BOOK V.

THE NATURE OF THE JEWISH THEOCRACY EXPLAINED:

AND THE DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE STATE PROVED

NOT TO BE IN, NOR TO MAKE PART OF, THE MOSAIC

DISPENSATION.

SECT. I. Little light to be got from the systems of Chris
tian writers, or the objections of Deists,-or from the
Rabbins, or from the Cabalists, concerning the true
nature of the Jewish Republic.-The Hebrew People
separated from the rest of mankind not as favourites, but
to preserve the knowledge of the true God amidst an
idolatrous world,—Vindicated from the calumnious false-
hoods of the Poet Voltaire.

SECT. II. Proves the Jewish Government to be a Theo-
cracy. This form shewn to be necessary: There being
no other, by which opinions could be justly punished by
civil Laws: And without such Laws against idolatry, the
Mosaic Religion could not be supported. The equity
of punishing opinions under a Theocracy, explained.
Bayle censured.-Foster confuted.-The Theocracy easily
introduced, as founded on a prevailing notion of tutelary
Deities. An objection of Mr. Collins to the truth of
Revelation examined ad confuted.-The easy intro-
duction of the Theocracy, it is shewn, occasioned as
easy a defection from the Laws of it.-The inquiry into
the reason of this leads to an explanation of the nature
of the Jewish idolatry.-Lord Bolingbroke's accusation
of the Law of Moses examined and exposed.

SECT. III. Treats of the duration of the Theocracy.-

Shewn to have continued till the coming of CHRIST.-

The arguments of Spencer and Le Clerc to the contrary

examined. The Prophecy of Shiloh explained: the

Bishop of London's Discourse upon it examined and

confuted.

SECT. IV. The Consequences of a Theocracy considered.-

Shewn that it must be administered by an extraordinary

Providence, equally dispensing temporal Rewards and

Punishments, both to the Community and to Particulars.

-That

That Scripture gives this representation of GOD'S
government. And that there are many favourable cir-
cumstances in the character of the Jewish People, to
induce an impartial Examiner to believe that represen-

tation to be true.

SECT. V. Shews, that as temporal Rewards and Punish-
ments were the proper sanction of the Jewish Law, so,
there were no other; Moses entirely omitting the Doc-
trine of a future State.-That this omission was not
accidental, but designed; and of a thing well known by
him to be of high importance to Society.-Proved from
several circumstances in the book of Genesis,—and from
the Law of punishing the crimes of Parents on their
Posterity, which was to supply the want of the Doctrine
of a future state. The nature and equity of this Law
explained, and defended against Unbelievers.-It is then
shewn that as Moses taught not the Doctrine of a future
State of Rewards and Punishments, so neither had the
ancient Jews any knowledge of it.-Proved from the
books of the Old Testament.

SECT. VI. Proves the same point from the books of the
New Testament.-What notion the early Jews had con-
cerning the Soul, explained.

APPENDIX and NOTES to the Fifth Book.

BOOK VI.

OF

ALL THE TEXTS

CONTAINS AN EXAMINATION

BROUGHT FROM THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS

то PROVE A FUTURE STATE OF REWARDS AND

PUNISHMENTS DID MAKE PART OF THE MOSAIC

DISPENSATION.

SECT. I. States the Question,-shews the Adversaries of

this Work to have much mistaken it.-And that the true

state of the question alone is a sufficient answer to all

objections.

SECT. II. Enters on an examination of the Texts brought

from the Old Testament ;-first from the book of Joв-

3

which

which is proved to be an allegoric Poem, written on the

return from the Captivity, and representing the Circum-

stances of the People of that time.-The famous words,

I know that my Redeemer liveth, &c. shewn to signify, in

their literal sense, the hopes of a temporal deliverance only.
SECT. III. Contains an examination of the rest of the
Texts urged from the Old Testament.

