"The period in which any religion, claiming divine authority, is said to have originated, the character of the persons by whom it was first taught, and the state of the people among whom it was first believed, are seriously to be considered. If the people were unenlightened, and in circumstances unfit for, or unpropitious to, religious and scientific contemplation, it would unquestionably afford room for imposture, or for extending and renewing the influence. of former systems of superstition. But, on the other hand, if the character of the teachers be uniformly virtuous and consistent, and if the system they profess to be divine, shall be found to contain principles formerly unI known, and to relate facts which were never thought of, and to which nothing similar was ever known to happen, it will afford = an instance of intelligence or imagination I superior to what is to be met with even in enlightened times, and therefore not to be expected in circumstances less favourable. It will therefore claim attention from its novelty; and if, on enquiry, it shall be found to be generally consistent in itself, and agreeable to the state of nature, and the truth of history, as far as these are known to us; and if, further, its principles, and the facts it states, are capable of explaining difficulties which were before inexplicable, we shall have reason to suppose it to be beyond the power of common genius, on account both F

of the novelty and importance of its history and doctrines; and to be free from the suspicion of imposture, from the consistency and harmony of its particulars, and from the simple and ingenuous characters of its teachers. If to these circumstances be added direct evidence adequate to the importance of the subject, and qualified to render it credible; if this evidence be of such a nature as the people to whom it was afforded could not be deceived in, and with respect to the force and certainty of which they could not be imposed on, the revelation must be what it pretends to be, and the truth of it will unquestionably be proved. A few persons may be impostors, but a whole nation cannot. A few may be deceived, or induced, from various motives, to profess doctrines which they do not believe, and to assert in their defence what never occurred; but a whole people cannot. An ignorant nation may even be hoodwinked and misled, in their religious opinions, and with respect to obscure facts, by a superior genius, if he flatters their prejudices, and indulges their passions and their vanity. But if he appeals to extraordinary actions and deliverances, as performed before their eyes, which were never done at all, and to ancient circumstances of the nation, which they never heard of; and if he promises what he is eventually unable to perform, however loose and however accommodating his principles may be, he certainly will not obtain credit

for his pretensions; and much less, if his principles and conduct be calculated to controul the predominant vices and propensities of the people to whom his system is addressed. If, further, it shall appear that the person publishing the system, regularly, both in public and in private, performs the duties he recommends to others, and acts uniformly consistent with the character he assumes, conducts himself on all occasions with such propriety, and so carefully regulates his actions by the strictest laws of morality, that even his enemies, or false friends, worse than enemies, cannot accuse him of any selfish or sinister motive, or of any irregular conduct, it is impossible that he can be an impostor. As he assumes what men cannot naturally assume, and pretends to power and intelligence beyond what men can naturally acquire, he cannot be himself deceived, nor could he, with such ingenuous honesty of character, as we have supposed, deceive others, if he were. With these remarks in our view, it may be worth our while to take a cursory view of the circumstances attending the Jewish and Christian revelations, which certainly have the best claim to antiquity, to sublimity of information, purity of morals, and rational evidence, of any to which we can refer.

"That the Jewish nation is of great antiquity, is a position which no man, acquainted with the history of the world, will

question. The Jews have been a numerous people for more than three thousand years; and, from the first period of their existence, they have been peculiarly distinguished from the rest of mankind, by their customs, their prejudices, and religious sentiments. The revolutions which, in external circumstances, they have undergone, during that long period, are singular and extraordinary, and yet they still exist a peculiar people. The several nations which, one after another, have risen around them to splendid eminence, have uniformly considered the Jews as contemptible and insignificant; and because they acted on different principles from them, and were careless or ignorant of the arts which they professed, and which contributed to raise them to dignity and power, their character has been branded as illiberal and absurd, without enquiry; and the principles of their conduct, and their modes of thinking and of action, have been condemned without being known. These nations, however, like passing meteors, blazed but for a moment, and, subdued by foreign power, or undermined by gradual decay, they have sunk in the mass of mankind, without leaving among their posterity a single trace of former greatness, or of ancient character. But the Jews, despised, misrepresented, and persecuted on every hand, sill remain. Amidst all the varieties of prosperity and adversity, of power and

depression, and during a dispersion which, for more than seventeen centuries, has subjected them, in a peculiar manner, to the contempt, derision, and cruel persecution of the various people among whom they have been driven, they have ever retained, and still preserve, their ancient faith, their national prejudices, and original character. A fact so singular deserves attention. They themselves lay claim to a peculiar origin, and to extraordinary privileges; and, it must be confessed, that the external circumstances of their history have contributed much to support the claim.

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Moses, their first historian, is without doubt the most ancient author whose works have descended to our time. His purpose was professedly to treat of the people of God,. and of the dispensations and progress of religion, from the beginning of things to the period in which he himself lived. As far as he goes, he seems to be particularly accurate and exact in the execution of his plan. He is sometimes obscure, but his obscurity is the natural consequence of his brevity, of the antiquity of the language and idiom in which he wrote, and of our ignorance of the manners which he describes. As these, and a variety of other circumstances and sources. of information, of which, from the want of other authors, we must forever remain ignorant, were perfectly familiar to his contem-poraries, the difficulties which obstruct our