it should promote inquiry, and the investigation of its claims, ought to be conducted under the influence of a sincere desire to serve the cause of truth. As it is professedly the production of men of real genius, and displays eloquence and beauty which extort unwilling praise from the lips of its adversaries, it ought not to be treated either with indifference or with contempt. The wisdom manifested, and the good proposed in it, are vastly above ridicule. While it profess es to be the word of God, and till the contrary be incontestably proved, it should be approached with respect; and as the subjects it proposes are inseparably connected with our peace, it should be examined with care. It is exceedingly absurd to prejudge a cause which we have not tried, and to condemn a book which we have not read. And yet it is more than probable that the larger number of the opponents of revelation, have not taken the trouble to examine its contents, much less to weigh its evidences. What then are we to think of a man who could sit down to refute a book, which from his own confession he had not read for years; and which, if we may form a judgment upon his injurious and profane production, he had never consulted with attention? When he had occasion to refer to its compositions, not possessing a Bible of his own, and not willing to re-examine the production which he so virulently, and on such slender ground, condemned, he was compelled to substitute a poetical paraphrase for the simple language of the scriptures! Is this candor? Is this liberality? Is this fair and impartial criticism? If it be, may infidelity ever enjoy the triumph of possessing it: we neither envy, nor desire to share such honors: we are satisfied that the glory shall be all their own. If we would find out truth,

the pretensions of this book must be fairly examined, and that examination should be made with a mind re moved as remotely as possible, from the influence of prejudice. Wherever the truth shall eventually be found to lie, its cause will not have been served by those on either side, who have prosecuted their researches with indolence, or drawn their conclusions without candor.

The present Lecture is a resting-point, and from its nature, induces us to survey the ground which we have already trodden. We have advanced step by step through the Jewish history, from the calling of their great progenitor Abraham, to their complete establishment in Canaan. What important lessons arise out of this long chain of historical events! what examples of piety! what trials of patience! what exercises of faith! what elucidations of providence! what evidences of divine veracity! Abraham received the promise of a son at the advanced age of an hundred years; and the accomplishment of the prediction was the dawn of the fidelity of God. When this patriarch died, he left behind him, for his son, no inheritance in Canaan, “no, not so much as to set his foot on"-the "cave of the field of Machpelah" excepted; and that, he held by purchase, and not as the gift of heaven. Did this appear like the possession of the promised land by his descendants? Yet in tracing successive events through all their windings, revelation has furnished us with decisive evidences as the result of our inquiries, that all these promises were fulfilling in their order, and that they actually did receive their complete accomplishment. Through the envy of his brethren the favorite son of Jacob was sold into Egypt. By a most extraordinary combination of events, the little Hebrew captive was seated upon the throne of the kingdom,

next to the monarch himself. A famine prevailing in Canaan drove his relatives into Egypt. There he had an opportunity of making himself known to those who had so grievously persecuted him; and his father, partly urged by necessity, and strongly impelled by parental affection, went down, with all his household, and settled in Egypt. This was the third generation from Abraham. The lapse of years swept them all away; and, according to the prediction, his "seed became strangers in a strange land." As it had been foretold, their bondage was most severe and cruel; and at the exact period of time fixed, under the conduct of Moses, they were delivered from their servitude. Many years were spent in wandering through the wilderness: till at length, the delay occasioned by their transgressions being removed, they obtained possession of Canaan. At this point are we arrived; and the inferences deducible from this series of history are obvious, and important. It is evident that HE "sees the end from the beginning," who predicted the establishment of the Israelites in Canaan, four hundred years before it took place, and at a time when every thing appeared to oppose the designs of Deity, and to con spire to shake the faith of Abraham. We have seen positive good arising out of apparent evil, and the purposes of God accomplished by the most unlikely instruments. We are certain, admitting the statement of facts as laid down in the scriptures, that there is a God that ruleth in the earth; and that no hand, but the hand of Omnipotence, could have brought events so extraordinary to pass. We have seen every thing give way before a people conducted by the agency of heaven; and are led irresistibly to conclude, that the time, the manner, the instruments, were all selected

and ordained, by the most consummate wisdom. We are taught never to despair when we have a divine leader, never to murmur when events seem adverse to our expectations, never to waver when the promise appears remote in its accomplishment, and never to draw conclusions till Deity has completed his designs. If the consideration of these facts, shall have strengthened the faith of one Christian, or furnished a single solution of the mysteries of Providence, we shall not have recited the Jewish history in vain.

A new path is marked out for us this evening. We have not to lead your attention through a long succession of historical events, so much as to enter into a necessary discussion of the government of the Jews, connected remotely with some general passages of their later chronicles, and immediately, with that great event, the building of their splendid temple, one of the wonders of the world: The subject stands thus worded in the list-THE GOVERNMENT OF THE JEWS-INCLUDING THE THEOCRACY, AND MONARCHY, TO THE BUILDING OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE; to which we shall subjoin a CORROBORATION OF SOME SUBORDINATE FACTS, not of sufficient importance to demand a separate Lecture. We begin with

I. THE THEOCRACY OF THE JEWS.

An inquiry into the rise of government, and a survey of the gradual advance of power, is neither unin teresting, nor unnecessary, in the Lecture of this evening.

The first form of government appears to have been THE PARENTAL, and THE PATRIARCHAL. The father had a natural claim upon the affections and the obedience of his children. They were united to him by

sacred and indissoluble ties. Man is not happy alone: in every period of life he stands connected with others; and his interests are linked with theirs. In society there must be an head, a leader, a guide, to whom the eye can look up, and upon whom the heart can rely. In the earliest state of nature man felt the force of this truth; and who could appear to him so suited for this office, and so capable of this responsibility, as the friend, and the "guide of his youth?" Where could they select one so attached to their persons, to their interests, and to their general welfare? The bonds of nature were strengthened by those of the judgment and its obligations confirmed by choice. The decisions of the heart were ratified by the conviction of the understanding; and in those early ages, the characters of the parent, and of the patriarch, were blended. Their children yielded reverence to their age, attachment to their tenderness, and obedience to their requisitions. Then the parent was the priest, and the king, of his family. His wife, his children, his servants, all looked up to him as their natural and legitimate ruler, and his authority was not disputed. Behold him kneeling before the common altar, with hallowed hands stretched towards heaven, imploring family, and individual, mercies! Did the demon of discord creep in among them? and were the marks of dissatisfaction, alienation, and disunion imprinted upon their countepances? they laid their differences at his paternal feet, and from his decision they made no appeal. Providence conspired with nature to compel them to hold the will of a parent sacred; and the punishment of Cain, the disobedient and the murderer, would ever be before the eyes of the first race of mankind. Even in a later age, Esau, abandoned as he was to work all