it cautions a witness, requires an im- | partial verdict of a jury, and furnishes the judge with his sentence; it sets the husband as lord of the household, and the wife as mistress of the table; tells him how to rule, and her how to manage. It entails honour to parents, and enjoins obedience to children; it prescribes and limits the sway of the sovereign, the rule of the ruler, and authority of the master; commands the subjects to honour, and the servants to obey; and promises the blessing and protection of its Author to all that walk by its directions. It gives direction for weddings and for burials; it promises food and raiment, and limits the use of both; it points out a faithful and eternal guardian to the departing husband and father; tells him with whom to leave his fatherless children, and in whom his widow is to trust; and promises a father to the former, and a husband to the latter. It teaches a man how to set his house in order, and how to make his will; it appoints a dowry for the wife, and entails the right of the first-born; and shews how the younger branches shall be left. It defends the rights of all, and reveals vengeance to every defrauder, over-reacher, and oppressor. It is the first book, the best book, and the oldest book in all the world. It contains the choicest matter, gives the best instruction, and affords the greatest pleasure and satisfaction that ever was revealed. It contains the best laws, and profoundest mysteries, that ever were penned. It brings the best tidings, and affords the best comfort, to the inquiring and disconsolate. It exhibits life and immortality, and shews the way to everlasting glory. It is a brief recital of what is past, and a certain prediction of all that is to come. foolish wise; a book of truth, that detects all lies, and confutes all errors; and a book of life, that shews the way from everlasting death. It is the most compendious book in all the world; the most authentic, and the most entertaining history, that ever was published; it contains the most early antiquities, strange events, wonderful occurrences, heroic deeds, unparalleled wars. It describes the celestial, terrestrial, and infernal worlds; and the origin of the angelic myriads, human tribes, and infernal legions. It will instruct the most accomplished mechanic, and the profoundest artist; it will teach the best rhetorician, and exercise every power of the most skilful arithmetician; puzzle the wisest anatomist, and exercise the nicest critic. It corrects the vain philosopher, and guides the wise astronomer; it exposes the subtile sophist, and makes diviners mad. It is a complete code of laws, a perfect body of divinity; an unequalled narrative; a book of lives, a book of travels, and a book of voyages. It is the best covenant that ever was agreed on, the best deed that ever was sealed; the best evidence that ever was produced, the best will that ever was made, and the best testament that ever was signed. To understand it, is to be wise indeed; to be ignorant of it, is to be destitute of wisdom. It is the king's best copy, the magisstrate's best rule, the housewife's best guide, the servant's best directory, and young man's best companion. It is the school-boy's spelling-book, and the learned man's masterpiece; it contains a choice grammar for a novice, and a profound treatise for a sage; it is the ignorant man's dictionary, and the wise man's directory. It affords knowledge of witty inventions for the ingenious, and dark sayIt settles all matters in debate; re-ings for the grave; and is its own intersolves all doubts, and eases the mind preter. and conscience of all their scruples. It reveals the only living and true God and shews the way to him; and sets aside all other gods, and describes the vanity of them, and of all that trust in them. In short, it is a book of laws to shew -right and wrong; a book of wisdom, that condemns all folly, and makes the It encourages the wise, the warrior, the racer, and the overcomer; and promises an eternal reward to the conqueror. And that which crowns all is, that the Author is without partiality, and without hypocrisy,-"in whom is no variableness, nor shadow of a turning." FROM AN OLD AUTHOR. ESSAYS то THE JEWS. (Continued from col. 430.) Essay V-Of the Natural Seed of Abraham. HAVING, in a former part of these essays, established the fact, that Abraham had two different kinds of seed, -a natural and a spiritual; I proceed to speak of them respectively; and shall accordingly begin with the for mer. In speaking of this subject, I would remark, in the first place, that all the natural descendants of Abraham were not included in the covenant which God made with him. It is of the greatest importance to a right understanding of the subject, that this distinction be clearly kept in view; for, from not attending to it, many have been the errors into which the Christian world have run, respecting these children. It is, however, to be particularly observed, that none but Isaac, in the family of Abraham, and none but Jacob, in that of Isaac, were included in the covenant; or, which is the same thing, were children of the promise. All his other descendants, and the whole of his numerous household, were indeed circumcised. But this seems not to have been on the ground that they were in the covenant, or heirs of the promise which God made to him respecting his seed; but because they were of his family; for it had been enjoined as a positive