THE FOREIGN RITES OF OUR PAGAN NEIGHBOURS,

who boast of fomething still more precious and worthy the Altars of their Gods-MY FIRST-BORN TO BE OFFERED UP IN SACRIFICE? Vain man, subjoins the Prophet, do not God and Nature proclaim, that without VIRTUE, Rites and Ceremonies are of no avail, whether they be fuch as the LAW preferibes, or fuch as IDOLATERS (to whofe practices thou art fo enflaved) impiously fancy to be still more borribly efficacious.

And how, human Sacrifices came to be fo esteemed, we have fhewn, in the course of this differtation, concerning the rife and progrefs of Sacrifice.

III.

From the Sacrifice of particular Men, charged by M. Voltaire on the Jewish Law, he rifes in his impiety to accuse it of the SACRIFICE OF A WHOLE NATION. Thefe are his words-"It is "faid in Leviticus that none devoted which "fhall be devoted of men fhall be redeemed, but "fhall furely be put to death. The Jewish books "bear evidence, that when the Ifraelites over

ran the little country of Canaan, they maf"facred, in most of the villages, men, wo"men, and children-because they had been 66 DEVOTED."

In these words are included two charges against the Law.-1. That this devoting of the Canaanites was a religious Sacrifice. 2. Or, at least, a commanded extermination of a whole people, by the ministry of the Ifraelites. So that if one of them should fail, the other yet may hold.

I have already acquitted it of the first, by an explanation of the famous miftaken text in the xxviith chapter of Leviticus. We come now to the fecond, the cenfure of extreme cruelty and inhumanity in executing the command. And this will bring us to the concluding head, on this fubject.

THE MORAL GOVERNOR OF THE UNIVERSE adminifters his Sovereignty in two different ways: while moral Governors amongft men can, in their feveral departments, administer theirs only in one.

God, the Author of Nature, and Framer of its Conftitution, hath fo ordered and combined. moral Entities, that VIRTUE generally, or for the most part, produceth HAPPINESS; while MISERY is as generally attendant upon VICE. On this difpofition of things, the rewards and punishments of FREE AGENTS are first of all adjufted. But this makes it neither fuperfluous nor inexpedient for the God of the Univerfe to

punish and reward in another manner, likewise. Not fuperfluous; fince this conftitution of Nature does not always, by reafon of certain traverses in free agency, produce its defigned effects. Not inexpedient; fince, in that other manner, the power of the divine Administration is more fenfibly manifefted; as in the first way his Wifdom may be better collected: While, both together ferve more fully to convince us, that the FIRST CAUSE is a free Agent; and that the conftitution of Nature is his ordinance; and not the effect of chance or deftiny.

On thefe accounts, a reasonable analogy would lead us to conclude, from what paffeth in the government of the NATURAL WORLD, that in the early ages of mankind, when an EQUAL PROVIDENCE prevailed (as it did while men retained the knowledge of their Governor and Creator; of which more in its proper place) God would frequently interpofe, in an extraordinary manner, to prevent or redrefs thofe irregularities which would, from time to time, arife, and did actually arife in God's moral government, while folely administered by that relative order of things, which his wifdom had fo beautifully connected, and fo firmly established, as to be difordered by nothing but the traverfes of free agency in his Creatures.

That

That he did thus, in fact, interpofe, holy Scriptures bear full evidence. The first account we have of it, after the DELUGE (in which, this part of God's moral administration was fo fignally difplayed) is in the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah: And afterwards, in the EXTERMINATION OF THE CANAANITES: both thefe nations having, by the fame unnatural crimes, filled up the measure of their iniquities.

In the cafe of Sodom and Gomorrah, the enormity of their vices, and the total depravity of their manners, impofe filence on the most profligate oppofers of Religion, however clamorous they may be in the Patronage of the Canaanites. Their Plea, in favour of thefe, arifes from the Choice God is faid to have made of the INSTRUMENTS of his Vengeance. Fire and Brimstone they eafily fubmit to: but Fire and Sword revolts their humanity.

They can never (they tell us) be brought to believe that the common Father of All would employ fome of his reasonable Creatures to execute his vengeance upon others of the fame fpecies, even though thefe others had been justly fentenced to perdition for their beaftly and inhuman Vices.

They pretend to fay, "that God could not, confiftently with his nature and aatributes, put fellow

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fellow-creatures on fuch an employment." They have offered no reasons for this bold affertion and I can find none. In the mean time, we must needs be much edified with the modefty of these men; who deny that liberty to God, which they are not backward to allow to their earthly Sovereigns: Amongst whom, the right of employing one part of their Subjects to execute their Sentence on another is every where practifed, without cenfure or control.

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But they fay further, "that although God night, yet he certainly would not have recourfe to buman agency in this matter, on account of the mifchiefs which fuch agency was likely to produce.

First, as it is extremely liable to abufe. Every Pretender to a divine command, whether feign ed by an Impoftor, or fancied by an Enthufiaft, would, when fupported by this example, never fuffer their Neighbours to live in peace. And Saracen armies and Popish Crusades would be always at hand to carry on defolation in the name of God."

Secondly, this inftrumentality must have an ill effect on the MANNERS of the Ifraelites, by making their hearts callous, and infenfible to the calamities of their Fellow-Creatures." Thefe are the objections of our PHILOSOPHERS. But

before

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