To begin then a good way backward, I would advance this, in the
first place, that those who have been admirers of good order, and of living
under common laws, and who began to introduce them, may well have this
testimony that they are better than other men, both for moderation and
such virtue as is agreeable to nature. Indeed their endeavor was to have
every thing they ordained believed to be very ancient, that they might
not be thought to imitate others, but might appear to have delivered a
regular way of living to others after them. Since then this is the case,
the excellency of a legislator is seen in providing for the people's living
after the best manner, and in prevailing with those that are to use the
laws he ordains for them, to have a good opinion of them, and in obliging
the multitude to persevere in them, and to make no changes in them, neither
in prosperity nor adversity. Now I venture to say, that our legislator
is the most ancient of all the legislators whom we have ally where heard
of; for as for the Lycurguses, and Solons, and Zaleucus Locrensis, and
all those legislators who are so admired by the Greeks, they seem to be
of yesterday, if compared with our legislator, insomuch as the very name
of a law was not so much as known in old times among the Grecians. Homer
is a witness to the truth of this observation, who never uses that term
in all his poems; for indeed there was then no such thing among them, but
the multitude was governed by wise maxims, and by the injunctions of their
king. It was also a long time that they continued in the use of these unwritten
customs, although they were always changing them upon several occasions.
But for our legislator, who was of so much greater antiquity than the rest,
(as even those that speak against us upon all occasions do always confess,)
he exhibited himself to the people as their best governor and counselor,
and included in his legislation the entire conduct of their lives, and
prevailed with them to receive it, and brought it so to pass, that those
that were made acquainted with his laws did most carefully observe them.
But let us consider his first and greatest work; for when it was
resolved on by our forefathers to leave Egypt, and return to their own
country, this Moses took the many tell thousands that were of the people,
and saved them out of many desperate distresses, and brought them home
in safety. And certainly it was here necessary to travel over a country
without water, and full of sand, to overcome their enemies, and, during
these battles, to preserve their children, and their wives, and their prey;
on all which occasions he became an excellent general of an army, and a
most prudent counselor, and one that took the truest care of them all;
he also so brought it about, that the whole multitude depended upon him.
And while he had them always obedient to what he enjoined, he made no manner
of use of his authority for his own private advantage, which is the usual
time when governors gain great powers to themselves, and pave the way for
tyranny, and accustom the multitude to live very dissolutely; whereas,
when our legislator was in so great authority, he, on the contrary, thought
he ought to have regard to piety, and to show his great good-will to the
people; and by this means he thought he might show the great degree of
virtue that was in him, and might procure the most lasting security to
those who had made him their governor. When he had therefore come to such
a good resolution, and had performed such wonderful exploits, we had just
reason to look upon ourselves as having him for a divine governor and counselor.
And when he had first persuaded himself note
that his actions and designs were agreeable to God's will, he thought it
his duty to impress, above all things, that notion upon the multitude;
for those who have once believed that God is the inspector of their lives,
will not permit themselves in any sin. And this is the character of our
legislator: he was no impostor, no deceiver, as his revilers say, though
unjustly, but such a one as they brag Minos note
to have been among the Greeks, and other legislators after him; for some
of them suppose that they had their laws from Jupiter, while Minos said
that the revelation of his laws was to be referred to Apollo, and his oracle
at Delphi, whether they really thought they were so derived, or supposed,
however, that they could persuade the people easily that so it was. But
which of these it was who made the best laws, and which had the greatest
reason to believe that God was their author, it will be easy, upon comparing
those laws themselves together, to determine; for it is time that we come
to that point. note
Now there are innumerable differences in the particular customs and laws
that are among all mankind, which a man may briefly reduce under the following
heads: Some legislators have permitted their governments to be under monarchies,
others put them under oligarchies, and others under a republican form;
but our legislator had no regard to any of these forms, but he ordained
our government to be what, by a strained expression, may be termed a Theocracy,
note
by ascribing the authority and the power to God, and by persuading all
the people to have a regard to him, as the author of all the good things
that were enjoyed either in common by all mankind, or by each one in particular,
and of all that they themselves obtained by praying to him in their greatest
difficulties. He informed them that it was impossible to escape God's observation,
even in any of our outward actions, or in any of our inward thoughts. Moreover,
he represented God as unbegotten, note
and immutable, through all eternity, superior to all mortal conceptions
in pulchritude; and, though known to us by his power, yet unknown to us
as to his essence. I do not now explain how these notions of God are the
sentiments of the wisest among the Grecians, and how they were taught them
upon the principles that he afforded them. However, they testify, with
great assurance, that these notions are just, and agreeable to the nature
of God, and to his majesty; for Pythagoras, and Anaxagoras, and Plato,
and the Stoic philosophers that succeeded them, and almost all the rest,
are of the same sentiments, and had the same notions of the nature of God;
yet durst not these men disclose those true notions to more than a few,
because the body of the people were prejudiced with other opinions beforehand.
But our legislator, who made his actions agree to his laws, did not only
prevail with those that were his contemporaries to agree with these his
notions, but so firmly imprinted this faith in God upon all their posterity,
that it never could be removed. The reason why the constitution of this
legislation was ever better directed to the utility of all than other legislations
were, is this, that Moses did not make religion a part of virtue, but he
saw and he ordained other virtues to be parts of religion; I mean justice,
and fortitude, and temperance, and a universal agreement of the members
of the community with one another; for all our actions and studies, and
all our words, [in Moses's settlement,] have a reference to piety towards
God; for he hath left none of these in suspense, or undetermined. For there
are two ways of coining at any sort of learning and a moral conduct of
life; the one is by instruction in words, the other by practical exercises.
Now other lawgivers have separated these two ways in their opinions, and
choosing one of those ways of instruction, or that which best pleased every
one of them, neglected the other. Thus did the Lacedemonians and the Cretians
teach by practical exercises, but not by words; while the Athenians, and
almost all the other Grecians, made laws about what was to be done, or
left undone, but had no regard to the exercising them thereto in practice.
