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after Christ; Artabanus, Josephus and Tacitus, cotemporary with Christ.

Let us here recapitulate the leading facts of the Pentateuch, of which we have the combined testimony of the traditions of different nations, of profane history and of modern science. The creation of the world; the creation of man; his primeval purity and paradise; his fall; his subsequent unhappy condition; the promise of a Saviour; the universal corruption of mankind; the general deluge; the preservation of a few individuals from the general ruin; the building of the tower of Babel; the dispersion of mankind; the bondage of the Jews in Egypt; their deliverance under Moses and their journeyings in the wilderness.

Respecting the competency of Moses as a historian, but little need to be said. He evidently possessed a sound intellect in connection with a character of superior excellence; and having enjoyed in Egypt the highest advantages of the most learned nation of that age for acquiring knowledge, he became eminently qualified to be the honored instrument to transmit to posterity the early history of God's providéntial government. A large portion of what Moses records fell under his personal observation. Respecting those facts which preceded his time, he had ample means of information.

Consider the longevity of the ancients. Lamech was fifty-seven years old when Adam died. Of course Noah was cotemporary with the cotemporaries of Adam, and could from them learn the facts of the earliest age. Abraham was seventy years old when Noah died, and must of course have been cotemporary with the cotemporaries of Moses. So Moses could learn the events of the antediluvian world from the cotemporaries of Abraham, who could learn them from Noah, and he could learn them directly from the cotemporaries of Adam.

This is one way of accounting for his means of information. The other, and the one most usually adopted by learned men, is that of supposing that the Phoenician and Egyptian. characters existed before the time of Moses, as is pretty clearly proved, and that there were extensive Jewish records whence Moses, under divine guidance, collected the important facts of the earliest ages.

Respecting what took place prior to the creation of man, there must have been direct communications from God, which were probably made to Adam before the fall, when he enjoyed special communion with him.

From Adam to Abraham the history is brief and general. Then it becomes more particular, as Abraham could communicate many interesting particulars, such as the birth of Isaac; the destruction of Sodom; his going down into Egypt, &c. to

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those who could communicate them directly to Moses. From Adam to the deluge was a period of about seventeen hundred years; from the deluge to Abraham, three hundred and fifty-two years; and from Abraham to Moses, three hundred and seventy-five years. So that the whole period of which the Pentateuch is the only complete and well-authenticated history extant, is about twenty-five hundred years.

A few words now respecting the genuineness of the Pentateuch. That it is the genuine production of Moses, is proved by the combined testimony of Jews and Gentiles. The Jews, without a single exception, from the time of Moses downward, testify that Moses was the author of the Pentateuch. The same testimony we have from all the most ancient profane authors. Manetho, the Egyptian historian, nearly three hundred years before Christ; Philochorus of Athens; Diodorus Siculus, the celebrated historian of Egypt, Persia, Syria, Media, Greece, Rome, and Carthage, who wrote fifty years before Christ; Strabo, the geographer, who flourished in the Christian epoch; Trogus Pompejus, epitomized by Justin; Nicolaus Damascenus, quoted by Josephus; Juvenal, the Roman satirist, and others, testify to the same effect.

Spinoza of Amsterdam, an atheist who wrote in 1660, undertook to say that the Pentateuch was

not written by Moses; but besides that his arguments themselves are futile and weak, his attempt was plainly made too late. After the genuineness of the Pentateuch had been clearly established by the concurring testimony of Jews, and of Pagan historians for more than two thousand years, no argument could disprove it. As well might some writer undertake, a thousand years hence, to prove that Gibbon is not the author of the history of the Roman empire. No candid mind which knows the logical force of evidence and examines this subject thoroughly, will have any more doubt that Moses wrote the Pentateuch, than that Xenophon wrote the Anabasis, or Cæsar the Commentaries, or Tacitus the Annals, or Marshall the Life of Washington.

The Pentateuch properly closes with the 33d chapter of Deuteronomy, containing the dying addresses of Moses, which, together with the concluding chapter, was appended to the Mosaic record, probably by Joshua or the Jewish Synagogue.

The next portion of Sacred History commences with Joshua, and extends through a period of one thousand years to the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, who were cotemporary with Herodotus the father of profane history. This added to the twenty-five hundred years of the Pentateuch, makes thirty-five hundred years. So that we are indebted to the

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Bible for our only connected authentic history of mankind, for more than half the period which has elapsed since the creation. Traditions, broken fragments of history, and fabulous legends abound, as we have seen, in ancient pagan authors; but there is no authentic chain of credible history during that whole period, excepting the Bible.

The general proof of the authenticity and genuineness of the Sacred History from Moses to the prophets, commencing with Joshua, is so similar to that of the Pentateuch, that the same arguments are applicable to both, and need not be repeated.

The remainder of the Old Testament, including the books of Job, the Psalms, and the prophets, are partly historical, partly prophetical, partly preceptive and doctrinal, and partly devotional. The evidence of their authenticity and genuineness is the same as that of the preceding books. Respecting the author of the book of Job, learned men are not agreed; but it has ever held a place in the sacred canon, and is recognized as belonging there by the inspired writers.

All the canonical books were preserved by the Jews with most sacred diligence; a particular tribe was even consecrated to this express purpose. Besides the copies in use, extra copies were carefully kept in the archives of the temple, to which no person was admitted. The manuscripts were