sons of men, one might defy him, with all his poetical or historical invention, to hit upon any more efficacious than that which Moses has here employed. St. Paul, when he would enlarge the affections of the Athenians (to whom all other nations, as well as the Jews, were become BARBARIANS) to that extent which Christian benevolence requires, employed no other topic than this, that GOD HAD MADE OF ONE BLOOD ALL NATIONS OF MEN: and from thence inferred, that they all stand in the relation of BRETHREN to one another.

But it may be asked, What are we then to think of that ODIUM HUMANI GENERIS, with which the ancient Pagans charged the Jews? I have shewn, in the first volume of this work, that there was not the least shadow from fact to support this calumny; and that it was merely an imaginary consequence, which they drew from the others declared hate and abhorrence of the Idols of Paganism, and firm adherence to the sole worship of the one true God. But besides this original, the Principles and Doctrine, there was another, the Rites and Ceremonies of the Mosaic Religion; either of them sufficient alone to perpetuate this wretched calumny amongst ignorant and prejudiced men. That the Doctrine was worthy of its original, the enemies of Revelation confess; That the establishment of the Ceremonies, as they were necessary to support the Doctrine, were of no less importance, I shall now shew our Poet.

To separate one people from all others, in order to preserve the doctrine of the Unity, was a just purpose.

No separation could be made but by a ceremonial Law. No ceremonial Law could be established for this purpose, but what must make the Gentiles be esteemed unclean by the separated People,

The

The consequence of an estimated uncleanness, must be the avoiding it with horror: which, when observed by their enemies, would be maliciously represented to arise from this imaginary odium humani generis. What idea then must we needs entertain, I will not say of the Religion, but of the common honesty of a modern Writer, who, without the least knowledge of the Jewish Nation or their Policy, can repeat an old exploded calumny with the assurance of one who had discovered a newly acknowledged truth? But the Pagans were decent when compared to this rude Libertine. They never had the insolence to say, that this pretended hate of all mankind was COMMANDED BY THE LAW ITSELF. They had more sense as well as modesty. They reverenced the great Jewish Lawgiver, who, they saw, by his account of the origin of the human race, had laid the strongest foundation amongst his people, of brotherly love to all men. A foundation, which not one of the most celebrated Lawgivers of Antiquity had either the wit to inforce, or the sagacity to dis

cover.

Well, but if the Jews were indeed that DETESTABLE People which the Poet Voltaire represents them to be, they were properly fitted however with a Law, which, he assures us, was full as DETESTABLE. What pity is it that he did not know just so much of his Bible, however, as might serve to give some small countenance at least to his impieties! We might then have had the Prophet to support the Poet, where, speaking in the name of God, he says,-I gave them Statutes that were not good, and Judgments whereby they should not live*. But to leave this to his maturer projects; and go on with him, in his pious design of eradicating

• Ezekiel. See Book IV. § 6.

this

this devoted People; for he assures us, we see, that unless they be rooted out, their DETESTABLE POLICY will set them upon enslaving all mankind.

He hath shewn the PEOPLE to be detestable, and their LAW to be detestable; and well has he provided for the reception of both, a most detestable COUNTRY. You may, if you please, suppose all this done in vindication of the good providence of the God of Israel; for a People so bad, certainly deserved neither a better Government nor Habitation. No, he had a nobler end than this; it was to give the lie to the Legate of the God of Israel, who promised to them in his Master's name, A land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands. Having gotten Moses at this advantage, by the assistance of Servetus and his followers (for he always speaks from good authority) he draws this delightful picture of the HOLY LAND-"All of it "which is situated towards the south, consists of DE66 SERTS OF SALT SANDS on the side of the Mediterranean and Egypt; and of HORRID MOUNTAINS "all the way to Esiongaber, towards the Red-Sea. "These sands, and these rocks, at present possessed

by a few straggling Arabian Robbers, were the an"cient patrimony of the Jews."

Now admitting this account to be true: 1. In the first place, we may inform our Poet, that, from the face of a country lying desert, there is no safe judgment to be made of the degree of its fertility when well cultivated; especially of such a one as is here described, consisting of rugged mountains and sandy plains, which,

Tout ce qui est situé vers le midi consiste en deserts de sables salés du côté de la Mediterranée & de l'Egypte, & en montagnes affreuses jusqu'à Esiongaber vers la Mer Rouge. Ces sables & ces rochers, habités aujourd-hui par quelques Arabes Voleurs, sont l'ancienne patrie des Juifs, Add. à l'Hist. Generale, p. 83.

without

without culture, indeed, produce nothing, but which, by human industry in a happy climate, may be made to vie with soils naturally the most prolific. 2. It appears, from the vast numbers which this country actually sustained in the most flourishing times of the Theocracy, that it well answered the character their Lawgiver had bestowed upon it, of a land flowing with milk and honey. 3. The Israelites, when they took possession of it, certainly found it to come up to the character which Moses had given them, of a place where they should find great and goodly Cities which they had not builded, houses full of good things which they had not filled, wells digged which they had not digged, and vineyards and olive-trees which they had not planted*. If, I say, they had not found it so, we should soon have heard of it, from the most turbulent and dissatisfied people upon earth. And it was no wonder they found it in this condition, since they had wrested it from the hands of a very numerous and luxurious People, who had carried arts and arms to some height, when they, in any sense, could be said to have Cities fenced up to Heaven. But the Poet has a solution of this difficulty; for to the Israelites, just got out of their forty years captivity in the Wilderness, this miserable country must needs appear a paradise, in comparison of the Deserts of Param and Cadish Barnea t. Now it is very certain, that no Desert thereabout, could be more horrid or forbidding than that of Judea, as the Poet has here drawn the landscape. But does he think they had quite forgot the fertile plains of Egypt all this time? And if they compared the promised Inheritance to the Wilderness on

* Deut. vi-viii.

-

+ Ce pais fut pour eux une terre delicieuse en comparaison des Déserts de Param & de Cades-Barpé. Hb.

the

the one hand, would they not be as apt to compare it to Egypt on the other? And what Judea gained by the first, it would loose by the second. But he will say, that Generation which came out of Egypt, fell in the Wilderness. What if they did? they left their fondness for its flesh-pots behind them, as we are sufficiently informed from the excessive attachment of their posterity for Egyptian luxury of every kind. 4. But let us admit his account of the sterility of the promised Land, and then see how the pretensions of the Mosaic Mission will stand. We will consider this sterility in either view, as corrigible, or as incorrigible.

If corrigible, we cannot conceive a properer region for answering the ENDS of Providence, as Moses has delivered them unto us, with regard to this People. The first great blessing bestowed on mankind, was to be particularly exemplified in the posterity of Abraham, which was to be like the sand on the sea-shore for multitude: and yet they were to be confined within the narrow limits of a single district: so that some proportionate provision was to be made for its numerous Inhabitants. Affluence by commerce they could not have; for the purpose of their separation required that Idolaters should no more be permitted to come and pollute them, than that they should go amongst Idolaters to be polluted by them: And accordingly, a sufficient care was taken, in the framing of their Laws, to hinder this communication at either end. Thus the advantages from commerce being quite cut off, they had only agriculture to have recourse to, for subsistence of their multitudes. And the natural sterility of the land would force them upon every invention to improve it. And artificial culture produces an abundance, which unassisted nature can never give to the most fruitful soil, and most benignant climate. Add to this,

that