sonable grounds for a presumption of its having a different origin from that of other civil governments. And this presumption is confirmed by the words employed to the persons who were to observe the law: words addressing them as actual witnesses of the mode in which it was conveyed to them, and by which its divine appointment was proved to their complete conviction: a confirmation, strengthened by the reflection, that no period has been or can be specifically assigned, when a fabrication so gross as a forged history and fabulous archives could be imposed upon them.

This sort of evidence is all that the case allows. It is accumulated in favour of the Hebrew laws in the highest conceivable degree; and has been drawn out at different times in a variety of ways, any one of which might be justly deemed satisfactory; rendering it, upon the whole, a most impracticable task for any one who considers the matter in detail, to maintain that Moses acted on his own assumed authority.

Hitherto, therefore, I think it has been satisfactorily shown, that the peculiar nature of the Hebrew polity affords strong grounds for believing that it was divinely instituted, for the purpose of preserving the records of the creation; inasmuch as the worship and commemoration of the Creator was the chief and primary object of the Hebrew legislator, which, with other legislators, is only made auxiliary and subservient to their main object, the welfare of the state.

SECTION IV.

Peculiar Sanctions of the Mosaic Law.

It is not only by such a consideration of the object of the Hebrew Polity, as was entered upon in the preceding Section, that we may derive an irresistible argument for its divine institution but the peculiarity of its provisional sanctions, and the deviations from the ordinary course of nature on which they confidently rely, must bring us to the same conclusion. I take it as an acknowledged principle, that every lawgiver consults for the observance of his statutes, by such penal enactments as he has within his power; and would be more anxious to establish a belief of the certainty, than even of the severity, of his punishments. It was for this reason that the terrors of future judgment were called in, as we have seen, to assist the inadequacy of human justice, by some of

the ancient lawgivers; and to assure offenders that the vengeance, which must necessarily prove often tardy and uncertain on this side the grave, will be sure and swift on the other.

Moses, however, relies on this vengeance as immediate; and employs the sanction of a retributive providence as confidently, as if he held the lightning in his own hands, and wielded the government of the world. All his enactments imply that sort of dependance on divine interposition, which could not be derived from any experience of the usual course of events. Obedience to the commandments is not only enjoined as a positive duty, but as the sure source of all prosperity, both national and individual. "And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to "observe and to do all his commandments "which I command thee this day, that the "Lord thy God will set thee high above all nations

66

66

of the earth. The Lord shall cause thine ene

"mies that rise up against thee to be smitten

66

before thy face; they shall come out against

66

ways.

"thee one way, and flee before thee seven The Lord shall command a blessing upon "thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest "thine hand unto; and all people of the earth "shall see that thou art called by the name of "the Lord, and they shall be afraid of thee."* On the other hand, disobedience, and particularly in the matter of idolatry, is threatened with the severest chastisements that can befal a nation; with private distress, and public calamity; with the annihilation of the government, and the captivity of the people. See, I have "set before thee this day life and good, and "death and evil; in that I command thee this

66

66

day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in "his ways, and to keep his commandments " and his statutes and his judgments, &c. But "if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt "not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and wor

66

ship other gods, and serve them; I denounce "unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, " and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the