single family, is so extraordinary, that it would seem likely it should be commemorated by tradition; and this traditional evidence is found at large in Berosus and Plutarch; and researches into ancient mythology abundantly prove the existence of such records as we might naturally expect, disguised under the mistaken worship, and images, and symbols of idolatry*. It was

other authority than that of Moses, and that the memory of that catastrophe was known only to one people, and preserved in one corner of the earth.” Vol. iii. p. 224.

* I allude to Mr. Bryant's learned work on this subject. The first head of his argument is thus summed up by Sir W. Jones, Asiat. Res. iii. 487. "If the deluge really happened at the time recorded by Moses, those nations, whose monuments are preserved, and writings accessible, must have retained memorials of an event so stupendous; and, in fact, they have retained such memorials. The reasoning seems just, and the fact is true, beyond controversy." See also Faber, Hora Mosaicæ, chap. iv. Mr. Mitford's testimony is no less valuable : "The traditions of all nations, and appearances in every country, bear witness, scarcely less explicit than the writings of Moses, to that general flood, which nearly destroyed the whole human race; and the ablest Greek authors, who have attempted to trace the history of mankind to its source, all refer to such an event for the beginning of the present system of things on earth.” Hist. of Greece, ch. i. sect. 1.

probable, also, that the dispersion from Babel would be preserved in memory, by the descendants of those persons who set out from thence to people the world; and, in fact, it has been preserved in traditional fables, and may be clearly traced in profane writers, through the veil of poetical imagery. It may be traced still more indisputably in the three separate and primitive languages, which still, as we are assured by the most competent witness the world has yet heard upon this subject, attest the gradual replenishment of the world from the progeny of Shem, Ham, and Japhet*.

Besides these coincidences, which might be greatly extended, it is remarkable, that the farther we can go back in history, the nearer approach we find to the pure worship of the Creator†, and the more closely our accounts of the creation agree with that of Moses. Recent acquaintance with the ancient literature of India has furnish

* Sir W. Jones on the Origin of Nations, As. Res. vol. iii.

+ See Leland, Advantages of Revelation, chap. xi. : and Shuckford's Connexion, vol. i. p. 304.

ed memorials of many of the events recorded in Genesis, expressed by symbols very nearly similar. The Hindus, in particular, have allotted an entire Purana to the detail of the deluge *. The account of the oldest historian, Sanchoniatho, as far as its obscurity has been pierced by the ingenious labours of those who have considered it as important, relates the Phonician tradition of a history, agreeing in its chronology and genealogy with that of Moses. The records likewise of Eratosthenes, succeeding those of Sanchoniatho, give a series of profane history, from the first man to the first Olympiad, agreeing with the Scriptures †. Many remaining fragments of early historians, though in the circumstances involving various degrees of truth and error, according to the different opportunities of information possessed by their authors, unite in corroborating the main facts of the sojourning of the Jews in Egypt, of their sudden departure, and final settlement in Syria +.

* Asiat. Res. vol. iii.

+Cumberland's Preface to Sanchoniatho.

Strabo, and Tacitus, 1. 5. Hist. The various corroborations of Jewish history from heathen authors are

Whatever may be thought the value of this corroborating testimony, it must be remembered, that the circumstances of the case admit of no others. We may complain of a deficiency, but not of any defect, in the evidence.

The events of the Hebrew history, however, as related by their own historians, involve a series of miraculous interferences, of which there is no other example; and miracles, we are told, being repugnant to our experience, cannot be proved to the satisfaction of reason, or, at least, should not be received “ entirely and solely on affirmation, the affirmation of the Jews*." I am prepared to admit, that the more any event is out of the regular course of nature, the stronger is the evidence required to induce a rational belief of it. But it may be affirmed on the other hand, that the

collected by Josephus, contra Apion; Eusebius, Præpar. Evang.; Stillingfleet, in his Origines Sacræ; Gale's Court of the Gentiles; Stackhouse's Preparatory Discourse, &c. &c.: more recently, and with the additions which our acquaintance with America and India has furnished, by Faber, Hora Mosaicæ, vol. i.

* Bolingbroke, Philos. Works, vol. v. p. 553.

principal facts recorded by Moses, have more testimony, historical or moral, positive or collateral, in their favour, than any other events in the annals of the world.

To avoid altogether objections like that of Bolingbroke, arising from the questionable authority of the Hebrew historians, I shall be contented with appealing to the internal evidence of the Hebrew law and civil polity; which, if it proves, as I think it does, to a moral certainty, that Moses acted under a divine commission, is a species of evidence which precludes all similar cavil, and is in great measure independent of external testimony.

But, before we enter more particularly on the proofs which appear to me to confirm the divine origin of the Mosaic law, it will be necessary to clear up some questions that meet us in the outset, respecting the nature of the history attached to it, and the sources from whence it may be derived.

First, as to the nature of the history, it has not been unusual for some real and