The promises or threats to the Obedient or Disobedient had, in the Jewish Dispensation, a double reference. Being a people under an hierarchical government, and the subjects of a Sovereign who has all nature under his controul, and can direct every event according to the good pleasure of his will, national prosperity and national adversity were continually placed before them, as the rewards or punishments of obedience or rebellion. After Moses, the chosen servant of the Lord, had instructed the people, by divine appointment, in the moral, civil, and ceremonial law, in a minute and circumstantial manner, so that no one could offend through ignorance, he promises in the name of the universal Sovereign, "If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments to do them, then will I give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time, and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down and none make you afraid; and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land; and ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall

before ye by the sword; and five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword For I will have respect unto you and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments, and if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant, I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart; and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it; and I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies; they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you; and if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins; and I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass; and your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of

the land yield their fruits," &c. &c.-(See Leviticus, c. 26. and also Deuteronomy, c. 28.)These chapters contain, as it were, a prophetic history of the future conduct of the Israelites, their obstinacies and rebellions, punishments, repentance and restoration to the divine favour.

Thus was worldly prosperity promised to this people collectively as a Nation; and the most dreadful calamities, to which a nation could be exposed, were threatened, should they prove wicked and rebellious. But numerous were the encouragements and warnings, pronounced to Individuals in their private character, according to the tenor of their moral and religious conduct. The rewards uniformly held forth to the Righteous, were the natural advantages derived from right conduct, the consolations of an approving conscience, respect among men, and the favour of the Almighty. The Wicked were repeatedly warned of the natural consequences of their folly, the disgrace they would incur in their social character, and the severity of the Divine wrath. "Great peace have they that love thy law, and nothing shall offend them." "Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, he shall be like

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"He

to a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth fruit in his season. His leaves also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but like the chaff which the wind driveth away." that walketh uprightly walketh surely.” “When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.” "The hopes of the righteous shall be gladness, but the expectations of the wicked shall perish.” “A man shall not be established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous shall not be moved." "The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot." "Surely there shall be no reward to evil men; the candle of the wicked shall be put out." "The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, but he blesseth the habitation of the just." Wisdom is represented as expostulating with evil doers, "Behold I have called and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded, but ye have set at nought my reproofs; I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer, they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me." &c.

It is a singular fact, that the promises and re

wards to obedience or disobedience which are explicit, are entirely confined to worldly prosperity or worldly calamity; those that respect the moral conduct of Individuals are general and indefinite. This singularity has been adduced by a learned prelate as a proof of the divine legation of Moses. Since every other legislator was compelled to call in the aid of future rewards and punishments, in order to procure obedience to their injunctions, conscious that the powers of nature were not at their command, they ventured not to promise or to threaten what they could not accomplish; lest a contrary issue should discover the imposture. But although a reference to a future state of retribution did not enter into the system of the divine legislator Moses, it is obvious, from many occasional expressions of their devout moralists, that the righteous were in expectation of greater rewards than it is in the power of this world to bestow. The desire of future happiness is natural to Man exclusively. A conscious superiority of powers over every other animated being; the experience that sublunary good, when possessed, is not adapted to ensure permanent felicity; a perception that some characters and dispositions are far more exalted above the common level than their fortunes or enjoyments, and that others deserve