are defiled, which I caft out before you." And again; "therefore fhall ye keep mine ordinance that ye commit not any one of thefe abominable customs which were committed before you, that ye defile not your felves therein; I am Jehovah your God." For the fame purpose it is repeated; " and ye fhall not walk in the manners of the nations which I caft out before you, for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them; but I have faid unto you, ye fhall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to poffefs it; a land that floweth with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God which hath feparated you from other people, and ye thall be holy unto me; for the Lord am holy, and have feparated you from other people that ye fhould be mine." It had appeared by notorious examples, how cafily the Hebrews themfelves were to be enticed into idolatry, by frequenting the company of idolaters, and by converfing too much and too familiarly with them, while Ifrael abode in Shittim; " the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab, and they called the people to the facrifice of their gods; and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods:" fo eafy was the paffage from feafting with them on their facrifices, to joining with them in their idolatry." Thus Ifrael joined himfelf to Baal-peor." by a prohibition of every idolatrous rite The law itfelf for prohibiting inter-marriages with idolaters expressly gives this reafon for it," Neither fhall you make marriages with them, thy daughter thou fhalt not give unto his fon, nor his daughter fhalt thou take unto thy fon; for they will turn away thy fon from following me, that they may ferve other gods; fo will the anger of the Lord be kindled againft you and destroy thee fuddenly." Many other laws, which at firft view feem to be of fmall importance and concern, for the enacting of which fome look for no reafon at all, but the alone will of the law. giver, will appear in this view, of concern and importance, fufficient for the wisdom of God to take notice of, when he gave his laws to this nation. The most judicious of the Hebrew doctors, has very well explained feveral of the Mofaical laws upon this fingle confideration. He gives this general reafon for many laws, that they were made to keep men from idolatry, and fuch falfe opinions as are a-kin to idolatry; fuch as the pretences to incantations, divinations, foretelling things by the stars, or by the poffef fion of fome fpirit or demon, or confulting with fuch perions. He farther jufly ob ferves, that fuch things as are fuppofed to be effected by any magic actions, or are founded on any difpofitions or influences of the ftars, neceflarily induce men to reverence and worship them. He obferves many of the magic rites confifted in certain geftures, actions, or the uíe of certain words, and mentions feveral examples of fuch fuperftitions; among the reft a remarkable rite to prevent a form of hail. However trifling fome of the Mofaical laws may appear at first view, and unworthy the wifdom of God to enact them as laws; yet the cafe will appear quite otherwife, when they are confidered as neceffary provifions against the danger of idolatry. Such an example of prevailing idolatry, is juftly given, as a fufficient reafon for a careful feparation of the Hebrew people from idolatrous neighbours, in order to prevent fo very dangerous temptations in future times. Mofes therefore thus exhorts Ifrael," Your eyes have feen what the Lord did, becaufe of Baal-peor, the Lord thy God hath deftroyed them from among you; but ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God, are alive every one of you this day. Behold I have taught you ftatutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do fo in the land whither ye go to poflefs" it. Keep therefore and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding, in the fight of all the nations which fhall hear of all thefe ftatutes, and fay, furely this great nation is a great and understanding people." Among the laws here fpoken of, there are fome, the wisdom of which appear principally, if not folely, as they were chofen and commanded to this end, to feparate the Hebrews from their idolatrous neighbours, The law, for inttance, that appoints, Ye fhall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard," will thus appear directions of importance, when it was to prevent a magical cuftom of the idolatrous priefts, who made this fort of cutting off their hair and beards effential to their worthip; and used them as things of confequence, in order to procure from their idols the feveral bleffings they defired and prayed for. A prohibition of fuch idolatrous and magical ceremonies was not fo trivial, or below the care care of a wife Law-giver, who had a defign in the conftitution of the Hebrew government, to keep that people from all idolatrous cuftoms. In like manner we may eafily perceive a. reafon why the law should direct," Neither fhall a garment of linen and woollen come upon thee;" when we understand, that fuch mixed garments of linen and woollen were the proper habits of idolatrous priefts; and which, according to the profeffed doctrines of their idolatrous worship, were fuppofed to have fome powerful magical virtue in them. For the fame reafon we can eafily understand the wisdom of appointing by law, that" the woman shall not wear that which appertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment; for all that do fo are abomination to the Lord thy God;" when it was an idolatrous conftitation of their neighbours, as Maimon found it in a magic book, that men ought to ftand before the ftar of Venus in the fowered garments of women; and women were to put on the armour of men before