dition, we found all nations entertaining a belief, that some pious prince was saved in an ark from the dreadful calamity, which desolated a whole world: we observed, that, in many countries, éven the number of his companions was recorded with singular accuracy: we met with various evident allusions to the same awful event in the gentile memorials of the dove and the ship: and we beheld the remembrance of it entering deeply into the mythologic system of every region, whether situated in the eastern or in the western hemisphere.

4. Advancing next into the confines of the renovated world, we saw the second progenitor of mankind transformed into one of the principal gods of the Pagans, while every important circumstance of his life was accurately detailed. His mythological birth from the ark, in the midst of clouds and tempests; his skill in husbandry; his triple offspring; and the unworthy treatment which he experienced from one of his family: all these passed in review before our eyes, and stamped indelibly the bright characters of truth upon the sacred page of Scripture. We then traced the eventful history of the Cuthic Nimrod and his Babylonic tower: when the vollied thunder of heaven was directed against an impious race, and when the frantic projects of vain man were defeated by the immediate interference of Omnipotence. Lastly, we met with various records of the ancient Patriarchs in the writings of profane historians; we saw Greece and China combining to prove the real existence of a seven years famine in the days of Joseph; and

we beheld an uninterrupted tradition of the exodus. of Israel preserved in the secluded deserts of Arabia.

XII. Sufficient therefore has now been said to convince any candid inquirer, that the principal facts related in the books of Moses do by no means depend upon his solitary testimony, but that they are supported by the concurrent voice of all nations. Here then, agreeably to the plan which had previously been laid down, shall be closed this view of the coincidence between profane antiquity and the earlier part of the Scriptural history. Hitherto, the external credibility of the Pentateuch has been discussed: we have next to consider the grounds of its internal or independent credibility.

I HAVE hitherto considered the external credibility of the Pentateuch, or that credibility which it claims from the general accordance of its historical part with the traditions of the Gentiles: I shall now proceed to state and discuss the grounds of its internal or independent credibility.

I. Whoever has attempted to imitate the artless simplicity of truth in a studied narration of feigned events, will have found how extremely difficult it is to avoid a perpetual recurrence of inconsistencies. In addition to the unity of time, place, and action, a thousand little delicacies, which require

the most minute and painful attention, are absolutely necessary in order to give such a composition the semblance of reality. If these be wanting, the magical illusion is immediately destroyed: and the feeling of disgust is strongly excited by the glaring deficiency of contrivance. But, when it is asserted, that the narrative, so far from being an allowed tissue of romantic adventures, comprehends nothing but plain matter of fact, the difficulty of connecting such a detail is then considerably heightened. The page of authentic history, and the accurate calculations of chronology, will present insuperable obstacles on the one hand; while some internal contradiction, some unobserved inconsistency, will equally serve to expose the imposture on the other hand.

Such being the case, there must be some principles of internal credibility, by which truth may be distinguished from falsehood: and, if those principles can be satisfactorily ascertained, I see not how that can be fictitious, which will bear the test of the application.

We are at present however concerned with something of a much more serious aspect, than any bare narrative of secular events: we have to consider a narrative of events interwoven with an authoritative promulgation of a theological system: we have to deal with a writer, who, instead of being a simple historian, claims to be an inspired delegate of heaven, and who professes to deliver a code of laws enacted by the Supreme Being himself. To admit the validity of these demands upon our ac

quiescence, more especially when so many palpably false religions have been ushered into the world under the confident pretence of divine inspiration, we have surely a right to demand the utmost pos+ sible, conclusiveness of moral evidence: nor can we be expected to submit, unless the wholesome jealousy of suspicion be overcome by arguments, which, as reasonable beings, we find ourselves unable to controvert.

Now it is easy to conceive in theory the peculiar kind of internal credibility, which would stamp with marks of indisputable truth the religion which should possess it: and such a theory is not affected either by the existence or by the non-existence of an authentic revelation from heaven; it is purely an abstract idea, like those pictures of a perfectly wise and good man, which the ancient philosophers pleased themselves with delineating.

The principles of this internal credibility I would lay down under the following rules: and, as it is difficult to conceive how any religion can be false which will bear the test of such an examination; so it will be found, that, while no mere imposition is built upon those principles, they constitute the very basis of the Mosaical dispensation.

1. The promulger then of any theological system, which really comes from God, must be shewn not to have been self-deceived into a belief, that he was divinely commissioned; a deception, which could only originate, either from enthusiasm, or from mistaking certain natural appearances to be miracles.

2. He must be further shewn, on the ordinary