of it reserved for another Volume. Yet a very moderate share of reflection might have led the candid Reader to understand, that I had here effectually performed what I had promised, namely, TO DEMONSTRATE THE DIVINE LEGATION OF MOSES. For if it be indeed proved, That the Doctrine of a future state is necessary to the well-being of civil Society, under the ordinary government of Providence-That all mankind have ever so conceived of the matter-That the Mosaic Institution was without this support, and that yet it did not want it,-What follows but that the Jewish affairs were administered by an extraordinary Providence, distributing reward and punishment with an equal hand; and consequently that the MISSION OF MOSES WAS DIVINE?

However, the complaint against the AUTHOR, for not having performed his Convention with the Public, became pretty general. To which a great deal might be said, and perhaps to little purpose. The following Tale will put it in the fairest light. In a solemn Treaty lately concluded between the Governor of one of our American Provinces and the neighbouring Savages, it had, it seems, been stipulated, that the Settlement should supply those Warrior-Tribes with a certain number of good and serviceable Muskets. Which engagement was so ill performed, that at their next general meeting, the Chiefs of the Barbarians complained, that, though indeed the Colony had sent them the number of Muskets agreed upon, yet, on examination, they were all found to be without Locks. This mischance (occasioned by the Muskets and the Locks being put into two different cargoes) the Governor promised should be redressed. It was redressed accordingly; and the Locks sought out, and sent, He now flattered himself that all cause of umbrage was effectually removed; when, at their next meeting, hẹ was entertained with a fresh complaint, that the Colony had fraudulently sent them Locks without Muskets. The truth was, this brave People, of unimpeached morals,

were

were only defective in their military Logic; they had not the dexterity, till they were first shewn the way, to put the major of the Musket and the minor of the Musketlock together; and from thence to draw the concluding trigger.

But then it will be said, "If, as is here pretended, the PREMISSES have been indeed proved, in these two Volumes, with all the detail which their importance required, and with all the evidence which a moral subject can supply; and the CONCLUSION, therefore, established with all the conviction which the Laws of logic are able to inforce; Why was another Volume promised? For no other end, as would seem, than to mislead a wellmeaning Reader, in the vain pursuit of an Argument already ended."

It was promised for a better purpose-To remove all conceivable objections against the CONCLUSION, and to throw in every collateral light upon the PREMISSES. For it is one thing to satisfy Truth; and another, to silence her pretended friends. He who defends Revelation has many prejudices to encounter; but he who defends it by Reason only, has many more.

III.

The THIRD and last Volume, therefore, is destined to SUPPORT what hath been already proved: not, as has been absurdly suggested, to continue and conclude an unfinished Argument.

It consists of three Books, like each of the preceding Volumes.

1. The seventh Book therefore is employed in supporting the MAJOR and the MINOR Propositions of the first Syllogism in a continued History of the RELIGIOUS OPINIONS of the Jews, from the time of the earlier Prophets, who first gave some dark intimations of a different Dispensation, to the time of the Maccabees, when the Doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments was become national.

2

3. The

2. The eighth Book is employed in supporting the MAJOR and MINOR Propositions of the second Syllogisin, in which is considered the PERSONAL CHARACTER of Moses and the GENIUS OF THE LAW, as far as it concerns or has a relation to the character of the Lawgiver. Under this latter head, is contained a full and satisfactory Answer to those who may object," That a revealed Religion with a future state of rewards and punishments is unworthy the Divine Author to whom it is ascribed."

3. The ninth and last Book explains at large the nature and genius of the CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION: For having, towards the end of the eighth Book, examined the PRETENDED REASONS (offered both by Believers and Unbelievers to evade my conclusion) for omitting the Doctrine of a future State of rewards and punishments in the Mosaic Dispensation, I was naturally and necessarily led to inquire into the TRUE. For now, it might be finally objected, "That though, under an extraordinary Providence, there might be no occasion for the doctrine of a future State, in support of Religion, or for the ends of Government; yet as that Doctrine is a truth, and consequently, under every regimen of Providence, useful, it seems hard to conceive, that the Religious Leader of the Jews, because as a Lawgiver he could do without it, that therefore, as a Divine, he would omit it." The objection is of weight in itself, and receives additional moment from what hath been observed in the fifth Book, concerning the Reason of the Law of punishing Children for the crimes of their Parents. I held it therefore insufficient barely to reply, "Moses omitted it, that "his Law might thereby stand, throughout all ages, an "invincible Monument of the truth of his pretences : but proceeded to explain the GREAT AND PRINCIPAL reason of the omission. And now, ventum ad VERUM est.

The whole concludes with one general but distinct view of the entire course of God's universal econonry

from

from Adam to Christ. In which it is shewn, that if Moses were, in truth, sent from God, he could not teach a future State; that Doctrine being out of his Commission, and reserved for him who was at the head of another Dispensation, by which life and immortality was to be brought to light.

This Discourse, besides the immediate purpose of supporting and illustrating the ARGUMENT here completed, serves another end, which I had in view, as to the general disposition of the whole work: which was to explain and discriminate the distinct and various natures of the PAGAN, the JEWISH and the CHRISTIAN Religions: the Pagan having been considered in the first Volume, and the Jewish in the second; the Christian is reserved for the third* and last. Let me conclude therefore, in an address to my Reverend Brethren, with the words of an Ancient Apologist: Quid nobis invidemus, si veritas Divinitatis, nostri temporis tate maturuit? Fruamur bono nostro, et recti sententiam temperemus : cohibeatur SUPERSTITIO, IMPIETAS expietur, VERA RELIGIO reservetur.

As the first and second volumes of the Edition alluded to, contained Books I. to VI. the THIRD volume was intended to comprise the VIIth VIIIth & IXth; but the VIIth & VIIIth Books were never composed (See Life of the Author, vol. i. pp. 80 to 89, of this Edition). The IXth Book forms the concluding part of this volume.-Ed.

+ Minucius Felix.

END OF THE SIXTH BOOK.

APPENDIX

APPENDIX

CONCERNING

THE BOOK OF JOB,

AN

N excellent Writer having freely and candidly examined the late Bishop of London's collection of Sermons, and in page 165 of his Examination, asked this question, Where was Idolatry ever punished by the Magistrate, but under the Jewish Economy? The Oxford Professor, in the second Edition of his Prelections, concerning the sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, thinks fit to give the following answer-" It was punished under "the Economy of the Patriarchs, in the families and "under the DOMINION of Abraham, Melchisedec and JOB. Idolatry spreading wider and wider, Abraham was called by God from Chaldea, for this end, to be "the father of a People, which, divided from all others, "might continue to worship the true God; to be set up "for an exemplar of true Religion, and to be ready to

፡፡

give testimony against the worship of vain Deities. "Was not Abraham, therefore (exercising the sove"REIGNTY in his own family) to punish Idolatry? "Were not Melchisedec and Job, and all the SovE

REIGNS of Tribes of that time, who still retained the knowledge and worship of the true God, amidst a "general defection of all the surrounding People, to take CC care that their own did not backslide? To curb offenders, and to inflict punishment on the obstinate, the "REBELLIOUS, and on all those who spread abroad "the contagion of this vice."-Ad quæstionem responVOL. VI. detur;

L