unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him*. And again: He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly, etc. he shall dwell on high his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks, bread shall be given him, his waters shall be suret. And we learn from a parabolical command in Ezekiel how exactly these promises were fulfilled: And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh, and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. And to others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity. Slay utterly old and young, both maids and little children, and women; but come not near any man upon whom is the Mark; and begin at my sanctuary, &c. But God, by the prophet Amos, describes this administration of providence in the fullest manner: Also I have withholden the rain from you, when there was yet three months to the harvest, and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not, withered. So two or three cities wandered into one city to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew, &c.§. And again: Lo I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel amongst all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. Yet all this he had overlooked as not amounting, I suppose, to proof. X. At last he owns I had allowed, "that the sacred "writings themselves freely speak of the inequality of providence to particulars in such a manner as men living under a common providence are accus"tomed to speak¶." Which shews it was impossible I should mean the proposition of No transgressor ever ¶ Exam. of Mr. W's Account, &c. F. 188. See also Div. Leg. Book V. § 4. escaping 66 escaping punishment, &c. in the sense he has put upon it. But this is so far from shaming him for his prevarication, that, after having given examples to confirm my observation of the Sacred Writers speaking of the inequalities of providence, he goes on thus: "This ob"jection taken from the complaints made by the Sacred "Writers was so full and strong, that, though Mr. War"burton promises to prove hereafter that an equal providence was actually administered, yet, for his "Reader's present satisfaction, he will shew, that these representations of inequality are very consistent "with that before given of the equality of providence. "I will examine with as much brevity as I can, what he "has said; and leave you to judge whether he has said enough to give his Reader present satisfaction*." The first remark I shall make on this passage is, that it represents me forced to make an acknowledgment, not out of any regard to truth, but through necessity.Secondly, where he says that I promise to prove hereafter that an equal providence was actually administered, he mistakes, as usual, my sense, and supposes I meant, in the third volume of The Divine Legation. Whereas all, who understand that book, know I meant, in the latter part of the second, then in my hands. And even he himself may now see as much by the short view I have given of it, in the first part of these Remarks : where speaking of this matter, I express myself in the following terms:-Here the reader should observe that my argument does not require me to prove more than that an extraordinary providence is REPRESENTED in Scripture to be administered: the proof of its REAL administration it is the purpose of this Work to give through the great MEDIUM of my theses,-The omission of the Doctrine of a future State of Rewards and Punishments.-If therefore I clearly shew from the whole Jewish history that the matter is thus represented, the inference from my medium, which proves the representation true, answers all objections, both as to our inadequate conception of the manner how such a providence could be administered; and as to certain passages in Holy Scripture that seem to *Exam. &c. p. 191. D VOL. XII. clash clash with this its GENERAL REPRESENTATION. And yet both these objections (to leave no shadow of doubt unsatisfied) are considered likewise. These considerations our Examiner has now attacked. Let us see with what success. 66 XI. He tells the reader, my first consideration is, "That when the Sacred Writers speak of the inequality of providence, and the unfit distribution of things, they sometimes mean that state of it "amongst their Pagan neighbours, and not in Judea, as particularly in the Book of Psalms and Eccle"siastes*." To this he replies," Asaph, or who"ever was the author of the psalm before cited, com"plains heavily at the prosperity of the wicked. These "wicked men were, it seems, not Jews, but his Pagan "neighbours," &c. Would not any one, now, believe that this Psalm before cited was one I had cited, to prove that, in the Book of Psalms the writers of it sometimes mean that state of providence amongst their Pagan neighbours? So far from it, I had cited it to the very contrary purpose; as a proof of the extraordinary providence to the Jewish people, who are there all along spoken of. But what then? He had cited it a page or two before: and his trade required him to cite it again. Or did he, indeed, imagine, that when I said, The writers of the Book of Psalms sometimes spoke of that state of providence amongst their Pagan neighbours, I meant in every psalm? It is hard to tell. I have sometimes catched him at a worse inference. However, as he loves to be encouraged, I shall say no more to him of the Psalms, till he has cited, and of course misinterpreted, every one of them: and then he may hear further from me. In the other case of Ecclesiastes (thanks however to the nature of the book) he has argued fairer at least. "Much less still (says he) is the reflection of the "preacher in Ecclesiastes designed to relate to his Pagan neighbours. It is an universal observation, "that the work of God is inscrutable even to a wise On which account the author proposes to de man. • Div. Leg. Book V. § 4. + Exam, of Mr. W's Account, p. 191, 192, "clare, "clare, that no man could judge of either love or hatred by what was before him, since all things come alike "to all, there is one event to the righteous and to "the wicked, &c. This was an evil among all things "done under the sun, that there is one event to all. "Has he made any exception for Israel? No: but " he maintains, that the race is not to the swift; nor "the battle to the strong; neither yet bread to the wise; nor yet riches to the men of understanding; nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and "chance happeneth to them all. Eccles. ix. 11. Could a wise man, under an extraordinary providence "himself, talk in this manner, thus universally, and make no exceptions for his own nation? Did he not see a "difference betwixt the people of Israel, and all other people? Or if there was such a difference as Mr. "Warburton contends for, could he fail taking notice of it? Would not his own people be led into wrong "notions by such universal assertions? I cannot there"fore but think, that this solution given by Mr. War"burton is not only not sufficiently well grounded, but "that it has no foundation at all, viz. that the Psalmist, 66 and the Son of David, spoke of their Pagan neigh"bours, and not of the Jews, when they expressed "themselves so strongly about the prosperity of the "wicked and the misfortune of good men*. I now begin to think, he had some reason to lament, that a right good critical and grammatical comment has never yet been wrote upon the Biblet. Till then I shall beg leave to supply his wants with a short account of the general plan and purpose of this famous book. It is a philosophical inquiry into the chief good or summum bonum, so universal a subject of dispute amongst the ancient Sages; and managed much in their way; i. e. chiefly employed in detecting the false notions of happiness. And that it was not unusual for Solomon to personate the garb and manners of the Gentile Sages we understand by Josephus, in the story he tells of Solomon sending riddles to the king of Tyre as trials of the abilities of his wise men; whose sagacity, at that time, lay * Examination of Mr. W's Account, p. 195, 196. D 2 chiefly, chiefly, as we find by Herodotus, towards such kind of decyphering. This alone is sufficient to shew us, that the sacred Writer addressed himself to his countrymen, not so much under the idea of a selected nation, as to part of the posterity of Adam and of the human race at large. Otherwise, to what purpose was this philosophical inquiry? For as the chosen people, their law expressly pointed out, and led them directly to, the supreme good: which, indeed, the sacred Writer, at last ends with: and he could do no other, both as he was a Jew, and as he addressed himself to his countrymen, neither of whom could long divest themselves of their peculiar character. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter (says he); fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man*. But to be a little more particular. The BOOK OPENS in this manner:-Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit has a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? All things are full of labour. Man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. The thing that hath been is that which shall be-and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See this is new? There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come, with those that shall come after? The propositions are here all general; and plainly relative to mankind at large: for some of them are not true with respect to the chosen nation; such as the assertion that nothing was new under the sun, &c. But the following words more expressly declare his meaning to be general, And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom, concerning all things that are done under heaven-I have seen all the works that are done under the sun. In the SECOND chapter he still more professedly assumes the character of an ancient Sage; and inquires whether happiness be to be found in mirth and jollity; in magnificence; in luxury; in wealth; in power, or in wisdom. All, but the last, he gives up. * Chap. xii. 13. ↑ Chap, i, 2-12. Ibid. 13, 14. |