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so much to the satisfaction of competent judges, that, was there no other proof of the authenticity of Genesis, this might be deemed sufficient. But any man who has barely read his bible, and has but heard of such people as the Assyrians, the Elamites, the Lydians, and the Medes, will readily acknowledge that they had Assur, and Elam, and Lud, and Madai, grandsons of Noah, for their respective founders.

It was very easy for Moses to be satisfied of the truth of what he delivered; because it came down to him through a few hands; for from Adam to Noah, there was one man, Methuselah, who lived so long as to see them both. Shem conversed with Noah and with Abraham; Isaac with Abraham and Joseph; from whom the materials for the composition of Moses's history might be easily conveyed by his own father Amram, who was cotemporary with Joseph, and was his kinsman.

The miraculous and historical parts of the books of Moses are so intermixed, that they cannot be separated; they must be true because the historical parts are better authenticated than any other history. No nation in the world can be more sure of any of their public acts and records, preserved in their archives with the utmost care,

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than we are of the truth of the Scriptures now in our hands.

The Jews preserved the books of Moses, as the law of their kingdom, in the most sacred part of the Tabernacle, and of the Temple. These books, the Psalms, and the Prophets, were every where publicly read in their Synagogues, every week on the Sabbath day. Their learned men, with the utmost exactness and scrupulosity, inspected and guarded the text, even so far as to count the very number of letters in every book. In short our Lord and the Apostles frequently quote Moses, the Psalms, and the Prophets, without any intimation that these books were in any respect altered or depraved. Whereas, had they indeed been corrupted, we need not doubt that our blessed Saviour would have reformed this, as well as any other instance of corruption among the Jews.

David wrote about 400 years after Moses; Isaiah about 250 after David; and Matthew more than 700 years after Isaiah.

The character of Moses would wonderfully contribute to the making of his book famous. He was a man illustrious as well by reason of his education, as the rank he held amongst men; a man equally exposed to the judgment of enemies and friends; and who could not vent the least

thing contrary to truth in matters of great importance, without being himself immediately refuted, or exposing himself to public scorn.

According to the best Chronologers, Moses was born about the year of the world 2433, and was sent to bring Israel out of Egypt about the year 2513. Thus were the World and the Church two thousand and five hundred years without any of the sacred books. Revelation, which for many ages had been verbal, was handed down by the long lived Patriarchs from one to another. "The Church, as well as the World, subsisted upwards of four thousand years before any of the books of the New Testament were written.

The Jews pretend, that, besides what Moses committed to writing in the Pentateuch, he received from God a variety of revelations, which he did not write, but communicated verbally to Aaron; that Aaron or his sons delivered them to the judges; the judges to the prophets; and the prophets one to another, from generation to generation. According to this hypothesis, the Jews had a two-fold rule to direct them in matters both civil and religious; one written in the sacred Books; the other verbal, transmitted by tradition from age to age: the last, according to them, ascertained the sense of the first. The

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written law without the oral, they considered as doubtful and precarious, if not altogether unmeaning. Exceedingly did these traditions multiply. before the coming of Christ in the flesh; for when he appeared personally on earth, he found the Jews degenerated so far, that their religion consisted almost entirely in the observation of traditions, which occasioned these reprehensions: "laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men," "making the word of God of none effect, through your traditions, which ye have delivered; and many such like things do ye." "In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Of these traditions it is not necessary to give any particular ac count: not a few of them are nugatory and trifling, others ludicrous and whimsical, if not impious."

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These traditions were collected by Rabbi Judah Hakkodesh, about the year of our Lord 150; and the collection of them is known in ecclesiastical history, by the name of the Mishnah.

"A commentary was written upon them, by another Jewish Doctor, about a hundred years after. This has been called the Talmud of Jerusalem. or, a Directory for the Jews inhabiting the land of Judea. As this commentary was judged to be obscure, another was written and entitled the Talmud, or Directory of Babylon. This last is

said to be held in the highest estimation among the Jews; but, as it was found to be voluminous, a Rabbin of the twelfth century abridged it.

As for the Books called Apocrypha, the name is of Greek original, and literally signifies, hidden or unknown. These books might be denominated hidden, or unknown books, because they want the characters and marks of divine authority. They appear to have been entirely unknown in the first and best times of Christianity.

The greater part of the Old Testament, as is well known, was originally written in Hebrew which was the language of the Jews, to whom the prophetic oracles were delivered. It was translated into Greek at different times, and by dif ferent persons".

One of the old Greek versions was called the Septuagint on account of its being considered the work of seventy-two Interpreters. Most of the New Testament was originally written in Greek, the Greek Language, at that time, being the most generally known.

"There is in the Scriptures a divine majesty, peculiar to themselves, which distinguishes them from all other books; and, in purity, they are so much superior to all other writings, that not any can come in competition with them. How une`qual are the most celebrated compositions of pagan

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