tions and interpofitions, foon did the depravity of the human heart again widely extend its influence foon did the defcendants of Noah, from imperfect obfervations and groundless conjectures concerning the motions and natures of the heavenly bodies, form for themfelves, firft perhaps (under the traditions. which they might recollect, or under the influence of what their own unworthiness might fuggeft, concerning the neceffity of a mediator) a race of tutelar gods or interceffors with the most High; and afterwards, as their b corruptions increased, Gods of a fupreme and independent nature. That mankind therefore, i g Of what fort the original corruption of divine worship was, we may infer from Acts vii. 42, 43. g Secker's Lectures, 8vo. vol. ii. p. 145. We shall easily conceive to what degree religious tradi tions may be corrupted from the following remarkable fact; "Some Saxon Monks, who had formerly introduced the Gof 66 pel into Rugia, dedicated a Church there to their patron "St. Vitus. The inhabitants afterwards relapsed into Pagan"ism, forgot the true God, and, when they were converted again about the year 1170, they were found to be given up to the worship of the idol Suantovit which they had derived "from" Saint Vitus." Jortin's Remarks on Eccl. Hift. vol. v. p. 232. 1ft edit. i What Mr. Hume afferts in his natural hiftory of Religion, to prove that Polytheism was the primary Religion of mankind, has the fame kind of foundation with those political fystems, which admit of no original communications from the Deity and derive all government from the free and uninfluenced choice of the People. forgetful forgetful of the commands enjoined to Noah and his pofterity, might not be involved a second time in an universal alienation from the living God; and also that they might not be unprepared to receive the promised Redemption; it pleased the Almighty to select * one from the faithful then left, to impart to him a particular knowledge of his duty, and by confining the Redeemer to his 'defcendants to interest them more immediately in the preservation and publication of thofe prophecies concerning this great Perfonage which were to be entrusted to human care; that the fervice of the living God might not be left without advocates among men, fome true worshippers were at different times, by traditions derived from them and miracles wrought among them, to convey m inftruction to the idolatrous Heathen and occafionally to difpel their grofs darkness even before the day-fpring from on high should vifit them; and that there might be fome guardians worthy to be entrusted with the facred " oracles, fome country fitted to receive the fun of righteousness, it was or о * Gen. xii. 1, 2, 3. 1 Gen. xxii. 18. See Jenkin's Reasonableness of the Chriftian Religion, vol. i. p. 73, &c. Rom. iii. 2. • Mal. iv. 2. dained that there fhould be "a chofen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation." Such were the important defigns of the Jewish difpenfation. The promises made to the posterity of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, the miracles wrought in their prefervation and increase, and their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, are every where urged as arguments against idolatry and types of univerfal Redemption. After this deliverance, as if occafional interpofitions were inadequate to his gracious purposes, the Deity vouchsafed by a continuation of miracles to take immediately upon himself their temporal government. Nor can the human mind conceive a scene more awful, or more impreffive of religious obedience, than that which ushered in the PI Pet. ii. 9. Exod. xix. 5, 6. 1 The term " Jew," which is the appropriate denomination of the defcendants of Judah, foon included under it the Benjamites, who joined themselves to the tribe of Judah on the revolt of the other ten tribes from the House of David. After the Babylonish captivity, when many individuals of these ten tribes returned with the men of Judah and Benjamin to rebuild Jerufalem, the fame term was made to include them alfo. From hence not only all the Ifraelites of future times have been called Jews; but farther all the defcendants of Jacob are fo called by us at prefent from the very beginning of their history; and we speak even of their original difpenfation, as the Jewish difpenfation. laws laws and ordinances of this new Kingdom. While the visible interpofition of the divine Majesty conferred on it a folemnity and dignity, which no language but that of Infpiration can describe; the public display of this wonderful condefcenfion was calculated to preclude all poffible fufpicion of imposture and to convey the moft durable instruction to pofterity. At the fame time the precaution alfo, with which the divine commands were delivered, ferved to prove their great and lafting importance. For, to prevent as much as poffible that intermixture of human error which might arife from the contracted duration of men's lives, the Mofaical inftructions were not, like former Revelations, left to the conveyance of tradition, but written and engraven by the finger of God. And well are they worthy of our attention on account of their excellent morality; but particularly ought we to obferve the manner, in which they are calculated to confecrate a peculiar people to the fervice of the true God by the prohibition of intercourse and intermarriage t Some of the most beautiful and fublime paffages of facred poetry confift of allufions to the wonderful scene which was exhibited on mount Sinai. See Lowth de facra Poefi Heb. 3d edit. p. 113. • See Exod. xix. Exod. xxxi. 18. Ib. xxxii. 16. between W between them and their idolatrous neighbours (that fatal caufe of the corruption of the old world when the "fons of God went in to the daughters of men), and by numberless precepts, which were defigned to create in them a fettled abhorrence of the w advocates for Heathen fuperftition and which to some refined moralifts favour too little of univerfal charity. How effectually these injunctions operated, under the immediate appointment of the Almighty, to form the Jews into a feparate body from the reft of mankind, is exceedingly remarkable. To this very day, like the well-cemented ruins of fome old fortress, " Gen. vi. 2. That the Jewish laws are fingularly favourable to ftrangers, as fuch, is abundantly evident from Lev. xix. 34.-xxiii. 22.-xxiv. 22.—xxv. 35.-Num. xv. 15, 16.-Deut. i. 16.x. 17-19.-xxiv. 14-17.-xxvii. 19. Had Mr. Gibbon been acquainted with thefe and many other fuch parts of the Jewish law, he would not have afferted in the most unqualified manner, on account of fome punishments faid to be inflicted in the old Testament the reafons of which he perhaps did not understand," that the moral attributes of Jehovah may not eafily "be reconciled with the standard of human virtue.' History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. v. p. 202. But, whatever fuch men may presume to affert, we know, on the authority of one wifer, and better acquainted with the fubject, "that no nation had statutes and judgments fo righteous as all the law which was fet before the Jews." Deut. iv. 8. And, whatever might have happened on particular occafions and for particular reafons, we are affured in general with regard to the princes of the house of Ifrael from the confeffion of their enemies that they were merciful kings. See Kings xx. 31. they |