the ftar of Mars, as bifhop Patick on the place truly reprefents its Eeaning. The fame idolatrous custom is obferved by Macrobius, that men worshipped Venus in women's habits, and women in the haLits of men. There is no reafon then, we fee, to imagine that thefe laws, which were to diftinh the Hebrew people from the idolatrous nations, were made only out of hatred to their neighbours, and to all their cuftoms and manners, good or bad, innocent as well as idolatrous. It appears on the contrary to be plainly quite another reafon; it was from a wife care of their prefervation from fuch idolatrous cuftoms, as there was very great reafon to fear, would prove a dangerous temptation to lead them into idolatry, and which were hardly to be ufed without it. All reflections, with how much confidence foever on the Hebrew laws, as if they were established pon no better motives than the hatred of their neighbours, will appear in this view groundless, and without all foundation, when the true reafon shall appear fo wise, fo plain, and fo natural. Thefe two-views then, to preferve in the Hebrew nation the knowledge and worthip of the one true God, and to preferve it from the fpreading evils of idolatry, by feparating it from the fociety of idolaters, by forbidding all ufe of idolatrous rites and customs, may be looked upon as confiderable intentions in the conflitution; according to which, we are to examine and to judge of the equity and wisdom of the conftitution itfelf. Neither of which can be fo well judged of, without taking thefe intentions into confideration. If we regard the Hebrew conftitution only as an inftitution of religion and religious worship, or only as a civil polity and a form of civil government, we shall widely mistake the true nature of it. It is evident beyond question, the Mofaical account of it reprefents it a theocracy, in which Jehovah is God, and King; and in which the true worship of the only true God was to be preferved against idolatry, and the nation, in obedience to the laws of this inftitution, fhould enjoy liberty, peace, profperity and happiness in the protection of a wife and powerful government. It may be proper to obferve here, that thefe defigns appear in themselves worthy the wisdom and the goodness of God; that he fhould take care in fome proper way to put a stop to fo prevailing a course of idolatry. If the defign fhall appear in itself manifeftly wife and good, the proper means to effect it will appear to be equitable, wife and good alfo. Some fecm not to perceive, at least are not willing to own this. The more fully then to make us fenfible of it, let us briefly obferve fome of the many great evils of idolatry, which this Hebrew conftitution was intended and formed to prevent. One of the chief and most influencing principles of idolatry, was a falfe perfuafion that the temporal blefings of life, health, length of days, fruitful feafons, victory in wars, and fuch advantages, were to be expected and fought for as the gifts of fome inferior and fubordinate beings, as guardians of mortal men; or from fecret influence of the ftars and heavenly bodies, fuppofed inhabited, and animated by fome powerful beings, or gods, whofe protection and favour were to be obtained by the ufe of fome magical ceremonies, geftures and words, or by fome fenfelefs or fome barbarous rites of worship. Thus men came not only to lose the true knowledge of the only one God, and of his immediate providence, and that all thefe bleffings could therefore come from him alone, who was best pleased and Q2 best best worshipped by virtue, goodness, righteoufnefs and true holiness; but they be came neceffarily vicious and corrupt in practice, as well as principle. They came to think they were not to expect the bleflings of life from the favour of the one true God, a Being himfelf of infinite purity, righteoufnefs, and goodness, by reverencing and by imitating him; but from the favour of a Jupiter, who with all his fine titles is reprefented in his hiftory, to have been as intemperate, as luftful, and as wicked as any the worst of men; or from a Mercury, a patron of thieves and robbers; or from a Bacchus, the god of intemperance and drunkennefs; or from a Venus, the patronefs of all manner of uncleannefs, and debauchery. The known principles and the moft facred ceremonies and mysteries in the idolatrous worship of fuch deities, actually fhewed what encouragement was given to all manner of vice. They extinguifhed all religious principles of moral virtue and goodness, and gave additional ftrength to men's natural inclinations, to intemperance, luft, fraud, violence, and every kind of unrighteoufnefs and debauchery. The Phalli, and the Mylli, known religious rites in the worship of Bacchus, Ofiris, and Ceres, were fuch obfcene ceremonies, that modefty forbids to explain them. It may be fufficient to mention the known cuftom of virgins before marriage, facrificing their chaftity to the honour of Venus, as a lafcivious goddefs, as the hiftorian expreffes it, left the alone fhould appear lafcivious, A cuftom, according to the hiftorian, which was especially ufed in Cyprus, which was in the neighbourhood of Canaan. Idolatry had introduced another moft cruel cuftom of human facrifices. This prevailed among the Phenicians, the Tyrians, and the Carthaginians, a Tyrian colony; on which inhuman cuftom the forementioned hiftorian makes this remark, that they used a bloody and wicked rite of religion, as a remedy. They offered men for facrifices, and brought young children to the altars, at an age that ufually moves the compaffion of an enemy; and endeavoured to obtain the favour of the gods by the blood of thofe, for whofe lives prayers were more generally used to be made to the