The wisdom of the divine goodness both in the negative, the not having
authorized any of the preceding Judges from Moses downwards to build a
temple--and in the positive, in having commanded David to prepare for
it, and Solomon to build it--I have not seen put in the full light in
which it so well deserves to be. The former or negative, or the evils of
a splendid temple-worship and its effects on the character of the
priesthood,--evils, when not changed to good by becoming the antidote
and preventive of far greater evils,--would require much thought both to
set forth and to comprehend. But to give any reflecting reader a sense
of the providential foresight evinced in the latter, and this foresight
beyond the reach of any but the Omniscient, it will be only necessary to
remind him of the separation of the ten tribes and the breaking up of
the realm into the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel in the very next
reign. Without the continuity of succession provided for by this vast
and splendid temple, built and arranged under the divine sanction
attested by miracles--what criterion would there have existed for the
purity of this law and worship? what security for the preservation and
incorruption of the inspired writings?


Ib. vii. 3. p. 403.

That there is a city of Rome, that Pius Quintus and Gregory the
Thirteenth, and others, have been Popes of Rome, I suppose we are
certainly enough persuaded. The ground of our persuasion, who never
saw the place nor persons before named, can be nothing but man's
testimony. Will any man here notwithstanding allege those mentioned
human infirmities as reasons why these things should be mistrusted or