knowlege of God, and had raised an expectation of a glorious and divine perfon, by whom a new and moft excellent difpenfation was to be introduced, and the Gentiles were to be brought over, more generally than had hitherto been done, from their fuperftitions and idolatries, from their abominable vices and corruptions, to the pure worthip of God, and the knowlege and practice of true religion. This glorious perfon was foretold and defcribed in the Jewish prophecies by many remarkable characters, which being accomplished in our Saviour, gave a moft illuftrious atteftation to His 'divine miffion. And thefe prophecies were kept more clear and diftinct by being in the hands of a peculiar people as the depositaries of them: Whereas if they had been, like other traditions, left merely at large. among the nations, they would probably in process of time have been corrupted and loft, and the testimony arising from them must have fallen. Taking all thefe confiderations together, it appears that the peculiar Jewish economy anfwered many valuable and important ends: And that therefore it was no way unworthy of the divine wifdom to interpofe in an extraordinary manner to give a divine atteftation to it. And that the miraculous facts, if really done, were every way fufficient for this purpose, our author himself does not deny. On the contrary, he looks upon them to have been fo ftrong and convincing, that it would have been impoffible to refift them; and he thinks they must have been fufficient, if they had been really done, to have brought over all mankind to the belief and acknowlegement of the one true God, not only in that age, but in all fucceeding ages. His manner of expreffing himself is remarkable. He fays, that "the reviving and continuing the primi"tive faith and worship by fuch a series of revelations and "miracles among one people, would have made any revival. of them unneceffary among any other; because they would "have been more than fufficient to continue them uncorrupted "over the whole world; not only till the vocation of Abra"ham, four hundred years after the deluge; not only till the "coming of the Meffiah, two thoufand years after that, but even "to this hour, and to the confummation of all things b." Not to infift upon the great abfurdity of his fuppofing, that the miracles wrought among the Ifraelites fo long after the vocation of Abraham, would have been fufficient to have kept the true religion uncorrupted till the vocation of Abraham, a blunder which could only have been owing to the most inexcufable negligence in writing; I think it follows from his own. conceffions, that the miracles and other extraordinary methods made use of for the establishment of the Mofaic ceconomy, were of fuch a nature as to be well fitted to the end for which they were defigned, the revival and establishment of the worfhip of the one true God, in opposition to idolatry and polytheifm. And though it be wrong to fuppofe, as he most ab furdly does, that they must have established it among all mankind, and have prevented all deviations from it in all ages and nations; yet it will be acknowleged, that thofe facts were of fuch a kind as to have been fufficient to convince all those to whom they were known, that the laws, in atteftation to which they were wrought, were of a divine original. Accordingly the people of Ifrael, notwithstanding their proneness to idolatry, and their obftinate prejudices, were brought to fubmit to those laws as of divine authority, and to receive them as the rule of their polity. And though they fell off on feveral occafions to a compliance with the idolatries of the neighbouring nations, which they mixed with their own rites, yet the remembrance and belief of thofe facts, which always continued among them, had mighty effects in every age of their state, to bring them back to the true worship of God, and to an obedience to their laws. And they have had a great effect ever fince, where-ever they have been believed, to fill men with a holy fear of God, and with the moft adoring thoughts of his divine unequalled majefty and glory. This effect they continue to have among Chriftians, and are like to have to the end of the world. It is no juft objection against the truth of the facts, that they come to us through the hands of the Jews. For what other teftimony can be reasonably defired, or can the nature of the thing admit of, than the concurrent teftimony of that people, to whom the laws were given, and among whom the facts were done? A teftimony continued throughout all the ages of their nation, and appearing in all their records and monuments. The facts were done among themselves; and therefore in the nature of things could only be witnessed by themselves. If thofe of any other nation had recorded them, they must have had their accounts from the people of Ifrael. And if they had declared their belief of thofe facts, and of the divine authority of those laws, there would have been been an equal pretence for rejecting their teftimony, as for rejecting that of the Jews. But it is in truth very abfurd to make it an objection, that the accounts of these facts are tranfmitted to us by those who were the only proper perfons to give an account of thofe facts, and by whom alone thofe accounts could have been originally given, if they had been true. If it be pretended, that the facts were feigned by them to do honour to their nation, it must be confidered, that, as was before hinted, they are fo circumftanced, and mixed with fuch difadvantageous accounts of the temper and conduct of that people, as no man would have feigned who had their honour in view, or who had not a greater regard to the truth of the facts, than to the humouring and flattering that people. For it is plain, the facts might have been so contrived, if they had been fictitious, as to have saved the honour of their nation, and not to have given occasion to the fevere cenfures and reproaches which have been caft upon them in all ages on that account. And what farther derives great credit to the relations of thofe extraordinary and miraculous facts, is that the books in which they are contained, not only appear to have been written with an unaffected fimplicity, and a fincere impartial regard to truth, mixed with a profound veneration for the Deity, but they contain the most remarkable predictions of future events, which it was impoffible for any human fagacity to foresee; particularly relating to the future fates of that nation, the furprifing revolutions they should undergo, the calamities, captivities, and defolations that should befall them, their being fcattered and difperfed all over the face of the earth, and everywhere exposed to hatred, contempt, and reproach, and yet ftill wonderfully preferved as a distinct people, as we fee they are at this day; notwithflanding they have for fo many ages loft their genealogies, and been deprived of their most valued privileges, and rendered incapable of exercifing their most fa lemn facred rites as prefcribed in their law, and without any prophets raised up among them, and acknowleged by themselves to be fuch, to fupport their hopes. These are things for which no parallel can be found in any other nation upon earth. So that the prefent ftate of that people, in all refpects fo extraordinary, is a living proof of the truth and divinity of thofe writings which contain an account of the laws that were originally given them, and of the wonderful facts by which thofe laws were inforced and established. This is a proof ftill stronger to us, than it could have been in the ages foon after those books were written, and affordeth one inftance in which the evidence of those facts, instead of being diminished by time, has acquired new ftrength and force. You will forgive the length of this letter, as I was willing to lay together in one view all that I thought neceffary for clearing and establishing the truth of the Mofaic history against our author's objections, and which, if it be well fupported, the divinity of those laws, and of that conftitution, follows with invincible evidence. LET The excellent nature and tendency of the Mofaic Writings and the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Lord Bolingbroke treats it as blafphemy to fay that they are divinely inspired. A fummary of his objections against their divine original and authority. His charge against the Scriptures, as giving mean and unworthy ideas of God confidered at large. The reprefentations he himfelf gives of God and of his providence, fhewn to be unworthy, and of the worst confequence. Concerning God's being reprefented in Scripture as entering into covenant with man. The pretence of his being defcribed as a tutelary God to Abraham, and to the people of Ifrael, and of his being degraded to the meanest offices and employments, diftinctly examined. The paffages in which bodily parts feem to be ascribed to God, not defigned to be taken in a literal sense. The Scripture itSelf fufficiently guards against a wrong interpretation of thofe paffages. In what fenfe human paffions and affections are attributed to the Supreme Being. A remarkable paffage of Mr. Collins to this purpose. T SIR, HE defign of my laft Letter was to vindicate the truth and credit of the Mofaic Hiftory, and of the extraordinary facts there related. And if that history be admitted as true, the divine original and authority of the Mofaic conftitution is established. But befides the external proofs arifing from the extraordinary and miraculous facts, whofoever with an unprejudiced mind looks into the Revelation itself as contained in the facred writings of the Old Teftament, may obferve remarkable internal characters, which demonftrate its ex cellent |