naanites, it is of importance to know, that there was nothing in their national condition which necessarily excluded them from the Divine mercy; and that they stood on the same footing, with regard to their eternal interests, as any of the other nations of the earth. See Graves's Lectures on the Pentateuch, vol. ii. p. 22.

Note. I beg leave to refer to this valuable work of Dr. Graves for various indirect confirmations of my argument. Whilst apologising for the nature and effects of the Jewish Law, the author has adduced many of the same facts which are here brought forward on behalf of Heathen salvability. This coincidence is the more valuable, as it was altogether undesigned, and has arisen solely from the unity of Truth, when viewed even under different aspects.

SECTION XXIX.

Ruth.-B. C. 1310.

"Ir may be observed," says Dr. Gray, "that the Holy Spirit by recording the adoption of a Gentile woman into the family from which Christ was to derive his origin, might intend to intimate, the comprehensive design of the Christian dispensation." Key to the Old Testament, p. 166.

This remark is judicious; but if our argument be correct, it should be extended into an evidence for the salvability of Heathen nations, whether before or after the coming of Christ. There are no nations which are spoken of with greater severity in Scripture, than the children of Edom, and Moab, and Ammon; and to find that a Rahab and a Ruth obtained mercy, seems to intimate, that these nations were dealt with on the same terms of equity and justice as all others; and that, though they were selected as examples of divine judgments on sinful nations in their tem

poral concerns; yet that, as individuals, they were treated in their eternal destinies like the rest of mankind.

Such is the inference we draw in relation to the present argument; but the Calvinist would infer the very opposite. He views them as exceptions only to mark the general severity more strongly; just as he supposes the providential kindness of God towards Pagan nations was designed only to aggravate their guilt. I leave my reader to decide which is the more probable opinion.

But to establish this reasoning beyond all possibility of doubt, let the following injunctions be pondered and meditated: s Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite, for he is thy brother: thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian, because thou wast a stranger in his land. The children that are begotten of them shall enter into the congregation of the Lord in their third generation." Deut. xxiii. 7, 8.

SECTION XXX.

David and Uriah.-B. C. 1000.

Ir the argument for the universal condemnation of the Heathen were carried to its full extent, it would be difficult to show that any moral obligations could be due towards them. They would be then in the same relation to us as the fallen angels.

But, it is impossible to read the Scripture account of David and Uriah, and not to perceive that no such forlorn and reprobate condition can exist amongst men. Uriah was a Hittite; but from the expressions which are used concerning him (2 Sam. xi. xii.), it is plain, that he was as much beloved by God even as David himself. Solomon," the beloved of the Lord," was born of Bathsheba, this Hittite's widow; a pretty strong evidence that the blood of the Hittites was every whit as good as that of the chosen people. It is painful to observe how often commentators and unbelievers unite in drawing the same

perverted conclusions from Scripture. The one describe God as casting off all the nations of the earth, except the Jews; and the other infer that the God of the Jews could not have been the God of all the nations of the earth. Hoc Ithacus velit.

And yet this kind of theology may boast of great names to uphold it. "St. Jerome noteth, that God leaveth not the good deeds of the heathen unrewarded; who, though they cannot hope by any laudable worldly action, to attain to that eternal happiness reserved for his servants and saints; yet, such is the boundless goodness of God, that he often repayeth them with many worldly gifts and temporal blessings." Raleigh's History of the World, chap. 7. part i. book ii. Is it possible this should be called boundless goodness?