became almoft univerfal; and fpread itself among the Greeks, the Gauls, and the German nations. beft worshipped by virtue, goodnefs, righteousness and true holiness; but they became neceffarily vicious and corrupt in practice, as well as principle. They came Among the Canaanites it was a known to think they were not to expect the custom to offer their children to Moloch, bleffings of life from the favour of the likely the fame idol with Adrameleck one true God, a Being himself of infinite and Anameleck. Some learned men have purity, righteoufnefs, and goodness, by indeed been willing to believe, that paffing reverencing and by imitating him; but through the fire to Moloch, might mean a from the favour of a Jupiter, who with fort of purification, rather than actual burnall his fine titles is reprefented in his ing them in the fire; but befides the history, to have been as intemperate, as tellimony of hiftorians in general to the lustful, and as wicked as any the worst practice of other nations, the Scriptures or from a Mercury, a patron plainly mean confuming them to death by of thieves and robbers; or from a Bac-fire. So it is defcribed by the prophet chus, the god of intemperance and drun- Ezekiel; " And have caufed their fons kennefs; or from a Venus, the patronefs whom they bare unto me, to pass through of all manner of uncleannefs, and de- the fire to devour them." Did they caufe bauchery. them to pass through the fire, only to purify them, and to preferve them alive? No, certainly; but to devour or confume them. The fame prophet elsewhere determines this meaning." Thou haft flain my children and delivered them to caufe them to pass through the fire." It is charged as an act of idolatry in Ahaz, that he caused his fon to país through the fire, according to the abomination of the Heathen. This is explained in another place, that " he burned his children in the fire after the abomination of the Heathen." And it is expressly faid of Adrameleck, and Anameleck, the idols of Sepharvaim, that " they burned their children in the fire to them." The known principles and the most facred ceremonies and myfteries in the idolatrous worship of fuch deities, actually fhewed what encouragement was given to all manner of vice. They extinguished all religious principles of moral virtue and goodness, and gave additional ftrength to men's natural inclinations, to intemperance, luft, fraud, violence, and every kind of unrighteoufnefs and debauchery. The Phalli, and the Mylli, known religious rites in the worship of Bacchus, Ofiris, and Ceres, were fuch obfcene ceremonies, that modesty forbids to explain them. It may be fufficient to mention the known cuftom of virgins before marriage, facrificing their chastity to the honour of Venus, as a lafcivious goddess, as the hiftorian expreffes it, left the alone fhould appear lafcivious. A cuftom, according to the hiftorian, which was especially used in Cyprus, which was in the neighbourhood of Canaan. Idolatry had introduced another moft cruel cuflom of human facrifices. This prevailed among the Phenicians, the Tyrians, and the Carthaginians, a Tyrian colony; on which inhuman cuftom the forementioned hiftorian makes this remark, that they used a bloody and wicked rite of religion, as a remedy. They offered men for facrifices, and brought young children to the altars, at an age that ufually moves the compaffion of an enemy; and endeavoured to obtain the favour of the gods by the blood of thofe, for whofe lives prayers were more generally used to be made to the gods. This cruel cuflom, how inhuman foever, fuch were the evil effects of idolatry, foon If we confider the many other abominable immoralities of the Canaanites, by which they defiled themselves, as they are enumerated in the prohibition of them to the Hebrew nation, we may easily perceive, that a nation which had defiled themfelves in fo many and fo great abominations, did well deferve an exemplary punishment from the righteous judge of the earth; that it was wife, as well as juft, to fhew in their punishment, that their idols were not, as they imagined and falfely believed, the givers of long life, peace, and worldly profperity; but that the one true God was alone the fupreme difpofer of all the bleffings of providence ; and that none of the idol gods, in whom they trufted, could fave them out of his hand, or deliver them, when God should vifit their iniquities. May we not alfo perceive a kind design, in giving fome remarkable instances of providence, for the punishment of fo grofs Ammo immoralities, the effects of idolatrous principles and practice, and for the encouragement of fuch acknowledgment and worship of the true God, as was the beft prefervative against these abominations, by fome obfervable inftances of particular protection and