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is equally difpofed to friendship and enmity; to return benefits, and refent injuries; to retain a sense of favours conferred, when he wants ability to repay; and a remembrance of wrongs, when he is unable to retaliate whence gratitude and revenge." P. 7.

After a fhort but judicious sketch of the origin of fociety on thefe principles, the Doctor brings us to the hiftory of the Áffyrians: which does not long detain him. He concludes it, at p. 31, with a confiderable quotation from the prophet Nahum on the fall of Nineveh, fuggesting, however, that the era of the prophecy is uncertain, and that it may have been founded on hiftorical information. This kind of teftimony to the accuracy of the prediction, though made with no friendly view, as it is attended by no proof of the infinuation, rather ferves than is injurious to the caufe of truth. Suffice it to fay that, according to the beft authorities, Nahum died about 698 years before Chrift, and Nineveh was taken in 606, 93 years after.

The Hiftory of Egypt fucceeds; very early in which we find an account of the origin of marriage, and of government, both executed with fagacity and good fenfe; "Man," Dr. Ruffel juftly obferves, as he is by nature a herding, is alfoɔ a pairing

"For

animal." Government he deduces in the manner acknowledged to be moit natural and eafy, from the patriarchal authority, extended gradually into monarchy, and made hereditary, In all that concerns Egypt the authorities of Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus are very diligently attended to; and the notes are replete with useful obfervations. Of the original design of the pyramids, perhaps no better conjecture can be formed than that efpoufed by Dr. Ruffel. That, believing the foul to con. tinue attached to the body as long as it remained entire, the Egyptians were ftudious to preferve their bodies, by embalming, and depofiting them in places of ftrength and fecurity. "they confidered their habitations in this life only as tranfitory abodes, while they gave to their tombs, by a bold mode of expreffion, the name of perpetual manfions. In a country "where fuch opinions prevailed, we cannot wonder that kings 68 were defirous to give themfelves a kind of eternity in the "tomb. For this end it was neceflary to erect cœmeteries which could long refift natural decay, and preferve their "bodies from external violence, and all moral contingencies. The pyramidal form was accordingly chofen, as better calcu"lated for durability than any other." P. 64.

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In giving an account of the origin of religion, Dr. Ruffel lays it down as a fundamental principle, that Religion is na"tural to man," and, though he thinks it impoffible for him, in the favage ftate, to rife to the fublime conception of one fupreme Governor of the Universe, he maintains, that as soon

as

as he emerges from that condition he will be in a fituation to difcover that great truth. This, however, appears entirely contrary to probability; and indeed to experience, which demonstrates, that men adhere to their firft errors in religion with a wonderful tenacity, through many various states of focial improvement. Difficult, and even impoffible as it feems to be, to point out any period of cultivation at which man can be reckoned capable of this fublime difcovery, we cannot but adhere to the old hypothefis, as removing every difficulty of this kind; namely, that man did not at any time difcover it for him. felf, but had it revealed to him originally from heaven. The corruptions of religion our author deduces, with great probability, from Zabiifm, or Sabaifm, that is, the worship of the heavenly bodies, which were at firft regarded as minifters of the Supreme God, but afterwards, by the ufe of fymbolical reprefentations, degenerated into grofs idolatry, and even bruteworship. The twelve great gods of Egypt, Greece, &c. he fuppofes to have been the fupreme Pan, with the seven planets and the four elements*; and, though in this part of the work fome things are not fufficiently proved, (fuch as the early naming of the metals from the planets) yet, on the whole, there is much ingenuity and merit in the conduct of these speculations.

On the fymbolical image of the ferpent, fo frequent in ancient mythology, we find the author mixing truth and false, hood, when he fays, it feems, not seriously,

"Human reafon cannot eafily comprehend, how both good and evil fhould proceed from the fame being; an analogy drawn from human turpitude only could conduct it to fuch an idea. And unless Revelation had taught us, that the being of whom the ferpent has been made fymbolical, was the caufe of fuch turpitude, we should still have been at a loss to account for the introduction of natural and moral evil into the world. A malignant fpirit operating upon human frailty, is the beft folution of the difficulty, and the happiest vindication of DIVINE JUSTICE." P. 111.

At p. 123 we come to the fubject of Syria and Palestine, in which we find a good account of the people, as described in the fcriptural history:

"Here we find men living, as nearly as poffible, in a ftate of nature; without any legal inftitutions, under the fathers of families and the heads of tribes: yet here we discover no traces of that unfeeling

*It is worthy of remark, that this opinion is maintained with refpect to the religion of the Bramins, in a work published at Rome, and noticed in our Review for June, p. 225. S 4

barbarifm,

barbarism, and brutal licentioufnefs, which poets have feigned, and credulous hiftorians and philofophers adopted, concerning the manners of mankind in such a state. Here we find children obedient to their parents, and fervants to their mafters; fubjects fharing with their chief all deliberations refpecting general intereft; leagues folemnly ratified, and faithfully observed; marriages contracted from love, and from family connection; the fanctity of matrimonial engagements held in the highest reverence; the lofs of female virtue thought worthy of death; and adultery confidered as a crime that called for the vengeance of heaven.

"In Syria, during thofe early times, we fee Religion appearing in its most amiable and fimple form: one God, the creator of all things, every where adored, without images, altars, or an established priesthood; equal purity in faith and worship, principle and practice. But in proportion as wealth and luxury increased among the Syrian tribes, their religion grew more fenfual. Like all eastern nations, they became addicted to the worship of the Heavenly bodies; and prieftcraft employed images, and the whole apparatus of delufive fuperftition, to attract the devotion of the people." P. 123.

