number than any people, for ye were the fewest of all people h.

Of the inftruments of Providence it is abfurd to judge by our conceptions. The agency of men is evidently fubject to his control, and what they design for evil purposes he converts to good. In the present system of things, no marked diftinction is made of good or evil, only in their general effect. The fun fhines and the rain falls alike on the juft and the unjuft. Nothing can be more clear, than that profane and profligate men are undeserving of the bounties of Providence; and there is as much reason to say of temporal bleffings. Yet God is pleased to suffer them to enjoy much more than they merit: and why then should not the Jews have been chosen for the display of divine wisdom? In the Scripture, this people is never represented as the chofen or peculiar people of God for any merit of their own: on the contrary, in all his expoftulations with them, God is reprefented as upbraiding them with their rebellion against an election so very extraordinary. They, it appears, were employed contrary to their own choice. Perpetual interpofition was neceffary to coerce and

Deut. vii. 7.

keep them to the service of the true God; and their very reluctant obedience tended to the more open manifestation of the divine goodnefs and glory. That the Jews then were an inconfiderable people, is an argument of Moses; but he makes a very different use of ît. He employs it to awaken them to obedience, and to induce them to repose a trust in that great Being, the difpenfer of so many bleffings. It may be alfo urged, that our bleffed Lord made ufe of ignorant fishermen as inftruments to promulgate Chriftianity. Now that God should employ inconsiderable agents, is confonant with all the events both of nature and of human life.

To prove the confiftence of the holy Scriptures, we may affert, that they form the best fources of ancient history. When we examine the books of the Old Teftament, we obferve that the writers, even fuppofing it to have been a human work, are good hiftorians, and were fpectators of many of the facts they have recorded. They appeal to circumstances seen by multitudes. We must be ftruck with the fimplicity of the narration, and with the marks of truth they exhibit. We see the conformity of the chronology of the holy Scriptures with that of profane hiftory; nay, they even serve

to correct the errors of the latter. We fee a furprising harmony between these books and the most valued hiftorians, fuch as Jofephus and others. The books of the Old Testament alone afford us an accurate history of the world from the creation, through the line of patriarchs, judges, kings, and rulers of the Hebrews. By their aid we may form almoft an uninterrupted series of events down to the birth of Chrift or Auguftus, a space of about four thousand years, or even beyond. If a few interruptions occur, these are easily fupplied by profane hiftory. Such reflections muft ftrike us as very extraordinary proofs of the agreement of the whole relation with truth, If it be faid, that this book contains fome contradictions, we have these well reconciled by several persons of ability.

Every improvement in fcience confirms the evidences of the Scriptures. Aftronomy gives its fupport; fo that not only the fun by day, and the fplendid luminaries of the night, but every law of the celeftial orbs, declares the glory of God. The heavens themselves at once prove his being, difplay his workmanship, and establish the truth of his divine word. Profane hiftory contributes to confirm the truth of facred; and, learning as it advances, clears ob

feurity and elucidates truth. There have been generally standing memorials of great events; but the memorials of the events of facred hiftory bear this remarkable character, that they were established at the very time of the facts, and were instituted in remembrance of them. Thus all the Jewish rites, whether circumcifion, the feaft of the paffover, the fabbath, the delivery of the law, were all appointed at the very time of the transaction; and fucceeding generations acted on the teftimony of their forefathers, who were present at the time of the tranfaction, and recorded it to posterity. For it is a ftrong argument of the truth and the confiftence of revelation, that the principal instances recorded in the Jewish history of the miraculous acts of God performed through his human inftruments, were very public; and that the inftitutions which arofe out of them were adopted at the fame time, and by the very persons who were the fpectators. We have no greater evidence of any historical tranfaction. Here then, on the one fide, we are to place well authenticated facts; on the other, speculative conjecture and groundless objection.

It is remarked of the Mofaic inftitutions, that they propofe temporal promifes, and that

they allude not to the rewards of a future life. Hence fome have concluded, that a future ftate of reward or punishment made no part of the motives proposed to the children of Ifrael. It must however be remembered, that temporal promises were peculiarly adapted to the state of the Ifraelites, and therefore that they are more ftrongly enforced. But was it not the fole object of the law to prepare the Ifraelites for the expectation of him, who was to bring life and immortality to light? The hope of life and immortality was therefore, with the fame confiftence of defign, gradually developed. To this nature itself pointed; in this the patriarchs trusted. A future state of existence was ever the hope of the Gentile world. Our bleffed Lord did not advance, he confirmed the doctrine. With this view we are to look at the confiftence of the Gospel covenant. Many paffages of the Old Teftament fhew that it was a general belief of thofe times. What faid Isaiah? The fun fhall be no more thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee; but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. There are many fimilar de

i Ifaiah Ix. 19.