166 



quiesce in the propriety of consecrating to these objects of 

 hope and terror, all tl)at was most dear and precious to their 

 votaries ; and the sacrifice of their flocks would soon be suc- 

 ceeded by the immolation of their children. 



At such a crisis, if no remedy were to be found in human 

 resources, and that the intervention of the Supreme Being 

 became a matter of necessity, with our experience of his 

 counsels, there is little presumption in conjecturing what 

 course his wisdom would be likely to adopt, and how far it 

 would be seconded by human conduct. If previous to its 

 execution, the scheme were submitted to our judgment, 

 should we not think it adequate to the end proposed, if God 

 should raise up a nation consecrated to his service and in- 

 structed in his laws, confessing his hand in its miraculous 

 origin, its miraculous education, its miraculous establish- 

 ment, attached to his parental care by reiterated deliver- 

 ances and unceasing blessings so long as it deserved his 

 favour; and recalled to its allegiance by the severity of pa- 

 rental castigations, whenever it departed from the knowledge 

 he revealed and the obedience he required. 



Such a nation, though surrounded with the absurdities of 

 Polytheism, which plunged the rest of mankind in folly and 

 iniquity, would still, in the main, preserve consistent no- 

 tions of the one true God, his power and providence. Time 

 qnd habit would engraft them in the understanding, and 

 miraculous intervention be no longer necessary. But man 

 is prone to change ; and the solemnities and circumstances 