institution, that every male in his house, whether they were of his seed, or bond servants, or strangers sojourning among them, should be circumcised. The natural descendants of Abraham, strictly speaking, comprise several people and nations; but as it is with his descendants, in the line of Isaac and Jacob, that we have chiefly to do in this investigation, we shall restrict our remarks to them especially. They only were the children of the promise, in the strict sense of the word. And though there was a division in the family of the one, no such thing took place in that of the other. Esau was separated from Jacob because he was not a child of the promise, and laid the foundation of a distinct people by themselves, namely, the Edomites. But Jacob had no less than twelve sons, all of whom were included in the covenant, and none of them separated from their brethren, but were honoured to be the twelve heads of the 78.-VOL. VII. tribes or families of Israel. It is the history of this people we are going to consider, and in doing so, we would advert to the design of their selection, first, from the rest of the nations, and then from their brethren of the same family; I mean, from Ishmael and Esau. We remarked, that this peculiarity of separation began in the calling of Abraham from his kindred and father's house, to a land which he should afterwards receive, or rather his posterity, for an inheritance; but in which himself was only to sojourn as a stranger in a strange land, while he had his faith directed to a better country, that is, an heavenly. Heb. xi. 16. Here the Lord blessed Abraham, because he had obeyed his voice; and, though he permitted him to go long childless, at length gave him a posterity, the destination of whom he was careful to secure before his death. Ishmael, and his sons by Keturah, he sent away while he yet lived, Gen. xxv. 6. ; but all his goods and his riches, both in men-servants and maid-servants, &c. were committed to Isaac as their rightful heir; so that he was not only an heir of promises yet far distant, but the immediate possessor of the whole of his father's substance. Of Isaac sprung Esau and Jacob. But as it has been observed, "that the purpose of God according to election might stand," Rom. ix.11. God designed that the elder should serve the younger; that the birthright and the blessing should both be entailed upon Jacob; and that his family, and not his brother's, should be the line to which the promises belonged. Here, accordingly, terminates the separation of any of Abraham's natural progeny; for though Jacob had twelve sons, several of whom were by no means superior in point of moral character to either Ishmael or Esau, they were all equally included in the covenant, and formed throughout their generations the twelve heads of the tribes of Israel. By a variety of singular turns of providence, they were led into Egypt there oppressed for a long seasondelivered from it-conducted through the wilderness-and at last put in possession of the promised land. With respect to nations, God generally deals with them in their national capacity, even in this life; blessing or 2 K such a manifestation of his power and glory. The words of Moses, as applied to the Israelites shortly before their crossing the Jordan, are astonishingly applicable to them as a nation, throughout the whole of the period they were united in that capacity. Deut. xxvii. 7—14. To a people thus blessed and honour that they should, in their turn, honour and reverence him. God, by becoming their God, constituted them his people; and that they might know what kind of reverence was due to so glorious a majesty, he promulgated to them his laws. punishing them according to their de- | serts. It was thus that he punished the old world, the cities of the plain, overturned successively the great empires which held all the nations in subjection, threatened the destruction of Nineveh, gave the Jews a settlement in the land of Canaan, and at last cast them out. When the promise of that land was first uttered, it wased by their Creator, it was but natural intimated that four hundred years must elapse, ere it could be accomplished; and this was given as a reason, that the "iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full," Gen. xv. 16. But that the Jews, though professors of the worship of the only true God, might not glory over these idolatrous and wicked nations, they were positively informed, that if they should be guilty of like crimes, the land would also vomit them out, as it had done its former inhabitants. Lev. xviii. 25. xx. 22. The way in which God has blessed or punished nations, has generally been by sending peace and prosperity among them; or by visiting them with war, pestilence, and famine, which overturned, depopulated, humbled, and brought them to their senses. All these instruments were employed in delivering his people from Egypt, in preserving them in the wilderness, and in giving them an establishment in the promised land. It has been thought by some, that the law delivered from Sinai demanded nothing more than external obedience, and that if this had only been adhered to, they should not only have secured, on the part of God, a performance of all the promises, but that he, demanding nothing more, would be perfectly satisfied with such exterior worship and obedience. To us, however, it appears in a very different light. We even question if ever such obedience was required by God at