of any nation were to consent quietly to receive such a bold imposition, instead of rejecting it with contempt; and more wonderful than all this would it be, that age after age should elapse, and that no discovery of the imposture should be made. It would have been good policy in Jeroboam, when he revolted against the house of David, to have opened the eyes of the Israelites to this fraud; if a charge of this sort could have been substantiated against the Books of Moses. As this king chose priests *, who were not of the tribe of Levi, in disobedience to the Law of Moses, it would obviously have been to his interest to have done so. But neither Jeroboam nor his successors, whatever their wishes might have been, attempted to shake these laws, because all were convinced of their Divine authority. Even wicked Ahab, who sold himself "to work" iniquity " with greediness," did not dare to possess himself of the heritage of his subjects by violence, because the law of Moses forbad it; and before he ventured to take possession of the vineyard of the persecuted Naboth, he had him stoned to death under a false accusation +.

Upon what grounds, then, can any one form an opinion, that Moses did not give these laws to the Jews; or that they were not written at the

time they appear to have been? Surely, upon no satisfactory evidence; not even upon probability; upon nothing better than caprice, originating in the minds of those, who will, without reason, disbelieve, doubt, and disregard Divine things, however strong the proof which supports them, however clear the demonstration which sustains them may be. Reason teaches us, that a republic formed on any given code of laws, cannot be more ancient than those laws themselves; and she informs us still further, that these laws of Moses could not have been in force; that the Jewish republic could not have been formed until after this people left Egypt, or they would in that country have made some figure as a nation, instead of being in a state of most oppressive bondage, and suffering under the cruel lash of the tyrant Pharaoh, until they were withdrawn from thence by Moses. Now, as the children of Israel were led out of Egypt by Moses, which the Jews of every age have uniformly asserted, and which profane history has fully confirmed; it must necessarily be concluded, that Moses gave them these laws during the interval of time between their leaving Egypt and their entrance into Canaan. In Egypt it is clear that they did not possess them; indeed, they would have been utterly useless, for they could not have practised them in that situation. It appears in the Book of Joshua, that the Israelites were in

possession of these laws, when they passed the river Jordan*, as is seen by some of the tribes leaving their wives and families, in obedience to Moses, on the other side, while they crossed over with their brethren to assist them in conquering the country, that all might equally divide the danger and toil, until the whole of the promised land should be vanquished †.

Thus, if we attentively examine holy writ, we shall find the history of the Jews, uniformly sending us, step by step, without any intermission, back to their first lawgiver Moses; in whose commands, both moral and ceremonial, every Jew, in every age, has acknowledged the full weight of Divine authority.

It is for the infidel to see, whether his reasons will fairly weigh against those which have here been brought forward; and whether, when he has accompanied us so far in our arguments, he can still deny, or doubt, that the laws of the Old Testament are of Divine inspiration, and that they were written by Moses at the time, in which we assert them to have been-namely, in the interval between the Egyptian bondage, and the entrance of the Israelites into Canaan.

* Joshua i. 12-16. + Numbers xxxii. 16, &c.

CHAPTER VIII.

REFLECTIONS ON THE MORAL LAW OF MOSES.

We only agree to what has been already proved, when we admit, first, That Moses is the author of those books contained in the Sacred Volume, which are attributed to him; secondly, That those books are as ancient as the Jewish Republic; and, thirdly, That the religion which they teach is, in every essential point, in perfect consistency with right reason. It now remains for us to enter more at length into the subject of these laws, and to consider them not only as separated from the historical part of the writings of Moses, but as divested of the exterior circumstances, which attended their promulgation. Of these we will speak hereafter. If we examine the laws of any other nation, we shall remark three or four things inseparable from human laws, which at once place them infinitely below the laws of Moses.

First, The people collectively, or their leaders, as their representatives, give to these laws, when formed, the weight of their authority.

Secondly, we must observe, They select for the

drawing up of these laws, one or more persons endowed with proper talents for such employment. Thirdly, These laws are made to accord to a certain degree with the convenience of the people, for whose use, and by whose consent, they are established. Now we find it frequently happens, that human laws require to be altered, amended, or changed: sometimes they are diminished; sometimes they are added to; change is inevitable to them, because those, who compose them, having only human foresight, do not discover at once the inconvenience which may at a future day arise from the enactment of some of them. Thus, what is useful and proper at one time becomes useless and improper at another. The vices of the world are almost as various as the manners of society, and as liable to change; and new offences constantly are demanding new laws. If then, the laws of Moses have remained unaltered, if they have escaped those vicissitudes, those changes, the common lot of every thing which has its origin in the understanding of man, reason and justice require us to acknowledge, that the Jewish lawgiver was greatly superior to all other legislators, and that the laws themselves derived their authority from a much higher source than the power of any human being, whether rulers or people, or both acting in concert.

Now, it is clear that Moses neither received the