Befides, it being abfolutely neceffary to the great purposes of the Jewish difpenfations, that a special and extraordinary providence should conftantly attend that people, making them profperous and flourishing fo long as they preferved the purity of their religion, and involving them in national calamity and diftrefs whenever they departed from it, the Ifraelites themfelves would not have been fairly dealt with, if every poffible avenue had not been guarded against the introduction of fo deftructive an evil. And, after all, we fee that, even these seemingly rigorous methods, were not quite sufficient for the purpofe; and that the divine being was obliged, as we may fay, to teach his useful leffons to the world by the punishment, as well as profperity of his favourite people; but in either of these cafes, their example was of the fame benefit to the world at large. It should also be confidered, that the idolatry of the antient Gentile world, and especially that of the inhabitants of Canaan, was by no means a fyftem of merely fpeculative opinions; but a course of the most atrocious and abominable practices, enjoining the cruel murder of numberlefs innocent children, as well as other human victims, and the most shocking lewdness, together with other vices of the most unnatural and deteftable nature. And furely it becomes a wife legiflator, to reftrain the commiffion of fuch deftructive vices as thefe. As As to the cafe of Abraham, with respect to the command he received to offer his fon Ifaac, it cannot, I think, be denied, that he who gave life had a right to take it away, and in whatever manner his infinite wisdom fhould fee fit; and if, for the trial of his obedience in fo tender a point, he chofe to make Abraham himself the inftrument of it, inftead of a difeafe, or what we ufually call an accident, I do not know that it is inconfiftent with any thing that we already know of the divine conduct. Abraham, who had had frequent communications with God, could have no doubt concerning the authority from which the order came; and knowing the divine power and juftice, he might be fatisfied that, notwithstanding all appearances, neither himself nor his fon would be lofers by their obedience. Paul fays, that Abraham knew that God was even able to raise Ifaac from the dead, and indeed it is probable that this was the very thing that Abraham expected; for the promise that was made to him, of being the father of many nations, chiefly refpected Ifaac, In Ifaac fhall thy feed be called. If, therefore, Abraham believed this promife, he must have fully expected, either that God would not permit him to put his fon to death, or that he would raise him from the dead; and if he had not firmly believed the former promife, much lefs would he have regarded this harsh command. It may also be obferved, in order to leffen the difficulty which arifes from this part of the fcripture hiftory, that the Gentile world was, probably, about this time, falling into the horrid cuf tom of human facrifices; and that the divine being might chufe to fhew, in this inftance, that though he had a right to demand fuch offerings, they were not pleafing to him, and he would not accept of them. Upon all other occafions he is reprefented as expreffing the greateft abhorrence of fuch cruel rights, and his highest displeasure against all thofe nations who practifed them. See Lev. xviii. 21. Deut. xviii. 10. Jer. vii. 31. Ez. xvi. 21. xx. 26. 31. I would obferve farther, that, with refpect to ideas of right and equity, the fentiments of those people who observed any particular fact, and who were to be inftructed by it, fhould be chiefly confidered. Now it cannot be pretended that any objection was ever made to God's requiring the facrifice of Ifaac, for the trial of Abraham's faith and obedience, till the prefent age, which is above four thousand years fince the event; nor can it be made to appear that any bad confequence ever flowed from it. Though the Ifraelites left Egypt loaded with the treasures of the country, the ungrateful ufage they had met with, and the cruel and unjuft fervitude to which they had been reduced, and the VOL. II. C recom recompenfe they were fairly intitled to fhould be confidered, in order to leffen the difficulty which might arife from the account of the method which they took to recover their right. But the word which we render borrow, alfo fignifies to require, or demand; and in the fituation in which the Egyptians are represented to have been, willing to get rid of the Ifraelites at any rate, left they should all be dead men, it may eafily be imagined, that they would have been as ready to give, as to lend them, whatever they should have asked.. It is alfo faid, that when they left the country, it was on a promise to return; but certainly that promife must have been cancelled by the hoftile manner in which they were purfued by the Egyptians. Befides the ufe of ftratagems, in order to free men from unjuft fervitude, is not confidered as liable to much objection in the history of human affairs. It is alfo objected to this part of the hiftory, that God is faid to have hardened the heart of Pharaoh, in order that he might do the very things for which he is expressly faid to have been punished. But in the language of scripture, God is often faid to do, whatever comes to pafs according to the ordinary courfe of nature and providence; and therefore God's not interpofing, to foften the heart of Pharaoh, may be all that is meant when he is faid to harden it. Befides, Befides, it is fufficiently intimated, in the course of the narration, that the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, not by any proper act of God, but in confequence of its own depravity, and the circumstances he was in. For when the frogs were removed, we read, Exod. viii. 15, that when Pharaoh faw that there was refpite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had faid. Pharaoh does not feem to have been more infatuated than the rulers of the Jews were, with refpect to the murder of Chrift; and yet nobody fuppofes that they did not, in that cafe act, naturally, or as their own evil difpofitions prompted them. It is faid that, by the account of Moses himself, miracles were wrought by the Egyptian magicians, as well as by himself and Aaron; and therefore that his miracles were no proof of a divine miffion. But all that Mofes really fays, is that the Egyptians did (by which he could not poffibly mean more than that they seemed, or pretended to do) by their arts and tricks, what he performed by the finger and power of God. The word which we render fo, only means a general similitude, and by no means, neceffarily, a perfect sameness, respecting both the effect and the cause. Nay, this very word is applied when the magicians failed of fuccefs. Exod. viii. 18. They did fo, to bring forth lice, but they could not, that is, they practifed the |