66

66

would be to take away their free-agency, and to destroy the œconomy of his providence. May we not here apply in the cafe of revelation what he himself faith with regard to reason? "It may be truly faid, that God when he gave us reason left "us to our free-will, to make a proper or improper ufe of "it; fo that we are obliged to our Creator, for a certain rule, and fufficient means of arriving at happiness, and have none to blame but ourfelves when we fail of it. It is not reafon, but perverse will, that makes men fall short of at"tainable happinefs.-And we are felf-condemned when we "deviate from the rule'm." This holds ftrongly with regard to revelation. God hath been graciously pleafed to reveal doctrines and laws to mankind, of great ufe and advantage for inftructing them in the knowlege of religion, and directing them in the way to happiness. But when he has done this, and confirmed that revelation with fufficient credentials, ftill he thinks fit, as the wife moral Governor, to leave them to their free-will, and the exercife of their own moral powers; and thus deals with them as reasonable creatures, and moral agents. If they do not receive, and make a right use of this advantage, the divine wifdom and goodness is not to be blamed, but their own obftinacy and perverseness.

But though a revelation,, if really given, cannot be fuppofed to come with fuch force as irrefiftibly to constrain mens affent, and though it fail of producing all those effects which might be justly expected, and which it is naturally fitted to produce, yet it may be of very great ufe and benefit to mankind. This writer represents the general reformation of men as an impoffible thing: He obferves, that neither human nor divine laws have been able to reform the manners of men effectually. Yet he owns, that "this is fo far from "making natural or revealed religion, or any means that tend "to the reformation of mankind, unneceffary, that it makes "them all more neceffary.-And that nothing should be neg"lected that tends to enforce moral obligation, and all the "doctrines of natural religion. And that nothing may feem "in fpeculation fo proper to this purpose, as a true revela<tion, or a revelation believed to be true "." And he afterwards fays, that "if the conflict between virtue and vice in "the great commonwealth of mankind was not maintained by religious and civil inftitutions, the human state would "be intolerable "." Thofe therefore must be very ill em• Ib. p. 227.

my Vol. v. p. 288, * Ib. p. 267, 268.

ployed,

ployed, and can in no fenfe be regarded as the friends and benefactors of mankind, who take pains to deftroy thefe inftitutions, to fubvert the main principles of natural and revealed religion, and thereby to deftroy all the influence it might have on the minds of men. If the reformation of mankind be fo difficult, notwithstanding all the powers of reafon, and all the force of the additional light, and powerful motives, which revelation furnishes, what could be expected, if all these were laid afide, and men were taught to have no regard to them

at all?

I fhall conclude with obferving, that Lord Bolingbroke's scheme, contrary to his own intention, feems to furnish arguments to prove the great ufefulness and neceffity of divine revelation. He has endeavoured to fhew, that we can have no certainty, if we judge by the phenomena, concerning the moral attributes of God, his juftice and goodnefs: That no argument can be brought from reafon in proof of a particular providence, though he does not pretend to fay it is impoffible: That the immortality of the foul, and a future ftate, though ufeful to be believed, are things which we have no ground from reason to believe, and which reason will neither affirm nor deny: That the laws of nature are general, and the particulars of moral duty derived from them are very uncertain, and in which men have been always very apt to mistake, and make wrong conclufions. Now if it be of high importance, as it manifeftly is, that men should be affured of the moral attributes of God; that they fhould believe a particular providence, extending to the individuals of the human race, and exercifing an inspection over them, and their actions and affairs; that they should believe the immortality of the foul, and a state of future rewards and punishments; and that they should be rightly instructed in the particulars of moral duty; if all these be of unquestionable importance to be believed and known by mankind (and yet we can, according to him, have no assurance of them by mere natural reafon) then there is great need of an extraordinary divine revelation to give us a proper certainty in these matters; and a well-attested revelation affuring us of these things, and furnishing us with proper inftructions concerning them, ought to be received with the highest thankfulBefs,

LET

LETTER XXVIII.

Lord Bolingbroke's strange reprefentation of the Jewish revelation. His attempts against the truth of the Mofaic history. The antiquity, impartiality, and great usefulness of that history fhewn. The pretence that Mofes was not a contemporary author, and that his biftory is not confirmed by collateral teftimony, and that there is no proof that the Pentateuch was written by Mofes, examined. The Mofaic history and laws not forged in the time of the judges, nor in that of the kings, nor after the Babylonifh captivity. The charge of inconfiftencies in the Mofaic accounts confidered. The grand objection against the Mofaic history drawn from the incredible nature of the facts themselves examined at large. The reafon and propriety of erecting the Mofaic polity. No abfurdity in fuppofing God to have felected the Jews as a peculiar people. The great and amazing difference between them and the heathen nations, as to the acknowlegement and adoration of the one true God, and him only. The good effects of the Jewish conftitution, and the valuable ends which were anfwered by it. It is no just objection against the truth of the Scriptures that they come to us through the bands of the Jews.