But we do not proceed far in this divifion of the history, without finding reflections which we think difgraceful to it. In page 130 the following occurs:

"Myfterious, as it may feem, this defirable country was promised to the feed of Abraham before the inhabitants had become idolaters; and a prophetic curfe had been denounced against them, before they were a people. How wonderful are the councils of heaven!— but in nothing revealed to man, so wonderful, as in the predilection of the Most High for the Hebrew nation."

This indecent fneer is evidently intended to convey two objections against the fcriptures of the Old Teftament. But what are they when examined? The first turns upon the supposed injuftice of condemning a people prophetically before they had offended, and has reference only to the old and acknowledged difficulty of reconciling divine foreknowledge with human freewill. Either, therefore, it has no force at all, or it militates equally against the whole idea of prophecy, and even against the Divine Omnifcience on which that notion refts. The fagacious hiftorian will gain no credit by taking up fuch queftions as this: Milton has difpofed of them, in much more fuitable hands, by making them the favourite topics to exercife the leisure of demons:

"Others apart fat on a hill retir'd,

"In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high
"Of Providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate,
"Fix'd fate, free-will, foreknowledge abfolute,
"And found no end in wandring mazes loft."
Par. Loft, b. ii. p. 557.

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This question then which puzzled fallen angels, we may fafely leave unfolved. The other reflection, which raifes a fuppofed difficulty on the predilection of the Almighty for the Hebrew nation, might have been done away by a fingle text, which, among the number he examined, in vain oppofition to the affertion of Warburton on this fubject, the author unfortunately overlooked. It is as exprefsly to the point, as if it had been written purposely to obviate the doctor's trite and often-refuted objection, the well-known drift of all the fneers and farcafms of Voltaire against the Jews. It is this:

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Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the Lord thy God hath caft them out from before thee, faying, For my righteousness the Lord bath brought me in to poffefs this land: but for the wickednefs of these nations the Lord doth drive them out from before thee. Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thy heart, doft thou go to poffefs their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the Lord fware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob. Understand therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to poffefs it, for thy righteoufnefs; for thou art a fiffnecked people." Deut. ix. 4, 5, 6.

A people cannot be more ftrongly warned against fancying themselves the perfonal favourites of the Almighty, why then fhould Dr. Ruffel fuppofe it for them, but that his mind has received that unfortunate bias which is gained by reading the French wits, who call themselves philofophers? For the exemplary piety of three men a public reward was given, in the promife to adopt their pofterity; a people holy enough to have been chofen for their virtue could not have been found: it was fufficient that, in choofing thefe, regard was had to virtue, though deceased, and the purposes of Almighty wifdom were fulfilled:

Διος δ' ετελείετο βέλη,

Equally unhappy is the Doctor in his attack upon the mode by which the Hebrews were established in Canaan, which he thinks proper to reprefent as offenfive to humanity, and even execrable. He fays, "Yet humanity must ever condemn the "means employed to attain that empire, and virtue hold them "in execration, Cruelty can admit of no vindication in the 66 eye of focial man; and any attempt to palliate it on theolo"gic grounds muft impeach the most amiable attribute of the "Deity. The God of Mofes feemed to delight in blood." P. 144. Theologic ground is certainly the only rational ground on which to place a queftion profeffedly theological; a part of a theological history: what then are we to fay? Hath

not

not the Creator of all men a judicial right over the lives of all men, and if they become guilty in his fight, has he not a right to fweep them from the earth by any mode of punishment he may felect? That men may fin, and that men may die for their fins, is no new or ftrange doctrine in theology, nor offenfive to reafon or humanity and all the wide-wasting calamities by which whole diftricts are at any time unpeopled, bear witness to fuch exercise of the Divine power. What then was the prefent cafe? Had thefe been tranfactions between men and men only, they might have been esteemed fanguinary; though the prevailing mode of war throughout the inhabited world, in thofe unpolished times, would have palliated them by common example; but here were men perverfely given to idolatry and fin, fliff-necked in their difpofition to fuch abominations, made the inftruments of divine vengeance to punish yet more depraved offenders, whofe crimes had filled their measure, They were expressly told, as we have feen, that it was not for their own merit that they were felected to the protection of God, but for that of their ancestors, and that the land was given to them not for their virtue, but for the wickedness of those they were to expel. If then the Canaanites deserved the feverity of divine judgment, by what means could it be executed more wifely than by the fword of the Ifraelites, who, thus prevailing, would obtain at once an increafed confidence in the divine promifes revealed to them, and an increased horror of thofe crimes which they were thus ordained to punish? No confequence could be justly drawn from these events with respect to the ufual tranfactions between men and men; for no other men could ever be in the fame fituation, nor even the fame people, without exprefs command from revelation. Unless, therefore, it be an impeachment of the most amiable attribute of the Deity, that thofe various calamities arife by which so many lives of men are loft, it certainly is none, that he used the fword of Joshua to punifh one fet of offenders, and to overawe another.

As we have thought it neceffary to notice thefe points in fome degree at length, we fhall at prefent take leave of this hiftorian, without noticing feveral smaller hints and inuendoes of fimilar tendency, heartily lamenting, that his mind fhould be fo warped by a vain philofophy, as to be inclined to take falfe views of all that is connected with revelation; and that success and approbation fhould have had no better effects than to embolden him to bring forward principles, which, in his former works, he thought it prudent to keep in more obfcurity. The Hiftory of Ancient Europe would have been a proper prefent for young perfons, had it not been tainted with this poifon; but, till thefe offenfive paffages fhall be expunged or altered,

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