vernment of one God, possessing every natural, and moral, or relative perfection, to a world that had entirely lost every worthy conception respecting him. It demands the obedience of the heart to all the precepts of morality, in opposition to profane and superstitious rites.

In its introduction, it was adapted to the rude, ignorant, and depraved state of mankind; and in the progress of its developement, it has equally respected the freedom of the human mind, and the primitive laws of nature, never violating the former, and as seldom as possible deviating from the latter.

This dispensation has greatly benefited the pagan world, by the light and knowledge it has diffused.

After many conflicts, and surmounting many difficulties, this dispensation has been the means of preserving the principles of true religion and morality, through many ages of darkness, ignorance, and moral depravity, which threatened their dissolution in every period.

Finally, it gives us the strongest assurances that these blessings, with their consequent effects, are to be diffused over the whole human

race.

The evidences of these facts, so correspondent with our best conceptions of a Deity, are col

lected from the general current of the Jewish history itself, and from the exemplary characters of the principal agents, who were instrumental i accomplishing such important purposes!

We appeal to every one who professes to be governed by his reason, whether the mass of evidence which has been laid before the reader, ought to yield to the captious objections of individuals, which are so very liable to be founded on ignorance; and which, after the short indulgence of a petty triumph, have been so frequently confuted by subsequent knowledge? Should any one assert, that the primary object of a divine revelation is to satisfy human curiosity; to accommodate the indefinite but the glowing language of the East, to the frigid criticisms of distant ages; or to make us perfect and unerring in the knowledge of minutiæ, which are in themselves of very little moment, many and strong would be the objections to invalidate that position. But when we maintain, that the grand object is of so superior a nature as to overlook these frivolities; and that many inferior circumstances are left to be explained by the minuter knowledge of facts, and the discreet exercise of our reasoning powers, the inaptitude of such objections becomes most apparent.

Many very important positions are established which no objections can invalidate. The selection of a particular people for a certain purpose, the accomplishment of which could not have been expected, according to the ordinary course of human events;-the importance of this purpose; the preference given to the descendants of Abraham, in honour of the exemplary faith and piety of their progenitor;—the means used to preserve this people from the fatal contaminations of idolatry ;--their deliverance from a state of bondage, and their establishment in a land promised to their ancestors ;-the superior wis dom, strict morality, sublime piety, exemplified in every institution, honoured in every punish, ment, and in every reward;-and the final triumph of monotheism among these people, are facts which cannot be denied or confuted by frivolous disputes about dæmons and witches, and magicians, and borrowing and lending of jewels; or the precise degrees of inspiration in every individual agent of the divine purposes. We know that the sun exists, and we consent to be cheered with his light and splendour, without waiting till astronomers shall have explained the nature, or wiped off the disgrace of those few spots, which our ignorance has placed. before his disk. When it can be proved, that the

happiness of mankind is not an object worthy of the Deity; that it is not the design of the Deity to lead us, according to our nature and the extent of our faculties, from gross ignorance to knowledge and virtue; that the numerous facts recorded in the Jewish history have no relation to this object, and have contributed nothing towards its promotion; then, and not till then, may the advocates for the divine legation of Moses be alarmed, by trifling objections, urged respecting minuter subjects, over which distance of time, a difference in customs, manners, idioms of languages, and other circumstances, have thrown a temporary veil.

But if the legation of Moses be divine, then it is an indubitable fact, that the great universal Parent superintends the happiness of his creatures; and it is proclaimed from heaven, that

HAPPINESS CAN ALONE BE OBTAINED THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF PURE RELIGION, AND THE PRACTICE OF EVERY PERSONAL AND SOCIAL VIRTUE.

END OF DISQUISITION THE SECOND