Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan."* This man, though an enemy to the Jewish religion, acknowledges the truth of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt by a divine hand. He addressed the people, as one fully covinced, not only that they believed the miraculous works recorded in the writings of Moses, but as though he himself believed they were incontestibly true. And his object was not to detach them altogether from the worship of Jehovah, but to cause them to worship him by the use of those images. He does not attack the authority of Moses, but he imitates the temporary apostasy of Aaron. He erects the very emblem which Aaron framed in the wilderness, and thus confirms the scriptural account of that matter. He seems to have acted under a firm belief of the truth of the history of that apostasy, for he takes advantage of the hankering after the abominations of Egypt, which the Israelites appear still to have felt, and thus he entraps them in their ancient snare. When he had set up his two idols, he uses the very words of Aaron, as though he had been quoting from the sacred records; "These be thy gods of Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." The books of Moses existed in David's reign, for he regulated the tabernacle service and worship by the law contained in them, and his psalms abound with allusions to their contents. But they could not have been forged by him, as they contained many commandments which David violated. Besides, had he forged them, Jeroboam could not but have been apprised of the fact, and he would certainly have exposed the imposture. The truth is, the reign of David was too unsettled, and he had too many enemies to make any such attempt. Some Saul, some Shimei, or some Absalom would have discovered and proclaimed the fraud. The law existed during the reign of Saul, the favorite of the Infidel, because the enemy of David; for Samuel, in the instructions given to the king, in the name of Jehovah, referred to the history of Amalek, as recorded in the books of Moses. It will not be supposed that he was guilty of this forgery. But his conduct on his return from the war with the Amalekites shows, that he had no suspicion that it was forged by any one. When Samuel declared to him, in the presence of his army, that God had rejected him, on account of his disobedience to the law, had * 1 Kings, xii. 28, 29. † 1 Samuel, xv. 2. Compare with Exod. xvii. 8-14; Deut. xxv. 17-19. he the smallest suspicion that the books of Moses were forged, his answer was at hand; he had only to declare that the whole was an imposture. Were there the smallest ground for the charge, the people who had been accessory to his guilt, and who, according to his account were his instigators, would most certainly have supported him. But he makes no reflection on the divine authority of the law. So far from this, his language is, "I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words; because I feared the people and obeyed their voice."* The books of the law could not have been forged during the regency of the Judges who preceded Samuel. During that period, Israel was far more ready to depart from the worship of JEHOVAH, than to bind themselves to it by new ties. By their apostasies, they were continually subjecting themselves to the yoke of their enemies. In these circumstances, it is not to be supposed, that they would have received supposititious books, every page of which condemned their conduct, and denounced against them that very vengeance which they felt. The law existed in Joshua's time, for it is mentioned by him: "Then Joshua 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." Again, in Joshua it is said: "Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land which I sware unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses, 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 will 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."‡ It is also, in the same book, said: "Be ye therefore very courageous, to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses." If the forgery of the books was committed by Joshua; or although not altogether destitute of truth, was the history of the events recorded highly exaggerated, their falsehood must have been well known in the days of David and Solomon, for Jesse, the father of David, was only the great grandson of Salmon, one of those who, according to their records, witnessed the wonders done in the wilderness at Jordan, and in Canaan: he married Rahab, who was saved at the destruction of Jericho. It is possible that an individual, through ignorance, weakness, or credulity, may believe concerning his great grandfather, what never transpired. But that a whole nation should be brought to believe, not a single fact of a most extraordinary character, but a series of such facts, said to have happened only four generations before, if the whole were a fiction, is in itself a supposition far transcending the bounds of credulity. No imposture could have been practised upon the Israelites during the sojourn in the wilderness. In the sacred records the whole nation, almost an infinite multitude, are represented as witnessing the miracles wrought preceding the deliverance from Egypt; and particularly the final miracle that achieved their deliverance, in memory of which the passover was instituted, with the strongest injunctions to acquaint their children with the cause of that observance, and to mark that night throughout all their generations. The whole people are represented as witnessing the passage of the Red sea, and it is stated that they sang a hymn which Moses composed on that occasion, and which was to be preserved for the use of their children. The whole people are represented as witnessing the dreadful promulgation of the law from Sinai, with which they were also to acquaint their children; and the feast of pentecost was annually to be observed on the day in which the law was given. The very tables on which the ten commandments were written were deposited in the ark, and remained there until at least the building of Solomon's temple, most probably until its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar. The