gods. This cruel cudom, how inhuman foever, fuch were the evil effects of idolatry, foon became almoft univerfal; and fpread itfelf among the Greeks, the Gauls, and the German nations. Among the Canaanites it was a known custom to offer their children to Moloch, likely the fame idol with Adrameleck and Anameleck. Some learned men have indeed been willing to believe, that paffing through the fire to Moloch, might mean a fort of purification, rather than actual burning them in the fire; but befides the teftimony of hiftorians in general to the practice of other nations, the Scriptures plainly mean confuming them to death by fire. So it is defcribed by the prophet Ezekiel; " And have caufed their fons whom they bare unto me, to pafs through the fire to devour them." Did they caufe them to pass through the fire, only to purify them, and to preferve them alive? No, certainly; but to devour or confume them. The fame prophet elfewhere deter mines this meaning. "Thou haft flain my children and delivered them to caule them to pass through the fire." It is charged as an act of idolatry in Ahaz, that he caufed his fon to pass through the fire, according to the abomination of the Heathen. This is explained in another place, that "he burned his children in the fire after the abomination of the Hea. then." And it is exprefsly faid of Adrameleck, and Anameleck, the idols of Se pharvaim, that "they burned their chidren in the fire to them." If we confider the many other abomi nable immoralities of the Canaanites, b which they defiled themfelves, as they ar enumerated in the prohibition of them to the Hebrew nation, we may eafly pe.ceive, that a nation which had defid themfelves in fo many and fo great abominations, did well deferve an exemplary punishment from the righteous judge of the earth; that it was wife, as well a juft, to fhew in their punishment, that their idols were not, as they imagined and falfely believed, the givers of long life, peace, and worldly profperity; but that the one true God was alone the fupreme difpofer of all the bleflings of providence; and that none of the idol gods, in whom they trufted, could fave them out of his hand, or deliver them, when God fhould vifit their iniquities. May we not alfo perceive a kind defign, in giving fome remarkable inftances of providence, for the punishment of fo gros immoralitics, the effects of idolatrous princicles and practice, and for the encouragement of fuch acknowledgment and worthip of the true God, as was the best prefervative against thefe abominations, by fome ervable intances of particular protect and favour; to let fuch worshippers of the true God know, that by keeping themielves from thofe abominations, the tural and ufual effects of idolatry, they ere to here for the continuance of fuch rticular protection and favour in all aftertimes? Hence it may appear, the feverity with ch the Hebrew history acquaints us, Canaanites were punished, and the title whereby the Hebrews held their land, hom God call out before them, were no avs inconfiftent with the juftice, or wifcm, or goodness of God, as fome have cuated. The queftion is really brought This one point, Whether fuch abomide immoralities, as followed naturally ad univerfally from their idolatrous prinscles, and forms of worship were not ghly criminal; fo criminal as to deferve pikment? that it became the juftice wifdom of the Governor of the world put fome ftop to them, to prevent them iome mea ure, by forming and establisha conftitution in which the knowledge worthip of the one true God fhould be proferved in oppofition to idolatry, a perpetual fource of innumerable vices and moralities. Idolatry, you fee then, appars in the natural fruits of it, not only an error of the understanding, not at all a matter of harmless fpeculation, but a foutain of very dangerous immoralities, ach led men naturally, and even with Le encouragements of religion, into in perance, uncleanness, murders, and may vices, inconfiftent with the profperity and peace of fociety, as well as with the opinefs of private perfons. When God il punish fuch iniquities, he punishes for their wickednefs, not for their errors. He punishes men for fuch wicktreis, as deferves to be punished, whatever pretended principles or real dictates fconfcience it may proceed from. No fure, can reifonably account it inice in a government to punish fodomy, taiality, or the frequent murder of inrecent children, what pretences foever men ould make to confcience or religion, in indication of them. The moft unnatural fi were countenanced by the myfteries of idolatrous worship; the use of that obfcene ceremony the Phalli, owed its original to the inemory of the fin againıt nature, and to the hiftory of a god hallowing it by his own act. Can any man reafonably call fuch a retraint of vice perfecution, when not to endeavour by ail means to retrain it, would argue a great neglect, weaknefs, and folly, in any adminitration of government whattoever? It then the punishment for fo heinous crimes and immoralities will be just and wife in ittelf, which way can any man find' out, to make it unjutt or unwife in the fu preme Governor of the world? How can it be unjust in him, to appoint fuch perfons as he fhall think molt fit, to execute fuch righteous judgment by his commiffion? The common rights of nations, and any perfonal claim of the Hebrews, are alogether out of this question; the hiftory plainly fhews, they made no perfonal or national claim at all to the land of Canaan; but that God caft out the people before them, for all their abominations; that it was not their own power, but the hand of God, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and into the promised land. So that the whole is confidered as the immediate