favour; to let fuch worshippers of the true God know, that by keeping themfelves from thofe abominations, the natural and ufual effects of idolatry, they were to hope for the continuance of fuch particular protection and favour in all after times? Hence it may appear, the severity with which the Hebrew hiftory acquaints us, the Canaanites were punished, and the title whereby the Hebrews held their land, whom God caft out before them, were no ways inconfiftent with the juftice, or wifdom, or goodness of God, as fome have infinuated. The question is really brought to this one point, Whether fuch abominable immoralities, as followed naturally and univerfally from their idolatrous principles, and forms of worship, were not highly criminal; fo criminal as to deferve a punishment? that it became the juftice and wisdom of the Governor of the world to put fome ftop to them, to prevent them in fome measure, by forming and establishing a constitution in which the knowledge and worship of the one true God fhould be preferved in oppofition to idolatry, a perpetual fource of innumerable vices and immoralities. Idolatry, you fee then, appears in the natural fruits of it, not only an error of the understanding, not at all a matter of harmless fpeculation, but a fountain of very dangerous immoralities, which led men naturally, and even with the encouragements of religion, into intemperance, uncleannefs, murders, and many vices, inconfiftent with the profperity and peace of fociety, as well as with the happiness of private perfons. When God fhall punish fuch iniquities, he punishes men for their wickedness, not for their errors. He punishes men for fuch wickedness, as deserves to be punished, whatever pretended principles or real dictates of confcience it may proceed from. No man fure, can reasonably account it injuftice in a government to punish fodomy, beftiality, or the frequent murder of innocent children, what pretences foever men fhould make to confcience or religion, in vindication of them. The most unnatural fins were countenanced by the mysteries of idolatrous worship; the ufe of that ob. fcene ceremony the Phalli, owed its original to the memory of the fin against nature, and to the hiftory of a god hallowing it by his own act. Can any man reafonably call fuch a refraint of vice perfecution, when not to endeavour by all means to restrain it, would argue a great neglect, weakness, and folly, in any adminiftration of government whatsoever? If then the punishment for fo heinous crimes and immoralities will be just and wife in itself, which way can any man find out, to make it unjust or unwife in the fu preme Governor of the world? How can it be unjust in him, to appoint fuch perfons. as he fhall think most fit, to execute fuch righteous judgment by his commiffion? The common rights of nations, and any perfonal claim of the Hebrews, are altogether out of this queftion; the hiftory plainly fhews, they made no perfonal or national claim at all to the land of Canaan; but that God caft out the people before them, for all their abominations; that it was not their own power, but the hand of God, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and into the promised land. So that the whole is confidered as the immediate act of God himself, for the proof of which the hiftory gives a long feries of miracles, in Egypt, at the RedSea, for many years in the wilderness, at the taking of Jericho, and fettling the Hebrew nation in the poffeffion of the promifed land. And here let us juftly obferve, that this very way of punishing the Canaanites for their many great abominations by the Hebrew nation, to whom God gave the poffeffion of their land, has fome peculiar marks of wisdom, which may fhew it fit to be preferred to many other ways fuch as peftilential diftempers, fire from heaven, or a flood, ways in which God. hath punished the wickedness of the world in former times. For this was a very fit means for the cure, as well as the punishment of idolatry, to deftroy the root of thefe great evils, as well as to execute righteous judgment on those who had committed them. This was a design every way worthy the wisdom and goodness of God. Sure then, no ways inconfiftent with his juftice. The protection of the Hebrew nation, and the favour of God to them as a peculiar people, was a vifible and ftanding confutation of idolatry; it fhewed, Q3 that that Jehovah, the one true God, the King of Ifrael, had himself an immediate hand in the adminiftration of particular providence; that he had not given it out of his own hands into the hands of any inferior beings whatsoever, which error was the great foundation of idolatry. It further thewed the power of Jehovah the true God, manifefted in the protection of his people, fuperior to the power of all the idols