unfavourable conjunctures; those I mean, which hap pened when their propensity to the practice of idolatry, and their prejudice for the principle of intercommunity, were at the height: for amidst all the disorders consequent thereto, they still preserved the knowledge of the true God, and performed the Rites ordained by the Law. And the very calamities which followed the infraction of the Law, of which the neighbouring Nations occasionally partook, were sufficient to alarm these latter, when most at ease, amidst the imaginary protection of their tutelary Gods, and to awaken them to the awful sense of a BEING different, as well as superior to their National Protectors. Which shews, that the Law still operated its effect, strongly and constantly; and still prevailed against accidents and conjunctures, which it governed and directed, instead of lying at the mercy of them. But as it is very probable that the frequent transgressions, which those accidents and conjunctures occasioned, would in time have defeated the end of the Law, the transgressors were punished by a seventy-years-captivity; the extraordinary circumstances. of which made such an impression on their haughty masters, as brought them to confess that the God of Israel was the true God; and was so severely felt by them, that they had an utter aversion and abhorrence of Idolatry, or the worship of false Gods, ever after. So that from thence to the coming of Christ, a course of many ages, they adhered, though tributary and persecuted, and (what has still greater force than Persecution, if not thoroughly administered) despised and ridiculed by, the two greatest Empires of the world, the Greek and Roman; and though surrounded with the pomp and splendor of Pagan idolatries, recommended by the fashion of Courts, and the plausible glosses of Philosophers, they

adhered

adhered, I say strictly, and even superstitiously, to the letter of that Law, which allowed of no other Gods. besides the God of Israel. Now if this was not gaining its end, we must seek for other modes of speech, and other conceptions of things, when we reason upon Government and Laws.

Yet this was not all. For the LAW not only gained its end, in delivering down the Religion of the TRUE GOD into the hands of the Redeemer of MANKIND; who soon spread it throughout the whole Roman Empire; but even after it had done its destined work, the vigour of the Mosaic Revelation still working at the root, enabled a bold Impostor to extend the principle of the UNITY still wider, till it had embraced the remotest regions of the habitable World: So that, at this day, almost all the Natives of the vast regions of higher Asia, whether Gentiles, Christians, or Mahometans, are the professed worshippers of the ONE ONLY GOD. How much the extension of the principle of the Unity has been owing to this Cause, under the permission and direction of that Providence, which is ever producing good out of evil, is known to all who are acquainted with the present state of the Eastern world.

The reason why I ascribe so much of this good, to the lasting efficacy of the Mosaic Law, is this: Mahomet was born and brought up an Idolater, and inhabited an idolatrous Country; so that had he seen no more of true Religion than in the superstitious practice of the Greek Church, at that time overrun with saint and image-worship, it is odds but that, when he set up for a Prophet, he might have made Idolatry the basis of his new Religion: But getting acquainted with the Jews and their Scriptures, he came to understand the folly of Gentilism and the corruptions of VOL. V. Christianity;

G

Christianity; and by this means was enabled to preach up the doctrine of the ONE GOD, in its purity and integrity. It is again remarkable, that to guard and secure this doctrine, which He made the fundamental principle of Ishmaelitism, he brought into his Impos ture many of those provisions which Moses had put in practice to prevent the contagion of idolatry.

But the great Man with whom we have to do, is so secure of his fact, namely, that the Law was perpetually defeated, and never gained its end, that he supposes his Adversaries, the DIVINES, are ready to confess it; and will only endeavour to elude his inference by throwing the ill success of its operations on the hardness of the People's hearts and the impiety of their Governors*. And this affords him fresh occa

sion of triumph.

I will not be positive that this species of Divines is intirely of his own invention, and that this their apo¬ logy for Moses is altogether as imaginary as their fa❤ mous CONFEDERACY † against God; because I know by experience that there are of these Divines, who, in support of their passions and prejudices, are always ready (as I have amply experienced) to admit what Scripture opposes, and to oppose what it admits, in almost every page. But the best Apologies of such men are never worth a defence, and indeed are rarely capable of any.

To conclude: Such as these here exposed, are alk the reasonings of his Lordship's bulky volumes: And no wonder; when a writer, however able in other matters, will needs dictate in a Science of which he did not possess so much as the first principles.

Pages 293, 4

↑ Vol. V. p. 305-307, 393

SECT. III.

HAVING thus shewn the nature of this THEOCRACY, and the attendant circumstances of its erection; our next cnquiry will be concerning its DURATION.

Most writers suppose it to have ended with the JUDGES; but scarce any bring it lower than the CAPTIVITY. On the contrary, I hold that, in strict truth and propriety, it ended not 'till the coming of CHRIST.

I. That it ended not with the Judges, appears evi dent, for these reasons:

1. Though indeed the People's purpose, in their clamours for a King, was to live under a Gentile Monarchy, like their idolatrous neighbours (for so it is represented by God himself, in his reproof of their impiety*); yet in compassion to their blindness, he, in this instance, as in many others, indulged their prejudices, without exposing them to the fatal conséquence of their project: which, if complied with, in the sense they formed it, had been the withdrawing of his extraordinary protection from them, at a time when they could not support themselves without it. He therefore gave them a King; but such an one as was only his VICEROY or Deputy; and who, on that account, was not left to the People's election, as he left his own Regality; but was chosen by himself: the only difference between God's appointment of the Judges and of Saul being this, that They were chosen by internal impulse; He, by Lots, or external designation.

2. This King had an unlimited executive power'; as God's Viceroy must needs have.

3. He had no legislative power: which a Viceroy could not possibly have.

4. He was placed and displaced by God at pleasure: of which, as Viceroy, we see the perfect fitness; but as Sovereign by the people's choice, one cannot easily account for; because God did not chuse to supersede the natural Rights of his People, as appears by his leaving it, at first, to their own option whether they would have God himself for their King.

5. The very same punishment was ordained for cursing the King as for blaspheming God, namely, stoning to death; and the reason is intimated in these words of Abishai to David, Shall not Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the LORD's ANOINTED *? This was the common title of the Kings of Israel and Judah, and plainly denoted their office of Viceroyalty: Improperly, and superstitiously transferred, in these later ages, to Christian Kings and Princes.

From this further circumstance, a Viceroyalty is necessarily inferred: The throne aud kingdom of Judea is all along expressly declared to be God's throne and God's kingdom. Thus, in the first book of Chronicles, it is said that Solomon sat on the THRONE OF THE LORD, as King, instead of David his father. And the queen of Sheba, who visited Solomon, to be instructed in his wisdom, and doubtless had been informed by him of the true nature of his kingdom, compliments him in these words: Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on HIS THRONE, TO BE KING FOR THE LORD THY GOD. In like manner Abijah speaks to the house of Israel, on their defection from Rehoboam: And now ye think to withstand the KINGDOM OF THE LORD in the hands of the

2 Sam, xix. 21. † Chap. xxix. ver. 23. 2 Chron. ix. 8.

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