Pentateuch. Berofus the Chaldean, and Manetho the Egyptian, who lived in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, reprefented feveral circumftances conformably to the accounts given by Mofes". They wrote indeed about the time when the Old Teftament was tranflated into Greek: but even taking it for granted, that they derived their accounts from the verfion of the Septuagint, their evidence is of no finall importance, as it fhows the honour which was paid by the most learned perfons of the Eaft to the facred records of the Jews; and that they looked upon them as the pureft and the moft authentic fources of history.

The tranfactions and literature of the Jews were too remarkable to efcape the attention of the learned and inquifitive Pagans, when Judea became a province of the Roman empire. Many particulars relative to the eminent character of Jofeph, as a minifter to Pharaoh, and as an infpired prophet; to the emigration of the Jews from Egypt, their miraculous paffage through the Red Sea, their fettlement in the Holy Land, the inftitutions and ceremonies of the Law, the fplendour of Jerufalem in its moft flourishing times, the magnificence of the Temple, and the fupreme, eternal, and immutable nature of the great object of their worship, are related by Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Pliny the Elder, Tacitus, and Juftin. Thefe eminent writers,

"Berofus and Manetho, B. C. 270.

2

however

however erroneous in fome particulars, are fufficiently correct in others; and however they may. differ in fome circumftances from each other, they agree in the great outlines of hiftory. They fhow that the Jewish records were in their times thought worthy of high credit;-and that facts, well known in the world to be true and important, were faithfully related in those records.

The greatest care was taken of the books of the Old Teftament in every period of the ancient church of the Jews. The original copies were depofited in the temple at Jerufalem, to ferve for a facred memorial to pofterity. They were read in all the fynagogues as long as the Jewish government remained; and the Jews themfelves were fo fcrupulously obfervant of the ftrict purity and integrity of the facred text, as to number every letter, and remark how often it occurred. They were accurately transcribed in every age, and translations were made into different languages; fo that, as copies were multiplied, fecurities for the purity of the text increased; and forgery and corruption, in any paffage of importance, became in the courfe of time impracticable. The whole religion, and all the civil and facred eftablishments of the Jewish people, were founded upon the books of Mofes in particular, which were addreffed to his contemporaries-that is to thofe, who had feen his miracles, and heard his laws from his own mouth, and guarded with the moft zealous care the volumes which recorded them. The Inftitutions of Mofes

were

were incorporated into the commonwealth of the Jews; the existence and fupport of their govern ment depended upon them; and their religion and laws were fo interwoven that they could not be separated. Their right to the land of Canaan depended upon their confeffion of the fovereignty of God, who gave it to them; and on the truth of the Mofaical hiftory, relative to the divine promifes made to the Patriarchs. The diffenfions, which prevailed among the Jews and Samaritans, were fuch checks upon both parties, as to preserve the text of the Law in a state of purity; and the difputes, which prevailed between the Pharifees and Sadducees, ferved equally to prevent any interpolations in the other books.

Mahomet, the founder of a new religion in Arabia, the acute and determined enemy both of Jews and Chriftians, who was raifed up by Providence to be the fcourge of the degenerate Chriftians of the feventh century, profeffed his veneration of the Patriarchs and of Mofes, and revered the fanctity of the Jewish inftitutions". Senfible of the high esteem, in which they were held among all the nations of the Eaft, he has not only intermixed the most important facts related in them, with the abfurd contents of his Law, but has endeavoured, from their expreffions, to draw arguments in favour of his own miffion. But what is the fanction of

w Sale's Coran, p. 6. 16. 497, &c.

the

"They fay, become Jews, or Chriftians, that ye may be

directed.

the author of the Koran to that given by the writers of the New Teftament? The Evangelifts and Apoftles conftantly refer to these facred books, and more particularly to the Prophecies. They apply, illuftrate, explain, and quote abundant texts, not merely as human productions, then popular among their countrymen; but because they contained the commands of God, and were the immediate declarations of his will. And, to bring forward an evidence of the highest authority in their favour, the Saviour of the world himself, even He who came exprefsly from heaven to bear witnefs of the truth, exhorted the Jews to fearch the Scriptures for that they teftified of him. Frequently as he reproved the Jews for their erroneous doctrines and traditions, he never laid to their charge any corruption of their facred books. At once to prove their authenticity and divine infpiration, beginning at Mofes and all the Prophets, he expounded unto his difciples in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. In his final inftructions to them before his afcenfion, he reminded them, (I again quote his own moft facred and moft decifive expreffions,) Thefe are the words which I spake unto

directed. Say nay, we follow the religion of Abraham the orthodox, who was no idolater. Say, we believe in God, and that which hath been fent down unto us, and that which hath been fent down unto Abraham, and Ishmael, and Ifaac, and Jacob, and the tribes; and that which was delivered unto Mofes, and Jefus, and that which was delivered unto the Prophets from their Lord, &c." Al Koran, chap. 2. entitled the Cow.

you

you, while I was yet with you; that all things muft be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Mofes, and in the Prophets, and in the Pfalms, concerning me. Our Lord, by thus adopting the common divifion of the Law, the Prophets, and the Pfalms, which comprehended all the Hebrew Scriptures, ratified the Canon of the Old Teftament; and by declaring fo exprefsly that thofe books contained prophecies which muft be fulfilled, he established their divine inspiration; fince it is an attribute of the Almighty alone to enable men to foretel future events with certainty.

Abundant witneffes in all fucceeding ages can be brought to confirm the authenticity of these holy Scriptures. The Jews, difperfed fince the deftruction of Jerufalem over all parts of the world, have ever been prepared to fuffer any hardship, rather than renounce the commands of their great Lawgiver, and reject the records of their infpired Prophets. They have, in common with the numerous Christian converts, laboured in this pious work of preferving the facred volume unimpaired by the accidents of time, and uncorrupted by artful interpolation. One generation has tranfmitted a regular teftimony to another, and the chain of evidence has remained unbroken for a feries of ages. But where are the pure and unmixed defcendants of

y Luke, xxiv. 44.

2 Bishop of Lincoln's Elements of Chriftian Theology, vol. i. c. i.

YOL. I.

the