; fin in this inftance, and Aaron in particular for his, as to engage to fend his Angel to go before them" and that his own prefence should go with them, and after God had renewed with them his Covenant, and his former engagement to give them the Promifed Land; Mofes proceeded to put into execution all the Commands which the LORD had given him"; and among the reft, in the laft place, That to anoint Acron, and his Sons, Priefts. But does any thing here related imply, that Aaron was rewarded with the High Priesthood for his faulty conduct on this occafion? Or is it conceivable, that any thing less than defigned perverfion can put this interpretation upon it? Nothing can be drawn from this whole relation, but what appears manifeftly upon the very face of it; that notwithstanding the people had very grievously sinned, and Aaron very highly offended; though upon a very different, and much more excufable principle; the Wisdom of God nevertheless determined to accomplish his providential purposes in felecting the Ifraelites from the reft of the Nations; by proceeding to put them into That State, and under That peculiar Conftitution, for which he defigned, thent: and therefore, notwithstanding this fin, and that degree of punishment which Mofes, by his Command, had inflicted on them for it; That GoD proceeded to caufe thofe Ordinances to be enforced, and that Conftitution to be actually fettled, by which he intended they fhould be governed. Such is manifeftly the true account of this whole proceeding in general, and of the appointment of Aaron and his Sons to the High Priesthood in particular. But unhappily, fo it is, that the cleareft points are not too evident a Exod. xxxii. 34. b Ibid. xxxiii. 14. xl. to to be perverted, or denied, by fome Writers; when the perverting or denying them, may ferve to call in queftion the Truth and Divine Authority of the Scriptures. SE C T. XVI. The Author's Objections to the Conduct of JESUS towards the Jews in general, in preaching the Gofpel; founded especially on 1 Cor. ii. 7, 8, and Mark iv. 11, 12; confidered. A FTER fuch mifreprefentations of the Old Teftament, and the Nature and Tendency of the Jewish Law, as we have juft been confidering; we cannot wonder at whatever objections the Author may please to make to any part of the New, or any thing connected with it. He afferts, That Chriftians charge the Jews with" obftinately finning against the conviction "of their own minds, and with crucifying the "Son of God, knowing and believing him to be fuch"Whereas nothing can be more notoriously false. Chriftians do not charge the Jews with this, because they know this would be charging them with what JESUS himself acquitted them of, while he hung on the Crofs; and Peter foon after he began to preach in his Name ; and Paul when he preached at Antioch ; and in his First Epiftle to the Corinthians. They do indeed charge the Jews of that time "with finning against the con"viction of their own minds;" and fo the Au e Introd. p. 18. Ibid. xiii. 27. f Luke xxiii. 34, &c. 11 Cor. ii. 8. Acts iii. 17. thor thor will find, upon turning to the paffages here referred to, that JESUS himself moft explicitly did. But their fin confifted not, in crucifying JESUS, when " they knew and believed him to be the MESSIAH," but in fuffering their pride, their fenfuality, and every other vicious difpofition by which they were then principally governed; together with their preconceived falfe notions of the Prophecies relating to the MESSIAH; to prevent them from paying that religious regard, which their confciences could not but teach them they ought to have paid, to those pure Doctrines JESUS taught, that Divine Character he affumed, and thofe Miracles he performed to confirm it; and thus, in effect, from perceiving him to be the MESSIAH, which they muft otherwise have perceived. But it is no wonder, that he who has been forced to advance, that Belief not only neceffarily arifes out of evidence, but cannot arife without it, and is not therefore in any fenfe, or degree, a proper object of command; fhould mistake, perplex, and mifreprefent, the real fin of the Jews, in this particular, more than any other. Again the Author fays, It appears to me, "that God never yet intended the converfion of "the Jews in general to Chriftianity, for this plain reafon; viz. if he had, they would have "been converted: for who can defeat the intenti"ons of the Almighty? Or what heart is fo ob"ftinate and perverfe, that God cannot turn it if "he pleases" And this is an argument he is fo fatisfied with, as even to appeal to it again" as abfolutely decifive. But, for the fame reason, if he will be confiftent, he muft fay," God never . Matth. xi. 20-24. John xv. 22, 24. Matth. x. 15. 1 Introd. p. 19. 4 m P. 22. A "intended was; "intended that any wicked man, that ever ex"exifted, fhould have been lefs wicked than he for if God had fo intended, he would "have been lefs wicked." In fact, this Argument of our Author, is only afferting in other words, that because God did not think fit to overrule their natural liberty of action, by irresistible influence; therefore it would not have been well pleafing to him, that they fhould have made a right use of their own understanding, in confidering the abundant evidence he laid before them. A conclufion, the propriety of which common sense alone must enable every one to determine. Again the Author fays, "That CHRIST'S “death and all its circumstances, feem from the "myfterious parts of the New Teftament, to have "been parts of God's original plan":-That if the "Jews had believed, CHRIST had not died, and "fo our Redemption would not have been accomplished.” From whence he argues, that God purposely with-held from the Jews fuch evidence as would have converted them; because to have given them fuch evidence, "Would have been contradicting his own prefcience, and acting in"confiftently with himself"." . But the truth of the cafe is, that the Jews had evidence abundantly more than fufficient to have converted them; as JESUS himself exprefsly declared, and the whole Gospel hiftory fhews; but were at that time, of fuch a difpofition, that perhaps no evidence could have induced them to receive any one, appearing in the character JESUS appeared in, as the MESSIAH': to have been converted, perhaps they must have been fo influenced immediately by God himself as to have had n P. 19. P P. 20. • Ibid. their freedom of action fufpended. And will the Author presume to fay, that God was any way obliged to do this? Or fuppofing we fhould allow, what however we cannot know, and what there is very little room even for fuppofing; that some greater degree of evidence might have converted the Jews in general to the faith in CHRIST; will he be bold enough to contend, that fuch evidence ought to have been granted; and that it's not having been granted is any objection to the revelation of CHRIST? When the giving mankind any Revelation at all, is a mere gratuitous act of undeserved favour; will he contend that God is bound to accompany any fuch Revelation with evidence irrefiftible; and that it is inconfiftent with God's nature to accompany it with any degree of evidence lefs than this, though abundantly more than is necessary to the nature of the thing itself? Or will he argue from God's having done fo, that He would not have been well pleafed, if the Jews, for instance, had paid a rational and virtuous regard to that abundant evidence which was actually laid before them? If so, he must for the fame reasons, whatever they may be, contend, that God's having not laid the Law of Reason, or Nature before all mankind, with fuch irrefiftible force, as to oblige them actually to attend to it, and to prevent them from running into vice and Idolatry as they have done; is a proof, that God would not have been well pleafed, if mankind had made fo good and proper a use of their Natural Reason as to have avoided thefe errors and fins and thus he muft neceffarily object as much against Natural Religion as Revealed. To talk, as the Author does, of God's contradicting his own prefcience, is arrant nonfenfe. God foreknew, that thofe events which did take. place, would take place, in confequence of his fending |