to be struck by the peculiarity of the history of Abraham. The eyes of many followed him with wonder when he abandoned the popular religion and his country, without (as it seemed to them,) a motive for such a change. The things which befell him in his journeyings in Egypt, and the events which followed his final settlement, were observed and remembered with curiosity and interest, if we may judge by the extent and durability of his fame in Eastern countries even to this day. Though the observers had, as yet, no idea of the peculiar Providence which attended upon Abraham and his posterity, they watched what should become of the descendants of so extraordinary a man; and everything that occurred tended to excite more wonder and curiosity. The settlement in Egypt, the grievous bondage that succeeded, and the marvellous deliverance of those who had been subjected to so degrading a captivity, the irresistible power of the mighty tribes as they issued from the wilderness, and the extraordinary manner in which they founded a religious and political constitution, unlike any that had ever been seen or heard of, were circumstances which riveted the attention and roused the passions of all who witnessed, to such a degree, that it was clear the world had already begun to learn of the chosen people.

Before the chosen people could teach, however, even by their example, it was necessary that they themselves should go through every stage of discipline, and begin their spiritual education from the very infancy of mind and heart and thus was it ordained. Abraham indeed was of an enlightened and exalted mind, capable of understanding the promises of God, and faithful enough to trust in them through all trials; but his posterity were neither so wise nor so virtuous. Many heathen nations were more enlightened than the Hebrews during their bondage in Egypt, and for some time afterwards; and the speed and certainty with which your nation subsequently outstripped all others in civilization and improvement of every kind, was made the more remarkable by

this circumstance. The exact nature of the religion of your forefathers in Egypt is not known; but it is certain that they inclined to the superstitions of their task-masters, and that they possessed little of that firm trust in God which distinguished their great progenitor. They appear to have had no idea of the deliverance which awaited them, and to have used the necessary means to obtain it only while signs and wonders from above were actually wrought before their eyes. In the intervals of these miracles, their faith declined and their courage failed; and even Moses, who was far more enlightened than the generality of his people, seems to have been at that time only learning to believe in God; since he hesitated in undertaking the office with which he was charged, and asked by what Name he should make known the deliverer. The spiritual education of the Hebrews, which was soon to be carried on so far beyond that of other nations, was manifestly now only beginning.

This beginning was made by revealing to the emancipated people that the God who led them out of Egypt was the God of Abraham, the God who had made a covenant with their ancestor. They listened to messages from him more readily than they would have hearkened to a strange God; but it is plain that they did not yet know him to be the only God. He was their only God, the God of the Hebrews, the Mightiest of all Gods, who, because he had proved himself greater than the deities of Egypt, was entitled to their faith; but they were not yet willing to relinquish the notion that they might choose their God, and were only brought to a right understanding by the sense of their own helplessness under the power of the Almighty. As their conquests were extended, they learned to look with more and more contempt on the gods of the neighbouring nations; and for a long time afterwards the bulk of the Hebrew nation seems to have rejoiced, not in the knowledge of the One God, but in worshiping a more illustrious Deity than was revealed to any other nation.

This is no doubt the reason why the Hebrew nation was

so prone to idolatry, in the midst of the visible workings of the Supreme among them. If they had ever really believed that he was the only Deity, they could not so frequently and so readily have deserted his service for that of false gods; but if they believed that, though the Eternal was the Mightiest, and the only God of their nation, other inferior gods presided over other nations, it is much more easy to account for their occasional apostacy. When anxious to escape his anger, when desiring to enjoy pleasures which he had forbidden, the temptation was great to enter the service of inferior deities who might be less strict to punish, and more indulgent to their lusts; while such evasion and gratification could not have been hoped for, if the Supreme had been truly believed to be the only Potentate who governed the world. These observations are applied only to the bulk of the nation. Their prophets and wise men long preceded the people under them in the acknowledgement of the strict unity of God,-in the declaration that he was the Creator of the universe, the Father of all the families of the earth. By the gradual unfolding of the workings of Providence, by the consistency of his moral government, the whole nation was at length firmly convinced of this grand essential truth, reclaimed from idolatry, and for ever placed beyond the reach of error respecting the object of worship.

