to the defcendants of Abraham at the time of publication of the book of Genefis, this confirms it; if otherwife, would contribute to make it rejected. If neither the practices themfelves, nor any veftiges of them fubfifted at all, the book must be rejected. The difficulty of deducing thefe practices from the principles of human nature ought to be confidered here; as it tends to prove their divine original, agreeably to the accounts given of them in Genefis.

Let us next come to the law of Mofes. This was extremely burdenfome, expensive, fevere, particularly upon the crime of idolatry, to which all mankind were then extravagantly prone; and abfurd, according to the common judgment of mankind, in the inftances of forbidding to provide themselves with horfes for war, and commanding all the males of the whole nation to appear at Jerufalem three times in a year. At the fame time it claims a divine authority every where, and appeals to facts of the most notorious kinds, and to customs and ceremonies of the moft peculiar nature, as the memorials of thefe facts. We cannot conceive, then, that any nation, with fuch motives to reject, and fuch opportunities of detecting, the forgery of the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, thould yet receive them, and submit to his heavy yoke. That they should often throw it off in part, and for a time, and rebel against the divine authority of their law, though fufficiently evidenced, is eafily to be accounted for from what we fee and feel in ourselves and others every day; but that they should ever return and repent, ever submit to it, unless it had divine authority, is utterly incredible. It was not a matter of fuch fmall importance, as that they could content themselves with a fuperficial examination, with a lefs examination than would be fufficient to detect so notorious a forgery; and this holds, at whatever time we suppose these books to be published.

That the Jews did thus fubmit to the law of Mofes, is evident from the books of the Old and New Teftaments, if we allow them the leaft truth and genuineness; or even from profane writers; nay, I may say, from the present obfervance of it by the Jews, fcattered through all the kingdoms of the world.

If it be faid, that other nations have afcribed divine authority to their lawgivers, and fubmitted to very fevere laws; I anfwer, first, That the pretences of lawgivers amongst the Pagans to infpiration, and the fubmiffion of people to them, may be accounted for in the degree in which they are found, from the then circumftances of things, without having recourfe to real infpiration: and particularly, that if we admit the patriarchal revelations related and intimated by Mofes, and his own divine legation, it will appear, that the heathen lawgivers copied after thefe; which is a ftrong argument for admitting them. Secondly, That there is no inftance, amongst the Pagans, of a body of laws being produced at once, and remaining without addition afterwards; but that they were compiled by degrees according to the exigences of the ftate, the prevalence of a particular faction, or the authority of fome particular perfons, who were all ftyled lawgivers, as Draco and Solon, at Athens: That they were made, in

general,

general, not to curb, but humour, the genius of the people; and were afterwards repealed and altered from the fame caufes: whereas the body politic of the Ifraelites took upon itfelf a complete form at once, and has preferved this form in great meafure to the prefent time, and that under the higheft external difadvantages; which is an inftance quite without parallel, and fhews the great opinion which they had of their law, i. e. its great importance to them.

If it be faid, that the laws of the Ifraelites were not perhaps impofed at once, but grew up by degrees, as in other nations; this will make the difficulty of receiving the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, in which the contrary, with all the particular circumftances, is afferted, greater than ever." In fhort, of all the fictions or forgeries that can happen amongft any people, the most improbable is that of their body of civil laws; and it feems to be utterly impoffible in the cafe of the law of Mofes.

The next part of the fcriptures, whofe importance we are to confider, is the hiftory contained in the books of Jofhua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, and extending from the death of Mofes to the re-establishment of the Jews, after the Babylonifh captivity, by Ezra and Nehemiah. Now, in this hiftory, are the following important facts, moft of which must be fuppofed to leave such veftiges of themselves, either external visible ones, or internal in the minds and memories of the people, as would verify them, if true; make them be rejected, if falle. The conqueft of the land of Canaan, the divifion of it, and the appointment of cities for the Priefts and Levites by Joshua; the frequent flaveries of the Ifraelites to the neigbouring kings, and their deliverance by the judges; the erection of a kingdom by Samuel; the tranflation of this kingdom from Saul's family to David, with his conquefts; the glory of Solomon's kingdom; the building of the temple; the divifion of the kingdom; the idolatrous worship fet up at Dan and Bethel; the captivity of the Ifraelites by the kings of Affyria; the captivity of the Jews by Nebuchadnezzar; the deftruction of the temple; their return under Cyrus, rebuilding the temple under Darius Hyftafpis, and re-establishment under Artaxerxes Longimanus, by Ezra and Nehemiah; thefe events are fome of them the most glorious, fome of them the most fhameful, that can well happen to any people. How can we reconcile forgeries of fuch oppofite kinds, and efpecially as they are interwoven together? But, indeed, the facts are of fuch confequence, notoriety, and permanency in their effects, that neither could any particular perfons amongst the Ifraclites firft project the defign of feigning them, nor their own people concur with fuch a defign, nor the neighbouring nations permit the fiction to pafs. Nothing could make a jealous multitude amongst the Ifraelites or neighbouring nations acquiefce, but the invincible evidence of the facts here alledged. And the fame obfervations hold of numberless other facts of leffer note, which it would be tedious to recount; and of miraculous facts as much, or rather more than others. Befides which, it is to be noted, that all thefe have fuch various neceffary

