power could be used to bring the people to obey them? A people too who were of a rebellious fpirit, impatient of controul, and devoted to fuperftition, quite repugnant to thefe ordinances. Human affiftance he had none, for we find inftances of his own brother and fifters oppofing him, and of the very children of Aaron being in actual rebellion. Laws are generally made when people have been well fettled, and they are founded on many contingencies, which arife from the nature of the foil, the trade and produce of the country, and the temper, cuftoms, and dispofitions of the natives and their neighbours. But the laws of Mofes were given in a defart, while the people were in a forlorn state, wandering from place to place, and encountering hunger and thirst, without feeing any ultimate of their roving. Thefe prefcripts for a religious polity, when the people should be at fome particular period settled at Canaan, of which fettlement human forecaft could not fee the leaft probability. For what hopes could a leader entertain of poffeffing a country, from which he withdrew himself, and perfilled in receding for many years? And when at a time an attempt was made to obtain fome footing, nothing enfued but repulfe and difappointment. Did any lawgiver ever pen directions about corn and wine,. in a country that was a ftranger to tillage and cultivation,. or talk of tythes and firft fruits, where there was fcarcely a blade of grafs. It may be anfwered, that thefe ordinan ces were given with a view to Canaan. True, but Mofes was not acquainted with Canaan, and if Providence were not his guide, there was little chance of getting even a fight of it. He was in the midst of a wilderness, and fo continued for nearly forty years. And in this place he

gave directions about their towns and cities, and of the ftranger within their gates, while they were in a state of folitude, under tents, and fo likely to continue. He mentions their vineyards and olives, when they had not an inch of ground, and gives directions about their future kings, when they were not conftituted a nation. These good things they did at length enjoy, and in procefs of time they were under regal government. But how could Mofes be apprised of it? Was it by inspiration? If so he was under the direction of an higher power, and his miffion by divine authority, which is granting the point in queftion. Add to the articles above mentioned, the various ordinances about burnt offerings, peace offerings, and fin offerings, alfo concerning offerings of atonement, and of the general atonement to be made with blood by the high priest for all the people, the redemption of the first born, and the ranfom which every one was to pay for his own foul. Nor must the feafts and feftivals be omitted, the feast of the sabbath, of penticoft, of the paffover, the feaft of trumpets, and of the new moon, and the feaft of expiation, Alfo the fabbatical year, and year of jubilee, the redemption of fervants, and edemption of lands, and above all the redemption of fouls. There were also many other ordinances, to which we know of nothing fimilar in Egypt, nor any other country. The heart of man could not have devised them. If, then, there was a particular meaning in thofe laws, and a fecret allufion, and they were not merely rites of arbitrary inftitution, the fecret purport muft relate to events in the womb of time, with which Mofes was not acquainted; or if he was acquainted, the fame conclufion follows; hence, as before, he must have had the intelligence by in

fpiration, and confequently, what he did was by divine appointment. The internal evidence we fee is wonderful, and not to be controverted. The only way to get rid of it is to fet afide the external, and fay that the whole is a forgery. But this is impoffible. The law ftill exifts, and must have had a beginning. It is kept up by people of the fame race, as thofe to whom it was first delivered, and from whom it has been uniformly tranfmitted without any interruption. The people have now loft their polity, and been for ages in a state of difperfion. And as there are many things, in the books of Mofes, faid concerning both them and their forefathers, every thing that was predicted has been literally fulfilled. They are probably as numerous now as they were of old; but widely difperfed in the midst of nations, yet feparated from them; preferved by Providence for especial purposes; and particularly to afford atteftation to thofe divine oracles, in which they are fo fignally pointed out.

Bryant's Plagues of Egypt:

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED.

THE writings of Mofes derive the greatest credit imaginable, not only from the fettled opinion, and conftant tradition amongst the Jews, that he was appointed by the exprefs command of God himfelf, to be the leader and captain of this people; but also because, as is very evident, he did not make his own glory and advantage his princi-pal aim; but he himself relates thofe errors of his own, which he could have concealed, and delivered the regal

and facerdotal dignity to others, permitting his own pofterity to be reduced only to common Levites. All which plainly fhow, that he had no occafion to falfify in his history, as the ftyle of it further evinces, it being free from that varnish and colour, which uses to give credit to romances; and is very natural and eafy, and agreeable to the matter of which it treats.

Grotius on the Truth of the Chriflian Religion.

SECTION XVIII.

The Language, Style, and Manner of Writing ufed in the Books of the Old and New Teftament, proves their Genuineness, and Superiority to all Human Compofitions.

THE beauty and fublimity of the

fcripture language has been acknowledged and applauded by authors, who have been juftly celebrated for tafte and genius. The great critic Longinus,* in his Treatife on the Sublime, quotes, as an inftance of aftonishing fublimity, that paffage in Genefis, God faid let their be light, and there was light. Sir William Jones, who has rendered himfelf fo famous by his genius and oriental learning,† declares, that "he found all his researches ftrengthen his belief in divine revelation; and obferves, that the collection of tracts, which, from their excellence, are called fcriptures, contain, independent of their divine origin, more true fublimity, more exquifite beauty, more morality, more important history, and finer ftrains, both of poetry and eloquence,

* Longinus was a Grecian philofopher and orator. His "Treatife on the Sublime" raised his reputation to fuch an height, as no critic before or after could ever reach. His contemporaries had fo great an opinion of his judgment and tafte, that they appointed him fovereign judge of all authors, and every thing was received or rejected by the public according to his decifion. He was put to death by Aurelian in 273. See Jones' Biographical Dictionary.

+ See Life of Jones, in Part I.