H

SIR,

WAVING confidered what Lord Bolingbroke hath offered with regard to divine revelation in general, I now proceed to examine the objections he hath advanced against the Jewish and Christian revelation. Of the latter he fometimes speaks with feeming refpect and decency: But with regard to the former, he fets no bounds to invective and abufe. He here allows himself without referve in all the licentioufnefs of reproach. Far from admitting it to be a true divine revelation,

he

he every-where reprefents it as the very worst constitution that ever pretended to a divine original, and as even worse than Atheism.

Befides occafional paffages every where interfperfed in his writings, there are fome parts of his works, where he fets himfelf purpofely and at large to expofe the Mofaic revelation. This is the principal defign of the long letter in the third volume of his works occafioned by one of Archbishop Tillotson's fermons: As alfo of the fecond fection of his third Effay in the fourth volume, which is on the rife and progress of Monotheifm: And of the fifteenth, twentieth, twenty-firft, feventythird, feventy-fifth of his Fragments and Effays in the fifth volume.

In confidering Lord Bolingbroke's objections against the holy Scriptures of the Old Teftament, and especially against the books of Mofes, I fhall diftinctly examine what he hath offered against the truth of the Scripture history, and against the divine authority of the facred writings. This is the method he himself hath pointed out in the above-mentioned letter occafioned by one of Archbishop Tillotson's fermons.

I shall begin with confidering his objections against the truth of the history. But first it will not be improper to make some general obfervations upon the Scripture hiftory, and especially that which is contained in the Mofaic writings.

And first, it deserves our veneration and regard on the account of its great antiquity. We have no accounts that can in any degree be depended upon, or that have any pretence to be received as authentic records, prior to the Mofaic history, or indeed till fome ages after it was written. But though it relateth to the most antient times, it is obfervable that it doth not run up the hiftory to a fabulous and incredible antiquity, as the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and fome other nations did. Mofes's account of the time of the creation of the world, the general deluge, &c. reduces the age of the world within the rules of a moderate computation, perfectly confiftent with the best accounts we have of the origin of nations, the founding of cities and empires, the novelty of arts and sciences, and of the most useful inventions of human life: All which leads us to affign an age to the world which comports very well with the Mofaic hiftory, but is no way compatible with the extravagant antiquities of other eastern nations.

Another thing which should greatly recommend the Scripture hiftory to our own efteem, is the remarkable fimplicity and impartiality of it. It contains a plain narration of facts, deli

F4

vered

vered in a fimple unaffected style, without art or ornament. And never was there any hiftory that discovered a more equal and unbiafs'd regard to truth. Several things are there recorded, which, if the hiftorian had not laid it down as a rule to himself, not only not to contradict the truth, but not to conceal or difguife it, would not have been mentioned. Of this kind is what our author refers to concerning Jacob's obtaining the birth-right and bleffing by a fraud. For though it is plain from the prophecy that was given forth before the birth of the children, that the bleffing was originally defigned for Jacob the younger in preference to Efau the elder, yet the method Jacob took, by the advice of his mother Rebekka, tọ engage his father Ifaac to pronounce the bleffing upon him, had an appearance of art and circumvention, which, confidering the known jealoufy and antipathy between the Edomites and the people of Ifrael, and the occafion it might give to the former to infult and reproach the latter, it might be expected an Ifraelitifh hiftorian would have endeavoured to conceal. To the fame impartial regard to truth it is owing, that Reuben's inceft, and that of Judah with his daughter-in-law Tamar, from which defcended the principal families of the noble tribe of Judah, are recorded: As is alfo the cruel and perfidious act of Simeon and Levi, the latter Mofes's own anceftor, and the curfe pronounced upon them by Jacob on the account of it. This writer indeed, who feems determined at all hazards, and upon every fuppofition to find fault with the facred hiftorians, has endeavoured to turn even their impartiality to their difadvantage. Having mentioned common fenfe and common honesty, he fays, that the Jews, or the penmen "of their traditions, had fo little of either, that they repre"fent fometimes a patriarch like Jacob, and fometimes a faint "like David, by characters that belong to none but the worst "of men b." This according to our author's manner is highly exaggerated. But I think nothing can be a stronger proof of the most unreasonable prejudice, than to produce that as an inftance of the want of common fenfe and common honesty in thofe writings, which in any other writers in the world would be regarded as the highest proof of their honefty, their candour, and impartiality; viz. their not taking pains to disguise or conceal the faults of the most eminent of their ancestors; efpecially when it appears, that this is not done from a principle of malignity, or to detract from their merits, fince their

▸ Vol v.

a Vol. iii. p. 304.

P. 194.

good