"the seventh year thou shalt let him go "free: and thou shalt not let him go away "from thee empty: thou shalt furnish " him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy wine-press ;

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of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath "blessed thee thou shalt give unto him. "And thou shalt remember that thou "wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, " and the Lord thy God redeemed thee; "therefore I command thee this thing today* "

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Here it is material to remark, that in the points of difference between the Hebrews and other nations, there is not only an actual superiority, but precisely that superiority which might be expected to result from the cause in question. The morality is purer in itself; and its advantage is exactly on that side where the origin it claims would lead us to expect it in the rules prescribed for the government of the passions, and in what concerns the relief and treatment of our fellow-men, and the value of their lives in the eye of their

* Deut. xv. 12.

Creator. This is the superiority we should look for in a code which professes not to proceed from the fallible reason of man, deducing rules from the apparent advantage of society, and squaring his moral enactments according to his views of uti lity; but to be derived from a moral governor, who is holy, and demands the service of a holy nation. Accordingly, in the vices that are forbidden, and in the duties that are enjoined, we find the same object kept in sight, and a reference perpetually maintained to God, as the legislator and judge from whom every thing emanated, and to whose will every thing ought to conform. The morality is conformable to the purity of belief; and the purer belief accounts for the peculiar excellence of the morality.

All the collateral circumstances, therefore, belonging to the Hebrew character, into which I have successively inquired, tend to the same conclusion. From the opinions respecting the Creator prevalent among the Hebrews, and from the peculiar relation he was believed to bear towards

them, resulted a species of literature almost exclusively their own in its nature, and entirely so in its excellence. The same belief accompanies and spiritualizes their national worship, and inspires their personal devotions; the same belief pervades and regulates their morality. If no account existed of the introduction and reception of this belief, not forming the opinion of the philosophers, or a detached sect of philosophers, but the settled faith of the whole people; its singularity would offer a reasonable subject of wonder and inquiry. The account, however, given by the Hebrews themselves, is sufficient to explain, not only the existence of their peculiar belief, but its universality and effect. Unless we give up all claim to reasonable consistency, we must either admit the recorded account of the phænomenon, or suggest some other means, by which Moses might have been rendered different from all other legislators, and the Hebrews distinguished in their faith beyond all other nations. It will be a proper conclusion of my argument, if I can succeed in showing, in the following Sections, the

difficulties which encounter those who, on any grounds they may choose to select, dispute the divine commission of Moses, or deny that he had the advantage of a revelation.

SECT. VIII.

Whether Moses could have invented the Doctrine he taught concerning the Creation.

Ir the history of the constitution of the world, on which Moses laid the foundation of his law, were not derived from the authentic source to which it pretends, there are three several ways in which its appearance may be accounted for: it must either have been devised by himself, as the most clear and rational; or, secondly, borrowed by him from the Egyptians, and embodied in his own legislative code; or, lastly, must have been adopted and reduced into form from the generally prevailing opinions of his own nation. It will be proper, therefore, to consider attentively each of these possible explanations; especially as none of them exhibit, at first sight, that appearance of improbability, which we shall find, on inquiry, belonging to them all.

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