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bad fruit, that is, it does not naturally produce those things fo greatly injurious to fociety, as he feems to have charged it with, but admits that, with regard to fociety, it may be a harmless thing; and therefore, he excuses innocent Idolaters, that is, those whofe idolatry is not hurtful to society, from that feverity, which he thinks was just, when exercised upon the idolatrous Ifraelites. So that, when Mr. Fofter is to justify the feverity ufed by the Jews against Idolaters among them, then he confiders it as the natural parent of every thing that is mischievous to fociety; and this he feems to make the reafan why the Jews were to be kept from it, the doing of which, according to Mr. Fofter, was the only end and the whole design of their civil conftitution; but when other Idolaters are to be excused from fuch severity, then Mr. Fofter feems not to perceive any fuch natural connection or relation betwixt Idolatry and those bad things, fo as that one will naturally produce the other, but Idolatry may be, with respect to fociety, very innocent and harmless. But, furely, if Idolatry (that is, paying refpect to a fictitious Deity, or to the true God, by or through an image, set up to represent either of these)

may

may

any

be practifed in fome countries, without fuch mischievous confequences to fociety, as Mr. Fofter feems to fuppofe it may; then, why muft it be prefumed, that it had, or would produce thofe bad things in Canaan, except it can be made appear, that such a malignant infectious quality in idolatry was peculiar to that country only?

AGAIN; that the laws against Idolatry, in the Jewish conftitution, were defigned and intended to keep that people (not as Mr. Fofter has put it, from being over-run with, but) quite clear of all idolatrous practices, I think, does not admit of a difpute; but that the whole civil constitution of the Jews was folely intended to answer that purpose, seems, to me, to be past all belief. For, fuppofing that end had been obtained, that alone would not have been a security to them; because, notwithstanding that, they might have been a very wicked and unhappy people, and which was too much their cafe, after the Babilonish captivity, tho' they kept themselves clear of idolatry. The civil conftitution of the Jews was intended to answer several leffer defigns, befides the great and ultimate end to which that, and all other civil conftitutions are, or ought to be, directed. Thus

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it was intended to keep the Jews from idolatry, as aforefaid: And thus it was defigned to keep them distinct, and separate from all other people of the world; and accordingly, they were forbid to mix themselves, by marriages, with the people of any other nation; which political Jewish conftitution is so far ftifly adhered to, by the people called Quakers, as that they do not admit of any marriages among them, but where both parties are of the fame religious or political fociety, viz. Quakers. Now, tho' the Jewish conftitution was intended to answer both these ends; yet, to aver that it was folely intended to answer either, or both of these purposes, or to aver that to act against either,or both of those designs, by paying respect to a fictitious Deity,as aforefaid, or by marrying a foreigner,fuppofing these practices became general, that this entirely diffolved, and destroyed the whole defign of that conftitution, would be to aver without any ground or foundation for it. The great and ultimate end, which the civil conftitution of the Jews was intended to obtain, muft needs have been to guard and fecure the common good of that people, fo far as their civil interest was concerned, by engaging each individual to join in mutual affistance and protection, whereby

the

the indigent would be fupported and the weak protected; and, accordingly, many laws, or rules of affection and action, were given them, to answer this grand purpose; and, probably, it was to this that all lesser defigns were intended to be fubfervient. Now, if the principal (not to say the fole) defign of the civil conftitution of the Jews, confidered meerly as civil, (for Mr. Fofter has excluded all religious confiderations out of the cafe) was to answer the purposes of civil affociation, by fecuring to the people their civil intereft, which it must needs have been, else it would not have come under the denomination of a civil conftitution; then, all fuch facts as directly and immediately affected the welfare of that fociety in their civil intereft, and was injurious to it,and which, if fuch practices became general, they would wholly fubvert the grand defign of that conftitution, fuch facts, according to Mr. Fofter, would deferve capital punishment, of which kind, perhaps, theft and murder may be thought to be: but then, fuch facts as did not directly and immediately affect fociety in their civil interest, but only might do it in their remote and uncertain confequences, and which, if they became general, would P 4

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not entirely diffolve and destroy the main defign of that conftitution, of which kind the paying respect to a fictitious Deity, as aforefaid, and marrying a foreigner,may, perhaps, be judged to be; these lefs offences against fociety, furely, upon Mr. Fofter's foot of argument, ought to be treated with much greater lenity. And, feeing the civil conftitution of the Jews required the less offence against fociety, viz. Idolatry, to be punished with death, and the greater offence, viz. Theft, with only requiring the criminal to restore fourfold; the question is, wherein lies the wijdom, equity, and goodness of these branches of that conftitution? Upon the whole, it appears, at leaft to me, that what Mr. Fofter has offered, does not justify the Severity exercised by the Jews against Idolaters, tho' of their own community; and that it rather burts, than helps, the cause it is intended to ferve.

BESIDES, as to the idolatrous Canaanites abovementioned, it may fairly and pertinently be asked, what had they done more than other Idolaters, that they should be fingled out, and made the monument of so Severe a revenge? And that too, to make way for the fettlement of a stubborn worthless

race

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