of that particular providence, which he had declared should distribute temporal prosperity and calam- ity according to the degree of obedience or disobedience to the Mosaic Law ; and which not only the people collectively, bat each distinct tribe and family should manifest ; and thus gradu- ally to imprint more deeply on the whole nation the necessity of obedience to the divine will, by examples within their immediate observance, and the full force of which they could distinctly com- prehend. Now the exercise of such a particular providence over a numerous and widely-extended nation, where one supreme government from the very first had uniformly controlled the en- tire, and rendered each tribe and family less obviously the masters • Judges, xvii. G. 244 CONDUCT OF [Part III. of their own conduct, must have been more gradual and extended in its operation, and less plainly discriminative and observable, than in the situation of the Jews under their judges. This cir- cumstance though not noticed (as far as I can recollect) by writers on this subject, appears to me to have been the most decided effect, and therefore to supply the most satisfactory ex- planation of this part of the divine economy. And be it observed, that this mode of exhibiting the particular providence of God in the distribution of temporal blessings, was the more necessary, as the Jewish people was the only one which acknowledged the authority of Jehovah, or expected any such administration of providence. All the surrounding nations looked up to their own idols as their guardian gods ; and the general superiority of Jehovah over these had been sufficiently displayed in the circum- stances attending the deliverance of the Jews from Egypt, and their settlement in Canaan. But it was still requisite that it should be proved, that merely belonging to the chosen people, and acknowledging the general authority of Jehovah, would be insufficient to secure his protection, except to this was added an Immble and vigilant obedience to that law which God had pro- mulgated, and by the observance of which alone the purposes of the divine economy could be completely fulfilled. That this plan was pursued under the judges, in distributing prosperity or calamity to the different tribes, according to their good or ill conduct, we have many instances. Thus w^e are told that* Judah and Simeon went to attack and dispossess the Canaanites who were remaining in the territory allotted for their inheritance ; and that the Lord was with them, and gave their arms success as far as they continued their confidence in the divine aid. A similar observation is made with regard to the tribe of"f* Joseph. While j five other tribes are enumerated, who, indulging their own indolence, or destitute of sufficient faith in the divine aid, would not drive out the Canaanites, but were satisfied with making them tributaries. And the subsequent history shows, that this was the cause of the severest calamities to these tribes. For these nations soon became " thorns in their " sides,'"§ the instruments of the divine chastisement, merited by this disobedience, and the subsequent idolatries to which it led. * Judges, ch. i. nineteen first \erses. -f Ibid. i. 22. $ IbiJ. i. 21, 27, 29, 30, 33. ^ Ibid. ii. 3. Lect. IL] Tiir, jKws. 245 The history of the manner in wliicli " God rendered the " wickedness of Abimelech which ho did unto his lather, in " slayiuf; his seventy brethren : And all the evil of the men of " Shechem did God* render upon their heads : and upon them " came the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerubbaal," * supplies another striking instance of the administration of Providence iicre supposed. These and various other facts supply additional instances of the same administration of Providence. The ap- parent severity in some of these instances either arose from the operation of human passions in the agents employed or permitted to execute these judgments, without being miraculously con- trolled in their conduct ; or if directly commanded, we may be well assured was indispensably necessary to effect the purposes of the divine economy, when even that degree of severity was not sufficient entirely to prevent subsequent offences. Indeed the objection so frequently, but so causelessly advanced, that the supposed divine government over the Jews was not as com- pletely effectual as might naturally be expected, shows the divine interference was confined to cases of unquestioned neces- sity, and interrupted as little as possible the operation of the laws of nature, and the regular course of moral discipline, under which mankind is placed. We are entirely j* incompetent judges a priori of the degree of interference which ought to have taken place under such a particular providence as God exercised over the Jews, as well as of the effects which ought to have been pro- duced by it. The existence of such a system is proved by undeniable facts, and its effects have evidently been highly important ; and this should satisfy our doubts, and excite our gratitude. To insist on more extensive discoveries of the reasons and process of the divine government is equally irra- tional and presumptuous. As the object of these Lectures does not require, and their limits will not allow, a minute inquiry into the whole series of the Jewish history, and the discussion of every difficulty or ob- jection which may appear to arise from it ; I shall proceed to point out such leading circumstances in the progress of this dispensation, as may illustrate its general tendency to prevent the existence, or check the spread of those idolatries and apos- tasies, which form the subject of our present discussion. * Judges, the entire ch. ix. particularly ver. 50 and 57. {. v;j Butler's Analogy, Part III. ch. iii. particularly p. 200. 246 CONDUCT OF [Part III. The ESTABLISHMENT OF THE KEGAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT IN JUDEA forms a distinguished era in the history of the chosen people. It has been already remarked, that this change has been* provided for in the divine economy, having been fore- told, in the prophetic declaration of Moses delivered to the assembled nation shortly before his death, in such a manner as supplies a striking proof of the authenticity of the Pentateuch. It was not however established until above 400 years had elapsed, and then with circumstances deserving accurate attention, as they appear to illustrate strongly the character of the Jewish people, as well as the kind of discipline, and degree of control, which the divine wisdom thought fit to exercise over this chosen race. It is related, that the elders of Israel came unto Samuel, and said unto him,-f- " Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not " in thy ways : now make us a king to judge us like all the " nations." This inconvenience arising from the misconduct of the sons of Samuel was so plainly temporary and easily re- movable, that it could have been but a mere pretence. The real motive undoubtedly was, that they should be governed " like " all the other nations ;"" a motive orio-inating in their not suffi- ' on ciently attending to the divine interpositions of the judges, but yielding to their ardent and culpable fondness for the manners and customs of the surrounding idolatrous states. This fondness they were restrained from indulging, by the control of that theocracy established by tlie Mosaic Law : a control which in all probability they secretly hoped, would be less strict if they changed the form of their civil government. This criminal dis- position God exposes and reprobates. " They have not," says he to the Prophet, " rejected thee, but they have rejected me, " that I should not reign over them. According to all the '• works which they have done since the day that I brought " them up out of Egypt unto this day wherewith they have " forsaken me, and served other gods : so do they also unto " thee,":J: Yet the Divinity vvould not exercise such a resistless control as totally to disregard the choice of his people, and chain dr)wn their free will : this would have been inconsistent with his He indeed commands the Pro- * Deut. xvii. from vt'r. 11, compared wiili I Sam. viii. x. and xii. + 1 Sam. viii. 5. J 1 Sam. viii. 7 and 8. Lect. II.J THE JEWS. 247 pliet solemnly to protest unto them, declaring unto tlicm his condemnation of their criminal desires, and warning tlicm of the various* inconveniencies which sliould attend the kine"t- "'•x. 18—21. Loot. III.] THE JEWISH LAW, 273 " this book of the Law." That tlicso curses wcro of a temporal nature is undeniable. They were, with regard to the individual, to bo of tho same kind as those which were to be inflicted on tho nation, which aro immediately described, in the following clear and energetic language, to bo such :* " That the genera. " tion to como of your children that shall rise up after you, and " the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when " they SCO the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which " the Lord hath laid upon it ; and that tho whole land thereof " is brimstone, and salt, and burning,f that it is not sown, " nor beareth, nor any grass growcth thereon, like the over- " throw of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which " the Lord overthrew in his anger and in his wrath : Even all " nations shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto " this land ? what meaneth the heat of this great anger ? Then " men shall say, Because they have forsaken tho covenant of " the Lord God of their fathers, which he made with them, when " he brought them out of the land of Egypt." The employment of temporal sanctions with regard to indivi- duals, is indeed abundantly proved, by the punishments de- nounced against offences which were of such a nature that they might easily escape detection, or could scarcely admit of being proved by legal evidence. The man who compounded an oil similar to that appropriated to the sacred uses of the tabernacle ; J he who, while polluted with uncleanness, presumed to partake of the peace-offering of the Lord ; || he who, on the great day of atonement, should do any work, or should not afflict his soul ; § he who labouring under no uncleanness, should neglect to celebrate the Lord's passover ; IF and finally, the soul that doth aught presumptuously;** to each of these it was denounced, " That soul shall be cut off from among his people :" that is, shall suftcr temporal death. The very nature of some of these offences, as-f-f Warburton has observed, proves nothing heyond * Deut. xxix. 22—25. ■f- N. B. The present barrenness of the land of Judea, is objected by Voltaire, and others, against the truth of the sacred history, which represents it as flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands ; how absurdly, when this very barren- ness is the full accomplishment of this and other prophetic denunciations I Vide the assertion, and its confutation by Warburton, Book V. sect. i. Vol. iv. p. 14fi. X E.vod. XXX. 33. II Levit. vii. 21 and 25. le in proportion as the peo- ple became more sensible of the perpetual providence and moral attributes of the Divinity, and therefore more capable of being duly impressed with the divine promises of a future retribution. And here, though the learned prelate so often alluded to, hurried away, it should seem, by a zeal for establishing his system on the broadest possible basis, seems originally to have maintained that no ideas of a future state were to be found umongst the Jews, previous to the captivity : yet he afterwards found it necessary to admit they were gradually inculcated by tlie Prophets subsequent to David.* But assuredly he ought to * Vide Warbuiton, Vol. v. p. 9. and the fiist Seclioa of this Lecture. Lect. IV.] KNOWN TO THE JEWS. 311 have included this inspired Psalmist in the number of those who promulgated this great truth, not indeed with the same clearness as the last prophets, but yet sufficiently to prove his own firm belief of it, and to suggest it to the consideration of every pious and reflecting mind. In Psalm xvi. after solemnly attesting his warm attachment to the pious, that " his delight was upon the saints that were " upon the earth, and upon such as excel in virtue ;" he de- clares his firm confidence in the mercy and protection of his God, and his full assurance of a future state : " I have set God " always before me ; for he is on my right hand, therefore I " shall not fall. Wherefore my heart was glad, and my glory " rejoiced : my flesh also shall rest in hope. For why ? Thou " shalt not leave my soul in hell ; neither shalt thou suffer thy " Holy One to see corruption. Thou shalt show me tlie path of " life ; in thy presence is the fulness of joy : and at thy right hand " there is pleasure for evermore."* It is true, the entire passage is prophetic of our Lord's resurrection, to whom alone the words, " thou shalt not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption,'"" are ap- plicable, as the Apostle Peter f argues with the Jews. But as- suredly the Prophet had a clear idea of future eternal happiness, and a firm confidence that he would himself enjoy it. The next Psalm is not less express. He here opposes the sensual enjoyments on which the wicked fix their desires, to the pure celestial happiness of another life. " Deliver me, 0 Lord, " from the ungodly, which is a sword of thine ; from the men of " thy hand, 0 Lord, from the men, I say, and from the evil " world, which have their portion in this life," &c. " But as " for me, I will behold thy presence in righteousness : and when " I mcake | up after thy likeness, I shall be satisfied with it." • In this passage I use the translation of our Prayer Book; it seems clearer than that in our Bible, and fully as accurate. In the meaning of the three last verses, all the interpretations agree ; except that the Syriac translatns the last clause, " I shall b« " satisfied with the pleasures of victory at thy right hand. ' Vide Biblia Waltoni. Yet even this does not exclude the idea of eternity. " npj aetemitatem significat, sic dictam " quasi victoriam temporis," says Rivetus, and adds, " Nfmen hie in adverbii naturam " transit; est hoc adjunctum perpetuum beatitudinis, qua Moqui beatitude non esset, is " perpetua non foret." Vide Poli Synopsin. t Vide Acts, ii. 29, &c, % The word translated " awake," seems by an apt metaphor to mean, awakening from death to life, "i^i. It is used in this sense in Isaiah, xxvi. 19, and Dan. xii. 2, where it can bear uo other sense. Vide infra. o\2 A FUTURE STATE [Part 111. Thus again, iu Psalm xxi, (which appears to me principally prophetic of the Messiah's glory, though several commentators conceive it to be spoken of David himself alone) celebrating the divine mercy, which distinguished the king, of whom he speaks, with the blessings of goodness, and set a crown of pure gold upon his head ; the Psahnist adds, " He asked life of thee, and " thou gavest him a long life : even for ever and ever. His " honour is great in thy salvation ; glory, and great worship shalt " thou lay upon him.* For thou shalt give him everlasting " felicity ; and make him glad with the joy of thy countenance." In Psalm xlix. the inspired author t with unusual solemnity This passage was adduced by Leland, to prove the same point as I employ it for; and Warbiirton with his peculiar manner, observes, " In this the th'ssenter Leland, as " I remember, in some of his thitigs, seems much to triumph : but I shall show that it " means nothing less." Warburtoii proceeds to observe, that the words our translators render " shall have their portion in this life," ought to have been, " shall have their portion in this life of theirs ;" i. e. '* shall be perfectly prosperous" This, as seems to me, may be admitted, without affecting either mine or Leland's argument ; the entire force of which lies in the contrast the Psalmist draws between the wicked, who are thus perfectly prosperous, and who transmit this prosjierity even beyond their own lives, to their children; and his own expectation, which is, most literally, " I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied in awaking, with thy " likeness." The Septuagint reads, " In righteousness shall I be seen by thy counte- " nance ; I shall be satisfied when thy glory shall appear:" and with this the Arabic and Ethiopic agree. The Syriac reads, " I shall be satisfied when thy fidelity shall " awake ;" " and this," says Warburton, " means only, God's glorious and powerful '• interposition iu David's present rescue from his enemies' hands." But let me ask, what then becomes of the contrast between the expectation of the Psalmist, and the fortune of those who are perfectly prosperous, and leave this prosperity to their children? Interpret David's expectation as of present deliverance, and the passage is obscure, unmeaning, and forced : take it in its obvious meaning of a future happi- ness, it is clear, rational, and beautiful. The former interpretation, therefore, could be justified only by the certainty that the Psalmist had and could have no idea of a future life ; which is a plain petitio principii, a logical error with which all War- burton's interpretations appear to me to be infected ; though he charges his opponents with exactly a similar petitio principii on their part, Vol. v. p. 157. The Public must decide. * Our Bible translates the fifth verse, " Honour and majesty hast thou laid upon " him," instead of " shalt,'" which makes the text less decisive. Undoubtedly the original will bear this sense, yet it seems not so natural as the other ; and the Targum of Jerusalem, the Septuagint, the Ethiopic, the Arabic, and the Vulgate versions, all use the future tense. The Syriac only agrees in adopting the past tense in this and the next clause. But all unite in the sense of the fourth verse, •' a life for ever and ever." Vide Biblia Waltoni. f The author of this Psalm is uncertain; and some verses, particularly the 5lh, 8th, and 9th, are obscure. I use the translation of our Bible, which appears to fiCct. IV.] KNOWN' TO TIIK JKWS. 313 'leniauds attention to the doctrine he purposes to enforce : " O " hear ye this, all ye people ; give ear all ye inhabitants of the " world." The doctrine thus solemnly promulgated, is the folly of the wicked who trust in their riches, and forget the approacli of death, which strips them of all, and exposes them to the ven- geance of God, whom riches cannot disarm. " They that trust " in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their " riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother, " nor give to God a ransom for him, (for the redemption of " their souls is precious, and it ceascth for ever) that he should " still live for ever, and not see corruption," &c. And again, follow the original very closely; indeed so closely as to retain its obscurities. Houbi- gaiit, in his version, removes these obscurities by some very slight alterations of the original text, which seem perfectly justifiable. The 5th verse (with him the Ctli) he translates, " Why should I fear in the evil day, because that misery surrounds me?" and justifies the change, by an easy and obvious alteration of the text. And the 9th (with him the 10th) he renders " Qui desinit in stcculum, adhuc vivet, non in perpe- " tiium videbit foveam, etiamsi videbit earn;" and his criticism on this verse, if ad- mitted, would directly establish the doctrine for which we contend. " In this verse," says he, " is contained the enigma which the Psalmist prepared for, in the 4th verse; " viz. that though man must pay the debt of nature, yet he would survive his fate, " and would not eternally remain in the pit. And then the Psalmist, on account of "this hope of the immortality proposed to man, reproaches him with not providing "for this immortality, but limiting his hopes to the present life, and thus becoming "like the brutes." This interpretation Houbigant justifies, by a mere alteration of the punctuation in the original. Vide Houbigant. But there is scarcely any am- biguity of meaning, or diUerence of interpretation, as to the 14th and I5th verses, on which my argument depends. The Ethiopic, the Syriac, and the Arabic ver- sions all give the same sense. The Arabic is, if possible, more exclusively applica- ble to a future life in ver. 15: " But God will free my soul from the power of the " grave, when we shall receive it," i. e. my soul. Bishop Patrick, who was not sedulous to discover in the Old Testament indications of a future state, applies both these verses to the resurrection. But Home's paraphrase is so strikingly beautiful, I cannot refrain from transcribing it. Ver. 14: " Tlie high and miglity " ones of the earth, who cause people to fear, and nations to tremble around " them, must one day crowd the grave; in multitude and impotence, though not in " innocence, resembling sheep driven and confined by the butcher in his house of " slaughter. There death, that ravening wolf, shall feed sweetly on them, and de- " vour his long-expected prey in silence and darkness; until the glorious morning of " the resurrection dawn, when the once oppressed and afllicted righteous, risen from " the dead, and sitting with their Lord in judgment, shall have the dominion over " their cruel enemies, whose faded beauty, withered strength, and departed glory, " shall display to men and angels, the vanity of that confidence which is not placed in " God." — Warburton interprets " in the morning," to mear, " by the judgment of th« " law, which was administered in the morning hours." What straits is a system driven to, to reiiuire such an interpretation! Sll A FUTURE STATE [Part III. speaking of the wicked, who think their houses shall continue for ever, and call the lands after their own names, he exclaims, " This their way is their folly ; yet their posterity approve their " sayings : like sheep they are laid in the grave ; death shall " feed upon them, and the righteous shall have dominion over *' them in the morning, and their heauty shall consume in the " grave from their dwelling. But G-od will redeem my soul " from the power of the grave, for he shall receive me." Surely fhese expressions cannot be understood to denote any thing short of an eternal deliverance from the power of death, and a blessed reception into the presence of God. I would here notice the remarkable verses in Psalm xxxvi. ; where, speaking of those who put their trust in the Lord, the Psalmist declares, " They shall be abundantly satisfied with the " fatness of thy house : and thou slialt make them drink of the " river of thy pleasures ; for with thee is the fountain of life; " in thy light shall we see light." Warburton, strongly as this passage appears to indicate eternal life sustained by that presence which is the fountain of life^ dismisses it with this short and decisive observation ; " Here, to prove the immortahty of man, " a text is produced, which teaches the eternity of God. But " I know some who think there is a necessary connexion be- " tween those two truths." It may perhaps be answered as shortly, that though there is no general necessary connexion be- tween those two truths, yet if the Scripture asserts, not only that God is to exist for ever, but that man shall witness that eternal existence, partaking of that inexhaustible fountain of life which is with God; it is not ver^ far from asserting that man himself will be also immortal. The same sentiment observed in Psalm xlix. is more con- spicuous in Psalm Ixxiii. in which the author (whether David or Asaph* is not material in the present question, as they were contemporary,-}- and equally prove that the sentiments which they express existed in the most pious and reflect- ing minds) chooses as his subject the worldly prosperity of the ungodly, and the doubts and perplexities which this excited * Vide 1 Chron. •J- If, as Patrick thinks, this Psalm was composed by Asaph the Seer, it wU belong to the days of Hezekiah. Lect. IV.] KNOWN TO THE JEWS. .'^1 5 in his mind, as to the equal deaUng of Divine Providence, until these doubts were dispelled by the lights which religion afiurds as to the final doom of the wicked, contrasted with the glory Teserved for the good, " Then," says he, " thought I to know " this, but it was too painful for me ; until I went into the " sanctuary of God : then understood I their end. Surely thou " didst set them in slippery places : thou castedst them down " into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in " a moment ! they are utterly consumed with terrors. As a " dream when one awaketh : so, O Lord, when thou awakest " thou shalt despise their image." Such was the fate of tho wicked : which going into the sanctuary, where religious reflec- tions naturally suggested themselves, enabled him to appreciate in its true colours, and to contrast with that blessing the pious author hoped himself to enjoy : — " Nevertheless I am always " with thee : thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou " shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to " glory."* How plain and strong the hope of eternal life, hero expressed. And the inspired author, enraptured at the thought, * I adopt here our Bible translation as the most clear and accurate. Nothing seems more plain and decisive in asserting a future retribution. But Warburton dismisses this also, with his usual majestic brevity. "Thou shalt guide me with " thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory ; or, as an excellent critic has it, " ' Consilio tuo deduxisti me, et postea cum gloria excepisti me,' Thou wast or "shalt be always present with me in difficulties and distresses; and shalt lead and " conduct me to better fortunes. This literal sense the context reqm'res." With great deference to this great critic (who was Le Clerc) I cannot help thinking that this, though adopted in some versions, is not the true literal sense ; and that 'the context requires the direct contrary. How is it possible that the Psalmist should, in ver. 12 — 14, declare. That while the wicked increased in riches he should think his own innocency was in vain ; because " all the day long have I been plagned, "and chastened every morning:" and without intimating that any sudden change in his own external situation had done away this difficulty, he declares that entering into the sanctuary had solved it; religion taught him a tnier judgment. Was this merely to expect better fortunes in this life ? A most poor and unworthy lesson for so sublime an instructress. But as I would also wish to shelter myself under critical authority, I would refer to the Rabbi David Kimchi, who on ver. 17, remarks, " That the Psalmist entering into the sanctuary, implies his entering by his reflection* " into that world of spirits, where is retribution, where the just are to be discriminated " from the impious; and I there understood that we are formed to a celestial more "than an earthly life." And Taylor, "Then understood 1 their (Ahharith) future "state after death: Surely thou hast set them in slippery places, thou hast cast them **down into eternal destruction. And ver. 20: "Asa dream after one is awake, " so, O Lord, when tliou awakest, (i^jd in awaking them, or when they are awakened) ri6 A FUTURE STATE [Part III. dwells on and exults in it. " Whom have I in heaven but thee! "■ and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My " flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart " and my portion for ever." Nor is Psalm ciii. less expressive of feelings, which no pros- pect of mere temporal blessings could excite ; which impel the divine Psalmist to exclaim, " Praise the Lord, 0 my soul : and " all that is within me praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, " O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.*" These benefits then the Psalmist, with a sublime fervor of gratitude, enume- rates. But he dwells chiefly on such topics as an elevated soul anxiously looking forward to another life would most naturally select. He glances at temporal blessings, but he enlarges on the spiritual mercy of God."* " The Lord," says he, " is full " of compassion and mercy, long-suffering, and of great good- " ness ; he will not always be chiding ; neither keepeth he his " anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins ; " nor rewarded us according to our wickednesses. For look " how high the heaven is in comparison of the earth ; so great " is his mercy also towards them that fear him. Look how wide " also the east is from the west; so far hath he set our sins from " us." This passage could scarcely have been dictated by any hope of mere temporal and momentary forgiveness. It is irreconcilable with the feelings of a mind which looked forward to annihila- tion and eternal death as the irreversible doom decreed against the sin of the first man, and still to be executed without any relaxation of its severity on all the human race. But t(? "thou wilt despise (debase, pour contempt, as Dan. xii. 2) upon their image, their " vain, shadowy, unsubstantial condition." Vide Taylor, p. 103. — The 24th verse Hammond (whom Warburton so highly approves as an excellent critic and as an orthodox divine, Div. Leg. Vol. iv. p. 153) explains, '^ afterivards receive me to glory, " that is to thyself." Vide also Calmet, Patrick, and Home, Poli Synopsis, and Dodd's Notes, * The 4th verse, " Who redeemeth thy life from destmction," is in the original, " Who redeemeth thy life from the pit. And the Chaldee renders it, " AVho re- " deemeth it from Gehenna." The Syriac and Arabic, "From, corruption." The 6th verse, "Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's," is, by the Chaldee paraphrased, " In the future U'orld thou shalt renew thy youth like the eagle." But I rely on the general turn and spirit of the entire context, not on isolated, and perhaps ambiguous expressions. All the versions agree as to the literal meaning of the verses quoted in tiie text. Lect. IV.] KNOWN TO THE JEWS. 51 7 put this beyond all doubt, the Psalmist proceeds to contrast the divine mercy with the transitory and wretched life of man, when that mercy does not interpose. " Yea," says he, " like as a father pitieth his own children, even so is the Lord " merciful unto them that fear him. For he knoweth whereof " we are made ; he remembereth that we are but dust. The days " of man are but as grass ; he flourisheth as a flower of tlie " field ; for as soon as the wind goeth over it, it is gone, and " the place thereof shall know it no more. But the merciful good- " ness of the Lord endureth for ever and ever upon them that fear " him, and his righteousness upon their children's children ; even " upon such as keep his covenant, and think upon his com- " mandments to do them." But it has been said, the expression of righteousness 'upon children's children shows the Psalmist had in his view nothing more than the continued protection of the posterity of the good in this world, according to the promise of the second commandment.* The very next verse refutes the degradins: sufrgestion, and shows the views of the Psalmist were raised to a higher world. " The Lord," says he, " hath " prepared his seat in heaven ; and his kingdom ruleth over all. " O praise the Lord, ye angels of his, ye that excel in strength, " ye that fulfil his commandments, and hearken unto the voice *' of his word. O praise the Lord, all ye his hosts ; ye servants " of his that do his pleasure 0 speak good of the Lord, all " ye works of his, in all places of his dominion : praise thou " the Lord, 0 my soul." Can we doubt whether the soul which breathed forth such praises as these, did not look for- ward to the society of those angels, whom it calls even now to join with one voice and one consent, to celebrate the univer- sal goodness of their common God. These angels are combined with the servants of God, " that do his pleasure ;" an expression exactly parallel to that of the Apostle, when he says, " Ye are ' come to an heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable com- " pany of angels, to the general assembly of the first-born of " the church, which are written in heaven, and to God, the " judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.'"-f- * Vide Warburton, Vol. v. p. 156. This is the only expression of the Psalm which Warburton considers ; thus entirely overlooking the tenour and context of the composi- tion. Any system may be supported by such a mode of criticism. f Heb. xii. 22, 23. 518 A FUTURE STATE [Part III. Assuredly the mind of the holy Psalmist was exalted by the same ideas, and animated by the same hopes. Jn Psalm cxv, after declaring the privilege of God's people over the idolatrous world, " That their God was in heaven, and " did whatsoever he pleased," but that the idols of the heathen " were silver and gold, the work of men's hands," dead, sense- less and impotent ; and that " they who make them shall be " like unto them, and all they that put their trust in them ;" (that is, they shall become dead and senseless as their idols, without any hopes of a renovation or restitution to a state of happiness :) he proceeds to contrast this with the hopes and the blessings that awaited the people of God : which he plainly in- timates, will not be confined to the enjoyments of this transitory life, but extend to a future and eternal state. " You are the " blessed of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. The hea- " ven, even the heavens are the Lord's ; but the earth hath he " given to the children of men. The dead praise not the Lord, " neither any that go down into silence. But we will bless the " Lord from this time forth for evermore." On which a judi- cious and learned critic observes ;* " What can be the meaning " of the opposition here put between God's people and the " dead ; and the one's not praising Jehovah, the other praising " him for ever ? Could the Psalmist possibly mean their living " to praise him upon earth ? The earth, he had told us just " before, was given to all the sons of Adam ; and the Gentiles " lived upon it as long as the Jews, for any thing that appears to " the contrary. Could he mean that they should never undergo " the state of death ? But this too could not be, for they died " as naturally and as soon perhaps as the heathens, and their " posterity must do the same, though it extended itself to a "•' thousand generations. What then is that discriminating bless- " ing here intended, that should distinguish the worshippers of " Jehovah, all those who feared the Lord, both small and " great, from the idol worshippers and contemners of Jehovah. " T freely own I can make no sense of this passage, otherwise " than by understanding the word dead of the heathen nations, " who having no part in God's covenant of redemption, but " being estranged from him by their idolatries and wickedness, ** were to be left for ever in a state of death, so as never m&re » Peters on Job, p. 223 to 226. LeCt. IV.] KXOWN TO THE JEWS. 319 " to rise to happiness at least ; while God's people, on the " other hand, hoped for a joyful resurrection, and a future ** state of blessedness, wherein they should praise God for ever, " in the most extensive sense of tliat expression. There is no- " thing forced," continues the learned critic, " that I can per- " ceive, in this explication, taking with us the notion (so well " established by a very learned prelate*) that God's covenant " made, or rather renewed, with Abraham and the Patriarchs, " implied in it a conquest over death, and a removal of that " curse denounced on Adam at the fall: and this notion stands " confimied by our Saviour's reasoning in the Gospel, where " he exempts Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, from amongst the " dead, by virtue of God's covenant with them to he their God ; " and from thence, as from an unanswerable argument, proves a " future resurrection." I close this series of proofs — that a future state Avas almost perpetually in the contemplation of the holy Psalmist — with Psalm cxxxix. in which with such a divine penetration as no- thing but an heaven-taught wisdom could inspire, he celebrates the all-seeing omniscience of his God, whom he describes as " about his path and about his bed, and spying out all his ways ; " acquainted with every word in his tongue long before." When he describes that Omnipresent Spirit, which fills the expanse of heaven, and penetrates to the recesses of hell, from whom no darkness can conceal, because the darkness is no darkness with him, but the night is as clear as the day : when he acknow- ledges that creative love by which he was fearfully and won- derfully made : when he exclaims, " How dear are thy counsels " unto me, O God ? yea, how great is the sum of them ? If I " tell them they are more in number than the sand : when I " awake up, I am present with thee ;" what is the practical inference which the holy Psalmist deduces ? It is nothing less than the destruction of the wicked, and the eternal happiness of the good, in which he expresses a firm confidence that ho himself will share : " Wilt thou not slay the wicked, 0 God ? *■' Depart from me, ye blood-thirsty men." And thus he con- cludes : " Try me, 0 God, and search the ground of my heart ; " prove me, and examine my thoughts. Look well if there be • Shftilock on Prophecy, Disc. V. particularly p. 112. S20 A FUTURE STATE [Part III. " any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way ever- " lasting,"* In the moral works of Solomon we find sufficient proofs that he was certain of a future state of retribution, and felt its import- ance as the strongest sanction of virtue. The book of Proverbs, consisting chiefly of rules of prudence for the direction of human conduct, so as to obtain prosperity in the present life, does not so frequently afford occasion for directly enforcing the doctrine of a future state; but in many places it is plainly intimated, and in some directly asserted. When in chapter iv. the preacher exhorts " Enter not into the " paths of the wicked, and go not into the way of evil men ;^ he enforces this admonition by declaring, " the path of the just " is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the " perfect day ; but the way of the wicked is as darkness, they " know not at what they stumble."-}- Words beautifully ex- pressing the reward of virtue increasing from day to day, until it terminates in endless glory; and the terrors of conscience, which incessantly disturb the guilty. In chap. viii. after celebrating the praises of Wisdom, which the Lord possessed in the beginning of his way, before his works of old, even from everlasting, she is introduced solemnly calling on all the sons of men : " Now therefore hearken unto me, O " ye children ; for blessed are they that keep my ways. For " whoso findeth me, findeth life^ and shall obtain favour of the * All the versions agree in translating the last words of this Psalm, " the way cver- " lasting." Indeed the original will scarcely bear any other meaning ; and it is op- posed to the way of " pain or grief," (as we have it in the margin of our Bibles) which would make the sense still more expressly to indicate the eternal rewards of a future life, as opposed to its punishments. Yet I know not why, except from not observing this antithesis, and being led away by the translation of the first clause, as a way of iniquity ; many of the best commentators have interpreted the second as the way of piety and righteousness, which alone is durable and eternal. But the word 3Xy ori- ginally meaning grief and pain," seems to be by a metaphor, only applied to idols and idolaters, as bringing misery on their worshippers ; while dSij? " eternity," is very seldom used in such a metaphorical sense. I cannot see why the more literal meaning of both should not be here preserved, and the sense would be, Look well if there be any way deserving of pain or piinishment in me, and lead me in the way of eternity. t Prov. iv. 18, 19. This passage is not noticed by Warburton. There is no differ- ence of interpretation as to the words quoted, and many of the most reputable commen- tators give them the same sense as I do here : as Mercerus, Glassius, Baynus, Patrick, Dodd. Vide Poli Synopsis, &c. Lect. IV.] KNOWN TO THE JEWS. 821 " Lord. But he that sinnetli against me wrongcth his own " soul : all they that hate ine love death.'''' These words can scarcely signify any thing less than the destruction brought upon the soul by death eternal. But this is still more clearly- asserted to be the punishment of yielding to the seductions of the adulteress and the harlot ; whose house the royal Preacher describes as " the way to hell, going down to the chambers " of death." And again, when she saith to the dupe of her vice, " Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is " pleasant ;" the Preacher adds, " But he knoweth not that the " dead are there, and that her guests are in the depth of hell." While in chap. xii. 28, we are told, " In the way of righteous- " ness is life, and in the pathway thereof there is no death.'''' Thus again, in chap. xiv. we are assured, that " The fear of the " Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death." And still more expressly we are assured, that " The wicked is " driven away in his wickedness ; but the righteous hath hope " in his death."* And the contrary fate of the wicked is ex- pressed with equal clearness, in ch. xxi. 16: "The man that " wandereth out of the way of understanding, shall remain in " the congregation of the dead," that is, (as Patrick explains it) " shall be sent down to hell, confined to the company of the " old giants, who, giving themselves up to violence and de- " bauchery, were swept away by the Deluge." And by a similar sanction doth the royal Preacher enforce his beautiful exhorta- tion to active benevolence, chap. xxiv. 11. "If thou forbear " to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and ready to be " slain ; if thou sayest. Behold, we knew it not : doth not he " that pondereth the heart, consider it? and he that keepeth thy " soul, doth not he know it I and shall not he render to every " man according to his works V And immediately after, " When " thou hast found wisdom, there shall be a reward, and thy ex- " pectation shall not be cut ofi"."-|- * Prov. xiv. 32. " Hath hope in his death," i. e. says Warburton, " the righteous " hath hope that he shall be delivered from the most imminent dangers. So tho "Psalmist, upon them that hope in his mercy, to deliver their soul from death, and " to keep them alive in famine." But to me no ideas seem more different than having hope in death, and hope to escape /rom death; except in and from are taken as synonymous and convertible prepositions, which they certainly are not in Hebrew more than in English. t Warburton interprets Prov. xi. 7, " When a wicked man dieth, his expectation 822 A FUTURE STATE [Part ITT. But if the doctrine of a future retribution is only incidentally mentioned in the book of Proverbs, it forms the great basis, and the leading truth of the book of Ecclesiastes. In this the royal Preacher expatiates on the transitory condition of mankind, if considered as confined to the present state of existence ; the ranity and vexation of spirit attending all present human enjoy- ment, which his own experience had so abundantly proved ; the apparent inequality of Providence, except under the Jewish dispensation, by which there appears one event to the righteous and the wicked. " This," says he, " is an evil among all things " that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all ; " yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and mad- " ness is in their heart while they live, and after that they " go down to the dead,"* But in all the difficulties and per- plexities, all that vanity and vexation of spirit, which this partial view of human nature implies, the royal Preacher brings forward the prospect of a future life and just retribution, as the solution and the remedy, the consolation and the cure.-f* In "shall perish; and the hope of unjust men perisheth," combined with the verse now quoted to apply merely to the expectation of wicked men, to establish a house in thei> posterity; which expectation would deceive them ; and to the expectation of wise and virtuous men in the success of their honest endeavours, which should not deceive them. Now to me it seems the former passage must imply a much more serious disappoint- ment, the latter a much higher reward. But other passages already quoted appear sufficiently clear. Vide Warburton, Vol. v. p. 157. * Eccles. ix. 3. •{• The ingenious and learned Desvoeux, in his Dissertation, Comment and Para- phrase on the Book of Ecclesiastes, has so clearly proved the scope of it to have been the enforcement of a future life, that I need only refer to his Work. He also points out the misinterpretations of Warburton. Vide his Dissertation, ch. ii. sect. iii. particularly p. 72, compared with Warburton, Vol. iv. p. 158. — Those who have not Desvoeux's Work, may be pleased to see his view of this very im- portant part of Scripture. <' The author's design," says he, "is to prove the im- " mortality of the soul, or rather the necessity of another state after this life, from "such arguments as maybe afforded by reason and experience: and his whole dis- " course may be reduced to three propositions, every one of which, when properly " reflected upon, yields a strong proof of a future state of rewards and punishments. " First, No labour or trouble of men in this world can ever be so profitable as to •' produce in them a lasting contentment and thorough satisfaction of mind. Se- "condly. Earthly goods, and whatever we can acquire by our utmost trouble and " labour .in this world, are so far from making us lastingly happy, that they may be " even looked on as real obstacles to our ease, quiet, and tranquillity. Thirdly, *' Men know not what is or is not truly advantageous to them ; because they are " either ignorant or unmindful of that which must come to pass after they are dead; " therefore any one may conclude, that there must be a state of true and solid hap- Loot. IV.j KXOWX TO THE JEWS. o2S hap. iii. lie tells us ; "I know that whatsoever God dooth, it shall be for ever : nothing can be put to it, nor any thin^ " taken from it : and God dootli it, that men should fear before " him." Having thus assorted the uniformity and consistency of the divine conduct, ho contrasts them with the perversion of right by human guilt ; and declares this can only be rectified by the righteous judgment of God. " And moreover, I saw under " the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there ; " and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there. I " said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the " wicked ; for there is a time there for every purpose, and for " every work." In chap. viii. ver. 11, he remarks, " Because sentence against " an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart *' of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." He adds, " Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be " prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them " that fear God, which fear before him : But it shall not be well " with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are " as a shadow ; because he feareth not before God." Evidently denoting, that present impunity, during the longest life, is as a shadow only, compared with that future duration through which " piness for men ; except God, who is allowed to have made them what they are, •' to have implanted in their hearts that strong desire of happiness which often makea " them unhappy in this world, and to have the absolute command of their fate, be " absurdly supposed to have acted whimsically in their formation, and to act so still in " the dispensation of providence. Thus from all these propositions, b>it especially the " last, the Preacher infers, that we must seek for happiness beyond the grave." This scheme the learned author supports by an accurate analysis of the entire work. Vide his dissertation, chap. iii. Vide also Patrick's Preface, which, as to my present argu- ment, is equally conclusive; and Poll Synopsis. Should it be objected, that this system supposes an unequal providence in Solomon's reign, contrary to the declaration of the Mosaic Law, I answer, no such inference can be drawn. Solomon had, in consequence of in's father's fidelity and his own early piety, enjoyed the highest temporal prosperity. This had corrupted his mind, seduced him into vice, and involved him in disappoint- ment and calamity, which were the present consequences and punishment of his offences. But this whole series of events operated not only to convince him, that God had punished his own abuse of temporal prosperity, but that all sucii prosperity was in its own nature inadequate to the aspirings of an immortal spirit, wliicli oui;lit to seek its happiness in the rewards of another life, to be secured only by the con'irant fear of God and obedience to his laws. Besides, we cannot but suppose that Solomon's views were enlarged, to consider the general state, conduct, and prospects of man- kind, even beyond the precincts of the Jewish state, and the sanctions of the Jewish Law. 324 A FUTURE STATE [Part III, the punishment of the wicked shall extend. And in chap, xi, is this remarkable passage. ' Eejoice, 0 young man, in thy youth, " and let thy heart cheer tnee in the days of thy youth, and " walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes : " but know, that for all these things God will bring thee into " judo-ment." And finally, to prove a future state of retribution was the object he held out, through the entire of his exhortation, as the only adequate sanction of virtue, the only sure prop of re- ligion ; and eternal happiness the only rational object of human pursuit ; he closes this admirable work with a solemn admo- nition. " Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, " while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when " thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them." Then after describing, with singular beauty and philosophic precision, the symptoms of decay preceding that awful hour, when, as he ex- presses it, " The dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the " spirit shall return unto God who gave it ;" he imprints upon the heart of his reader, that great truth, which it was his chief object to promulgate and enforce : " Let us hear the conclusion " of the whole matter : Fear God, and keep his commandments : " for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every " work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be " good, or whether it be evil.""