tainly fulfil the denunciations of that book; but yet that, in consequence of the humiliation and repentance of the king, "he "should be gathered to the grave in peace, neither should his

eyes see all the evil which God would bring upon Jerusalem. "And the king," continues the narrative,* went up into the "House of the Lord, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabi"tants of Jerusalem, and the Priest and the Levites, and all "the people great and small, and he read in their ears all the "words of the book of the Covenant that was found in the House "of the Lord. And the king stood in his place and made a "Covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep "his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes, with "all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words "of the Covenant which were written in this book; and he "caused all them that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin "to stand to it: and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according "to the Covenant of their God, the God of their fathers."

The sacred history proceeds to detail the particular circumstances of the Levites being employed in their due courses, and the solemn celebration of the Passover, "as it is written in "the book of the Covenant;" and there was no such Passover, says the history, kept in Israel, from the days of Samuel the Prophet: probably because the recent captivity of the ten tribes awakened the fears and secured the universal concurrence of all Judah and Israel, who were present, as well as of all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; who now concurred with the king, ‡ " to perform the "words of the Law, which were written in the book that Hil"kiah the priest found in the House of the Lord." Which could not possibly have been any other than the Pentateuch of Moses; probably the very copy written by himself.

These facts and arguments seem sufficiently decisive: they may be confirmed by another argument from the internal structure of the Pentateuch, which I do not recollect to have seen noticed; and which not only meets this objection, but goes further, and seems to prove it highly improbable that the Pentateuch should have been compiled and received, if of a late date or doubtful authority, during any period of the regal government in Judah. The argument is this, That the civil form of government which the Pentateuch exhibits, IS NOT REGAL; it is indeed 2 Kings, xxiii. 24.

* Chron. xxxiv. 30. † 2 Chron, xxxv. 18.

of a very singular kind: says the judicious Lowman*, "It will "easily appear, that the general union of the tribes as one

body, may be conceived after this manner: that the congre"gation of Israel or the whole people, enacted by themselves or "their representatives; that the great council advised, consulted, "and proposed; that the judge presided in their councils, and "had the chief hand in executing what was resolved in them; "and that Jehovah, by the oracle, was to assent to and approve "what was resolved, and authorise the execution of it in matters "of the greatest importance to the whole state. So that the "general union of the whole nation may not improperly be thus "expressed, It was by the command of the people, and advice of "the senate; the judge presiding, and the oracle approving.” The Jewish government was, therefore, what no other ever was, A THEOCRACY; in which the last appeal was to Jehovah himself, expressing his will by the oracle; and in which there was no power either to make or repeal new laws, the laws of the nation being the laws of Jehovah. We must also observe, that the judge was rather an occasional than a constant magistrate, nominated, or at least approved by the oracle; never invested with authority for more than his own life, and without the least idea of an hereditary right.

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Further: The Mosaic code does not merely appoint a constitution, of which kingly government was no part; but it notices this government as an innovation which the people would introduce, after the example of the surrounding nations; and it lays the kings under restraints which were equally irksome to their sensuality and their ambition +. "He shall not multiply wives unto himself, that his heart turn not away; neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold; neither shall he 'multiply horses to himself nor cause the people to return "into Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses; "forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way." And the Law of Moses was to be in every point his guide; "and it shall be," saith the legislator, "when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall "write him a copy of this Law in a book, out of that which is "before the Priests and the Levites; and it shall be with him,

* Vide Lowman on the Civil Government of the Hebrews, ch. vii. Deuteronomy, xvii. 16, &c.

" and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may "learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this "Law and these statutes to do them." When the Jews first solicited from Samuel* a king, after they had lived near 400 years under their original form of government, he was displeased, and represented this demand as in some degree a rejection of God as their king; and he stated in strong terms the oppressions and the mischiefs they should suffer under the kingly government. Now it is remarkable, that the restraints imposed by the Masaic Law were grossly and fatally violated by Solomon, the most renowned and powerful of the Jewish kings.

On this fact then I argue, that if the Mosaic Law had not been universally known and revered as of divine authority long before the time of Samuel, it could never have been compiled and received during the kingly government: he would not have ventured to oppose the wishes of the people in appointing a king, on the pretext of its being a rejection of God for their king; nor would he have attempted to impose such restraints on the monarchs of the Jews, if unsupported by a previously admitted authority: such a fabrication would never have escaped detection and exposure, either by Saul, who for the last years of his life was in constant enmity with Samuel; or by Solomon, who amidst his power and prosperity must have felt his fame wounded, and his passions rebuked, by the stern condemnation of the Mosaic Law. The preceding argument shows the extreme improbability of a supposition which has been sometimes resorted to, that Samuel was the compiler of the Pentateuch.