any period, or on any occasion, of any of his rational creatures. What, for instance, could be more carnal or external in its nature, than the obedience of a servant to his master? But that even this was not to be merely bodily service, but to flow from the heart, and to be done, not as to men, but to the Lord, is abundantly evident from scripture. Thus extensive and spiritual, and demanding nothing less than the homage of the heart, should we consider the whole of God's commandments. When therefore we speak of his promulgating laws, we do not suppose that those laws were designed merely to regulate their conduct in life, while the principles of the heart were left out of the question. "To love the Never to any nation had the Lord Lord their God with all their heart, dealt as to that of Israel. All that he and soul, and mind, and strength;" had promised to Abraham, its vene- this was the first and great commandrable founder, he had graciously ac- ment. And that God has an indisputcomplished; and the accomplishment able claim upon all his intelligent, was so wonderful, as must have struck and therefore accountable creatures, the beholders with admiration. He to such worship and reverence, is had indeed promised to be their God; clear from the nature of the thing. If but little did they know, perhaps, that he created and upholds them every he was to dwell among them by the moment of their existence, reason symbols of his visible presence, and would dictate that they should live to that the ark of his testimony, which him, and not to themselves. was afterwards erected, was to be The nations were so sensible that there was something more than human in the fate which attended Israel, that even the hardened Pharaoh was forced to acknowledge the finger of God, and many of the other nations were compelled to apply to their imaginary deities to protect them from the arm of the Lord of hosts. And to keep the Israelites themselves in their proper station, duly were they reminded that it was not by their sword, or their bow, or any might of their own, that they had obtained their victories. But the Lord had still a higher " Often, therefore, was that nation sunk into so dismal a state, by their propensity to these sins, that it was difficult to find almost any true and spiritual worshippers among them. And often were their prophets commission the Lord had seen their wickedness, and, behold, it was worse than Sodom; and that therefore he would root up and exterminate them from the land, that they might know, and be confounded, and never open their mouth any more, because of their shame and their iniquity. Ezek. xvi. claim upon the people of Israel. He had not only selected them to be his in a peculiar manner, in the covenant he gave to Abraham, but he had delivered them from their Egyptian bondage, and the hand of their oppressors. He had signified also his designs to casted with the most doleful tidings, that out the nations before them, and to give them all the land of Canaan for a possession in this world; and, under the emblem of the earthly inheritance, to give them a better country, that is, an heavenly, in the world to come. Surely then, love and gratitude to so mighty a deliverer, so kind a benefactor, were but natural returns of sensibility and reason, on the part of the recipients; and whether they were so ingenuous as to render them or not, their duty was the same, and their guilt a thou-"the man that doeth them should live sand-fold aggravated in case of nonperformance. Again, God was not only to be the God of the nation of Israel, but he was to be their King. As a king, he enacted laws, appointed judges to carry them into effect, and could always be consulted, and his mind obtained, by the Shechinah, or visible representation of his glorious presence which he had placed among them. Thus was Israel, as a nation, more complete than any other nation of the earth. Their seeking to be conformed | to others, therefore, either in regard of the object of their worship, or of the power by which they were to be governed, were crimes the most heinous of which they could be guilty. It would have been, in effect, denying the Lord who had redeemed them, and calling in question his right to prescribe such laws and statutes as, in his infinite wisdom, he saw to be best. On this basis, therefore, lay the great controversy between God and that nation. As the whole world had been given to idolatry, "and had changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things," Rom. i. 23. the communication which Israel had with other nations, and the same natural depravity of heart, made them eager to learn their ways. Not satisfied, therefore, with the Lord's appointment, to choose him for their God and their King, they must needs have gods of their own invention, and kings from among themselves, like the other nations of the earth. Hence their repeated wars, their subjugations by other nations, and their consequent captivities. It was declared in the laws of the Lord, that by them." Accordingly, when the whole nation had avouched the Lord to be their God, as he had done them to be his people, and were careful to walk in all the commandments, statutes, and ordinances which he had given them,--the peace and prosperity of the whole nation, in such seasons of obedience, is very remarkable. Instances of this will be found in the times of the judges, and of the pious kings of Judah; the former being careful to