the deeply speculative Greeks, and the powerfully intellectual Romans, were universally devoted to the adoration of a myriad of deities? How happened it, that the truth should alone be found with the comparatively ignorant; while, however easy of discovery it may now seem to us, it should have escaped the observation of the wise and the cultivated?

It will probably be said, that it did not escape their observation; for that the wise and the culti vated did admit the doctrine of the divine unity.

Now, if we grant for a moment the justice of this remark, the person, who inakes it, will only rid himself of one half of the difficulty: for the grand fact will still remain to be accounted for; the sole establishment of monotheism among the unlettered Israelites as the decided national creed, while of every other people lettered or unlettered the established national creed was gross polytheism. But I greatly doubt, whether the justice of this remark can be granted. We have often been told, that the philosophic few, though for political reasons they upheld the religion of the state, clearly saw the absurdity of polytheism, and recognized only one Supreme Being. This has been so frequently and so positively asserted, that it has been commonly admitted as a thing indisputable: yet, after all, the better half of it may well be questioned. It is true indeed, that the philosophers saw the absurdity of polytheism: but it is not equally true, that they therefore worshipped that one sole God, who was declared by Moses, and who was adored

by the Israelites. They seem indeed, by dint of reasoning, to have been brought to the philosophical necessity of a single first cause: but, as to the distinct aspect, under which they were to view this first cause, they were wrapped in the dense shades of the most impenetrable darkness. The greatest part of them were effectively rather atheists, than theists for the only god, whom they acknowledged, was the plastic energy of universal nature, acting by a fatal destiny, pervading all space, and ultimately identified with the whole frame of the material world. To this being they partially ascribed the imaginary attributes of the great father of the popular superstition. Their divine unity was one and all things. Whatsoever was seen, and whatsoever was touched, was a member of the great pantheistic god. Every intelligent soul was excerpted from his essence, and into his essence was at length reabsorbed. Some might pass through various transmigrations in their progress towards final beatitude, but absorption was the ultimate destiny of all. As a portion of water retains its individuality, only while confined within a proper vessel; but is instantaneously blended with its multitudinous parent ocean, when the vessel is broken over the waves: so the soul was deemed to retain its individuality, only while confined within the prison of some corporeal vehicle; but, when finally liberated from the bonds of the flesh, it plunged at once into the abyss of the universal numen, and forthwith lost all consciousness of separate existence. Such being the case, every

thing, whether spiritual or material, was a portion of the mighty pantheus. The world therefore, and all that it contains, were necessarily uncreated; for all were equally parts of the one deity. Hence, though the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments might be exoterically held out for the better restriction of the vulgar; the thing itself, on philosophical principles, was esoterically declared to be plainly impossible: because, as every soul was excerpted from the divine essence and as every soul was finally reabsorbed into it; all individual existence, and therefore all capability of proper reward or punishment, ultimately ceased alike.

These in the main were the speculations of those philosophers, who held what has very improperly been called the divine unity: improperly, I say, because the term would obviously lead an incautious hearer to imagine, that they worshipped the same divine unity as the ancient Israelites. But this was very far from being the real fact. The Israelites adored an all-wise, all-good, and allpowerful, Spirit; who exists from everlasting to everlasting, who called the universe out of its original nothing, and who created by an act of sovereign will every individual intelligent soul. They venerated a Being, who himself possesses strict individuality; and who is and ever will be totally distinct from every spirit which he has created. They revered a God, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity; who utterly abhors those abominations, of which the gentile monotheists (if mono

theists they can be called) thought so lightly; who is guided, not by destiny, but by the unerring law which springs from his own perfections; who does not with Epicurean indolence disregard the affairs of mortals, or attend only to those things which by men are counted great; but who, with omnipresent wisdom, beholds, and directs, and moderates, all things.

3. Such is the one God, as declared by Moses, and as worshipped by the Israelites. The existence of this awful Being instantaneously approves itself to our reason, and is now from our very childhood familiar to our imagination. Yet never was it discovered by the unassisted wisdom of the most enlightened Gentiles. Who, by searching, can find out God? The world, by wisdom, knew him not. An acquaintance with him, as he really is, can be derived only from revelation.

CHAP. VII.

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

We have now seen the grounds, on which the Pentateuch may rest its claim to be esteemed a portion of authentic history. But, if it be a portion of authentic history; it must needs, as such, be additionally a revelation from God himself. Hence it cannot be despised or overlooked with impunity.

Many, of late years, have been the attempts to invalidate the credibility of this venerable portion of Scripture but the Christian has no reason to fear, that God will ever suffer the faith, which was once delivered to the saints, to be totally overthrown. It cannot, however, be too often enforced, that the Bible is an authoritative standard, by which our lives and actions are to be regulated. That holy book was never designed to be merely a curious groundwork of discussion: nor was it revcaled for the insignificant purpose of gratifying a