Jewish Law came less directly from him, as being conveyed through the ministry of Moses, for the sole use of the Jewish People?

To these questions his Lordship would be ready to answer, "That it is necessary for the subjects of a moral law to be endowed with free Will: That free Will may be abused; and that such abuses may render the most perfect system of Laws ineffectual." But this answer turns upon his Lordship, when applied to the defence of the Mosaic Law; and turns with redoubled force.

We see then how much he was mistaken in concluding, that, because perfection in its kind is one of the essential qualities of a divine Law, therefore such a law must of necessity produce its effect. His best reason for this fancy is, that he is able to form some general notions of Laws thus perfect. Which is no more than telling us (notwithstanding his parade of insinuated ability), that he is able to conceive how the Will may be controlled, and how Man may be transformed into a Machine. It is true, he owns, that this fact, viz. to make laws thus perfect, is above humanity. It is so; and let me add, as much below the Divinity; whose glory it is to draw his reasonable creatures with the cords of a man. A Law then, which produces its effects by a certain necessity, must do it by a necessity which is physical, and not moral; it being the quality of physical, not of moral necessity, that its effects cannot possibly be defeated.

Thus, we see, all there is of truth in his Lordship's assertion, of its being essential to the perfection of a mean that it attain its end, amounts only to this, A capacity in such a mean to attain its end, naturally and of itself. And this, we say, was the condition of the Mosaic Law; whatever might be the actual success.

The qualities of a Law capable of producing its effect, are to be sought for à priori, as the Schools speak, and not à posteriori: And if here we find intrinsic marks of excellence in the particular Laws; of consummate wisdom in the general Frame and Constitution of them; and can likewise discover those accidents, which, at some periods of the Dispensation, hindered the effect; we have done all that human reason can require, to vindicate this divine Law, from his Lordship's imputations of imposture.

To treat this matter as it deserves, would require a volume, though not so large as his Lordship's. But a few words will suffice to give the reader a general idea of the truth. And a general idea will be sufficient to shew the futility of the objection.

The admirable provision made by the Jewish Law for preventing idolatry, may be seen in the following instances:

1. That each specific Rite had a natural tendency to oppose, or to elude, the strong propensity to idolatrous Worship, by turning certain Pagan observances, with which the People were besotted, upon a proper object. Hence that CONFORMITY between Jewish and Pagan Ceremonies, which so vainly alarms, and so vainly flatters, both the friends and enemies of Revelation.

2. That by their multiplicity, and the frequent returns of their celebration, they kept the People constantly busied and employed; so as to afford small time or leisure for the running into the forbidden superstitions of Paganism.

3. That the immediate benefits which followed the punctual observance of the Law, had a natural tendency to keep them attached to it.

4. But lastly, and above all, that the admirable coincidency between the Institute of Law, and the Administration

Administration of Government (whereby the Magistrate was enabled to punish idolatry with death, without violating the rights of mankind), went as far towards the actual prevention of idolatrous Worship, as, according to human conceptions, CIVIL LAW, whether of human or divine original, could possibly go. And resting the matter here, I suppose, one might safely defy his Lordship, with all his legislative talents, and his vain boast of them, to form any general notions of a law more perfect.

1

But this reasoning on the natural efficacy of the Mosaic Law, by its innate virtue, to prevent and to restrain Idolatry, which it did not at all times, in fact, prevent and restrain, will be further supported by this consideration: That the circumstance which, from time to time, occasioned a defection from the Law, was neither an indisposition to its establishment; nor any incoherence in its general Frame and Constitution; nor aversion to any particular part, nor yet a debility or weakness in its Sanctions. The sole cause of the defection was an inveterate prejudice, exterior and foreign to the Law. The Israelites, in their house of bondage, had been brought up in the principles of LOCAL AND TUTELARY DEITIES and INTERCOMMUNITY OF WORSHIP; principles often referred to, on various occasions, in the course of this work, for the illustration of the most important truths. In these Principles, they saw the whole race of mankind agree: and, from the Practice of them, in the worship of tutelar Deities, they thought they saw a world of good ready to arise. But not only the hope of good, but the fear of evil drew them still more strongly into this road of folly. Their Egyptian education had early impressed that bugbear-notion of a set of local Deities, who expected their dues of all who came to inhabit the

country which they had honoured with their protection; and severely resented the neglect of payment on all new comers. This will easily account for the frequent defections of the Israelites in the divided serIvice of the Gods of Canaan.-But it is difficult for men fixed down to the impressions of modern manners, to let themselves into distant times; or to feel the force of motives whose operations they have never experienced: Therefore, to convince such men that the early Jewish defections were not owing to any want of force or virtue in the Law, but to the exterior violence of an universal prejudice, it may be proper to observe, that, from the Babylonian Captivity to this very time, the Jews have been as averse to Idolatry under every form and fashion of it, as before they were propense unto it. If it be asked, what it was that occasioned so mighty a change? I answer, It was in part, the severity of that punishment which they had felt; and in part, the abatement of that foolish prejudice which they had favoured, of INTERCOMMUNITY OF WORSHIP: This, though still as general as ever in the Pagan world, had yet lost greatly of its force amongst the Jews, since they became acquainted with the principles of Gentile Philosophy; the sounder parts of which being found conformable to the reasonable doctrines of their Religion, were applied by them to the use of explaining the Law. An use which this Philosophy was never put to in the place of its birth, on account of the absurdities of Pagan worship; for this kept the principles of Philosophy and the practices of Religion at too great a distance to have any influence on one another. Such was the advantage the followers of the Jewish Law reaped from the Greek Philosophy; an

* See what has been said on this matter just above, in the case of the Cutheans, inhabiting Samaria.

advantage

advantage peculiar to them; and which made some amends for the many superstitions of another kind, which the mixing Philosophy with Religion introduced into the practice of the Law: superstitions which depraved, and at length totally destroyed the noble simplicity of its nature and genius.—But I anticipate a subject for which I shall find a much fitter place.

At length then we see, that the Law of Moses was, indeed, such a one as his Lordship would require in a LAW OF DIVINE ORIGINAL, namely, that it produced its effect, if not by a physical necessity which bears down all obstruction before it, yet by a moral, which constantly kept operating when no foreign impediment stood in the way! So false is his Lordship's assertions, that the WHOLE history of this people is one continued series of infractions of the Law. If, by the whole, he means (as his argument requires he should mean) the whole both of their sacred and merely civil history; and, by one continued series of infractions of the Law, their lapses into Idolatry; it is the grossest misrepresentation: the far greater part of their duration as a distinct People was free from idolatry; and an authentic account of this freedom is recorded in their Annals. But if by their whole history, he means (as his cause might necessitate him to mean) only the sacred books; and, by their infraction of the Law, only transgressions in lesser matters, it is illusory and impertinent.

2. We have seen the force of his Lordship's conclusion from the circumstance-of infinite Wisdom's framing the Law: We come next to the other circumstance, from which he deduceth the same conclusion, namely, infinite Power's administering the Law.

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