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cellency, or the Defects and Faults of the feveral Parts of them.

Yet the Hiftory of the Settlement of the Hebrew Nation in the promised Land, and the feveral Laws ftill on Record in the Books of Mofes, will, I apprehend, if carefully confidered and put together, give fuch an Account of the Hebrew Conftitution, as may help us to form in general a true Idea of the Plan and Model of it; fuch an Idea as will appear abfolutely inconfiftent with the ambitious and tyrannical Views of an arbitrary and oppreffive Government, with which Mofes has been fo weakly, as well as falfely charged, and fuch an Idea, as will fhew this Conftitution calculated in its whole Design, and fitted with the moft political Wisdom, to preserve the Property, Liberty, and Security of the People, and therewith the Profeffion of the true Religion and the Worship of the one true God, against the univerfal Idolatry of the World; and to fecure them from the Danger of all Attempts, either by Foreign Force or Domestick Ambition: As it will clearly appear that no fuch Attempts were ever like to fucceed, but on a previous Alteration and Corruption of the Fundamentals of the Constitution itself; and that accordingly fuch Change was first actually made, whenever any fuch Attempts did fucceed.

If I fhall be able to fet the Plan of the Hebrew Government in fuch a light that my Reader may perceive, and be convinced

of

of the excellent Conftitution of it, to maintain the Property, Liberty, Peace and Safety of the People, and to answer the particular Defign of God in condescending to be their Lawgiver and King, to preferve the Faith and Worship of the one true God in the general Apoftacy of the World to Idolatry; I would hope my Reader may find fome Pleafure and fome Profit in viewing one of the moft ancient Conftitutions of Government in the World, formed for one of the kindest Designs in the World, to preserve the Knowledge and Worship of the one true God, from the almost universal Corruption of Idolatry.

СНАР. I.

Chief Defign, and principal Intention of the Civil Government of the HEBREWS.

T

O lay down a true Plan of the Hebrew Government, it will be requifite previously to confider, what particular Views the Lawgiver might have in it. If any particular Ends were defign'd, to promote which the Plan of the Government itself was to be adjusted; those Designs will help to explain many Parts and Conftitutions of the Government, as it will fhew the great Wisdom of the Legislature, which has made the Plan in

its feveral Parts moft fit, and proper to ferve, and fecure thofe Ends.

The Hebrew Government appears not only defigned to ferve the common and general Ends of all good Governments; to protect the Property, Liberty, Safety, and Peace of the feveral Members of the Community, in which the true Happiness and Profperity of National Societies will always confift; But Exod. xix. moreover to be an holy People to Jehovah, and a Kingdom of Priests. For thus Mofes is Exod. xix. directed to tell the Children of Ifrael, Ye 3, 4, 5, 6. have feen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bore you on Eagles Wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore if ye will bear my Voice indeed, and keep my Covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar Treasure unto me above all People; for all the Earth is mine, and ye shall be unto me a Kingdom of Priests and an holy Nation. We learn what this Covenant Deut. xix. was in a further Account of it. Ye ftand 10,12,13. this Day all of you before the Lord your God your Captains of your Tribes, your Elders and your Officers, and all the Men of Ifrael; that you should enter into Covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his Oath which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this Day; that he may eftablish thee to-day for a People unto himself, and that be may be unto thee a God, as he hath Jaid unto thee, and as he hath fworn unto thy Fathers, to Abraham, Ifaac aud to Jacob:

For

For ye know, adds Mofes, how we have 16,17,18, dwelt in the Land of Egypt, and how we came through the Nations which ye paffed by; and ye have feen their Abominations and their Idols, Wood and Stone, Silver and Gold which were among them, left there should be among you, Man, or Woman, or Family, or Tribe, whofe Heart turneth away this Day from the Lord our God to go and ferve the Gods of thefe Nations.

to prevent

Without any Enquiry into the critical Original Meaning of thefe Expreffions feverally, every the HeContra&of one may eafily fee this general Intention ofbrew Gothem; that the Covenant of Jehovah with vernment, the Hebrew People, and their Oath by Idolatry, which they bound their Allegiance to Jeho-one princivab their God and King, was, that they of it. pal Defign fhould receive and obey the Laws which he fhould appoint as their fupreme Governour, with a particular Engagement to keep themfelves from the Idolatry of the Nations round about them, whether the Idolatry they had seen while they dwelt in the Land of Egypt, or had obferved in the Nations by which they paffed into the promised Land. In keeping this Allegiance to Jehovah, as their immediate and fupreme Lord, they were to expect the Bleffings of God's immediate and particular Protection in the Security of their Liberty, Peace, and Profperity, against all Attempts of their idolatrous Neighbours; but if they fhould break their Allegiance to Jebovah, or forfake the Covenant. of Jehovah,

by

25,26,27.

by going and ferving other Gods, and worfhipping them, then they should forfeit these Bleffings of God's Protection, and the Anger of Jehovah fhould be kindled against the Land, to bring upon it all the Curfes that are written in this Book.

The true Sense then of this folemn Tranfaction, between God and the Hebrew Nation, which may be called the original Contract of the Hebrew Government, is to this Purpofe: If the Hebrews would voluntarily confent to receive Jehovah their Lord and King, to keep his Covenant and Laws, to honour and worship him as the one true God, in oppofition to all Idolatry; then, though God as Sovereign of the World rules over all the Nations of the Earth, and all Nations are under the general Care of his Providence, he would govern the Hebrew Nation by peculiar Laws of his particular Appointment, and blefs it with a more immediate and particular Protection; he would fecure to them the invaluable Privileges of the true Religion, together with Liberty, Peace, and Profperity, as a favoured People above all other Nations. It is for very wife Reasons you may obferve, that temporal Bleffings and Evils are made fo much ufe of in this Conftitution, for these were the common and prevailing Inticements to Idolatry; but by thus taking them into the Hebrew Conftitution, as Rewards to Obedience, and Punishments of Difobedience,

Spencer de Leg. Hebr. §. 1. c. 3. p. 12.

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