had had the choice of the circumstances, and had prescribed them a priori, it is very probable that they might have been fo ill adapted to the end, that the belief of it would have failed, in the natural courfe of things, long before this time; whereas, as things are now circumftanced, the original evidence is so admirably adjusted, as to be fufficient, without any new revelation, to eftablish the chrif tian faith, perhaps, to the end of the world; and this confideration certainly furnishes a strong additional evidence of the truth of christianity, and also serves to give us a ftriking idea of the wifdom of God, and the weaknefs of man. SECTION V. Of the credibility of the Old Teftament hiftory. [F I be asked why I believe the history of those IF divine interpofitions which are recorded in the Old Testament, I may answer, that I am under a neceffity of admitting this, in confequence of believing the hiftory of Chrift and his apostles, as it is written by the Evangelifts. For we there find that the faith of the Jews was also the serious belief of Chrift and his apostles, and that one of the arguments which they made ufe of for the proof of his divinę mission was the fulfilment of the prophe cies of the Old Teftament, in which the character of Chrift, the principal circumftances of his hiftory, and the nature and extent of the kingdom of God under him were particularly pointed out. In short, it is manifeft, from the whole tenor of the New Teftament, that Chriftianity is only a part of one grand difpenfation of religion, and that it is the completion and proper fequel of Judaism; for we there find it every where taken for granted, that God revealed his will in a more imperfect manner to Mofes, and the fucceeding prophets, before the more perfect revelation of it by Christ and his apostles. But, independent of this kind of evidence which ought to have the greatest weight with all Chrif. tians, there is not wanting fufficient reafon to believe that the Jewish religion is true and divine, admitting what has been already proved, viz. the authenticity of the books of the Old Teftament. That the divine being interpofed in a miraculous manner in the affairs of the Jewish nation, and, more especially, that he dictated the law which Mofes communicated to the children of Ifrael, we have the teftimony not only of Moses himself, and of all the prophets who wrote the books of the Old Testament; but we have, in fact, the testimony of all the Jewish nation, who were in circumstances in which they cannot be imagined to have been impofed upon themselves, or to have had any motive to impofe upon others. That the hiftory of the Jews, and of the miraculous interpofitions of God in their favour, fhould, from the earlieft accounts of them, have been firmly believed by the whole body of that nation, and that, even in their present dispersed and calamitous fituation, which has continued for feventeen hundred years, they should retain the fame belief, cannot but be admitted to have the greatest weight. Suppofing the hiftory of the departure from Egypt, and all the miraculous circumftances attending it, to have been a mere fiction, it must have been fo notoriously falfe, that it could not but have been rejected, whenever it had been published. For things of fo extraordinary a nature, on which the authority of all their laws,. their most folemn cuftoms, and religious rites, entirely depended, could not but have gained univerfal attention. The fabulous hiftories of other nations were always invented very late; and as nothing depended upon them, they may easily be fuppofed to have been introduced gradually, without much notice or alarm. Befides, none of them have ftood the test of a rigid fcrutiny, but have fallen into univerfal contempt. It is true that the hiftory of the Old Teftament fets the Jewish nation in general in a very favour favourable point of light, and, on that account, it may be fuppofed that they would the more readily acquiefce in it, and wish to have it pass for true with their neighbours; but in other refpects, also, it represents them, and their most distinguished ancestors, in a very unfavourable light, leaving them under the imputation of so many cruel and bafe actions, as no defcendant of theirs would have wished them to lie under. Among thefe is the hiftory of Abraham and Isaac denying their wives, the deceit of Jacob, and the abominable treachery of two of his fons, together with the very great faults, and even aggravated crimes of David, and others of their most illuftrious heroes and princes. The fabulous hiftories of the Greeks and Romans are written in a manner very different from this. Even Jofephus, the Jewish hiftorian, who had the Old Teftament to write from, and who had it not in his power to forge or alter much, endeavours to give the whole hiftory as favourable a turn as poffible; intirely fuppreffing the story of the golden calf, and others which might tend to give foreigners a difadvantageous idea of his anceftors and nation. What kind of a hiftory may we suppose that fuch a writer as this would have invented, if he had been fairly at liberty to do it; and what does a hiftory written upon fo very dif ferent a plan, as that of the Old Teftament, ex hibit, but the face of truth, however difagreeable and mortifying. All the most diftinguished rites and customs of the Jews are intimately connected with, and founded upon the moft diftinguished miraculous facts in their history; and fome of them, are fuch as we cannot fuppofe that any nation would vo luntarily impose upon themselves, being exceedingly burthenfome, and feemingly hazardous. Among these we may reckon the rite of circumcifion, which was probably borrowed by fome other nations from them; a weekly day of rest from labour, not plowing their fields, or tilling their grounds, every feventh year, and the appearance of all their males three times in a year at one particular place, when the borders of their country must have been left defenceless, and they could have no dependence but upon an extraordinary providence for their fecurity, which was promised in their law. Add to this that they were furrounded by powerful and enterprifing nations, who entertained an inveterate antipathy against them, and confequently could not be expected to neglect the fair opportunities which their feftival folemnities afforded to attack their borders, had they not been reftrained by a fuperior influence. Yet their whole history affords not a fingle inftance of any inroad being made upon them at those times. To |