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With respect to the knowledge of human nature and human life, the proverbs of Solomon discover as much of it as the fayings of the feven wife men of Greece, in a much later period; and for fublimity of fentiment and energy of expreffion, the pfalms of David, and the writings of Ifaiah, and other Hebrew prophets, though in a language but imperfectly known, and though they have suffered more than any writings whatever by frequent copying, are infinitely fuperior to any poetical compofitions of the Greeks or Romans in any age, especially if they be read in prose translations, which is all that we can do with respect to the poetry of the Hebrews, the meafure of which is now loft. Both are extant. Let them be compared by the principles of just criticism; but not by fo prejudiced a perfon as Voltaire.

The Egyptians had the art of writing, but they had no books of which we have any certain account. The fame was the cafe with the Chaldeans. And as to the Greeks, they were, in a period long after the time of Mofes, as barbarous and ignorant as the North American Indians at this day. If we may judge of the ancient Hebrews by the Jews,

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who are defcended from them, we must say that, with respect to natural ingenuity, or industry, they are far from being inferior to the rest of mankind. They are perhaps rather fuperior, not by nature (for in that respect probably all mankind are nearly equal), but in confequence of the greater exercise of their faculties, owing in a great measure to the treatment they have met with from other nations, and the manner in which they are compelled to provide for their maintenance among them. In Europe at least, a very filly, or a very idle, Jew could hardly fubfift.

But without any regard to the people, let us confider their inftitutions; and in doing this we must endeavour to forget, or overlook, principles that are familiar to us Chrif tians, and which we derived from the fcriptures, and attend fimply to the state of the world in the time of Mofes, and the principles and customs which were then most prevalent, and which the Ifraelites themselves had in a great measure adopted while they were in Egypt. Admitting that Mofes, in confequence of his having been educated at the court of Pharaoh, was acquainted with all the learning of the Egyptians, he had no opportunity

portunity of acquiring more, or indeed any knowledge of a different kind; and he was not likely to improve his knowledge of any kind by living afterwards forty years among the Arabs, where he married, and was fettled; having probably given up all thoughts of ever returning to Egypt, his life being in danger if he did.

Notwithstanding this, at the age of eighty, he did return, and though Egypt was then in a state of its greatest power, and his countrymen in a state of the most abject servitude, deftitute of arms or friends, he effected their complete emancipation in a very few months, without the lofs of a fingle life, while the Egyptians were fo weakened, or overawed, that, though the Ifraelites continued many years in their neighbourhood, and without any connection with other nations, their old mafters never attempted to get them back again; and yet on account of the fervice they had derived from them, they had been moft unwilling to part with them. This, however, is a circumftance which, though highly favourable to the fuppofition of there being fomething miraculous in their deliverance, I only mention by the way, before I

recite the particulars of thofe inftitutions which, in their state of emancipation from their bondage in Egypt, and before they had other fettlement, Mofes delivered to

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In confidering these institutions, let us pay no regard to what Mofes fays of their having been delivered to him by God, but only what they are in themselves, that we may judge, from the circumftances of the times, whether it be more probable that they were devised by himself, or that they were communicated to him in the manner that he relates. In this view of the Mofaic inftitutions I fhall not, however, strictly confine myself to what may be drawn from the writings of Mofes, but take advantage of the farther lights that are thrown upon them in other books of the Old Teftament, the authors of which had no other fources of information. They are all written on the fame principles, and in the fame fpirit.

1. You have feen the monftrous polytheifm of all the nations of antiquity. In direct oppofition to this, the firft, and moft fundamental, principle in the religion of the Hebrews was that of the unity of God. The

firft of the ten commandments delivered from

mount Sinai is (Exodus xx. 2), Thou shalt have no other gods befides me. This precept is repeated with the greatest emphafis through all the writings of Mofes, and those of the fubfequent prophets. Deut. vi. 4, Hear, O Ifrael, the Lord our God is one Lord; and thou fhalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy foul, and with all thy mind; that is, with an undivided affection, there being no other legitimate object of worship befides him.

That this principle is a just one, will not now be queftioned; but, compared with the principles and practices which then prevailed in the world, it must be pronounced to be not only juft, but also great and fublime, being entirely remote from the apprehenfions of the most enlightened of mankind in that age. That fuch an immenfe and infinitely various ftructure as that of the world, or rather what was called the univerfe, confifting of all the visible objects in nature, the system of the fun, moon, and ftars, as well as the earth and sea, should have had any proper author, and much more only one author, that one mind fhould perfectly comprehend and

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