people are represented as witnessing the many miracles wrought during the space of forty years in the wilderness-the pillar of fire and cloud, the manna, the quails, &c. A sample of the manna remained to future generations, and they were directed to relate what they saw to their children. They are represented as witnessing the framing and building of the ark and the tabernacle, and they are all said to have contributed to it. They are represented as having seen the cloud fill and rest upon it, and to have assisted at the services performed there; to commemorate which, as well as their journeyings in the wilderness, the annual feast of tabernacles was appointed, which for succeeding years they used to explain to their children. It is true, that the religion which Moses called the Israelites to embrace, was not absolutely new to them; because their fathers had worshiped the same being, who was now announced as the God of the nation; but the most of them must, in a great measure, have forgotten him during their sojourn in Egypt; and they must have been tinctured with the idolatries of the people among whom they had so long lived, and whose servants they had been. Therefore, especially, if they are judged by their conduct, the great majority of them were no better than heathens; consequently, the change they were required to make, was almost as great as though Moses had undertaken to convert the Egyptians themselves. The greatness of the change is manifest, from an examination of the religion they were required to embrace. They were required to renounce the gods of Egypt, and all the gods of the nations around them, and to worship Jehovah alone. Jehovah and the people are represented as having entered into a solemn covenant, by which the people became bound to preserve and observe the law, and all that was contained in it; and Jehovah became bound to be the God of the Israelites, to protect and to prosper them. The particulars of this covenant on the part of Jehovah were, to give the people the land of Canaan, to preserve and to protect them in it, to give them victory over his and their enemies, to prosper them in all their labors, to give them the increase of their fields and flocks, and to make them a great, happy, and flourishing people; but on condition that they kept and obeyed his law. The particulars on the part of the people were, to serve Jehovah, and no other God, and that in the way described in the law, to preserve, observe, and obey the law carefully and exactly; and if they failed or transgressed, to submit to its severe penalties, which, in many instances, to individuals transgressing, was death; and to the nation at large, destruction, captivity, dispersion, blindness, madness, &c., besides the forfeiture of all the good promises, The law, by the command of God, was to be put in writing, as well as all the directions for making the ark, the cherubim, the tabernacle, the priests' garments, &c., and all the rules of government, judicature, &c., with every other circumstance revealed, for directing the faith and conduct of the nation. The law was to be preserved in the most careful manner. The priests, who were to judge in questions relating to it, were to be well versed in it. The ruler was to write out a copy of it for himself, and to peruse it continually. The people were to write out passages of it, and to wear them, by way of signs, upon their hands, and frontlets between their eyes, to teach their children the most notable parts of it; and particularly, to instruct them in the miracles attending the deliverance from Egypt, as they sat in their house, as they walked by the way, as they lay down, and as they rose up. Their system of observances, instead of being moulded after the idolatrous forms to which, in Egypt, they had been accustomed, was contrived in express opposition to the Egyptian usages, and those of all the other nations around them, and it was calculated to effect a complete separation, and to distinguish them from all other people and nations. The rites enjoined were multiplied to a great number, and were to be practised, not only in the sanctuary, but in the whole detail of life. These required constant attention and circumspection, and must have been felt to be extremely inconvenient. And, as already observed, while their ritual subjected them to great expense, there were also certain injunctions, altogether different from any thing that ever obtained among any other nation, and which were so peculiar in their character, that, upon the principles of political wisdom, it is altogether unaccountable how any legislator should have proposed them, or any people should have submitted to them. Is it possible, that any legislator of a sound mind, would have dared to propose such enactments upon his own authority, or that any nation whatever would have acquiesced in them? The texture of the whole law is such, that we cannot conceive it possible for it to have been the contrivance of an imposter; nor for the Israelites, if left to themselves, to have adopted it. Upon the supposition that the law was a human invention, how did the Israelites come to adopt it? Did its inventor refer to the astonishing and miraculous events already stated, as evidence of the truth of his assertions; when at the same time the people knew these events never transpired? This would have exposed him to the contempt of the whole nation, and would have secured the rejection of his law. He who believes that any man induced the Israelites to adopt this law, merely by stating that it was the will of God they should do it, and confirmed the divine authority of the injunction by referring them to miracles which they knew had never been performed, must himself be as void of common sense as he supposes them to have been. Would not this have been the reply of every Israelite? It is very plain to me that you cannot be the minister of Jehovah; for as an evidence of the authority of your mission, you say I heard his voice, which I know I never did. You speak of a certain cloud filling and resting upon the tabernacle. I never witnessed such a scene; neither I nor any of the people wit |