fortune? With fome it was the ftandard principle of their fect to doubt, with others to argue every thing; and when we recollect that Cicero' himself was of the New Academy, we have a clue to unravel all the feeming contradictions of his moral and metaphyfical fentiments, amidst the confufion of which we are never to expect his real opinion, but within the pale of his own particular school, and that school profeffed controversy upon every point. I will inftance one paffage, which would have done honour to his fentiments, had he spoke his own language as well as that of the Platonifts, whom he is here perfonating-Nec vero Deus, qui intelligitur a nobis, alio modo intelligi poteft, quam mens foluta quædam et libera, fegregata ab omni concretione mortali, omnia fentiens et movens. Whilft the pureft truths were thrown out only as themes for fophiftry to cavil at, the mass of mankind resembled a chaos, in which if fome few fparks of light glimmered, they only ferved to caft the general horror into darker fhades.

It must not however be forgotten, that there was a peculiar people then upon earth, who professed to worship that one Supreme Being, of whose nature and attributes certain individuals only amongst the Gentile nations entertained fuitable conceptions.

Whilft all the known world were idolaters by eftablifhment, the Jews alone were Unitarians upon fyftem. Their hiftory was most wonder ful, for it underook to give a relation of things, whereof no human records could poffibly be taken, and all, who received it for truth, muft receive it as the relation of God himfelf, for how elfe fhould men obtain a knowledge of the Creator's thoughts and operations in the firft formation of all things? Accordingly we find their infpired hiftorian, after he has brought down his narration to the journal of his own. time, holding conferences with God himself, and receiving through his immediate communication certain laws and commandments, which he was to deliver to the people, and according to which they were to live and be governed. In this manner Mofes appears as the commiffioned legiflator of a Theocracy, impowered to work miracles in confirmation of his vicegerent authority, and to denounce the most tremendous punishments upon the nation, fo highly favoured, if in any future time they fhould difobey and fall off from thefe facred ftatutes and ordi

nances.

A people under fuch a government, fet apart and diftinguished from all other nations by means fo fupernatural, form a very interefting

object

object for our contemplation, and their history abounds in events no less extraordinary and mi→ raculous than the revelation itself of those laws, upon which their conftitution was first establifhed: Their tedious captivities, their wonderful deliverances, the adminiftration of their priefts and prophets, their triumphs and fucceffes, whilft adhering to God's worship, and their deplorable condition, when they corrupted his service with the impurities of the idolatrous nations, whom they drove from their poffeffions, form a most surprizing chain of incidents, to which the annals of no other people upon earth can be faid to bear refemblance.

Had it fuited the all-wife purposes of God, when he revealed himself to this peculiar people, to have made them the inftruments for diffeminating the knowledge of his true religion and worship over the Gentile world, their office and administration had been glorious indeed; but this part was either not allotted to them, or justly forfeited by their degenerate and abandoned conduct; difobedient and rebellious against God's ordinances, they were fo far from propagating these imparted lights to the neighbouring nations, that they themselves funk into their darkness, and whilft all the land was overrun

1

with idols, few were the knees, which bowed to the living, true and only God.

Mofes, their infpired lawgiver, judge and prophet, is generally faid to have delivered to them no doctrine of a future ftate: I am aware there is a learned author now living, one of their nation, David Levi by name, who controverts this affertion; it is fit therefore I fhould leave it in reference to his future proofs, when he fhall fee proper to produce them; in the mean time I may fairly state it upon this alternative, that if Mofes did not impart the doctrine above-mentioned, it was wholly referved for future special revelation; if he did impart it, there must have been an obftinate want of faith in great part of the Jewish nation, who knowingly professed a contrary doctrine, or elfe there must have been fome obfcurity in Mofes's account, if they innocently misunderstood it: The Sadducees were a great portion of the Jewish community, and if they were inftructed by their lawgiver to believe and expect a future ftate, it is high matter of offence in them to have disobeyed their teacher; on the other hand, if they were not instructed to this effet by Mofes, yet having been taught the knowledge of one all-righteous God, it becomes juft matter of furprize, how they came to overlook a confequence fo evident.

N° CXV.

N° CXV.

F

ROM the review we have taken of the

state of mankind in respect to their religious opinions at the Christian æra it appears, that the Gentile world was fyftematically devoted to idolatry, whilft the remnant of the Jewish tribes profeffed the worship of the true God; but at the fame time there did not exist on earth any other temple dedicated to God's fervice, fave that at Jerufalem. The nation fo highly favoured by him, and fo enlightened by his immediate revelations, was in the lowest ftate of political and religious declenfion; ten out of their twelve tribes had been carried away into captivity, from which there has to this hour been no redemption, and the remaining two were brought under the Roman yɔke, and divided into fects, one of which oppofed the opinion of the other, and maintained that there was to be no refurrection of the dead: The controversy was momentous, for the eternal welfare of mankind was the object of difcuffion, and who was to decide upon it? The worshippers of the true God had one place only upon earth, VOL. IV. Ο wherein