* The great truth of a day of divine judgment and strict retri- bution, was thus clearly promulgated by the royal Preacher, whose distinguished glory as a monarch, and unparalleled wisdom as a sage, must have excited the greatest attention to his instruc- tions, amongst all his countrymen. But it seems to have been the intention of Providence to impress the conviction that the soul survived death, and that man was capable of a blessed immortality, by miraculous facts, as well as by inspired instructions. This must have been the effect of those three great instances of resurrection from the dead, produced by the miraculous power of Elijah and Elisha, the most illustrious of the Jewish Prophets : — first the son of the widow of Zarephath, whom Elijah revived immediately after he had expired ;-f- se- condly, the son of the Snunamite, whom Elisha restored to life, after he had been dead for a considerable length of time, even during the journey of his mother from Shunem to Carmel, to * Ecclesiastes, two last verses. + 1 Kings, XTii. LeCt. IV.] KNOWN TO THE JEWS. 325 implore the Prophet's aid, and their return ;* and lastly, the resurrection of the man who was bearing to his burial, and who, on being let down into the sepulchre of Elisha, revivcd.-|- Each of these facts arose above the preceding, both in the public notoriety of the event, and the magnitude of the miraculous interposition. In addition to these facts, the glorious translation of Elijah to heaven, so sublimely described by the sacred historian, when " there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted " them both (that is, Elijah, and Elisha) asunder ; and Elijah " went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, " and he cried. My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and " the horses of Israel. And he saw him no more.""! These miracles, combined with others of a different kind wrought by the same Prophets, which must have excited general attention, could not fail of impressing extensively and deeply on the Jewish nation, the opinions of the souFs surviving death, and being capable of a blessed immortality. And in the writings of the subsequent Prophets we find these truths introduced sometimes in metaphor and scenic description as familiar to the minds of the Jewish people, and sometimes directly revealed and autho- ritatively enforced, to support the interests of virtue and the sacredness of religion. I select a few instances from the energetic and sublime Isaiah. How awful the description of the destruction which was to await the king of Babylon. This, though a scenic and meta- phorical description, could not but suggest the idea and impress the belief of a future state ; or rather indeed proves that such ideas and such a conviction were perfectly familiar both to the Prophet and his readers. " Hell from beneath is moved for thee, " to meet thee at thy coming : it stirreth up the dead for thee, " even all the chief ones of the earth ; it hath raised up from " their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall " speak, and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we " are ? art thou become like unto us V § In chap. xxv. the Prophet describes the faithfulness of God in executing his me- naces on the wicked, and his promises of salvation to the faithful in terms which in their full meaning are applicable only to the *2Kingsiv. f Ibid. xiii. 21. J Ibid. ii. 11, 12. § Isaiah, xiv. 9. and 10. 326 A FUTURE STATE [Part in great day of final retribution, however they may in a more co'i fined sense have been fulfilled by antecedent and temporal judg- ments. " 0 Lord," says the Prophet, " thou art my God : I will * exalt thee, I will praise thy name ; for thou hast done won- " derful things ; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth." And then after describing the vengeance of God on his enemies he proceeds to describe the salvation of the faithful. " And he " will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast " over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. " He will swallow up death in victory ; and the Lord God will " wipe away tears from off all faces ; and the rebuke of his " people shall he take away from off all the earth ; for the Lord " hath spoken it."* In chap. xxvi. the Prophet pursues the same subject, in terms which yet more directly suggest the resurrection at the last day. " In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah : " We have a strong city ; salvation will God appoint for walls " and bulwarks. Thy dead men shall live ; with my dead body " shall they rise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust ; " for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast " out the dead. Come, my people, enter thou into thy cham- " bers, and shut thy doors about thee : hide thyself as it were " for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, • In Lowth's beautiful translation, the idea of an immortal state is still more clearly expressed, ch. xxv. 8. '« He shall utterly destroy death for ever; " And the Lord Jehovah shall wipe away the tear from off all faces. " And the reproach of his people shall he remove from ofi" the whole earth. " For Jehovah hath spoken it." And on verse 6, Lowth remarks, " The feast here spoken of, is to be celebrated on " Mount Sion, and all the people, without distinction, are to be invited to it ; this can " be no other than the celebration of the establishment of Christ's kingdom, which is " frequently represented in the Gospel, under the image of a feast where ' many shall " ' come from the East and West, and shall sit down at table with Abraham, Isaac, and " « Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.' Matth. vii. 11. Luke xiv. 16, and xxii. 29. This " sense is fully confirmed by the concomitants of this feast, expressed in the next verse, " the removing the vail from the face of all nations ; and the abolition of death. The •' first of which is obviously and clearly explained of the preaching of the Gospel. " And the second must mean the blessing of immortality procured for us by Christ, " who hath ' abolished death, and through death hath destroyed him that had the power ' of death.' " LeCt. IV.] KNOWN TO THE JEWS. 327 " behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inha- " bitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall " disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain."* In chap, xxxiii. how awfully docs the Prophet describe the judirments of God ! " Hear ye that are afar off", what I have " done ; and ye that are near, acknowledge my might. The * Isaiah, xxvi. 1, 19, 20, 21. Lowth's translation of these last verses is somewhat different, though, for the purpose I adduce them, not materially: ver. 10. " Thy dead shall live, my deceased they shall rise. " Awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust; " For thy dew is as the dew of the dawn, " But the earth shall cast forth as an abortion, the deceased tyrants." And ver. 21. " For behold, Jehovah issueth forth from his place. «' To punish for his iniquity, the inhabitant of the earth. " And the earth shall disclose the blood that is upon her, " And shall no longer cover her slain." On this passage Lowth remarks: " The deliverance of the people of God from a " state of the lowest depression, is explained by images plainly taken from the resur- " rection of the dead. la the same manner the Prophet Ezekiel represents the restora- " tion of the Jewish nation from a state of utter desolation, by the restoring of the " dry bones to life, exhibited to him in a vision, chap, xxxvii. which is directly thus "applied and explained, ver. 11; and this deliverance is expressed with a manifest «' opposition to what is here said above, ver. 14, of the great lords and tyrants under " whom they had groaned: " They are dead, they shall not live; " They are deceased tyrants, they shall not rise. " That they should be destroyed utterly, and should never be restored to their former " power and gloiy. It appears from hence, that the doctrine of the resurrection of the " dead was at that time a common and popular doctrine : for an image which is " assumed, in order to express or represent another in the way of allegory or metaphor, " whether poetical or prophetical, must be an image commonly known and understood, " otherwise it will not answer the purpose for which it is assumed." Here I find the Bishop of Killala makes no material change in Lowth's translation; but the learned Prelate in the next chapter notices a circumstance very apposite to my present argument: chap, xxvii. " In that day, '* Shall Jehovah punish with his grievous sword, " His great and strong sword, " Leviathan the mailed serpent, ** Even Leviathan the writhing serpent; " And he shall slay the monster that is in the sea." On this the Bishop remarks; " that whatever present adversary is designed here bj " the name of Leviathan, whether the king of Egypt or Babylon ; it seems highly prob* ' ble that a future spiritual enemy is in contemplation, even the old serpent, whose final *' destiny is related." Rev. xx. 10. 328 A FUTURE STATE [Part III. " sinners in Zion are afraid, Tearfulness hath surprised the hy- " pocrites ; who amongst us shall dwell with the devouring " fire ? Who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burn- " ings ?* He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly ; " he that despiseth the gain of oppression, that shaketh his hands " from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of " blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil ; he shall dwell " on high : his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks ; " bread shall be given him ; his waters shall be sure."" And in verse 22, the ground of this confidence is emphatically described : " For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord " is our king ; he will save us." In chap. li. the Prophet illustrates the abolition of the Jewish economy and the introduction of the new, by images which bespeak a mind familiarized to the contemplation of that grand catastrophe which shall close the existence of this sublunary world. " Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the " earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, " and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that " dwell thereon shall die in like manner ; but my salvation shall " be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Hear- " ken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose " heart is my Law ; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither " be ye afraid of their revilings. For the moth shall eat them " up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool : " but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from " generation to generation."-f- I close the extracts from this truly evangelic Prophet, with chap. Ivii. in which he describes, in terms the most clear and impressive, that strict retribution by which divine justice will correct all the inequalities of the present life, and render to every man according to his works. " The righteous perisheth, and no * Lowth translates the 14th verse; "Who among us can abide this consuming " fire, who among us can abide these continued burnings ?" Ver. 11 to 22, Lowth remarks, is a description of the dreadful apprehensions of the wicked, in those times of distress and imminent danger, finely contrasted with the confidence and security of the righteous, and their trust in the promises of God, that he will be their never-failing strength and protector. "I* Lowth's translation is here much more accurate and expressive ; " But my rigbt«- " ousness shall endure for ever, and my salvation to the age of ages." Lect. IV.] KNOWN TO THE JEWS. 329 * man layeth it to heart ; and merciful men are taken awav, " none considering that the righteous is taken away from the " evil to come.* He shall enter into peace : they shall rest in " their beds, each one walking in his uprightness. For thus " saith the high and lofty One that iuhabiteth eternity, whoso " name is Holy ; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him " also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit " of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. " But the wicked are like the troubled sea, whose waters ca.st " up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the *' wicked."" Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the minor Prophets, occupied as they chiefly are, in denouncing the temporal judgments immediately to be inflicted on the Jews, first by the dispersion of the ten tribes, and afterwards by the Babj^onish captivity, recur to the remote ideas of a future state less frequently than the great evangelic Prophet, who constantly extends his view to the glories and the efi'ects of the Messiah's reign. Yet they frequently speak of Jehovah as recompensing all the inhabitants of the earth, whether nations or individuals, according to their deeds ; and of the great and terrible day of the Lord ; and of men"'s delivering their souls from death ; in terms which are properly applicable only to the great day of final retribution. Thus Jeremiah, in chap. xvii. declares, " The heart is deceitful above all things ; " who can know it ? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, " even to give to every man according to his ways, and accord- " ing to the fruit of his doings."-!- ^^^ again, " He that get- " teth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of * Lowth is more accurate, and equally expressive of the sentiment which this pas- sage appears to me to impress: " The righteous man is taken away because of the evilj " He shall go in peace, he shall rest in his bed, " Even the perfect man, he that walketh in the straight path." Bishop Stock remarks, that " in verse 19, the words, Peace to the distant and to the " near, saith Jehovah, means, to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. In this universal " peace the wicked shall have no sharre." I would add, this universal peace, excluding all the wicked, can scarcely be conceived strictly true but of that world " wherein shall ♦' dwell righteousness." f Blayney observes, the Prophet contrasts the accursed condition of him that resteth his trust on man, ver. 5, 8. He showeth that, be the human heart ever so wily, Gfld can detect, and will finally punish its double dealing, ver. 9, 11. He acknowledgetk that sure salvation cometh from God, and from God only. 330 A FUTURE STATE [Part III. " his days, and at his end shall be a fool.""* And again, " 0 Lord, " the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and " they that depart from me shall be written in the earth ; because " they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.''"' Thus Ezekiel, in the vision of the valley of dry bones, chap, xxxvii. gives a scenical representation of the restoration of the dead hope of Israel, by the restoration of these bones to life. " Then said he unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole " house of Israel : behold, they say. Our bones are dried, and " our hope is lost ; we are cut off for our parts. Therefore pro- " phesy, and say unto them. Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, " O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come " up out of your graves, and bring you unto the land of Israel." j- Thus also Hosea, encouraging Israel to obedience by the pros- pect of deliverance from the calamities which God would inflict on them for their crimes, if they should truly repent ; in chap. xiii. calls on them : " 0 Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself ; but " in me is thine help.;]: I will ransom them from the power of * Blayney reads, " felon," that is, " he shall have the reward of a felon at last, or "shall be brought to condign punishment. This is directly opposite to what Balaam " wished, Numb, xxiii. 10, and what every wise man would wish for himself, a latter " end like that of the righteous." If this observation is just, the Prophet, by the last end of the irreligious, means their future state; which, according to Taylor, is the ex- act force of the word flHiriN here used. The Chaldee paraphrase renders the words " shall be written in earth," hy falling into Gehenna. t Primate Newcome, in his note on the 12th verse of this chapter, observes: "In " the land of their captivity, the Jews seemed as absolutely deprived of their own "country, as persons committed to the grave are cut off from the living. The fore- " going similitude showed in a strong and beautiful manner, that God, who could evea " raise the dead, had power to restore them." Having been led to recur to the Works of this truly learned and Christian divine, I cannot forbear expressing the fond and grateful remembrance which must ever remain imprinted on my heart, of a man, whose encouragement animated, whose advice guided, my earliest studies, and in whose friendship, terminated alas! only by his death, I received the most honourable reward. But he is gone in peace — he rests in glory ; though dead, his example and his works still speak to the living; and Oh ! " may we die the death of the righteous, and may our last end be like his." X This verse is otherwise, and, as it seems to me, more accurately rendered by Pri- mate Newcome: " Yet I will redeem thee from the grave, " I will deliver thee from death. " O death, where is thine overthrow! " O grave, where is thy destruction! " Repenting is hidden from mine eyes." "i.e." says Newcome, "change of purpose, my veiacity being concerned." And Loct. IV. J KNOWN TO THE JEWS. 331 " the grave ; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be " thy plague ! 0 grave, I will be thy destniction : repentance " shall be hid from mine eyes." Joel, with all the energy and sublimity of Isaiah himself, pre- dicts the wonderful effusion of divine grace under the Gospel scheme; and passes on to describe the signs that should precede, and the terrors that should attend, the coming of the day of judgment, that great and terrible day of the Lord : " And I " will show wonders in the heavens, and in the earth, blood and " fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into dark- " ness ; and the moon into blood, before the great and the ter- " rible day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass, that " whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be de- " livered ; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, shall be deliver- " ance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord " shall call."* Amos also first describes the temporal sanctions of the Mosaic law, and their exact distribution by the immediate hand of God, who " caused it to rain upon one city, and not to rain upon " another city ; one piece was rained upon, and the piece where- " upon it rained not withered. So two or three cities wandered " unto one city to drink water ; but they were not satisfied : " yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I have " overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Go- " morrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burn- " ing ; yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord."*}* He then proceeds to point out that great day of judgment, the prospect of which ought to restrain, as its punishment would as- suredly chastise the obstinacy of their guilt : " Therefore thus " will I do unto thee, 0 Israel ; and because I will do this unto " thee, PREPARE TO MEET THY GoD, 0 IsRAEL. FoT lo ! ho that " formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth " unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning dark- he remarks, that " St Paul naturally applies to the resurrection of the dead, what the " Prophet says of future national happiness." Admitting the Prophet means only this, we have here a very strong instance how distinct and familiar was the idea of a resur- rection to the Prophet and his countrymen. * Joel, ii. 30. Primate Newcome understands this passage, of the events which took place at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. But from our Saviour's language, Matt. xxiv. 29, we are certainly warranted in applying them also to the day tf general judgment. f Amos, iv. 7, 8, 11. 332 A FUTURE STATE [Part III. " ness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord * God of Hosts is his name." Nahum with equal sublimity, describes the vengeance of God in terms applicable only to the general judgment on all the in- habitants of the earth. " He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it " dry, and driefh up all the rivers : Bashan languisheth, and " Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. The moun- " tains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burnt " at his presence ; yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. " Who can stand before his indignation ? and who can abide in " the fierceness of his anger ? His fury is poured out like fire, " and the rocks are thrown down by him. The Lord is good — " a strong hold in the day of trouble ; and he knoweth them that " trust in him. But with an overrunning flood he will make an " utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his *' enemies."* Finally, I close this series of prophetical denunciations of the great day of final retribution, with the distinct and awful descrip- tion of it by the Prophet Daniel. " I beheld," says the Prophet, " till the thrones were cast " down, and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was " white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool ; " his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning " fire. A fiery stream issued, and came forth from before him ; " thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand " times ten thousand stood before him : the judgment was set, " and the books were opened." And again, " I saw in the night " visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the " clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they " brought him near before him. And there was given him do- " minion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and " languages, should serve him : his dominion is an everlasting " dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that " which shall not be abolished."'!' And at the conclusion of this wonderful and solemn prophecy, in the last chapter of Daniel ; " And at that time shall Michael " stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of " thy people : and there shall be a time of trouble, such as was " never since there was a nation, even to that time : and at that * Nahum, j. 4 — 8 ' Dan. vii. 9, 10, and 13, 14. Lect, IV".] KXOWN TO THE JEWS. -^ " time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be " found written in the book. And many of thcni that sleep in " the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and " some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be " wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and they " that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."* Thus clearly do the Jewish Prophets promulgate that truth, so plainly declared by another inspired writer, who probably did not live under the Jewish dispensation, and who, at a much earlier period, proclaimed the same awful doctrine, even the Patriarch Job, who, with all the solemnity which its importance required, demands for it the attention of mankind, when he exclaims,f " 0 that my words were now written, that they " w^ere printed in a book ! that they were graven with an iron " pen and load, in the rock for ever ! For I know that my " Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day " upon the earth. And though after my skin tDorms\ destroy * Ibid. xii. 1—3. •}• Job, xix. 23 — 27. That this passage of Job really means the redemption of the just at the last day, has been abundantly proved by many writers, in opposition not only to VVaiburton, but to Grotius and Le Clerc. Vide particularly the notes of the very leanied Schultens, and of Peters. The ancient origin of the book has also, as appears to me, been abundantly proved by many writers, but by none more ably than by my learned friend Ur Magee, in his work on Atonement and Sacrifice. I think it unnecessary to dwell longer on this subject, the argument on which has already swell- ed far beyond my original intention. I would only remark, that notwithstanding his laboured dissertation, VVarburton appears to have entertained some doubt, as to the validity of the proofs he had given of the modern date of this book. Since if this was certain, it was unnecessary for him to maintain, that this passage was to be understood only of a future temporal deliverance of the Jews. For no- thing could justify such a forced interpretation, but the supposition that the author lived at a period when the idea of a future life had never been entertained, if such a period can be assigned. If, on the contrary. Job was written about the close of the Babylonish Captivity, as Warburton contends, it is quite certain, and even admitted by himself, that the ideas of a future life and retribution were then familiar to the Jews; and there would remain no possible reason for suspecting they were not familiar to and plainly expressed by the supposed author of the Book of Job. % Our translation introduces the word "worms" in this verse unnecessarily; it may be more closely and clearly translated, " And that even I, after my skin is *' consumed, shall in my flesh behold my God." This is Houbigant's version, %vith which Schultens aod Peters nearly agree. I have been much gratified at finding that a very learned writer confirms the exposition I bad given § of the expressions used by the Jewish lawgiver, in the S Vide supra, p. 291. 334 A FUTURE STATE [Part in. " this hody^ yet in my flesh shall I see God : whom I shall see " for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another ; *' though my reins be consumed within me.*" We have now traced the gradual promulgation of the great doctrine of a future retribution, from the first gracious intima- tion of final deliverance from the power of Satan, vouchsafed at the fall, to its full disclosure by David and Solomon, and its history of the Creation, when he declared that God said, " Let us make man in our " own image, after our likeness: and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, " and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth." After clearly proving that this image included reason, which qualified man for that dominion with which he was vested, he proceeds to observe: " But now the substance in which " the faculty of reason resides, could not be a material substance, as the best philosophy " evinceth.* Man, therefore, must needs consist of an immaterial substance, joined "to a material: or, in other words, he must be a compound of soul and body. And "this seems to be intimated, and not obscurely neither, by the words of the text : 'The " Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils " THE BREATH OF LIFE, and man became a living soul.' By the words the breath " of life, and a living soul, which discriminate life in man from life in brutes, we " are not to understand immateriality simply; since all animals, as we say, have this "in common; but the continuance of life after the separation of the compound, in " virtue of man's rationality, which making him responsible for his actions, may, ac- " cording to the different parts in God's moral economy, require that separate exis- *' tence." The learned author afterward remarks, that "the place which points out this differ- " ence, is made to serve for an introduction to the history of the free gift of immorta- " lity. And a better cannot be conceived than that wlnVh teacheth us, that the " subject on whom this gift was bestowed, is by the immateriality of his physicaj "nature, capable of enjoying it; and, by the freedom of his reasonable nature, ac- " countable for the abuse of it. So much is observed in honour of that exquisite ** knowledge with which the sacred writer was endowed." The reader will perhaps be surprised as much as I was, at discovering that the learned writer now qiioted is no other than Warburton himself; the identical Warburton who had so strenuously maintained that in all the writings of Moses not so much as an intelligible hint of a future state was to be found. The passage now quoted occurs in the ninth book-j- of the Divine Legation, written many years after the first six, and which though print- ed, so far as it goes, by the author, was left unfinished, and not published until after his death. It is, however, not unfair to conclude, that hints of a future state which were unintelligible to him, while he saw only through the medium of his own system, became intelligible, as they must, I think, be to all others, when that mist was gradually removed. But while I make this remark, 1 am fully conscious of the possibility that variations and inconsistencies may be found in my own pages; though I sincerely hope truth is the great object of my pursuit. I therefore impute not to Warburton any deliberate neglect of that sacred principle, I would rather claim * Alluding to Clarke and Baxter. t Vide Vol. 111. pp. 620 and 621 of Warburton's Works, in seven volumes 4to. printed 1788. Lect. IV.] KNOWN TO THE JEWS. 335 solemn enforcement and impressive description by the last pro- phets. And we are thus, I trust, fully prepared to receive and admit the clear truth and full force of our divine Lord's declara- tion, that the Jews derived the knowledge of this truth from the Scriptures of the Old Testament ; when appealing to them for the prophetic attestation of his own divine mission, he calls on his hearers, " Search the Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have " eternal life : and they are they which testify of me."" And though the disquisition which this inquiry has produced, has swelled to an unexpected length, I trust this will be excused, from its obvious tendency to vindicate the truth and illustrate the con- nexion of both revelations. for him, as well as for myself, the old privilege of authors — " Opere in longo fas est " ohrepere somnum." I have not judged it necessary in this argument to notice particularly the different texts which Warburton brings to show, " That his conclusion may be proved, not only " from the silence of the sacred WTiters, but from their positive declarations; in which " they plainly discover, that there was no popular expectation of a future state or a " resurrection."* If the numerous passages alleged in this work to prove the contrary, are fairly interpreted, these positive declarations showing the expectation of a future state, cannot be done away by any texts from the same authors, which speak of death as the period of existence, or the grave as the land of forgetfulness, &c. &c. ; for these all may be obviously and easily interpreted as meaning no more than that death closes our present state of existence, puts an end to our present projects, prevents us from de- claring in Wi& present world the faithfulness of God, &c. &c. ; or at the utmost, that so long as the state of death continues, until men are raised from the dead and called to judgment, they remain insensible,^ an opinion held by many Christians. And in some instances these texts seem to be opinions which the sacred writers suppose pronounced by irreligious or atheistical objectors, and which they afterwards expressly refute ; or vehement exclamations of recent sorrow reducing the mind almost to despair. It is vyorthy of remark, that the Sadduceesf alleged the same texts to prove the same con- clusion, yet our Lord charges them with not knowing the Scriptures; an assertion which surely should warn us against arguing from the Scriptures, in the same manner which they did. Nor is the declaration of St Paul less express, as to what he conceived to be the real tenor of the Law and the Prophets on this subject. " This," says he to Felix, " I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, worship I the "God of my fathers: believing all things which are written in the Law and the Pro- "phets: and have hope towards God, which they themselves also allow, that there " shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. And herein do I " exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence both toward God and " toward men." Acts, xxiv. 14 — 16. * Vide Div. Lesr. Book v. Sect. v. Vol. iv. p. 353. t Vide the Appendix to Bishop Law's Theory of Religion. t Vide Meiiasse Ben Israel, as quoted by the learned David Humphreys, in his Essay on the Notions of the Jews concerning the Resurrection, p. 89; La which the texts adduced by the SaA- dncees are quoted and considered. 336 EFFECTS OF JUDAISM fPart III. LECTUEE V. EFFECTS OF JUDAISM ON THE GENTILES. Sect. I. Objection to Judaism — First, from its being confined to a single nation— Secondly, from its implying mutability in God, as being opposed to Christianity. Answer to the first — Judaism not confined in its effects to one nation— but intended, through the instrumentality of the Jews, to enlighten mankind. Th^s effect foreseen and attended to in the Jewish scheme. Various instances to show this. Solomon's prayer at the consecration of the temple establishes the same inference. The miracles wrought for the Jews made a strong impression on the Egyptians — On the Canaanitet — On the Philistines — On the Heathens in the reign of Solomon — But counteracted by the principles of Idolatry — instanced in the history of the Samaritans — 'Who were how- ever prepared by Judaism for Christianity. Effects produced by Judaism on the Heathens during the Captivity — Instanced in the history of Jeremiah — Of Daniel — Of his three friends — Of Belshazzar — Of Cyrus. These facts publicly attested-— Importance of such attestations. Traces of these effects in the East. Traces of the same effects in the religion of Zoroaster — Of Mahomet. Recapitulation — Universal re- formation not to be expected at that period of the world — Objection derived from partial effects of Judaism, erroneous in its statement of facts — Inconclusive in reasoning— A revelation not being universal, implies no injustice in God. EXODUS, ix. 16. " And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power ; and that " my name may be declared throughout all the earth." It yet remains to observe, that the Jewish system has been objected to, on grounds distinct from its immediate doctrines, or its direct effects upon the Jews themselves. First, as being partial ; — wholly confined to one obscure and insignificant nation, and therefore unworthy of a divine interposition, and inade- quate to that stupendous apparatus of miracles by which it is supposed to have been introduced. Secondly, as indicating a capricious mutability on the part of God, who (as those objec- tors affirm) first promulgated the Mosaic Law as of eternal obli- gation ; and yet afterwards is supposed to have abrogated it, and introduced the different and even opposite system of Christianity. Loot, v.] ON THE UE.NTILta. 887 To the forme)' of these objections it is answered ;—/rs^, that the Jewish scheme was never intended merely for the benefit of the Jews alone, but by their instrumentality for the benefit of all mankind, whose instruction and reformation it had the clearest tendency to promote, by exhibiting the most striking proofs of the existence and power of the true God, not only to the Jews them- selves, but to all the nations placed in their vicinity or affected by their fortunes ; amongst whom were the Egyptians the wisest^ the Canaanites the most warlike, and the Phoenicians the most commercial nations of remote antiquity : and afterwards the four great empires of Assyria and Persia, Greece and Rome, which successively swayed the sceptre of the civilized world. So that whatever knowledge of true religion was preserved amongst man- kind, was in all probability principally derived from this source, or at least was from thence materially extended and improved.* * That the Jewish Constitution was adapted to attract the attention and improTe the religious knowludge of mankind, from the particular time at which it was in- troduced, has been satisfactorily evinced by a late ingenious writer. f He observes, " had it been erected at a period nearer to the Deluge, whether during the time ** while the light from the old world, shed upon the survivors of that catastrophe, " remained inextinguished, or during the darkness and barbarism that succeeded it, " it does not seem that the period would have been (at least to human judgment) " so wisely chosen. It would have been superfluous while men remained under the " deep and recent impressions of the Deluge ; and to the uninformed and unobser- " vant minds of their successors, who were sinking into barbarism, it would have " been lost, like a spectacle exhibited to the blind or the careless : and even had its " benefits been extended to all mankind, the number would have been then (com- " paratively at least) but few. But not beiug erected until men were multiplied " and divided into separate communities, some of them grown up into some con- " siderable magnitude, and to some good degree of improvement in powers and " knowledge, it had, for the eliectual exhibition of God's moral government, the •' advantage of being presented before many and qualified observers capable o " apprehending such a truth, of being gratified, or at least struck, with an easy " proof and a conspicuous display of it. Beginning after the commencement ol " such nations as Babylon, Syria, Persia, and Egypt; continuing during the pro- " gress of these nations through various conditions and vicissitudes, and unavoidably •* having some connexion with them, because settled in the midst of them, and " some share in the changes which took place amongst them, the circumstances of " the Jewish nation, and their correspondence with its character, and its obser- " vance and neglect of its peculiar constitution, could not but be well known to *' those nations; it must have exhibited an experimental, obvious, and clear proof " of the moral government of God, a spectacle attracting their attention through " all the stages of civil society, and all the dlllerent conditions incident to such combina- " tioiis of men." t Mr Cappe, Vol. ii. p. 208. Y S38 EFFECTS OF JUDAISM [Part III. Secondly^ a still more decided proof, that the Jewish scheme was designed for and subservient to the general benefit of man- kind, is derived from that great feature of it which supplies the answer to the second objection ; even this : — that there has been no change in the divine purposes, and no inconsistency between the Jewish and Christian dispensations ; but that the Mosaic Law was from the first intended not to be of eternal obligation, but declared to be subservient to and introductory of the Gospel. In order to establish the tendency of the Jewish economy to promote amongst other nations the knowledge of the true God, it is important to remark, that to produce such a tendency is ex- pressly pointed out as part of the divine plan, and as a motive frequently influencing the measures of the divine dispensations. Thus the Jewish Legislator represents God as declaring concern- ing Pharaoh, " In very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, " to show in thee my power ; and that my name may be declared •' throughout all the earth."* And when on the impious rebellion of the Jews, after the return of the twelve spies, God proposes to destroy this ungovernable race, and raise from his faithful ser- vant Moses a nation greater and mightier than they, the patriotic Legislator, in deprecating the execution of the divine menace, employs this topic as the most powerful dissuasive : " Now if thou " shalt kill this people as one man, then the nations which have " heard the fame of thee will speak, saying. Because the Lord " was not able to bring this people unto the land which he sware " unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.'"-[- He then proceeds to entreat, that the long suffering mercy of God may now be exercised : " And the Lord said. Behold I have " pardoned according to thy word ; but as ti-uly as I live, all the " earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.";): The awful sentence is then pronounced, that the nation shall continue forty * Exod. ix. 16. •{• Numb. xiv. 15. The same motive is represented as constantly operating to prevail upon Jehovah to withhold the full punishment in justice due to the crimes of this wayward people. Thus in his last solemn hymn, in which the Lawgiver exhibits a prophetic sketch of the entire dealing of God with his people; after enumerating the signal punishments which would follow their apostasies, he adds, Deut. xxxii. 2fi, 27, " I would scatter them into " corners, \ would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men. " Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should " behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the *• Lord hath not done all this." % Numb. xiv. 20, 21. Lect. v.] ON THE GENTILES. 339 years in that wilderness, until " all the men of that evil genera- " tion should perish there:" a sentence the miraculous execution of which undouhtedly did, and still does, exhibit in the strongest light the power and justice of Jehovah to all the nations of the earth. Thus again, when the Legislator labours to impress upon his countrymen the observance of the divine laws, he urges a simi- lar motive : " Keep therefore and do them, for this is your wis- " dom 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? And what " nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so " righteous, as all this Law which I set before you this day."* And certainly the wonders of divine power wrought in behalf of the Jewish people, combined with the character of the Jewish Law, justify this appeal of the Jewish Legislator to all nations ac- quainted with these awful facts. And how extensively has the knowledge of these facts been disseminated, how perpetually is it still spreading, through all the civilized regions of the globe. Thus again, when the Legislator, with that spirit of prophecy which so strongly attests his divine mission, declares to his nation the prosperity which should reward their obedience, and the calamities which should chastise their transgressions, he states that both would be so signal as to attract the attention of the neighbouring countries, and evince to them, the greatness of Jehovah : " The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto " himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou wilt keep the " commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways. " And all the people of the earth shall see that thou art called " by the name of the Lord : and they shall be afraid of thee. " But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the " voice of the Lord thy God, all these curses shall overtake " thee ; and thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and " a by -word among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee ; " so that the generation to come of your children that shall rise " up after you, and the stranger that shall come up from a far " land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and " the sickness which the Lord hath laid upon it ; even all * Deut. iv. C— 8. 340 EFFECTS OF JUDAISM [Part III. " nations shall say : Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto " this land ? what meaneth the heat of this great anger I Then " men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of " the Lord God of their fathers, which he made with them " when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt ; and " the Lord rooted them out of their laud in anger and in wrath, " and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it " is this day."* Assuredly, as this prediction was illustriously verified in the various fortunes of the Jewish nation under their judges and their kings, even to the total expulsion of the ten tribes, the signal captivity of the remaining two, and their as signal re- storation ; so it is still more illustriously verified by the present unparalleled dispersion of the Jews and their equally unparal- leled preservation as a distinct people, notwithstanding that dispersion.-f- Assuredly they at this day exhibit the most irre- futable proof of an overruling Providence, and of the divine original of those Scriptures which contain the laws they were bound to observe, and predict the calamities which should chastise the breach of that sacred obligation. In the devout and beautiful prayer of Solomon, on the con- secration of the temple, we find the principle here stated, pub- licly and solemnly recognised. " Aloreover, concerning a stran- " ger that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far " country for thy name's sake, (for they shall hear of thy great " name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched-out arm) " when he shall come and pray towards this place, hear thou in " heaven thy dwelling-place, and do according to all that the " stranger calleth to thee for : that all people of the earth may " know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel ; and " that they may know that this house which I have builded, is " called by thy name." j And again, at the conclusion of this devout address, the monarch prays, " Let these my words, " wherewith I have made supplication before the Lord, be nigh " unto the Lord our God day and night, that he may maintain " the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel, * Deut. xxviii. 