CHA P. II.

APPLICATION OF THE FIRST RULE TO JUDAISM. I. MOSES WAS NOT DECEIVED, WHEN HE ASSERTED HIS DIVINE COMMISSION, EITHER I. BY ENTHUSIASM, OR 2. BY FANCYING CERTAIN PHENOMENA TO BE MIRACLES.

NATURAL

AMONG the various religions of antiquity, that of Judaifm particularly demands the attention of an inquirer after truth. Whether he confiders its remote origin; its fingular difference from all others; its unqualified claims to divine authority; or the miferable remnant of its · votaries fcattered over the face of the whole earth, yet ftill remaining a diftinct people in whatever point of view he beholds it, his curiofity must be more than ordinarily excited. Unlike the accommodating genius of Paganism, the Jewish Law denounces as execrable and abomina

ble every form of worship, except that prefcribed by Mofes. Inftead of a hoft of idols, one Almighty and Allwife God is propofed as the single object of adoration 1; and a volume is yet preferved, to which

the

II.

the defcendants of Ifrael ftill pertinaciously CHAP. adhere, and still refolutely maintain to be of divine obligation. This volume defcribes itself to have been revealed under the ministry of Mofes, and is received as fuch by the Jews, while their ancient lawgiver is reverenced among them as the first and greatest of prophetsa.

The question is, how far the religion of the Jews answers in point of credibility to the theory which has been laid down.

he

1. Mofes was

ceived,

not felf dewhen he divine com

I. Was not Mofes, when he afferted bis divine legation, deceived into a belief that was fupernaturally commiffioned, either by en thufiafm, or by imagining certain appearances to be miracles, which were not fo in reality? ther,

afferted his

miffion, ei

I.

1. To fee how far it is probable, that By Enthu Mofes was an enthusiast, we must examine fiafm. what his fituation was prior to the time, at which he commenced his undertaking; and the difpofition of his mind, when, as it is pretended, he for the first time re

a See these ideas admirably expanded and purfued by Lord Prefident Forbes, in his "Thoughts concerning Re"ligion."

VOL. I.

ceived

SECT. ceived from God his legiflative and proII. phetical authority.

Mofes, while an infant, had been difcovered by the daughter of the king of Egypt, exposed to perifh upon the waters of the Nile. The princefs, moved to compaffion by his helpless fituation, preferved him; and had him educated as her own fon. Egypt, at that period, was celebrated over the whole world for its fcience and literature. Perhaps it is not fo easy at this distance of time to determine, in what the wisdom of Egypt confifted: but as the Greeks allowedly borrowed the whole of their philofophy from that nation, it is not improbable, that it might be employed partly in refined and abstract speculations on the nature of God; partly in interpreting the hieroglyphics and unfolding the myfterious arcana of their manifold polytheism; and partly in exploring the wonders of phyfiology. As Herodotus b mentions the belief of the Egyptians in the tranfmigration of fouls, perhaps alfo a defcription of the various channels, through which the foul was fuppofed to glide in its

Herod. lib. ii. c. 123.

pro

II.

progress to purity and final beatitude, might CHAP. form no inconfiderable portion of this wifdom. But, whatever it might be, we are told, that Mofes was learned in the whole of it. Now the effects of a profound knowledge of philofophy are very feldom enthusiasm and fuperftition. Knowledge makes a man flow and cautious in judging; unwilling to determine without the most fatisfactory evidence; and, above all things, averfe from rafh and headlong meafures: knowledge therefore must neceffarily be incompatible with enthusiasm, which is the natural offspring of igno

rance.

1

was

The Jewish Legiflator moreover brought up amidst the luxury and refinement of a court; but fuch a mode of education is obviously far from being favourable to enthufiafm. An enthufiaftic courtier, efpecially when that enthusiasm refpects a fancied call from heaven, is certainly, at least in these our days, no very common character.

Another confiderable argument, to prove that Mofes was not an enthusiast, may be deduced from the actual state of his mind,

SECT. at the time, when he is faid to have received his divine commiffion. A perfon under the impulfe of a fanatical enthufiafm fees no difficulties, and fears no dangers. Instead of starting any objections, he rushes eagerly forward, full of confidence in his own powers, and impreffed with the most lively affurance, that success will finally crown his endeavours. But was this the cafe with Mofes? Let us confult the hiftory.

"The angel of the Lord appeared unto "him in a flame of fire out of the midst "of a bufh: and he looked, and behold "the bush burned with fire, and the bufh "was not confumed. And Mofes faid, I "will now turn afide, and fee this great fight, why the bufh is not burnt. And "when the Lord faw, that he turned afide

to fee, God called unto him out of the "midst of the bufh, and faid, Mofes, "Mofes. And he faid, Here am I.-And "the Lord faid, I have furely feen the af"fliction of my people which are in Egypt, "and have heard their cry by reafon of "their task-mafters-Come now, there