of the Heathen; and that none of the falle gods they worshipped could be compared to Jehovah. This is a queftion then not to be argued from the common rights of men, and nations; for no fuch rights, either of invafion or conqueft, are fo much as pretended to in the most diftant manner. We fee the only point in queftion, is, what are the rights of God's fupreme authority? What is confiftent with the wifdom of his government, how far he may punish the greatest immoralities with temporal evils? Afk the Sacred Hiftory, it will tell you, the Hebrews fet up no title to the land of Canaan, either civil or religious in their own right; it only makes the rights of the Sovereign of the world as extenfive as the rights of the chief magiftrates in every government are allowed by the laws of nature and nations to be over their own fubjects. The Scriptures on this queftion only affert, that God gave a commiffion to execute his fentence, which was either a forfeiture of lands, or life, for a long commiflion of crimes, that defervedly incurred the forfeiture of both. Whether the Hebrew nation had really such a commiffion from God, or no; whether they were truly directed by divine oracle; whether fuch wonders were really wrought before their eyes, and fuch unquestionable inftances of divine favour and protection in a long feries for many years, as the Hebrew hiftory relates: thefe are all queftions of fact. But in all fuch queftions general and abftract reafonings can have no place, where the facts themselves are naturally and morally poffible, as every one may perceive they are in this cafe. If the fupreme Governor of the world has a right to give fuch commiffion, if it is not unjuft to ufe the hands of men, instead of a plague or fire from heaven, to punish the wickedness of men, the only queftion that can remain in fuch a cafe is this, whether in fact the Hebrew nation did really receive fuch a commiffion from Je hovah, or no: Thus far then the whole will reft upon the evidence of the Mofaic revelation; and there I fhall leave it, it not being the defign of this differtation to enter into an argument, in which many, as I apprehend, have already given so full fatisfaction. Rev. Mofes Lowman, § 175. The fulfilment of the Mofaical prophecies concerning the Jews an unansiverable argument for the truth of the Bible. IT is obfervable that the prophecies of Mofes abound moft in the latter part of his writings. As he drew nearer his end, it pleafed God to open to him larger profpects of things. As he was about to take leave of the people, he was enabled to difclofe unto them more particulars of their future ftate and condition. The defign of this work will permit us to take notice of fuch only as have fome reference to thefe later ages; and we will confine ourfelves principally to the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, the greater part whereof we may fee accomplished in the world at this prefent time. This great prophet and lawgiver is here propofing at large to the people the bleflings for obedience, and the curfes for difobedience; and indeed he had foretold at feveral times and upon feveral occafions, that they fhould be happy or miferable in the world, as they were obedient or difobedient to the law that he had given them. And could there be any stronger evidence of the divine original of the Mofaical law? and hath not the interpofition of providence been wonderfully remarkable in their good or bad fortune? and is not the truth of the prediction fully attefted by the whole series of their history from their fift fettlement in Canaan to this very day? But he is larger and more particular in recounting the curfes than the bleflings, as if he had a prefcience of the people's difobedience, and forefaw that a larger portion and longer continuation of the evil would fall to their fhare, than of the good. I know that fome critics make a divifion of thefe prophecies, and imagine that one part relates to the former captivity of the Jews, and to the calamities which they fuffered under the Chaldeans; and that the other part relates to the latter captivity of the Jews, and to the calamities which they fuffered under the Romans: but there is no need of of any such distinction: there is no reafon to think that any fuch was intended by the author; feveral prophecies of the one part as well as of the other have been fulfilled at both periods, but they have all more amply been fulfilled during the latter period; and there cannot be a more lively picture than they exhibit, of the ftate of the Jews at prefent. 