9, 10, 15, 37; also xxix. 22, 24, 25, 28. + On this subject consult Newton on the Prophecies, Dissertation vi. vii. viii.; and Larduer's Three Discourses to prove the cirramstances of the Jewish People an argi*. ment for the truth of the Christian religion, in his tenth volume, p. 63 et seq. i 1 Kings, viii. 41 — 43. Lect. v.] ON 'Hit; uuMiiiLi. 341 " as the matter shall require : that all the people of the earth may " know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else."* In this remarkable passage, which is the more decisive as it contains a solemn recognition of the principles and objects of the Jewish Law, proceeding from the highest human authority, and sanctioned by the immediate approbation of God, whose glory filled the house of the Lord during this solemn supplication, we perceive it is clearly laid down, not only that the Jewish scheme was adapted and designed to make " all the people of the earth " know that the Lord was God, and that there was none else ;" but also that the stranger from the remotest region, who should be led to believe in and to worship the true God, was not only permitted, but called and encouraged to " pray towards the " temple at Jerusalem," to join in the devotions of the chosen people of God, and equally with them hope for the divine favour^ and the acceptance of his prayers ; without becoming a citizen of the Jewish state, or submitting to the yoke of the Mosaic ritual or civil law.-f- For the words of Solomon evidently suppose, that the stranger whom he describes as thus supplicating God, re- mained as he had originally been, " not of the people of Israel." How far the decided superiority of Jehovah over the idols of Egypt and Oanaan,| and the clear manifestation of divine justice, mercy, and power, so conspicuously exhibited by the deliverance of the Jews from Egypt, and their settlement in the promised land, were effectual in diffusing the knowledge of the true God, it is perhaps impossible accurately to ascertain ; that they did * 1 Kings, viii. 59, 60. •{• From 2 Chron. ii. 17, it appears Solomon found in Israel strangers of such a rank of life as were fit to be employed in assisting to build the temple, 153,600. These (as the commentators agree, vide Poli Synopsin, and Patrick, &.c.) were proselytes to the worship of the true God, and the observance of the moral law, though not circumcised. Patrick observes, " These were the reliques (as Kimchi "thinks) of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, mentioned " afterwards, ch. viii. 7. But they were not idolaters, for then David would not " have suffered them to dwell in the land. But they vforshipped God alone, though "they did not embrace the Jewish religion wholly, by being ciicumcised. These •'David had numbered, that he might know their strength and their condition; " which did not proceed from sucli vanity as moved him to number his own people ; " but out of a prudent care that they might be distinguished from Jews, and be " employed in such work as he did not think fit to put upon the Israelites." See 1 Chron. xxii. 2. t Vid« supra, Lect. II. 342 EFFECTS OF JUDAISM [Part III. not produce any extended permanent national reformation in any idolatrous country is certain. Indeed to produce such an effect at that period of the world, it seems evident, nothing but such a system of perpetual discipline and control as God exercised over his chosen people, Avould have been sufficient. The Scripture history, however, supplies various instances of the deep impression made on the minds of those, who were perfectly apprised of the miraculous interpositions of God in behalf of his chosen people. In reciting the plagues of Egypt, we are told, that the magicians, when their own power was clearly exceeded and their arts baffled, acknowledged, " This is " the finger of God."* And when Moses warned the Egyptians of the approaching plague of a very grievous hail, we find, " He " that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of " Pharaoh, made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses."-f- On the increasing accumulation of plagues, inflicted in conse- quence of the impious obduracy of Pharaoh, his servants at length ventured to remonstrate with that proud and inflexible monarch: they said unto him, "How long shall this man (Moses) " be a snare unto us ? Let the men go, that they may serve " the Lord their God : knowest thou not yet tbat Egypt is " destroyed ?"| And we are told that " the man Moses was " very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's " servants, and in the sight of the people."§ Nor can a more probable account be given of that " mixed multitude " || who accompanied the children of Israel out of Egypt, than that it consisted of Egyptians, deeply convinced, by the miracles they had witnessed, of the supreme divinity of Jehovah, and thence determined to adhere to his worship, and for that purpose join themselves to his chosen people, share the same fortune, and submit to the same law.^ On the approach of the Jews to tlie land of Canaan, we per- ceive the terror of their God had gone before them. " Verily," says Rahab to the spies, " I know that the Lord hath given you " the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all " the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we " have heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea * Exod. viii. 19. t Ibid. ix. 20. t Ibid. x. 7. § Exod. xi. 3. II Ibid. xii. 3S, IT Vide Patriik in locum, and Selden de Synedriis, lib. i. th. iii. p. 776, Vol. I. Tom. II. Lect. v.] ON THE GENTILES. .*J43 " for you, when you came out of E^^ypt ; and wliat you did " unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on tlie other " side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And " as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, " neither did there remain any more courage in any man, be- " cause of you ; for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven " above, and in earth beneath."* The similar avowal of the Gibeonites is equally express and strong. " From a very far " country thy servants are come, because of the name of the " Lord thy God ; for we have heard the fame of him, and all " that he did in Egypt, and all that he did to the two kings of " the Amorites that were beyond Jordan. Therefore now make " ye a league with us."-)- Their apology for the artifice they had practised is not less striking. " Because," say they, " it " was certainly told thy servants, how that the Lord thy God " commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and " to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you ; " therefore we were sore afraid of our lives because of you, and " therefore we did this thing."J It cannot be doubted but the Gibeonites being permitted to preserve their lives and property, on condition of becoming " hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation " and for the altar of the Lord," must have renounced idolatry ; for the attendance of avowed idolaters at the altar for any pur- pose, would have been an intolerable profanation. Had the other nations of Canaan imitated their conduct in submitting to the chosen people, and renouncing idolatry, they most pro- bably would also have experienced mercy.§ But relying on the protection of their idols, they encountered the host of Jeho- vah, and their destruction served to increase and to diffuse the terror of his power :|| a terror, of which we trace the impression three hundred years after ; when the Philistines, hearing that the ark of God had been brought into the camp of Israel, ex- claimed, " Wo unto us : who shall deliver us out of the hands *' of these mighty gods ? These are the gods that smote the " Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness." H On this occasion, God, by permitting the Israelites to be defeated * Joshua, ii. 9—11. t Ibid. ix. 9—11. J Joshua, ix. 24. § Vitle supra, Lect. I. I Vide supra. H 1 Samuel, iv. 8. 344 EFFECTS OF JUDAISM [Part III. and his ark taken, punished their presumption in relying on his protection without repenting of their crimes. While on the idol of the Philistines * and his worshippers, he inflicted Buch signal chastisement,-f- without any intervention of human agency, as seems admirably adapted not only to punish but to reform their idolatry ; yet in vain : at that period the human :nind appears incapable of being thus reformed. The deluded Philistines acknowledged the resistless power of Jehovah ; but they were thence stimulated merely to remove the immediate pressure of that power from their idols and themselves. They never once felt the reasonableness of forsaking such base ab- Burdities, and adhering steadily to the worship of the God of Israel. In the reign of Solomon, the tendency of the Jewish scheme to difiuse the knowledge of the true God appears increasingly conspicuous. The prosperity and wealth of this monarch, the magnificence of his temple, and above all, his fame for wisdom, attracted universal attention. " For his fame was in all nations " round about, and there came of all people to hear the wisdom " of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth, which had heard " of his wisdom."! We have observed the solemn and public manner in which he encouraged the stranger who was not of the people of Israel, to worship the God of Israel. And it is probable many strangers may have been at this period attract- ed to rank themselves with the worshippers of the true God. Still, however, the human mind appears not to have been pre- pared for any general and permanent reception of that pure religion, which, acknowledging " God to be a spirit," declares " he must be worshipped in spirit and in truth." § And when we see that Solomon himself, with all his advantages, did not resist the seductions of idolatry, we cannot wonder if no considerable portion of those who may have been attracted by * On this subject Warburton judiciously observes: " After this transaction we hear " no more of any attempts among the Gentile nations to join the Jewisli worship with " their own. They considered the God of Israel as a tutelary Deity, absolutely un- " sociable, who would have nothing to do with any but his own people, or with such *' particulars as would worship him alone, and therefore in this respect different from " all other tutelary gods, each of which was willing to live in community with the " rest." — Vide Div. Leg. t 1 Samuel, ch, v. and vl. 4: 1 Kings, iv. 29 to 34 ; and x. I to 13. § Gospel of St John, iv, 23, 24. Lect. v.] ox THE GKNTILES. 345 his fame, and attentive to his instructions, could pernianentlv emancipate themselves from its fascinating power. We have indeed abundant proofs how deeply rooted was the opinion of the world's being governed by an indefinite number of local and national guardian Gods, rivals in power and influ- ence ; no one of whom however absolutely excluded the worship of the rest. So that it was believed to be the interest and the duty of each nation to adore and conciliate the gods of every country they conquered or settled in — retaining at the same time, with undiminished reverence, the idols of their own ancestors, as their peculiar guardian deities. While this was a principle universally admitted, no display of power and majesty on the part of the God of the Jews, could produce any other effect than an abortive and absurd attempt to associate the worship of Je- hovah with that of those base idols which a deluded world adored;* an attempt Avhich the dignity of the true God must necessarily resent and punish. A most remarkable instance of the truth of this observation occurs in the conduct of the colony planted by the king of Baby- lon in Samaria, to supply the place of the ten tribes whom he had carried into captivity. Their history casts so much light on the subject now under discussion, that I conceive it necessary to transcribe it in a note, as we find it related with all the charac- ters of truth by the sacred historian.-f- * Consult, on this principle of intercommunity in the Pagan religions, Warburton, Book ii. sect. vi. Vol. ii. p. 33. And this being the principle on which the Samari- tans originally adopted the worship of Jehovah, (ib. p. 60.) while in every case the condemnation of this principle by the Jewish religion, and its allowing only iho wor- ship of Jehovah, prevented its being received by the heathens. — Vide Warburton, Book V. sect. ii. Vol. iv, p. 203. See also Ezekiel, xvi. 34. + The 2d of Kings, xvii. 24, &c. " And the king of Assyria brought men from " Babylon, and from Cutliah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, "and placed them in the cities of Samaria, instead of the children of Israel; and " they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the citius thereof. And so it was at the bu- " ginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the Lord; therefore the " Lord sent lions amongst them, which slew some of them. Wherefore they sjiaKe " to the king of Assyria, saying. The nations which thou hast removed, and " placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land ; " therefore he hath sent lions among them, and behold, they slay them, because they " know not the manner of the God of the land. Then the king of Assyria com- " manded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence ; *• and let them go and dwell there, and let him tcaih them the mauntr of the Gud 346 EFFECTS OF JUDAISM [Part III. And I observe, that this history affords an instance of hear thens, placed probably in the most advantageous situation it was possible for heathens to be placed, in order to reclaim them from idolatry. Introduced to supply the place of one part of God's chosen people, who had been expelled for their idolatries : thus brought into immediate contact with the remaining part, from whom they could not but learn much of the wonders of Jeho- vah's power ; convinced by their own experience of the necessity of conciliating him as the supreme guardian God of the country in which they were newly settled, and compelled by their fears to solicit instruction in his Law ; — they received that instruction ; the books of Moses were placed in their hands, and were from that period uniformly acknowledged by them as of divine autho- rity. Yet so deeply were their idolatrous propensities rooted in their souls, that though thus circumstanced, with examples of divine punishment immediately under their observance, in- structed in the tenor, and acknowledging the authority of the divine Law, they could not be taught to discern the folly and " of the land. Then one of the priefts, whom they had carried away from Samaria, " came and dwelt in Bethel, and tanght them how they should fear the Lord. How- " beit, every nation made gpds of their own, and put them in the houses of the " high places which the Samaritans liad .made. And the men of Babylon made " Succoth-Benoth, and the men of Hamath made Ashima, and the men of Cuth " made Nergal, and the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites " burnt their children in fire to Adrammalech and Anammalech, the gods of Sephar- " vaim. So they feared the Lord, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them " priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places. " They feared the Lord, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations •' whom they can ied away from thence. Unto this day they do after their former " manners: they feared not the Lord, neither do they after their statutes, or after " their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the Lord commanded " the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel ; with whom the Lord had made " a covenant, and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow your- " selves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them : but the Lord, who brought " you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched-out arm, him " shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice. And the " statutes, and the ordinances, and the law and the commandment which he wrote " for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore: and ye shall not fear other gods. " And the covenant that I have made with you, ye shall not forget: neither shall ye •' fear other gods. But the Lord your God ye shall fear; and he shall deliver you " out of the hand of all your enemies. Ho^beit, they did not hearken, but they did " after their former manner. So these nations feared the Lord, and served their " graven images, both their children and their children's children; as did their fathers, »' so do they unto this day." LeCt, v.] ON THE GENTILES. 347 impiety, or forsake the practice, of associating the worship of the basest idols with that of the great Jehovah. They indeed " feared the Lord, (but yet) they served their graven images, " both their children and their children's children ; as did their " fathers, so do they unto this day." But though it does not appear that the Samaritans could at that period be completely reclaimed from idolatry, yet the mea- sures employed to enlighten them with the knowledge of the true God seem gradually to have produced a considerable effect. On the return of the Jews from the seventy years captivity, an event which so clearly proved the inspiration of the Jewish Pro- phets, and the over-ruling providence of the God of Israel, the Samaritans were extremely desirous to join in rebuilding his temple, and celebrating his worship : for " they said unto the " chief of the fathers, let us build with you ; for we seek your " God, as ye do ; and we do sacrifice to him, since the days of " Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, who brought us up thither."* This proposal the Jews steadily rejected ; and whatever their motives may have been, we can discern important reasons, in consequence of Avhich this rejection appears to have been subser- vient to the purposes of the divine economy. The intermixture of the Samaritans with the Jews might have rendered the ac- complishment of the prophecies concerning the family and birth of the ^Messiah, less clear — might have re-introduced idolatry among the restored Jews, now completely abhorrent from it, and in various ways defeated the grand objects of Providence in selecting and preserving a peculiar people. In consequence of this rejection, and the alienation it produced, the Jews probably became more vigilant in preserving the strictness, and the Sa- maritans more zealous in emulating the purity, of the Mosaic ritual. They became hostile, and therefore unsuspected guar- dians and vouchers of the integrity of the sacred text, particu- larly of the Pentateuch. And while the Jews in general, blinded by their national prejudices, could see in the promised Messiah only a national and temporal deliverer, the Samaritans appear to have judged of his pretensions with more justice and success.-f* * Ezra, iv. 2. f Vide John iv. particularly 41 and 42. " And many more (of the Samaritans) " believed, because of his own word ; and said iinto the woman, Now we believe, not * because of thy saying; for we have heard him ourselves, and know that tiiis is in- «' deed the Christ, the Saviour of the wouLr." A con fission of faith higher by 348 EFFECTS OF JUDAISM [Part III. And though our Lord visited them only as it were incidentally,* yet he was able to declare to them his character and avow his dignity, without that mysterious reserve and jealous caution which the proneness of the Jewish multitude " to take him by force and make him a king,"f constantly required. And it seems evident that the Samaritans were predisposed and prepared to receive and diffuse the light of the Gospel, more than any other description of men, the pious and reflecting part of the Jewish nation only excepted. And thus this circumstance, in the pro- gress of the Jewish dispensation, which at first view might seem to prove it was peculiarly partial and confined, appears in its final result to have materially facilitated the difi'usion of true religion in the world, and thus to have been subservient to the general advantage of mankind. But it was during the captivity of the Jews, and their conse- quent dispersion amongst the inhabitants of the most illustrious empire in the civilized world, that God principally employed them as the means of exciting the attention of the heathen to his majesty and his providence. The prophetic denunciations of Jeremiah as to this subjugation and captivity, were so public and decided as to attract the notice of the Assyrian army and their mighty monarch ; so that when Jerusalem was taken, Ne- buchadnezzar gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan, captain of his guard, saying, " Take him and look well to him, " and do him no harm." The reason of this peculiar regard is thus stated : " For Nebuzaradan said unto Jeremiah, The Lord thy " God hath pronounced all this evil against this place ; now the " Lord hath brought it to pass, and done according as he hath some degrees (as Dr Lightfoot remarks) than the Jews' common creed concerning tlie Messiah : for they held him only for a Saviour of the Jewish nation. And so we may see how deeply and how cordially these Samaritans had drank in the waters of life, so as to acknowledge Christ in his proper character. Vide also the testimonies of St Chrysostom and Epiphanius to the same effect, as quoted by Kennicot, Disserta- tion, Vol. II. p. 41 to 47. Tlie expression of the woman, •' When the Messias cometJi ♦' he will tell us all things," shows that she expected him in his proper character of a religious instructor. * Vide John, ch. iv. pailicularly ver. 26 and 42, on our Lord's reasons for reserve »nd caution, in avowing his divine character and full dignity, and for his sometimes concealing his miracles. Consult Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity. Watson's Tracts, Vol. iv. p. 22 to 39; and why he is thus distinct in his avowal of his being the Messiah to the Samaritans, ib. p. 30. f John, vi. 15. Lect. v.] o\ THE uKMir.Es. 349 *' said ; because yc havo siiinoJ against the Lord, and liavo not " obeyed his voice, therefore this thing is come upon you."* Thus the captivity of Judah glorified God amongst the heathen, even at its commencement. But during its continuance God employed various means to convince the Gentiles of his universal providence and his resistless power. He raised up Daniel,-f- whose prophetic spirit exalted him to the highest distinction, for Nebuchadnezzar " made him ruler over the whole province of " Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of " Babylon." Darius the Mede retained him in the same dignity from the same cause. Thus also God rescued the three illus- trious friends of Daniel from the burning fiery furnace, into which they had been plunged as martyrs for the worship of Jehovah, in opposition to the profanations of idolatry. He preserved Daniel himself from the den of lions, to which he was condemned for the same glorious cause ; and punished the proud impiety of Nebuchadnezzar, by a seven years' insanity and de- gradation from his throne, to which he was restored, only when with his reason his piety returned, and he submitted to pay solemn and public homage to the God of Israel. Thus also at the moment when Belshazzar was insulting Jehovah, by bringing forth the consecrated vessels of his temple to be polluted by his profanation, the miraculous handwriting on the wall dashed with horror his impious revelling, and announced his own impending destruction, and the downfal of his empire. These were not obscure or doubtful transactions, related only by deluded fanatics or artful impostors, but attested by the authentic decrees of the most distinguished monarchs, solemnly proclaimed through their wide-extended dominions. What writer would have dared, if unsupported by truth, to have as- serted, when the facts were recent, the promulgation of such decrees as these? " I king Nebuchadnezzar make a decree, '• That every people, nation, and language, which speak any " thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshech, and " Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be " made a dunghill ; because there is no other ffod that can " deliver after this sort."J And again, on his restoration from insanity he issues this proclamation : " Nebuchadnezzar the " king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell * Jer. xxxix. 12, and xl. 2. t Dan. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. t Dan. iii. 29. 350 EFFECTS OF JUDAISM ["Part III. " on all the earth : Peace be multiplied unto you. I thought it " good to show the signs and the wonders which the high God " hath wrought towards me. How great are his signs ! and " how mighty are his wonders ! his kingdom is an everlasting " kingdom, and his dominion from generation to generation." * Then follows the narrative of his vision, its interpretation by Daniel, and its accomplishment ; all which appropriate the king's acknowledgments of the Divinity to Jehovah the God of Daniel, of whom the monarch thus concludes ; " Now I Nebu- " chadnezzar praise and extol, and honour the King of heaven ; *' all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment ; and those " that walk in pride he is able to abase.^f Thus again the miraculous deliverance of Daniel from the lion''s den, extorted from Darius this solemn and public homage to the God of Israel ; " Then king Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and ' languages, that dwell in all the earth, Peace be multiplied " unto you. I make a decree. That in every dominion of my " kingdom, men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel ; for " he is the living God and stedfast for ever. He delivereth and " rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and earth " who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions."| And to crown this series of miraculous interpositions on one hand, and public homage to the majesty of Jehovah on the other, from the most distinguished monarchs of the Eastern world ; the great Cyrus, founder of the Persian empire, was so fully persuaded of that divine Providence whose spirit dictated the prophecies so clearly pointing out the progress, nay the particular mode of his successes, that he became the active as- sistant in the restoration of the chosen people to their country. For in the first year of his reign he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, saying, " All the kingdoms of the " earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me ; and he hath " charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in " Judah. Who is there among you of all his people ? the Lord " God be with him, and let him go up."§ These public and solemn testimonies to the majesty of the God of Israel must have contributed materially to check error and ido- latry, in a country where the form of the government rendered the examples and the opinions of the monarchs so powerful and * Dan. iv. 1. + Dan. iv. 37. J Ibid. vi. 25—27. § Ezra i. 2 & 3. Lect. v.] ON THE GKNTILES. 351 operative. They must have gained the Jews, even in their captive and degraded state, much consideration and attention ; and as such a state led them to take pride in their religious superiority, the only superiority now left them, and to exalt the divine original and wisdom of their religion ; so these events must have given their representations weight and credibility. It is scarcely possible for us at this remote period, and in this distant region, till lately very ignorant of, and still but imper- fectly acquainted with, the history and literature of the East, to estimate the full effect of the divine interpositions, by the Jewish system, from the calling of Abraham to the close of the Baby- lonish captivity, in checking the progress of error and idolatry, and diffusing the knowledge of the divine existence and the divine dispensations, in this primeval seat and source of civilization and philosophy. One remarkable instance however of the diffusion of the prin- ciples of true religion, by the instrumentality of the patriarchal and the Jewish revelations, occurs in the history of the Magian religion, or that of the ancient Persians, which is venerable botli for its antiquity and purity, as well as important from the number of its professors : and which, if we may credit the most learned and industrious writers,* appears to have been originally derived from the instructions of Abraham, and to have received its great reformation by Zoroaster from the communication of that religious knowledge which the Jews in their captivity dis- seminated through the East. We have strong testimony to prove that the Persians had corrupted that purity of faith which they had received from their pious ancestor Elam the son of Shem, by the errors and superstitions of the Zabian idolatry ;-|- but that, probably, instructed by the Patriarch Abraham,;]: they had thoroughly • Consult Hyde's Religio Veterum Persarum; the Religion of the Persees, by Henry Lord; Prideaux's Connection, Vol. i. from p. 299 to 331 ; Universal History, Vol. ii. Book i. ch. xi. sect. iii. p. 69; Pocockii Specimen Historiae Arabicse, ex Abulfaragio, p. 54; Maurice's History of Hindostan, Vol. ii. Book iv. ch. iii. from 275 to 322; Hettinger's Historia Persarum, p. 172. t Hyde, rh. 1. J Hyde Relig. Persarum. ch. ii. and iii. passim, particularly p. 36. "To return, says Hyde, " to thi ancient Persians, by their declaration in the book called Phar- "hang Sururi, the religion of the Persians is termed the religion of Abraham and " Zerdusht, or ^brahaino Zerdushtcnsis ; for they maintain, that Abraham was of " the same religion with Zerdusht, who succeeded him long after, and that the re- 352 EFFECTS OF JUDAISM [Part III. reformed their religion and restored its purity. In process of time that purity was again corrupted, if not by gross idolatry, in worshipping the heavenly bodies and the elements of nature, particularly fire,* yet certainly by paying them an excessive and superstitious reverence ; and above all, by admitting the doctrine of two independent principles of evil and of good, so hostile to the glory and the worship of the one great Jehovah, the uni- versal Lord and King. From these corruptions this religion was again purified by the celebrated Zoroaster, who is represented, by those writers who seem best informed in Oriental liter- ature, to have been contemporary with Daniel,f and if not a •' ligion of Zerdusht was derived from Abraham : and by the religion of Abraham " the Persians understood that which (rejecting the first interpolation (of the Sabians) *' teaches the worship of the one only and true God, excluding all false religions," &c. * Hyde, cap. iv. f Prideaux, Vol. i. p. 301 ; Hyde, cap. xxii. p. 298, and cap. xxiv. de Vita Zoro- astris; and Maurice's History of Indostan, Vol. ii. p. 2S0. Warburton, with his usual humility of opinion and urbanity of manner, calls all those who believed the fact of such a reformation in the Magian religion, as I have here ventured to suppose, " bewildered men,"X and considers the Zoroaster of Hyde and Prideaux as a mere imaginary personage, the production of modern Arabian fictions. However, notwithstanding the probability of my being numbered amongst those bewildered unfortunates, I cannot help assenting to the testimoTiies collected by Hyde, who could read and understand the original sacred writings of the Persians, and study the original Arabian histories, which Warburton certainly could not; and who appears to have spent a great part of his life in the investigation of this subject, wit!) great patience, learning and sagacity. He expresses himself in the following manner :§ " The ancient prophet of the Persians, Zerdusht, or Zeradusht (by the Grecians " eri'oneously termed Zoroaster) wrote several books on dilierent subjects, as we " have proved in the proper place; all written in a language ancient, and in most " places now obsolete. These remain as sealed-up treasures, which the eyes of the " learned have never examined. These words in manuscript (isti codices) are still "extant, preserved by the followers of that religion with the greatest care; a cir- " cumstance which may scarcely be credited by such as are strangers to these things, " and who do not even dream that the old Persians have ahvays had a well-regu- " lated church,ll which preserved its ancient memorials, and that it flourished in " splendour to Yesdegherd, (the last of that name) who reigned about 1000 years " ago ; and that it has continued from that time to this, though with less splendour. " These books of Zoroaster are almost strangers in Europe (unless perhaps they "lie somewhere unknown;) by some of them, relating to theology (that I may % Warburton, Vol. iv. p. 180. § Vide his preface, p. 4 and 5. 11 Vide Hyde, cap. i ; in which he adduces arguments to prove, that the ancient religion of tho Persians had retained tlie worship of God from the earliest ages to the present day, tlioigh inter- mingled with some superstitious observance, which the Greeks and Mahometans, misiiiiderstandiog and misinterpreting, had talsely charged with direct idolatry— On the constitution of the Persian church, consult Hyde, cap. xxviii. Lect. V. ON THE GENTILES. 35. "J Jew, yet perfectly acquainted with the Jewish Scriptures, to which the distinguishing features of the reformation by him in- troduced were in a great measure conformable. Hence his con- " not appear to have made these assertions tvithoul evidence) are in my possession, " vvritteti in an ancient language and character. I procured them from the East by " great labour and expense, and they are indeed precious as gold. The autographs " by Zoroaster were all written in the ancient pure and unmixed Persic, as being " that which at that period ^vas in use (without mixture of Arabic) in those parts " of Chorasau or Bactria, where was the tribe of Gushtasp, and which still is " used there. And in the same manner most copies are written in the same lan- " guage, excepting some for the common use of moderns, which have sometimes " Median and Arabic words intermixed, all which signify the book, by which name " the Persian INIahometans or Mcdo-Persians sometimes emphatically designate the " Koran. " It were to be wished, that all the works of Zoroaster were drawn out of " the darkness of the Magians, and brought to light amongst us ; from which " undoubtedly many things which are now unknown to the European world, would " be discovered, to the advantage of the leamed and inquisitive. It is therefore " incumbent on the patrons of letters to provide in time for the expense attending "this object; such a work would be worthy of some prince or illustrious person. " Nothing can be effected without the necessary expense being defrayed, which would " not, however, require a great sum. " Zoroaster, (as we have pointed out in cha|). xxiv.) from his conversation with " the captive Jews in Persia, was well acquainted witli the Old Testament, and "many rites were from thence introduced by him amongst the Persians; as appears " as well from his history of the creation, * and other things agreeing with Juda- " ism, as from having inserted (as Gjannabius attests) many passages of David's " writings into his books, his having uttered prophecies concerning the Messiah, " foretold and revealed, though with some obscurity, in the Old Testament. But " it was besides necessary that himself should have been favoured with a clearer " and more peculiar revelation, and have left that written in bis books for the " Magi, who were to be led by a star to Christ, when born in Judca; since other- " wise they could not have known that, nor would they have come to Judea from " a distant land. For these strangers understood this matter better than the .'nlia- " bitants of Bethlehem, or the king, or all the Jews, who were at once instructed " and alarmed by this evangelical ir.formation of the Magi. All which circnm- " stances persuade us, that Zoroaster had a really divine revelation in this par "ticular; especially as we know that God sometimes (as to his wisdom it seemed " good) has deigned to reveal truth to false prophets." I think it unnecessary to transcribe any further. On this last argument of Hyde I would observe, that if Zoroaster was acquainted with the prophetic wri- tings, and communicated to his countrymen the certain expectations of a Messiah, which he had from tlience derived, "in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed," it is altogether unnecessary to suppose that he was favoured with any additional revelation; though we must admit that the Magi who visited our Sa- viour must have had an immediate revelation, to enable them to understand the meaning and follow the guidance of that supernatural appearance which conducted * Hyde, cap- iz. on the Creation, cap. x. on the Deluge, and on the subject of the Magi, cap. xxvi. 354 EFFECTS OF JUDAISM [Part III. demnation of two independent principles, * and his assertion, that the Supreme God was the universal Creator of both good and evil, according to the doctrine of the sublime Isaiah, which the prophet introduces in such a manner as to prove it was par- ticularly designed to rouse the attention of the Eastern nations^ and especially" the Persians^ to this important truth ; since he connects it with the solemn prophetic designation of the great Cyrus, as pre-ordained to be God's anointed. For " thus saith the " Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have " holden to subdue nations before him ; and I will loose the loins " of kings ; to open before him the two-leaved gates, and the " gates shall not be shut : I will go before thee, and make the " crooked places straight : I will break in pieces the gates of brass, •' and cut in sunder the bars of iron : and I will give thee the trea- " sures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that " thou mayest know that I the Lord, which call thee by thy " name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob, my servant's sake, *' and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name ; " I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. Thou " art my shepherd, and shalt perform all my pleasure ; even " saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built ; and to the Temple, " Thy foundation shall be laid. I am the Lord, and there is *' none else, there is no God beside me : I girded thee, 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 ; them to his presence. But the fact of the visit of the Magi, which otherwise seems unconnected with the other parts of the Scripture history, and difficult to account for, is so naturally explained by the supposition, that Providence had ex- tended to the Persians the knowledge of the prophetic writings, and in connexion with that dispensation which had selected their nation, out of which to raise for his chosen people a temporal deliverer from the Babylonish Captivity, and a restorer of that temple where the Messiah was to appear, had (as it were in return) orovided means for preparing them to receive the first tidings of that great spiri- tual Deliverer, who was to admit them and all nations into the church of God. This supposition appears to me to explain so clearly the visit of the Magi, and to combine this otherwise isolated fact with the entire series of the divine dispensations so harmoniously, that I confess it gives (in my judgment) additional credibility to the fact, that this knowledge of the prophecies respecting the Messiah had been communicated to the Persians, either through Zoroaster or some other medium; and induces me more readily to acquiesce in the testimony establishing this fact, which at the same time appears in its own nature, and independent of any such coincidence, sufficiently clear and unexceptionable. * Pocockii Specimen Historia Arab. p. 147; Hyde Relig. Persar. cap. ix. p. 162, ami rap. xxii. p. 299. Lect. v.] ON THE GENTILES. 356 " I am the Lord, and thcro is none else. I form the light, and " create darkness : I make peace, and create evil : I the Lord " do all these things."* This radical principle of true religion Zoroaster inculcates clearly and strongly, accompanied with such additional circum- stances, as prove, that while he wished to indulge the prejudices of the nation whom he taught, he yet was anxious to do so no further than might be consistent with the pz'inciples of the Jew- ish religion, from which his own were plainly borrowed. In this spirit he maintained that tmder the Supreme Being was the angel of light, the director of good, and an angel of dark- ness, the author of evil :-f- that between these is a perpetual struggle, which will continue until the end of the world, when there shall be a general resurrection and retribution to all ac- cording to their deeds ; when the angel of evil and his followers shall, in perpetual darkness, suffer the punishment they deserve, while the angel of light and his followers shall be received into everlasting bliss ; after which there shall be no more any mix- ture of evil and good, of light and darkness ; but they shall r& main separated to all eternity. He also taught that the Supreme God originally created the good angel alone, and that the evil followed by the defect of good. In this entire system we perceive a constant effort to admit the distinct principles of evil and of good acknowledged by the Magian superstition, but only in such a manner as was consist ent with the Jewish doctrines, of the supremacy of Jehovah, the introduction of sin and death by the fall, and the expectation of a resurrection and final judgment ; which last doctrine was (as we have shown) distinctly and energetically taught by the Jewish Prophets. In other subordinate partuolars of Zoroaster's scheme we find a conformity to that of Moses, so close as cannot be accounted for, except on the supposition of a deliberate imitation.+ Thus, as Moses heard God speaking from the midst of the fire,§ Zo- roaster pretended to the same ; as the Jews had their glory o; * Isaiah, xlv. 1, &c. and xliv. 28. + Shahristani Relig. Persarum, ch. xxii'.; Hyde, ch. ix. p. 163, and ch. xxii. p 299; Pocockii Hist. Arab. p. 148; and Lord, of the Religion of the Persees, cap. ii. i This is clearly established by Hyde, cap. x. and xxii. $ Vide Lord's Relig. of the Persees, cap. viii. p. 42> 356 EFFECTS OF JUDAISM [Part III. special presence of God resting on the mercy-seat, towards ■which they offered up all their prayers, so Zoroaster taught the Magians to -hold the sacred fires in their temples as emblems of the divine presence ; as the Jews had frequently received fire from heaven to consume their sacrifices, Zoroaster pretended to the same ; as the Jewish priests were of one tribe, so were those of Zo- roaster ; as the former were chiefly supported by tithes and offer- ings, so were the latter. Even many of the Levitical distinc- tions between things clean and unclean are preserved in the re- ligious code of Zoroaster. We also trace in the same work the history of Adam and Eve, of the Creation and the Deluge. We find insertions from the Psalms of David, and praises of the wisdom of Solomon. And above all he celebrates Abraham ; his doctrines and religion he delivers as the doctrines and reli- gion of Abraham ; so that his innovations had for their object to bring back the Magian religion to the purity which it had originally derived from the instructions of that illustrious Patri- arch. On the extent of this religion it is sufficient to say, that in the time of Lucian,* that is, soon after the promulgation of the Gospel, it was received by the great majority of the Persians, the Parthians, the Bactrians, the Chowaresmians, the Arians, the Sacans, the Modes, and many other eastern nations. And to this day, no inconsiderable body of these Magians still remain in Persia and India, who observe the same religion which Zoroaster taught ; who perform their public religious worship in his lan- guage,i- and according to his rites ; and preserve his book with the highest reverence, as. the sole rule both of faith and manners. It is a remark connected with the subject of the last ob- servation, that whatever principles of true religion were adopted and preserved by Mahomet, he most certainly borrowed them from the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament ; — the worship of one God ; the abhorrence of idolatry ; the expectation of a future retribution, and the rules of moral conduct, so far as that expectation is undebased by the sensual pleasures promised by the Arabian impostor, and so far as these rules are uncorrupted Dy the sensual indulgencies he permitted. In a word, every thing praiseworthy in his system, is plainly derived from the Law and the Gospel. " Remember," says Mahomet, " when * Vide Lucian de Longsevis. Sect. iv. Vol. iii. p. 210. Editio Hemsterhusii. t Prideaux, Vol. i. p. 300. LeCt. v.] ON THE GENTILES. 351 " the Lord tried Abraham by certain words, God said, Verily " I will constitute thee a model of religion unto mankind."* Then follows a divine selection of Mecca for an holy house ; a prayer of Abraham, that God would send an Apostle to teach his posterity the Koran : and the chapter proceeds thus : " Who " will be averse to the religion of Abraham, but he whose mind " is infatuated ? Surely we have chosen him in this world, and " in that which is to come he shall bo one of the righteous. " When his Lord said unto him, Resign thyself unto me, ** he answered, I have resigned myself unto the Lord of all " creatures. And Abraham bequeathed this religion to his chil- " dren, and Jacob did the same, saying, My children, verily God " hath chosen this religion for you, therefore die not unless ye " also be resigned. Were ye present when Jacob was at the •■' point of death, when he said to his sons, Whom will ye worship *' after me? They answered. We will worship thy God, and the ' God of thy fathers, Abraham, and Ismael, and Isaac, one God, " and to him will we be resigned. That people are now passed " away ; they have what they have gained, and ye shall have " what ye gain ; and ye shall not be questioned concerning that " which they have done. They say, Become Jews or Christians, " that ye may be directed ; say Nay ; we follow the religion of " Abraham, the orthodox, who was no idolater; say, We believe " in God, and tliat which hath been sent down unto us [viz. the " Koran] and that which hath been sent down unto Abraham, " and Ismael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which " was delivered unto Moses and Jesus, and that which was de- " livered unto the Prophets from their Lord : we make no dis- " tinction between any of them, and to God are we resigned," -f- &c. Thus directly does Mahomet acknowledge that he drew the leading articles of his system from the sacred Scriptures ; and undoubtedly he has adopted some of the highest importance : I quote one with pleasure. " It is not righteousness that ye turn " your faces in prayer towards the east and the west ; but " righteousness is of him who believeth in God, and the angels, " and the Scriptures, and the Prophets ; who giveth money for '' God"'s sake unto his kindred, and unto orphans, and the needy, " and the stranger, and those who ask, and for redemption of *' captives ; who is constant at prayer, and giveth alms, and of * Koran, ch. ii, + Sale's Koran, ch. ii. p. 25. 