This great doctrine,—of the strict unity of God, was, in the case of the Hebrews and of all who learned through them, subservient to a truth of no inferior importance, viz. that God is the Moral Governor of mankind. The experience of all other nations has shown that there can be no such steady and exalted virtue among those who believe in a plurality of gods as among those who submit to the consistent rule of one. Piety is weakened when worship is divided, and obedience becomes unsteady under a diversity of control. Thus the worshipers of pagan deities believed themselves to offend one god while they propitiated another, and were utterly destitute of that firmness of expectation, that consistency of hope and fear towards God, which in the same age distinguished your

forefathers and exalted their spiritual character so immeasurably above that of all other nations. When once convinced that they could not flee from the wrath of one deity to take refuge under the protection of another, that the law which had been dispensed by God would be sanctioned by God, that none could interfere with his warnings and promises, or change or annul his decrees,-the dependence of his people became confident, and their piety unexampled, in that age of the world, for purity and steadiness.

The lapse of time perpetually affords new proofs that the evidences given to the Hebrews, that God was their spiritual as well as their temporal Ruler, were of the exact kind most fitted to their spiritual state, and that this spiritual government was precisely adapted to further that sure but gradual advance which it was the object of the whole dispensation to promote, in themselves and in the world through them. The Law, that divine instrument by which the will of God was made known in the earth, by which the spiritual faculties of man have been primarily developed, by which the best blessings of human existence were first transmitted; this law, framed by the wisdom of God and sanctioned by his power, affords now as strong an evidence of the divinity of that wisdom and power, as could be afforded on the day when it was delivered amidst the thunders and clouds of Sinai, the awful glories of the lawgiver, and the trembling expectation of the assembled tribes. Then its authority was acknowledged and its sanctity revered: this acknowledgement and reverence still remain, while the conviction which experience has wrought, that this dispensation has amply fulfilled the purposes for which it was given, and has been a perpetual testimony of the providence of God and the high destination of man, adds an ever-increasing interest to the Mosaic institutions, and hallows them as the completest evidences of religious truth. If there be any worshipers of the Eternal who disregard the Mosaic dispensation, they are ignorant of the full grandeur which has been displayed from above. If there be any who despise this

institution, they are yet untaught in the principles of true religion; and those who disbelieve in its divine origin, reject the clearest and finest indications of the design and methods with which God governs the family of man.

This law, which you are accustomed to consider perfect, had indeed that specific perfection which denotes its divine origin; while its want of absolute, independent perfection, as proved by the subsequent history of your people and allowed by Maimonides and others of your doctors, affords additional evidence of the design of God in appointing the Mosaic institution. The law was perfect in as far as it had a full capacity of attaining its ends, which were to separate the Hebrews from the idolatrous nations around them, and to make them the preceptors of the whole human race in the great truths that God is one, and the spiritual Ruler of mankind. The first object was attained by the strict provisions of the law against the superstitious belief and impure practices of the surrounding pagans, and by such obligations to the worship of the true God as could not be evaded or questioned. The second object was answered by such a visible and perpetual operation of Divine power among the people, and such an invariable retribution for their good or evil deeds, as could not fail of arresting the attention of mankind, or of carrying conviction to the minds of all who looked on with interest.

When the Hebrews were led forth from Egypt, they were not sufficiently enlightened to form clear notions of systematic obedience to God, or any rule of duty whatever. If such a rule had been given them, unconnected with external services, and referred to their consciences only for its sanctions, they would have been perplexed in its application, and weak in every temptation. If they had been merely desired to have faith in God, to be just to man, and to act always from a principle of love, the command would have been vain. They had yet to be taught the meaning of faith in One God, the rules of justice, and the nature of philanthropy. Such exhortations would have been as uselessly addressed to them, as to