connexions

connexions with each other, that they cannot be feparated, as has been already remarked.

And all this will, I prefume, be readily acknowledged, upon fuppofition that the feveral books were published in or near the times of the facts therein recorded. But, fay the objectors, this will not hold in fo ftrong a manner, if the books be publifhed after thefe times. Let us take an extreme cafe, then, and suppose all these hiftorical books forged by Ezra. But this is evidently impoffible. Things of fo important and notorious a kind, fo glorious and fo fhameful to the people for whofe fake they were forged, would have been rejected with the utmost indignation, unless there were the ftrongest and most genuine foot-steps of the things already amongst the people. They were therefore in part true. But many additions were made by Ezra, fay the objectors. I answer, if these were of importance, the difficulty returns; if not, then all the important facts are true. Befides, what motive could any one have for making additions of no importance? Again, if there were any ancient writers extant, Ezra must either copy after them, which deftroys the present fuppofition; or differ from and oppose them, which would betray him. If there were no fuch ancient writings, the people could not but inquire, in matters of importance, for what reafons Ezra was fo particular in things of which there was neither any memory, nor account in writing. If it be faid, that the people did not regard what Ezra had thus forged, but let it pafs uncontradicted; this is again to make the things of fmall or no importance. Befides, why fhould Ezra write, if no one would read or regard? Farther, Ezra muft, like all other men, have friends, enemies, and rivals; and fome or all of these would have been a check upon him, and a security against him in matters of importance.

If, inftead of fuppofing Ezra to have forged all these books at once, we fuppofe them forged fucceffively, one, two, or three centuries after the facts related; we fhall, from this intermediate fuppofition, have (befides the difficulty of accounting for fuch a regular fucceffion of impoftures in matters fo important) a mixture of the difficulties recited in the two preceding paragraphs, the fum total of which will be the fame, or nearly the fame, as in either of thofe cafes. And, upon the whole, the forgery of the annals of the Ifraelites appears to be impoffible, as well as that of the body of their civil laws.

If it be faid, that the hiftories and annals of other nations have many fictions and falfhoods in them, I answer, that the fuperior importance of the events which happened to the Jewish nation, and the miraculous nature of many of them, occafioned their being recorded at the then present times, in the way of fimple narration, the command of God alfo concurring, as it feems; and that thus all addition, variety, and embellishment, was prevented; whereas the hiftories of the originals of other nations were not committed to writing till long after the events, after they had been corrupted and obfcured by numberlefs fables and fictions, as is well known. There are many other circumftances peculiar to the Jewish hiftory, which eftablish its truth, even in the minuteft things, as I fhall fhew in the following propofi

tions; and I hope the reader will fee, in the progrefs of the argument, that the fame method of reasoning which proves the Jewish history to be rigorously exact, proves alfo, that the hiftories of other nations may be expected to be partly true, and partly falfe, as they are agreed to be by all learned and fober-minded men.

I país over the books of Efther, Job, the Pfalms, Proverbs, Ecclefiaftes, and Canticles, as not having much relation to this propofition; and proceed to the confideration of the prophecies.