act of God himself, for the proof of which the history gives a long feries of miracles, in Egypt, at the RedSea, for many years in the wilderness, at the taking of Jericho, and fettling the Hebrew nation in the poffeffion of the promifed land. And here let us july obferve, that this very way of punishing the Canaanites for their many great abominations by the Hebrew nation, to whom God gave the poffeffion of their land, has fome peculiar marks of wisdom, which may fhew it fit to be preferred to many other ways; fuch as peililential diflempers, fire from heaven, or a flood, ways in which God hath punished the wickedness of the world in former times. For this was a very fit means for the cure, as well as the punishment of idolatry, to defroy the root of thefe great evils, as well as to righteous judgment on those who had committed them. This was a defign every way worthy the wifdom and goodness of God. Sure then, no ways inconfiftent with his juftice. The protection of the Hebrew nation, and the favour of God to them as a peculiar people, was a vifiole and ftanding confutation of idolatry; it thewed, Q3 execute that that Jehovah, the one true God, the King of Ifrael, had himself an immediate hand in the adminiftration of particular providence; that he had not given it out of his own hands into the hands of any inferior beings whatsoever, which error was the great foundation of idolatry. It further thewed the power of Jehovah the true God, manifefted in the protection of his people, fuperior to the power of all the idols of the Heathen; and that none of the falfe gods they worshipped could be compared to Jehovah. This is a question then not to be argued from the common rights of men, and nations; for no fuch rights, either of invafion or conqueft, are fo much as pretended to in the most diftant manner. We fee the only point in question, is, what are the rights of God's fupreme authority? What is confiftent with the wisdom of his government, how far he may punish the greatest immoralities with temporal evils? Ak the Sacred Hiftory, it will tell you, the Hebrews fet up no title to the land of Canaan, either civil or religious in their own right; it only makes the rights of the Sovereign of the world as extenfive as the rights of the chief magiftrates in every government are allowed by the laws of nature and nations to be over their own fubjects. The Scriptures on this question only affert, that God gave a commiffion to execute his fentence, which was either a forfeiture of lands, or life, for a long commiffion of crimes, that defervedly incurred the forfeiture of both. Whether the Hebrew nation had really fuch a commiffion from God, or no; whether they were truly directed by divine oracle; whether fuch wonders were really wrought before their eyes, and fuch unquestionable inftances of divine favour and protection in a long feries for many years, as the Hebrew history relates: thefe are all queftions of fact. But in all fuch queftions general and abftract reafonings can have no place, where the facts themselves are naturally and morally poffible, as every one may perceive they are in this cafe. If the fupreme Governor of the world has a right to give fuch commiffion, if it is not unjust to use the hands of men, inftead of a plague or fire from heaven, to punish the wick dness of men, the only queftion that can remain in fuch a cafe is this, whether in fact the Hebrew nation did really receive fuch a commiffion from Je hovah, or no: Thus far then the whole will reft upon the evidence of the Mofaic revelation; and there I fhall leave it, it not being the defign of this differtation to enter into an argument, in which many, as I apprehend, have already given fo full fatisfaction. Rev. Mofes Lowman, $175. The fulfilment of the Mofaical prophecies concerning the Jews an unanfier. able argument for the truth of the Bible. IT is obfervable that the prophecies of Mofes abound most in the latter part of his writings. As he drew nearer his end, it pleafed God to open to him larger profpects of things. As he was about to take leave of the people, he was enabled to difclofe unto them more particulars of their future ftate and condition. The defign of this work will permit us to take notice of fuch only as have fome reference to thefe later ages; and we will confine ourfelves principally to the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, the greater part whereof we may fee accomplished in the world at this prefent time. This great prophet and lawgiver is here propofing at large to the people the bleflings for obedience, and the curfes for difobedience: and indeed he had foretold at feveral times and upon feveral occafions, that they fhould be happy or miferable in the world, as they were obedient or disobedient to the law that he had given them. And could there be any stronger evidence of the divine original of the Mofaical law? and hath not the interpofition of providence been wonderfully remarkable in their good or bad fortune? and is not the truth of the prediction fully attefted by the whole feries of their history from their firft fettlement in Canaan to this very day? But he is larger and more particular in recounting the curfes than the bleffings, as if he had a prefcience of the people's difobedience, and forefaw that a larger portion and longer continuation of the evil would fall to their fhare, than of the good. I know that fome critics make a divifion of these prophecies, and imagine that one part relates to the former captivity of the Jews, and to the calamities which they fuffered under the Chaldæans; and that the other part relates to the latter captivity of the Jews, and to the calamities which they fuffered under the Romans: but there is no need of |