THE

NINTH BOOK

OF THE

DIVINE LEGATION

OF

MOSES:

BEING AN ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN

THE TRUE NATURE AND GENIUS

OF THE

CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

Printed, so far as it goes, by the AUTHOR;

and left unfinished:

FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1788.

CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION to the Ninth Book.

Book IX.-Chaps. I. II. III. IV. V. & VI.-With NOTES.

THE Reader has been already referred to an Explanation of the omission of Books VII. & VIII.-And lest, in the preceding Title page to the IXth Book, the words "left unfinished" might operate to the prejudice of this division of the work, it may be proper to repeat here a few words from Bishop HURD'S introductory Discourse :-" This IXth Book is the noblest effort that has hitherto "been made to give a RATIONALE OF CHRISTIANITY... Very little is wanting to complete the Author's design; only what he had proposed "to say on the apocalyptic prophecies, and which may be supplied from the "Discourse on Antichrist.”—See Vol. I. of this Edit. pp. 86. 89.-Ed.

"

INTRODUCTION*

TO THE

!

NINTH BOOK

OF

THE DIVINE LEGATION OF MOSES.

TRUTH, the great Object of all honest as well as rational Inquiries, had been long sought for in vain; when, the Search now become desperate, after the fruitless toil of the best qualified Sages, and of the most improved times, She suddenly appeared in PERSON to put these benighted Wanderers in their Way. I AM THE TRUTH, says the Saviour of the World. This was his Moral Nature; of more concern for us to know, than his Physical; and, on that account, explained more at large in his eternal Gospel.

This last book, therefore, being an attempt to explain the true NATURE AND GENIUS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION; I shall,

1. First of all, previously examine those sceptical Objections, which in the long absence of Truth, the World had begun to entertain of her very Being and existence; or at least of our capacity to discover, and get hold of her. And these being removed,

2. I shall, in the second place, lay down, under what laws, and with what disposition of mind, I have ventured to use the aids of REASON to explain the TRUTHS of REVELATION.

3. And, lastly, I shall attempt to remove the Prejudices which may arise against any new discoveries in support of REVELATION, which the method here em*See Sermon, concerning The Nature and Condition of Truth; Serm. I. Vol. IX. of this Edit.

ployed

ployed to analyse that capital truth of all, THE FAITH, may possibly enable us to make.

I.

That ancient Remedy against Error, a Pyrrhonian, or, if you like it better, an Academic SCEPTICISM, only added one more disorder to the human Mind; but being the last of its misbegotten issue, it became as is usual, the favourite of its Parent.

Our blessed MASTER himself was the first to encounter its attacks, and the insolence of that School has kept the Church in breath ever since.

When Jesus was carried before Pilate as a Criminal of State, for calling himself King of the Jews, he tried to shorten the intended process by pleading that his Kingdom was not of this World. But Pilate, alarmed at the names of king and kingdom, asked, Art thou a King then? The other replied,-For this cause came I into the World, that I should bear Witness unto the TRUTH. Pilate saith unto him, WHAT IS TRUTH? And when he had said this, he went out again*. For when he found that the Kingdom claimed by the supposed Criminal, was a Kingdom merely Spiritual, or, in the Roman Governor's conceit, a Kingdom only in idea, he considered the claim as no proper subject of the civil tribunal. So far he acted well, and suitably to his public Character. But when he discovered his indifference to, or rather contempt of, TRUTH, when offered to be laid before him as a private Man, by one who, he knew, had the repute of exercising every superior Power proper to enforce it, he. appears, to me, in a light much less excusable.

The negligent air of his insulting question will hardly admit of an Apology." You tell me (says he) of "TRUTH, a word in the mouth of every Leader and "Follower of a SECT; who all agree (though in nothing "else) to give that name to their own Opinions: While "TRUTH, if, indeed, we allow of its existence, still "wanders at large, and in disguise. Nor does the De"tection seem worth the Pains of the Search, since

those things which Nature intended for general use "she made plain and obvious, and within the reach of "all men.'

*John xviii. 38.

Sentiments

Sentiments like these bespoke the Ruler of an Asiatic Province, who had heard so much of TRUTH in the Schools of Philosophy; and had heard of it to so little purpose. This corrupt Governor, therefore, finding a Jewish Sage talk of bearing Witness to the Truth, (the affected office of the Grecian Sophists), was ready to conclude that Jesus was one of their mimic Followers. For it was now become fashionable amongst the learned Rabbins to inlist themselves into one or other of those celebrated Schools. Thus the famous Philo was an outrageous PLATONIST: And Jesus calling himself a KING, together with the known Purity and Severity of his Morals, probably made Pilate consider him as one of the STOICAL wise men, who alone was free, and happy, and -a King.

"Liber, honoratus, pulcher, REx denique Regum."

Now, as on the one hand, the Character of the Greek Philosophy, which was of an abstract nature, and sequestered from civil business, made Pilate conclude, that these Clains of Jesus had nothing in them dangerous or alarming; so, on the other hand, its endless disputes and quarrels about TRUTH, and which of the Sects had her in keeping, made Men of the World, and especially those in public Stations, whose practice declined the test of any moral System whatsoever, willing to be persuaded, and ready to conclude, that this boasted TRUTH, which pretended to be the sole Directress of human conduct, was indeed no better than a shifting and fantastic Vision.

This, I presume, was the light in which Pilate considered the SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD. Had he suspected Jesus of being the Founder of a public and a popular Religion, which aimed to be erected on the ruins of the established Worship, the jealousies of the Roman Court, since the loss of public liberty, had, doubtless, made this servile Minister of Power very attentive, and. even officious, to suppress it in its birth.

But if the ill usage of TRUTH by the Philosophers could so disgust the Politician of old, as to indispose him to an acquaintance of this importance, what must we think will be her reception amongst modern Statesmen, whose views are neither more pure nor more generous; and whose penetration, perhaps, does not go much beyond

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