66 1. We will confider them with a view to the order of time, rather than the order wherein they lie; and we may not improperly begin with this paffage, ver. 49, The Lord fall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as fwift as the eagle flieth, a nation whofe tongue thou shalt not understand;" and the Chaldæans might be faid to come from far, in comparison with the Moabites, Philiftines, and other neighbours, who used to infeft Judea. Much the fame defcription is given of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah, (v. 15.) "Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O houfe of Ifrael, faith the Lord: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whofe language thou knoweft not, neither understandet what they fay." He compares them in like manner to eagles. (Sam. iv. 19.) "Our perfecutors are fwifter than the eagles of the heaven: they purfued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wildernefs." But this defcription cannot be applied to any nation with fuch propriety as to the Romans. They were truly brought from far, from the end of the earth. Vefpafian and Adrian, the two great conquerors and destroyers of the Jews, both came from commanding here in Britain. The Romans too for the rapidity of their conquefts might very well be compared to eagles, and perhaps not without an allufion to the ftandard of the Roman armies, which was an eagle: and their language was more unknown to the Jews than the Chaldee. 2. The enemies of the Jews are farther characterifed in the next verfe. "A nation of fierce countenance, which fhall not regard the perfon of the old, nor fhow favour to the young." Such were the Chaldæans; and the facred historian faith exprefsly, (2 Chron. xxxvi. 17.) “that for the wickedness of the Jews God brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who flew their young men with the fword, in the house of their fanctuary, and had no compaffion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that fooped for age; he gave them all into his hand." Such alfo were the Romans: for when Vefpafian entered Gadara, Jofephus faith, that he flew all man by man, the Romans fhowing mercy to no age, out of hatred to the nation, and remembrance of their former injuries. The like flaughter was made at Gamala, for nobody escaped befides two women, and they escaped by concealing themfelves from the rage of the Romans. For they did not fo much as fpare young children, but every one at that time fnatching up many caft them down from the citadel. Their enemies were alfo to befiege and take their cities, ver. 52. "And he fhall befiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trulledft. throughout all thy land. So Shalmanefer king of Affyria came up against Samaria, and befieged it, and at the end of three years they took it." (2 Kings xviii. 9, 10.) "So did Sennacherib king of Allyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them:" (lb. ver. 13.) and Nebuchadnezzar and his captains took and fpoiled Jerufalem, burnt the city and temple, "and brake down the walls of Jerufalem round about." (Ib. xxv. 10.) So likewife the Romans, as we may read in Jofephus's hiftory of the Jewith war, demolished feveral fortified places, before they befieged and destroyed Jerufalem. And the Jews may very well be faid to have trufted in their high and fenced walls, for they feldom ventured a battle in the open field. They confided in the ftrength and fituation of Jerufalem, as the Jebufites, the former inhabitants of the place, had done before them: (2 Sam. v. 6, 7.) infomuch that they are reprefented faying (Jer. xxi, 13.) "Who fhall come down against us? or who thall enter into our habitation?" Jerufalem was indeed a very ftrong place, and wonderfully fortified both by nature and art, according to the defcription of Tacitus as well as of Jofephus: and yet how many times was it taken? It was taken by Shishak king of Egypt, by Nebuchadnezzar, by Antiochus Epiphanes, by Pompey, by Sofius and Herod, before its final deftruction by Tirus. 4. In these fieges they were to fuffer much, and especially from famine, “in the ftraitnefs wherewith their enemies fhould diftrefs them," ver. 53, &c. And accordingly when the king of Syria befieged Samaria, "there was a great famine in Samaria; and behold they befieged it, until an afs's head was fold for four core 5. Nay it was exprefsly foretold, that It was fulfilled again about 900 years after Now 6. Great numbers of them were to be deftroyed, ver. 62. "And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were, as the ftars of heaven for multitude." not to mention any other of the calamities and flaughters which they have undergone, there was in the latt fiege of Jerufalem by Titus an infinite multitude, faith Jofephus, who perifhed by famine: and he computes, that during the whole fiege, the number of those who were deftroyed by that and by the war amounted to eleven hundred thoufand, the people being affembled from all parts to celebrate the paflover: and the fame |