359 EFFECTS OF JUDAISM [Part llf. " tmse who perform their covenant when they have covenanted, " and WHO behave themselves patiently in adversity and hard- " snips, and in time of violence ; these are they who are true, " ard iDBse are they who fear God." How plainly do we per- ceive in this passage the principles inculcated by the prophet Isaiah, with such superior beauty and energy : " Is not this the " fast mat I have chosen 1 to loose the bands of wickedness, to " undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that ''•' ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, " and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house ? " when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him ; and that * ' thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh ? Then shall thy * ' light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring *'• forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the '*■ glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. Then slialt thou call, '* and the Lord shall answer ; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, " Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the '* yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; and " if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the *'• afflicted soul ; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy " darkness be as the noon-day." * &c. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the absurdity and ex- travagance, the mixture of sensuality, licentiousness and deceit, which generally pervade the Koran,-f- justify the assertion, that its author was indebted fur whatever degree of religious truth or virtuous principle is found in it, not to his own sagacity or his own rectitude of sentiment, but to those sacred sources of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, the divine authenticity of which he acknowledged, and the doctrines of which he was in- duced to adopt, in order to attract to himself as many as * Isaiah, Iviii. 6, &c. t In proof of this charge, it is unnecessary to multiply passages from the Koran, of absurdity and extravagance, as in chap. xv. the fall of the angels for refusing to worship Adam ; in chap, xxvii. and xxxiv. the lapwing bringing in news to Solomon; the genii building for him; the ants and birds attending him, &c. and chap. xvii. on the cele- orated night-journey to heaven ; with Prideaux's account, p. 43, and Abulfeda Vita Muham. chap. xix. ; of licentiousness and fraud, chap, xxxiii.; the revelation per- mitting the Prophet to multiply wives, " a peculiar privilege above the rest of the true '' believers," vide p. 281, and to take his adopted son's wife; and a revelation to justify an amour with his slave, in ch. Ixvi. ; of a sensual paradise, in various places, particu- larly chap. xxv. Consult on this subject White's Bampton's Lecture Sarraons, par tjcularly Sermon 6, 8, and 9; and Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, passim. Lect. v.] ON THE GKNTILES. 353 of the votaries of both these religions, in a country where their numbers were considerable, their ignorance the easy prey of de- lusion, and their attachment to the religions they professed weakened by the errors which at that disastrous period had cor- rupted, and the dissensions which had disgraced them.* And now, on reviewing the facts and observations adduced in this section, it will be found, that the objection against the Jewish scheme, as being partial and confined to one obscure and insignificant nation, and therefore unworthy of the Deity, is false in fact, and inconclusive in reasoning ; even without con- sidering the Law as introductory of the Gospel ; and that there- fore, however confined in its immediate efficacy, its importance is clear, as being a necessary preparation for a pure and univer- sal religion. This last is certainly the most decisive answer to the objection. Yet independent of this, it has been proved that the Jewish scheme was intended to produce, and did produce, a most important and beneficial effect, in checking error and idolatry through a great portion of mankind, while it continued in operation. It has been proved, that this effect was intended and foreseen, and that it formed a direct object of the divine care, and, as it were, a leading motive in regulating the measures of the divine economy. The establishment of the Jewish Law displayed to the nations of Egypt and Canaan, the most striking proofs of the power and justice of Jehovah, and his superiority over their base idols ; inflicting the most signal punishment on their deluded worshippers, to prove his abhorrence of idolatry. The subsequent fortunes of the Jewish nation proclaimed the same great truths; — in their apostasies and chastisements, as well as their repentance and deliverances, attesting the resistless power and over-ruling providence of their God, exercised not only over the Jews themselves, but all the nations placed in their neighbourhood, or afliected by their fortunes. Particu- larly after the establishment of the regal government, we see the conquests of David, the wisdom and wealth of Solomon, the magnificence of the Temple, and the splendor of the Jewish religion, attracting general attention. We see the situation of Judea, calculated to increase this effect: at the head of * Vide Sale's Koran, the Preliminary Dissertation, sect, ii.; Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, the Preface; and Hettinger's Historia Orientalis, Lib. II. cap. ii. p. 212; Ue Statu Judffiorum et Chrislianorum ante Muhammad; and cap. v. De Causis C''*n- servantibus Muhammedismi. 360 EFFECTS OF JUDAISM [Part III. the Mediterranean Sea, in the neighbourhood of Phoenicia, Egypt, Assyria, and Greece. The divine Providence connects the chosen people with these various powers ; and from this con- nexion various opportunities arise of displaying to the heathen nations the most striking proofs of the power, and extorting from their most powerful monarchs the most public and solemn homage to the majesty of Jehovah. But especially during the Babylonish captivity, the tendency, of Judaism to enlighten the heathen world becomes most con- spicuous. It then exhibits its prophets and its martyrs, diffuses its instructions, lifts its head in the courts of monarchs, controls their fortunes and chastises their pride ; till at length it is restored to its seat, now purified from idolatry ; and by inculcating the belief of a future retribution, and by the energetic exhortations of its prophets, confirmed by decided experience, it is enabled to preserve the worship of the true God, and a lively expecta- tion of the promised Messiah, in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed ; an expectation not confined to the Jews alone, but certainly prevailing, though perhaps indistinctly understood, through many nations of the East. The effects of such a dispensation in enlightening mankind could not have been inconsiderable, even though we at this time and in this land, were unable distinctly to trace them. But they are still visible even to us, in the universal fame of Abraham and Solomon through the East, and the multitudes who trace to them their religious rites and opinions ; in the his- tory of the Samaritan settlement, and the religions of Zoroaster and Mahomet,* at this day professed by such numerous nations. Should it still be affirmed that the Jewish scheme could not have been divine, because it did not universally enlighten and reform mankind ; we answer, to expect such an effect is alto- gether wild and extravagant, for there is no reason to suppuse it could have been produced at that period of the world, or in- deed at any period which has ever yet occurred, by any methods of the divine government, consistent with the established course of nature and the moral agency of man. So deeply was nian- *"The ancient Persians and modern Mahometans are possibly (says Bishop Butlec " instances of people, who have had essential or natural religion enforced upon their coii - *' sciences by the means of the Scripture; though they never had the genuine Scrii'tiifs. " revelation, with its real evidence, proposed to their consideration," Vide Anal gf Part II. eh. vi. p. 319. Led. v.] ON THE GENTILES. 3()1 kind sunk in error and ignorance, in idolatry and all the vices connected with it, that any reformation of an entire nation, and much more of all nations, seem to have been totally impracti- cable. If the Egyptians and Canaanites could not be reformed by the wonders they beheld, and the chastisements they suftered ; if the Philistines, the Samaritans, and the Assyrians, so long witnesses of the divine Providence over the Jews, continued still idolaters ; it seems certain no nation could have been perma- nently and exclusively attached to the worship of Jehovah, except by placing it under a system of miraculous instruction and miraculous control, 7iearl^ or exactly similar to that under which the chosen people were disciplined and restrained. Now, that many different nations should be thus miraculously disciplined and controlled, as far as we can judge, could not take place with- out totalli/ altering the entire scheme of God'^s moral government^ and utterly subverting the established course of nature. And so long as any nations continued unenlightened and unreformed, the objection that the divine dispensations were partial and confined, ' would still remain. Is it not then evident, that such an objec- tion rests on presumption, leads to absurdity, and would terminate in atheism I But it is asked. Are not all partial dispensations unjust, and therefore unworthy of God I To this I answer, in the words of the celebrated Butler, that "there is nothing in all this ignorance, " doubtfulness and uncertainty, in all these varieties, and sup- " posed disadvantages of some in comparison of others, respecting " religion, but may be paralleled by manifest analogies in the " natural dispensations of Providence at present, and considering " ourselves merely in our temporal capacity. " Nor is there any thing shocking in all this, or which would " seem to bear hard upon the moral administration in nature, if " we would really keep in mind, that every one shall be dealt " equitably with : instead of forgetting this, or explaining it away, " after it is acknowledged in words. All shadow of injustice, " and indeed all harsh appearances, in this various economy of *' Providence, would be lost, if we would keep in mind, that " every merciful allowance shall be made, and no more be re- " quired of any one, than what might have been equitably ex- " pected of him, from the circumstances in which he was placed; " and not what might have been expected, had he been placed 362 EFFECTS OF JUDAISM [Part III. ' in other circumstances; i. e. in Scripture language, 'that every ' ' man shall be accepted according to what he had, not according ' ' to what he had not.'* This however doth not by any means ' imply, that all persons"* condition here, is equally advantageous ' with respect to futurity. And Providence's designing to place ' some in greater darkness with respect to religious knowledge, ' is no more a reason why they should not endeavour to get out ' of that darkness, and others to bring them out of it ; than why ' ignorant and slow people, in matters of other knowledge, should ' not endeavour to learn, or should not be instructed. " It is not unreasonable to suppose, that the same wise and ' good principle, whatever it was, which disposed the Author ' of nature to make different kinds and orders of creatures, ' disposed him also to place creatures of like kinds, in different ' situations : and that the same principle which disposed hira ' to make creatures of different moral capacities, disposed him ' also to place creatures of like moral capacities, in different ' religious situations ; and even the same creatures in different ' periods of their being."" Again, " A system or constitution (as that of nature) implies ' variety ; and so complicated an one as this world, very great ' variety. So that were Revelation universal, yet from men"'s ' different capacities of understanding, from the different lengths ' of their lives, their different educations and other external ' circumstances, and from their difference of temper and bodily ' constitution ; their religious situations would be widely differ- ' ent and the disadvantage of some in comparison of others, ' perhaps, altogether as much as at present.""-}- Considerations these, which prove that all objections to Revelation derived from its want of universality, are contrary to the analogy of nature, and founded on mere arrogance and presumption.^ * 2 Cor. viii. 12. t Butler's Anal. Part II. ch. vi. p. 330. % If any one who may happen to peruse this Work, finds himself disposed to believe, that the difficulties or objections which he thinks may be alleged against Revelation, ^rom its not being universal or its proof appearing deficient, justify him in neglecting its evidence or violating its precepts; I earnestly entreat him to read and to reflect on the considerations Butler suggests, in the remaining part of this chapter of the Analogy; to prove that such difficulties and objections may be intended to try his sincerity and moral rectitude, and that negligence and inattention under such a probation may prove most criminal and destructive; Vide Butler, Part II. ch. vi. p. 3eut. xviii. 19. LeCt. VI.] TO CIIRISTIAMTV. 381 not yet closed the effect of that dreadful iniprecalion, " His blood " be on us, and on our children."* Thus is Jesus of Nazareth, though in his divine nature infinitely superior, yet as a Prophet accurately lih unto Moses — in his office as legislator ; in his full participation of the divine councils and the divine influence, for, " God gave not the Spirit " by measure unto him ;"" in the magnitude and variety of his miracles ; in the importance and permanence of that religious system which he introduced; in the meekness of his character ;-f- and in the signal punishments with which God has vindicated the authority and punished the neglect of his Laws. Subsequent intimations of the intended substitution of a more spiritual religion, and a more refined and perfect Law in place of the Mosaic, are frequent and clear. The fact recorded by the Jewish Lawgiver, of the great patriarch Abraham having paid religious reverence to Melchizedek, " the priest of the " most high God," receiving his blessing, and paying liim tithes, is alluded to by the inspired Psalmist, at the very period when the Levitical priesthood and the ceremonial Law were most fully established ; when he describes that promised ruler, whom he terms " his Lord," declaring, " the Lord said unto " my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine ene- " mies thy footstool ;" to whom he ascribes as a distinguishing feature of his character, his possessing a priesthood similar to that of Melchizedek, " The Lord hath sworn, and will not " repent. Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchize- " dek."i ' This declaration the Apostle to the Hebrews argues on at large,§ and irrefutably proves, that it implies the abroga- * Matt, xxvii. 25. ■f For a variety of more minute points of resemblance, consult Bishop Newton's sixth Dissertation; Eusebius, Demonstratio Evangelica, lib. i. cap. iii. and lib. ix. cap. xi.; and Collatio Philippi a Limborch cum erudito Judaeo, p. 4, 31, 289, et seq. : and Faber's Horse Mosaicae, Vol. ii. pp. 145 and 2G6. t Vide Gen. xiv. 18 — 20; and compare Psalm ex. 4, and Heb. vi. 20, with th« entire ch. vii. $ The general scope of the Apostle's argument is, that Abraham acknowledged the superiority of Melchizedek; that his order of priesthood was therefore prior and superior to the Aaronical order; and that Christ being of that order, as the Psalmist prophesies, his priesthood is superior to, and supersedes the Aaronical, which must therefore be changed, and with it the Levitical Law. In the 2d verse the Apostle declares, Melchi-^edek was by interpretation king of righteousness, and after that also king of Salem, that is " king of peace." In these great and peculiar characters thu 382 JUDAISM PREPARATORT [Part III, tion of the Levitical Law, and the substitution of a more perfect religion. " If," says he, " perfection were by the Levitical " priesthood, (for under it the people received the Law) what " further need was there that another priest should rise after " the order of Melchizedek, and not be called after the order of " Aaron. For the priesthood being changed, there is made of " necessity a change also of the Law."* For the full illustra- tion of this argument. I refer to the learned commentators who have explained the passages in which it is contained ; the con- clusion thus stated by the Apostle is evidently contained in the Scriptures, and is that which I wish to impress, as it proves the consistency and illustrates the connexion of the Mosaic and the Christian codes. With equal clearness the same great Apostle argues f from the very nature of the Levitical Law, that it was intended as the type and introduction of the Christian scheme : and here again adduces the prophetic declaration of the inspired Psalmist. " The Law having a shadow of good things to come, and not " the very image of the things,;]: can never with those sacrifices priesthood of Christ was pre-eminently distinguished. The Apostle then in the 3d verse describes the priesthood of Melchizedek by additional characters, which belong not to him as a human individual, but to the priesthood he possessed. In this sense he was " without [i. e. independent of] father, without mother, without descent, " [i. e. independent of his descent] having neither beginning of days, nor end of life " [as to his priesthood]; but being made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest " continually." Vide Macknight's very clear illustration of this passage, in his View and Illustration prefixed to this chapter. " Like Melchizedek, Christ is a king as well '^'as a priest, being the Son of God and Lord of all. He is also king of righteousness, " to promote which is the object of his moral government. He is also king of peace, "reconciling sinners to God, and to one another. Like Melchizedek, Christ is not " descended from parents who were priests, but derives his priesthood from the special *' designation of God, independent of all limitations of descent ; and his priesthood " is of a nature so excellent as to have no companion nor successor in it, but he liveth " for ever to execute it himself. Like Melchizedek, Christ's priesthood did not, as " that of the Levites, begin at thirty and end at fifty years ; but he exercised it from "the first, and retains it through his whole existence. And finally, like Melchizedek, *• he acts as priest, not for one particular nation, but for all the true worshippers of "God." * Heb. vii. II, 12. t Heb. x. 1—10. i " The Law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of "the things." On these words it is remarked, " The word k'x«»« rendered " image," seems from the tenor of the Apostle's argument, to be used for the essential or sub- stantial form of a thing, i. e. for the very thing itself, as opposed to its cmx " sha- ** dow or delineation ;" so it is paralleled to r£^« "the body of substance," which tha JLjCt. VI.] TO CHRISTIANITY. 383 " which they offered year by year continually, make the comers " thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be " offered ; because that the worshippers once purged, should " have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices *' there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For " it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should *' take away sins. Wherefore, when he [the promised Redeemer *^ predicted hy the Psalmist in the fortieth Psahi] cometh into the " world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but " a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt-offerings, and sacri- " fices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure : Then said I, Lo, " I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do " thy will, 0 God. Above, when he said, Sacrifice, and offering, " and burnt-ofierings, and ofiering for sin, thou wouldest not, " neither hadst thou pleasure therein (which are ofiered by the " Law) Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He " taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By " the which will we are sanctified, through the ofiering of the *' body of Jesus Christ once for all." Here again I refer my readers to the writings of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, for a full exposition of the accurate harmony and inseparable connexion between the two dispensa- tions. It is not consistent with the plan of this Work (already extended beyond my original intention) to discuss the subject at large. I only wish very briefly to prove, that the Prophets who lived under the Mosaic Law, foresaw its abrogation, and ac- knowledged it was intended to introduce the Gospel scheme, to Apostle elsewhere opposes in like manner to its »•«'» or " shadow," Col, ii. 17. Accordingly the Syriac version explains J^"* ^Y the " substance,'^ and Chiysostom by the " truth or reality" as opposed to " types or emblems." Cicero has used almost the same expression in the same sense: "Nos veri juris germanae " justitiae solidam et expressam effigiem nullam tenemus, umbra et imaginibus uti- " mur." De OfRciis, lib. iii. c. xvii. The Apostle means to illustrate the imper- fection of the Law, that it could not bring men to perfection, that the good things it promised were but a shadow of the great realities secured by Christ, the veriest sketch or outline, in comparison of the perfect and exact picture. Vide Dodd, Macknight, Heylin, and Wolfius on Heb. x. 1. and Suicer's Thesaurus, and Park- hurst on the word Ev'^w*. — It is necessary to remark, that in the words " a body hast " thou prepared me," the Apostle follows the Septuagint, and not the Hebrew text as it now stands. But for the probability of a corruption in the Hebrew text, consult Dr Thomas Randolph's comparison of the citations in the New Testament, with the Hebrew and the Septuagint, No. 159. pp. 22 and 44. and the authors by him referred to. S84 JUDAISM PREPARATORY [Part III. which, as more perfect and universal, it was destined to give place ; while on the other hand, the inspired preachers of the Gospel refer to the Mosaic institutions, as intended to prefigure and prepare for the Gospel of Christ, who came " not to destroy, " but to fulfil the Law and the Prophets." I shall close the series of proofs on this head, by the clear and explicit declaration of the Prophet Jeremiah,* which is also ap- pealed to by the great Apostle of the Gentiles. This Prophet foretels the propagation of a pure and spiritual religion, the abolition of legal ordinances, the call of the Gen- tiles, and the final restoration of Israel. Calling upon " back- *' sliding Israel" to return from her transgressions and idolatries, the Prophet encourages tlieir repentance by declaring, " I will " giv6 you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you " with knowledge and understanding. And it shall come to " pass when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those " days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more. The ark of the " covenant of the Lord : neither shall it come to mind ; neither " shall they remember it ; neither shall they visit it ; neither " shall that be done any more. At that time they shall call " Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord ; and all the nations shall " be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem, " neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of " their evil heart. In those days the house of Judah shall walk " with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out " of the land of the north, to the land that I have given for an " inheritance to their fathers.""-!- And still more expressly in a subsequent chapter, " Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, " that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and " with the house of Judah : Not according to the covenant that " I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the " hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt (which my " covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, " saith the Lord :) But this shall be the covenant that I will " make with the house of Israel ; After those days, saith the " Lord, I will put my Law in their inward parts, and write it in " their hearts ; and will be their God, and they shall be my * Compare Jerem. iii. 15 to 18. and xxxi. particularly ver. 31 to 34. with Heb. X. 15. t Jerem. iii. 15 — 18. LeCt, VI.] TO CHRISTIANITY. 385 " people. And they shall teach no more every man his neigh- " hour, and every man his brother, saying, Know ye the Lord ; " for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the " greatest of them, saith the Lord : for I will forgive their ini- " quity, and will remember their sin no more."* According to this prediction, the ancient Levitical covenant was to be dis- solved, and the ordinances of Moses to be succeeded by a Law not in any degree typical, but entirely promotive of real virtue ; not requiring ceremonies to preserve it, but in its very essence practical and influential, regulating the temper, and written in the heart. • Jerem. xxxi. 31—34. Sect. II. — The Law and the Prophets not only professedly designed to introduce the Gospel, but did in FACT prepare the way for it. Necessity of the Law as a preparation for the Gospel, shown by considering the probable state of the world, if Judaism, had never existed — Extreme difficulty of introducing true religion in such a state of man- kind— Such universal degeneracy prevented by the Jewish dispensation — Proved by a brief view of the facts adduced in this Work. Adherence of the Jews to their Late, proves the reality of a providential interposition>—The projjhccies delivered by Moses on this subject prove the same — The Law was typical and figurative of the Gospel — In. stances — The moral character of the Laic preimred for the Gospel — The connexion of the two schemes shown by various instances — The Jews employed as the immediate in~ ttruments for introducing the Gospel. Rejection of the Gospel by the mass of the Jewish nation does not disprove the connexion of the Law and the Gospel Confirms the f roof from prophecy^and from miracles. GALATiANs, iii. 24. " The Law was our schoolmaster, to bring us unto Christ." In the last Section, I endeavoured to prove the consistency and the connexion of the Jewish and the Christian schemes, bv adducing passages from the Law and the Prophets, showing that Judaism was from the first intended to introduce that Mes- siah " in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed ;"" that the Jewish Lawgiver liimself intimated that God woult 2b 386 JUDAISM PREPARATORY [Part III. raise up another Prophet like unto himself, and consequently a Lawgiver, with authority to promulgate a neio Law ; and that the Prophets expressly foretold that the Mosaic ritual was to give place to a new religion of a perfectly spiritual kind, and calculated to embrace all the nations of the earth ; declaring all this with increasing clearness, as the era of this great change approached. While, on the other hand, our Lord and his Apos- tles expressly refer to those predictions, as plainly pointing out the approach, describing the character, and establishing the divine original, of the Gospel, I now proceed to evince, that as the Law and the Prophets were thus avowedly designed to predict and introduce the Gospel of Christ ; so they did in fact accomplish this design, their pre-existence being indispensably necessary to prepare for the reception of that Gospel, and in a variety of ways illustrating its importance and facilitating its promulgation. To place this conclusion in a clear light, let us reflect what would probably have been the situation of mankind, as to reli- gion and morality, if no such nation or system as the Jewish had existed, before the appearance of our Lord. It seems certain that the whole world would have been sunk in the most gross idolatry, and an almost total ignorance of the principles of natural religion.* The very idea of the Supreme Creator and Euler of the universe would have been obliterated from the minds of men ; or at most, thought of only by a few specula- tive philosophers, who had never ventured to inculcate the necessity of confining adoration to the one true God, or openly to condemn the absurdities and profanations of idolatry, which would have prevailed over the world uncensured, we may almost say unsuspected of error or depravity ; since no purer system would have existed, to which an appeal might have been made, as clearly true, or supported by any acknowledged au- thority. In such a state of religious blindness all expectations of a future retribution would have appeared ridiculous or incredible from the falsehoods and extravagancies with which that opinion had been universally encumbered and disgraced. The evidence * Vide Part II. the entire Lect. I. and Lert. II.; Pait III. Lect. I. sect. i. and Lect. II. sect. i. Lect. VI.] TO cnnisTiANtTY. .387 from prophecT/ could not have existed ; and any appeal to mira- cles would have been disregarded or discredited, from the mul- titude of lying wonders which had usurped that name, without a single instance of any plainly supernatural interposition. Had the world been permitted to sink thus universally into ignorance, idolatry, and depravity ; almost deprived of all ideas of true religion, and totally estranged from every feeling of pure morality ; without any fixed principles to recur to on these subjects, nay almost without a language in which to speak of them ; it seems nearly impossible to conceive any means by which mankind could have been instructed or reformed, without utterly subverting the whole course of nature, and forcibly con- trolling the moral character of man. Darkness would have over- spread the earth, and thick darkness the nations ; and amidst this universal moral chaos, no spot could have been found, on which the foundation of the Church of God could have been laid ; no nation or tribe or family, who, if the standard of true religion were reared, could be expected to rally round it and support the sacred cause. A degeneracy so fatal and irremediable was eflFectually pre- vented by the operation of the Jewish scheme. It has appeared in the progress of this Work, that when the world was rapidly sinking into idolatry with all its profanations and crimes, the pure principles of that patriarchal religion which had originally enlightened mankind, were preserved in the family of Abraham by the transmission of parental instruction until that family became a nation. That then this nation, which would otherwise have been hurried away by the resistless torrent of universal corruption, was placed under the immediate government of Jehovah, as their national Lord and King ; rescued from Egypt and settled in Canaan, by a series of miraculous interpositions, which exhibited an irrefragable proof of the power, the pro- vidence, and the majesty of the true God, as well as the impo- tence and nullity of those base idols who usurped his honour in a deluded world. To preserve this nation as a lasting monument of the divine supremacy, and a permanent asylum, where the truths of reli- gion and the principles of morals might take refuge, and be preserved for a more favourable period, when their salutary- influence might be again extended to all mankind with effect, 388 JUDAISM PREPARATORY [Part III. by the promised Messiah, " in whom all nations were to be " blessed," the Mosaic Law was given ; which, in this infancy of human reason and human virtue, was to act as the " school- " master to bring men to Christ ;"" a task which it effected by a variety of means which can here be only briefly hinted at. First, it maintained the radical principles of true theology;* while it clothed them in such a form, and promulgated them in such circumstances, as, without detracting in the slightest par- ticular from their purity and truth, rendered them interesting and attractive to a nation, which could scarcely have been induced to attend to any mere abstract doctrines concerning the being and attributes of the Deity, if he had not authorized them to look up to Him as their peculiar, national, and guardian God. The same Law inculcated the principles of pure morality, with a similar attention to the feelings and the character of the Jewish nation ; -f* enforcing the entire system by temporal sanc- tions, :j: which alone were capable of influencing a people, short-sighted, incredulous, attached to present objects, and habituated from the example of the rest of mankind, to consider temporal prosperity and success as the criterion ol the power and fidelity of that God, who allowed them to consider him as their national and peculiar Lord and King. Such a system could be carried into eft'ect only by a particular Providence § proportioning the visible prosperity both of the state and of individuals, to their obedience to the divine Law. The continued display of this wonderful providential interference supplied a perpetually increasing proof of the power, the jus- tice, and the mercy, of Jehovah ; and exhibited the most awful and instructive examples to mankind, of the general conduct of God's moral government. || The Mosaic Law not only promulgated a system of true reli- gion and pure morality, and supported that system by the most powerful sanctions ; but it guarded it from the contagion of that idolatry and vice which universally prevailed, by a correspond- ing system of peculiar laws and manners, rites and ceremonies, * Vide Part II. Lect. I. f lb. Lect. II. III. and l\. J Vide supra, Part III. Lect. III. sect. i. ii. § lb ^art III. Lect. II. the entire. II Vide tlie last Lecture; also, Part III. Lect. III. sect, i Lect. VI.} TO CHRISTIANITY. 389 calculated to form a barrier between the chosen people and the idolatrous world :* while by the multitude of its rites, the magnificence, first of the sanctuary, and afterwards of the tem- ple, the solemnity and attraction of its festivals, and finally by the influence of the Priests and Levites, who were set apart as the public "instructors of the nation in morals and religion, it supplied the means of counteracting the attractions of idolatry. Further, the Mosaic institution combined the civil govern- ment, the national religion, the tenure of private property, and the regulations of domestic life in one connected scheme ;-f all whose parts tended to one object, the permanence of the entire system. It thus effectually secured that object, notwithstanding the crimes and errors of the chosen people, their idolatries and apostasies both private and public, (which no system of moral government could totally prevent :) amidst the powerful tempta- tions from without, and the wi-ong propensities from within, necessarily arising from the general state of the world, and the peculiar character of the Jewish people, during the entire period from Moses to Christ. If it be objected, that nothing but a pure and spiritual wor- ship is worthy of God, and that the combination of moral precepts with ritual observances was inconsistent and incredible ; I would answer, with a late ingenious writer, that the natural progress of human improvement had not yet brought any nation of the earth, perhaps, certainly not the Israelites, to the capa- city of a worship purely spiritual. To this fact their early history gives ample evidence. But if they could have been formed to it, such a worship, consisting in pious sentiments, and the natural, spontaneous, and unprescribed expressions of them, would not have formed a more proper test for the pur- pose of exhibiting a proof (hy icay of specimen) of the moral government of God, than pure moral merit would have been. It would have been equally difficult to ascertain the reality and purity of either. The one would have been as latent and unob- servable as the other. Either of them would have required a penetration, attention, and comprehension of mind, Avhich men do not acquire either early or easily, but only with care and * Vide Part I. Lect. VI. and I'a.t II. Lett. II. III. IV. t Part I. Lect. IV. and Part II. Lect. II. III. IV. 390 JUDAISM PREPARATORY [Part III. exertion, and after numerous successive generations. And both of them would have been greatly debased in the measure of their worth, by such a connexion, by being placed in such a relation to a national, temporal, external prosperity. For these and various other reasons, the test by which the distribution of national good or evil should be regulated, ought not to have been in a purely spiritual worship alone. It was wiser to place it in an external ritual. But we are still to view this scheme in another light, clearly illustrative of its divine original, as introductory to the Gospel. And here we must observe, that the chief rites and festivals of the Mosaic ritual were not only calculated to commemorate the leading interpositions of God, in the deliverance and settlement of the nation, and to exclude the infection of idolatry ; but that they had a prospective signification, and were clearly typL cal and figurative of the Messiah's character and kingdom.* This typical character of the ritual Law has been illustrated by so many eminent writers, and, above all, has been so clearly established by the great Apostle of the Gentiles, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, that I need only touch on it, and observe ; tliat the whole system of bloody sacrifices, which had plainly preceded the Mosaic institutions, and leads us, (when tracing its origin,) to the very earliest revelations of God to man,-|- as it served to awaken in the minds of the offerers a strong sense of the danger of sin, and the punishment it merited, even unto death ; so it most evidently prefigured that great sacrifice, by which Christians " are sanctified, through the offering of " the body of Jesus Christ once for all."^: * This typical significance of Judaism has been fully and learnedly expounded by the Rev. Samuel Mather, a clergyman of Dublin, in a quarto volume, published in 1683, entitled. The Figures and Types of the Old Testament, &c. Consult particularly the Gospel of the perpetual Types, pp. 20S to 218; also, the Gospel of the Sacrifices and Offerings, pp. 232 to 254; and the Gospel of the Jewish Festivals, from 520 to 545. See also the learned Mr Faber's Horje Mosaiae, book ii. sect. ii. " On the con- nexion between Judaism and Christianity by means of Types," vol. ii. pp. 40 to 173; also the learned Outram de Sacrificiis, particularly lib. i. cap. xviii. and lib ii. cap. vii.; also Hartley on the Truth of Christianity, Propos. 30, 31, 32 and 33. t Vide Dr Magee's work on Atoiiement and Sacrifice, Sermon II. with the notes. % Ileb. X. 10. Lect. VI.] TO CHRISTIANITY. 391 This prefiguration of the Messiah is peculiarly remarkable in the ceremonies observed in the great day of atonement ; * when " the High Priest entered once a year into the Holy of Holies, " not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the " errors of the people, being (says the Apostle to the Hebrews) " the figure of him, who by his own blood entered in once f " into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for " us :" a redemption which, as the Apostle explains, essentially implies " a purification of the conscience from dead works to " serve the living God." Of the three great festivals of the Jewish Law, two, the Passover, and the feast of Pentecost, as they were commemoro/- tive of the deliverance from Egypt, and the promulgation of the Law on Sinai ; so were they as clearly figurative of the sacrifice of Christ, and the effusion of the Spirit by which the Gospel was disseminated over the world. | * Vide Lev. xvi. with Heb. ix. and x. the twenty-two first verses; Dr Magee from pp. 67 to 69 ; and Outram ut supra. f Compare Heb. ix. 12 and 25. X The analogy between the Paschal Sacrifice and our Lord's suffering, between the delivery of the Law and the effusion of the Holy Spirit, has been remarked from the earliest period of the Gospel. But it has not, as far as I can recollect, been noticed by any, that our not having as yet discovered any event in the history of Christi- anity, corresponding to that commemorated in the Feast of Taberuaeles, or any Christian festival similar to that feast, instead of supplying an instance of dissimili- tude between the two systems, strongly confirms their perfect analogy, when we con- sider the further progress of the Gospel, which the word of prophecy leads us to expect. This observation has been suggested to me by my learned friend the Rev. Dr El- rington, late Fellow (now Provost) of Trinity College, Dublin ; and who, in the course of sermons he preached and published as Donnellan's Lecturer, in the year 1796, has so ably illustrated the truth of the Gospel miracles, and exposed the sophistry of Hume. As his ideas on the present topic appear to me both original and just, 1 annex his own statement of them. " That the Jews annually observed three great festivals at Jerusalem, and that " two of them, the Passover and the Feast of Pentecost, had a reference to events " which were to happen under the Christian dispensation, is well known. Hence we •' are led to consider, whether the third solemnity was of a similar nature, and has " received a similar completion. This was the Feast of Tabernacles, beginning on " the fifteenth day of the seventh month; when for seven days all that were *' Israelites bora were to dwell in booths, in remembrance of their dwelling in booths " when they were brought out of the land of Egypt, and on tlie eighth day to return «' to their houses, celebrating it with great rejoicings." Levit. xxiii. 34, 35, 36, 42, 43. " Now it is evident, that no circumstance attending the establishment of Chris- 392 JUDAISM PREPARATORY [Part III. The J ewish Law not only prepared for the introduction of the Gospel, by its types and prophecies, and by preserving the prin- ciples of sound theology and pure morals, which, without it, would probably have been almost irrecoverably banished from the earth ; but by the strictness of its moral prohibitions, and its denunciations of God's displeasure against sin, it probed and exposed the moral maladies of man. It proved to him, by deci- sive experience, his proneness to violate the commands of his God, even when most distinctly promulgated, and his culpable neglect of duties of the most obvious necessity ; so that he could not but acknowledge how infinitely improbable it was, that he could by his own unassisted strength escape sin ; and that con- sequently, far from being able to claim eternal happiness, as a reward which human merit might challenge from divine justice, he was liable to condemnation and punishment. Thus the Law prepared men to hail with fervent gratitude the " tianity had any resemblance to the journey through the wilderness, and the " ihvelling there under tents; nor has any attempt, I believe, been made to prove a " similarity of the sort. We must therefore either admit that this Feast of Taber- " nacles differs from the others, in having no prospective reference ; or we must seek " in some future event its completion or antitype. And it will probably incline us " to this latter opinion, when we consider, that the Jews will undoubtedly be " brought back to Judea when the fulness of the Gentiles shall be come in; and " if we suppose the season of the Feast of Tabernacles to coincide with that of " their future retiH-n, as it appears to have done with their return from the Babylonish " Captivity, we shall have a fulfilment of the three Jewish festivals completed " finally in the conversion of the Jews to Christianity; which, with their retura " to their own land, will furnish a perpetual cause for thanksgiving and religious " observance. " Of the reference of this festival to the final restoration of the Jews, some of " their traditions and practices may perhaps afford a further confirmation. It was •' their custom on the last day of the feast, to bring water from the fountain of ♦' Siloah, which the priests poured on the altar, singing the words of Isaiah, eh. " xii. ver. 3. fFith joy shall ye draw water from the fountain of salvation; which " words the Targum interprets, JFith joy shall ye receive a new doctrine from the " elect of the just; and they appear, from the preceding chapter, to relate to the '* final restoration of the Jews. The feast itself was also called hosanna, save we " beseech thee; and was the time when our Lord spoke the remarkable words men- " tioned in St John, chap. vii. ver. 37, 38. marking the relation which the cere- " mony of pouring out the water bore to his ministry. And amongst the traditions " of the Jews we find, that the defeat of Gog and Magog shall fall out upon the " Feast of Tabernacles, or that the consequent seven months' cleansing of the land " (Ezek. chap, xxxix. ver. 12.) shall terminate at that period; and there seems " little reason to doubt the reference of that prophecy to the final restoration of the " Jews." LeCt. VI.] TO CIIRISTIAMTY. 393 glad tidings of the gospel of peace, which offers the aid of the divine Spirit to assist the weakness of those who will humbly implore and diligently improve it ; and proclaims free pardon to all, who, repenting of their sins, and acknowledging their o\vn inability to escape from their power, or expiate their guilt, embrace with faith and joy those gracious terms of pardon and acceptance, offered by the mediation of that Jesus, " who was " delivered for their offences, and raised again for their justificar " tion ; " * who " still liveth to make intercession for us : " ■*- thus " destroying the power of death," J and " bringing life and " immortality to light."" § Not that in the Gospel the doctrine of a resurrection and a future retribution was first promulgated ; (for they were intimated by Moses, and clearly taught by the Prophets) but because the ineans of securing life and immortality were then first clearly and satisfactorily ascertained., || and placed within the reach of all who would embrace the gracious offers of pardon and mercy held out by the Kedeemer of man. * Rom. iv. 25. f Heb. vii. 25. J Heb. ii. U. § 2 Tim. i. 10. II I am aware that commeiitatois in general interpret this verse (2 Tim. 1. 10. solely of the Gospel's bringing to light the doctrine of life and immortality; and War- burton advances as an irrefutable argument, that as it was reserved to be so brought to light by the Gospel, it must have been unknown under the Old Testament. Now as I think I have proved it was not unknown under the Old Testament (vide supra, Part III. Lect. IV.) it follows it was not reserved to be brought to light by the Gospel alone. Undoubtedly, where the Jewish religion was unknowi, the doctrine was first clearly promulgated by the Gospel ; and even amongst the Jews it was supported by such additional miracles and examples, as thrcv/ round it a brightness of conviction, compared with which, the assent previously yielded to it was doubtful and dim. So that this expression may bear the sense usually given it, without supporting the inference which Warburton would deduce from it. But I cannot but think the Apostle meant to express much more than a bare promulgation of the doctrine of life and immortality. He encourages his beloved son in the Gospel to perseverance in the faith, for which he himself cheerfully sustained persecution and bonds; and for this purpose he describes in the strongest terms the blessedness of a true Christian's temper, views and hopes. " God (says he) hath not given us the spirit of fear, but "of power, and of love, and of a sound mind," i. e. strength to resist evil, derived from the assistance of the Holy Sjiirit ; accompanied with a sincere and active love of God, and a just discrimination of things, which clearly recognizes the superiority of future and heavenly objects above present and sensual : thus comprehensively describing a perfect Christian, whose will is rectified, whose aflections are purified, and whose understanding is spiritually enlightened. To attain or preserve such a character is the most glorious object of human ambition; "Be not thou therefore "(says the Apostle) ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; " but be thou partaker of the afllictions of the Gospel, according to the power of 394 JUDAISM PHEPARATORY [Part III. Such is the strict unity of design and the accurate harmony of parts, between the Jewish and the Christian schemes, so clearly establishing their common and heavenly original.