A DISSERTATION

IN WHICH ARE DEMONSTRATED

THE

QRIGINALITY, AND SUPERIOR EXCELLENCE,

OF THE

MOSAIC INSTITUTIONS.

THEY who fuppofe that Mofes himself

was the author of the inftitutions, civil or religious, that bear his name, and that in framing them he borrowed much from the Egyptians, or other antient nations, muft never have compared them together. Otherwife they could not but have perceived many circumftances in which they differ most effentially from them all. I fhall endeavour to point out the more confiderable of them.

1. No heathen ever conceived an idea of fo great an object as that of the inftitutions of Mofes, which appears to have been nothing lefs than the instruction of all mankind in the great doctrine of the unity and univerfal moral government of God, as the maker of the world, and the common parent of all the human race, in oppofition to the polytheism and idolatry which then prevailed; which, befides, being grofsly abfurd in its principles, and leading to endless fuperftitions, shreatened the world with a deluge of vice and mifery,

For this purpose the Hebrew nation was placed in the most confpicuous fituation, among all the great ci vilized nations of the world, which were univerfally ad dicted to idolatry of the groffeft kind, to divinations, necromancy, and other fuperftitions of a fimilar nature, and practifed as acts of religion; fome of their rites a bominably licentious, and others the most hockingly crucl, as the neceffary means of recommending ther felves to the various objects of their worthip,

em.

As all mankind imagined that their outward prof perity depended upon the obfervance of their refpec tive roligions, that of the Hebrew nation was made to do fo in the roft confpicuous manner, as a vifible ief fon to all the world, They were to profper beyond al other natious while they adhered to their religion, and to fuffer in a manner equally exemplary and confpicu. ous in confequence of their departure from it, Of this all mankind might cafily judge,

These great ideas occur in the facred books of the Heneva, and no where elfe, They are all diftin&ty advanced by Mofes, and more fully unfolded in the

ritinga

writings of the later prophets. But certainly nothing 'fo great and fublime could have been fuggefted to Mofes from any thing that he faw in Egypt, or could have heard of in other countries.

2. In no system of religion befides that of Mofes was purity of morals any part of it. All the heathen religions were fyftems of mere ceremonies, on the obfervance of which it was imagined that the profperity of the several states depended; and the fole business of the priests was to attend to the due obfervance of these rites, many of which were fo far from being favourable to morals, that they were of the most impure and abominable nature, as is well known to all who have any knowledge of them.

On the contrary, it appears not only from the ten commandments, but from all the writings of Mofes, and thofe of the prophets who fucceeded him, that the purest morality, the most favourable to private and public happiness, was the principal and ultimate object of * the fyftem. The books of Mofes abound with precepts of morality inculcated in the most forcible manner, and they are distinguished from laws by having no penalty. annexed to them. Sacrifices, and ceremonial obfervances of every kind, are always reprefented as of no fignification without morals; and whenever the comparifon is made between them, they are fpoken of with the greateft contempt. Such precepts as thefe ; Be ye holy for lam holy; and what does the Lord thy God require of thee, but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God, could never have been borrowed from any heathen fyftem of religion. In this most important

refpect the inflitutions of Mofes are a great original, and were never copied by any other lawgiver.

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3. No where, in all the heathen world, could Mofes have heard of fuch a proper national worship, as that which he introduced. The Hebrew nation had not only one fingle object of their worship, in which they differed effentially from all other nations, but one national altar, one precife ritual, and only one pla e for the meeting of the whole nation at the public festivals. Three times in the courfe of every year all the males of a proper age were required to attend at this place, where they spent about a week in acts of worship and decent feftivity; and at one of them the law was publicly recited, that all perfons might be acquainted with it, and with the awful fanctions of it. A whole tribe, a twelfth part of the nation, was fet apart for fervices of a religious nature, and their provifion made to depend in a great measure upon their performance of them, being not in lands cultivated by themfelves, but in the produce of lands cultivated by others.

At this one national altar facrifices were performed every morning and evening, in the name, and at the expence, of the whole nation; and the manner in which this was done was invariable, and not left to the difcre tion of the performers. *

In all other countries the places of worship were numerous; and the diverfity in the modes of worship vari

ed

* In the temple of Hierapolis, dedicated to the Syrian goddess, there were sacrifices every morning and evening. Jurieu sur les dogmes, &c. p. 778. But this is the only instance of the kind in the heathen world, and by whom these sacrifices were provided, and how far this obliga. on, and the benefits of them, extended, is not known,

ed with the objects of them. In Egypt in particular the different nomes were exceedingly hoftile to each other on this account. Hence arofe endlefs and difcordant fuperftitions.

4. In no country befides that of the Hebrews were the public festivals exprefsly inftituted in commemoration of fuch great events [refpecting their history and religion. It is peculiar to this nation also that the directions for the celebration of them were reduced to writing at the time of their inftitution, fo that there could never be any uncertainty about the origin, or the reafons, of them. They were only three, the paffover, on their deliverance from their state of fervitude in Egypt, when the first born of all the Egyptians were deftroyed, and all theirs preferved; the pentecoft, on the giving of the law from mount Sinai; and the feaft of tabernacles, in commemoration of their living in tents and booths dur. ing their travels through the wilderness.

At the first of these feftivals the firft fruits of the year were folemnly prefented, at the fecond the harveft was got in, and at the last the vintage, and all the greater labours of the year were clofed. No heathen feftivals were fo well adapted to important events as thefe. Among the heathen nations the feftivals were numerous, and perplexing. More than fixty were celebrated by the Athenians, the origin and reafon of their inftitution were uncertain, and none of them were calculated to anfwer any important moral purpofe, but were too often the occafion not of innocent feftivity, but of intemperance and debauch. Several of the heathen feftivals were celebrated in a manner the moít disgufting, and fhock