fuch family; that it fhould always defcend either in a direct or in a collateral line; and where there were no fons, that daughters fhould inherit; but then the latter were always obliged to marry into their own tribe, and into their own family; fo that the inheritance continued ftill in the fame tribe, and in the fame family, fo long as any of that tribe and of that family remained.

It appears from Mofes's history*, that in those days there were no people upon the face of the earth who were not more or lefs idolaters; and therefore, one of the most severe of all his laws, is, that against any prophet, or any other person who fhould endeavour to entice the people fecretly to idolatry, particularly to the idolatry of the ancient inhabitants of Canaan; who were not content with endeavouring to overturn the orders of nature by their unheard-of wickedness, but they burnt their own children in the fire before their idols. Mofes faw the difpofition of this people to fall into the idolatry of the neighbouring nations, and therefore he was the more fevere, not only in punishing those among them who should. endeavour to entice the people to commit those abominations, but also in his orders for destroying all the ancient inhabitants of those countries, and to leave none of them remaining, who might teach the Ifraelites their abominable practices.

Some of our modern philofophers have taken upon them to laugh at Mofes, and to make him * Deuter. chap. 13. ver. 7.

the

the object of their ridicule, becaufe of the catalogue of meats clean, and of meats unclean, which he left with the Ifraelites; and affert, that many. of those beafts, fishes, and fowls, which he forbid this people to eat, are eat in all Christian countries, and are found to be good and wholesome food. I will by no means attempt to say what were Mofes's reafons for forbidding the Ifraelites to eat of those meats which he calls unclean, or how far they may be prejudicial to the human body in a moral or a religious fenfe; but this I will take upon me to fay, that after having well examined the catalogue of the Jewish lawgiver's unclean meats, there is not one article thereof which is not phyfically detrimental to the human body; and, if we fhould continue to eat of it, which would not be a certain, though a flow poifon to us; and would be ftill more fo to a people who lived in fuch a hot climate as that of the land of Canaan; and who were much fubject to the leprofy. So that, upon the whole, if this was not of divine inftitution, I should regard Mofes as one of the greatest philosophers and phyficians that the world ever produced.-In fact, by taking a brief survey of the laws, ordonnances, and civil inftitutions of Mofes, we shall find therein a fyftem of morality fupérior to any that we can discover to have been then existing; and a code of civil laws, just and equitable in themselves, with respect to those who had contentions with each other, but extremely fevere against those who' attempted

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attempted to lead the people into the idolatry of the neighbouring nations, and against those who were rebellious against their legiflator; which, as I have often already obferved, was abfolutely neceffary to keep a people to their duty who were fo ftubborn and turbulent, and fo much difpofed to adopt all the abominable fcenes of wickedness and idolatry of their neighbours.

Mofes was in himself fuch an example of goodness, meeknefs, difinterestedness, and compaffion, when offences were particularly against him, his whole attention being to promote the good of his people, and to keep them in the pure worship of the Lord their God, that, exclufive of the great works which he did in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in Mount Sinai, I fhould not hesitate to fay his legation was divine. All the ingratitude which the Ifraelites fhewed towards him, was not fufficient to change his behaviour towards them in the leaft but as foon as they fhewed the leaft figns of repentance, he was again their kind and indulgent Father, praying to God to pardon them, and to profper their endeavours.-When he found himfelf drawing near to the end of his life, he called all the people together, and gave them a particular charge to put their whole truft in their great God and deliverer; recapitulated all their acts of rebellion and ingratitude against God, and his great mercies towards them, when they repented of their wickedness; exhorted them to continue in the fear and obedience of the Al

mighty; and appointed Joshua, the son of Nun, to be his fucceffor, and to lead them into the land of Canaan; because he was the most juft, wife, and upright man that was found among all the Ifraelitish nation. Mofes did not think that either of his fons, or of his relations, was worthy to be recommended to this important truft; and therefore, rejecting every confideration of intereft, and in strict obedience to the Divine commands, he appointed Joshua to fucceed him. But before he died, he foretold them, that after his death they would fall into all the idolatry of the neighbouring nations, and of all the evils that would happen to them in confequence thereof; and that, towards the latter days, the Lord their God would raise up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto him, who would explain his will unto them; and that they fhould hear that prophet, because the Lord would put his words in his mouth, and through him declare his will to mankind.

After Mofes's death, Jofhua, like a great and prudent general, led the Ifraelites over Jordan, and conquered all the land of Canaan, ftill adhering to the laws and inftitutions of Mofes, and keeping the people in the pure worship of the God of heaven. But no fooner was Joshua dead, than the people neglected to drive out the ancient inhabitants of the land, as Mofes and he had commanded them; and after the death of Eleazar, and of the elders of the people, who

had

had feen the great works of Mofes, and which followed foon after, they fell into all the idolatry of the neighbouring nations, and neglected the pure worship of their Great Deliverer; for which, according to their chronicles, they were much oppreffed and plundered by their enemies on every fide; but as often as they repented of their wickedness, and returned from their idolatry, judges and generals were raised up from among themfelves to deliver them; although they ftill continued in a very diftreffed fituation, sometimes following the idolatry of their neighbours, and at other times calling upon the name of the Lord their God, till the days of David, when they became a great and a powerful people, and were the terror of all the neighbouring nations.

David is faid to have destroyed all kinds of idolatry among this people; to have cut off all the inhabitants of the neighbouring cities, who were the greatest idolaters, and to have left the kingdom to his fon Solomon, in the pure worship of the great God of Heaven.

Solomon, in his youthful days, fhewed fuch an example of piety, morality, and wisdom, that he was the admiration of all that part of the world. Indeed his works, which are ftill exifting, fhew him to have been fuch. But this fame Solomon, although he built the great temple at Jerufalem for the worship of the Supreme Being, in the latter part of his life, by giving too much into the love of women, by trufting too much to his own

ftrength