* As the period approached when the promised Messiah was to appear, we have seen this unity and harmony display itself in more il- lustrious characters. The visible and immediate interference of Providence in rewarding virtue and punishing vice, seems to have been gradually withdrawn from amongst the Jews after the Babylonish Captivity ; f and the expectations of a future retri- bution, now plainly I and authoritatively established by their sacred writers, left to operate in its room. So that at the time of our Lord's appearance, these expectations were a leading ar- ticle of the popular creed ; and when promulgated anew with additional miracles to impress them on mankind in general, found amongst the Jews minds prepared to receive them, wher- "God; who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our "works, but according to liis own purpose, and grace, which was given us in " Christ Jesus, before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing " of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and "immortality to light through the Gospel: whereunto I am appointed a Preacher, " and an Apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles." Now is it not evident that the Apcpstle here means to unfold the whole scheme of the Gospel, the eternal purpose of God to admit in the fulness of time the Gentiles into his church, notwithstand- ing their antecedent idolatries and crimes ; the abolition of death, by depriving it of its terrors and its sting, and redeeming men from the power of death eternal ; and aid to secure eternal life, arising from that spirit of power and love and reli- gious wisdom, with which divine grace supplies the true Christian ? It is not then the simple promulgation of the doctrine of a future life, which the Apostle here understands, but a promulgation of it, accompanied with such clear instruction how to seek, and such merciful assistance to obtain life and immortality, as were no first brought to light by the Gospel. '* Thus," to adopt the words of the pious Doddridge, " hath Jesus Christ in effect abolished death, hath deposed it from " its tyrannical empire, and thrown a light on the important doctrine of life and " immortality by the Gospel, which gives us a more express assurance and a more " lively view of it, than any former dispensation had ever done or could possibly " do." — Vide also Parkhurst's exposition of this passage, as quoted by Dodd in loc. ; Bishop Sherlock's opinion in opposition to Warburton, illustrated and vindicated by Dr Parry, in his defence of the Bishop of London ; and the judicious Benson, in his paraphrase and notes on this passage, who admits " the Jews had expectations of a resurrection even before the coming of our Saviour;" and refers to Matt. xxii. 32, and Da . xii. 2, " but the more full and clear discovery is owing to the Christian Revela- " tion " * Vide Hartley on the truth of Christianity, Propos. 26, 35, 36, 37, 38. f Vide Waiburton, Book iv. sect. iv. ; 1 Maccabees, ii. 38, and vi. from 49 to 60. J Vide supra. Part IJL Lect. IV. pai tiiularly sect. ii. Lect. VI.] 1^ CHRISTIANITY. 395 ever worldly views or vicious propensities did not resist and de- feat the influence of truth. Thus also the gracious intention of Providence, to admit the heathen world into the church, and for this purpose to abrogate that ritual which formed the wall of separation excluding them, was gradually more plainly notified ;* until by the last Prophets it was distinctly announced, and as we perceive, clearly under- stood by all whom national pride and prejudice did not induce to close their eyes against the light. Of this we find signal in- stances in John the Baptist and the devout Cornelius. And cer- tainly there were multitudes of others amongst the Jews and Gentiles, who like them looked for salvation by the appearance of that Messiah, " who was to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, " and the glory of his people Israel," and we know that the whole nation of the Samaritans acknowledged the same truth. As this glorious era drew near, we see various events crowd- ing on our observance preparatory to its arrival. The translation of the Jew'ish Scriptures into Greek ; the general expectation of a great king to arise in Judea, diffused over the East ; the in- creasing light of philosophy ; the extension of the Eoman em- pire— all combine to prepare for, and facilitate the promulgation of the Gospel. But still the Jews are the more immediate in- struments whom God meant to employ in eff'ecting his gracious purposes. And accordingly we find that after the Babylonish Captivity, they are rapidly prepared to act their part in the great and important change which now approached. It is certain that in the interval between the Babylonish Cap- tivity and the advent of the Messiah, the Jews were gradually settled and multiplied, not only in Egypt, but in all Asia, Greece, Italy, and the western regions of Europe. The Jewish Historian cites numerous decrees of the magistrates, the senate, and the emperors of Kome, encouraging and protecting them.+ Julius Caesar ordered that tables of brass, containing his decrees to this effect, should be fixed up in the Capitol, and communi- cated to the quaestors and prastors where the Jews resided. We find similar decrees formed by, or directed to, the governors * Vide the first Section of this Lecture. t Vide Josephus' Antiquities, Book iv. ch. x. where extracts iVum the original de- crees are given; also Booli xvi. ch. ii. and xix. ch. v.; also, Lardnci"s Credibility, I'art I. Book ii. ch. ii. and iii. 396 JUDAISM PREPARATORY [Part III. and people of Ephesus, Sardis and Miletus, Athens and Perga- mus, as well as the islands of the -^gean Sea. And we have the most decided classical authorities* to prove the multitude of the Jews at Rome, the number of their proselytes, and the popularity of their opinions. As the Jews were thus dispersed and situated, so that they might most generally spread their opinions, there is also reason to believe that their general character and conduct, especially in heathen countries, were such as to recommend them. They seem in general to have been humble and rational, peaceable and in- dustrious. " Natural justice (says their historian) is most to the " advantage of all men equally, Greeks and Barbarians, to which " our Laws have the greatest regard ; and thereby render us, if we " abide in them after a pure manner, benevolent and friendly to " all men ; on which account we have reason to expect the like " return from others, and to inform them that they ought not to " esteem difference of positive institutions, a sufficient cause of " alienation, but join with us in the pursuit of virtue and probity .""-f" By this providential distribution and settlement of the Jews in almost every part of the civilized world, they were every where to be found carrying with them their Law and their Pro- phets, establishing their synagogues, celebrating their sabbaths, bearing constant testimony to the unity, the supremacy, and * Vide Iluiit. Sat. lib. i. sat. ix. line 69, 70, 71; and still more expressly, sat. iv. line 140. Multa poetarum veniet manus, auxilio qure Sit mihi (nam multb plures sumus) ac veluti Judaei, cogemus in hanc concedere turbam. And sat. v. line 100, where the " credat Judaus Apella" is used as a proverbial ex- pression, opposed to the incredulity of the Epicureans. The sarcasm of Persius, sat.T. 184, Recutitaque sabbata palles, equally shows the prevalence of the Jewish opinions. Vide also Martial's Epigram, lib. iv. 4: " Jejunia sabbatariorum," 32. Objection. — This word was of a more modern date than Moses, as appears from 1 Samuel, ix. 9. Answer: — The word is certainly used in this sense constantly in the Pentateuch. Thus, Exod. vii. 1. God tells Moses, "thy brother "shall be thy prophet," thy K''33- Numb, xi. 29. "Would God "the Lord's people were aU prophets," the same word is used; and Numb. xi. 27. " Eldad and Medad do prophesy," the same root is used ; and Deut. xiii. 1. 3. 5. prophet is expressed by the same word; and in the promise of God to Moses, Deut, xviii. 18. " God will raise " them up a prophet like unto thee." Nor does the passage in Samuel prove the word was never used before, but rather that it was not used to denote strictly a foreseer of future events, which in Samuel's time it was appropriated to. " Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to " enquire of God," (to reveal secrets of future events) " thus he spake " Come and let us go to the seer nKlH — for he that is now called a pro- " phet S;"'IU. was beforetime called a seer." Now to me this change of signification appears perfectly natural, and easily to be accounted for. The early patriarchs to w^c-n this word was applied, and Aaron himself. 444 TEXTS COLLECTED BY LE CLERC, [App. were much more distinguished as intercessors with God, expounders of his will, and teachers of true reHgion, than as foreseers of future events. At that period, or afterwards, two distinct words may have been used to denote these two ideas ; in process of time, as the teachers sent from God became more distinguished for prophecy, the word originally applied to them generally, became more confined to the pre- dictors of future events, and superseded the use of the second word, which had been more recently introduced, and was always of inferior dignity. But be this as it may, the word is most frequently used to denote a prophet, in the other books of Scripture, and even in Samuel. I^e Clerc on mature consideration, (and it should seem very rationally,) thought that instead of calling into question the authenticity of the en- tire Pentateuch, in consequence of this parenthesis, we should rather question the authority of the parenthesis in 1 Sam. ix. 9. which is entirely unconnected with the context, perplexes the sense, and seems evidently to have been a marginal note which crept into the text, and at a wrong place too. Vide Clerici Notas in 1 Sam. ix 9. No. VIII. Text : Gen. xxii. 14. — " And Abraham called the name of " that place Jehovah-jireh : as it is said to this day, In the *' mount of the Lord it shall be seen," Objection. — Some persons affirm this to be the mountain Moriah on which the temple was built ; and that it did not get this name nmG, which, say they, is the same as that taken from this event, TWXy, until the temple had been built. Besides, the phrase, " as it is " said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen," does not seem adapted to the period when Moses lived. Answer. — There is nothing but mere conjecture for the mount Mo- riah deriving its name from this event, and still less for its not being so called until after the temple was built. The name Jireh, though similar in sense to Morijeh or Moriah, is not the same, and may have been in use from the time of Abraham ; and the interval between Abraham and Moses was long enough (above four hundred years) to justify the expression, as it is said to this day. Le Clerc brings many instances to confirm such a use of the words to this day, I think unne- cessarily. In truth I do not clearly understand either the objection, or the answer. If the reader is curious, he may find them in Clerici Dis- sertatio, No. vii. p. 32. Witsius takes no notice of this objection, nor do I think it was necessary to notice it ; but I am unwilling to suppress any appearance of objection. Dr Geddes is of opinion that there is no necessity to say with Eben Ezra that there is here uny interpolation ; it may be a part of the origi- nal narrative, whether written by Moses or any other person ; an ex- pret^sion may become proverbial, during the lifetime even of him who Sect. L] CONSIDERKD A\D ANSWERED. 445 first uttered it. All that we can lawfully infer from the text is, that these words, " in the mountain the Lord will provide," and become a proverbial saying when the author wrote. No. IX. Text: Gen. xxxv. 21. — "And Israel journeyed, and spread " his tent beyond the tower of Edar."" Objection. — The writer of this could not be Moses, for Edar was the name of a tower over one of the gates of Jerusalem ; beyond the present site of which, says the writer, Israel spread his tent. Answer. — The tower of Edar means the tower of the Flocks, and there might have been different towers so called in the time of Jacob ; and if the gate of Jerusalem stood in the spot meant by Moses, it may have gained its name from this old name, now revived and applied to a new object. The learned Mr Marsh observes, that this objection implies a mani- fest absurdity : "for if the writer of this passage had meant the tower " of Edar in Jerusalem, he would have made Jacob spread his tent be- " yond a tower, that probably did not exist till many hundred years " after his death."* But Dr Geddes builds much upon this text; vide infra. No. X. Text: Gen. xxxvi. 31. — "And these are the kings that " reigned in the land of Edom, before there reigned any king " over the children of Israel." Objection. — There are then reckoned up eight kings in succession, that is, as many as there were generations from Jacob to Obed, grand- father of David, and cotemporary with Saul the first king of Israel ; whereas, from Jacob to Moses were only four generations, as Moses himself counts them. Witsius answers — There was here nothing Moses might not have said, for in Gen. xxxv. 11. it was promised to Jacob that "kings " should come out of his loins ;" and Moses might mark it as a singu- lar fact, that so many kings had reigned over Esau before his own time, and consequently before this promise to Jacob had been fulfilled : and it appears from Deut. xvii, 14, Moses foretold the Jews would elect kings. As to the number of kings, 236 years elapsed from the death of Isaac, when Esau took possession of Edom, to the time when Moses became leader of the Jews, and this might well allow eight successions of kings. Le Clerc, however, from an idea that this pas- sage, if retained, would imply a prophetic declaration of Moses, on a subject which did not require it, supposes, that from verse 31 to 40, is an interpolation of a later hand ; and I confess I think it carries * Vide Mars on the Authenticity of the Five Books of Moses, C.imbridge, 1792, p. 14. 446 TEXTS COLLECTED BY LE CLERC, [^-pp. internal evidence of its being so ; it is written in a different manner from the parts before and after it, being much more particular than the rest of the chapter, mentioning not only the kings names, but the names of the cities they built, and of the wives of some, and of memo- rable actions they performed ; whereas, in verse 40, we find the enu- meration of dukes or chiefs descended from Esau, resumed and carried on with the simpHcity of the preceding part of the chapter ; and end- ing with this expression, " these be the dukes of Edoin, according to " their habitations in the land of their possession ; he is Esau, the father " of the Edoraites." Now tliis looks as if only dukes had been men- tioned before, otherwise it would probably have been said, " these are " the dukes and kings of Edom," &c. Such an insertion might natu- rally enough have been made by Samuel, to complete the historical sketch of Edom in this chapter. But either way the general authen- ticity of the Pentateuch cannot be effected by it. After having formed the above opinion, I was much gratified at finding that it coincides with that of the learned Kennicott, who insists that these verses were evidently taken from 1 Chr. i. 43. 54. from whence having been inserted in the margin of some very ancient MS. here in Genesis, they were afterwards taken into the text. Vide Kennicott's Remarks on select Passages of the Old Testament, p. 35. No. XT. Text : Gen. xl. 15. — Joseph says, " For indeed I was taken " away out of the land of the Hebrews.*" Objection. — It could not be called the land of the Hebrews, until they had invaded and taken possession of it. Answer. — Joseph might well call that particular part of the land of Canaan, near Hebron, where Isaac and Jacob had resided for so many years, the land of the Hebrews. They, it is true, were not originally natives of the country, but they possessed such wealth, such numerous families, herds, and flocks, that they were looked up to as mighty princes, (Vide the language of the children of Heth to Abra- ham, Gen. xxiii. 6.) We find them joining the neighbouring kings in making war, (vide Gen. xiv.) making compacts and leagues even with kings, (vide Gen. xxi. 23. and xxvi. 14.) and even conquering entire cities (as Gen. xxxiv.) living according to their own customs, and ex- ercising their own religion. It is therefore perfectly credible, the placo of their residence may have been termed the land of the Hebrews, as they had been there for such a length of time, independent and in alli- ance with the natives, (vide Gen. xiv. 13.) These are the observations of the learned Altingius, adopted bv Witsius, and confirmed by Le Clerc. No. XIT. Text : Exod. vi. 26, 27. — At the end of the genealogy of the tribe of Levi is added. "These are that Aaron and Moses, to Sect. I.J CONSIDKRED AND ANSWERED. 447 " wlioni the Lord said, Bring the children of Israel from the " land of Egypt according to their armies. These are they " which spake to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring out the children " of Israel : these are that Moses and Aaron." Objection. — This could not have been written by Moses; he would not thus ostentatiously and unnecessarily particularize himself and his brother : it is the language of a person writing long after his death. Answer. — It was neither ostentatious nor unnecessary to point out to future generations, that the Aaron from whom the High Priests descended, was the same employed by God to act such a distinguished part in the deliverance of his chosen people ; and thus mentioning of Aaron, who acted but a secondary part, it would have been unnatural to omit Moses, who was the chief. And that this was the real reason of this particular notice, appears from the sons of Aaron, from whom the High Priests were to be taken, being distinctly enumerated, while no notice is taken of the sons of Moses, who were to remain in a pri- vate station undistinguished among the Levites. Had the learned critics noticed this last circumstance, they would probably have seen that this passage, instead of affording any reason to suspect that Moses did not write it, supplies a strong presumptive proof that he did ; for any other writer would have been disposed to treat the great legislator of the Jews with more distinction than his brother. May I then be permitted to say, that this circumstance supplies another instance of the coincidence of the narrative with the peculiar character and situation of the supposed author, to be added to those enumerated Part I. Lect. HI. and confirming the internal proofs there adduced, to estabUsh the genuineness and truth of the Pentateuch. It is scarcely necessary to notice here the futile and ignorant objec- tion of Paine, that Moses speaks of himself in the third person ; an objection which would disprove the genuineness of the works of Thucy- dides, Xenophon, and Csesar, as well as of Moses. In truth, this writer, whose ignorance can be only equalled by his temerity, his pre- sumption, and his virulence, has been already so fully exposed and confuted, especially by the venerable Bishop Watson, that I think it unnecessary to go out of my way particularly to notice his ca\als. I may, however, I believe, venture to say, that such of them as relate to that part of Scripture which it is the object of this work to vindicate, have been considered and confuted in it. No. XIII. Text : Exod. xvi. 35. — " And the children of Israel did eat " manna forty years, until they came into a land inhabited : " they did eat manna, until they came into the borders of the " land of Canaan." — " Now an omor is the tenth part of an « ephah." 448 TEXTS COLLECTED BY LE CLERC, [-^PP* Objection. — This could not have been written by Moses, as the Jews did not reach the borders of Canaan, or cease to eat manna till after his death ; nor would Moses speak thus of an omer, the measure by which all the people gathered the manna, " an omer for every man." It is the language of one speaking when this measure was out of use, and an ephah more generally known. Answer. — This is plainly a passage inserted hy a later hand; it forms a complete parenthesis, entirely unconnected with the narrative, which having given a full account of the miraculous provision of man- na, closes it with the order to Aaron, " to lay up an omer full of manna " in the ark, as a memorial to be kept for their generations." This was evidently the last circumstance relating to this matter, which it was necessary for Moses to mention ; and he accordingly then resumes the regular account of the journeyings of the people. Some later writer was very naturally led to insert the additional circumstance, of the time during which this miraculous provision was continued, and probably * added an explanatory note, to ascertain the capacity of an omer, which was the quantity of food provided for each individual by God ; to ascertain it therefore must have been a matter of curiosity. Possibly the manna laid up in the ark might have been lost when it was taken by the Philistines, and this note added by Samuel. Here again I contend, that the insertion of such notes rather con- firms than impeaches the antiquity and genuineness of the original nar- rative. If this were a compilation long subsequent to the events it records, such additions would not have been plainly distinguishable, as they now are, from the main substance of the original ; since the en- tire history would have been composed with the same ideas and views as these additions were ; and such explanatory insertions would not have been made, if length of time had not rendered them necessary. No. XIV Text : Deut. i. 1. — " These be the words whicn Moses spake " unto all Israel heyond Jordan in the Wilderness, in the plain " over against the Red Sea, between Paran and Tophel, and " Laban, and Hazeroth and Dizahab."" Objection. — No objection at all to our translation (on this side Jordan,) with which the Syriac agrees, and the Targum of Onkelos retaining the same word as in the original Hebrew, leaves it undeter- * I say only probably, because the words, " an omer is the tenth part of an ephah," might very naturally be used by Moses, who might mark the relation between an omer and an ephah, to transmit it to posterity. Thus, Numbers, iii. 46. in the account of the redemption-money of the first-born, "over and above them that were redeemed by the Levites, " Moses says, "Thou shalt " take five shekels apiece by the poll, after the shekel of the sanctuary shalt thou take them. " The shekel is twenty gerahs." Now that this passage was written by Moses, I have endea- voured to prove from its very nature. Vide supra. In truth in a history descending to such min- uteness as the Mosaic history does, such notices as these are perfecUy natural ; and such parti- cularity is the strongest proof of genuinenesa and truth. Vide supra, Part I, Lect. II. III. and IV. Sect. L] COX.SIDERED AND ANSWERKD. 449 mined whether it should be on this side or beyond Jordan. The objec- tion then hes against the Vulgate and the Septuagint, which translate beyond Jordan, a situation which supposes the writer in Palestine where Moses never was. Answer. — The objection is founded on a mistranslation : the original word 13^72 is completely ambiguous, signifying sometimes beyond, some- times on this side, or more properly at or on the passage of Jordan ; thus in Joshua, xii. 1. the words translated on the other side Jordan to- wards the rising of the east, and ver. 7. on this side Jordan on the west, are both expressed by the same Hebrew word. For more, vide Le Clerc in locum: Witsius's Dissertatio, No. 46. p. 129; Huetius De- monstratio Evangelica, Prop. 4. cap. xiv; and Bibliotheca BibUca in locum, notwithstanding Dr Geddes's difference of opinion. No. XV. Text: Dent. iii. 11. — "Only Og king of Baslian remained " of the remnant of giants : behold, his bedstead was a bed- " stead of iron : is it not in Eabbath of the children of Amnion ? "■ nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth " of it, after the cubit of a man. ■ Objection. — It is not natural Moses should speak thus of a man lately slain, and all the circumstances about whom must have been so well known to the Israelites ; and it was more likely his bedstead should be at Basan, his own capital, than in any city of the children of Amnion. Answer. — Le Clerc, who made the objection, observes, Moses might wish to refer posterity to this bedstead as a lasting monument of the extraordinary stature of Og; and we know from Deut. ii. 21. that the Ammonites had expelled a race of gigantic stature from their country ; and possibly this very Og had been one of them, and his bedstead may have been preserved as a trophy of victory at Rabbath. for a considerable time before Moses wrote. — This answer of Le Clerc's seems sufficient ; yet I acknowledge this verse and the 9th, " which " Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion, and the Amoi'ites call it Shenir,' appear to me explanatory additions by a later hand ; as also ver. 14. (Vide infra.) Perhaps the situation of this territory l)eyond Jordan, and its remoteness from the land of Judca proper, might have made some subsequent writer more anxious to illustrate this part of the his- tory by short marginal notes, and confirm it by reference to known monuments and names. This opinion I formed before I had read Dr Geddes's strong assertion, "that he who could believe this verse was " written by Moses, is ripe for believing anv thing." I do not believe it was WTitten by Moses, and yet I do most firmly believe Moses was the author of the Pentateuch. — N. B. Dr Geddes with some pro- bability interprets this word, a coffin, not a bedstead, and conjectures TOL. II. 2 F 450 TEXTS COLLECTED B\ i.E CLEliC, [-'^PP- that Og, after the battle in which he was subdued, when he found him- self unable to defend his own capital, had fled to Rabbath, where he may have died and been buried in this coffin. No. XVI. Text: Deut. iii, 14. — "Jair the son of Manesseh took all " the country of Argob, unto the coasts of Geshuri, and Maac- " liathi ; and called them after his own name Bashan-havoth-jair " unto this day." Objection. — " Unto this day ," could not have been written by Moses, as the event happened only a few months before his death. Answer. — This is undoubtedly the insertion of some later writer willing to connect this memorandum of ancient history with the part of the Mosaic record to which it properly belonged. And though the critics have not noticed it, yet it seems to me evident, that the very substance and structure of this verse mark it as an interpolation. In the two verses before, and the two verses after, Moses mentions the distribution he had made of the lands taken on that side Jordan, to the two and a half tribes, with this remarkable phrase annexed to each " / gave them." Thus the 13th verse is, " And the rest of Gilead, " and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half-tribe " of Manasseh ,• all the region of Argob, with all Bashan, which was " called the land of giants." The verse now in question repeats this fact in a form different from that used immediately before, interrupting the narrative by telling us, that Jair the son of Manasseh took all the country of Argob, &c. ; and then the legislator proceeds again in the first person, in perfect connexion with the 13th verse, but very ab- ruptly as following the 14th, " And I gave Gilead unto Machir." In a word, we must include the 14th verse in a parenthesis, to preserve the train of thought and style unbroken : its introduction is forced and unnecessary. No. XVII. Text : — The entire Thirty-fourth chapter of Deuterononr', \Aliich gives an account of the death of Moses. Answer. — The words of Moses evidently conclude with the thirty- third chapter, which contains the blessings pronounced by him on the whole people collectively, and the several tribes distinctly, before he went up by the command of God to Mount Nebo, to view the land of Canaan and to die there. The thirty -fourth chapter was added to com- plete the history, the first eight verses probably immediately after his death by his successor Joshua, the last four by some later writer, pro- bably Ezra. Sect. T.1 COXSIDERED, AN'D AXSWEHKD. 431 Wk have now collected all the passages which the ing'enuitv end di- ligence of Le Clerc, a most acute critic, could discover in the Ixiita- teuch, calculated to raise a doubt whether it was not composed bv some writer later than Moses, which on a hasty view of the subject, he maintained was the fact ; and adopted the wild hypothesis, that the Pentateuch was compiled by the priest, sent from Assyria to teach the colonists settled by Nebuchadnezzar in Samaria, the manner of worshipping the God of the land, On maturer consideration, he dis- tinctly saw and candidly acknowledged, that these passages did not bear him out in this opinion ; which he accordingly publicly retracted, and distinctly reconsidered all the Texts he had alleged in its support, and refuted the arguments against the genuineness of the Pentateuch, which he had derived from them. Witsius, who answered his original objections, and says of him, " In iis conquirendis omnium ni fallor di- " ligentiam supera\at doctissimus Clericus,'' concludes his answer with observing, that " if all these texts are considered without prejudice, " only four passages of the entire volume can be found, in which an " interpolation must be recognized ; and this an interpolation so slight, " as only to extend to the change of some one tvord, or the addition of '* some one historical memorandum (in additione brevissimae historiolae) *• to which the words of the original gave a natural occasion." — " And '• surely (concludes Witsius) these minute additions do not bear out " the enormous assumption of pronouncing, that Moses was not the au- " thor of the Pentateuch, in opposition to the credit due to the suf- *' frage of all antiquity, as well as the authority of Christ and the " Apostles." Le Clerc was very naturally disposed to give his own objections as great a degree of importance as they would bear, and his conclusion is as follows : " Hence we may collect, that of eighteen passages, which •* are adduced as indications of a more modern date in the Pentateuch, " the greater number are doubtful ; and it cannot therefore be urged, *' that there are every where through the Books of Moses marks of a " different age. Some are plainly added by another hand, and yet they •' are not such as to prevent us from acknowledging these books to be •• the work of Moses ; just as no one would deny that the Iliad and *' Odyssey were the works of Homer, because, as the old grammarians " allege, there are various verses interpolated in different parts of " these poems. "We are not to imagine that in the most ancient times, " there was as great a variety of books or as many copies of the same *' book as at j)resent ; therefore it might easily come to pass, that any " thing added to the writings of Moses by any later prophet, might " afterwards appear in all copies of a subsequent date." Le Clerc adds, " If indeed it was not from other considerations " evident, that far the greatest part of the Pentateuch must have been " written by Moses himself, as we have before shown, there would, I " confess, arise from these marks of a more modern hand, most strong " reasons for believing that the entire work was written at a later pe- " riod. But as we have certainly proved, that we must acknowiedcre " almost the entire Pentateuch to have been -wTitten by Moses, theio " is no cause why we should not attribute these books to him." These arguments of the learned Critic I have endeavoured to com- 45JS DK GEDDCs's OPINIONS ON TIIK ["^PP* bine with such others, as appeared to me most important, in the First Part of the preceding Work, Lect. I. and II. ; and I hope I may add, that I have traced another series of proofs from the internal structure of the history, in Lect. III. and IV. which preceding writers had not adverted to, and which, combined with those before adduced, form a mass of direct proofs that the entire Pentateuch was the work of Moses himself ; against which the presumptions and suspicions grounded on the Texts we have been now considering, are of so little weight as to be incapable of raising any serious doubt in any candid or reflecting mind. Dr Geddes's opinions on the Authenticity of the Pentateuch, const' dered : — Specimens of his reasonings on this subject. The minuteness of this discussion will, I trust, be excused, when it is recollected, that the genuineness of the Pentateuch is still doubted or denied, by Writers who claim the character of learned critics, and even of profound divines. Amongst these, the late Reverend Dr. Geddes must not be passed by. As a theologian, commentator on and translator of the Scriptures, he certainly has reached the very aone of liberality, even in this liberal age. The general tenor of hi.« opinions is indeed very clearly summed up, where he tells us that " On the whole I think it may be laid down as an axiom, that the bulk " of Christians, whether Protestants or Papists, cannot be said to have " a rational faith because their motives of credibility are not rational " motives, but the positive assertions of an assumed authority, which " they have never discussed or durst not question ; their religion is the " fruit of unenlightened credulity. A very small number* of curious " and learned men only have thoroughly examined the motives of their " religious belief, in any communion ; and it will be found, I presume, " that the more curious and learned they were, the less they " generally believed : hence perhaps, the old adage. Ignorance " is the mother of devotion." A writer holding this pri7iciple as an AXIOM, and ranking himself if not. with the learned, yet certainly with the curious, we may expect would be careful not to believe too much. He tells us indeed, (and I will not presume to question his veracity, to his own master he must stand or fall) " I wilHngly pro- " fess myself a sincere though unworthy disciple of Christ ; the Gospel " of Jesus is mv religious code, and his docti'ines my dearest delight : " Christian is my name, and Catholic my surname. Rather than re- " nounce these glorious titles, I would shed my blood. Cathohc '' Christianity I revere wherever I find it," &c. &c. But as he has no where condescended to tell us, in what Catholic Christianity consists, " that Christianity which is a rational, a most rational religion; ' I csa only enter this solemn protest against any rash infidel, who may ♦ Vid8 Preface to Crifiral Remarks, p. f and 8. Sect. T.] AUTHENTICITY 01" TIIK I'KNTATKUCH. 453 claim Dr Geddcs's authority as sup])ortiii!:; infulelity, from his sup- porting particular opinions, which with minds differently constituted would lead to it. His conclusion we see is different, though his pre- mises are unhappily too often the same with those of the intidcl. I am compelled to notice some of them connected with the subject of this Work. The Pentateuch this learned Critic admires and applauds, declaring that " whether it be considered as a body of history, or as a system of "jurisprudence, it wUl not appear to shrink from a comparison with " any piece of ancient writing, even when divested of every privilege " it might claim from revelation." To prove this more clearly, the Doctor in the process of his inquiries strips it of all such privileges. With him, Moses was no more inspired than Teutas, Numa, or Ly- curgus ;* and the query, whether Moses was the author of the Pen- tateuch, appears to him " never to have been sufficiently answered, un- " less injurious language mav be deemed an answer." And he declares that from intrinsic evidence it appears to him indubitable, " first, that " the Pentateuch in its present form was not written by Moses ; se- " condly, it was writteri in the land of Canaan, and most probably at " Jerusalem ; thirdly, it could not be written before the reign of David, " nor after that of Hezekiah." Here he was impatient to enlighten man- kind by communicating the result of his inquiries, though he had not lei- sure to communicate the proofs on which that result depends. He had reserved those for his general preface, which he had not time to write in fourteen years (for his Prospectus was published in 1786, his Critical Remarks in 1800;) and unhappily death has closed his labours, before he was able to favour the world with this long promised Preface ; we are therefore compelled to glean his reasons as they are scattered in his volumes. I think it however necessary to remark his concession, that though he is inclined to believe the Pentateuch was reduced to its present form in the reign of Solomon, yet he is persuaded, " it was compiled " from ancient documents, some coeval with and some even anterior "to Moses." And he further observes, "From the time of Moses " there can be 7io doubt, I think, of the Jews having written recoi'ds. " Moses, who had been taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, most " i)robably was the first Hebrew writer, or the first who apphed " writing to historical compositions. From his Journals a great part " of the Pentateuch seems to have been compiled. Whether he were " also the original author of the Hebrew cosmogonv, and of the his- " tory prior to his own days, I would neither confidently assert nor " positively deny." On the integrity of the present text of the Pentateuch, he observes, that " though it has not come down to us without alterations, yet what " work of antiquity is there, the text of which we have so many " means of correcting as that of the Pentateuch ? Two rival peoples, " the Jews and Samaritans, have preserved separate exemplar? of it in " different characters ; it was excellently translated into Greek, at a * Vide his Verses in answer to a Friend, who arkcd him, Whetlicr he thought Moses ir.'rwed ? — End of the Critiral Rcin.irks. ioi 1)11 GKDUKsi's OPINIONS 0.\ THK [-'^PP* " period when the copies must have been much less imperfect than " they afterwards became ; and we have various versions of very early " date, by the help of which, compared with the original and witli " one another, and of the various readings of the text itself, collected " in the present centurv from a great number of manuscripts, a nearly " genuine copy of the Pentateuch may, by the rules of a judicious " criticism, be at length obtained." In this entire account there is certainly some obscurity and confusion. What is meant by the Pentateuch in its present form ? Does it mean this work with every word or verse which now is found in it, e. g. with the last chapter of Deuteronomy ; or the text, as to the kings of Edom, marked above, No. X.? In this sense it might be admitted, that the Pentateuch in its present form, i. e. so far as relates to these few pcis- sayes, plainly inserted by come later writer long after Moses, to explain or complete the history, was not entirely written by Moses, nor com- pleted perhaps until the time of Ezra. But if, as the Doctor admhs, there can be no doubt that the Jews had written records from the time of Moses ; if the Pentateuch was compiled from the very journals of Moses himscf; then it becomes the province of sound criticism to de- cide, how much of it is thus formed of the journals of Moses. I think I have proved from clear internal evidence, it was entirely composed of these identical journals, that is, entirely written by Moses himself, ex- cept only the fetv passages above referred to. The learned Doctor has no where clearly detailed his opinions on this point in their full extent, by distinguishing the passages he con- sidered as the genuine production of Moses, from those which he at- tributes to the supposed modern compiler. He has, however, given us some specimens of his mode of reasoning on this subject, which I proceed to consider. Gen. X. 19. — Dr Geddes in this verse adopts the Samaritan read- ing, which describes the bounds of Canaan as more exten:-ive than the Hebrew text, viz. "from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates " and to the hinder sea," (an expression elegant perhaps, but to me not very clear.) And he observes, " I prefer the Sanutritan reading to the " Hebrew, for the following reasons : in the promise made to Abraham, " chap. XV. ver. 18, 19, 20, 21, the very same boundaries are assigned " to the land of Canaan in all the copies, which are here marked in " the Samaritan, and the same number of peoples or tribes included in " them. Again, in Exod. xxiii. 31, the same boundaries are assigned " in a more particular manner from the Red Sea to the Sea of the " Phihstines (that is, the Mediterranean) and from the Wilderness of " Shur to the great river Euphrates. It is true this was not accom- " plished until the reigns of David and Solomon, which latter is ex- " pressly said in the first Book of Kings, iv. 21. to have had dominion *' over all the kingdoms from the river Euphrates unto the land of the " Philistines, and unto the borders of Egypt. But whence (asks the " Doctor) sprung the present reduction of those boundaries in the ' present text of Genesis ? That I know not ; but I suspect it arose " from this ; that when the compiler or translator of the present copy " of the Hebrew text lived, the boundaries of Judea had been greatly " circumscribed, and he had accommodated his tcjct to that circum- Sect. I.] AUTHENTICITY 01' THK PENTATEUCH. 4o5 *' scription. But why then left he tlie other two passages unaltered ? " This indeed, / cannot account for, nor am I ohlitjcd to account for " it : hut this I affirm, the present Hebrew text is iriconsistcnt with it- ".?e{/^ the Samaritan is consistent; let the reader choose whether of " the two he will abide by." Now I should have no hesitation in choosing the consistent text; but I really think it not very ('fl«(//(^ in the learned Doctor, to impute to his imaginary compiler of the present Hebrew Pentateuch exactly knavery enough to alter, so as to accommo- date to the existing bounds of the land of Judea, ditext where no allusion to these bounds occurs, and dulness enough to leave unaltered passages which prophetically and directly pointed out these bounds, in a manner contrary to what Dr Geddes supposes to have been their extent in the compiler's time. Let us, however, consider on what grounds this charge of inconsistency against the Hebrew text, as it notv stands, is founded, Gen. XV. IS to 21, relates, " In that same day the Lord made a co- " venant with Abram, saying. Unto thy seed have I given this land, " from the river of Lgypt, unto the great river, the river Euphrates : " the Kenites, and the Kennezzites, and the Cadmonites, and the Hit- " tites, and the Perrizzites, and the Rephaims, and the Amorites, and " the Canaanites, and the Gergashites, and the Jebusites." Here God promises to the Jews a great extent of country, from the Nile to the Euphrates, inhabited by te7i distinct nations or rather tribes, of whom one was distinguished by the name of Canaanites, who therefore in- habited only a part* of this extended country. Now Genesis, x. 1.5 — 19, states that " Canaan begat Sidon his first-born, and Heth, and " the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Gergashite, and the Hivite, " and the Arkito, and the Senite, and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, " and the Hamathite ; and afterward were the families of the Ca- " naanites spread abroad. And the border of the Canaanites was from " Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar unto Gaza ; as thou goest unto So- " dom and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lashah." This country is certainly only a part of that included in the subse- quent promise to Abraham. But is it not obvious tViat there are two natural and credible hypotheses, on which this apparent difference can be reconciled ; one that of the numerous descendants of Canaan, some one tribe were particularly distinguished by the name of Canaanites : and that when the text says, " aiid afterwards were the fa7niUes of the Canaanites enlarged," it means to mark out the peculiar extension of this tribe, and describes in the 1 9th verse the borders of their ter- ritory. This is not an imaginaiy hypothesis, because it appears from Gen. XV. 21. and Exod. xxiii. 28. that in the time of Abram and also of Moses, one peculiar tribe or nation descended from Canaan were called Canaanites, while others also descended from him had other ♦ Thf learned Bocliart, I'haleg, Lib. IV. cap. xxxvi. remarks that " the Canaanites were those •' who inhaliiti'd partly on the sea and partly on the banks of Jordan ; deriving their name eithe- " from their beinjf merchants, whioh the word in Hebrew imports, or because they held the chief " place for some time among-st the descendants of Canaan." Vide p. 348. Bochart remarks that •' of the eleven families of the Canaanites enrimerated, Gen. x. 15, six were not invo.ved in th« " anathem.a or condemnation which the Jews were authorized to execute, the Sidonii, Arksei, " Sinxi, Avadii, Samarai, Hamathiei ; a new proof, if any were wantinir. that it was their own " milional ffiiilt, not merely their descent from a guilty ancestor, which drew down on the con- •" deinued nations the judgments of (;od." 456 DR GEDDEi^-'s Oi'INlOXS OX THE ["^PP- names. Admitting this, is there any inconsistency between the passage which states, Gen. x. 19, that this single tribe occupied a small coun- try, and Gen. xv. 18 to 21, which states, that this tribe united with nine others, occupied a 7nuch larger space ? But if this solution be not admitted, and it be maintained that Gen. x. 19, describes the en- tire country occupied by all the descendants of Canaan ; is there yet any inconsistency in supposing that this is only the country occupied by them soon after their first division into distinct tribes, or as the text expresses, " after the families spread abroad;" but that in three hundred years after, when the promise was made to Abraham, the same nations occupied a much greater extent of country, and four hundred years after Abraham, in the time of Moses, a still greater ? which is then (as Dr Geddes observes) more particularly marked out, for this plain reason, that then it became more necessary to point out its precise bounds, that the Jews might know how much they were authorized to take possession of. Such then is the foundation on which this critic charges the sacred text with inconsistency, and its compiler with fraud. I feel no inclination to give any man injurious language : but the friends of this learned Doctor must excuse me, if I do not in this instance give him credit for that caution, judgment and candour, which such a discussion requires ; and if, taught by this single example, I feel indisposed to adopt his conclusions, -where he has not stated the reasons by which they are maintained. But Doctor Geddes insists strongly on the text. Gen. xxxv. 21. " Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar." (Vide the texts considered before No. IX.) He founds his objection not so much on the identity of this tower with that over the gate of Jerusalem, as on the use of the word beyond. He observes, " whether " this tower were not far from Bethlehem, or near to the sheep-gate " of Jerusalem, if JNIoses had written this, he would not, he could " not have expressed himself in this manner; in describing a journey '* from Bethel to Jerusalem, he could not with propriety say of any " intermediate place, that Jacob had come beyond it, when such an " event happened ; whether he be supposed to have written his history " in Egypt or in his way to Canaan." As this objection did not occur to any preceding writer, let us consider it. The expression translated beyond is ^T^<7I^Q, compounded of the word ^^<7^, which by itself signifies trans, ultra, beyond, further on, or as Leigh (vide his Critica Sacra) expresses it, " loci et temporis distantiam et remotionem signi- "^caif, andthepr?efix D, which signifies a, ab, from. The compound IS translated by Montanus, ab ultra, from beyond, i. e. he stretched his tent from beyond the tower of Edar, or from a distance beyond the tower of Edar to that tower, marking an approximation to the place of the writer, as a person journeving fi-om Bethel to Jerusalem or Beth- lehem, must have approximated to a writer coming from Egypt to- wards the land of Canaan. Compare Gen. xix. 9, where the words nj^/rnti^J/ are employed to signify removal to a greater distance; accede ultra, savs Montanus ; stand back, says our translation ; the prsefix Q, marks a removal in the contrary direction. Now if this remark be iust, what becomes of Dr Geddes's criticism ? I do not question his Sect. I.] AUTIIKN'TICITY OF THE I'KNTATEUCII. 