his landed property for more than fifty. No gift or fale could have any effect beyond this term, which was fixed for the whole nation, and did not commence at the time of every particular bargain. In confequence of this, tho' a family might fuffer by the imprudence, or extravagance of the head of it, the evil had a limit; for at the Jubilee all eftates reverted to their original proprietors.

By this means, too, political liberty would be better guarded; as it would make it impoffible for any man to acquire much landed property, or the influence attached to it. And as the Ifraelites were alfo prohibited from makeing intereft of their money,they could not make any accumulation of wealth of any kind. The laws of Mofes relating to theft, robbery, and perfonal injuries, are by no means the fame with those of other nations, and they are all admirable for their equity. The abominable vices of fodomy and bestiality, are punishable with death by the laws of Mofes, but not, I belive, by those 1 of any other legislator; and they are eminently calcu lated to preferve the dignity, and prevent the degradation, of human nature.

In short, no person can peruse the laws of Mofes without acknowledging them to be truly original, and their fuperiority to those of other antient nations, the moft famed for their wifdom, is an evidence of their di vine origin.

20. In all antient nations there were trials by various ordeals, in which the accufed perfon was fuppofed to be guilty, unless fire or water did not injure him. In

no

no fyftem is more account made of thefe ordeals than in that of the Hindoos, in which it is declared to be more to be depended upon than any other evidence, being imagined to be that of the gods themselves.

In the institutions of Mofes we find one trial by ordeal; but fo effentially different from any that was in ufe in other countries, that it could never have been borrowed from them. This was in the cafe of a wife fufpected of adultery; and recourfe was had to it only in defect of any other evidence. To fatisfy the jealous husband in this cafe the wife was made to drink a quantity of water, in which was put fome duft from the ground, and the fcrapings of a writing containing a denunciation of divine judgments to be inftantly inflicted in cafe fhe was guilty. But befides that recourfe was had to this mode of trial only in defect of proper evidence, all that can be objected to it is that the guilty might efcape unhurt; whereas in all the heathen orde als the accufed might fuffer tho' ever fo innocent, fince nothing but a miracle could protect him. The difference is, therefore, manifeftly in favour of the inftitution of Mofes; and fo great, that the one could not have been borrowed from the other.

It may now, furely, be concluded from this general view of the fubject (and the comparifon might have been extended to many more particulars) that the two fyftems, viz, that of Moses, and that of the heathens, were not derived from each other; and the fuperiority of that of Mofes is fo great, that confidering his cir cumftances, and thofe of his nation at the time, we

cannot

cannot err in pronouncing, that they could not have had any human, but must have had a divine, origin. Nor can any thing be faid of Mr. Langles, and others, who affert that the books of Mofes were copied, or in any other way derived, from the works of other eastern nations, more favourable than that they had never read them.

NOTES

NOTES ON THE BOOK OF

JOSHUA.

JosHU.

OSHUA fucceeding Mofes in his autho rity over the people, having been his conftant attendant, and perhaps his amanuenfis, would naturally follow his example in recording the memorable events of his time, especially as they were in continuation of thofe of Mofes, and it would appear equally neceffary. An account of the divifion of the land of Canaan among the different tribes must have appeared to be particularly fo, as a record for future ages. The Jews have always confidered this book 'as written by Joshua, or by his direction, and it has every internal mark of authenticity, in the mention of fo many particulars of perfons, times, and places. Like the books of Mofes, and those of all the antients, it is written in the third perfon; and a few circumftances have, as was natural, been add ed by those who copied it afterwards. This book contains the history of the Ifraelites from the death of Mofes to that of Jofhua, a period, it is fuppofed, of near thirty years.

VOL. I.

Bb

Cb,

Ch. I. 1. It does not appear in what manner God revealed himself to Jofhua, but it was probably in an articulate voice, in the prefence of Eleazar the highprieft, agreeably to the directions that he had received Num. xxvii, 21.

4. The Great Sea means the Mediterranean, which was great with respect to any other with which the If raelites were acquainted.

8. This circumflance makes it probable that Joshua attended at the fanctuary to receive directions from God, the book of the law being kept there.

18. As there was no perfon fet up in oppofition to Jofhua, the people, disposed as they always were to rebel, must have had very fatisfactory evidence of his having had a divine appointment to fucceed Moses, efpecially as he was of the tribe of Ephraim, and not that of Judah, which only had the promife of pre-eminence.

Ch. II. This muft have been fome time before the events related in this chapter. This Rahab is generally called a harlot, perhaps because women who kept thefe places of entertainment generally were of that character, whether they were fo or not.

6. This woman must have managed with great address in concealing thefe fpies, and it must have been a very hazardous undertaking. This alone fhews the great apprehenfion of the fuccefs of the Ifraelites in their invafion of the country. Had this woman had any hopes of the city holding out against them, fhe would, no doubt, have been the first to give information of them, as it is evident the was, by fome means or other, well acquainted with their bufinefs.

11 This