walk in the ways which the Lord had directed; the latter, to correct the abuses into which the people had run, and to re-establish that ancient worship from which they had swerved. And thus it was, even with the whole nation, when the administration of justice and judgment were observed by the kings, princes, and governors of the land; notwithstanding, at no period can it be reasonably supposed that the heart of every individual was right with God. A fact this, which cannot be controverted, and which tends to shew in what light Israel, as a nation, were the people of the Lord, and how the blessings he had promised were to be secured to them in their national capacity. When thus speaking of their distinction, as a nation, from the other nations of the world, it is necessary to be observed, that they were never allowed to conform to others, but that |others sojourning among them, behoved necessarily to conform to them, else there could be no intercourse between them. Nor did such permission extend further than to individuals, and that only to those sojourning in their own land; for supposing that whole nations had wished to form alliances with Israel, and to have become one with them, the people of Israel, for very important reasons, were not at liberty to enter into such alliances. In speaking of the natural seed of Abraham, to whom the promises belonged, we mentioned that it was necessary to distinguish not only between them and the other nations of the world, but between them and their brethren, who, though of the same family, had neither right nor title to the same privileges. Both Ishmael and Esau, though descendants of Abraham | equally with Isaac and Jacob, were not, however, included among the people whom the Lord chose for himself; and therefore, being separated, they became founders of nations distinct by themselves. Respecting the other children which Abraham had by Keturah, though we cannot affirm that they also became a people distinct by themselves, certain we are that they were separated from the seed to which the promises belonged, even by the sanction of Abraham; and we have every reason to believe that what was thus done by his sanction, would be scrupulously adhered to by his after descendants. In contemplating the many thousand descendants of Abraham, as many, or perhaps more, by those who were never in the covenant, as by those who were; how gloomy, and how contrary to the truth, is the interpretation which some give of the subject; representing it, in the sense of which we are speaking, as the covenant of grace; and, of course, saving all, as it necessarily must, who were within its bonds, and devoting to eternal perdition all who were not. But there are contrary facts in existence, which, when only known, would lead any reflecting mind to question all such interpretations, and all such systems, as are built upon them. Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, who was a Midianitish priest, was doubtless a wise and a good man, and one who feared the Lord, though he was not in the line of those who were reckoned in the covenant. It is probable he was a descendant of Abraham; for as the Ishmaelites are called Midianites, Gen. xxxvii. 28. and as the Midianites ust therefore have descended, either from Ishmael, the son of Abraham by Hagar, or from Midian, one of his sons by Keturah; whichever of them it might be, it proves that Jethro was a descendant of Abraham; and that, although in the line of those excluded from the covenant, in the acceptation of which we speak, he was not excluded, however, from what is, strictly speaking, the covenant of grace. Job may be considered as another instance of the same truth. It is generally supposed that he lived prior to Moses; but that it was subsequent to Abraham, is pretty evident from the circumstances of one of Job's friends, Bildad, being a Shuhite, evidently a descendant of Shuah, one of the sons of Abraham by Keturah, Gen. xxv. 6. Who were the immediate progenitors of Job, is more than we can determine; but certain it is, that he was not a descendant of Abraham in the line of Jacob, and consequently not included in the promise respecting the seed of Abraham. Neither was he a sojourner among them, but lived in the east, in that country to which Abraham sent his sons of the concubines, Gen. xxv.6. Yet was Job a spiritual worshipper of the true God; and though not of that line to whom the promises belonged, he was not, however, excluded from the blessings of eternal life; which he knew and believed should come through the living Redeemer. Job xix. 25. Those descendants of Abraham who were not of the promise, carrying with them the knowledge of the true God, might preserve it among them for many generations, by which means thousands of them might be saved. Indeed, it is so gross to suppose, that exclusion from the promise of God to Abraham, as it respected his family, or retention in it, was retention or exclusion from the family of God, as it respected their eternal state, that it requires very little argument in order to refute it. This leads us again to repeat some of the reasons why Abraham's family by Isaac and Jacob appears to have been selected and distinguished, not only from the nations in general, but from the numerous branches which sprung from the same root. The distinguishing reason, I humbly apprehend, was the descent of the Messiah in that particular line; nor can I suppose that ever there would have been |