authenticity of the books of fcripture, we may queftion the genuineness of all antient writings, and invalidate the evidence of all history.

Such known facts of other kinds have also been produced, efpecially refpecting the reception which the pretenfions to divine communications by Mofes, by Chrift, and his apoftles have met with, from perfons who could have had no motive to admit them, except the fulleft conviction of their truth, and also respecting the degrees of religious knowledge poffeffed by the Jews and chriftians, who were far from having any peculiar natural advantage for the attainment of it, as cannot be accounted for without the fuppofition of their having had fuch divine communications as they pretended to.

Laftly, not only have many remarkable events come to pafs agreeable to predictions published in those books, but the present state of feveral confiderable cities, of whole nations, and of the world in general, is fuch as was exactly defcribed in them feveral hundred years ago; fo that we cannot but have the greatest reafon to expect the full accomplishment of all the other predictions, for which we have the fame evidence that they came from God, and especially that which is the great object of the whole scheme of revelation, and to which, if we believe it, it behoves us to have conftant refpect, viz. that Chrift will come again to raise the dead,

to

to judge the world, and to give unto every man according to his works.

Notwithstanding this direct and plenary evidence for the truth of the Jewish and chriftian religions, many perfons, who have been extremely prejudiced, and confequently averfe to receive them, either overlooking fome of the more effential particulars of which it confifts, or not fully comprehending it, have started several objections. I fhall therefore diftinctly mention, and briefly reply to the principal of them, efpecially fuch as are thought to be the moft plaufible, and which have the most weight at prefent.

SECTION I.

Various objections refpecting the Old Testament.

OME of the most plausible objections that have

SOME

yet been made to the fyftem of revelation abovementioned affect the Jewish religion only. It is faid to reprefent the divine cond &t in fuch a fhapeas is inconfitient with his known attributes of light, juftice and goodness, particularly his exprefs order to deftroy all the inhabitants of Canaan, without fparing even innocent children, his command to Abraham to facrifice his fon Ifaac, and his direction to the children of Ifrael to borrow of the Egyptians jewels,

jewels, and other valuable things, without any defign to return them.

Before I reply to each of these objections, I fhall make a few general obfervations refpecting

them all.

To these, and all fuch like objections, the fame general anfwer may be made as to fimilar objec tions to the juftice and goodness of God in the natural world, where we fee many things which we are not able to reconcile to thofe principles, as they are rules of human conduct, and there is no reason to expect that revealed religion should be more free from these objections than natural religion. On the contrary, we might expect, that, if both the difpenfations have the fame author, they would be fo fimilarly conftituted, as to be attended with fimilar advantages, and fimilar difficulties. Now we fee that, under the government of the fame God, the innocent are frequently involved in the fame calamities with the guilty; the laws of nature being fo framed, as to be only in general favourable to virtue, without making exceptions on account of individuals..

If the vices and follies of a nation, or of its governors, bring war, famine, or peftilence into it, the righteous are not fpared; ftorms, tempefts, and earthquakes make no diftinction of virtuous or vicious, and innocent children fuffer every day in confequence of the profligacy and debauchery of

their parents. If, therefore, it be confiftent with the divine attributes to permit war, peftilence, famine, or earthquakes, by which numbers of our race, of all characters, are promifcuously fwept away, why might not the fame being commiffion the Ifraelites utterly to extirpate a nation abandoned, without hope of recovery, to the most abominable idolatries and wickednefs. With refpect to the divine being, there can be no material difference; and indeed there is very little, in any cafe, between appointment and permiffion, where there is a fufficient power of prevention. Alfo, as it is alledged, that the inequalities of common providence may be rectified in a future ftate, the very fame may be faid with refpect to these special providences.

The great object of divine government is the production of happiness; and as we fee, in the ordinary difpenfations of his providence, that temporal evils are, in many cafes, infeparably connected with, and ultimately productive of good, we may prefume that every thing to which fimilar objections may be raised in the courfe of his extraordinary difpenfations, will, in the end, be feen to have the fame advantages; and then they will ftand perfectly clear of all objections. In the mean time, it becomes us (as we are obliged to do with respect to every thing that we have to complain of in the conftitution and government of the natural world) to wait with

patience,

patience, till we can fee farther into the nature and ufes of things than we can do at prefent. The reason why the rules of ftrict juftice and veracity are binding upon us, is because it is the only way in which our mutual happiness, as social beings, can be promoted by ourselves. We have feen already that the most indifpenfible moral duties are, in fact, means to a certain end; and it is poffible that, in fome cafes, a being of infinite wisdom may gain the fame great end by what appears to us to be a deviation from any rules.

However, with refpect to the cafe of the Canaanites, we may, I think, fee great wifdom and propriety in their utter extermination, in the manner in which it was accomplished by the Ifraelites. It might be highly expedient, and even necessary, for the instruction of that age of mankind, that the divine being fhould make a fignal and ftriking example of a nation so far funk into idolatry, and corruptions of all kinds, as all the inhabitants of Canaan are faid to have been; and the hand of God would not have been fo vifible in their deftruction, and confequently the moral leffon would not have been so ftriking, and ufeful, if it had been accomplished by a flood, an earthquake, or any other natural means, as had been already tried in the cafe of the old world, and of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah; whereas the hand of God could not but appear when the punishment was executed by a people