hundred years old. To add to this, Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the waters had left the earth, and was at the time of his death aged nine hundred and fifty years.

Now, as Noah was alive so long after the flood, he could, and of course would, have instructed his descendants not only of the wonders of that event, but concerning those others, which preceded it. Such a stupendous and awful circumstance, as this, was in every way calculated to rivet the attention: we are assured by our own feelings, that the mere relation of it must have had considerable influence on the mind; and it would naturally have fixed itself on the memory of those, who received the account from Noah and his sons, in a manner, which neither time nor succeeding events could in any degree weaken or efface.

It is also to be remembered, that during the first part of the life of Noah, his grandfather Methuselah was in existence. Now Methuselah was born many years before the death of Adam; and consequently was a contemporary with the immediate descendants of our first parents, who would all have been well acquainted with the Fall, and those circumstances relating to the wonders of the creation, of which it had pleased God to inform mankind.

Let not the reader for a moment imagine, that I only suppose the truth of these relations, as given

by Moses. I not only suppose them, but verily believe them; and do not doubt, that I shall be able satisfactorily to demonstrate them.

Shem, the son of Noah, was alive more than five hundred years after the Deluge; during all which time he had abundant opportunity fully to instruct his posterity of the truth of all those facts which the infidel of this day denies. Eber, the great grandson of Shem, also lived nearly nine hundred years Thus we see, that the time when Moses wrote, was, comparatively speaking, so near to the period in which the descendants of the three sons of Noah lived, that the circumstances of the Deluge, and the events preceding it, being all facts recorded by a perfect and unbroken tradition, they could not possibly be obscured or doubted; and it follows, consequently, that Moses did not impose on the Israelites as to any of the wonderful recitals contained in the Book of Genesis.

It would have required a long succession of generations to have transformed such singular and notable truths unto mere fables; or to have caused them to be nearly forgotten, even while the means for their preservation were no other than tradition. Noah, his sons, and their immediate descendants, were effectual witnesses of those wonderful acts of the Almighty, which were afterwards recorded in

* Gen. xi.

Genesis they were most excellent guarantees for the whole history, till Moses was commissioned by God to commit it to writing; and we cannot but acknowledge, that these things are strong and indisputable proofs for the truth of revelation, however incredulity may choose to assail them. Moses teaches us the origin of man, as another historian would tell us of the commencement of any given people. We do not doubt the origin of any nation, of which we find an account in a well-authenticated record. Moses gives us a well-authenticated history of man from the creation, as handed down by a regular chain of witnesses of indisputable veracity. Why should we disbelieve it? Most certainly we cannot produce a shadow of evidence to disprove it.

Moses speaks of the whole world as historians speak of any given country. Who but the Creator of it all could have instructed him for so extensive a work?

I know of but one objection more, to which the infidel can have recourse. He will say, perhaps, that the writings of Moses were unknown to strangers; that the children of Israel alone were acquainted with them. To this I reply; If this were the fact, it is sufficient for the establishment of their Divine truth, that the writings of Moses were in possession of the Israelites, and acknowledged by them to be the oracles of God.

Another convincing proof of the truth of Genesis is to be discovered in the promise, which it contains *, made by the Almighty to Abraham, that his posterity should be as numerous as the sand on the sea shore.

We have already shewn the truth and Divine authority of the Scriptures in the accomplishment of this promise. Then the promise itself is the strongest of all demonstrations in favour of the Book of Genesis.

To this we might add another equally, or, if possible, more conclusive argument, drawn from the promise of God, contained in the third chapter of Genesis, That the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head: which promise, as every Christian feels and knows, has been forcibly and beautifully verified in the triumph of our Lord over the bondage of sin, the grave, and the power of Satan. It is rather anticipating our subject; but I cannot forbear saying, that this glorious fulfilment of the consolatory and gracious words spoken by the Almighty to our first parents immediately after the Fall, sets a seal on the truth of Scripture, which no earthly power, which no powers of darkness, can divest it of.

The last argument, which we shall produce in favour of the Book of Genesis, is drawn from the

* Gen. xxii. 17, and xxxii. 12.

predictions of Jacob, respecting his twelve sons. In blessing the sons of Joseph *, he preferred Ephraim to Manasseh, though Manasseh was the eldest. The subsequent history of the Jews verifies this prophetic benediction; inasmuch as the tribe of Ephraim was always superior, both in number and power, to that of Manasseh.

In Jacob's request, that his body should be buried in Canaan †, we have, in fact, another prediction of the entrance of the Israelites into that land; or rather we have a proof of the entire faith of that holy Patriarch in the promises of God.

In blessing his three eldest sons ‡, Jacob does not bestow on either of them that promise of a blessing to all nations, which had been given by God to Abraham; but he confers it on Judah, his fourth son. I would ask now, if this was like the conduct of an impostor? If Moses was only inventing these things, why did he thus degrade the three eldest sons of Jacob, and not only his sons, but the tribes which descended from them? Would this prediction have been received by the Jewish nation as an event, which was undoubtedly to happen? would it have been quietly borne by the tribes themselves? could any thing have established it but a firm faith in the immutable authority of that Divine power, by whose inspi

* Gen. xlix.

+ Gen. xlix. 29.

Gen. xlix.