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These are, as this Author obferves, the fundamental Points of all Religion, and of neceffary Belief for the Reformation of a depraved World. a And therefore, to render them effectual, and to give them their proper Weight, they ought to have been delivered in the most clear and undif fembled Manner, free from all Ambiguities and Equivocations, in all the commanding Force of fimple and perfwafive Truth, fo as to leave the incredulous without Excufe, and the honest and well-difpofed Mind without difcouraging Sufpicions and Distrusts. An allegorical Shade must certainly throw fome Degree of Obscurity upon the Truths veiled under it. How near foever it may be made to approach to the Clearness of naked Truth, and how eafy foever to the Apprehenfion, the naked Truth itself must still be more clear, and more eafy; because its Clearness arifes only from its nearer Approach to Truth. If any Part of the Disguise remains, the Features of Truth cannot be fo readily, or fo furely known, as when the whole is removed. This must be thought a confiderable Objection to the Allegorical Scheme. For We cannot help wishing that Allegory had had no Place in the Delivery of thofe Truths which, of all others, ought to be made with the greatest Clearnefs. It will be hard to affign any Advantage attending it to counterbalance this Objection. To say that it was made Use of in Conformity to the Jewish Manner of Writing is but a weak Reason for its

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Introduction here. It might indeed have carried fome Appearance of Strength in it, if this Piece of History had been defigned for the Ufe of the Jews alone. But it was defigned for the Information of many People and Nations, where the Eastern Manner of speaking was neither known nor understood. The Doctrines it contains are the very fundamental Points of all Religion. Whofe Obligation was to outlast the Genius of the Eastern People, to be extended to all those to whom Providence should please to open the Treafures of his Revelation. Our Saviour has not inculcated these Doctrines afresh to Us, and therefore he intended, no doubt, that we should draw them from the Mofaic Spring. Since then the Jews made but a fmall Part of those, for whose Benefit this Account was given, however clear these Doctrines might have appeared to them in an allegorical Drefs, We can hardly fuppose that their Taste alone would have been confulted, and infinitely the more numerous Part neglected, fince the fimple Truth could not have been lefs clear to them, and must have been much more clear to all others.

THE Jews had in the Body of their Law, and in the Course of their Tranfactions a great Mixture of Types. But then there is not one of their moral Doctrines, which were defigned to be of eternal Use and Obligation, like the Doctrines here delivered, that is thus removed from the Light, They were intended for common Ufe, and therefore their Light is common to all.

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They are always expreffed in plain and fimple Terms, equally intelligible to all those, for whose Inftruction they were equally intended.

IF, in inculcating Doctrines, the allegorical Scheme is much inferior to the literal in Point of Clearness, it falls ftill much more beneath it in Point of Authority to inforce thofe Doctrines. An Allegory may be contrived in an agreeable Manner to contain a Summary of Doctrines already known, but there can be very little Tendency in any Fable, especially if it be an Apologue, to create or inforce a Belief of Points unknown or disputed. When Things are related as they are, We cannot difpute their Truth, without calling in Question the Veracity of the Author. But we are taught to deny every Propofition of an Apologue. And indeed the Author of an Apologue does not affirm any thing directly. The Doctrines he inculcates are feen only by a faint Kind of reflected Light. But if those Doctrines are to be collected from Facts equally queftionable, I fee not how an Apologue can be made at all to affirm the Existence of Facts. For Example in the Hiftory before Us not only this Doctrine is to be taught, that God is to be worShipped as the Author of our Being and all we enjoy, but alfo the Fact from whence it is drawn, that God is the Author of our Being. Now if this Account is made an Apologue, all Authority in it for our believing that Man was created by God, is at once undermined. The Words indeed affirm the Fact. But the Words do not contain

contain the true Mind of the Author. It is a Collection of Perfons and Actions imaginary and impoffible, and We are by no Means to believe any one Propofition as it there ftands; nay on the contrary we are bound to deny them. It is true the ancient Sages, in laying the Foundations of Religion, and accounting for the Origin of Things, fometimes fell into the Apologue. But this was not the Effect of Choice, but Ignorance. They did not give their Accounts this Form because they thought it the most eligible, or the best fitted for teaching unknown Truths, but because they themselves wanted the Means of coming at the Truth. They therefore avoided the Appearance of it as induftriously as poffible, and did not deliver them in fuch Colours as must at first Sight betray them for Fictions and the Sport of the Imagination; but they endeavoured to lay down Systems apparently rational, and fuch as the Minds of Men must approve, and recommended them, not for the Entertainment of Mankind as mere Works of Ingenuity, but for their ferious Perfwafion and Belief, as the Dictates of Reafon, or the venerable Truths of Tradition. They fet them in what they esteemed the most perfwafive Light, and fupported them by all the Strength of Authority they could procure. They always endeavoured to make them moft reconcileable either to the common Opinions, or to the Reason, of Mankind, and therefore never fixed upon them any fufpicious Marks of Incredibility. None at least that

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they apprehended would appear fuch to the Perfons for whom they wrote, and discover them to be manifest Fictions to thofe they defigned to inftruct. For what good Effects could they poffibly produce amongft a People perfwaded that they were falfe? Sure no Man would go ferioufly about to build a Syftem of practical Doctrines on a Foundation, whofe Weaknefs was not fo much as diffembled or concealed. Let us imagine fome ancient Sage, who had at Heart the Reformation of Mankind, when he was endeavouring to establish the Fundamentals of Religion, to have accompanied his Description of the Origin of Things with fuch a Declaration as this. "And now I hope none of You are so weak as "to believe that there is a Syllable of Truth in "what I have delivered to You. You must be "blind if you do not plainly fee that it is a wild "and groundless Invention of my own, which I "neither believe myself nor defire You to believe. "All I request of You is to act as if every Thing

I have faid was true." Could he hope after this that the People would pay any great Regard to his Authority, or would effectually embrace the Belief of thofe Doctrines he intended to draw from this Account for the Influence of their Practice? Certainly this Inftance of his Sincerity would ruin the whole Defign. Now if Mofes has fixed upon his Account of the Creation and Fall a Brand of Incredibility, if he has taken Care that it fhall be attended with indifputable Marks of Fiction, and every where car

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