Right. And, therefore only flightly and fupercilioufly afks," What? was not Abraham, by his "very princely office, to punish Idolatry? Were not "Melchifedec and Job, and all the heads of "Tribes to do the fame ?" Why, no: and it is well for Religion that they were not. It is for its honour that fuch a fet of perfecuting Patriarchs is no where to be found, but in a poetical Prelection...

4. For in the laft place, let it be obferved, that as thefe Patriarchs did not de facto (which appears from their history) fo they could not de jure (which appears from the laws of Nature and Nations) punifh Idolatry by the Judge. Becaufe, as hath been fhewn, Idolatry is not amenable to civil Justice, but where it becomes Crimen læfæ Majeftatis. It could not become the crime of lefe-majefty under. the Patriarchs, unless they had been GoDs as well as KINGS. Indeed, they were as much one as the other. However, it is not pretended that their government, tho' Regal, was Theocratical likewife. The Patriarchs, therefore, could not punish Idolatry by the Judge.

From the Examiner, the Profeffor (without the leaft provocation given him) proceeds to the Author of the Divine Legation; who, he will fhew, is as ignorant, abfurd, and mad-brained as Father Harduin himself.

The Author of the Divine Legation had faid, that the Writer of the book of Job obferved decorum, in imitating the manners of the early scene which he had propofed to adorn. To this, the Profeffor objects, "I can never bring myself 66 to allow to a SEMI-BARBAROUS POET, writing

"after

"after the Babylonian Captivity, fuch a piece of fubtilty and refinement." A mighty piece of refinement truly, for a Writer, who lays his fcene in an early age, to paint, the best he could, the manners of that age." Befides (fays the Pro

feffor) which is the principal point, the style fa"vours wonderfully of Antiquity, and its pecu "liar character is a certain primitive and noble

•

fimplicity. So that they who degrade this Book "to the times pofterior to the Babylonian Capti"vity, feem to judge almost as infanely of He

brew literature as Father Harduin did of the "Roman, who afcribed the golden Poems of Vir"gil, Horace, and the rest, to the iron ages of the "Monks." Verum Poetæ femibarbaro poft Captivitatem fcribenti tantam fubtilitatem ut concedam, impetrare a me non poffum. Porro vero Stylus Poematis, quod vel maximum eft, præcipue vetuftatem fapit; eft ejus peculiaris character αρχαϊσμος. Adeo ut qui id infra Captivitatem Babylonicam deprimunt, non multo fanius in Hebraicis judicare videantur, quam in Latinis Harduinus; qui aurea Virgilii, Horatii, Cæterorumque poemata ferreis Monachorum Sæculis adfcripfit. Idem ib.

The learned Profeffor is a little unlucky in his comparifon. The age of Job, as fixed by him, and the age of the Writer of his history, as fixed by mẹ, run exactly parallel, not with the times of Virgil and Frederic Barbaroffa, as he would infinuate, but with those of Ennius and Virgil. Job the hero of the Poem, lived in an age when civil Society was but beginning to fhew itself, and what is more, in a Country where it never yet was formed: And Ezra (whom I fuppofe to be the Author of the Poem) was an eminent Citizen in the most perfect

civil government in the World; which, he was fent home, to restore, laden with the literary treafures of the Eaft; treasures that had been long accumulating under the warm influence of a large and powerful Empire. From this fecond tranfplantation of the Republic, Science got footing in Judea; and true Religion took deeper root in the hearts of its Inhabitants. Henceforward, we hear no more of their abfurd Idolatries. A ftrict ad

berence to the LAW now as much distinguished them from others, as did the fingularity of the Law itself. And a ftudious cultivation of the LANGUAGE, in which that Law was written, as naturally followed, as it did amongst the Sarazens, who cultivated the Arabic, on the fame principle. And to understand how great this was in both, we need only confider, that each had the fame averfion to a tranflation of their Law into a foreign language. It is true, that in courfe of time, when the Jewish Policy was abolished, and the Nation was become vagabond upon Earth, while the Arabs, on the contrary, had erected a great Empire, a manifeft difference arofe between them, as to the cultivation of the two Languages.-Yet for all this, the Profeffor calls Ezra, a SEMI-BARBARIAN; tho' we agree that he wrote by the infpiration of the Moft High; amidst the last blaze indeed, yet in the full luftre of expiring Prophecy.