4.'-7 skill in the Hebrew ; but i do discover a most unwarrantable negli- gence and temerity, combined with a most eager zeal to overturn the genuineness of the Pentateuch. "But indeed (he concludes) every " thine/ convinces me that the Pentateuch was composed at Jerusalem, " or at least in Palestine." Yes, truly, evei'y thing convinces him of it, even what ought to have convinced him of the contrary. But as I am compelled to expose what appear to me Dr Geddes's errors on this important subject, so I feel much more gratified at ac- knowledging his fairness where he has reasoned fairly. On Gen, xxxvi. 31. considered above (vide No. X.) Dr Geddes remarks, "this and the " twelve following verses were by Spinoza urged, as one clear proof " that the Pentateuch could not be written by Moses ; if he had only " said that this part of the Pentateuch covdd not have been written " by Moses, he would have said no more than what any discerning " reader must in my conception acknowledge. Nothing to me can " be plainer than that all this was written after there were kings, or " at least a king in Israel." True. And are we then to understand Dr Geddes's strong assertions, that "the Pentateuch in its, present form " was not written by Moses," &c. &c. to mean only this, that though the substance of it consists of tlie Journals of Moses, yet there were parts of it added in Palestine, even after the reign of Solomon ? This assuredly is all he can prove ; how is it to be lamented that he was not cautious or candid enough to say no more. Then his criticism might have exerted itself freely, to distinguish the genuine text from the in- terpolations ; and the more accurately he distinguished them, the greater thanks would he have received from the friends of religion and of truth, who are now compelled to regard him as an enemy, and view all his proceedings with suspicion and distrust. 458 PE WETTE ox THE OLD TESTAMENT. [^PP- An Article in the Appendix to the Eighth Volume of tlie Critical Revieto for September^ 1806, in which Mr De Wettes Work on the Old Testament is briefly considered. An humble remonstrance to the Reviewers. In the Appendix to the eighth volume of the Critical Review. Sep- tember, ] 806, I find a work noticed on the Old Testament, by a Mr De Wette, teacher of philosophy at Jena; which, as it appears, to maintain opinions very inconsistent with what seems to me the truth, and very injurious to the authority of the Pentateuch, I was anxious particularly to examine. I have not, however, been able to procure as yet either this work, or Vater's Commentary on the Pentateuch, which is represented as maintaining nearly the same opinions. And I think it is unfair and uncandid to combat an author, whose system is known only through the medium of a Revisw, in which it must necessarily be stated indistinctly and imperfectly, and possibly may be misunderstood and misinterpreted. I shall therefore advert to the article in which this work is noticed, only so far as relates to some positions immediately connected with my subject, and wdiich are disthictli/ stated as supported by Mr De Wette. The first is, that the book of Deuteronomy ap- pears to have been the work of a very difi'erent writer from him or them, who wrote the second, third and fourth books ascribed to Moses. It is said, "this constitutes a whole, and breathes a spirit which in a " very remarkable manner distinguishes it from other books. And " we are afterwards told, of a bold dissertation of De Wette, in which " the book of Deuteronomy \s proved to be different from the preceding " books of the Pentateuch, and the work of a later writer, by the " deviations in the phraseology of Deuteronomy from that of the pre- " ceding books." On this point Mr De Wette and I are fairly at issue. That the book of Deuteronomy constitutes a whole, and that it is composed in a different manner, and with a difi'erent view from the three preceding books, I have stated. The three preceding books are narratives and journals formed at the time the events took place, or laws and regulations, recorded as they were gradually and occasion- ally promulgated, either by the public and miraculous voice from the glory of God, or through the medium of the inspired legislator ; while the book of Deuteronomy is a recapitulation of those events delivered n&ax forty years after the principal facts had taken place, in a public address to the Jewish nation, designed to impress the Divine authority of the Mosaic law on their minds, and to inculcate the necessity of perpetual obedience to the divine commands. But while this difference of object must have produced a difterence of style and manner, I have endeavoured to prove that the book of Deuteronomy, and the three preceding, must have been equally the production of Moses himself. Sect. 1.] imiKl'LY COXSIDEREU. 459 not {'rem phraseology* iilone, (for as to the variations in the plirascoluscy of a hinguage spoken ahove 3,300 years ago, by a nation of whose compositions so few have reached us, I conceive they cannot be clearly aircertained so as to form any very clearly conclusive ground of argu- ment,) but from the internal structure of the works ; from the nature of the facts they dwell on, the circumstances they select, the feelings they display ; in a word, from the difference as well as the coinci- dences observable between them, which appear to me to be exactly such as nature and truth must have produced, had all these works really been written by the Jewish lawgiver himself; and which exhibit a harmony so exact, so natural, and evidently untlesigiied, that it can- not be accounted for on any other hvpothesis. It aflbrds me some gra- tification to find that this topic of argument appears to repel by anti- cipation the objections of Mons. De Wctte on this part of the subject, and in this mstance vindicate the authority of Scripture : I refer my readers to the preceding work. Part I. Lect. III. and IV. Another assertion in)puted to this author, relates to the tribe of Levi : — " Moses (says he) may have introduced a priesthood ; but " who can define what portion of the laws relating to it was his pro- " duction ? If the tribe of Levi had been distinguished in the times " of Moses in the sense and in the manner in which it is represented " in the Pentateuch, and had been sanctioned as a cast of priests, " a hierarchy would have directed every thing ; which history does not " .shew." To this I answer, that the constitution of the tribe of Levi must to a certainty have been fixed before, or at the original settlement of the Jews in Canaan, because we cannot otherwise account for one entire tribe being excluded from the possession of landed property, living, not in one body, as each of the remaining tribes did, but in cities dispersed through the entire land of Canaan, even on both sides of the river Jordan, and possessing amongst these cities all those which were ap- propriated as cities of refuge to fugitives in consequence of homicide. We cannot, I affirm, account for this, but on the supposition that the tribe of Levi had been set apart before the settlement of the Jeivs in Canaan, to be supported by tithes and offerings instead of land, and that they had consented to the arrangement. Here then is a full proof that the entire system concerning the tribe of Levi, their distribution, the tithes and offerings by which they were to be maintained, must have been promulgated and admitted before the settlement of the Jews in Canaan ; it follows therefore that every part of the Law of Moses respecting these points, wks coeval with Moses himself. Can we, then, doubt whether it was written and published by Moses ? What inferior authority would have been competent to establish so singular an ar- rangement, unfavourable to the temporal interests of the Levites, whon» ♦ I n-ould not bp understood to say that the phraseology of the Pentateuch affords no [ire?iiinp- ti\ e priiof of its autlienticity ; much less do 1 iu any degree admit thatit supplies any presumption ajfainst its genuineness— but purely that this ground of ari,Mimpnt is not bo clear or convincing as tltat derived from the general structure of the history, and the prevailing sentiments and feelings pervading it, and the harmony and connexion of the various parts of the narrative. In proof that the phraseology of the Pentateuch supplies a strong preMiinption in favour of its genuineness. I b.'g leave to refer to the learned Mr Marsh's tract on I lie Authenticity of the Five Books of Woie-, pp. 5, 6, 7, and 13. 1 have briefly adduced his chief arguments in Part I. Lect 1. 460 DE WETTE ON THE OLD TESTAMENT. [-App* it excluded from landed property, and to those of the remaining tribes whom it loaded with the payment of tithes and offerings ? Observe now the inferences which clearly follow from this fact. If the arrangements concerning the distinction, the distribution, and support of the tribe of Levi, v/ere necessarily coeval with Moses himself, can we believe that the purposes for Avhich they were so distinguished, distri- buted, and supported, v/ere not thought of until long after ? Can we beheve that the Levites were set apart from the rest of the nation by Moses, and that no business was provided for them to attend to, until some ages after ? — that, in short, the Levites existed from the begin- ning, but that the Levitical law was, as Mons. de Wette is represented to have stated it, " the invention and badge of later priests." This is incredible ; we cannot but see that both are inseparable parts of one system, the entire of which must have been formed and established by the same authority, and at the same period ; and as the arrangements as to the distinction, the distribution, and support of the Levites, must have been coeval with Moses, so must that Levitical law of ceremo- nials, sacrifices, and religious duties, for attending to which the Levites were set apart. But Mr De Wette asserts, the Levites could not have existed as a separate cast of priests, " otherwise a hierarchy would have been esta- " blished, which would have directed every thing ; which the history " does not shew." — Assuredly this is a mistake : wonderful indeed would it have been, if the Levites, possessing no landed property, and no political rank, dispersed through the country, and dependent for their very existence on the degree of reverence and obedience paid to the Mosaic law, by a people prone to neglect and disobey it, though they never totally rejected it ; wonderful it would have been, if such a hierarchy had " directed every thing." But the author was doubtless thinking of Rome, where at one period the Emperors were Pontifts, and at another the Popes controlled Emperors. Indeed to some, the very sound of the word hierarchy carries with it the idea of boundless wealth, and resistless influence; but the Jewish Levite, often poor, de- pendent, and wandering, did not and could not possess any such wealth or influence. Mr De Wette is further represented as asserting, that "it is asto- " nishing and incredible in itseh^ that Moses should have pubhshed " ceremonial rites so accurately defined and so artificially contrived. " The feasts appear to have been the work of time and of successive " contrivances, rather than of a deliberate legal institution: amid the " deserts of Arabia, surrounded by dangers, inquietude and want, " Moses had no time to think of feasts." — What! in forty years, during which the people were miraculously sustained with manna, and during above thirty years of which the Jews never saw the face of an enemy, and were confined within a space they might have traversed in three months — was it impossible to contrive and write down regulations for observing three annual feasts, and conducting the daily worship and offerings of the sanctuary ? But, says this author (according to these reviewers) •' Moses must have instituted the passover and the feast of " tabernacles in the midst of the events which occasioned them, and " even before the events, as would appear from Exod. xii. 3. but with Sect, I.] BRIEFLY COXSinKUKI). 461 " which verse 39 is at variance, for in verse 39 they appear to he taken " hy surprise, while according: to verse 3 they must have been ])reparcd. " The whole relation proves itself untrue by its ambiguity and equivo- " cation.'' This is strong language, whether used by the German phi- losopher or the English critic. Strange, that the inventor of this story could not avoid so clumsy an equivocation within twenty lines. But let us reconsider it : in Exodus, xii. 'i, the people get notice to prepare the passover, "a lamb for each family," to be eaten with unleavened bread at a single meal, and " to be eaten that night in haste ; it is the " Lord's passover." We are then told that at midnight all the first- born of the Egyptians were slain, " and there was a great cry through- " out all the land of Egypt ; and Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron " by night, and said. Rise up, and get you forth from among my peo- " pie : and the Egyptians were urgent that they might send them out " of the land in haste, for they said. We be all dead men. And the " people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading- " troughs being bound in their clothes upon their shoulders." And now comes verse 39, which states, " and the people baked unleavened " cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt ; and " could not tarr)^ ; neither had they prepared for themselves any victuals." Here says our critic, is a direct contradiction ; for they had notice to prepare the passover the very night before. True, but they had also been commanded to eat it as soon as it was prepared, and leave nothing of it until the morning ; this therefore did not supply victuals for their journey. " But they had notice of their departure, and ought to •' have been prepared with victuals." The narrative does not say they had been told they should depart that night ; Providence seems to have concealed this, that the sudden effect of the divine interposition should be more powerful and impressive. But if they had received twelve or twenty-four hours, or even four days, (the utmost possible length of notice the history will allow,) notice of their departure, this was rather too short a time for 600,000 men, with a suitable proportion of women and children, and a mixed multitude besides, to collect into one body. and prepare for quitting for ever the place of their residence for 400 years with flocks and herds, and much cattle. They might have been satisfied with carrying their bread away, without waiting to prepare it with all the nicety of confectioners. They had been commanded, in the beginning of the chapter, to eat the passover with unleavened bread; and in the end of it we are told, that they had no dough, except unleavened. And is this a contradiction ? Or thus : a whole nation had received notice to quit their country for ever within twenty- four hours or even four days ; and yet they are represented as going away in a hurry and unprepared — here is another contradiction ; and thus the truth of a fact is overturned, which for 3,300 years has been believed and annually commemorated by a whole nation, from the very period it took place, and the very beginning of their year changed to preserve a perpetual record of it. Really all this would be very ridi- culous, if the subject did not so deeply concern the best interests of mankind, and exhibit the inventors of such arguments and their re- tailers, somewhat in the character of the madman, who, as Solomon 462 HUiim.E RE.MONSTRAXCE [-^PP- rejjiesents, " casteth firebrands, arrows, and death ; so is the man who " deceiveth his neighbour, and saith, Am not I in sport ?"* I will at present conclude my remarks on this article, by advismg the admirers of such theological critics as Mr De Wette, to read over Leslie's Short Method with the Deists, in the original work. The reasoning of this old Englishman is certainly not hke that of the modern German school of Eichorn, Vaters, and De Wette. But I think these reasoners might read it with some improvement. May I now he permitted, with all thnt humility which befits an author addressing the judges who are to decide his fate, to say a word or tiro to the Critical Reviewers; and that is, to entreat them not to appear quite so sure that every objection advanced against the truth of Scripture history, even of the Cld Testament, is unanswerable, until the public, as well as themselves, have had an opportunity of considering it. They tell us indeed, that " in the remarks they have " given, they have not been declaring their own opinions, but those of " the author of the work, or of a German critic by whom it has been "highly commended;" — "they merely propose the subject for calm " investigation;" — " they only want to know of Revelation whether " IT BE TRUE," (having I presume, formed no clear decision as yet on that subject ;) " and if it be true, it is of infinite moment, and every " thing good and fair and lovely must follow the firm, the rational and " unprejudiced conviction of the truth." They do, however, commu- nicate to us some of their own, which I humbly hope they may recon- sider; " Here are parts of the old Jewish fabric which appear to us," say they, " as they evidently did to Paul, to have nothing whatever to " do with the pure and pohshed structure of the Christian church ; " they are a sort of clumsy and superfluous out-buildings, which as soon " as thev are demolished will let more of the solidity and beauty of " the Christian edirice appear." Now I would seriously, and in per- fect good faith, beg of these gentlemen to consider again, whether it is quite so certain that St Paid thought thus of the connexion of Ju- daism with Christianity. He undoubtedly did teach that the ceremo- nial part of the Jewish Law was superseded by the Gospel ; but assu- redly he every where represents Judaism as the original foundation, the heaven- appointed introduction, the essential preparative for the Gospel * Proverbs, xxvi. 18, 19,— Another species of argument which appears to be imputed to Mr r)e Wette is, that if a practice prevailed among the Jews, such fcr instance as that of " offering ' jti heights," and not goinf? to tlie "sanctuary where God clioose to place his name," the law against this practice which now stands in the Mosaic code could nut then luive existed there, and therefore so far that code is of modern origin. Now this is pretty much sucii an argument as if a Cliinese one thousand years hence, reading of the frequent duels wliich are allowed in Chris- tian countries, sliould infer that the command, " Ttiou shalt do no murder," did not then exist in the Decalogue, but that it was introduced in consequence of that practice. But I am not sure this mode of reasoning was used. 1 only note it by way of precaution : it may easily be paral- leled in the ingenious reasonings of minute philoiophers. Sect. I.] TO THE CRITICAL KFVIEWERS. 463 of Christ. " To the Jews," he declares, " were committed the oracles " of God."* " The law" he pronounces "holy; and the conunand- " ment holy, and just, and good."f "To the Lraehtes," he declares, " pertain the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giv- " ing of the law, and the service of God. and the promises ; whose are " the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who " is over all, God blessed for ever.":!; But these critics dismiss the ceremonial part of the scheme, " as a mere fugitive contrivance, which,- " if it were not the work of human artifice, it was at all events little- " more than what human artifice might be expected to produce." St Paul, on the contrary, thought that " IMoses was admonished of God,- " when he was about to make the tabernacle ; for see. saith he, that " thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the " Mount. "§ These critics conceive the moral part of the law was intrusted to the care of the prophets ; and they exemplify the estima- tion in which they hold what is generally deemed prophecy, by telling us " the prophets prepared for the coming of Christ, not, as is vulgarly " supposed, by the delivery of ambiguous oracles or equivocal predic- " tions. but by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of " the just ; by proclaiming mercy to be better than sacrifice; and bv " showing the utter nullity of all ceremonial observances, without the " practice of humanity, of justice, and of truth." Now I humbly pre- sume that it has been shown || these principles were taught in the Mo- saic law. though they were certainly inculcated with additional force by the prophets. But when these critics thus undervalue the Jewish Lawgiver and his institutions. I fear they forget the declarations of One, whose authority they still acknowledge — even the Son of God — • who refers the Jews to Moses as bearing witness to himself; "Had " ye believed Moses, ye vvould have beheved me, for he wrote of •• me."1[ Notwithstanding, however, the flippancy with which these critics have decided and declaimed against the Jewish Law, they seem to have felt that they had plunged a little beyond their depth, and talked contemptuously of a system which they did not understand ; and I give them much credit for the candour with which they state their own surprise at this discovert/ of the inconsistency of many undeniable facts, with their crude and hasty decisions : " What strikes us with wonder," say they, " in the history of the Jews, and what may well impress " general astonishment, is, that even in the rudest ages, when the man- " ners of the people were barbarous and uncivdized, and when all the " surrounding countries were immersed in the lowest depths of idolatrous " superstitions, we do behold among the Jews, and for a succession, " not of years, but of centuries, a portion of intellect, irradiated no " doubt by the Supreme Intelligence, continually at work to prove " the being, and to preserve the awful consciousness of one only fikst *' CAUSE : this seems to prove, that the Jews were to be instrumental in " promoting some beneficent plans of the moral Governor of the world. " in a way which no other people were." This is certainly a candid ♦ Kora. ii!. 2. t >''"'• »ii- 12. I Rom. i.\. 4. 5. 5 Heb. viii. 5, II Viilp Mipra, Part II. Lect. 11. 1 Jolm v. 64. 464 HU-MBI.E RE.MOXS'rnANCE TO REVIEWERS. [App. admission of very important truth ; and I again most seriously request these critics to consider, how utterly inconsistent this fact is with the hypothesis of Mr De Wette, which they also appear to adopt, that tiie books ascribed to Moses, which contain that system of laws and institu- tions by which the Jews were rendered instrumental in preserving the knowledge of the one true God, " are tracts between which there is " neither harmony nor connexion; that the narration of facts in these " books proves itself (in many most important points) untrue, by its " ambiguity and equivocation. That there are parts of the old Jewish " fabric, which have nothing to do with Christianity, but are clumsy " and superfluous out-buildings , that the ceremonial part of the law is " a fugitive contrivance, the work of human artifice, or little more — *' the prophecies ambiguous oracles or equivocal predictions," &c. &c. It were indeed most wonderful and astonishing if these were the means which Providence employed to preserve the knowledge of the one truk God, in the midst of an idolatrous world. Our critics will, I trust, re- consider these points, and hereafter adapt their opinions with somewhat more care to the truth of history, the analogy of nature, and the har- mony of the divine dispensations. At all events the reasoning and serious part of their readers will learn what degree of credit they ought to attach to such opinions, and such criticism, on the most important subject that can occupv the human mind — the examination of the divine word, the discovery of the divine will, and the development of the divine dispensations ; and I submit the admonition of the learned, candid, and pious Doddridge to the consideration of the Critical Reviewers ; it occurs in his 143d Lecture, Sect. 18, " We may certainly infer, that " for any to pretend to exalt the character of Christ and of Paul as " divine teachers, while at the same time they pour contempt upon the " Jewish institutions as a foolish and impious forgery, is a notorious " contradiction and absurdity ; and common sense will teach us, that " such authors, whatever mey may proiess, ao equally intend the su6- ♦• version of the Old Testament and the New," SECTION II. Kftnarks on some circumstances which have occasioned doubts as to the reality of some oj the Mosaic miracles — General remarks on the improbability of objections which affect only some one miracle, not the entire series — Miracles in which the magicians ap- peared to imitate Moses ; Mr Farmer's opinion on this subject, and the arguments by which he supports it — The passage of the Ked Sea attempted to be accounted for with- out a mtracie, from a passage of Josephus — true import of this passage — supplies no evidence against the miracle — it is represented by Moses, and was believed by the Jews to be clearly miraculous — inference from thence — improbability of the Jews being able to escape by an extraordinary ebb of the sea — Dr Geddes's observations on this subject — The pillar of cloud and fire which accompanied the Israelites — attempted to he ac- counted for without a miracle — account entirely inconsistent with the circumstances of the history, and with probability — Objection, from Moses's application to Hobah — in- conclusive — Miraculous preservation of the raiment of the Jews in the wilderness — objected to — why necessary — Review of the mode in which Dr Geddes accounts for the whole series vf Mosaic miracles, without admitting any supernatural interposition — his account unphilosophic and incredible. In the preceding Work, Part I. Lect. VI. I have adduced such argu- ments as appear to me to prove satisfactorily, that the whole series of the Mosaic miracles is established by the clearest evidence ; and if these arguments are conclusive, it may seem unnecessary to enter into any refutation of such objections as are raised, not against the reality of the entire series of miraculous interpositions, or the general truth of the history of the Mosaic miracles, but against some minute circum- stances of them, some individual instances of supernatural interference ; for, admitting any miraculous power to have clearly manifested itself on the occasion, and for the purposes recorded by Moses, the exercise of that power on the particular instances alluded to, becomes perfectly credible. In this case, the remark which Bishop Butler makes as to our Savour, is strictly applicable to Moses. " Supposing it," says he, " acknowledged, that our Saviour, (or that the Jewish Lawgiver) spent " some years in a course of working miracles : there is no more pre- " sumption, w-orth mentioning, against his having exerted this miracu- " lous power, in a certain degree greater, than in a certain degree less ; " in one or two more instances, than in one or two fewer ; in this, than " in another manner."* Nay, I may add, that the supposition of some particular facts, recorded as miraculous, being frauds and delu- sions, becomes improbable, in proportion as it is improbable either that fraud should be practised to effect soyne parts of a system, by a messenger empowered to establish the remaining parts of it by miracles ; or that delusion and error should be permitted to blend with and de- * Auftlogy, Part II. Cli. II. p. 242. 2g 4;6G KEMARKS ON DOUm'S AS TO THE [-^PP* base (even at its first introduction) a scheme evidently supported by a divine interference. These considerations might, I conceive, justify me in omitting to notice the objections and doubts raised as to some particulars of the Mosaic miracles ; but as this might seem to cut the knot, rather than to untie it, I will proceed to consider such as appear to be of any se- rious importance. They regard, as far as I can find, the miracles of Moses which the Egyptian magicians appeared to imitate — the passage of the Red Sea — the pillar of the cloud and fire that accompanied and directed the Israelites in their journeyings — and, the preservation of the raiment of the Jews during their abode in the wilderness, re- corded Deut. viii. 4. On each of them I shall beg leave to ofi'er a few remarks. The circumstance of the magicians of Egypt having appeared to imitate some of the miracles performed by Moses — has by some writers been considered such as to discredit the entire history of the Mosaic miracles; Dr Geddes, amongst others, obsei-ves, "We are now come " to the famous plagues of Egypt, the prelude to which, in my opinion, " warns us to beware of implicit credulity, and greatly weakens the " literal credibility of all that follows."* Let us consider how justly. On this subject, after the best consideration I can give it, I cannot avoid adopting the opinion of the able and learned Mr Hugh Farmer, in his Treatise on Miracles. t I do not believe that any real miracle, or such an exertion of power or foresight, more than human, and pro- ducing effects difi'erent from or contrary to the established course of nature, was ever performed, but by the direct interposition of God, or of such beings as act by his immediate power and commission. And I am also with him persuaded, that the magicians did not perform works really supernatural, nor were assisted by any superior invincible being ; but were merely impostors attempting to imitate the real miracles of Moses by secret sleights or jugglings ; which to a certain degree, and in a small extent, they succeeded in doing, so as to deceive the spec- tators, until at length, unable any longer to imitate the efi^ects of di- rine power, and feeling in their own persons its chastisement, they were compelled to confess, " this is the finger of God ;" and thus to give glory to God before Pharaoh and his servants, and to evince thefutulity of their own boasted magical arts, and the impotence of those base idols, and those invisible spirits or demons, on whose aid they relied, more clearly and convincingly than if they had never entered into the competition, or had not been permitted to succeed to such a degree, aa proved that they had exercised freely and fully whatever arts or power they possessed, and had carried them to their greatest extent ; but yet were baffled and overcome by the resistless power of Jehovah, their im- posture detected, and their impious arrogance chastised. So that we can thus assign a probable account for the Deity's having selected such a kind of miracle, in the first instance, as might encourage the magicians *o attempt its imitation, and for his permitting them to succeed in that, and even in a second or third attempt, because thus the Divine Power * Critical Reirnrks on Exod. vii. 5. p. 131. t Vide Farmer's Disssrtation on Miracles, ch. iv. sect. 1, p. 409. Sect. II.] UEALITY OF THE MOSAIC MIRACLES. 467 was ultimately more clearly manifested, and the imposture of magic, as weU as the absurdity of idolatry more decidedly exposed. Such appears to me to be the true account of this transaction ; the distinct parts of which the able writer to whom I have referred has, aa I conceive, fully estabhshed. I will exhibit his most important observa- tions in as brief a form as is consistent with being intelligible, referring my more curious readers to the work itself, the perusal of which will, I think, amply recompense them, by the learning and judgment it displays, and the truths which it developes. I think it unnecessary to detail the various hypotheses employed by different commentators and divines to explain this part of Scripture history, as they have been fairly weighed, and, as I think, confuted by this able writer, whose opinion I adopt.* " To this account," says Farmer.f " it may be objected, that Moses " describes the works of the magicians in the very same language as he " does his own, and therefore that there is reason to conclude that they " were equally miraculous. To which I answer that if this wore so, " yet nothing is more common than to speak of professed jugglers, J as " doing what they pretend and appear to do, and that this language •' never misleads, when we reflect what sort of men are spoken of, " namely, mere imposers on the sight ; why might not Moses then use " the common popular language when speaking of the magicians, with- " out any danger of misconstruction, inasmuch as the subject he was " treating, all the circumstances of the narrative, and the opinion which " the historian was known to entertain of the inefficacy and imposture " of magic, did all concur to prevent mistakes ? " But, secondly, Moses did not affirm that there was a perfect con- " forinity betsveen his works and those of the magicians ; he does not " close the respective relations of his own particular miracles, with " saying the magicians did that thing, \\ or, according to what he did so " did they,§ a form of speech used on this occasion no less than three " times in one chapter, to describe the exact correspondence between " the orders of God, and the behaviour of his servants; but makes " choice of a word of great latitude, such as does not necessarily ex- " press anything more than a general similitude, such as is consistent " with a diflerence in many important respects, they did so or in like " manner as he had. — That a perfect imitation could not be designed " by this word, is evident from its being applied to cases in which suck " an imitation was absolutely impracticable ; for, when Aaron had con- '* verted all the waters of Egypt into blood, we are told the magicians " didso,^] that is, something in hke sort. Nor can it be supposed " that they covered the land of Egypt with frogs, this had been done " already; they could only appear to bring them over some small * Farmer, from page 409 to 449. f Ibid, page 449. I "When Mosea de.^cribea what the magicians pretended, and eeemed to perform, by saying " the)/ cast down evny man his rod, and (hey became serpents, ani they brought up frogs upon the " Inndof Egypt ; he only u^es the same language as Apuleius (Metam. I. 1.) where describing a " person who merely played juggling tricks— Circulatorura aspexi equestrem spathara praiacutam " Mucrone infesto deroraste ac mox eundem veoatoriam lanceam— in ima viscera condidisse.'' II '• Vide in Exod. ix. 5. 6." 5 " lb. vii. 6, 10, 20." t " Vide In Exod. yu. 20 and 22." 4C8 REMARKS ON DOUBTS AS TO THE [^IP* " apace cleared for the purpose. But what is more decisive, the word " imports nothing more than their attempting some imitation of Moses, " for it is used when they failed in tkexr attempt : They did so to " b)-ing forth lice, but they could not.* ' Thirdly. But further, so far is Moses from ascribing the tricks of " the magicians to the invocation and power of demons, or to any su- " perior beings whatever, that he does most expressly refer all they did " or attempted in imitation of himself, to mere human artifice and im- " posture. The original words, which are translatedf enchantments are " entirely different from that rendered enchantments in other passages of Scripture, and do not carry in them any sort of reference to sorcery " or magic, or the interposition of any spiritual agents ; they import " deception and concealment, and ought to have been rendered secret " sleights or jugglings, and are thus translated even by those who adopt " the common hypothesis with regard to the magicians. § These secret " sleights and jugglings are expressly referred to the magicians, not " to the devil, who is not so much as mentioned in the history. — Should " we therefore be asked, || How it came to pass, in case the works of "the magicians were performed by sleight of hand, that Moses has " given no hint thereof? we answer. He has not contented himself with " a hint of this kind, but, at the same time that he ascribes his own " miracles to Jehovah, he has in the most direct terms resolved every " thing done in imitation of them entirely to the fraudulent contriv- " ances of his opposers, to legerdemain or sleight of hand, in contradic- " tion from magical incantations. Moses, therefore could not design to " represent their works as real miracles, at the very time he was " branding them as impostures. " Fourthly. It remains only to show, that the works performed by " the magicians did not exceed the cause to which they are ascribed ; " or in other words, the magicians proceeded no farther in imitation " of Moses, than human artifice might enable them to go (while the " miracles of Moses were not liable to the same impeachment, and " bore upon themselves the plainest signatures of that divine power * " Exod. viii. 18. Le Clerc observes. Nee raro Hebraei ad conatum notanduin verbisutuntur quae " rem effectam significant, Gen. xxxvii. 'JI. Consult him likewise on Exod. vii. 18. ch. 12, 48. p. " CG, 2." t " The original word used Exod vii. 11, is Dri''\S^h^belah(iteliem ; and that which occurs ch. " vii. 22. and ch. viii, 7, 18, is D.T'liSn iihitehein ,-the former is probably derived from VSrn lahat, " wliich signifies to burn, and the sub.-tantive a flame or shining' sword- blade, and is applied to the " flaming sword which guarded tUe tree of life. Gen. iii. 24. Those who formerly used legerde- " main, dazzled and deceived the sight of spectators by the art of brandishing their swords, and " sometimes seemed to eat them and to thrust them into their bodies ; and the expression seems " to intimate, that the magicians appearing to turn their rods into serpents, was owing to their " eluding the eyes of the spectators by a dexterous m.iuagement of their swords. In the preceding " instances they made use of some different contrivance, for the latter word, belatehem. comes " from laN^ or UT? to cover or hide (ivhicli some think the former word also does) and therefore " fitly expresses any secret artifices or methods of deception whereby false appearances are toJ- " posed upon tlie soectator." § " Bishop Kidder on Exod. vii. 11." II •• As we are by Dr Macknight, in liis Truth of the Rospel History, p. 372." Sect. IT.] REALITY OF THE MOSAIC MIRACLES. 469 "to which they are referred.) If this can be proved, the interposition " of the devil on this occasion will appear to be an hypothesis invented " without anv kind of necessity, as it certainly is witliout any autho- " rity from the sacred text. " First, With regard to the first attempt of the magicians, the " turning rods into serpents: It cannot be accounted extraordinary " that they should seem to succeed in it, when we consider that these " men were famous for the art of dazzling and deceiving the sight ; " and that serpents being first rendered tractable and harmless, as they *' easily may, have had a thousand different tricks played with them to " the astonishment of the spectators.* Huetius tells us,t that amongst •' the Chinese there are jugglers who undertake to turn rods into ser- " pents ; though no doubt they only dexterously substitute the latter " in the room of the former. Now this is the vei-y trick the magicians " played : and as it appears by facts, that the thing in general is very " practicable, it is immaterial to account particularly how the thing " was done : since it is not always easy to explain in what manner a " common juggler imposes uponour sight. Should it be suggested, " that Moses might impose upon the sight of the spectators, as well as " the magicians ; I answer, that as he ascribes their performances to " legerdemain, and his own to God, so there might and must have " been a wide difference in their manner of acting ; the covered arts of " the magicians not being used by jNIoses, the same suspicion could " not rest on him that did on them'. — What an ingenious writer asserts " is not true, that, according to the book of Exodus, the outward ap- " pearance on both sides was precisely the same. The book of Exodus " specifies a most important difference between the miracle of Aaron, " and the impostures of the magicians ; for it says, that Aaron cast " down his rod, before Plun-aoh and before his servants, and it be- " came a serpent ; but with regard to the magicians, it uses very dif- " ferent language, for at the same time it says, Thej/ cast dotvn every man " his rod, and they became serpents. It expressly declares that they " DID THIS BY THEIR ENCHANTMENTS OR COVERED ARTS ; and *' what in the most eff'ectual manner prevented any apprehension, that " the serpent of Aaron was (like those of the magicians) the effect " only of a dexterous management, not a miraculous production, God " caused his rod to swallow up theirs, in which there was no room for " artifice, and which for this reason the magicians did not attempt to " imitate. This new miracle was not designed to establish the su- " periority of the God of Israel to the idols of Egypt ; nor was it ca- " pable of answering that end: but in the view here given of it, had * " Those who desire to see instances of this from modern authors, may consult Dr Sykes on " Miracles, pp. 166, IG8. Many pretended to render serpents harmless by charms, (pp. 58, 5. Rocliart, '• Hieroz, part post, 1, 3, c. 6; Shaw's Travels, pref. p. 5. also, p. 429. and Supplement, p. 62.) though "more prohably they destroy the teeth, through which they ejected their poison. Herodotus " mentions certain serpents which were quite harmless; Euterpe, c. 74. Antiquity attributes to " the Psylli, a people of Africa, tiie extraordinary virtue of rendering themselves invulnerable hy ' serpents, as well as of curing those who were bit by them. See Dr Hasselquist's Voyages and " Travels cited in the Monthly Review for February, 1766, page 133." t " Alnetan Quaest. 1. ii. p. 155." 470 REMARKS ON DOUBTS AS TO THE [-^PP' " much wisdom, by vindicating the credit of the former miracle * " (which might possibly be more open to suspicion, than any of the " rest) as well as by affording new e\ddence of a divine interposition *' in favour of Moses. God considered this evidence as fully decisive " of the point in question, between his messengers and the magicians : " for from this time he proceeded to the punishment of Pharaoh and " the Egyptians : which affords a new demonstration, drawn from the " justice of the Divine Being, of the falsehood of the common hypo- " thesis, according to the representation given of it by those who " maintain that the magicians were not plainly vanquished till they " were restrained from turning the dust into lice. Had this been the " case it would have been right in Pharaoh to suspend his judgment " till that time; nor would God have punished him by the two inter- " vening plagues, that of turning the waters of the Nile (to which " Egypt owed its fecundity) into blood, and covering the land with " frogs : punishments so severe as to imply the most criminal obstinacy " on the part of Pharaoh. " Second, With regard to the next attempt of the magicians to imi- " tate Moses, who had already turned all the running and standing " waters of Egypt into blood, there is no difficulty in accounting for " their success in the degree in which they succeeded. For it was " during the continuance of this judgment, when no water could be " procured, but by digging round about the river, that the magicians " attempted by some proper preparations to change the colour of the " small quantity that was brought them (probably endeavouring to " persuade Pharaoh, that they could as easily have turned a larger " quantity into blood.) In a case of this nature imposture might, and, " as we learn from history, often did take place. It is related by Va- " lerius Maximus.f that the vnne poured into the cup of Xerxes was " three times changed into blood. But such trifling feats as these could " not at all disparage the miracle of Moses; the vast extent of which " raised it above the suspicion of fraud, and stamped upon every heart, " that was not steeled against all conviction, the strongest impression " of its divinity. For he turned their streams, rivers, ponds, and the " water in all their receptacles, into blood. And the fish that was in " the river (Nile) died; and the river stank. + " Third, Pharaoh not yielding to this evidence, God proceeded to *' farther punishments, and covered the whole land of Egypt with " frogs. 1^ Before these frogs were removed, the magicians undertook "to bring into some place cleared for the purpose a fresh supply; " which they might easily do, when there was such plenty every where " at hand. Here also the narrow compass of the work exposed it to " the suspicion of being effected by human art ; to which the miracle ♦ •' We learn from hence how little occasion there was for Moses to detect the artifices of the •' magicians, who did not so much as pretend to any peculiar divine assistance, and who sunk into * contempt of themselves. 2 Tim. iii. 9. The nature of the works of Moses, and the open unsus- " picious maimer of their performance, served sufficiently to disgrace the attempts of his rivals." t " Lih. i. c. 6." t " Exod. vii. 19—21."* § " Exod. viii. 6 — 8. Nor indeed can it be imasrined that after this or the former plagus bad " been removed, that Pharaoh would order his magicians to renew either." Sect. II.] REALITY OF THE AlOdAIC MIRACLES. 471 "of Moses was not liable; the infinite number of frogs which filled " the whole kingdom of Egypt (so that their ovens, beds, and tables " swarmed with them) being a proof of their immediate miraculous " production. Besides, the magicians were unable to procure their " removal which was accomplished by Moses, at the submissive appli- " cation of Pharaoh and at the very time that Pharaoh himself chose, " the more clearly to convince him that God was the author of these " miraculous judgments, and that their infliction or* removal did not " depend upon the influence of the elements or stars, at set times or " in critical junctures. " Fourth, The history of the last attempt of the magicians confirms " the account here given of all their former ones. Moses turned all " the dust of the land into lice; and this plague, like the two pre- " ceding ones, being inflicted at the word of ]Moses, and extended " over the whole kingdom of Egypt, must necessarily have been owing " not to human art, but to a divine power. Nevertheless the motives " upon which the magicians at first engaged in the contest with Moses, " the shame of desisting, and some shght appearances of success in " their former attempts, prompted them still to carry on the imposture, " and to try with their enchantments (or secret art) to bring forth lice ; " but they could not. With aU their skill in magic, and with all their " dexterity in deceiving the spectators, they could not even succeed so "far as they had done in former instances, by producing a specious " counterfeit of this work of Moses. Had they hitherto performed " real miracles by the assistance of the devil, how came they to desist " now ? It cannot be a greater miracle to produce lice, than to turn " rods into serpents, water into blood, and to create frogs. It has in- " deed been very often said, that the devil was now laid under a re- " straint : but hitherto no proof of this assertion has been produced. " The Scripture is silent, both as to the devil being now restrained " from interposing any farther in favour of magicians, and as to his " having afibrded them his assistance on the former occasions. But if " we agree with Moses, in ascribing to the magicians nothing more " than the artifice and dexterity which belonged to their profession ; " we shall find that their want of success in their last attempt, was " owing to the different nature and circumstances of their enterprise. •' In all the former instances the magicians kneio beforehand what they " were to undertake, and had time for preparation. They were not " sent for by Pharaoh, till after Moses had turned his rod into a ser- " pent : and previous notice had been publicly given of the two first " plagues. But the orders in relation to the third, were no sooner " issued than exeaited, without being previously imparted to Pharaoh. " So that in this last case they had no time for contriving any expe- " dient for imitating or impeaching the act of Moses. And had they " been allowed time, how was it possible for them to make it appear " that they produced those animals, by which they themselves and all " the country were already covered and surrounded ? or what artifice " could escape detection, in relation to insects, whose minuteness " hinders them from being perceived till they are brought so near as to * " Ch. viii. 8. Had they been able to inflict this plngae miraculously they might have removed " it in the sam« manner.'' 