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NOTE S

ON

BOOK V.

YET

P. 5. [A]

ET some writers against the Divine Legation will have it, that from the very context [ver. 16, 17. To Abraham and his seed were the promises made, &c. The COVENANT that was confirmed before of God in Christ, &c.] it appears that St. Paul means, the Law was ADDED not barely to the Patriarchal Religion, but to the promise of the inheritance, the covenant that was confirmed before of God; and from thence, conclude that the Jewish Religion had the doctrine of a future state. This it is to have a retrospective view, and with a microscopic eye! For had they, when they went one step backward, but gone two, they would have seen, St. Paul could not possibly have had their meaning in view, for at ver. 15, he expressly says, though it be but a MAN'S COVENANT [much less if it be Gon's] yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth or ADDETH thereto. The Law therefore mentioned as ADDED in the 19th verse, cannot be understood, in the Apostle's sense, as being added to the COVENANT that was confirmed before of God in Christ, or indeed to any thing, but to the Patriarchal Religion of the Unity.

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P. 20. [B] II [Ninus fils de Belus] ne peut être inventeur de l'idolatrie qui etoit bien plus ancienne; je ne dis pas seulement en Egypte, mais même au dela de l'Euphrate, puisque Rachel deroba les Te

raphims,

raphims, &c.-Il faut aller en Egypte pour trouver sur cela quelque chose du mieux fondé. Grotius croit que, du temps de Joseph, l'idolatrie n'etoit point encore commune en Egypt. Cependant on voit des-lors dans ce pays un extrême attachement à la magie, à la divination, aux augures, à l'interpretation des songes, &c. -Moyse defend d'adorer aucune figure, ni de ce qui est visible dans les cieux ni de ce qui est sur la terre, ni de ce qui est dans les eaux. Voilà la defense generale d'adorer les astres, les animaux, & les poissons. Le veau d'or etoit une imitation du dieu Âpis. La niche de Moloch, dont parle Amos, étoit apparemment portée avec une figure du soleil. Moyse defend aux Hebreux d'immoler aux boucs, comme ils ont fait autrefois. La mort en l'honneur duquel il defend de faire le deûil, etoit le même qu'Osiris. Beelphegor, aux mysteres duquel ils furent entrainez par les femmes de Madian, étoit Adonis. Moloch cruelle divinité, à laquelle on immoloit des victimes humaines, étoit commune du tems de Moyse, aussibien que ces abominables sacrifices. Les Chananeens adoroient des mouches & d'autres insectes, au rapport de l'auteur de la sagesse. Le même auteur nous parle des Egyptiens d'alors comme d'un peuple plongé dans toutes sortes d'abominations, & qui adoroit toutes sortes d'animaux, même les plus dangereux, & les plus nuisibles. Le Le pays de Chanaan étoit encore plus corrumpu. Moyse ordonne d'y abbattre les autels, les bois sacrez, les idoles, les monumens superstitieux. Il parle des enclos, où l'on entretenoit un feu eternel en l'honneur du soleil. Voilà la plus indubitable epoque qui nous ayons de l'idolatric. Mais ce n'est point une epoque qui nous en montre sa source & le commencement, ni même le progrès & l'avancement: elle nous présente une idolatrie achevée, & portée à son comble; les astres, les hommes, les animaux mêmes adorez comme autant divinitez; la magie, la divination, l'impieté au plus haut point où elles puissent aller enfin le crime, & les desordres honteux, suites! ordinaires

