be fairly vindicated, we stand ready to give up all revealed religion as indefensible.

We have represented the civil government of the Hebrews as founded on a peculiar compact or relation between God and them, by which he became their political Sovereign and Protector, and they engaged themselves to worship and obey him, in opposition to all pretended or rival deities. But some may object that there is a great absurdity in supposing God, the universal Parent and Ruler, thus to connect himself with one particular nation, and tobecome a partial and tutelar Deity to them, while he seemed to exclude from his favor a great majority of his human fami» ly. This plausible objection is capable of two satisfactory answers. First, God's peculiar relation to the Jews did not in the least diminish or hinder his paternal and beneficent care of all his rational offspring. Will any person say, that the supreme Governor, by giving one portion of mankind greater privileges than the rest, excludes the latter from his notice, or conducts in a partial and injurious manner? Would it be wise to infer that, because the constitution and laws of the United States appropriate the city of Washington, and a small district around it, to the special residence and jurisdiction of our national rulers, therefore the rest of the Union is shut out from their patriotic inspection and influence? Yet this conclusion would be far less absurd than the objection before us ;-especially when we add Secondly, that God's design in thus selecting and covenanting with a particular nation was not so much their peculiar benefit, as the general good of mankind; for this constitution was a light set up in the midst of a dark world; a light, which preserved and in some measure diffused the knowledge and practice of pure religion and virtue, and thus

kept alive in the human mind those principles, which are the basis of liberty and order, of improvement and hap piness both to individual and social man. That we may distinctly see how far this constitution promoted these excellent purposes, I would observe that the very existence of this frame of government led up the minds ́ of the Jews to that One true God, by whose wisdom it was formed, by whose authority it was enjoyed, and by whose extraordinary providence it was visibly carried into effect. The tenure, by which they claimed and enjoyed the benefits of this constitution, was their firm and exclusive loyalty to Jehovah. On this condition he promises and actually gives them a pleasant and fertile country, which they hold by his conditional grant. By their instrumentality he expels the former inhabitants for their abominable crimes, the fruits of their idol atry. He blesses the new tenants of this country with freedom and plenty, with peace and prosperity, while they retain their religious and virtuous character; but when they apostatize he permits their enemies to afflict and oppress them. Thus a weak and little nation, surrounded on all sides, and frequently invaded by great and powerful empires, is visibly protected against them all by the superior power of Jehovah, and subsists much longer than any known kingdom in the world. What an august and impressive spectacle! How forcibly did it teach beholding nations the vanity of idols, and the suprema

cy of the God of Israel! How pathetically did it call them off from the fatal service of the former, to the worship and protection of the latter !-Let it be further noted, that the central situation, which the Jews occupied with respect to the then inhabited globe, and the stupendous works of divine power, by which their government

and laws were introduced, supported, and executed, by which they themselves were often chastised, defended, or delivered, and their mighty adversaries defeated or ruined, were admirably calculated to spread the glory of God, and the knowledge and obedience of his laws, into the surrounding world. Even the captivities and dispersions, which this people suffered for their transgressions, were made subservient to the extension and triumph of their religion. The eminent virtues and extraordinary gifts displayed by some of these captives, and the wonderful interpositions of Jehovah in their favor, impressed on the minds of heathen princes and nations a high reverence for the religion and the God of Israel. The celebrated learning of the antient Eastern world, especially on civil, moral, and religious subjects, was doubtless in great measure derived from the laws and writings of this favored people. The nearer we come down to gospel times, the more extensive is the beneficent influence of their system on neighbouring countries. As the Jews were gradually diffused over the Roman empire, as well as over the Asiatic regions, so they every where convertgreat numbers from idolatry to the faith and worship of the true God. While the greatest pagan philosophers, instead of turning any of the people from superstition to rational piety, conformed themselves to the reigning idolatry, and recommended the same conformity to others; the Jews propagated their own religion far and wide, and thus contributed to prepare mankind for the perfect dispensation of the gospel. In a word, the erection of this people into a peculiar and separate polity rendered them the safe depositaries of those promises, predictions, and types, which excited in mankind the cheering hope of a future Redeemer, which gradually

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fitted them for his coming, and which gave a distinct and full testimony to his divine mission, when he actually appeared. Thus the Mosaic constitution, far from having a partial operation in favor of one nation only, was a designed and unspeakable blessing to the human race.

This train of thought leads us to answer those objectors, who represent this constitution as a system of intolerance and war, of conquest or extermination against all the rest of the world, under the pretense of building up the true religion upon the ruins of idolatry. We readily grant, that this government was primarily and especially designed for the benefit of the Jews; just as the constitution of our country is peculiarly intended for the happiness of Americans. The Hebrew Lawgiver and people, like the framers and supporters of our government, were strangers to that refined philanthropy, which seeks the good of the whole by the destruction of its several parts. Their benevolence operated in the first place towards themselves and their own nation. In this view the laws of Moses were excellent. Far from encouraging a narrow or malignant spirit, they cherished every feeling and office of brotherly kindness and patriotism. They required the Jews to abstain from every species of enmity, revenge, or oppression; to treat their poor neighbours and debtors, their domestic servants, and even their enemies, with mildness and liberality. They strictly prohibited them from ridiculing or taking ungenerous advantage of the bodily infirmities of any person, such as laying a stumbling block before the blind, or cursing the deaf. Their civil code is full of such precepts; and in these instances it displays a spirit of equity, of tenderness, and generosity, which cannot be paralleled in any other system of antient policy. Nor was

this just and humane treatment to be confined to members of their own community. They are very frequent, ly commanded to show kindness to strangers or foreigners; to love them as themselves; to love and do them good in imitation of the divine example, and because they themselves had experimentally known the condition and the heart of strangers. The strangers are often joined with the poor, the widow, the fatherless, and the Levites, as peculiar objects of their pity and succour. The gleanings of their fields were to be left for them, as well as for their own poor; and those who oppressed them were classed among the vilest criminals. It was also a very amiable feature in the Mosaic constitution, that one express design of their weekly Sabbath was, that their servants, and the stranger, and even their cattle, might rest and be refreshed. We grant that no foreigners were permitted to reside among them, who openly pro. fessed idolatry, because this, as we showed in our last Lecture, was directly subversive of their government. But in every other case they were obliged to receive and comfort strangers, even though they did not become naturalized, or incorporated with their society. Nor is there one statute or precedent in their law, which authorized them to propagate their religion by force, or to persecute foreigners for not complying with their peculiar

customs.

It is therefore a great mistake, to consider the Hebrew polity as a system of general persecution or extirpation, For the commands, given to destroy idolatry and its votaries, are evidently limited to the land of Canaan, which God had granted to the Israelites, to be the exclusive seat of uncorrupted religion and morality, with which idolatrous worship was totally inconsistent. With re,