472 REMARKS ON DOUBTa AS TO THE [-A-Pp. " be subject to the closest inspection ?* Now therefore the magicians " chose to say, this (last work of Moses) is the finger of God. " It has been generally thought that the magicians here acknowledge " that the God of Israel was stronger than the gods of Egypt, who " had hitherto assisted them, but were now restrained from doing it by " his superior power. But the text makes no mention of their allowing " the God of Israel to be superior to the gods of Egypt, much less of " their admitting the former to be Jehovah and the only true God. Nor " do they refer to any supernatural restraint upon the Egj'ptian deities, " but to the last miracle of Moses, when they say. This is the finger " of God; or, of a God; for the original word admits this sense, and " very probably was used in no other by the magicians, who beheved " in plurahty of Gods. But, unable to turn the dust of the earth " into lice, (and even to seem to do it,) they allow that this surpassed *' the science they professed, and argued the special miraculous inter- " position of some deity. There is no sort of evidence that this lan- " guage of the magicians proceeded from a desire of doing justice to " the character and claims of the God of Israel, or that it was not " merely designed as the best apology they were able to make for their " own failure of success, and to prevent Pharaoh from reproaching " them with the want of skill in their profession. Certain it is, that " this declaration of the magicians had no good effect upon Pharaoh, *' but seems rather to be mentioned as an occasion of his continued " hardness. Nay, the history plainly intimates, that the magicians " themselves afterwards confronted Moses, till, in punishment of their " obstinacy, they were smitten with ulcers. f I add that the sense " here assigned to their language, is perfectly agreeable to the account " before given of the state of the controversy between them and Moses : " for it implies, that the magicians had not so much as pretended to " any miraculous interposition of the gods in their favour, but relied " entirely upon the established rules of their art ; and consequently " that Pharaoh's view in sending for them, was to enable himself to " determine, whether the works of Moses lay within the compass of it. " I cannot conclude this subject without observing, that the stre- " nuous but unsuccessful opposition to Moses added strength to his "cause; as it seemed to manifest the divinity of his miracles, by " clearing him from all suspicion of magic. This art was thought " equal to the most wonderful phenomena. In Egypt it was held in " the highest esteem, and carried to its utmost perfection. Pharaoh, " without doubt, on the present most important and interesting occa- " sion, engaged the assistance of the most able professors of it, who " from a regard to their own reputation and interest, would try every " possible method to invahdate the miracles of Moses. Nevertheless " their utmost efforts were baffled; and the vanity and futility of the " claims of magic were detected and exposed, agreeably to the censure " passed upon them by St Paul ; for, speaking of certain persons * " There being lice upon man and upon beast, seems to be assigned as a reason of the magicians " being nnable to counterfeit this miracle." t " The magiciam could not st(md before Moses because of the boil; for the boil was upon the nt't. "gicians. Exod. ix. 11. Does not this imply, that till this time the magicians had in some metl.od " or other opposed or disparaged Moses ?" Sect. II.] REALITY OF THE MOSAIC JIIUACLKS. 473 " whose opposition to genuine Christianity was the sole effect of their " corrupt minds, without the least colour of reason, he compares them " to Jannes and Jambres,* who withstood Moses ; and did it, he must " mean, with as little pretence, or there could be no justice in the " comparison. He adds, their folly was manifest vnto all ■men;\ " and thus he taxes the conduct of the magicians with the most glaring " absurdity, lie cannot therefore be supposed to admit, that they " imitated and equalled for a time the miracles of Moses, and then " desisted as soon as they found themselves unable to continue the con- " test to advantage (which would have been a sort of prudence ;) but " to assert, that they wickedly and absurdly attempted to place the *' feats of art on a level with the undeniable operations of a divine " power; and so shamefully miscarrying in their undertaking, tliey ex- " posed themselves to the contempt of those who had once held them " in high veneration." The miraculous nature of the passage over the Red Sea has been questioned by sceptical writers, chiefly on two accounts, as far as I can discover ; one, because Josephus compares it with the passage of Alex- ander over the bay of Pamphyha, in his Persian expedition, and as this is allowed not to have been miraculous, it is contended the passage over the Red Sea was as httle so ; and another, that it is conceived Moses may have taken advantage of a strong ebb tide, aided by a correspon- dent wind, which may have left a large strand dry, long enough for the Israelites to i)ass, but which on the Egyptians attempting to pursue them, returned and destroyed them. And they labour to collect in- stances of such ebbs and refluxes of the sea in different parts of the world. I conceive both these objections rest on so slight a support, that a very little reflection will be sufficient to overturn them. As to the representation of Josephus, it is clear he believed that the deliverance of the Jews at the Red Sea was aided by Divine power. " The Egyptians (says he) were not aware that they %vent into a road " made for the Hebrews, and not for others ; that this road was made " for the deliverance of those in danger, but not for those that were " earnest to make use of it for the others' destruction. As soon, there- ' fore, as the whole Egyptian army was within it, the sea flowed to " its own place, and came with a torrent raised by storms of wind, and " encompassed the Egyptians : showers of rain also came down from " the sky, and dreadful thunders, and lightning with flashes of fire ; " X thunderbolts were also darted upon them ; nor was there any thing ♦ " Jannps and Jambres, mentioned by St Paul, 2 Tim. iii. 8. from the Clialdee Paraphrase on " Kxod. vii. 11. are supposed to have been the two chiefs of Pharaoh's mafficiana Numeiius, the " Pythagorean philosopher, (apud Euseb. Prep. Ev. 1. ix. c.8.) says they were inferior to none in " magic skill, and for that reason chosen by common consent to oppose Musseus, for so the Hebrews " called Moses. See Le Clerc on Exod. vii. 12, and Phny's Hist. lib. xxx. c. 1." t " 2 Tim. iii. 9." t That there was nothing- miraculous in Alexander's passage, is evident from the account which the accurate geographer Strabo gives of it. Geog. xiv. p. 666. " Now about Phaselis is that narrow " passage by the sea side through which Alexander led his array: there is a mountain called " Climax, which aiUoins to the sea of Pamphjlia, leaving a narrow passage on the shore, which in " calm weather is bare so as to be passable by travellers, but when the sea overtlows it is covered " to a great degree by the waves. Now then the ascent by the mountains being round about a " Bleep, in still weather they make use of the road along the coast ; but Alexander fell into the 474 REMARKS ON DOUDTS AS TO THE [•'^PP' " which was to be sent by God upon man, as indications of his wrath, " which did not happen at this time, for a dark and dismal night op- " pressed them ; and thus did all these men perish, so that there was " not one man left to be a messenger of this calamity to the rest of the " Egyptians." Assuredly then Josephus believed this event miraculous : writing however for the Heathens, he adduces the instance of Alexander's passage at the edge of the sea on the bay of Pamphylia, which by some was represented as supernatural (doubtless on as good grounds as those on which the hero was worshipped as a god.) " As for myself, " (says he) I have delivered every part of the history as I found it in " the sacred books ; nor let any one wonder at the strangeness of the " narration, if a way were discovered to those men of old time who " were free from the wickedness of modern ages, whether it happened " by the will of God, or whether it happened of its own accord, while " for the sake of those that accompanied Alexander king of Macedonia, " who yet lived comparatively but a little while ago, the Pamphyhan " sea retired and afforded them a passage through itself when they had " no other way to go, I mean when it was the will of God to destroy " the empire of the Persians ; and this is confessed to be true by all " those who have written the history of Alexander. But as to these " events, let every one determine as he pleases." It is quite clear from comparing this passage with that immediately preceding, that the former period speaks the real opinion of Josephus ; the latter is merely a mode of expression calculated to keep up the at- tention and conciliate the beUef of his heathen readers, as if he had said, Do not immediately reject my history as fabulous and incredible, because it relates the miraculous passage of the Jews through the Red Sea ; while you admit without hesitation an event stated by your own historians as of a similar nature, in the history of Alexander ; in judg- ing of these matters you can exercise your liberty. I have derived my history from our sacred books, to them I refer you to decide on its credibihty. Any supposition, of Josephus being a sceptic as to the truth of the Old Testament history, is clearly contradictory to the entire drift and tenor of all his works. The learned and judicious Reland, as quoted by Whiston in his first preliminary dissertation, justly observes, that " Josephus uses the same manner of speaking (Book iii. ch. 10; after " he had said that it was falsely believed that Moses and the Israehtes •' winter season, and committing himself chiefly to fortune, he marched on before the waves re- " tired ; and so it happened that tliey were a whole day in journeying- over it, and were under *' water up to the navel." — Arrian also describes it in such a way as to prove it was not miraculous : " When Alexander (says he) removed from Pliaselis, he sent some part of his army over the " mountains to Perga, which road the Thracians showed him ; a dilficult way it was, but short. " However, he himself conducted those that were with him by the sea shore ; this road is impas- •' sable at any other time, than when the north wind blows : but if the south wind prevail there is " no passing by the shore. Now at this time after strong south winds a north wind blew, and " that not without a divine Providence, as both he and they who were with him supposed, and " afforded him a quick and easy passage." This supposed interposition of Providence, therefore, forms the entire of the miracle. — Calistlienes, indeed, who accompanied Alexander, represented the Pamphylian Sea, not only as opening for him a passage, but that, by raising and elevating its waters, it did pay him homage as its king ; and surely it ought to have done no less, as ho was not only a king, but a demigod. This Calisthenes was a true courtier. Sect. IT.] REALITY OF THE MOSAIC MIRACLES. 475 " were expelled Egypt for leprosy, he adds, let every one consider this as " he pleases ; did he therefore intend to say that this was also uncertain, " it being no other than that impudent calumny which he himself " vehemently confutes and exposes at large in his first Book against " Apion, page 25 to 31." And Reland adds many other instances of his using this expression, where it is quite certain that he most firmly believed the fact to which he applies it. Thus utterly ill founded is the objection to the miracle, from the supposition of its having been confessed incredible by Josephus. But after all, this objection is in its very nature futile and inconclusive ; for, how can the truth of the Mosaic history, or the miraculous nature of any event which it records, be either materially confirmed or weakened bv a writer who lived near two thousand years after the event, and who confessedly derived all his knowledge concerning it, from the very same sacred volume which still remains for our examination ? Most certainly the reality and the miraculous nature of the fact must be de- cided by the credibility of the original narrative, and of the concurring testimonies which either oppose or confirm it, if any such can be found. To these, therefore, let us direct our attention. On this subject, it is in the first place an obvious remark, that the Sacred History itself represents this transaction as a clear and stupen- dous miracle, and declares that it was recognized as such in the hymn of thanksgiving composed at the very time by Moses, and from that period constantly preserved by the whole Jewish nation, and that every allusion to it in the subsequent parts of the Jewish history, the psalms or the prophets, presupposes and affirms its miraculous nature. " Fear ye not," (says Moses to the multitude, panic-struck at the sight of the Egyptian army) " stand still and see the salvation of the " Lord, which he will show you to-day ; for the Egyptians whom ye have " seen to-day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The Lord " shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." What language can- declare more expressly the certain expectation of a miraculous in- terposition ? This interposition was manifested in three things : the first, in pro- tecting them from the attack of the Egyptians before their passage through the sea ; the second, in opening that passage ; and the third, in destroying the Egyptians. As to the first, the sacred historian gives this account : " And the angel of God which went before the camp of " Israel, removed and went behind them ; and the pillar of the cloud *' went from before their face, and stood behind them. And it came " between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of the Israehtes ; " and it was a cloud of darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these ; so that the one came not near the other all the night."* Now it is scarcely credible any historian should invent such a circumstance as this, so unlikely to occur even to the most fertile imagination. It is still more incredible he should hope to persuade a whole nation of the truth of such a fiction, and utterly impossible that such a fact, if real, shoxild not be miraculous. The historian proceeds : " And Moses stretched out his hand over 476 REMARKS ON DOUBTS AS TO THE [^pp. " the sea ; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east " wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were " divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea ' upon the dry ground : and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left."^ Now this description is utterly in- applicable to any thing like an eib of the sea. This would carry away the whole body of the waters, and leave a dry space, but it could never divide them ; it could never make them stand like a loall upon their right hand and on their left. Or, even admitting Dr Geddes's re- mark, " that we need not suppose them to stand upright like real walls, " but only that they were deep enough on each side of the shoal to " prevent the Israelites from being flanked or attacked from any quarter " but from behind ;" it is not conceivable how an ebb of the sea alone could produce this efiect. The history plainly ascribes it to a divine interposition ; and we must either pronounce that totally false, or the event it relates decidedly miraculous. The third part of this transaction is the destruction of the Egyptians ; this is also described in terms which imply a decided miracle. " The " Egyptians," says the history, " pursued, and went in after them, to the " midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen." He adds, " And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the Lord " looked unto the host of the Egyptians, through the pillar of fire, and " of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egj'ptians, and took off " their chariot wheels," (or as Dr Geddes translates it, so entangled them) " that they drave them heavily : so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee " from the face of Israel ; for the Lord fighteth for them, against the " Egyptian s."t Here is another circumstance perfectly consistent with, and as it were regularly connected with, the former part of the narrative, con- cerning the miraculous cloud which divided the two armies ; but yet so unlike any thing mere human imagination would have conceived, that it is scarcely credible any thing but reality could have suggested it. The narrative proceeds : " And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out " thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the " Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. And " Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea ; and the sea returned to " his strength when the morning appeared, and the Egyptians fled " against it : and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the " sea. There remained not so much as one of them. Thus the Lord " saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians : and Israel " saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore. And Israel saw that " great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians : and the ]>eople " feared the Lord, and bcheved the Lord, and his servant Moses."| Nothing can be more clear than that Moses ascribes the sudden re- turn of the waters, at such a critical moment as to destroy the whole host of the Egyptians to a supernatural power ; and states it to have been recorded and believed as such by the whole nation of the Jews, from the moment the event took place ; and preserved in their perpe- tual recollection by that sublime hymn of triumphal thank?giving, which * Exod. xiv. 21, 22. t Ibid. xiv. 23-25. i Ibid, ver c 26, &c. Sect. II.] REALITY OF TilR MOS.VIC MIUAri.ES. 477 he himself composed, and has transmitted to posterity in the next chapter. And it has been well remarked, that it is totally inconceiv- able that such a history could have gained credit with the Jewish na- tion, as we certainly know it did, had the facts on which it is founded been the consequences of natural causes, or of mere human contriv- ance ; " Who can imagine," say the authors of the Universal History, " that in such a case any credit could have been given to his relation, " when he declares that God, who alone knew what passed in Egypt, " did unexpectedly make them take this new route ; when he describes " his own surprise and the people's consternation at the sight of the " Egyptian army ; above all, when he describes the sea miraculously " dividing to let them pass, and suddenly returning to overthrow their " enemies ? What opinion must they have had of his sincerity, if these " events, thus ascribed to God, were entirely owing to his own cun- " ning and policy ? On the other hand, what must they think of his " conduct, that could be guilty of such an oversight as to lead them " into such a danger, though under the pretence of miraculous direc- " tion ? And finally, Moses must have been the most impudent and " the most vain man alive, to attempt making such a vast and not " over-credulous multitude beheve that their passage was altogether as " miraculous as he affirms it to have been, when they could not but '• have been well assured of the contrary, much less appoint a solemn " festival of seven days, and enjoin it to be observed by them and their " posterity to all future ages in memory of their pretended miraculous " passing through the sea, when the experience of a much shorter " time than they continued along that coast, could easily have con- " vinced them that there was nothing in it but what was natural, and " what happened every day."* Thus unaccountable are the existence and the reception of the Mo- saic history of this event, if this deliverance be ascribed to mere natu- ral causes, directed by human contrivance, and misrepresented by art- ful exaggeration, t + Universal History of the .Tflwf:, Book 1. cliap. vii. note P. t As I wish to take the objectors to tliis miracle o« their own statement, I have not judged it necessary to enter into a critical discussion of the spot where this passage took place ; particularly as absolute certainty on such a point may not be easily attainable, at the distance of three thou- sand three hundred years. I refer on this subject to the learned Mr Bryant on the Plagues of Egypt, (p. 358) who, in a dissertation on the place of the departure of the Jews from Egypt, and their subsequent journey and passage over the Red Sea, brings many strong arguments and authorities to sliow that the passage took place &t- Bedea, about six German miles, or about twenty-four English, from Suez, " where and where only there is a defile, which consisted of a long extended coast, and was " bounded by the Sinus Heroopolitanus to the East, by the extremity of the Arabian Mountain to " the West ; at the end was the inundation or inlet of the sea called Clymax, and now by the " Arabians Co/sum : here were they situated, exactly as the text describes they were, bi/ the sea, " and entinigled by the land ; the wilderness had shut them in." '• But," says Dr Geddes, " the " sea is here near four leagues broad by fifty feet deep ; to have dried up a passage through such a " mass of waters would have been a prodigy indeed ; for my part, who believe there was nothing " miraculous in the event, 1 am positively for the pass at Suez, where at this day there are shal- " lows fordable .it low water, and which might in former times have been frequently dry : we all " know what changes happen in the bed of seas, as well as in the bed of rivers, especially where " that bed is sand, which the Gulf of Suez certainly is." There certainly have been such changes, but, unfortunately for the Doctor's system, in this instance the changes have been such as to prove that the spot Avliere the Doctor supposes the Jews to have passed, instead of being for- 478 REMARKS ON DOUBTS AS TO THE [■^PP* But let US for a moment set aside all the particular circumstances of the history, retaining only the two great facts, even that the Israelites escaped from the Egyptians by passing in some mode or other through or along an arm of the sea, in which their pursuers were destroyed, and try the probability of the explanation given of those facts by those who set aside all miraculous interference. Moses, say they, took advantage of an ebb of the sea, which, aided by a favourable wind (not as the original states, an East wind, for this, though it corresponds to the history, as it blows across the Gulf of Suez, and therefore if supernaturally increased might divide it across, yet could not answer this hypothesis) left a dry strand to a great ex- tent, and dry long enough for the Jews to pass, (perhaps by ebb suc- ceeding to ebb) while the Egyptians, attempting to follow them, a sud- den and violent reflux of the sea destroyed them. " But," says Dr Geddes,* " as for the ebb upon ebb, it is now ne- " ver observed to happen at Suez, where the tides are very regular, " and the difference between high and low water only about three feet " and a half." Those who have examined the tides here most accu- rately, assure us, " that the greatest distance that it falls from the place " of high water is about three hundred yards, and these can continue " entirely uncovered but during the space of half an hour at most, for *' during the first six hours the sea doth only retire by degrees, and in *' less than half an hour it begins again to flow towards the shore ; the *' most therefore that can be allowed, both of time and space, of pass- " able ground, in a moderate computation, is about two hundred paces •' during six hours, or one hundred and fifty paces during eight hours. " Now it is plain that a multitude, consisting at least of upwards of " two millions and a half of men, women, children, and slaves, en- " cumbered besides with great quantity of cattle and household stuff, " could never perform such a march within so short, we may say within " even double that space, though we should allow them also double " the breadth of ground to do it on. This argument will hold good " against those who suppose that they only coasted along some part of " the sea, and those who maintain that they crossed that small arm or " part of it which is towards the further end near the port of Suez, as " six or eight hours could not have been sufficient for the passage of so iDprly more dry than at present, was entirely overflowed by the Red Sea, which at that time flowed into the country, probably thirty miles higlier than it does at presnnt, and overflowed a considerable basin or laice which has been since separated from the Red Sea by a bank of saud gradually accumulating near Suez, and has been dried up, partly by sand and partly by exhala- tion. While this lake existed, and the communication between it and the Red Sea was open, it would have been more impracticable than now to effect a passage where Dr Geddes and the other authors, who are only for a half miracle, or for no miracle, placed it. In proof of this former extent of the Red Sea, consult Memoires sur L'Egypte, publies pendant Les Campagnes Du General Bonaparte, par L'Institut. d'Egypte, Tom. iv. p. 218. The gentlemen of this Institute (as might be expected) will have the passage not to be miraculous, for, like Dr Geddes, they think that the Red Sea at Suez has a strand that is passable at low water, while at the same time it is deep enough, jiarticularb/ when agitated by tempests, to destroy a considerable army. QjKEie—U the Red Sea communicated with the Lake, as these writers have proved it did, wa* this stra7id so large? But these gentlemen have not pretended to account for the wonderfijl dif- ference between the fortune of the Jews and of the Egyptians. It was a mere accident from tempests, &c. &c. &c. * Note upon Exod. xiv. 21. Sect. II.] KKAI.ITY OF THE MOSAIC MIRACT.E.S, 479 " immense a multitude, allow them what breadth of room you will; " much less for Pharaoh to have entered it with his whole host."* In addition to this, how extremely improbable is it, that none of the Egyptians should know any thing of the ebbing and flowing of the sea, so as to foresee the danger they were exposed to ; and how incredible, that they should all obstinately persist in pursuing the Israelites through it, when they saw it gradually returning upon them until they were all swallowed up by it. But Dr Geddes has examples enough to render all this credible. *' At the Washes between Norfolk and Lincolnshire, or the great estu^ " ary between Lancaster and Hooksborough, but for guides hired by " government, passengers would often be swallowed up bv the return- " ing tide."t How unfortunate that the Egyptian government never thought of hiring guides ! True it is, these tides are in the Bristol Channel, w^hich, according to Newton, | are of an extraordinary height, from the nature of the channel, rising sometimes to forty-five feet, whereas in the Gulf of Suez they rise only three and a half. But then the Egyptians were " on a shoal between two masses of " water, a deep stagnation on the left hand, and the sea on the right, " both agitated with a vehement wind, which blew almost directly in " their faces." This deep stagnation of water on the left hand is a new circumstance ; the Egyptians, we must suppose, had never sus- pected the existence of this, or they would have known their danger better. But they may have laboured under other very unfortunate accidents, according to Dr Geddes, " for if, while they were on such " a shoal, thunder and lightning attended the tempest, it would be ter- " rible indeed. Besides, extraordinary tides have been always attended '* with danger and death. An instance occurred at Maranopolis, when " the Emperor Valens was there ; and lately at the river Plata in South " America ; and those great commotions are not unfrequently attended " with earthquakes ;" (and what is most of all to the point, because it " happened in Egypt and Palestine) " in the year 1034, on a dreadful " earthquake, which obliged the inhabitants to live in the open air " eight days, the sea receded three parasangs, and on its return de- " stroyed the people who had gone out to pick up cockles and shells." Here is then precisely a parallel case. Thus we see how the entire matter happened without any the least miracle ; only an unprecedented succession of fortunate accidents, which occurred here to the Jews, and by which, with tide and wind in their favour, a calm sky and firm footing, they escaped along this shore, while the unhappy Egyptians instantly after were intercepted by a stagnation of water on one side, and a tide on the other, both unexpected ; a storm with thunder and lightning in their faces, and an earthquake perhaps to close all, and produce a resistless reflux of the sea, which overwhelmed them ; all •f Universal History of the JewB, clinp. vii. note P. t Critical Remarks on Hxod. xiv. 28. I Vide Newtoni Principia, lib. iii. prop. 37, where he notices the great tides at Bristol, tlie " magnitudinem aestus" in that port, and accoiinta for its being impossible that there can be full tides in the Red Sea, " etenim ut plenus sit aestus latitudo maris ab oriente in occidentem non " minor esse debet quam graduum nonaginta." Now the Red Sea is extremely narrow from East to West ; but Newton may not seem to Dr Geddes good philo?ophic authority ; he certainly was so credulous as to believe in miracles and prophecies, witness his Commentary upon Daniel. 480 REMARKS OX DOUBTS AS TO TFIE [^PP- these very unfortunate mischances meeting together at this critical mo- ment, but at the same time perfectly natural. So much for the pas- sage of the Red Sea without a miracle; but the reader will, I beaeve, allow, not without something extraordinary . Another miracle much questioned, is that recorded Exod. xiii. 21. 22. " And the Lord went before them, by day in a pillar of a " CLOUD, to lead them in the way ; and by night in a villar of fire, " to give them light ; to go by day and night. He took not away the " pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before " the people." • Toland, and Dr Geddes after him, are confident this was only such a beacon as is commonly used by caravans, or armies, to direct their march over trackless and sandy deserts : " a wet bundle of straw per- " haps smoking by day, and blazing by night, or a sacred fire carried " about in a portable altar ; but the Hebrew historian makes a miracu- " lous cloud of it."* Most certainly he represents it as miraculous, for he states that this pillar of smoke and fire stood between the Egyp- tians and the Israelites,! and prevented the former, though eager in their pursuit from coming near the latter for a whole night ; and that the terror of the Egyptians was augmented by the terrific appearance which this pillar of fire assumed. Again, when the tabernacle was finished and erected, the historian relates that " a cloud covered the " tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord fell upon .the " tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of the congre- " gation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord " filled the tabernacle. "+ This insufferable and extended glory could not well arise from a bundle of wet or of blazing straw, or even a sacred fire on a portable altar ; and let it be remembered, it was not occasio?ml hut permanent : " The cloud of the Lord was on it by day, " and the fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, " in all their journeyings."§ Surely it would have required a super- natural power of blindfolding and deceiving all the house of Israel, for forty years, to make them believe that a common fire was thus super- natural. It is adduced by Moses as one manifest proof of the Divine presence, which the surrounding nations must hear of — and appealed to in his address to the people, || as an undeniable instance of the con- stant guardian care of God. Reproaching them with their refusal to obey the divine command, and invade the land of Canaan on their first approach to it, he says, " In this ye did not believe the Lord your God, *' who went in the way before you to search you out a place to pitch " your tents, in fire by night, to show you by what way ye should go, " and in a cloud by day." From this glory issued the Divine voice which condemned the sedition of Miriam and Aaron, ^[ and which de- nounced the plague inflicted to punish those who supported the rebellion of Dathan and Abiram.* * * Dr Geddes's Critical Remarks on Exodus, xiii. 21. t Exod. xiv. 20. i Exod. xl. 34, 35. § Ibid, verse 38. || Numb. xiv. 14. 1 Numb. xii. 5 and 10, wliich notice the circumstance of this cloud of fire visibly descendinp from on high, and resting on the Tabernacle, and afterwards re-ascending from it, ♦ * Numb. xvi. 42, Sect. II.] PEALITY OK THE MOSAIC MIRACLES, 48] But it is said, that Moses has betrayed the secret of this not being a signal of the Divine guidance, by his anxiety that his brother-in-law Hobab should accompany them in their journeys through the wilderness. " If," says Dr Geddes, " the cloud continually directed and guided " their marches, what need was there for Hobab to be instead of eyes " to them ? To me it appears from this very passage that Moses was " conscious Hobab knew the wilderness, and the places in it proper for " encampments, better than himself, or his cloud either."* Rosen- muller he quotes as observing on this passage, " that though the " Israelites might be directed by the guidance of the miraculous cloudf " where to encamp, and how long to remain there, yet many things " respecting the accommodation of the people might he left to human " prudence, in which Hobab might be very useful. Thus prudent and " cautious is Rosenmuller," says the Doctor, deriding such an unphi- losophic sentiment. I presume that the Doctor believed that every well ia the vicinity of the camp, and every spot of pasture in the neighbouring hills, and every plant useful for food or medicine, must have been pointed out by miracle, if there was any supernatural interference ; those who believe otherwise, may think RosenmuUer's observations not quite ridiculous, " and that Ilobab might be of use to him instead of eyes," in discover- ing objects thus minute but not unimportant ; and yet the miraculous guidance of the cloud still be admitted. I would in addition beg leave to observe, that it is not easy to ac- count for the Jews remaining forty years marching and countermarch- ing in this wilderness, without either attempting to invade Canaan, or to return to Egypt, but by the continued control of that miraculous potver, the constant presence of which this supernatural appearance visibly attested. In a word, the effects of this divine guidance are so interwoven with the whole history of the journeyings of the Jews from Egypt to Canaan, that we must either reject the entire, as a mere un- founded fable in all its parts, or admit the reality of this miracle. Another miracle excepted against is that recorded Deut. viii. 4. and xxix. 5. containing the supernatural preservation of the raiment of the Israelites during their forty years wandering in the wilderness. From the mode in which this miracle is mentioned, I deduced an argument to confirm the genuineness and truth of the narrative, t which (if just) proves at the same time the reality of the miracle. Till this reasoning is refuted, I might perhaps be justified in passing unnoticed the objec- tions to this miracle, which certainly affect not at all that argument ; but it may be more satisfactory to consider them. • Vidfi Critical Remarks on Numbers, x. 29. + It will not perhaps be tliou^'ht too minute an observation, that Moses tells Hobab he would be useful to them, not in directing' them where to encamp, or how long to remain in any station (for this the guidance of the miraculous cloud pointed cut) but how to eiicamp in the wilderness, i. e. as appears to me, how to arrange their encampment in each appointed place, so as to embrace the circumstances of water, pasture, shelter, supply of fuel, medicinal or nutritive plants or sub- stances, &c. &c. in or near that statimRrk5 on Exodns. xii. 22. 5184! REMARKS ON DOUBTS AS TO THE -^pp. " flight of locusts, an unusual darkness, and finally a ravaging pesti- " lence. And all these calamities might in the course of nine months " or so, have succeeded one another, and been in a great measure the " consequence of the first calamity, too great an overflow op " TURBID WATER. But that thcsB happened exactly according to the " Scripture relation, it requires great faith, or rather credulity, to be- " lieve." How conformable is this conclusion to reason and experience ! It is surely particularly natural, and happens every day, that too great an overflow of turbid waters should be attended with these consequences, particularly with " a tremendous hail, a prodigious flight of locusts, " and an unusual darkness !" So much for the Doctor's system as to the plagues of Egypt. Next let us review his system as to the supposed miraculous division of the Red Sea, the escape of the Israelites, and the destruction of the Egyptians. On this occasion, the cunning Israelites, or at least their leader, who doubtless foresaw every thing, though no prophet, decoyed their ene- mies into this snare, and, after having taken advantage of an uncom- mon tide* of ebb, (where no such ebb is now ever observed) pro- tracted by a favourable wind, "passed safe; the Egyptians pursued " immediately, but they went along a shoal. A deep stagnation of " water on one side, a violent return of the sea on the other, both " totally unexpected, a tempest may have blown in their faces, with " thunder and lightning, which made it terrible — a tide as high per- " haps as in the Bristol Channel, or in the river Plata, though in a " place where at other times the water does not rise above three feet " and an half. But this tide may have been the eft'ect of an earth- " quake." All these accidents combining instantly after the Israehtes had passed safe, may have destroyed the Eg\^ptians ; but there was certainly no miracle, aU quite natural and accidental, though as to the Egyptians very unlucky ; the artful leader of the Jews, who had, it should appear, /oreseew and taken advantage of all these accidents, persuaded his credulous nation that all was miraculous. The CLOUD by day, and pillar of fire by night, which acccom- panied and guided the Israelites for forty years, and which they have always believed supernatural, and of which such supernatural efl'ects are so minutely recorded, was nothing more than "bundles of straw, " or some equally common combustible, carried on high poles or a " portable altar, smoking by day and blazing by night." The MANNA, which is represented as forming the regular staple food of two millions of people, in a wilderness in many parts wholly barren, and this for forty years, is only " a collection of grains shaken from a " particular shrub, in the morning before the sun rises,"\ which the deluded Israelites were persuaded to believe came from the skies, and to which they ascribed a property, "which has not been remarked to " belong to the common manna, namely, that it bred worms and stank, " if kept until the next morning," J a mistake they did not seem to * Vide Critical Remarks on Exod. xiv. compared with a note to tlie translation of Exod.xiv. 21. t CriticiJ Remarks on Exodus, xvi. 14 I Ibid. xvi. 19, 20. Sect. II.] KEALITY OF THE MOSAIC AMKACLES. 48(5 correct during the forty years. And again, they thought " tiiat wliich " was gathered on the sixth day would keep unto the eighth." An- other mistake : credulous interpreters consider both these as parts of the miracle. The SOLEMN GIVING OF THE LAW FROM SINAI, which the He- brew historian represents in such terrific colours, " with thunders and *' lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the " trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people in the camp trembled ; " and Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord de- " scended upon it in fire ; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke " of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly," and of which the lawgiver tells the people, " The Lord spake unto you out of the " midst of the fire. Ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no " similitude, only ye heard the voice." All this was mere artful ma- nagement on the ))art of the sapient lawgiver of the Jews.* " No- " thing," says Dr Geddes, " could be better contrived or more dex- " terously executed, than the plan which he adopts to give a sanction " to the precepts he was about to promulge. The highest top of Sinai, " where he was supposed to have received his first mission, is pitched " upon as the secret sanctuary where he is to meet the Deity, and " receive from him a new code of laws, to be ever after observed by " the Hebrew nation, as coming from their own pecuhar God : the " people, first purified by ablutions and abstinence from connubial " pleasures, are forbidden on pain of death to approach the mountain ; " and the priests themselves, who might approach it to oiFer sacrifice, " are inhibited from ascending to the summit ; order is added to order, " and caution to precaution, to prevent the smallest infringement of " this injunction." Now comes another instance, of the uncommon foresight or uncommon good luck of Moses " while the people wait thus " in awe and anxious expectation, a storm of thunder and lightning " ENSUES ; this they are told is the voice of God, who meanwhile is " supposed to give to Moses, in words articulate, the Decalogue, or ten " commandments. Such I conceive to be the whole mystery, "f says the philoso])hic Doctor. I would humbly suggest to the publisher of the next edition, to subjoin to the words " a storm of thunder andlight- " 7iing ensued," and probably a volcanic eruption, with an earth- quake ; this will be no miracle, will answer the phenomena better ; and why should not this, as well as the storm of thunder and lightning, happen exactly when Moses wants it to terrify the Jews ? As to the last instance, concerning the raiment of the Israelites being supernaturally preserved for fortv vears. Here there was neither mira- cle nor mystery ; the raiment of the Jews was worn, and replaced by their own care and industry, out of the same materials as at all other times. We are only to suppose that the historian positively asserted they had been preserved miraculously, and that the people believed him, because he asserted it. Such is Dr Geddes's philosophical and probable explanation of the Mosaic miracles, of which I will onlv say — " Non credat Judxus apella — Nun I'go ■ ♦ Critical Komarks on Exodus, xix. t II*'''- particii.arty verses IC, 18. 486 REMARKS ON DOUBTS, &C. [-^-Pp. To CONCLUDE the preceding view of the system of infidels, who, compelled to admit the common facts of the Jewish history, would yet set aside all miraculous interposition in the establishment of the Jewish religion : we see it exhibits and requires a series of effects without causes ; unparalleled prodigies, produced without the aid of any super- natural power ; unprecedented events, foreseen without the aid of any Divine foresight, and concurring to assist the plans of the Legislator, as if he could at will command all the powers of nature, and control all the faculties of man, while at the same time he is supposed to be nothing more than a rash and bold impostor. It exhibits a whole nation deluded for a series of forty years, as to facts obvious to sense, and subject to the test of daily experience. It represents this nation as subsisting in a wilderness without any extraor- dinary means of support, and remaining there under unspeakable hard- ships^ without any assignable motive ; acknowledging the authority of their lawgiver, on assertions of facts which they must have known to be false, and submitting to a code of laws most strict and irksome,* and to regulations as to property most strange and unprecedented, on sanctions which there was plainly no power to realize. \etall this system of imposture and delusion became the means of preserving the worship of the true God in this nation, when it was ba- nished from all the world besides ; it prepared the way for the intro- duction of the Gospel, and thus communicating the most extensive blessings to mankind ; and the nation acknowledging this law, still sub- sists at the close of 3,300 years, in a state nearly as strange and un- precedented as when in the wilderness of Arabia ; attesting the truth of prophecy, and prepared in a most peculiar manner to assist in its further accomplishment, and complete that grand scheme of Providence, which is constantly, though gradually, advancing the improvement of the human race. A scheme which, however, we are by infidels called on to believe was introduced originally by human fraud and delusion, and is still carried on by mere worldly policv, hypocrisy, and priest- craft, on the one side ; ignorance, error, and delusion, on the other. Such is the philosophy of wfidelity, and such the credulity of those who spurn at the faith of a Christian as unfounded and irrational. * e. f'. As to the Sabbatic year tlie yeai of jub'.k'e, vide sci.!