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clearly ascertained as they have fince been; that wars were then waged on favage, unrelenting, exterminating principles; and that those nations which felt the weight of their heaviest vengeance, were not only their avowed and inveterate enemies, but fo incorrigibly and abominably flagitious as to call aloud for pu nishment, of which the Jews were only inftruments in the hand of the Almighty; it will be eafily seen, that fuch proofs are by no means pertinent and fatisfactory. The truth is, these tranfient and cafual inftances of cruelty, though they are fuch as at firft fight muft neceffarily ftrike and offend us moft, yet are not so proper to determine a national character, and denominate a people conftitutionally barbarous, as thofe eftablished and permanent maxims of internal and domeftic cruelty, which never exifted in the Jewish government, but were univerfally received and practifed, were encouraged by the laws, and applauded by the hiftorians, of those very nations, who esteemed and called all others in refpect of themselves barbarians. It is these, which, though lefs infifted on by writers, and lefs attended to by

See a detail of their execrable vices, Lev. xviii.

readers,

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readers, are yet more repugnant to humanity, more destructive to the species, and more characteristick and decifive evidences of a malevolent fpirit, than thofe accidental outrages and exceffes, on which historians generally lavish all the horrors of defcription *.

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*There is scarce any author, antient or modern, who has inveighed with fuch indiscriminate and unmeasured rancour against the whole Jewish nation, as Mr. Voltaire. There are few of his latter profe publications in which he has not introduced this unfortunate people, for the purpose of loading them with reproach or ridicule. But his zeal fometimes outruns his prudence and his regard to truth, and instead of exciting the indignation of mankind against them, turns it upon himself. Among numberless inftances of this fort, I fhall only fingle out one. In his Dictionaire Philofophique, Art. Arthropophages, he informs us, that from the time of Ezekiel the Jews must have been in the habit of eating human flesh; because that prophet affures them, that if they will defend themselves courageously against the King of Perfia, they fhall not only eat the horses of their enemies, but the horsemen and the warriors themselves. How will the reader be astonished, (if he is not a little acquainted with the character and manner of Mr. Voltaire) when, on looking into Ezekiel, he finds, that the whole of this is a compleat fabrication; and that it is not the Jews, but the ravenous birds and the beasts of the field, who, in the bold and figurative language of Prophecy, are called upon "to eat the flesh of the "mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth," Ezek. xxxix. 4, 17, 18, &c.

It is a great pity that this lively writer did not, for his own credit, pay a little more regard to the fage advice of a friend, who knew him and his practices well, the late King of Pruffia.

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I am aware, indeed, that the extirpation of the Canaanites was enjoined by the Mosaical laws, and that the Jews were forbid by no less than Divine authority to fhew them any mercy or compaffion. This is true; and at the fame time very confiftent with a difpenfation in the main benevolent. For when we confider God in the light he should always, with refpect to those times, be confidered in, not only as the common Governor of all mankind, but as the more immediate Ruler and Legiflator of the Jewish nation; and as enforcing obedience to his authority, against the Jews in particular, amongst all nations in fome meafure, by temporal punishments and rewards;

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That prince, in one of his letters to him, alluding to a certain well-known tranfaction of Voltaire's with a Jewish merchant, which his majefly calls a vile buffs, (and which, perhaps, might be one reafon of this author's implacable enmity to the whole nation) fays to him, I hope you will have no more « quarrels either with the Old Testament or the New. Such «< contefts are dishonourable: and though poffeffed of more ge«nius than any man in France, you cannot avoid finally injur"ing your reputation by the difgrace of fuch conduct." Pofibumous Works of Fred. II. vol. vii. lett. 245. p. 402.

The Jews, however, have met with a very able and eloquent defender in the author of Lettres de quelques Juifs, Portugais,& Allemands, a M. de Voltaire. Paris, 1769-See alfo Div. Leg. vol. iv. b. 5. f. 1. p. 139.

it was no more a violation of mercy in him to enact, or in them to execute, fuch a penal law against the Canaanites, than it would be in a Prince to punish his rebellious fubjects by the hands of his faithful ones, or in them to inflict that punishment. Such examples of feve-. rity are neceffary to the very being of a state, and ferve at once to reprefs the infolence of the wicked, and to fecure the obedience of the good *.

If this exception be, as it certainly ought to be, admitted; and if we make such other equitable allowances, as the ftate of Religion, and the ftate of Society, at that time, do neceffarily. require; the Mofaical law will, I am perfuaded, appear infinitely fuperior, in point of humanity, to all the inftitutions of the moft,

The abfolute neceffity of extirpating the Canaamires, or at least destroying their national polity; the peculiar propriety of doing this by the fword of the Jews; the great and benevolent purposes that were anfwered by their feparation from the world; the advantages that all other nations derived from it; and many other particulars of the divine economy with regard to this extraordinary people; fee clearly and ably, ¡ explained in Bishop Law's Confiderations on the Theory of Religion, from p. 82, to p. 98. 3d edit.

Vide Butler's Analogy, part ii, ch. 3. p. 267. 4th edition,

1750.

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celebrated lawgivers of antiquity. It abounds with injunctions of mercy and pity, not only to Jews, but to strangers, to enemies, and even to those who had moft cruelly and injuriously oppreffed them. "If thy brother be waxen

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poor and fallen in decay with thee; then "thou shalt relieve him; yea, though he be "a ftranger or a fojourner, that he may live "with thee. Take thou no ufury of him, or "increase; but fear thy God, that thy bro"ther may live with thee. Thou shalt not opprefs a ftranger. Thou fhalt love him as Thou shalt not abhor an Edo"mite: thou shalt not abhor an Ægyptian, "If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his afs go

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"thyself.

ing aftray, thou shalt surely bring it back to "him." The difpofitions in favour of the poor are truly fingular and amiable. "Thou "shalt not harden thy heart, nor fhut thy hand "from thy poor brother; but thou shalt open "thy hand wide unto him; and fhalt furely « lend him fufficient for his need, When ye.

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reap the harveft of your land, thou shalt not

wholly reap the corners of thy field; nei"ther fhalt thou gather the gleanings of thy "haryeft; and if thou have forgot a fheaf in

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