66

may have boldness in the day of judgment"." "For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.-If our heart condemn us not; then have we confidence towards God 15."

14

1 John iv. 17.

15

1 John iii. 20, 21.

NOTES.

NOTE 1.

A SIMILAR remark may be extended to the whole of the Mosaic dispensation, which with some rather suffers a disparagement; because it relates to a people, who were small in number and weak in power, compared with the larger empires which have since been established. The authority of it, however, does not depend upon these circumstances; but upon the undoubted proofs of Divine interference in the conduct of it: nor the fitness of it, upon the extent of territory to which it was confined. The wisdom of the plan appears by the effect, which it has produced on the religion of the world, and by the evidence, which it has afforded to all succeeding ages of the Divine origin of both Revelations. The Israelites were however a very numerous and powerful people, compared with the other nations at that time existing ; (See Michaelis's Laws of Moses, Art. 26. Mr. Volney taking no exception to the more abundant population of many countries in ancient than in modern ages, even in Syria,) but not so, compared with later times. This furnishes an argument of the great antiquity of the Scripture history, and of course of its truth. As Michaelis retorts the remark of M. Voltaire, that the Temple of Solomon was mean compared with later works of architecture; and urges it as a proof of the high antiquity and authenticity of the history of that building.

NOTE 2.

THIS point has been argued upon M. Volney's own supposition; in order to shew that even so, the account which the sacred historian gives of the immediate interposition of the Deity, cannot be impeached: but he does not by any particular observations give us reason to suppose he has examined the country with sufficient accuracy to entitle his supposition to be implicitly received: nor does he specify any particular volcano, either near or distant, active or extinguished, which can be suspected to have been the instrument of destruction. But whatever deference we may be disposed to shew to his opinion in physical researches, we cannot be expected to bow to his judgment in the appreciation of moral evidence. He quotes the loose traditions of the mixed inhabitants (related by Strabo, Lib. 16, in a way, which makes it doubtful whether that writer believed them himself) as undoubted authority: and, remarking that these inhabitants were Jews, passes by the precise written account, to which the whole nation of the Israelites without variation always adhered, as of no moment in determining the question. Indeed in all matters relating to that people, the representations made by the classic authors stand upon a very unstable foundation, when they vary from the Old Testament, if only the internal evidence of each be impartially compared and fairly contrasted.

The hypothesis which Michaelis gives', in a great degree coinciding with Le Clerc's, is, that the whole plain of Sodom was a mass of bituminous inflammable earth, described by Linnæus as the most fruitful of all

1 Comment. de Mare Mortuo.

soils, abounding with fissures from which naptha issues, which readily catches the flame from a lighted candle; like the soil described by Kempfoer, near the Caspian sea. And this is the state of the country about the salt sea at this day. This he supposes to have been literally set on fire by lightning, and the soil entirely consumed in consequence of which, by the mere destruction of the superincumbent soil, the lake was formed, into which the river Jordan discharges itself. Raining fire and brimstone is the phrase, by which Scripture often describes lightning, as he proves by Psalm xi. 6. Ezek. xxxviii. 22. Whether the river Jordan, before that time, emptied itself into a lake under that plain, according to his opinion; or according to M. Volney, into the Mediterranean; or as Cellarius thought, was lost in the deserts of Arabia; as we have not any ancient records upon the point, nor any sufficiently accurate accounts of the present state of the country, and Moses says nothing upon the subject, we need not inquire. Le Clerc has introduced an earthquake in addition to the fire from heaven; and a modern geographical work specifies an earthquake as the only cause of the Dead sea. It is not to be doubted that cities have been swallowed up by such convulsions of the earth, and that pools of water have taken their place. Neither is the dependence of earthquakes in many cases on volcanos, even very distant ones, as their causes, to be disputed3:

2 Amæn. Exot. fasci. ii, relat. 2. §. 7. 10.

3 See Humboldt's account of the destruction of Rio Bamba by an earthquake, which took place the 4th February, 1797, at the moment when two openings in the mountain of Pasto, sixty-five leagues distant, ceased to emit the columns of smoke, which had been issuing from them for the year preceding. Though that part of Quito was thinly inhabited, this dreadful convulsion caused the death of 40,000 persons. Travels in South America, Vol. IV. Book V. Chap. 15.

but in this instance, no notice being taken of an earthquake by the sacred historian or the tradition, or observed by M. Volney, though mentioned by Strabo, there is no occasion to take it into the account. But even if this destruction had been effected by an earthquake, and the lurid atmosphere, which often accompanies these convulsions of the earth, had been changed into active and destructive flame, the evidence of a miraculous interference remains the same. For in whatever way we suppose the destruction of the inhabitants of the plain, as well as the plain itself, to have been brought about; the proof of the especial agency of the Almighty is not in the least degree diminished. The prediction of it, together with the circumstances, with which it was attended, so minutely recorded, and the record preserved in the family closely connected with the event, shew it to have been no casual occurrence. The present appearance of the country is an evidence of the fact, that the destruction has taken place; but we cannot reason backward, and give a description of the actual circumstances in which that country was before. All that the most ancient historian tells us, is that the vale of Siddim (which he had before called the Salt Sea, Gen. xiv. 3, 10.) was full of slime pits. Whatever we add to this is only conjecture, and may be false.

The inquiry into the immediate causes of all the phenomena of nature is highly to be encouraged: not however so, as to engage us in admiring the work itself more than the Divine artificer: not so, as to make us like him, of whom the poet tells us :

"E'en in Heaven his looks and thoughts Were always downward bent, admiring more

The riches of Heaven's pavement

Than aught divine or holy else enjoy'd

In vision beatific."