But the learned Profeffor has an internal argument from TASTE, full as good as the other from Chronology. "The book of Job favours of Antiquity, and those who cannot relifh it, have as depraved a taste as Father Harduin, who could not diftinguish Partridge from Horse-flesh."

a See what hath been faid on this head in the 42d, 43d and 44th pages of this Volume.

VOL. V.

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The truth is, the Greek and Latin Languages having, for many Ages, been the mother-tongues of two of the greatest People upon earth (who had shared between them the Empires of Eloquence and of Arms) became daily more and more copious by the cultivation of Arts; and lefs and lefs pure by the extenfion of Commerce. In thefe two languages, there yet remains a vaft number of writings on all forts of Subjects. So that modern Critics (in the foremost rank of whom will alway ftand the incomparable BENTLEY) had by long application to them, through their various and progreffive refinements and depravations from age to age, acquired a certain fagacity, in paffing a tolerable judgment concerning the time of the Writer, by his ftyle and manner. Now Pedantry, which is the ape of Criticifm, would mimic the fame talent of difcernment, in the narrowest and most barren of all Languages; little fubject to change, both from the common genius of the East, and from the peculiar fituation of a fequeftered People. Of this Language, long fince become a dead one, the only remains are in one small Volume; the contents of which, had not Providence been mercyfully pleafed to fecure, while the Tongue was yet living, by a tranflation into Greek, the HEBREW VERITY, tranfmitted to us in the manner it was found in the most ancient MSS, where no vowelpoints are ufed, nor fpace left to distinguish one word from another, and where a great number of terms occur only once, would at this day be a mere arbitrary CIPHER, which every Rabinical or Cabaliftic juggler might make the key of his un- revealed Myfteries." Idem accidit etiam Mahometanis (fays Abraham Ekell.) ante inventa ab Ali Abnaditalebo puncta vocalia: Tanta enim legentium erat diffentio, ut nifi Othomanni coercita fuiffet authoritate, et determinata lectio punctis,

quæ

quæ Ali excogitaverat, JAM DE ALCORANO ACTUM ESSET." And if this had been the cafe of the Arabic of the Alcoran, a copious and a living language, what had become of the Hebrew of the Bible? a very narrow and a dead one. Of which an ancient Jewish Grammarian gives this character: "Lingua ifta [Arabica] elegans eft, & longe lateque fcriptis dilatata, et qui eam loquitur nulla dictione deficit: Lingua vero fancta pauca eft præ illa, cum illius nihil extet nifi quod in Libris Scripturæ reperitur, nec fuppeditet omnes diftiones loquendi neceffarias." Yet this is the language whofe peculiarities of ftyle and compofition, correfpondent to every age and time, the Profeffer feems to think, may be as easily distinguished as thofe of the Greek or Latin Claffics. So much for the Author of the Divine Legation: and indeed too much, had not Mr. LOCKE's defence been involved in his that excellent perfon having declared (fpeaking of the words of Job, that Idolatry was an iniquity to be punished by the Judge)

"THIS PLACE ALONE, WERE THERE NO OTHER, "is fufficient to confirm their opinion who con"clude that book to be writ by a Jew."

From the Divine Legation, the learned Profeffor turns again to the Examiner, who feems to fit heavy on his ftomach.-This excellent Writer defired to know of the learned, Where they could find a civil or religious Conftitution out of Judea, which declared that the Children should fuffer for the crime of their Parents. To which the Profeffor replies in these very words In præfens Horatiano illo verficulo contentus abito Examinatorum omnium CANDIDISSIMUS-For the prefent, let this mOST CANDID of all Examiners go about his business, and be thankful for this fcrap of Horace, "Delicta

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