The declarations of the Jewish Lawgiver on this topic are most full, especially in the book of Deuteronomy, in which he recapitulates the wonders of divine power in their behalf, which the Jews themselves had witnessed; and is therefore able to impress the conviction of the divine providence from their own experience. It is, however, frequently inculcated on other occasions. Before the solemn publication of the ten commandments, God, by Moses, addresses the Children of Israel: "Ye have "seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bore you on "eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, "if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for "all the earth is mine."*

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Most remarkable is the declaration in the solemn hymn which closes the writings of the illustrious Lawgiver: "Remember," says he, addressing the assembled nation, "remember the days “of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, "and he will show thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee, "When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, "when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the

"Nor, 2dly, in the world at large promiscuously; for this could not be well "discerned, or form a striking object for distinct observation.

"Nor, 3dly, in respect of moral virtue merely, for of moral merit mankind can"not judge, the motives of human conduct are not penetrable by human eye, its "external expressions are uncertain and unequivocal. But whether or no, men prac"tise a certain mode of external conduct, this or that form of worship, for instance, "this or that mode of domestic life, may be ascertained; and such actions, though "not of themselves 'moral, yet, when made the subjects of command by a rightful "superior, put on a moral quality-but for this they must be the subject of a positive "law; the promulgation and execution, therefore, of such a Law, is an argument and "exhibition of the moral government of God.

"In the 4th place," Mr Cappe observes, "the remuneration must be sensible "and obvious, like the conduct which is its object; it must not, therefore, consist "in any thing merely internal, as in mental joys and hopes-or regret and fears." And therefore, I add, and not in the hopes or fears of a future life, solely or principally.

I cannot here avoid expressing my regret, that these two volumes of Mr Cappe do not contain more of his reasonings on the general evidence of Christianity, or of those beautiful moral discourses, some extracts from which his ingenious and amiable Editor gives in her very interesting account of his life, rather than those controversial discussions and criticisms, in which, from his unfortunate attachment to Socinianism, it must seem to so many of his readers (as it certainly does to me) that his judgment is clouded by prejudice, and his ingenuity employed to defend error. * Exod. xix. 4.

"people according to the number of the Children of Israel. For "the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inhe"ritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste

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howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he "kept him as the apple of his eye."* And this sublime hymn closes with the following awful declaration, on the subject of which we now treat. When foreseeing the apostasy of the Jews, in turning to false gods, and denouncing the punishments which should in consequence be inflicted upon them, he describes the Deity as expostulating with his wayward people: "Where are "their gods, the rock in which they trusted, which did eat the "fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink-offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection. "See now that I, even I am he, and there is no God with me. "I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there 66 any that can deliver out of my hand; for I lift up mine hand "to heaven, and say, I live for ever."+

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In truth, this fact of the perpetual providence of God extending even to the minutest events, is inseparably connected with every motive which is offered to sway the conduct of the Jews, and forcibly inculcated by every event of their history. This had been manifested in the appointment of the land of Canaan for the future settlement of the chosen people, on the first covenant which God entered into with the patriarch Abraham; in the prophecy, that for four hundred years they should be afflicted in Egypt, and afterwards be thence delivered in the increase of their nation, under circumstances of extreme oppression, and their supernatural deliverance from that oppression. The same Providence was displayed in the destruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea; the travels of the thousands of Israel through the wilderness, sustained by food from heaven; and in their subsequent settlement in the promised land, by means entirely distinct from their own strength.

Reliance on the same Providence was the foundation of their civil government, the spirit and the principle of their constitution. On this only could they be commanded to keep the sabbatic year without tilling their land, or even gathering its spontaneous produce: confiding in the divine promise, that God would send his "blessing on the sixth year, so that it should

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bring forth fruit for three years."* The same faith in divine Providence alone could prevail on them to leave their properties and families exposed to the attack of their surrounding enemies : while all the males of the nation assembled at Jerusalem, to celebrate the three great festivals, enjoined by divine command, with the assurance, that " no man should desire their land, when they "went up to appear before the Lord their God thrice in the "year." And finally, it is most evident, that, contrary to all other lawgivers, the Jewish legislator renders his civil institutions entirely subordinate to his religious; and announces to his nation, that their temporal adversity or prosperity would entirely depend -not on their observance of their political regulations, not on their preserving a military spirit, or acquiring commercial wealth, or strengthening themselves by powerful alliances-but on their continuing to worship the one true God, according to the religious rites and ceremonies by him prescribed, and preserving their piety and morals untainted by the corruptions and vices which idolatry tended to introduce. How clear and impressive are the concluding words of the last exhortation of their illustrious Lawgiver, to the assembled nation: "See," says he, "I have set "before thee this day life and good, death and evil; in that I "command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in “his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, " and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and "the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou "wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, " and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that you shall not prolong your days upon "the land whither thou passest over Jordan to possess it. I "call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I "have set before thee life and death, blessing and cursing: there"fore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live; that "thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey “his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him, (for he is thy "life and the length of thy days) that thou mayest dwell in the "land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to "Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them."

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Such was the theology of the Jewish religion, at a period

Lev. xxv. 21.

Exod. xxxiv. 24.

Deut. xxx. 15, &c.

when the whole world was deeply infected with idolatry; when all knowledge of the one true God, all reverence for his sacred name, all reliance on his providence, all obedience to his laws, were nearly banished from the earth; when the severest chastisements had been tried in vain; when no hope of reformation appeared from the refinements of civilization or the researches of philosophy; for the most civilized and enlightened nations adopted with the greatest greediness, and disseminated with the greatest activity, the absurdities, impieties, and pollutions of idolatry. Then was the Jewish Law promulgated to a nation, who, to mere human judgment, might have appeared incapable of inventing or receiving such a high degree of intellectual or moral improvement; for they had been long enslaved to the Egyptians, the authors and supporters of the grossest idolatry; they had been weighed down by the severest bondage, perpetually harassed by the most incessant manual labours; for the Egyptians "made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in "brick, and in all manner of service in the field."* At this time, and in this nation, was the Mosaic Law promulgated, teaching the great principles of true religion, the self-existence, the unity, the perfections and the providence, of the one great Jehovah; reprobating all false gods, all image-worship, all the absurdities and profanations of idolatry. At this time, and in this nation, was a system of government framed, which had for its basis the reception of, and steady adherence to, this system of true religion; and establishing many regulations, which would be in the highest degree irrational, and could never hope to be received, except from a general and thorough reliance on the superintendence of Divine Providence, controlling the course of nature, and directing every event, so as to proportion the prosperity of the Hebrew people, according to their obedience to that Law which they received as divine.

In the mode in which the doctrines of their religion were promulgated, we find a minute attention to the moral and intellectual character of the nation for whom it was designed, and the most admirable precautions used, to impress attention and command obedience, if the authority of the Lawgiver was in reality divine; but precautions of such a nature as would render his whole scheme abortive, and expose it to derision and contempt,

*Exod. i. 14.

if he had contrived it only by human artifice, and relied on nothing but human aid.

Here then, I rest the first presumptive argument for the divine original of the Jewish scheme. And I contend that the promulgation of such a system of theology, at such a period, and to such a people, so connected with the form of its government, and adopting such extraordinary regulations and precautions, cannot be satisfactorily accounted for, without allowing the truth of the Mosaic history, the deliverance of Israel by supernatural aid, and the establishment of their religion and government by divine authority.

VOL. II.