66

But a yet more remarkable part of this transaction still remains. At this time Hoshea was king of Israel, and so far disposed to countenance the worship of the true God, that he appears to have made no opposition to the pious zeal of Hezekiah. For he, with the concurrence of the whole congregation which had assembled, sent out letters, and made a proclamation, not only to his own people of Judah,* "but to Ephraim and Ma"nasseh and all Israel from Beersheba even unto Dan, that they should come to the House of the Lord at Jerusalem, to "keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel; saying,† Ye "children of Israel, turn again to the Lord God of Abraham, "Isaac, and Jacob, and he will return to the remnant of you who "are escaped out of the hands of the kings of Assyria; and be "not ye like your fathers and your brethren, which trespassed "against the Lord God of their fathers, who therefore gave "them up to desolation as ye see. Now be ye not stiff-necked "as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord, and "enter into his sanctuary which he hath sanctified for ever, "and serve the Lord your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you. So the posts passed from city to "city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even unto "Zebulun."

Now, can we conceive that such an attempt as this could have been made, if the Pentateuch, containing the Mosaic Code, had not been as certainly recognised through the ten tribes of Israel as in the kingdom of Judah? The success was exactly such as we might reasonably expect if it were so acknowledged; for, though many of the ten tribes laughed to scorn and mocked the messengers of Hezekiah, who invited them to the solemnity of the Passover, from the impious contempt which through long disuse they had conceived for it; "Nevertheless," says the sacred narrative, "divers of Asher, and Manasseh, and of Zebulun, "humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem. And there as"sembled at Jerusalem much people to keep the feast of "unleavened bread in the second month, a very great con"gregation. And they killed the Passover; and the Priests "and Levites stood in their places after their manner, according to the law of Moses, the Man of God. So there was great joy in Jerusalem: for since the time of Solomon,

66

66

* 2 Chron. xxx. 1.

Ib, xxx. 6. &c.

Ib. xxx. 11.

*

"the Son of David, king of Israel, there was not the like at "Jerusalem; and when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the "images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down "the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin in "Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed "them all." Can any clearer proof than this be desired, of the constant and universal acknowledgment of the divine authority of the Pentateuch throughout the entire nation of the Jews, notwithstanding the idolatries and corruptions which so often prevented its receiving such obedience as that acknowledgment ought to have produced?

Not less remarkable was the solemn recognition of the divine authority of the Pentateuch by king Josiah and the whole people of the Jews, whose pious monarch while he was "yet young be"gan to seek after the God of David his father,"† destroying idols and banishing idolatry throughout the entire extent of his dominions, and proceeding to repair the House of the Lord, that he might restore his worship with due solemnity.

On this occasion, says the narrative, when they brought out the money that had been brought into the House of the Lord (to receive which they had probably opened the most secret and secure place for a deposit in the Temple)‡ "the priests found "a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses," (more accurately by the hand of Moses, possibly the Sacred autograph of Moses himself originally deposited in the Ark); "and Hilkiah said to "Shaphan the Scribe, I have found the book of the Law in the "House of the Lord, and he delivered the book to Shaphan, who "read it before the king."

The passage read, seems to have been that part of Deuteronomy which contains the prophetic declarations of the Lawgiver against the future apostasies of his people, which were so awful and severe as to excite the utmost terror in the young and pious monarch,§"for he rent his clothes, and sent to enquire of the "Lord concerning the words of the book that is found; for great is "the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our "forefathers have not kept the "that is written in this book." who was consulted, declared that

word of the Lord, to do all And Huldah the prophetess, God would certainly fulfil the

2 Chron. xxxi.

+ Ib. xxxiv. 3.

Ib. xxxiv. 14.

Ib. xxxiv. 19, &c

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 inhabitants of Jerusalem, and "the Priests 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 Jeru"salem and Benjamin to stand to it: and the inhabitants of Jeru"salem did according to the Covenant of their God, the God of "their fathers."

66

The sacred history proceeds to detail the particular circumstances of the Levites being employed in their due courses,t 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 Hilkiah "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.

2 Chron. xxxiv. 30. +2 Chron. xxxv. 18.

of a very singular kind. "It will easily appear," says the judicious Lowman,* "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 and approve what was re"solved, 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.

66

:

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, and he shall

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

"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 Mosaic 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.