unvaried method of the GRADUAL COMMUNICATION Truth.

of

3. Thirdly, as they contribute to shew the FOLLY of those who contend that the Christian Doctrine of a Future State was revealed to the early Jews; since this opinion destroys all the reason of a secondary sense of Prophecies and of how great importance the reality of this sense is to the truth of Christianity hath been largely explained: For how can it be known with certainty, from the Prophecies themselves, that they contain double senses, but from hence, that the old, Law was preparatory to, and the rudiment of, the new? How shall this relation be certainly known, but from hence, that no future state of Rewards and Punishments is to be found in the Mosaic Dispensation* So close a dependence have all these important Principles on one another.

RECAPITULATION.

AND now, if the length of the Demonstration have not tired out the Reader's patience, or, to speak more properly, if length of time have not worn out his attention to the Subject, it may be proper (the Argument being here concluded) to take a retrospective view of the whole, as it hath been inforced in this and the preceding Volumet. For the deep Professor, who hath digested his Theology into Sums and Systems, and the florid Preacher, who never suffered his thoughts to expatiate beyond the limits of a pulpit-essay, will be ready to tell me, that I had promised to DEMONSTRATE THE DIVINE LEGATION OF MOSES; and that now I had written two large Volumes on that subject, "all that they could find in them were Discourses on the foundation of Morality-the origin of civil and religious Society-the Alliance between Church and State-the policy of Lawgivers-the Mysteries of the Priests and the opinions of the Greek Philosophers— The Antiquity of Egypt their Hieroglyphics-their * See Note [FF] at the end of this Book.

J

† Books 1. II. III. & IV. V. VI. originally appeared in two Vols. 4to. Heroes

H 4

4

Heroes and their Brute-worship. That, indeed, at last I speak a little of the Jewish policy; but I soon break away from it, as from a subject I would avoid, and employ the remaining part of the Volume on the Sacrifice of Isaac-on the book of Job-and on primary and secondary Prophecies, But what (say they) is all this to The Divine Legation of Moses?

Dic, Posthume! de tribus Capellis."

To call the Topic I went upon a PARADOX, was said, without doubt, to my discredit; but not to see that I had proved it in form, will, I am afraid, redound to their own. Yet I had already bespoke their best attention in the words of Cicero, who, I believe, often found himself in my situation: “ Video hanc primam ingressionem meam non ex ORATORIS disputationibus ductam, sed è media Philosophia repetitam, et eam quidem cum antiquam tum subobscuram, aut REPREHENSIONIS aliquid, aut certe ADMIRATIONIS habituram. Nam aut mirabantur QUID HÆC PERTINEANT AD EA QUÆ QUÆRIMUS: quibus satisfaciet res ipsa cognita, ut non sine causa ALTE repetita videatur aut reprehendent, QUOD INUSITATAS VIAS INDAGEMUS, TRITAS RELINQUAMUS. Ego autem me sæpe nova videre dicere intelligo cum percetera dicam, sed inaudita plerisque*."

But as this Apology hath not answered its purpose, and as the ARGUMENT is indeed drawn out to an uncommon length; raised upon a great variety of supports; and sought out from every quarter of antiquity, and sometimes out of corners the most remote and dark; it was the less to be admired if every inattentive Reader did not see their force and various purpose; or if every attentive Reader could not combine them into the body of a completed Syllogism; and stiil less if the envious and the prejudiced should concur to represent these Volumes as an indigested and inconnected heap of discourses, thrown out upon one another, to disburthen a common-place. For the satisfaction therefore of the more candid, who Cicero. acknow

acknowledge the fairness of the attempt, who saw some→ thing of the progress of the argument, but misled by the notice of a remaining part, neglected to pursue the proof to the CONCLUSION here deduced, I shall endeavour to lay open, in one plain and simple view, the whole conduct of these mysterious Volumes.

