that must be perpetually thrusting itself upon his observation. He must in that case have been stark-mad: which is so monstrous a fancy, that all mankind will be ashamed of it.. The book goes on to shew, that if Moses had a divine mission, and consequently what he had delivered of the extraordinary Providence of God was true, there was not only no need of the doctrine of a future state; but that a great many wise ends, becoming infinite wisdom, were served by omitting it nay that it could not, for many important reasons, have been taught. To support this, a view is given of the universal dispensation of God to man as a religious agent: and the coincidency and dependence of his several revelations to him are explained and illustrated: In which, the true nature of his last and perfect revelation by the ministry of his Son is we presume more rationally explained. From whence will appear the wonderful harmony of the whole; and the depth and riches of the wisdom and goodness of God made manifest, in a series of observations, that, we hope, have in them as much solidity as novelty. And with this concludes the last book.

This is a very slight and imperfect general view of a work, where a vast variety of circumstances, not hinted at in this short account, do, we presume, so strongly contribute to the establishment of our conclusion, that nothing, as we said, remains against it but a mere physical possibility of the contrary. And, this, on the principles of the Deists themselves. very marks of resemblance they discovered between Moses and the ancient pagan legislators; and from many others, which, in the course of this work, we have brought out to observation. So well founded was the triumphal confidence of this great

And from those pretend to have

great missionary of God, who, as if he had foreknown this objection that scoffers of the latter age were to make to the divinity of his character, dared rest the truth of his pretensions on an appeal to those legislators themselves, and their Pagan followers; where, in his last moments, he thus exultingly cries out, THEIR ROCK IS NOT AS OUR ROCK, OUR ENEMIES

THEMSELVES BEING JUDGES.

declare) hath laboured at a full and formal confutation of the preceding discourse; after having done the same honour to another of the author's works, The Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated. But the pains he had taken, and the opposition he had found in the argument of that book, had, by the time he came upon this second adventure, so ruffled his temper and discomposed his polite manners, that he now breaks out into much opprobrious language, not only against the system, but the person of the writer. To understand the cause of his lordship's resentment, so far only as it arose from the nature of my discourse, it may not be improper to say a word or two further concerning the occasion of my writing, and the principles on which the discourse is composed.

After the many violent convulsions our country had suffered since the REFORMATION by the rage of the religious parties (in which, at one time, liberty of conscience was oppressed; and at another, the established church overturned and desolated) it pleased

Divine Providence to settle our religious rites on such fundamental principles of justice and equity, and to secure the civil peace on such maxims of wisdom and true policy, as most effectually guarded both against the return of their respective violations: and the means made use of were the giving, on proper terms of security to the national religion, a free toleration to those who dissented from the established worship. This seemed to be going as far towards perfection in religious communion as the long distracted state of the Christian world would suffer us to indulge our hopes.

But men had not been long in possession of this blessing before they grew weary of it, and set on foot many inventions, to throw us back into our old disorders. For it is to be observed, with sorrow, that this reform of the English constitution happened not to be the good work of the CHURCH, begun in the conviction of TRUTH, and carried on upon the principles of charity but was rather owing to the vigilance of the STATE; at one time, vainly perhaps, anxious for the established religion*, at another, wisely provident for the support of civil liberty. So that when succeeding dissensions in church and state had made this newly reformed constitution the subject of enquiry, the parties who managed the debate being those who before had both persecuted and suffered in their turns, the principles and tempers they brought with them to the discussion of the question were not such perhaps as were best fitted either to regulate their judgments, or to moderate their partialities. One side seemed to regard the TOLERATION as an evil in itself, and only a temporary expedient to prevent a worse; while their conduct shewed, they lay + Will. III.

* Ch. II.

at

at watch for the first occasion to break in upon it. This was enough to mislead the other, and dispose it to consider the TEST-LAW, which covered and secured the established religion, as no better than a new species of persecution: and having now no real injury to complain of, they began to take umbrage at this shadow of a grievance; "To have divine worship "really free, they said, no religious profession should "be attended with civil incapacities; a TEST had "made that distinction amongst God's worshippers; "it was therefore to be set aside." But every man saw (and perhaps the enemies of the test were not amongst the last who saw it) that to set aside this law, which, under a general toleration, was the only security the established church had to trust to, was exposing the national worship to all the inroads of a sectarian rabble. This mischievous project, arising out of abused liberty, was at first entertained, as we may well suppose, by the tolerated churches only. Some of the more ingenuous of them adopted it out of fear, on the discovery of that bigotted principle in their adversaries, which considered toleration as only a temporary expedient. And where was the wonder if those who believed they had no security for what they had got, while such principles prevailed, should endeavour to put it out of the power of their adversaries to do them harm? Others of a more politic turn cherished it from views of ambition, and in hopes of sharing the emoluments of the established church. It was some time before any member of the Church of England joined with Dissenters in their clamours against a test-law, or, more properly speaking, against their own establishment. This monstrous coalition did not happen till a warm dispute on certain metaphysi

cal