there fhould be fuch a combination to deceive, or that the agreement of thefe evidences with each other is far too great to be the effect of any fuch fraudulent design, of chance, &c. And all thefe arguments are in effect only bringing a number of concurring evidences, whose fum total foon approaches to the ultimate limit i. e. to unity, or abfolute certainty, nearer than by any distinguishable difference. It does not therefore import, in respect of real conviction, after a certain number are brought, whether we bring any more or no ; they can only add this imperceptible defect, 1. e. practically nothing. Thus I suppose that the remaining writings of Livy, Tully, and Horace alone would fatisfy any impartial man so much of the general extensiveness of the Roman conquefts, &c. that nothing perceptible could be added to his conviction, no more than any common event can or ever does in fact, appear more credible from the teftimony of a thoufand, than of ten or twenty witneffes of approved integrity. And whoever will apply this reafoning to the present case, must perceive, that the numberlefs, minute, direct, and indirect agreements and coincidences, that prefent themfelves to all diligent readers of the fcriptures, prove their truth and genuineness beyond all contradiction.

As to those few and small apparent inconfiftencies, which are found in the scriptures, one may obferve, that they decrease every day as learned men inquire farther; and that were the fcriptures perfectly exact in every particular, there must be fome apparent difficulties, arifing merely from our ignorance of antient languages, cuftoms, diftant places, &c and confequently, that if thefe be not more than our ignorance makes it reasonable to expect, they are no objection at all.

SECTION XV.

The Agreement of the Scriptures with History, natural and civil, is a Proof of their Genuineness and Truth.

THUS the hiftory of the fall agrees

in an eminent manner with the obvious facts of labour, forrow, pain, and death, with what we fee and feel every day, and with all our philosophical inquiries into the frame of the human mind, the nature of social life, and the origin of evil. The feveral powers of the little world within a man's own breaft are at variance with one another, as well as thofe of the great world; we are utterly unable to give a complete folution of the origin of the evils which flow from thefe difcords, and from the jarring of the elements of the natural world; and yet there are comfortable hopes, that all evil will be overpowered and annihilated at laft, and that it has an entire fubferviency to good really and ultimately, i. e. though the Serpent bruife our heel, yet we fhall bruife its head.

Natural hiftory bears a strong testimony to Mofes' account of the deluge; and fhews that it must have been univerfal, or nearly fo, however difficult it may be to us, either to find fources for fo great a body of waters, or methods of removing them.

Civil history affords likewife many evidences, which support the Mofaic account of the deluge. Thus, first,

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We find from pagan authors, that the tradition of a flood was general, or even univerfal. Secondly, The paucity of mankind, and the vaft tracts of uninhabited land, which are mentioned in the accounts of the firft ages, fhew that mankind are lately fprung from a fmall ftock, and even fait the time affigned by Mofes for the flood. Thirdly, The great number of fmall kingdoms and petty ftates in the first ages, and the late rife of the great empires of Egypt, Affyria, Babylon, &c. concur to the fame purpofe. Fourthly, The invention and progress of arts and fciences concur likewife, and this laft favours the Mofaic hiftory of the antideluvians. For as he mentions little of their arts, fo it appears from the late invention of them after the flood, that thofe which were preferved from it were poffeffed of few.

The next great event, recorded in facred history, is the confufion of languages. Now the Mofaic account of this appears highly probable, if we firft allow that of the deluge. For it feems impoffible to explain how the known languages fhould arife from one stock. Let any one try only in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English. The changes which have happened in languages fince hiftory has been certain, do not at all correfpond to a fuppofition of this kind. There is too much of method and art in the Greek and Latin tongues, for them to have been the invention of a rude and barbarous people; and they differ too much from Hebrew, Arabic, &c. to have flowed from them without defign.

The difperfion of the three sons of Noah into different countries, related in the tenth chapter of Genefis, comes next under confideration, being the confequence, not the

caufe of the diverfity of languages. Now here antiquarians and learned men feem to be fully agreed, that the Mofaic account is confirmed, as much as can be expected in our prefent ignorance of the ftate of antient nations. And it is to be observed of all the articles treated of under this propofition, that we,* who live in the north west corner of Europe, lie under great difadvantages in fuch researches. However, fince those who have studied the oriental languages and histories, or have travelled into the eastern parts, have made many difcoveries of late years, which have furprisingly confirmed the fcripture accounts, we may hope and prefume, that if either our learned men be hereafter fuffered to have free access to thofe parts, or the natives themselves become learned, both which are furely probable in the highest degree, numberlefs unexpected evidences for the truth of the fcripture hiftory will be brought to light.

Let us next come to the ftate of religion in the antient poftdeluvian world, according to Mofes and the fucceeding facred historians. The poftdeluvian patriarchs then appear to have worshipped the one Supreme Being by facrifices, but in a fimple manner, and to have had frequent divine communications. By degrees their pofterity fell off to idolatry, worshipped the fun, moon, and ftars, deified dead men, and polluted themselves with the most impure and abominable inftitutions. The Ifraelites alone were kept to the worship of the true God, and even they were often infected with their idolatrous neighbours. Now all this is perfectly agreeable to what we find in pa

It is to be noted that this extract is taken from a British author.

gan hiftory. The idolatries of the pagans are acknowledged on all hands. It appears alfo from pagan history, that they grew up by degrees, as the fcriptures intimate. All the pagan religions appear to have had the worship of one God fuperiour to the reft, as their common foundation. They all endeavoured to render him propitious by facrifice, which furely cannot be an human invention, nor a custom, which if invented in one nation, would be readily propagated in another. They all joined mediatorial and inferiour, alfo local and tetular deities to the one God. And they all taught the frequency of divine communications. Hence the pagan rcligions appear to be merely the degenerated offspring of patriarchal revelation, and to infer them as their caufe. Hence the pretences of kings, lawgivers, and great men, to infpiration, with the credulity of the multitude. That there had been divine communications was beyond difpute; and therefore all that reluctance to admit them, which appears in the prefent age, was overruled. At first there were no impoftors. When therefore they did arife, it would not be easy for the multitude to diftinguish between those who had really divine communications, and those who only pretended to them; till at laft, all real infpiration having ceafed among the gentile world, their feveral religions kept poffeffion merely by the force of education, fraud in the priest, and fear in the people, and even these supports began to fail at laft, about the time of Chrift's coming. And thus many things, which have been thought to weaken the evidences for the fcripture accounts, are found to ftrengthen them, by flowing naturally from that state of religion in antient times, and from that only which the feripture delivers.