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be his peculiar and favourite people, without any previous proper reafon for fo doing; which unreasonable partiality in the divine conduct, as it will not well comport with the moral rectitude of the divine nature; fo, I apprehend it to have been the foundation of, and to have paved the way for that monftrous doctrine of God's decrees, of his having predeftinated fome to everlasting happiness, and others to eternal mifery, independent of any previous worthiness or unworthiness in his creatures to be the ground of these determinations; which doctrine has been greatly controverted in the Chris tian world. God ftands equally related to all his intelligent creatures, at least to all of the fame fpecies; and therefore, he must be disposed to behave equally or alike to all, as well in this world as in the world to come, 'till their different behaviour introduces a proper reason for the contrary. So that to suppose God had a special regard to the Jewish nation, which was fhewn in vouchfafing them particular marks of his favour, and that he did this as an act of fovereignty, and because he would do fo, without any proper reafon for fo doing; is to suppose that God acted greatly unfuitable to, and unworthy

unworthy of that most perfect intelligence that takes place in him, and which should have directed him to act otherwife. Indeed, there is a reafon affigned for God's shewing such a partial regard to the Jewish nation, not because they were better and more worthy of his favour than any other people; but on account of the respect God had for their Ancestors, viz. Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob, and particularly for their father Abraham's fake; tho', I think, this is fuch a reafon as will not bear being reafoned upon. That God paid a regard to Abraham, equal to his virtue or merit, was to act agreeably to the eternal rules of right and wrong; but had God paid a partial regard to Abraham's pofterity for his fake, by putting upon them the marks of his favour, when they were a ftubborn wicked generation of men, and, as fuch, were not the proper objects of his regard, but greatly the contrary, then he would have acted contrary to those rules; and this, therefore, furely, was not the cafe. For tho', amongst men, we return the kindness to the children that we received from their parents, whether the children, in a moral sense, are worthy of that kindness, or not; and whe

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ther their parents are living, or dead; becaufe parents confider their children as parts of themselves, and the kindness done to their children as done to themselves; yet, I think, fuch a conduct will not take place with regard to the Deity; because, I think, no circumftances can happen that will render the cafes parallel, and, consequently, will render it fit and proper that it fhould be fo. God had received no favour, no kindness from Abraham, nor was it poffible that he should; and therefore, he had no favour, no kindness to return to Abraham's pofterity for his fake. This doctrine of God's fhewing kindness and refentment to children, for the fake and on account of their parents, has long fince been exploded by Ezekiel, (chap. 18.) whom the Jews reckoned into the number of their prophets or wife men. Likewise, in and by the Jewish revelation, a twelfth part of the people of Ifrael were exempted from labour, care and pain in providing for themfelves and families, and were left to live idly and lazily upon the labour and industry of the reft, under the pretext of their being dedicated to God; tho' the prophet took care to fix this great favour and privilege upon

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his own tribe; which conftitution was most unreasonable in itself, as it was greatly burdenfom to that people; and therefore, I think, it could not have been of a divine original. A fample of this we have in the fwarms of religious drones that take place in popish countries, under a like pretence of being dedicated to God; whofe ufefulness or rather hurtfulness to fociety is too well known: but as God never received any honour or reputation by or from fuch conftitutions, as his wisdom and goodness have not, in the leaft, been exemplified thereby, but rather the contrary; fo, furely, he has never countenanced, much lefs inftituted any thing fo injurious and hurtful to fociety as thefe; at leaft, the fuppofition cannot be admitted but with difficulty. I might produce other inftances, in which the Jewish revelation, in fome or other of it's branches, feems, at leaft, not to comport with the moral rectitude of the divine nature; but what I have observed, I think, is fufficient to fhew, that if we admit that revelation, in the grofs, to be divine, fuch admiffion can scarce take place without fome ruffling, fome perturbation of mind, fuppofing we carefully examine and feriously attend to the fubject.

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As to the figns and wonders and mighty deeds which are faid to have attended the people of Ifrael in Egypt, in the wilderness, and under Joshua their leader, until their Settlement in Canaan: as these facts may have taken place under all the circumstances in which they they are related ; fo the cafe may have been otherwife, feeing the credit of those relations refts principally, if not wholly, upon the authority of that fingle hiftory in which they are related. The Jews, from their fettlement in Canaan down to David's time, feem to have been an ignorant, unactive people, who were frequently held in fubjection by the nations around them and as it does not appear, nor is there the leaft ground for prefuming, that the people had copies of their history put into their hands; fo the enlarging, curtailing, altering, or corrupting of that history might eafily have been done, without being taken notice of; and of which we have no certainty, nor even a probability that it was not the cafe; and this confideration, furely, must weaken the authority of that history,and, confequently,muft weaken the credit of those facts that are recorded in it. In David's and Solomon's time, when the Jewish nation was in

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