titled, Obfervations on divers paffages of fcripture from voyages and travels into the Eaft. Some objections to revelation are founded upon an ignorance of the language of the fcriptures, and ' of the phrafeology which is almoft peculiar to the oriental nations; and fome unbelievers have been fo exceedingly rafh and precipitate in their cenfures, as not to have looked beyond the very words, or: verses to which they have objected, when otherwise a child would have feen no difficulty. M. Voltaire, in more than one of his pieces, represents the Jews as cannibals, and pretends to prove from Ez. xxxix. 17-20. that God encou rages them with the promife of feeding on the flesh of their enemies*. But if he had read so much' as the verse preceding, he must have feen that the whole paffage was a fine apoftrophe, addreffed to the birds and beafts of prey, and was intended to exprefs, in a very emphatical manner, a very great overthrow of the enemies of the Jews. And thou fon of man, Thus faith the Lord God, Speak thou unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Affemble your felves, and come, gather yourselves on every fide to my facrifice, that I do facrifice for you, even a great facrifice upon the mountains of Ifrael, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood. Ye fhall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of Traité fur la Tolerance, p. 118. bullocks, bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my facrifice which I have facrificed for you. Thus ye Thall be filled at my table with herfes and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, faith the Lord God. When, afterwards, this author acknowledges his mistake, as he does in a poftfcript to the abovementioned treatife, he fays, by way of apology for it, but contrary to all common fenfe, that two of the verses which I have recited might have been addreffed to the Jews, as well as to the birds and beafts. What can we think of the fairnefs and competency of judgment in this most distinguished of modern unbelievers, when he is capable of writing in this very abfurd and unguarded manner. SECTION III. Some objections which more nearly affect the proper evidence of revelation, especially refpecting the aatient and prefent ftate of the belief of it. Τ IT has been faid by fome modern unbelievers, that the books which were written by the early adverfaries of chriftianity have been fuppreffed by the friends of it, fo that we cannot at this day tell what was written against, or objected to christian ity, at the first promulgation of it. But this is an affertion deftitute of all proof, or probability; for then all chriftian writers must have carefully avoided the mention of fuch books, in their own writings, which are come down to us; whereas, they have been fo far from doing any thing like this, that it is the opinion of critics, that almost the whole of Celfus's treatise against christianity is tranfcribed into Origen's anfwer to it, and a great part of Julian's into that of Cyril. Eufebius has alfo preferved large extracts from the writings of Porphyry; and the fame has been the conduct of other chriftian apologists, with refpect to other opponents of chriftianity. No perfons more fincerely regret the lofs of thefe writings than learned chriftians of the prefent age; but in the fame undiftinguishing ravages of time, have perished what we regret more, namely, the writings of many early chriftians, and antient hiftorians. Befides, how could it, in reafon, be expected, that chriftians fhould take any peculiar care of the writings of their adverfaries. If thofe fuppofed writings had contained any thing decifive against christianity, they would certainly (confidering the very great advantages under which they were written, for the space of three hundred years) have effectually prevented the spread of chriftianity, and would have preferved themselves; whereas the univerfal univerfal neglect into which they fell is, if any thing, an argument of their futility, and furnishes a reason why we should comfort ourfelves for the lofs of them. It has been faid, that if Chrift worked fo many miracles as the evangelical history reprefents, healing all the difeafed that applied to him, and in three inftances raifing the dead, he muft neceffarily have. converted the whole Jewish nation, and all the ftrangers in the country; as it could not but be concluded, that a man who controlled the courfe of nature muft have the concurrence and affiftance of the God of nature, and confequently a fufficient teftimony of a divine mission. To this it is replied, that the preaching of Chrift feems to have had all the effect that it could be fuppofed to have had, admitting his divine miffion. Great numbers of those who were of an ingenuous difpofition, on whom evidence could produce its proper effect, did become the difciples of Christ, notwithstanding he perfifted in difclaiming all worldly honours, and that character which they imagined to be infeparable from the promised Meffiah; an effect which nothing but the fulleft and beft grounded conviction can be fuppofed to have produced. With respect to the reft of the Jews, and efpecially the chief priests and rulers, it should be confidered how incredulous ftrong prejudices, and especially especially those which arife from vicious habits, usually make men. It was with the bulk of the Jews a fixed, though an erroneous perfuafion, that the Meffiah would affume temporal power, and deliver his country from the yoke of the Romans. This they imagined to be the specific character of the Meffah, as deduced from prophecies which they were convinced came from God. To the evidence of miracles, therefore, they would oppofe that of the fcriptures, and, confequently, the miracles of Mofes and the prophets, with which they feemed to be irreconcilable; and this, joined to their vicious habits, which rendered them extremely averfe to the pure doctrines of the gospel, (having no idea that repentance was at all neceffaryto their being intitled to the bleffings of the Meffiah's kingdom, which they thought belonged to all the children of Abraham) must have rendered them extremely obdurate, with refpect to the evidence of the divine miffion of Chrift; fo that it is not to be wondered that fo many of them perfifted in their hatred and oppofition to him, notwithftanding all his miracles. Unhappily, alfo, the Jews were at that time infected with the notion of the power of demons, and evil spirits, and thought it poffible, that by a confederacy with them, Chrift might heal those difeafes which were ufually afcribed to their power over mankind; and they had probably fome fimilar |