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DISCOURSE V.

The Excellence of the Mofaic Inftitutions.

Behold I have taught you ftatutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye fhould do fo in the land whither ye go to poffefs it. Keep therefore and do them. For this is your wisdom and understanding, in the fight of the nations which shall hear all these ftatutes, and fay, Surely this great nation is a wife and understanding people. For what nation is there fo great, who hath God fo near unto them as the Lord your God is, in all things that ye call upon for; and what nation is there fo great that hath statutes and judgments fo righteous, as all this law which I fet before you this day?

DEUT. iv. 5-8.

HAVING, in the two preceding difcourses, given you a view of the religions of the ancient heathen nations, I fhall now, by way of contrast, give you a fimilar view of that of

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the Hebrews; and this it will be the easier to do, as the original records of it are extant in the writings of Mofes, which were compofed at the time of its inftitution; fo that there cannot be any difficulty in diftinguishing the genuine principles of this religion from the corruptions and abufes of it. No other nation can give fuch an account of the origin of their religion. For it is not pretended that any other has writings coeval with their inftitutions. All the accounts of them are traditional, and their traditions are derived from the most remote antiquity; fo that much is neceffarily left to conjecture with respect to them.

The fuperior excellence of the system of Hebrew religion and policy, for they had the fame fource, and the most intimate connection, is ftrongly afferted by Mofes in my text. On the other hand, Voltaire, followed by the generality of unbelievers, fays, that "the "Jews were an ignorant and barbarous people, "who have for a long time joined the basest "avarice to the most detestable superstition.

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They have done much hurt," he fays, "to themselves, and to the human race." This writer had, no doubt, read the books of Mofes,

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Mofes, and the other books of the Old Teftament, for he frequently quotes them; but many perfons, without ever reading thefe books themselves, take for granted that what he fays of them is true. But, my brethren, be perfuaded to make use of your own eyes, and judge for yourselves. To affift you in this, I fhall, as briefly as poffible, lay before you the most important particulars of which the inftitutions of Mofes confift, and occafionally compare them with particulars of a fimilar nature in the fyftems of the heathens, which were cotemporary with them.

In order to throw the greater odium on the Hebrew nation, Voltaire fays, " they "were ignorant and barbarous, that they

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were never famous for any art, they never "were natural philofophers, geometricians, or aftronomers." Admitting this to be the cafe, if there be any wisdom or fuperior excellence in their religious or political institutions, it will be the more probable that they had fome other fource than any knowledge of their own. But I do not defire to take any advantage of this circumstance.

It is not true that, in ancient times, the Hebrews were much, if at all, inferior to other

other nations with respect to the arts. In the art of war, which, even in the age of Mofes, comprised, many other arts, it will hardly be denied that the Hebrews, if there was nothing miraculous in their history, must have excelled. For, to fay nothing of their emancipating themselves from the yoke of the Egyptians, then the moft warlike people in the world, when they were wholly unprovided for the conteft, they completely expelled the inhabitants of Canaan, ten times more numerous than themselves, who had horfes and chariots of iron, and whofe cities are faid to have been fenced up to heaven, when they only fought on foot. The whole land of Canaan was of no great extent, and yet David conquered, and held in subjection, all the neighbouring nations; and it is probable that they continued tributary to the Ifraelites all the reign of Solomon. There are few nations in all antiquity that can boast of two fuch princes as David and Solomon, with all their faults.

The conftruction of the tabernacle in the time of Mofes, and of the temple in the time of Solomon, shows that there were ingenious artists among them, as well as in other coun\H 4 tries;

tries; and the knowledge that any people in these early ages had of real science, that is, of the laws of nature, and the application of that knowledge to any ufeful purpose, was very inconfiderable. Knowledge of this kind would have prevented that miferable fuperftition in which, as I have fhewn, the ancient heathen religion confifted.

As to what is properly called literature, or the art of writing, and compofing books, no ancient nation can pretend to vie with the Hebrews. We have no account of any books fo old as thofe of Mofes; and though there is not in them the leaft appearance of art, or ftudied compofition, they are written with that engaging fimplicity, which has not yet been exceeded by any writings whatever. The pathos in the addrefs of Mofes to his nation, in the book of Deuteronomy, written just before his death, is inimitable. It is not poffible to read it, if I may judge of the feelings of other perfons by my own, without the strongest emotions. The incidents in the history of Jofeph were not the invention of Mofes; but they have loft nothing in going through his hands. There is not, in all antiquity, fo affecting a narrative.

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