distance of time to help you; for the writings ascribed to Moses could not have been produced long after the time in which he lived, and the law refers to the miracles as having taken place before the eyes of his contemporaries. You will find Leslie's Rules, as applied to the miracles of the Pentateuch, of great effect. If, again, any interval had elapsed after which a good opportunity might be afforded of bringing forward the Pentateuch, and ascribing it to Moses, of laying hold of customs, and accounting for their observance by a relation of miracles, you must suppose the author of such an attempt would only inculcate what he was certain would be well received. Now I venture to assert, that from all that we know of human nature, from all that we know of history, and from all that we can collect as to this particular people, the Pentateuch never could have been so forced upon the people as a law of absolute authority; to say nothing of the incredibility of inventing such a law, which confined national and personal ambition within such narrow limits. EDWARD. If the Jewish law was not of divine origin, the people were cruelly deceived. MR. B. It is incredible that they would have permitted themselves to be cruelly deceived. In what other instance was ever such severe legislation effected? What other instance can be produced of a people thus imposed upon? BEATRICE. But the Jews are a very peculiar people. MR. B. So they have become; but we do not observe in the history of the Jews, more than any other race, a disposition to confine themselves within a narrow tract of land; to deny themselves; to submit to a severe round of duty; to live by faith rather than by sight. Some motive or other must have given rise to so extraordinary an attempt as the legislation of the Pentateuch; but what motive could produce it, in case a divine origin be not admitted, is not easy to conjecture. If this legislation were human, unquestionably its author was a man of the very highest intellect; but how such a man could trust to a perpetual miracle, is what no ingenuity can solve. He puts the nation under a peculiar providence, and binds it to the observance of these laws, under the penalty of ruin if they forsake them. EDWARD. Then you regard the Jews as, in some measure, supported by a continued miracle; or that there must have been a continuance of particular provi dential agency to have supported their peculiar establishment? MR. B. Such there undoubtedly was, according to the sacred records; and such there must have been, to enable them to observe the law originally given. EDWARD. This is assuming a great deal. MR. B. Not more than what a strict adherence to truth requires, and not more than the subject will bear : it cannot be disproved. EDWARD. Neither can it be proved; and belief in a continual interposition of Divine Providence is more than ought to be required without proof. MR. B. I am willing to own that the whole, as a deviation from the usual course of things, requires more proof than it would had it been accordant therewith. I am willing also to grant that the period is too remote for me to bring positive proof; but, on the other hand, the fact of any one miracle being established, no reason can be assigned why fifty others, connected with it, may not also be true, provided the general object of their perform ance be the same. If the children of Israel were miraculously brought out of Egypt for a particular purpose, no reason can be given against the alleged fact of their having been miraculously preserved in Canaan for the same purpose. We cannot deter mine either one way or the other, as in a matter of demonstration; but the assumption made by the author of the Pentateuch is, to me, a strong argument for its genuineness and credibility. BEATRICE. But is the assumption so decided? MR. B. The following passages will determine : "And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land."-Lev. xxv. 1-5. A similar command is then given relative to the observance of the jubilee of the fiftieth year, and the divine authority of the command is put upon the following interposition of Providence : "And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.”—Lev, xxv. 20-22. EDWARD. But a daring profession of this kind is not inconsistent with the idea of imposture; for Mahomet sent forth the Koran as a miracle, and many others have made similar pretensions. MR. B. You cannot, however, I think, bring forward any instance of a religion being placed upon a footing similar to this. The pretended miracles which at various times have been offered or promised by pretenders to divine communications were of a very different character to this; nor am I aware of any instance in which the faith of those who professed to believe in them was put to such a test as this. It is not easy to conceive of any miracle that could more clearly establish the identity of Him who spoke unto Moses with the Creator and Governor of the world, or which spoke so immediately to the comprehension of all, "The Lord he is God; the Lord he is God." Nor can it be supposed that any one but Moses ever would have used such a declaration; for not only is the observance of this command connected with a promise, but the non |