their disdain of foreign nations, and unsociable 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 additional light which the original records and documents we possess could receive.

Antiochus Eupator, that they, after their establishment in Judea, παραδόσιμον ποιῆσαι τὸ μῖσος πρὸς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους.

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 : οὐ γάρ εἶναι ἀυτοῖς πάτριον περιορᾷν ἔικονας éis xúpav pepoμévas. Antiq. xviii. c. 6. s. 3. A still stronger resistance was made to the introduction of the image of Tiberius as an ensign into Jerusalem; and the threatened erection of Caligula's statue in the temple was the occasion of the greatest apprehension and despair. Jos. de Bel. Jud. xi. ch. 10.

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 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.

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SECTION 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 people with the solemnity which accompanied the promulgation from Mount Sinai, it will naturally be supposed that its effect would not be confined to the devotions of the anchoret or speculations of the philosopher, but would display itself in the national worship of the people, and become interwoven with the whole texture of their morality and literature. Just views and sure conviction are at least to be expected, even though they should fail to produce undeviating obedience. The firmest conviction, we know experimentally, does not always tend to practical obedience in the progress of an individual through the difficulties and temptations of life; much less then should it be expected in a nation placed under such singular circumstances, and standing alone in the midst of a surrounding host of evil examples. Still, however, if it appeared that the Hebrew people were no more pure or fervent in their piety, and no more consistent in their religious belief, than other ancient nations, an argument

might be justly raised against their having really received a divine revelation, from the absence of its natural practical consequence. But it will be seen on examination, that the declarations and provisions contained in the Mosaic law were not only intrinsically good, but practically efficient; and that there was as much superiority in the religious opinions actually entertained by the Hebrews, as peculiarity in the means appointed to preserve them. This superiority is visible in their public worship, and displays itself remarkably in the notions of the Supreme Being which occur in their writings.

It is first to be observed, that a general belief in the existence of one spiritual, omnipotent, and omnipresent Being, the Creator of the world, was diffused throughout the Hebrew people. I shall hereafter take an opportunity of showing, that, even among the most learned and philosophical heathens, this belief did not prevail, to any purposes of practical devotion. The language of Moses and of Plato, in extent