Nor shall I neglect the other sort of Readers, though it be odds we part again as dissatisfied with one another as the Toyman of Bath and his Customer: Of whom the story goes, that a grave well-dressed man coming into the shop of this ingenious inventor, and reliever of the distresses of those who are too dull to know what they want, and too rich to be at ease with what they have, demanded to see some of his best reading-glasses; which when he had tried to no purpose, he returned. The Toyman, surprised at so strange a phenomenon, gravely asked him, whether ever he had learnt to read? to which the other as gravly replied, that if he had been so happy, he should have had no need of his assistance. Now, before I bring the distant parts of my Argument to converge, for the use of these dim-sighted Gentlemen, may I ask them, without offence, a similar question? They have ANSWERED; without asking; but not with the same ingenuity.

In reading the LAW and HISTORY of the JEWS, with all the attention I could give to them, amongst the many circumstances peculiar to that amazing Dispensation (from several of which, as I conceive, the divinity of its original may be fairly proved) these two partienlars most forcibly struck my observation, THE OMISSION OF THE DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE STATE, and THE ADMINISTRATION OF AN EXTRAORDINARY PROVI As unaccountable as the first circumstance appeared when considered separately and alone, yet when set against the other, and their mutual relations examined and compared, the omission was not only well explained, but was found to be an invincible medium for the proof of the DIVINE LEGATION OF MOSES: which, as Un

DENCE.

believers

believers had been long accustomed to decry from this very circumstance, I chose it preferably to any other. The Argument appeared to me in a supreme degree strong and simple, and not needing many words to inforce it, or, when inforced, to make it well understood.

RELIGION hath always been held necessary to the support of CIVIL SOCIETY, because human Laws alone are ineffectual to restrain men, from evil, with a force sufficient to carry on the affairs of public regimen: and (under the common dispensation of Providence) a FU TURE STATE of rewards and punishments is confessed to be as necessary to the support of RELIGION, because nothing else can remove the objections to God's moral Government under a Providence so apparently, unequal, whose phænomena are apt to disturb the serious, professors of RELIGION with doubts and suspicions concerning it, as it is of the essence of religious profession to believe, that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Moses, who instituted a RELIGION and a REPUBLIC and incorporated them into one another, stands single amongst ancient and modern Lawgivers, in teaching a RELIGION, without the sanction, or even so much as the mention of a FUTURE STATE OF REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. The same Moses, with a singularity as great, by uniting the Religion and civil Community of the Jews into one incorporated body, made God, by natural consequence, their supreme civil Magistrate, whereby the form of Government arising from thence became truly and essentially a THEOCRACY. But as the Administration of Government necessarily follows its Form, that before us could be no other than AN EXTRAORDINARY OR EQUAL PROVIDENCE. And such indeed not only the Jewish Lawgiver himself, but all the succeeding. Rulers and Prophets of this Republic, have invariably represented it to be. In the mean time, no Lawgiver or founder of Religion amongst any other People ever pro

mised so singular a Distinction; no Historian ever dared to record so remarkable a Prerogative.

This being the true and acknowledged state of the case; Whenever the Unbeliever attempts to disprove, and the Advocate of Religion to support, the divinity of the Mosaic Dispensation, the obvious question (if each be willing to bring it to a speedy decision) will be," Whether "the EXTRAORDINARY PROVIDENCE thus prophetically "promised, and afterwards historically recorded to be performed, was REAL or PRETENDED only?"

66

We Believers hold that it was REAL: and I, as an Advocate for Revelation, undertake to prove it was so; employing for this purpose, as my medium, THE OMIS

SION OF A FUTURE STATE OF REWARDS AND PU NISHMENTS. The argument stands thus:

If Religion be necessary to civil Government, and if Religion cannot subsist, under the common dispensation of Providence, without a future state of Rewards and Punishments; so consummate a Lawgiver would never have neglected to inculcate the belief of such a state, had he not been well assured that an EXTRAORDINARY PROVIDENCE was indeed to be administered over his People: Or were it possible he had been so infatuated, the impotency of a Religion wanting a future state must very soon have concluded in the destruction of his Republic: Yet nevertheless it flourished and continued sovereign for many ages.

These two proofs of the proposition (that an extraordinary providence was really administered) drawn from the THING OMITTED and the PERSON OMITTING, may be reduced to the following SYLLOGISMS.

I. Whatsoever Religion and Society have no future State for their support, must be supported by an extraordinary Providence.

The Jewish Religion and Society had no future State for their support :

Therefore