onfiftency between them, there could be no loubt but that the fenfe of the firft and pureft Ages was rather to be received for the fenfe of he Apoftles. The carrying this Matter lower, nay indeed fhew how faithful Pofterity were n preferving their Original Traditions, but can dd nothing to the credit of the Traditions hemselves. No more undoubtedly than a feond-hand Witness can add to the credit of the irft Witness of a Fact, upon whofe Teftimony, imfelf received and believed it. Indeed not fo nuch. For even a fecond-hand Witnefs's Teftinony must be much more credible than that which is derived at the diftance of many Centuies, not to the fecond, but perhaps to the hunredth hand. I may therefore be excufed from ater Teftimonies, confidering that they cannot make what I have faid, more credible than it is already proved to be without them.

under either

Nor will it be neceffary to enlarge on the §. XLVII. deviating Facts of even good Men, when the Facts are not to Rule it felf is fufficiently established. It is cer- be regarded, tain, that no Human Authority whatsoever can peculium, aabrogate a Divine Law, not grounded on pru-gainst the Rule: dential Reasons which may fail, but on Reasons uncapable of failing. And fuch are thefe on which our present Doctrine has been fettled. The Unity of both Peculia is grounded, as I have shewn, on this derivation of a Holy Seed from Abraham. This will make it as neceffary that the Holy Seed fhould be continued, as it is that the Unity between both Peculia fhould be fo, which God (no doubt) defigned fhould be perpetual. Nor can that Holiness of the Seed be continued but on the fame terms on which it was fettled, at least at the establishment of the new Peculium. What was thought requifite for continuing the Holiness of the Seed then, muft

be obferved ftill, if we will ftill expect that God fhould ftill account us a Holy Seed. And what was then thought derogatory to that H linefs, muft (for the fame Reafon) be though fo ftill, if we would derive the fame Holine God has fignified no defign of changing his for mer Law, to fecure us in judging otherwife. Nor has be given any power to his Church, but in cafes not then provided for, or provided for on mutable temporary Reasons, neither of which can be pretended here. No Divine Laws whatfoever could hold, if Human Violations of them might be pleaded as Precedents for violating the Laws themselves. No Examples, even of good Men, can pretend to it. So far as they Act a gainst any known Law, they are not good, and will deferve punishment, fo far they are from any right to Authority. Mens Laws may indeed be over-ruled, and at length abrogated by known Practice to the contrary, when Criminals are too numerous, or too powerful for them. But that can never be the cafe in relation to a

ny Law of God. Ignorance of the Law is rare ly allowed to excufe; fo far it is from warranting, or authorizing any thing that is committed against it. Samfon was authorized by God to marry the Philiftine, and fo might others in the Old Teftament, though as little be men tioned of it in their Cafe as was in his to his Parents. But this can be a Precedent for none but those who can plead the like difpenfation of the Legiflator that he had. Till they can do fo, the cafe will not be the fame, and therefore can be no Precedent for them. For my part! am apt to think, that it was but little of their Law that was obferved by the Jews in their Captivities. A good part of it fuppofed them in Paleftine, and was indeed practicable no

where

where else. In their Captivities they also wantged that reading of the Law publickly, and giving them the fenfe of it, which we find looked on as a rarity in the time of Ezra. Their lofs of their old native Tongue in which the Law was written, fhews plainly, how much their private reading of the Law was neglected by the firft Generation. This made it impoffible for them afterwards, when the Tongue was quite loft. This might, in no long time, make them very ignorant of the Fus, when they wanted the ordinary ufe of the Priefts and Levites intermixed among them, to urge them to, and inftruct them in it. Withal, the reafon of the Law concerned them principally as they were free, and capable of entring into legal Stipulations. And fo far as it did fo, it would not oblige them in their Slavery, when even their Perfons were not at their own difpofal. The Holy Land, and their living as a People in a Body by themselves, would make them liable to many obligations to Holinefs, which would not reach them in a ftrange Land, when they were mixed among other Nations. The Cutheans were obliged to obferve the Law of God, whilft they lived in his Holy Land, not fo when they lived out of it. So the Heathen Slaves were obliged to the Law of the Sabbath, whilst they lived in Paleftine under Jewish Mafters. This might also make the Jews (by the Laws of Nations of that Age,) believe themselves under the like obligations to their Heathen Mafters, when they were Slaves in other prophane Countries diftinct from their own. This might poffibly be David's meaning, when he interprets his own Exile out of his own Holy Country, as a bidding him ferve other Gods, 1 Sam. xxvi. 19. So themselves might underftand it, when it is threatned

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threatned as. a judgment to them, that they fhould ferve other Gods, Deut. xxviii. 64. And when, being Slaves, they were made Parts of Families who had other Deities for their Tutelars, they might think themselves obliged to feek the good of thofe Families, by complying with their Duty to thofe Tutelars. This was agreeable to the Notions of thofe Times. Daniel's practice in not complying, is counted extraordinary, and was the reafon why he was therefore greatly beloved. Otherwise, I know of no other inftance befides him and his companions, that kept ftrictly to their Law in the Times of their Captivity. Tobit's Example is not to this purpofe, even in the defign of the Hellenift who forged that Book. He was of the Holy Land, and of the Holy Seed ftill united in a Body, though very much defiled by their Schifm and their Idolatry. But, how the generality of those who were out of that Land behaved themselves, appears in that fo many of the Priefts themselves were fo ignorant of their own Genealogies in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, Ezr. ii. 63. Neh. vii. 65. It could hardly be expected, that when they were fo careless in keeping up the Memory of their Ge nealogies on which they were to prove their Claim to the Holy Seed, they could have been fevere in obferving the duties which obliged them as defcending from it. The Liberties there complained of, were in the Holy Land it felf, and with the Nations inhabiting it, or bordering upon it. I cannot think they could have found in their Hearts to have begun it then, in the late remembrance of fo memorable a Deliverance, and the grateful fenfe of what might be expected from them in requital for it. I rather impute it to the remaining Foot-steps of that

Liberty

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· Liberty which had been taken, without fcruple, whilft they were Exiles and Slaves. When they were fo, they might very probably believe, that God had then executed the Sentence which he had only threatned in the time of Mofes : That he had degraded them from the dignity of the Peculium, and renounced that particular concern for them which belonged to them no otherwise than as they were his own Peculium. This they might feem to have reafon for, from those Paffages of their own Prophets, which mentioned his giving them a Bill of Divorce, and difowning his Pretenfions to them as his own People. This, being once believed, would ruin all Pretenfions of excelling other Nations as a Holy Seed. Thence forward they must believe themselves equal, and to have none of that Holiness which could be defiled by' Marriages with them. Then they could expect no Tutelar Damon, but of an inferior rank, like those of other Nations. This being fo, it would be indifferent to them which of thofe Tutelars should be intrusted with the care of them, fo they were good, though miniftring and Subor dinate Spirits. But the most obvious and received way of fixing them, was to oblige them to pay their duty to the Tutelar of the Country of their Exile, and of the Nation into which they were there incorporated. And that the generality of them defpaired of ever being reftored to their own Country, appears from the Vi fion of the dead Bones in the Prophet Ezekiel. That fhews, that they thought it as incredi ble, and as neceffarily requiring a miraculous interpofition of an extraordinary Providence to bring it to pass, as a Refurrection of dead Bodies in this Life. They who were of this mind might think themselves condemned by Provi

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dence