ward appearance of evil. The thoughts, the plans, the desires of the heart, are far beyond their controul. But the Law of Moses reaches the source of every crime: it forbids even a wish for the possessions of another. "Thou shalt not covet," commands us to abstain from unlawful desires of every kind. If it were necessary to our argument, it would be easy to shew the many plain rules of holiness, justice, and equity, which are contained in each commandment, and in as few words as those we have quoted.

The laws of Moses give protection to the widow and the fatherless; they distribute justice equally to the rich and the powerful, the poor and the weak, the slave and the stranger; and even the beasts of the field find in them protection from the cruelty of man. They prohibit not only enormous crimes, but impurities of every sort. From whence are these laws derived? I ask once more: from whence came this code so remarkable for their purity and holiness? Their antiquity is a convincing proof that they were not borrowed from other laws. What then is its source, if it be not the source of all holiness and purity, the Almighty Triune Jehovah ?

Moses speaks of the actual presence of God, in the publication of the Law on Mount Sinai, in a manner which cannot be doubted. No one will suppose, that an impostor of the greatest effrontery

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would dare to speak thus boldly of such a circumstance, if he were uttering an untruth.

Let the infidel attempt to give us a plan of religion more worthy of God, more suited to man, than that which is contained in the Bible. Let him find a law-giver who can equal Moses; and if he fails in carrying these two things into effect, he will then, I trust, be ready to acknowledge, that it is only "the fool who hath said in his heart, there is no God *." And let those who still will daringly insult the Majesty of Heaven by disbelieving the power and existence of the Deity, tremble, lest to them "the Lord" should declare himself" by the judgment which he executeth, and the wicked should be snared in the work of his own hands +."

*Psalm xiv. 1.

+ Psalm ix. 1.

CHAPTER IX.

OF THE CEREMONIES PRESCRIBED IN THE LAW OF MOSES; THEIR NATURE IN ACCORDANCE WITH DIVINE WISDOM.

THE enemies of religion imagine themselves able to raise another objection against the Divine institution of the Law of Moses on account of its numerous ceremonies. Of what good, say they, are such a multiplicity of precepts and ordinances about indifferent things? Is it consistent with the infinite wisdom of the Deity, to take pleasure in such distinctions of meats, and in so many ablutions? And what has the observance of rites and ceremonies to do with purity of mind?—I shall endeavour, in this chapter, to combat and remove all such frivolous objections, by shewing, that these ceremonies are, on the other hand, certain indications of the truth of the Divine origin of the whole writings of Moses. But before we proceed any further, it may be proper to give two reasons for their institution among the Jews: the one, that they served to distinguish them from all other nations in a peculiar manner, while they were me

morials of the various blessings they had received; the other, that they assisted in protecting them against falling into the idolatrous worship of strangers, who might attempt to seduce them from the service of the true God. A third and principal reason may be added to the two first; which is, that God saw fit, by types and ceremonies, to foreshadow that great sacrifice for sin, which our Saviour Jesus Christ was to make, and the renewing and cleansing of the heart, which was to be the work of the Holy Spirit.

We cannot imagine for a moment, that, in those ages of heathenism and barbarity, the religious ceremonies of other nations were of a spiritual nature. Spiritual worship was beyond the comprehension of a worshipper of idols: a material God seemed to require a service, in its nature the same: a worship, which consisted of interior pomp and gaudy ceremonies, flattered the corruptions of human nature. People, we know, applied themselves to idolatry with eagerness and pleasure and painful and severe as some of the heathen ceremonies were, there was no austerity which did not find its votaries; so prone has mankind ever been, to prefer some bodily service, some self-atoning sacrifice, to true devotion, the devotion of the heart and mind.

In the religion taught by Moses, we find ceremonies and sacrifices, merely considered as memo

rials of mercies received, or foreshewings of far greater mercies to come; and we are distinctly told, in various places of holy writ, that God abhorred them, unaccompanied by sincere piety, stedfast faith, and holiness of life: while, on the contrary, idolaters were taught, that in the exact observance of their ceremonies, their sacrifices and their ablutions, the worship of their false gods consisted, thus at once establishing the clear and decided difference between true and false religion.

Moses relates, that four hundred and thirty years before the time in which he wrote, God had promised a son to Abraham and Sarah, who had given up the hope of children; and that from that son should proceed a posterity, which should become a numerous and great people. This promise was extraordinary, and necessarily required an especial interference of Providence, both in its commencement and completion. Not to see the power and wisdom of God in its fulfilment, is to shut one's eyes against the full light of day. Can the enemies of religion produce from any other history a circumstance parallel to this? must not those, who behold the completion of this promise in those people who claim Abraham as their progenitor, be wilfully blind, not to acknowledge the power of God in the fulfilment of his own word. "And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth; so that if a man