We have now ascended to within less than 400 years from the promulgation of the Mosaic Law; a period during which the Jews had lived in the uninterrupted possession of the land in which they were settled by Moses and his immediate successor; and without any fundamental alteration in the form of that government under which they were originally placed; and if we have reason to believe that the Pentateuch was admitted as the true system of the Mosaic Law at the close of that period, no possible æra during its continuance can be pointed out, at which the fabrication of such a code may be supposed probable or so much as credible; no motive or circumstance can be assigned as the origin of such a fabrication, or to account for the ready and

* 1 Samuel, viii. 10.

universal credit which it must have obtained; no body of men, even no individual can be discovered, whose interest it was to form such a fabrication, or who could have had an influence sufficiently powerful and permanent to give it currency.

The history of the Jews proves, indeed, that they were very far from adhering strictly to the Mosaic Law during that period: we find that they frequently violated it in the grossest manner, and fell into great disorders and idolatries, and in consequence suffered great calamities. But what was the general effect of these calamities? That they repented of their disobedience, and again submitted to the Law of Moses as the Law of God. Now would this have been natural, if they entertained any doubts of the authenticity of the code containing that Law? Would the people and the rulers and the priests, on the authority of a new compilation, have received as the ancient constitutions of the land, laws and customs they had never before heard of, which condemned the vices and idolatries of every class in the strongest terms, and threatened them with the severest punishments? Surely this is utterly improbable: that prosperity should corrupt a nation, and lead it to neglect the most sacred obligations, is credible; that, though corrupted and depraved, calamity should rouse them to repentance, is also credible; but that they should ascribe their calamities to the violation of a Law whose authority they had never acknowledged, that in the midst of vice and corruption a new code should be fabricated, condemning that vice and corruption, and imposed upon the nation as the known Law of their fathers without opposition, is surely most improbable and strange.

We are not, however, driven to rest the universal reception of the Pentateuch on presumptive arguments or probable conjecture alone: we have the most decisive and uninterrupted, the most positive and direct external testimony. We have a number of different tracts, acknowledged by the Jews as not only genuine, but divine: these works are, the latest of them, written during or shortly after the Babylonish Captivity, as their very language indicates; they take up the history of the Jews from that period, and carry it regularly back to their first settlement in their country by Joshua the successor of Moses, and thus bring us into contact with the legislator himself. They are to a certainty written by a great variety of persons and for very different purposes; some of them plain histories, and al

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most chronological annals: others of them prophetical and mysterious; others poetical and popular; hymns in praise of God, his providence, and laws, or celebrating great national events, or deploring national calamities. And all these multiplied and various compositions unite in presupposing the existence and the truth of the Pentateuch, and uniformly refer to and quote it as the only true and genuine account of the ancient history, and known laws of the Jews: they recite its facts, they refer to its laws, they celebrate its author; they appeal to the people, to the kings, to the priests; they rebuke and threaten them for neglecting the Mosaic Law, as it is contained in the Pentateuch; and what is most decisive, they never once give the least hint of any rival law, of any new compilation, of any doubt as to its authenticity. To quote from all, would be as unnecessary as it would be tedious. I will adduce one or two testimonies from the book of Joshua, the immediate successor of Moses, which will, I trust, be satisfactory and decisive.

When Joshua is represented as receiving the divine commission to undertake the command of the Jews, it was on this condition: * "Only be thou strong, and very courageous, that thou "mayest observe to do according to all the Law which Moses

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my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right "hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever "thou goest. This book of the Law shall not depart out of thy "mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that "thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written "therein." When he had conquered a considerable part of the promised land, we find him forming a great assembly of the people, in compliance with the direction of the Law and he “built an altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal, as "Moses the servant of the Lord commanded the Children of "Israel, as it is written in the book of the Law of Moses, tan "altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lift up any ❝iron: and they offered thereon burnt-offerings unto the Lord, "and sacrificed peace-offerings. And he wrote on the stones a

:

copy of the Law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of "the Children of Israel. And all Israel, and their elders

* Josh. i. 7.

+ Ib. viii. 30.

This, as Mr. Locke observes, is evidently a completion of the direction in Deuteronomy, ch. xxvii. And the Law engraven on the plastered stones, now set up, was no more than the decalogue itself, or the formula of bles