truth of the accompanying history, so the peculiar provisions can only be explained by admitting that they were really established by the command of the Creator, and supported by his power. Nor is any preliminary fact assumed to establish the argument, or required to confirm it, except the real existence of the polity itself. The certainty of this we derive, not only from the original documents, which furnish the surest attainable authority in all cases relating to domestic and civil institutions, but from the incidental remarks of profane writers; which either plainly indicate, or expressly declare, that the Jewish people were understood to possess a system of government and religious worship, totally different from those existing among other nations. The observations arising from the cursory acquaintance of these writers with the Jews, ascertain their confidence in miraculous interposition*; their devout attachment to their religious belief; their scrupulous observance of the Sabbath;

*This is to be collected from the supercilious remark of Horace,-Credat Judæus Apella, Non ego.

their abhorrence of idolatry*; their disdain of foreign nations, and unsociable

* Quidam sortiti metuentem Sabbata patrem,

Nil præter nubes et cœli numen adorant. Juv.xiv. 96. In the succeeding lines he specifies all their most remarkable peculiarities; see, too, Mr. Gifford's note on the passage. Lucan, in a concise allusion, points at the peculiarity of their faith:

"Dedita sacris

Incerti Judæa Dei." Phars. lib. ii. l. 593. Dion Cassius's account is specific, as to many points of their disagreement from the rest of the world. L xxxvii. p. 41. Tacitus confirms the observance of the Sabbatical year: Septimum quoque annum ignaviæ datum. He expressly mentions that they held images as profane; and worshipped only one God, seen by' the eye of the mind (mente solâ unumque Numen, intelligunt). He declares, too, that Moses instituted rites contrary to those of all other nations. The foundation of his account, which is a curious perversion of real history, exists in an ixλoyn of Diod. Sic. p. 901. That author gives as a general account of the Jews, reported to the inquiries of Antiochus Eupator, that they, after their establishment in Judea, παραδόσιμον ποιῆσαι τὸ μέσος πρὸς τε; ἀνθρώπες.

Of their abhorrence of images, a curious instance, among many others, occurs in Josephus. The inhabitants of that part of the country through which Vitellius was passing in his route against the Arabians, anxiously besought him to forbear introducing among them their ensigns with the eagles attached to them: & yap vai ávloïs πάλιον περιορᾷν εικονας εις χώραν φερομένας. Antig. xviii. c. 6. s. 3. A still stronger resistance was made to the introduction of the image of Tiberius as an ensign into Jeru

aversion to all who did not profess their own religion. These are the only points to which we can possibly require the collateral evidence of foreign testimony: and to these most ample testimony is supplied. The profane historians and satirists, in the true spirit of polytheism, ridiculed the Jews as a superstitious people; and by that ridicule have confirmed the truth of the Jewish history, and thrown upon it the only light of which the original records and documents we possess are susceptible.

Had the appearance of the Jewish rites and polity presented nothing extraordinary to the Romans, when the progress of their arms and commerce introduced such a nation to their knowledge, some colourable presumption might perhaps have been raised against the actual or literal observance of the Mosaic institutions. We learn however, that their civil customs and religious tenets, as soon as they met the eyes of foreigners and polytheists, did appear exclusively peculiar. Whence then, let me

salem; and the threatened erection of Caligua's statue in the temple was the occasion of the greatest apprehension and despair. Jos. de Bel. Jud. xi. ch. 10.

finally ask, did this peculiarity arise? We may confidently affirm, that the singular tendency of the Mosaic economy, as laid down in the preceding Sections, and its peculiar provisions, as detailed in this, are inexplicable, except on the admission that the Jewish polity was really established for the purpose of preserving the knowledge and worship of the Creator, and supported by the national experience of miraculous interposition.

SECT. V.

On the religious Opinions of the Hebrews. It is important to inquire, whether the general opinions prevalent among the Hebrew people, respecting the high matters declared to them in their law, furnish a corroboration of the conclusion derived from the tone in which that law is conceived. Was the belief of a Creator and Ruler of the universe maintained in any purity amongst them? Was their worship, with their hymns and addresses to the Deity, conformable to the belief which it was the object of their national institutions to inculcate? Was their superiority over other nations in these respects, at all proportioned to the peculiarity of their institutions? The result of this inquiry must furnish either a material confirmation, or a strong objection to the divine appointment of the Mosaic law. For, if a rational and sublime belief of an omnipotent Creator and independent Governor of the world, be once impressed upon an infant