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ordinaires du culte superstitieux & de regle. Calmet, Dissert. sur l'Origine de l'Idolatrie, tom. i. pp. 431, 432. Thus far this learned writer. And without doubt, his account of the early and overbearing progress of idolatry is exact.-Another writer, who would pass for such, is in different sentiments. Ho thinks its rise and progress much lower. If we look (says he) amongst the Canaanites, we shall find no reason to imagine that there was a religion different from that of Abraham. Abraham travelled up and down many years in this country, and was respected by the inhabitants of it, as a person in great favour with God, &c. And again, Abraham was entertained by Pharaoh without the appearance of any indisposition towards him, or any the least sign of their having a different religion from that which Abraham himself professed and practised. [Connect. of Sac. and Prof. Hist. vol. i. pp. 309 & 312.] But here the learned author was deceived by mere modern ideas. He did not reflect on that general principle of intercommunity, so essential to paganism, which made all its followers disposed to receive the God of Abraham as a true, though tutelary, Deity. Josephus (the genius of whose times could not but give him a right notion of this matter) saw well the consistency between the veneration paid to Abraham's God, and the idolatry of the venerators; as appears from his mak ing that Patriarch the first who propagated the belief of one God, after the whole race of mankind was sunk into idolatry; and at the same time making all those with whom he had to do, pay reverence to his God. Of Abraham he thus speaks, Δια τέτο καὶ φρονεῖν ἐπ' ἀρετῇ μείζω τῶν ἄλλων ἠριμένῳ, καὶ τὴν περὶ τἆ Θεξ δόξαν, ἣν ἅπασι συνέβαινεν εἶναι, καινίσαι καὶ μεταβα λεῖν ἔνω. Πρῶτον ἔν τολμᾶ Θεὸν ἀποφήνασθαι δημιυργόν τῶν ὅλων ἕνα. 1. i. c. 7. He makes the idolatrous priests of Egypt tell Pharaoh at once, that the pestilence was sent from God in punishment for his intended violation of the stranger's wife: xalà peй

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τὸ

τὸ δεινὸν αὐτῷ παρεῖναι ἀπεσήμαινον οἱ ἱερεῖς, ἐφ ̓ οἷς ἐθέλησαν ἐνυβρίσαι τα ξένα τὴν γυναῖκα. C. 8. And Abimelech, in the same circumstances, as ready to own the same author of his punishment. Φράζει πρὸς τὰς φίλος, ὡς ὁ Θεὸς αὐτῷ ταύτην ἐπαγάγοι τὴν νόσον ὑπὲρ ἐκδικίας τα ξένα φυλάσσων ἀνύβρισον αὐτῷ τὴν γυναῖκα. c. 12. Antiq.

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P. 28. [C] These considerations will lead us to a right apprehension of that part of the history of Jesus, where Jaines and John, on the inhospitable behaviour of a village of Samaria, say to their Master, in the Legal spirit of the Jewish economy, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. [Luke ix. 54, 55, 56.] i.e. You consider not that you are no longer under the Dispensation of Works (in which a severity of this kind was just and necessary), but, of Grace, in which all restraint and punishment of opinions would be mischievous and unlawful. Here we see the very disposition to intolerance in James and John is severely censured. Yet the same temper in Paul, even when proceeding into act, is passed over without reproof, when Jesus, after his resurrection, is pleased to reveal his truth to him in a miraculous manner. Our Lord, instead of condemning the nature of the practice, only assures him of the vanity of its effects, It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. [Acts ix. 5.] The reason of this different treatment is evident. James and John had given their names to the Religion of Jesus, in which all force was unjust. Paul was yet of the Religion of Moses, where restraint was lawful. On this account it is that this Apostle, when speaking of his merits as a Jew, expresses himself in this manner, For ye have heard of my conversation in time past; how that beyond measure I PERSECUTED the church of God, and wasted it:

and

and PROFITED in the Jew religion above many my equals in mine own nation. [Gal. i. 13.] Here he makes the persecution and the profiting to go hand in hand. And again, Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the Law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, PERSECUTING THE CHURCH; touching the righteousness which is in the bra, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. [Phil. iii. 4.] Here he glories in the action, as plainly meritorious. And so indeed it was in a Jew, as appears from the commendations given to it in the case of Phineas, and others. Yet where he speaks of it, under his present character of a Christian, he condemns it as horrid and detestable; and this, in order to shew his followers how it ought to be regarded in the Religion of Jesus. To the Corinthians he says, I am the least of the Apostles; that am not meet to be called an Apostle, because I PERSECUTED the church of God. [Ep. xv. 9.] And to Timothy, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; who was before a blasphemer, and a PERSECUTOR, and injurious. But I obtained mercy, because I did it in IGNORANCE and UNBELIEV, [1 Ep. i. 12,] ¿. e. being a Jew.

P. 34. [D] Dr. Stebbing, though he differs from Mr. Foster in most other matters, yet agrees with him in this, That the justice and equity of the Jewish "Law in punishing Idolaters with death, did not de

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pend on the particular form of government." [Hist. of Abraham. In which he is much more consistent than his dissenting neighbour. For the Doctor approves of persecution for opinions; whereas the minister pretends to condemn it.

P. 37.

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