^ INDEX. Aaron's rod, a memorial of Korah's rebellion, p. 94, — the golden calf made by him, p. 220. Abel, death of, a proof of the immortality of the soul, p. 296. Abraham, purpose of God, in selecting him, p. 115, — promise made to him, p. 371, — its meaning fixed by circumstances attending it, ibid. Adam, and his fall. Scripture account of, confirmed by Indian records, introd. p. xiii. Agrarian law in Rome, p. '162, — in Sparta, ibid. — defects of latter, ibid. — in the land of Israel, p. 163, — eflfects of it, p. 166, et seq. Alexandria, Septuagint translation made for the Jews residing there, p. 3, — library established there, p. 368. Altar built by the two tribes and half, controversy respecting it, p. 238. Amalekites, reasons of their destruction, p. 216. Analogy of the Lord's dealings justifies his conduct in expelling the Canaan- ites from their land, p. 199. Anaxagoras, the principle of his philosophy, p. 364. Anaximander, the principle of his philosophy, p. 364. Ark of the Lord given in charge to Aaron, p. 48. Assembly of Jews convened at Paris by order of Buonaparte, p. 429, — their transactions, p. 430. Authenticity of Pentateuch. See Pentateuch. Author's reasons for separating the Evidences of Judaism from those of Christianity, introd. p. viii. — reasons for separating the internal from the external evidence of Judaism, introd. p. ix, — for not including the book of Genesis in his plan, p. xii. B Babel, design of building the tower of, p. 1 10. Blasphemy condemned by law of Moses, and why, p. 148. Borrowing, meaning of, as applied to the Jews borrowing from the Egyp- tians, p. 78. Brahma, his birth how said to have taken place, introd. p. xiv. Bryant's view of the Plagues of Egypt, p. 234, note. Brydone's objection to the Mosaic account of the origin of the world, introd. p. xvii. Buchanan, his account of the Jews of Cochin, p. 414 — of the Syrian Chris- tians, p. 435, note. Butler, ^Bishop) his proof that the expulsion of the Canaanites by the Jews was not inconsistent with the divine attributes, p. 204, note 488 Calf, golden, made by Aaron, p. 227, — by Jeroboam, ibid. Canaanites, their expulsion from the land not inconsistent with the divine attributes, p. 193, — whether any terms were to be offered to them before war was declared against them, p. 198, note, — their crimes, p. 195 — 197, — what principles the Jews acted on in expelling them, p, 208, — why God chose to expel them by means of the Jews, p. 210, ct seq. — how the evil consequences that might have arisen from this were guarded against, p. 221, — why driven out by degrees, p. 236. Canonico Recupero's history of mount Etna, introd. p. xvii. Captivity, Babylonish, Pentateuch not first compiled after it, p. 3, — gene- alogies preserved in it, p. 4, — Hebrew language corrupted in it, p. 6, — but not lost, ibid. — how knowledge of the true God was spread by means of it, p. 848 — 851. Christianity, Judaism preparatory to it, p. 338, — proved by promise made to Abraham, p. 371, — by prophecy of Jacob, p. 872, — how Judaism effected this, p. 386, — rejection of by Jews no objection to its truth, p. 398. Circumcision not borrowed from the Egyptians, p. 183, — Egyptians borrowed it from the Israelites, ibid. Cities of Israel first alluded to in the book of Deuteronomy, p. 45, — Rules about besieging them, ibid. /Jities of Refuge, design of them, p. 153. Commandments, the ten, how to be understood, p. 130, — prove the divine origin of the Mosaic code, ibid, — manner of their promulgation, p. 136. Commerce, the Jews devoted to it, p. 413, — effect of this upon their restora- tion to their own land, p. 428. Coincidences, undesigned between Deuteronomy and direct histoiy, p. 41, — statement of the argument, p. 42, — how different from Archdeacon Paley's argument, p. 41, — examples of, circumstances mentioned in Deuteronomy, not noticed before, p. 45, — leprosy m a house, p. 46, — service of the Levites as to the charge of the Tabernacle, p. 47, — coin- cidences arising out of the way in which the order of march is described, p. 48, 49, — differences in the account of the appointment of assistant judges, p. 50, — of the spies, p. 61, — of the rebellions of the people, p. 64, — argument from, applied to the miraculous accounts, p. 56, see p. 447. Creation of man, history of, proves his immortality, p. 292. Creeshna, similitude between his life and that of the Messiah, intrcd. p. xiii, Corrvption of the text of the Old Testament rendered impossible by Septu agint translation, p. 3. Cumberland, his argument to show that the expulsion of the Canaanites, by the Jews was not inconsistent with the divine attributes, p. 206, note. Cyrus, his proclamation for the rebuilding of the temple, p. 350. Daniel, the favor shown him during the captivity, p. 349. Darius, his testimony to the supremacy of Jehovah, p. 350. Dathan andAbiram, rebellion of, p. 68, — their punishment miraculous, p. 92. Debt accumulation of, prevented by the laws of the Jews, p. 164. De Wette's objections to the Mosaic history considered, p. 458. Decalogue. See Commandments. Defects in some works on the evidences of religion, introd. pp. vi. vii. Deluge, tradition of it amongst the Indians, introd. p. xiv, — universality o£ it, introd. p. xvi. INDEX. 489 Deaths punishment of, for what crimes inflicted, pp. 147, 148, — not to be in- flicted on the children of idolaters, p. 283. Deuteronomy^ design of the book of, p. 40, — undesigned coincidences be- tween it and direct history, p. 41, — circumstances mentioned in it not noticed before, p. 44, — difference between it and direct history, as to the appointment of judges, p. 40, — as to spies, p. 51, — written by the same author as the former books of the Pentateuch, p. 458. Deliverance of the Jews from Egypt, cannot be accounted for by natural causes, p. 7-3, — memorials of it preserved, pp. 9G — 08. Disobedience to parents condemned, p. 152, — to the decision of the chief magistrate, p. 154. Dispersion of mankind, cause of, p. 110, — of Jews foretold, p. 413, — and their return from it, p. 420. Distinction of meats, law respecting, p. 20. Division of the land amongst the people, p. 1G6, — of the people, for civil and military purposes, p. 167- Divorce, law of Moses respecting it, p. 431, — lawfulness of it renounced by assembly of Jews at Paris, ibid. Egypt, why God permitted Jews to be exposed to the temptations of, p. 230, et seq. — circumstances which rendered it peculiarly fit for their resi- dence,p.233, — some inhabitants of itimpressed by the miracles of Moses, p. 342, — the place where the Grecian sages learned philosophy, p. 364. iJ^no, mount, Brydone's objection to Mosaic history, taken from theCanonico Recupero's account of its lava, introd. p. xvii Eusehius, account of his work, Preparatio Evangelica, introd. p. x. External GwAence of the Mosaic history not entered into, and why, introd. p. X. Example, what, we are to follow, p. 2G2, — not the servants of God raised up for particular purposes in all things, p. 2G1. i'cm did not compose a new law after the return from the captivity, p. 6, — nor make a selection to suit the tastes of the people, p. 6, — proved from the exclusion of the Moabite and Ammonite from the congrega- tion, p. 6, — and from the putting away of strange wives, p. 7. Farmer's explanation of the plagues of Egypt, p. 4G7. Feasts, the three great, to be held at the holy place first mentioned in the book of Deuteronomy, p. 45, — of Passover, a memorial of deliverance from Egypt, p. 07, — of Pentecost, a memorial of the giving of the law, ibid. — of Tabernacles, of some future event. See Tabernacle. — appouit- ment of, proof of divine origin of law, p. 410. First-born amongst the Israelites redeemed, how, p, 9G, and note. Form of government appointed by the Pentateuch, a Theocracy, p. 15, — this a proof of antiquity of Pentateuch, p. 15. Future life, sanctions of Mosiac law not derived from it, p. 271, — doctrine of, known under that dispensation, p. 280, — inferred from history of man's creation, p. 202, — his fall, p. 205, — of Cain and Abel, p. 20G, — of Enoch, p. 200, — of tlie sacrifice of Isaac, p. 801, — from St Paul's de- claration respecting the Patriarchs, p. 301, — from the history of Jacob, p. 303, — of Moses, p. 304, — from our Lord's answer to the Sadducees, p. 306, — from the prayer of Balaam, p. 30G, — from the practice of ne- cromancy, p. 307, — more fully revealed from the time of David, p. 300, 490 —examples in his writings, p. 311, et seq. — in the writings of Solo- mon, p. 320, — of the prophets, p. 825, et seq. — of Job, p. 383. Geddes, Dr, objections against Mosaic history, p. 466. Genesis, book of, not included in the author's plan, introd. p. xi. Genealogies of the Jews preserved in the captivity, p. 3, — reason of this, p. 4, — of the Pentateuch a proof of its authenticity, p. 80. Gentiles, effects of Judaism on them, p. 386, et seq. — the leading principles of their philosophy derived from the Mosaic revelation, p. 863. Geology, deductions of, not inconsistent with Scripture, introd. p. xvi. Geographical statements in the Pentateuch a proof of its authenticity, p. 30. Gibeonites, why they made a league with the Jews, p. 195, note, and p. 343, — must have renounced idolatry, ibid. Gibbon, his statement respecting the effect of the miraculous interpositions on the minds of the Jews, proved untrue, p. 239. Government of the Jewish nation what, p. 160, — establishment of the regal form of, foretold and provided for, p. 15, — when effected and how, p. 246, — why not introduced at an earlier period, p. 249. H Heathen testimonies to the truth of the Old Testament history, introd. p. x. — immoralities sanctioned by their laws, p. 133. Hezekiah's testimony to the authority of the Pentateuch, p. 11. Horses, Jews not allowed to multiply them, p. 410. Hoshea's concurrence with Hezekiah a proof of the acknowledged authority of the Pentateuch, p. 12. Hutchinson, his view of the plagues of Egypt, p. 234, note. Idolatry, how it was introduced, pp. 106,107, — peculiar form of it in Egypt, p. 109, — spread of it, p. Ill, — condemned by Mosaic law, p. 146, — one species of it especially denounced, p. 147, — how the destruction of the Canaanites by the Jews tended to preserve the latter from it, p. 212, — the relapses of the Jews into it no proof that their law was not divine p. 226, — the different kinds of it practised by the Jews, p. 227, — Aaron, Jeroboam, Micah,in the high places, p. 228, — other forms of it, p. 229, — punishment of it to descend to the third and fourth generation, p. 282, and note. Jewish nation could not have been deceived respecting the truth of the facta recorded in the Mosaic history, proved from the publicity of them, pp. 26, 26, — establishment of, in Canaan, could not have been effected by natural means, p. 73, — preservation of, in the wilderness, a proof of divine interference, p. 82. Jewish economy progressive, p. 262, — its leading object, p. 263, — ^not in- tended to be confined to the Jewish state, p. 337, — preparatory to the introduction of the gospel, p. 871. Jewish law, promulgation of it, could not have been effected by natural means, p. 78, — divine origin of, evidentfrom its theology, pp. 104 — 129, — from its morality, p. 180, — from its penal code, p. 146, — not borrowed from heathen nations, p. 176, — when neglected by Jews and when ob- served, p. 230, — not intended to be of eternal obligation, p. 338, — eflFects of it on the Gentiles. r>. 838, — introductory to the gospel, p. 371, I.NUKX. 491 — why its temporary nature not mentioned by Moses, p. 377, it« temporary cliaracter foreshown. See Fsalmn. — divine origin of, proved from prophecy, p. 404. yt«JS, their superstitious veneration for the Scriptures, p. 2, — Old Testament translated into Greek for the Alexandrian, p. ii, — their language cor- rupted in the captivity, p. 5, — justified in destroying the Canaanites, p. 204, et seq. — did not act froin rapacity or cruelty, p. 20ii, — good effects produced upon their minds, p. 212, — their relapses into idolatry before the death of Joshua no objection to the divine original of their law, p. 22G, — after his death, p. 239, — their situation under the judges, p. 240, — the residence of so many of them in foreign countries prepared for the reception of the gospel, p. 396, — prophecies respecting them, p. 403, — the calamities that befel them, p. 405, et seq. — of (Joclmi, p. 414, — their persecutions, p. 415. Jericho, inference drawn from the history of its destruction, p. 207. Jones, Sir \V. extracts from his Asiatic Researches, introd. p. xiv. Josephus quotes heathen testimonies to the truth of the Old Testament history, introd. p. x, — his account of Moses different from that of the author of the Pentateuch, p. 34, — his arrangement of the materials of his history also different, pp. 38, 39, — evidence given by him of the opposi- tion of the Jewish ritual to heathenism, p. 186, — his account of the manner of teaching adopted under the law, p. 189. Internal maxks of truth in the Pentateuch, p. 24, — publicity of facts, p. 26, — simplicity of style, p. 27, — minuteness of detail, p. 28, — impartiality of author, p. 32, — undesigned coincidences between the book of Deu- teronomy and tlie direct history, p. 41. Internal purity required of the law, p. 139. Impurity, all kinds of, forbidden by Mosaic law, p. 151. Jeroboam, nature of the idolatry introduced by him, p. 227, — introduction of it consistent with respect for the authority of the Mosaic law, p. 260, — his punishment, p. 253. Image of God in which man was made, what, p. 294, and note. Immortality, of the soul. See Future life. — how brought to light by the gos- pel, p. 393. l7itercommunity of gods prevailed among the heathen, p. 345, — how far the belief of it was affected by the punishmentof the Philistines, p. 344,note. Jeremiah, why kindly treated by the Babylonians, p. 348, — his predictions as to the temporary nature of Jewish economy, p. 884. Impartiality, a chai-acteristic of the author of the Pentateuch, p. 32. See Pentateuch. — admitted by infidel writers, ibid. Inconsistency respectmg the order of the Israelites' march reconciled, p. 49, — respecting the appointment of the judges, p. 50, — as to the account of the spies, p. 51. Joisah, in his time, authority of Pentateuch acknowledged, p. 13, — what was the book of the law found by him, ibid. Joshua acknowledges the authority cf the Pentateuch, p. 38, — passage of the Jordan under, miraculous* p. 93, — memorial of it preserved, p. 94. Israel, people of that kingdom acknowledged authority of Pentateuch, pp. 10, 12, — circumstances attending their separation prove it, p. 250, — why permitted, p. 251, — effect of their separation upon the tribe of Judah, p. 254, et seq. — descendants of theirs in Cochin, p. 414, — their restoration foretold, p. 422. Jubilee year of, p. 163. Judges, what they were, p. 240, — what degree of tranquillity was enjoyed under them, p. 241, note, — how their government promoted the divine purposes, p. 243. 492 INDEX. Judges to assist Moses, how appointed, p. 60. Judah, kingdom of, how affected by the separation of the ten tribes, p. 264. — meaning of prophecy that the sceptre should not depart from it, p. 372, note. ^ Kings, government of, provided for in the Mosaic law, p. 15, — when estab- lished, p. 24G, — circumstances attending its introduction, prove the respect the Jews had for their law, p. 24*J. Korah's rebellion, cause of, p. 69, — manner of its being recorded, proof of authenticity of history, p. 70, — his punishment miraculous, p. 92, — memorial of it preserved, p. 94. Land, fertility of the promised, enlarged on by Moses in the book of Deu- teronomy, p. 46, — division of, amongst the people, p. 166, — extent of it, ibid, note, — present barrenness of it a fulfilment of prophecy, p. 273, note, p. 407, — return of the Jews to it foretold, p. 421. Leslie's rules, p. 86. Love to God enforced in Jewish law, p. 136, — and to man, p. 137, — and to enemies, ibid. — why this was not more clearly enforced, p. 138. Lycurgus, his law respecting property, p. 162. See Sparta. Life, future, sanctions of, not employed in INlosaic law, p. 272. See Sanc- tions. Language of the Jews corrupted in tlie captivity, p. 5, — of the Pentateuch, an evidence of its having been written before the captivity, ibid. Law observed by the Jews before the captivity, not lost during it, p. 3, — proved from instances of those who survived the captivity, ibid. — from preservation of other documents, p. 4, — not a new law observed after captivity, proved from account of Ezra's teaching the people, p. 5, — nor an arbitrary selection from the old, proved from the exclusion of the Moabites, and the putting away of strange wives, pp. 6, 7, — from the testimony of the Samaritans, p. 8. See Pentateuch. — re- specting property, p. 23, — requiring ^hem to count the fruit of the trees uncircumcised, ibid. — design of this, p. 24, note, — respecting purification, leprosy, pollution, p. 29, — manner of their being record- ed, a proof of genuineness of history, ibid. — divine original of, proved by evidences of miraculous interposition, pp. 72 — 84, — manner of delivery miraculous, p. 91, — the morality of it, p. 130, — required in- ternal purity, p. 189, — its superiority to other sj'stems instanced, pp. 155, 156, — respecting release in the year of Jubilee, p. 164. See Belease. — respecting exemption from war, p. 166, note, — respecting tribe of Levi, p. 169, — respecting the poor, p. 171, — rites of, not bor- rowed from heathen nations, p. 176, — of war, p. 223, — did not employ- future sanctions, p. 271, — divine origin of it, proved from prophecy, p. 404. Lowman's account of the Jewish form of government, p. 15. Leprosy, law respecting, p. 29, — of a house, how described in the book of Deuteronomy, p. 47. Levites, additions to the laws respecting, in Deuteronomy, pp. 45. 47. — Separation of, a memorial of the destruction of the first-born in Egypt, p. 96,— their duties, p. 169,^ — circumstances attending their separation evidences of a divine appointment, p. 460. 493 M Magic, how connected with idolatry, p. 110. Magicians of Kgypt, what their miracles were, p. 4G7. Magian relij^ion, whence derived, p. J^ol. See Zoroaster. Mahomet, whence he derived the moral prhiciples of the Koran, p. 357, — downfall of his religion, p. 4.'U, — how contributing to the restoration of the Jews, ibid. Manna, gift of it miraculous, p. 91, — pot of, a memorial of the supply of food, p. 94. Manaya Sustra confirms the Mosaic account of the creation. Introd. p. xiv. Memorials of miracles preserved, p. 94, — of the giving of the law, ibid. — of the manna, ibid. — of the rebellion of Korah and his company, ibid. — of the punishment of tiie people by serpents, ibid. — of the passage of Jordan, ibid. — of the destruction of the first-born in Egypt, pp. 9(;, 97, — of giving of the law, p. 97. Messiah, promise of, in the Psalms, p. 374, — to Abraham and the Patri- archs, p. 372, — in the writings of Isaiah, p. 375, — religion to be estab- lished by, different from the Jewish, ibid. — nature of his kingdom, p. 37G, — promise of, to Moses, 378, — prediction of him as a priest after the order of ]\Ielchisedek, p. 381, — argument of St Paul on this, p. 382, — tradition of the promise of, amongst the heathen, introd. p. xiii. Minuteness of detail in Mosaic history, a proof of its genuineness, p. 28. See Pentateuch. Miraculous events, manner in which they are recorded, a proof of their truth, p. 57, — instanced in mode of referring to the delivery of the law at Horeb, p. 59, — allusion to the punishment inflicted for the worship of Baal Pcor, p. (iO, — to the delivery of the decalogue by God, and the other parts of the law by JNIoses, p. 61, — some referred to briefly, p. 62, — omission of one in the direct narrative, mentioned in Deuteronomy, and reason of this, p. 64, — punishment of ]Miriam on account of her opposing Moses, p. (^o, — of Nadab and Abihu, p. 67, — of Koran, Dathan, and Abiram, p. 67, — history of, cannot be separated from that of the common events, p. 72, — public, p. 87, — monuments of them preserved, p. 94, — effects produced on the minds of idolaters by them, p. 342, — objections to them considered, p. 465. Miraculous interposition in behalf of Israel, how limited, p. 63, — how the expulsion of the Canaanites by the Jews, prepared the way for ter- minating the system of, p. 213. Montesquieu's observation on the law respecting cities of refuge, p. 153. Morality of the Jewish law, as contained in the decalogue, p. 130, — in other parts of the law, p. 136. Moses, simplicity of his style, p. 27, — capable of sublime composition, ibid. — impartial accounts in the liistory, as to his family, p. 33, — how his own accounts of himself differ from those of Josephus, p. 34, — why he omits the mention of God's promise to himself, in his account of the spies in the book of Deuteronomy, p. 53, — why he mentions it in another place, p. 54, — manner m which the shining of his face is mentioned, p. 63, — argument from his character to show necessity of supernatural interposition, p. 76, — could not have succeeded in deliv- ering the Jewish nation by the influence of superstition or magical deluaion, pp. 76 — 78, — not possessed of the qualities necessary to con- duct the Jewish nation into Canaan, without miraculous interference, p. 79, — conduct of, at the passage of the Ked Sea unaccountable, ex- cept on supposition of divine support, p. 80, — at the return of the 494' ixDEx. spies, p. 82, — does not mention the temporary character of his law, p. 377, — promise of Messiah made to him, p. 878, — his predictions con- cerning the Jewish state, 404, — Le Clerc's objections against his being author of Pentateuch, considered, 429. Murder condemned by Mosaic law, p. 153. N Name, reason of that, by which God made himself known to the Jews, p. 119. Nebuchadnezzar, his testimony to the supremacy of Jehovah, p. 349, — prediction of his invasion, p. 406. Noah, in what the religion of his time consisted, p. 106. o Objections against the authenticity of Pentateuch arising from the treatment of the Canaanites, p. 192. See Canaanites. — from the frequent idola- tries of the Jews, p. 226. See Jews and Idolatry. — from the circum- stances attending the introduction of the regal government, p. 246. See Kings and Government. — the separation of the ten tribes, p. 250, — from the inconsistencies of those whom God employed as instruments in effecting his purposes, p. 267, note, — from its employing only tem- poral sanctions, p. 264, — from its declaring that the sins of the fathers should be visited upon the children, p. 280, — from its being confined to the Jewish nation, p. 337, — from the predictions contained therein, being the result of mere human foresight, p. 407, — by Le Clerc, to show that Moses was not the author of the Pentateuch, p. 439, — by De VVette, p. 458,— by Dr Geddes, p. 466. Occasion of the work, introd. p. vi. Origin of the world, Scripture account of, confirmed, introd. p. xiii. Originality of the Jewish ritual, p. 176. Paley's, archdeacon, argument, in the Horse Paulinae, p. 41, — how different from the author's, ibid. Passover, feast of, a memorial of deliverance from Egypt, p. 97, — consistency of the account of its institution, p. 461. Pentateuch, authenticity of, acknowledged by the Jews since the period of their return from the Babylonish captivity, p. 2, — placed at the head of the Jewish sacred volume, ibid. — divided into portions, and read in the synagogues, ibid. — received as inspired by the Sadducees, ibid. — superstitious veneration of the Jews for it, ibid. — not first compiled after the captivity, p. 3. See Law. — nor subsequent to the time of the separation of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, p. 9, — proved from examples of Hezekiah and Josiah, p. 11 — nor to the establishment of the regal government, p. 14, — wffs acknowledged previous to this, p. 17, — its authority implied in other historical books of Old Testament, p. 18, — instanced in Joshua, ibid. — internal marks of truth, p. 25, — public nature of facts recorded in it, ibid. — simplicitjr and artlessnesa of its style and structure, p. 27, — minuteness of its detaQs, p. 28, — in- stanced in genealogical and geographical statements, p. 30, — impartia- lity of the author of, p. 32, — instanced in his account of the Hebrew Patriarchs, ibid — of the Jewish nation in general, p. 33, — of his own immediate connexions, ibid. — of himself, p. 34, — how this account INDEX. 495 differs from that of Josephus, ibid. — four last books of, must have been composed by an eye-witness, p. 43, — sentiments and languajje of, accord with the situation of the Jewish nation at the time, p. 44, — various circumstances not noticed in other books of, mentioned in Deutero- nomy, p. 45, — evidence of its inspiration from propliecy, p. 404, Le Clerc's objections against jMoscs being the author of it, considered, p. 439, — Dr Geddcs's objections to it, considered, p. 452. Pentecost^ feast of, a memorial of the giving of the law, p. 97- Penal code of the Jews, p. 14G, — what crimes were punished with death by it, p. 147, et seq. — mildness of it, p. 154, — evinced in its regulations, as to property, p. 155. Persians, their religion, what, p. .351, — and whence derived, ibid. See Magian- Philosophy, Greek, principally derived from Mosaic records, p. 363, et seq. — manner of teaching it, shows it was received by tradition, p. 366, — how it prepared the way for the gospel, p. 369. Philistines, how they felt on receiving the ark of God, p. 343, Pillar of fire, what it was, p. 480. Place where the Lord should choose to put his name, first mentioned in Deuteronomy, p. 44. Plagues of locusts, p. 89, — hail, ibid. — flics, ibid. — manner of their inflic- tion miraculous, ibid. — murrain of cattle, p. 90, — darkness, ibid. — de- struction of first-born, ibid. — reason of them, p. 234, and note, — Dr Geddes's objections against the Mosaic account of them, p. 466, — Far- mer's explanation of them, p. 467. Pollution, law respecting the contraction of, p. 29. Prophets, false, condemned by the Mosaic law, and why, p. 148. Prophetical writings, contain allusions to a future state, p. 325. Prophecies respecting the past and present state of the Jews, p. 403, — re- specting their future state, p. 420. Providence of God, why so much dwelt on in the Mosaic law, p. 122, — re- liance on, necessary to induce the Jews to observe various laws, p. 127, — instances of particular, under the judges, pp. 244, 245, — connexion of this as exercised under the Mosaic system, with the omission of future sanctions, p. 269. Property, Mosaic law respecting it, must have existed before the settlement of the Jews in Canaan, p. 23, — distribution of it, an evidence of truth of miraculous accounts, p. 98, — how injuries aff'ecting it were punished, p. 155, — importance of good regulations respecting it, to the welfare of a state, p. 162. Poor, care of the Mosiac law for them, p. 171. Princes of the tribes, what their station was, p. 166, 167. Punishments of the Mosaic law, p. 148, — on what principle they were regu- lated, p. 150, — how they evince truth of Mosaic history, ibid. Purification, law respecting,' p. 29. Psalms, doctrine of a future life taught in them, p. 311, — and the promise of the Messiah, p. 373. Raiment^ of Israelites, not waxing old, miraculous, p. 481, Ranks, diversities of, amongst the Hebrews, p. 166. Red Sen, ]\Ioses' conduct at the passage of, p. 80, — the passage of it miracu- lous, p. 473, — Josephus' account of it, p. 474, Reformation from Judaism to Christianity, argument of Spencer deriv«)d 496 INDEX. from, p. 178, — and from Popery to Protestantism, ibid. — and from Gentilism to Christianity, ibid. Regulations not noticed in other books of the Pentateuch, mentioned in Deuteronomy, p. 45. Release, Mosaic law of, could not have been introduced after the establish- ment of the government, p. 23, — difference in the law of, affecting pro- perty in cities and in the country, p. 164, — why the year of, was chosen for the Levites to read the law, p. 169, note. Repetitions in the Mosaic history, a proof of its genuineness, p. 28. Restoration of the Jews from their dispersion foretold, p. 420, — preparations for the accomplishment of it, p. 429, — in France, p. 480, — in England, p. 432. Revelation, objection against, because of its being partial, answered, p. 361. Rites of the Mosaic law, intention of them, p. 141, — not efficacious unless observed with right feelings, p. 143, — instanced in sacrifices, ibid — and circumcision, p. 144, — not borrowed from heathen nations, p. 176. — opposed to idolatry, p. 184, — not burthcnsome, p. ISO. Romans, their invasion of Judea foretold, p. 406, — particulars respecting it, which show the divine origin of the prediction, p. 411. Sabbath-h'eaker, condemned by Mosaic law, and wliy, p. 148. Sabbatical year, evidence of divine authority of Mosaic law, pp. 99, 407. Sacrifices, ifaw respecting, p. 29, — instituted by God after the fall, p. 182. Samaritans' testimony to the authenticity of the Pentateuch, p. 8, — circum- stances attending their establishment in Israel, p. 345, — how reclaimed from idolatry, p. 347, — why Jews refused their aid in rebuilding the temple, ibid. — their notions of the office of the Messiah, more correct than those of the Jews, ibid. Samuel not the compiler of the Pentateuch, p. 16. Sanscreet writings, confirm ]\Iosaic history, introd. p. xiii. Saturn, fable of his life founded on history of Noah, introd. p. xiii. Sanctions, temporal, employed under iMosaic system, p. 267, — connexion of these with the exercise of an extraordinary providence, p. 269, — affect- ing the nation, p. 273, — and individuals, ibid. — reasons for their adop- tion, p. 275, — that of visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children, not unjust, p. 280, — necessary as part of a national system, p. 281, — how far God reserved to himself the execution of it, and why, p. 283, — not to be perpetual, p. 286. Self-existence of God, a leading truth of the Mosaic system, p. 119. Septuagint translation, when made, p. 3, — rendered corruption of the text impossible, ibid. — contributed to prepare the way for the Gospel, p. 367. Simplicity of style of Pentateuch, a mark of its truth, p. 27. Serpent, brazen, a memorial of punishment of people in the wilderness, p. 94. Scriptures of the Old Testament, Pagan literature to be traced to them, introd. p. xii, — their account of Eastern customs confirmed, ibid. — ac- count of the origin of the world confirmed, ibid. p. xiii, — no objection to this, from the account of the lava of mount Etna, p. xvii, — translat- ed into Greek for the use of the Alexandrian Jews, p. 2. Solomon, his prayer at the dedication of the Temple, p. 340, — who the strangers employed by him in building the temple, p. 341. Shepherds, an abomination to the Egyptians, why, p. 233, note. Spies, account of their appointment, different in Numbers and Deuteronomy, p. 51. Sparta, Agrarian law of, p. 162, — defects of it, ibid. 497 Sun., how it came to be worshipped, p. lOG. Stillingfled, account of his work, Originos Sacrtc, introd. p. xii. Syrian Christians, their principles, p. 435, note. Tabernacle, directions respecting it, p. 47, — and the removal of its several parts, p. 43. Tabernacles, feast of, what is typified by it, p. 391, note. Tables of stone, memorials of the giving of tlie law, p. 94. Tacitus, his account of the Jewish ritual, p. 18G. Theocracy, the form of the Jewish government, pp. 15,160, — preserved un- der the government of the kings, p. 247, — nature of it accounts for the omission of future sanctions in the Mosaic Jaw, p. 274. Theology of the Jewish law, an argument for the ditone origin of it, pp. 104 —129. Thales, the principle of his philosophy, p. oG3,—wlieiice derived, ibid. Tradition, of the deluge amongst the Indians, introd.^ xi?., — of the promise of the Mediator, p. xiii. Tribes, the ten. See Israel and Jeroboam. U V Unity of God, the fundamental truth of the Mosaic law, p. 119, — why more dwelt on than other attributes of the Deity, p. 121, — admission of the Critical Reviewer respecting this, p. 463. Vessels of the temple were restored after the captivity, p. 4. w War, how Jewish constitution provided for it, p. 167, — Jews must have re- garded it with aversion, p. 168, — cases in which Jews were exempted from attending upon it, p. 166, note, — laws of, peculiarly mild, p. 223. Warburton, the argument of his Divine Legation, p. 265, — how far the author agrees with it, and how far he dissents from it, p. 270, — his inconsis- tencies as to the doctrine of a future state, p. 291. Wisdom of God especially exercised in government of free agents, p. 260, note. Witchcraft, why condemned by Jewish law, p. 148. Witsius proves that Judaism was not borrowed from heathenism, p. 187. Zoroaster, whence he derived his religious light, p. 351, — points of resem- blance between his religious system and that of the Jews, p. 353, et stq. INDEX OF TEXTS REFERRED TO. P.\OB PAom GENESIS. xxviii. 12— 15. - - 123 13, 14, . 302 I 1, _ _ _ 363 15, _ . - 303 26, 27, _ 292 20- -22, _ 123 30, _ . _ 293 XXXV. 11. _ . - 445 ii. 7—17, _ 292 5ii; , 445, 456 11, 12, _ . . 439 xxxv-;. 31, . - 457, 445 lii. 14—19, _ 292 xxxvii. 21, _ 468 20-22, _ _ _ 293 25, . _ - 439 21, - _ 1S2 35, _ 303 15, . _ _ 426 xl 15, . _ - 446 iv. 3,4, - . 182 xlii. 36—38 . 303 3,12, . _ . 297 xliii. 13,14 . . - 303 6,7, - . 298 32, . 232 V.24, . _ _ 299 xlvi. 34, _ _ . 232 X. S-12, _ 440 xlvii.8, . _ 302 19. _ . 454, 456 xlix. 10, _ - - 372 15, _ 455 xi. 28, 31, - - - 441 EXODUS. xii. 1—3, - 115 3, . . _ 371 i. _ _ 25 6, . - 442 14, . '76 , 128, 233 xiii. 7, - . - ihid. ii. , _ 34 18, - _ ibid. 11, _ - 304 14, . _ _ 115 11—23, _ _ 75 xiv. 13, . . 446 iii. 13—15, . - 119 14, - „ _ 443 14, 15, _ _ 104 18-20 . 381 21, _ - 25 XV. - _ - 198 22, - . _ 79 1. - . S02 iv. . - 86 13, " _ . 115 10, - _ _ 74 18-21, _ 455 30, . - 36 xvii. - _ . 115 V. _ _ 25 xviii. 25, - 371 2—9, _ - 77 xix. 9, _ _ _ 456 14-21, . _ ibid. XX. 7, - . 443 21—23, _ - 37 XX i. 23, - . - 446 22,23, . . 72, 78 xxii. _ 115 vi. 26, 27, _ - 446 11, . . _ 298 vii. 1, - _ _ 443 16, _ 371 6, 10, 20, 22, _ 467 14, _ _ _ 444 11, 1 _ 468 18, . 426 19—21, _ _ - 4T0 22, . _ . 441 viii. G— S, _ . 470 xxiii. 2, . 44;J l>s, . . - 468 6, _ _ _ 4u; 19, - _ _ 342, 435 xxvi. 4, . . 372 10-23, . _ 88 14, • - . 41() 22, - _ . 89 xxviii. 14, - 372 ix. 5, 6, - - - 467 500 INDEX OP TEXTS REFERRED TO. ix.5-18, 11, 16, - 20, 25. 26, X. 4,5, 14, 22, 23, 12, 15, 19, 29, 33, - 1. - 14, 15, - 17, 21, \lv. 2, 3, 5, 9, 11, 13, 14, 19,20, 20, - 21—26, - 21, - 35, 37,38, XV. 20, 2(), - 27, xvi a, 14, - 17, J 9, 20, 33, 35, - xvii. 3, Lr2, - xviii. 21, xix 4, - 5,6, 10, - 16—18, - XX. 2, 3, IS, xxi. 7—12, 14, 16, 23, 20, 26, - xxi). 6, 22, 24, xxjii. 4, 5, 9. 11, 12, 27, 2S, 31, xxiv. 9, - xxv. 8, 9, 40, - xxviii. 15, PAGE 88 XXX. 33, • _ _ - 471 xxxi. 14, . . 336, 338 xxxii. 4, _ . - 342 xxxiv. 6, 7, _ 89 23,' _ . - 68 24, _ 342 29, . _ - 89 11—24, 90 xxxix. 8—22 ' _ - 342 SO, 97 42,4: , „ - 234 xl. 38, - 149 34—38, _ . - 90 25 79 LEVITICUS. 342 . 95 iv. 21, - _ 96 V. - . _ - 97 vi. _ 217 vii. 21—25, _ _ . 480 viii. 8, - _ 26 17, . . . 30 ix. 24, - . 79 X. - _ - 75, 80, 121 5, . 80 Xi. 44, 45, _ _ - 475 xvi. _ 480 xviii. . . - 476 24-30 - 478, 484 xix. 2, . . - 25 14, 17, 18, - 26 IS, . 65, 66 19; - _ 61 23—25, . _ - SO 23, - _ 83 27, - 1 - 277 sr, - 484 32, _ _ - 91 S3, 34, . 484 XX. _ _ - 94 1—5, - 447 6, 27, . _ - 277 7, - _ 30 9, _ _ 74, 215, 216 10—27, _ 34, 66 20, . _ - 167 xxii. 3, - _ 125 xxiii. 29, 30, . 139, 150 34, . 91 40, . . . 185 xxiv. 18, _ 121 xxv. . _ - 87 4,5, . 156 21, . _ 146, 153 23, 42, 55, - 154 23, 29, 30, 35, 36, . 156 xxvi. 32, 35, _ 224 34,35, . _ 137, 224 44, . 224 - 214 453 NUMBERS. - 454 66 i. - _ _ - 29 iii. - PAGB - 373 149 - 227 122, 285 127, 410 63 44 - 184 141 29 87 - 4S0 44 142 142 273 184 44 . 190 391 149, 151 im 121, 139 173 . 137 149, 184 . 23 184 149, 184, 228 S07 - 173 137, 171 . 149 ibid. - 307 139 - 152 151 . 149 149 149, 273 391 - 97 154 23 99 410, 127 99 - 164 411 - 100 4,165 66,95 INDEX OF TEXTS REFERRED TO 501 iii. 11, 46, 31, 40, . V. - 1, vi. 5, Tii. 89, - viii. ix. 7, 8, 13, X. 29, . xi. 15, 16, 17, 27,29, xii. 1, 2, - 5,10, xiii. xiv. S, - 14, 15, 20, 33, 3!), - 45, XV. 30, - 38,39, xvi. 12, 28, - 32, 39, - 42, xvii. 3—10, xix. 9, 13, 20, 13—16, XX. 5, - 10—12, 10, XXIV. xxr. XX* i. 9—11, 61—53, xxvii. 15, 21, xxxi. 14, 16, 19, 54, xxxii. xxxiii. 54, xxxiv. XXXV. .25, XXXVl. . - 67 f)5 - 149 142 76 184 95 148 - 273 4Sl - 304 99, 1(;5 - 443 - 33, 62, 81 34 65 - 480 207 81, 207.f:.'i '/«. . 4'0 338 ^r R3 - 219 - 149, 273 2 68, 87 69 92 - 148 94 33 94 44 149 . 168 76 37 94 . 330 60 - 218 33, 198 - 29 68 - 163 165 99, 156 - 148, 1S4 - 167 198 - 168 163 26 - 4, 26, 30 - 29, 30 30, 170 - 153 165 DEUTERONOMY. 1—3, 40, 44R i. 1% 19, - 20, 21, 29-33, 45, 46, ii. 5, 10, . 14, 19, - iii. 11, 14, - iv. 1,2, 2, 3, 16, 19, 3. 4, , . 6—8, 8, 35, 39, V. 1. £2i - vi. 4, 6, - 6,7, 7, - 20, vii. 1, 2—4, 12, 15, 22, - 23—25, - viii.2— 4, 14—20, - X.6, 12, xi. 1—8, 6, xii. 5, - 12, 13, - 29, - 30, 31, - 31, - 32, XllJ. 1-5, 1, - % XV. 7—11, 13—15, xvii. 6, 9, - 8—12, 12, - 14, 15, - 16, xviii. 18, 11. 15. 19, 20, PAGB 99 207 80 2:j;-j 58 83 216, 221 58 S3 221 . 419 4.iO 9S, \:A) 182 60 339 - 130 121 . 130 61,92 117, 121 136 - 139 191 85 198 - 196 204 61 62, 23(J - 208 64,87 62 33 137, 143 (2 61 45 - 173 104, 148 - 197 112, XIX. 3, - 16, 19, 21, 2-2 - 15(1 217 443 147 185 228 62 23 17? 156 :&.158 .70 99 jys, 154 246, 445 99 - 410 443 - 3(17 ;;79 - 3bH 148 - 153 26 - 154 502 INDEX OF TEXTS REFERRED TO. PAGE 4GB XX. 5, - _ „ 166 xiv. _ ^ ^ 4 10—18, - - 192, 193, 196 15, - , _ 443 13, - . _ 223 XV. 13, _ _ _ 443 xxi. 1S_2I, . _ . 152 xviii. . . ^ 28 xxii. 12, _ _ 2 xxli. _ _ 2.S8 22, . . _ 151 2—6, , _ 19. 20 xxiv. 10—15, _ _ 172 xxiv. 24-26 _ 20 16, _ _ 283 31, _ _ 226 19-21, _ 173 XXV. 3, _ _ 15S 4, _ . 224 JUDGES. 17, _ _ 216 xxvi. 5, _ _ 32 i. 1, _ _ 148, 184 5-10, - _ _ 98 1—33, _ _ 244 8, - _ 170 28, . _ _ 236 12, _ _ 171 ii. _ _ 240 ..'^^A - - 150 1-3, . . 237, 244 xxvii. 20, - _ 151 20-23. _ _ ibid. xxvili. _ _ _ 404 iii. _ _ _ 240 15, 20, 24 49, 63, _ ibid. 1,2, _ 236 9-15, 37, . _ 340 13, 14, _ _ _ 219 25, - _ _ 214 vi.3. _ _ ibid. 58, _ _ 410 ix. 56, 57, _ _ _ 245 64, . _ _ 413 x. 7, 8 - _ _ 242 68, _ . 412 xvii. 3, 13, _ » _ 227 64, 65, _ _ 415 6, _ _ 243 xxix. 5, 6, _ _ 64 XX. _ _ 184 10, _ _ 165 18—21, _ 272 22-25, _ _ 273 I. SAMUEL . 22—28, _ . 340 ,407 XXX. 1, _ 140 iv. 8, _ _ 343 1—6, _ _ 421 V. - _ _ _ 344 15, - 127, 264 vi. . _ ibid. xxxi. - _ _ 33 viii. _ _ _ 246 9—11, - _ _ 1,32 5—8, _ _ ibid. 10—13, - _ 170 10, _ _ IC ,247 21, _ _ 26 19, 20, _ _ 247 xxxii. - . _ 26,27 ix. 21, . _ _ ibid. 3, . _ 121 9, _ _ 443 7, _ _ 126 X. - _ _ _ 246 13,- . _ _ 117 23, - _ _ 247 ,248 26, 27, _ _ 338 xi. 15, _ _ 249 37, - _ _ 126 xii. _ _ 246 xxxiii. - _ _ 27 4,19, _ _ _ 249 8—10, . 169 12—15, _ _ 218 10, _ _ 191 16, _ _ _ 247 xxxiv. 7, - - 305 22. 23, XV. 1, - - 219 218 JOSHUA. 2, - xxiii. 9—12, - - 216 184 xxviii. _ _ _ 307 i.7. - _ 18 XXX. 7, _ _ _ 184 ii. 9L_n, _ _ 343 iii. 16, 17, _ _ 87, 93 1 10, _ 196 I. SAMUEL. V. 12, - _ _ 83 vi. 17—19, - _ _ 208 V. 23, - _ , 148 ,184 vii. 18, - _ _ 209 xii. 13, 14, _ _ 305 24, _ _ 280 vJii.SO, - _ _ 18 ix.9, _ _ 195 I KINGS. 9—11, 24, _ _ 343 14, _ _ 148 iv. 29—34, _ _ 344 X. 3, 4, - . _ 199 21, _ _ _ 464 xi. 15, . _ 19 viii. 41—43, _ _ 340 18, 20, - - 194 69, CO, - - - S41 INDEX OF TEXTS REFERRED TO. 503 PAGE P*OB 1x26, - . 309 xxix .36, _ _ X. 1—13, • . ^ 344 XXX. _ ibid. xi. - 198, 250 1—0, . . 256 33, _ _ _ 251 1, 6, 11 _ 12 40, . _ 227 xxxi. _ . 13 xii. . _ _ 250 xxxiii. 17, _ 228 1-15, 24, . 251 xxxiv. 3— 14 , 19 , , 13 25, . _ _ 252 30, _ 14 20, - _ 29 XXXV. IS, _ Jbid, xiii. . . 250, 25;i 22—25, _ i505 xiv. . il)ii1. 13, _ _ _ 2Si 10, - _ 25,S EZRA. XV. 13, 14, _ . _ 2-2^ 29, - . 25;i i. 2, 3, _ _ ^ 350 xvi. 11, _ . _ 253 ii. 2, . . 5 31, - . 198 59, GO, _ _ . 4 xvii. _ _ 25C ,321 62, - _ _ 3 XX. 23, - , 124 iii. 12, _ . _ Ibid. xxi. 20-22, . _ . 253 iv. 2, - . . 347 xxii. 43, - - 228 vi. 5, 18, - - . _ - 4 6 II. KINGS. NEHEMIAI] . i. - . _ 253 ii. ibid. vii. 64, . _ _ 3 11,12, _ _ 325 viii. „ _ 5 iii. 253 ix. . . • , ibid. iv. - _ 325, ibid. X. _ ibid. V. ibid. xiii. 1—3, . , _ 6 vi. - _ _ ibid. 22, - 223 vii. . _ 253 JOB. jx. ibid. X. - . . ibid. xii. _ , 279 xiii. ibid. xix. 2.^—27, _ . ■c33 xiv. 5, 6, _ _ 283 xxxi. 26, _ • 106 xvi. (j, 309 xvii. 18—23 _ _ 254 24, 345 PSALMS. xviii. -11,91 xxiii. 24, - 14 ii. - iv. - - S73 i:;o I. CHRONICLES. X.4, 16, . - - £81 130 XV. _ . ibid. i. 43, 54, _ _ _ 446 xvi. « 311 V. 7, 17, . _ 4 xvii. _ ibid. ix. 1, 22, _ . _ ibid. xix. 12, 13, _ l.SO xxii. 2, - _ _ 341 xxi. _ _ 312 xxvii. I, - - - 1G7 xxii. 16—13, xxxvi. . • 374 .814 II. CHRONICLES xlix. Ixxiii. • 312 314 Ixxxii. 2—4, ^ i:.o ii. 17, - . .341 ci. _ _ ibid. X. - _ _ . 250 ciii. _ oKi xi. _ _ ibid. cxv. _ 318 13-17, _ _ _ 255 cxix. _ i;.o xii. 5—7, . - il>id. cxxxix. _ . 3i.y xiii. 4, . _ _ ibid. xiv. _ ibid. XV. . _ . ibid. PROVERBS 9-15, . . ibid. xviii. 1, . . . 256 iv. 18, 19, _ , ."20 xxi. e. - - - ibid. viii. - - - ibid. 504 INDEX OF TEXTS REFERRED TO. PAGE PAOB xii. 28, _ _ 321 xxxi. 31—34 _ SM. 385 xiv. 34, _ . 279 xxxii. 6-14, ^ 4 xxlv. 11, _ _ 321 xxxix. 12. _ _ 349 xxvi. 18, 19, - - - 4b2 xi. 2, : xli. 5. _ . ibid. 228 ECCLESIASTES. EZEKIEL. iii. _ _ 323 viii. 11, _ _ ibid. xi. 19-21, . 2S6 ix. 11, . _ _ 279 xvi. 34, _ _ 345 3, " ~ 322 xviii. xxxvii. 12, xxxix. 12, - - 2S6 330 392 ISAIAH. i. _ 253 DANIEL. 10—20, _ ISO ii. 2, •^—24, _ - 376 404 ii. - 20, - - _ - _ - 349 279 viii. ix. 4, _ " 253 279 iii. 29, iv. 1, - - - 349 350 8, _ 253 17, 37, - 279 35tt xi. 10-l(i, - - 42sf " xii. 3, - xiv. 9, 27, - - 392 325 279 vi. 25-27, . _ ibid. ■ _ vii. 9—14, l.J, 14, - 3:i2 4:36 xvii. xviii. 4, XXV. 6—8, - - 253 424 325 326 xii. ]-3. 2, 7, - - : ■ . 333 308 435 xxvi. J, 19—21, . 327 19, _ o'l ,326 HOSEA. XXX. 18, _ 424 xxxiii. - 14, 22, XXXV. 10, xiii. 1—4, - - 327 3-28 425 3S0 iii. 4, 5, viii. ix, X, xiii. 15, - - 424 253 ibid. xliii. J3— 16, _ 424 xliv. 28, _ 355 JOEL. 20, _ 107 xiv. 1, xlix. 6—7, - 355 377 ii. 30, - - 331 16-21, - _ 398 liii. 1-9, . ibid. AMOS. 7, _ 380 liv.7-11, Ivi. - 425 IbO iv. 7-11, - - 321 Ivii. 19, - _ 326 Iviii. 6, - - ibid. 358 NAHUM. Ix. - S— 10, - 426 423 i. 4-8, - - 3o2 Ixi. 1-8, . 424 Ixv. 6, 7, 228 APOCRYPHA. JEREMIAH WISDOM. iii. 15—18, - . _ 384 vii. 1—16, . _ ISO xiii 2, _ « i06 29-34. - . _ 148 xiv. 17, - _ _ 111 xvii. 5-11, . . 329 I MACCABEES. xxii. 10, _ _ 305 xxiii. 5—8, . . . 427 ii. 38, . _ 304 xxxi. 29-33, - - 286 vi. 49-60, - • ibiJ. INDEX OF TEXTS REFERRED TO. 605 MATTHEW iii. 2, iv. 2.3, IJi. 12, - . 401 vii. 12, V. 17, _ . 179, 370 ix. 4, 5, 27, - _ 151 xi. 11, vii. 11, _ - 3^6 . ^^'o- ix. 34. - _ 4Ct0 25, 2fi. xii. 24, _ - ibid. 33—36 >iii. .30, . . 401 xvi. 21, _ - .-IPS I xix 3-10, . 380, 151 xxii. 29, _ - 3(i() xxiii. 5, - _ 2 ii. 14, xxiv. 29, _ - 331 x. 13, - xxvi. 2, _ 39-S XV. Hi— 2-^ xxvii. 25, _ . 3H1 4Ci, - 374 II iii. 22, xii. 30, - 21—27 MARK. LUKE. viii. 12, iii. 24, CORINTHIANS. CORINTHIANS. GALATIANS. PHILIPPIANS. 4fi3 3!)3 4ri.S ibid. 4(12 435 }, 426 437 19 1./ 43(j xi. 15, - _ 400 xiv. 16, . _ 326 ii. 5-11, - 436 xxii. 29, JOHN. ii)id. COLOSSI A NS. i. 13-23, . , 4.% i. 1—14, . _ 436 ii. 17, - - 383 iv.41,42, _ 347 V. 64, vi. 15, - - - 463 34S I. TIMOTHY. vii. 17, _ _ 20 viii. 58, . 119 ii.5, - - 436 xiii 34, - - 138 II. TIMOTHY. ACTS OF THE APOSTLES . i. 10, - - 393 ii. 4— U, _ 39' ,4.34 iii. 8, . . 473 29, _ 311 9, . 47( ,473 iv. 4, - 398 vii. 22, 23-30. - - 73 75 HEBREWS. 23—25, _ _ 74 26—2^1, 75 ii. 14, . 303 viii. 27, _ . 397 vi 20, - 3SI X. 179 vii. . ibid. xi. - _ . ibid. 11, 12, 382 25, - 899 25. . 393 xiii. 15-44, _ 397 2()-2S, 2(i2 xiv. 1, - ibid. viii. 6, . 463 XV. . . 179 ix. 391 xvii. 1—4, 397 4. _ 94 xxvi. 18, _ _ 116 X. 12, 75, 391 1-10, _ 382 1—22, 391 UOxMANS. 10, 15, . - , - 39.1 384 ii.6-iJ, - 437 13. - «8(J 506 INDEX OP TEXTS REFERRED TO. PAGE 4, - 297 i. 5-8, 6, - . - 29S iv. 8, (i, _ 275 xi. 2 . i-— 10, - - - 302 15, l^]P' . ibid. 15—19, 24—26 - - 74, 305 xii. 14. 22, 23, - 317 XV. 3—5, xix. XX. REVELATION. 10, PAGE 4S6 119 435 437 436 435 436 ibid. LIST OF AUTHORS. yiugustine de Civitate Dei. Aristotle Politic. B Bamier's Mythology. Basnage's History of the Jews. Benson's Paraphrase. Bibliotheca Biblica. Bochart's Phaleg. Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology. Brydone's Tour. Burder's Oriental Customs. Buchanan's Christian Hesearches. I Episcopal Establishment in India. Brucker's Hist. Philosophia;. Butler's Analogy of Religion. Cappe's Critical Remarks. Carlyle's Poems. Chandler's Life of David. Cicero de finibus. • de Natura Deorum. Clarke on the Attributes of God. Clarke's Evidences of Natural and Re- vealed Religion. Critical Review. Cudworth's Intellectual System. Cumberland on the Law of Nature. Cunffius de Republic^ Hebrceoum. Diodorus Siculus. De Wette on tlie Old Testament. Desvoeux on Ecelesiastes. Dionysius Halicar, on the Ancient Reli- gion of the Romans. Dodd's Commentary. Doddridge's Lectures. ■ Family Expositor. Elrington's Donellan Serraons. Euripides. Eusebius Praipar. Evangelica. Faber's Horse Mosaicse. Parmer's Dissertation on Miracles. Findlay's Answer to Voltaire. Fleury on the Manners of the Israelite*. Gale's Court of the Gentiles. Gastrell's, Boyle, Lectures. Geddes' Critical Remarks. Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Graydon's Memoir in Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. Grotius de Jure Belli et Pacis. de Veritate Christ. Rel. Graves' Sermon on Promoting Christian- ity among the Jews. H Hales' Analysis of Chronology. Hamilton on the Being and Attributes of God. Hamilton, Sir W. Remarks in Philoso« phical Transactions. Hasselquist's Voyages and Travels. Harmer's Observations. Hartley on the Truth of Christianity. Herodotus. Hesiod. Hinck's Answer to Paine. \ Hottinger's Hist. Persarum. \ Homer. Houbigant. Hook's Roman History. Home's Par. on the Psalms. Iloratii. Satyr. 508 LIST OF AUTHORS. Humphrey's Essay. Hyde's Rel. Veter. Persarum. Hutchinson's Works. Hume's Natural History of Religion. Huetius Demonst. Evangel. Jewish Letters to Voltaire. Jones, Sir W. Asiatic Researches. Josephus cent. Apion. — — Antiquities. K Kennicott's Dissertations. Kirwan's Essay in Transactions of Royal Irish Academy i Translation of the Transactions of the Parisian Sanhedrim. King on the Origin of Evil. Lardner's (Credibility. Law's Theoiy of Religion. Leland's Advantage of a Revelation. Le Clerc. Leslie, Short Method with the Deists. Levi's Defence of the Old Testament. Levi, David, Dissertation on the Pro- phecies. Leydeker de Rep. Hcb. Limborch coll. cum Judrco. Lord Relig. de Pers. Lowman on the Civil Government of the Hebrews. . . on the Hebrew Ritual. Locke on the Reasonableness of Chris- tianity. Lucian de Longaevis. M Macrobii Saturnalia. Magee on the Atonement. Maimonides de Idolatria. ■ More Nevochim. Marsh on the Authen. of Five Books of Moses. Marshall's Chronological Tables. Mather's Figures and Types of the Old Testament. Mede's Apostasy of the Latter Times. Middleton's Comparison of Popery and Paganism. Minutius Felix Octavius. Vlontague on the Rise and Fall of the Ancient Republics. Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws. N Nevirton on tlie Prophecies. Newton, Sir I. on the Apocalypse. -^— . Principia. Ovid. Outram de Sacrificiiij. Paine's Age of Reason. Paley's Evidences. Horte PaulinsB. Parkliurst. Parry's Defence of Sherlock. Parker's Lectures on the Old Testament, Patrick's Commentary. Philo's Works. Picart's Cerem. Relig. Plato in Ciatylus. de Repuhlica. Plutarch's Lives. Polybius. Pocock's Specimen Hist. Arab, ex Abul- faragio. Pole's Synopsis. Prideaux's Connection. Life of Mahomet. R Randolph's Comparison of Citations 'n the New Testament with ilebrevir and LXX. Raynal, Abbe, Hist. Philos. Roberts' Harmony of the Epistles. Ryan on the Effects of Religion. Sale's Koran. Selden de Diis Syris. jure Natur. jux. Hebraeos. Shaw's Travels. Shahristani Relig. Pers. Sherlock's Discourses on Prophecy. Sliuckford's Connection. Spencer de Legibus Hebrseoum. dissert, de Theocrat. Jud. Sophocles. Stanleii Hist. Phil. Orient, cum no^ Clerici. Stilliiiefleet's Origines Sacrre. Suetonius Vita Tiberii. Stokes' Answer to Paine. Suicer Thesaurus. Tacitus' Annals. Targum of Oiikelos. Taylor's Sclieme of Scripture Divinity. Terence. Tertullian's Apology. LIST OF AUTHOKS. )09 Thucidvdes. 'iomiine's Elements of Christian Theo- logy. Vansittart's Letters ii Bible Society. Virgil's .^ncid. Universal History. Vossius de Idololatria. ^A-iltoo's JBiblia Polyglot. Defence of the U'arburtoii's Divine Legation. Wagenseil's Tela Ignea batante. Watson's Tracts. Apology. White's IBampton Lectures. Winder's History of Knowledge. Witsii yEnyptiaca. de (Leonora. Feeder. Wolfii Comment. Woolaston's Keligion of Nature. Xenophon's Vindication. IHE END ^ -A DATE DUE — «!^^ mmmrn tim CAVLORD }. ,««»«il "TOiJnhfi > ■lMjSW