These contain the most important precepts, promises, threatenings, and predictions, i.e. prophecies peculiarly fo called, befides the indirect and incidental mention of the great events recorded in the hiftorical books, And as they are full of the fevereft reproofs and denunciations against all ranks, king, governors and great men fubordinate to him, priests, prophets, and people, one cannot expect that they fhould be favourably received by any, but those of the best moral characters; and these must be the firft to detect and expofe a forgery, if there was any. So that the prophecies, if they were forgeries, could not be able to ftand fo rigorous an examination as the importance of the cafe would prompt all ranks to. And here all the arguments before ufed to fhew, that the hiftorical books could neither be forged at the time of the facts, nor fo late as Ezra's time, nor in any intermediate one, are applicable with the fame, or even greater force. Befides which, it is to be obferved of the predictions in particular, that, if they were publifhed before the events, they could not be forgeries; if afterwards, there would not be wanting amongst the Jews many perfons of the fame difpofition with Porphyry, and the prefent objectors, to the genuineness of the prophecies, and the truth of the facts related or implied in them, who upon that fuppofition would have met with fuccefs, as Porphyry and the ancient objectors would have done long ago, had their objections been folid. Infidelity is the natural and neceffary product of human wickedness and weaknefs: we fee it in all other things, as well as in religion, whenfoever the interefts and paffions of men are oppofite to truth; and the prefent objectors to the truth of revealed religion may be affured, that the ancient ones, the murmuring Ifraelites in the wildernefs, the rebellious Jews before Chrift, and both Jews and Gentiles fince Chrift, have done just ce to their caufe.

We come, in the last place, to confider the importance of the books of the New Teftament. Whoever then received these in an cient times as genuine and true, muft not only for fake all finful pleafures, but expofe himfelt to various hardships and dangers, and even to death itfelf. They had indeed a future glory promised to them, with which the fufferings of the prefent time were not worthy to be compared; but then this glory, being future, muft be fupported with the moit inconteftable evidences, elfe it could have no power againft the oppofite motives; and both together muft fo roufe the mind, as to make men exert themfelves to the uttermott, till they had received full fatisfaction. Befides which, it is to be obferved, that even joy, and the greatness of an expectation, incline men to difbelieve, and to examine with a fcrupulous exactnefs, as well as fear and diflike.

As

As to thofe who did not receive the doctrines of the New Teftament, and the facts there related and implied, they would have fufficient motives to detect the forgery or falfhood, had there been any fuch. They were all condemned for their unbelief; many for their grofs vices; the Jew for his darling partiality to his own nation and ceremonial law; and the Gentile for his idolatry and polytheifm; and the moft dreadful punishments threatened to all in a future ftate. Now thefe were important charges and alarming confiderations, which, if they did not put men upon a fair examination, would, at leaft, make them de-. firous to find fault, to detect and expofe, and, if they had discovered any fraud, to publish it with the utmoft triumph. The books of the New Teftament could not but be of fo much importance to the unbelievers of the primitive times, as to excite them to vigilance and earneftness, in endeavouring to difcredit and deftroy them. All which is abundantly confirmed by the hiftory of thofe times. And indeed cafes

of the fame kind, though not of the fame degree, occur now to daily obfervation, which the reader will do well to call to mind. Thus it comes to pafs, on one hand, that frauds and impoftures are crushed in the birth; and, on the other, that wicked men labour against the truth in the most unreasonable and inconfiftent ways, and are led on from one degree of obftinacy, prevarication, and infatuation, to another, without limits.

It may be added here, that the perfons reproved and condemned in the Gospels, in the Acts of the Apoftles, by St. Paul in his Epifties, by St. Peter in his fecond Epiftle, by St. John and St. Jude in their Epiftles, and by St. John in the Revelations, viz. the five churches, and the Nicolaitans, could not but endeavour to vindicate themselves. The books were all of a public nature, and thefe reproofs particularly fo, as being intended to guard others.

I have now gone through the feveral parts of the Scripture, and fhewn briefly how the importance of each would be a fecurity against forgery and fiction in that part. I will now add fome general evidences to the fame purpose.

First, then, It is certain, that both Jews and Chriftians have undergone the fevereft perfecutions and fufferings on account of their facred books, and yet never could be prevailed with to deliver them up: which fhews that they thought them of the highest importance, molt genuine and true.

Secondly, The preservation of the law of Mofes, which is probably the first book that ever was written in any language, while fo many others more modern have been loft, fhews the great regard paid to it. The fame holds in a lefs degree of most of the other books of the Old Teftament, since most of them are ancienter than the oldest Greek hiftorians. And as the records of the neighbouring nations are loft, we muft fuppofe those of the Jews to have been preferved, from their importance, or fome other fuch caule as may be an equal evidence of their genuineness and truth.

Thirdly, The great importance of all the facred books' appears from the many early tranflations and paraphrafes of them. The fame tranflations and paraphrafes must be an effectual means of

fecuring