SECT. IV. Contains an examination, of the Texts pro-
duced from the New Testament, in which the nature of
the Apostolic Reasonings against the Errors of Jewish
Converts is explained and illustrated.

NOTES to the first four Sections.

SECT. V. The agreement of the Proposition of no future

State in the Mosaic Dispensation, with the VIIth Article

of the Church of England evinced. That the Old

Fathers looked for more than transitory Promises, illus-

trated in the famous case of ABRAHAM,-where it is

proved that the command to offer Isaac was merely an

information, in a representative Action instead of Words,

of the Redemption of Mankind by the great Sacrifice

of CHRIST.-Shewn how this Interpretation overturns

all the infidel objections against the truth of this part of

Abraham's history.

SECT. VI. To support the foregoing Interpretation, The

Original, Nature, and Use of TYPICAL RITES and să-

CONDARY SENSES in Prophecies are inquired into.-In

the course of which Inquiry, the Principles of Mr.

Collins's book concerning the Grounds and Reasons of

the Christian Religion are examined and confuted,—

and likewise the Reasoning of Dr. Sykes against all

double Senses of Prophecies in his book intitled, The

Principles and Connexion of Natural and Revealed Reli-

gion, &c.-The Use and Importance of these Questions

to the subject of The Divine Legation explained.—The

CONCLUSION of the argument, with a recapitulation

of it.

APPENDIX, and NOTES.

PLATES

BELONGING TO THIS

FOURTH VOLUME:

PLATE I.-A Mexican Picture History of the To face

51 years Reign of their Monarch Tenuch.

From Purchas.

PLATE II.—Specimen of the Hieroglyphics of
the North Americans. From Lafitau.

PLATE III. Characters found upon Rocks in}

Siberia, by Stahlenberg.

PLATE IV.—Part of the North Side of the

Ramessæan Obelisk. From Kircher.

PLATE V.-A Specimen of the more Modern

Chinese Characters, taken from their more

Ancient. From Kircher.

PLATE VI. Scheme, shewing the Change from

Analogic Figures to Marks by Institution, in

Chinese Writing. From Martinus Martinius.

PLATE VII.-[Two Plates; one marked N°I.

-the other, N° II. & N° III.] Ancient Egyp

tian Hieroglyphic Figures and Letters. From

Count Caylus.

p.119

ibid.

ibid.

p. 120

}

p. 124

p. 129

p. 131

PLATE VIII.—Part of one Side of the Floren- p.157

tine Obelisk. From Kircher.

PLATE IX.-Fig. 1. from the Bembine Table;

Fig. 2. a Mummy; and Fig. 3. the Pectoral

Cloth of the Mummy, on which is depicted

the manner of embalming. From Kircher's

dipus.

}

p. 199

PLATE X.-Figures from the Bembine Table, p. 297

illustrative of the Idolatry of Egypt.

ERRATUM:

p. 150. last line, after well, insert as.

DEDICATION

TO THE EDITION OF

BOOKS IV. V. VI. OF THE

DIVINE LEGATION OF MOSES;

1765.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

WILLIAM LORD MANSFIELD,

LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF ENGLAND.

MY LORD,

THE purpose of this Address is not to make a return for the favours I have received from you, for they are many and great; but to add one more security to myself, from the malice of the present and the forgetfulness of future times. A purpose, which though it may be thought less sober than the other, is certainly not more selfish. In plain terms, I would willingly contrive to live, and go down to posterity under the protection of your Name and Character; from which, that Posterity, in the administration of public justice, must receive their instruction; and in the duties of private life, if they have any virtuous ambition, will take their example. But let not this alarm you. I intend not to be your Panegyrist. To praise you for loquence, would be to praise you for a thing below your Character, unless it were for that species of Eloquence which MILTON describes, and You have long practised. "TRUE ELOQUENCE, says he, I find to be none, but "the serious and hearty love of Truth: And that, whose "mind soever is fully possessed with a fervent desire VOL. IV.

B

" to