always in the hearts of his willing and obedient people!

As men multiplied upon the face of the earth, the relations of human life branched into various, and widely-extended ramifications. The field of authority became every day larger; and in a family which once was one, but now was divided into many, some were found who would not bow to patriarchal restraint: of course, as in the present day, there were distinct heads to separate families, and a form of government was wanting which should embrace the whole. Here was a scene opened to ambition! The man of bold, daring, enterprising genius, pressed on to gain the dangerous summit of pre-eminence over his brethren. After the flood we first read of NIMROD. Whether he was a tyrant or not, according to our usage of the word, has been the subject of much discussion; and the scriptural account of him is too short to admit the question to be decided with any degree of precision. It is clear, however, that by some means he acquired a considerable ascendency over his brethren; and "began to be great in "the earth. He is the same with Belus, who "was afterwards worshipped as a God under "that name." He was the grandson of Noah, and is termed in the scriptures "a mighty "hunter before the Lord." By this laborious

exercise, probably, he gained the affections of the people, in delivering them from the dangers arising from the too great increase of beasts of prey; while, at the same moment, he trained up the young men to "endure hardness." The habitual command which on these occasions he assumed, and the habits of obedience which they acquired, probably, enabled him to establish, and to maintain, the unbounded authority which he, at length, exercised. It is said that "he began to be mighty in the earth;" by which phrase we are probably to understand, that he procured himself settlements, founded cities, blended different families, united the people under his own authority, and moulded them into one state. His original dominion was bounded by the Euphrates and the Tigris: but in the revolution of years, and by gradual acquisitions, it was much enlarged, and became one of the four great empires of the world. Babylon was the seat of his kingdom: afterwards he built Nineveh, which he so denominated from his son Ninus, and laid the foundation of the Assyrian empire. * Thus the PATRIARCHAL government became Mo

NARCHICAL.

* See Rollin's Anc. Hist. vol. ii. p. 178, &c,

But men began to forsake the precepts delivered to them by their fathers, and to deny, or to forget, the God who made them. The coNFUSION OF TONGUES separated and scattered the people, and this dispersion was the origin of nations. When idolatry had spread itself extensively, perhaps we might say universally, it pleased God to call Abraham, and to choose his family, and his descendants, as his own PECULIAR people. This nation was selected as a public evidence of the existence, and of the providence, of God-was set up as a perpetual admonition to the world. We have seen them crowned with visible prosperity under his extraordinary guardianship; and we have contemplated singular, and public manifestations, of the divine interposition in their favour. Should any be disposed to question the fact of this choice, and of this guardianship, they must be silenced by the demonstration of the same providence, and of the same care, exerted in favour of the same people to the present hour. After a dispersion of eighteen centuries over the face of the whole earth, held every where in contempt, existing in a state of the most abject ignominy, they still remain, in incredible numbers, unmixed with, altogether subsisting in the midst of, all other nations, and totally distinct and separate from all the inhabitants of the

globe. And while this undeniable fact is a decisive proof of the divine choice of them as a people, this extraordinary interposition of Heaven on their behalf, is also a standing miracle in favour of revelation. They have been harassed, detested, persecuted, massacred in all countries, by all ranks: yet have they seen the rise, and the fall, of many imperial nations, which held them in servitude, and which shook the oppressor's rod over their head; and in this forlorn, wandering, wretched, and apparently abandoned state, they remain a people, and a great people.

From this choice, and upon the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, arose the MOSAIC OR LEVETICAL DISPENSATION; and the government under this dispensation was a THEOCRACY. This term is compounded of two Greek words, s God, and xgaliw to govern; and implies that the Jews were immediately under the authority of God as their king. To elucidate this assertion, we remark, that, in three distinct views, God may be considered as the God of the Hebrews:

1. As the great Parent of all men-the Ruler of the hearts, the properties, the lives, and the affairs of the creation at large, and of the Jews as a PART of the creation. This is a relation which he bears to them in common with all the world. Hence he required of the Israelites all

the duties of the light of nature, and of the moral law, which binds all mankind as well as themselves, and extends through every dispensation.

2. As the God of Israel peculiarly, as a visible and outward CHURCH, whom he had selected, and separated from all other nations, to be his own peculiar people. Hence he prescribed forms and modes of worship: he instituted ceremonies and rites of religion, by which their devotional exercises were regulated, as tokens of their duty, and of his relation to them, as a chosen and distinct people.

3. As their proper and only King, as a NATION. Hence he gave them judicial and political laws, relating to their government, their constitution, and the several relations and branches of society. Whoever will review with attention the Mosaic law, will find that there are not only moral obligations laid down, but ceremonial and ritual observances prescribed; and these again are connected with political and judicial commands: so that it is evident that the Jews were as much under the direction of Heaven in their civil, as in their religious laws and institutions. Hence there are four words, which are frequently deemed synonymous, but which in the scriptures have very distinct significations" statutes, commandments, judgments, and testi