admitted the Pentateuch to have been written by Moses. Pliny the elder mentions a system of magic,' as he calls it, which was derived from Moses. Juvenal the satirist speaks of the volume of the law written by Moses. Galen makes a reference to the book of Genesis. Numenius, a Pythagorean philosopher of the second century, says that Plato borrowed from the writings of Moses his doctrines concerning the existence of a God, and the creation of the world. Longinus, in his treatise on the sublime, says "so likewise the Jewish legislator, who was no ordinary person, having conceived a just idea of the power of God, has nobly expressed it in the beginning of his laws, And God said,'-What? 'Let there be light, and light was. Let the earth be, and the earth was.'" Porphyry, one of the most acute and learned enemies of Christianity, admitted the genuineness of the Pentateuch, and acknowledged that Moses was prior to the Phoenician Sanchoniathon, who lived before the Trojan war; he even contended for the truth of Sanchoniathon's account of the Jews from its concidence with the Mosaic history. Nor was the genuineness of the Pentateuch denied by any of the numerous writers against the gospel in the first four centuries, although the Christian fathers constantly appealed to the history and prophecies of the Old Testament, in support of the divine origin of the doctrines which they taught. the least ground or pretence for it.-Bp. Tomline's Christ. Theol. part i. ch. 1.—Bp. Newton's Works, vol. i. dissert. I.—Grave's Lect. on the Pent. It may be observed that we have the strongest possible negative testimony to the authenticity of the Mosaic history. The laborious Whiston asserts, and in support of his assertion appeals to a similar declaration of the learned Grotius, That there does not appear in the genuine records of mankind belonging to ancient times, any testimonies that contradict those produced from the Old Testament; and that it may be confidently affirmed there are no such to be found.'-Grot. b. iii. sect. 13, 14, 16.-Whist. Joseph. We are not however confined to negative testimony; for it would be easy to bring forward evidence almost amounting to demonstration, to prove the positive agreement of antiquity with the narrative of the sacred historian; but we can only mention briefly some of the leading facts, concerning which the most ancient historians and earliest traditions very remarkably coincide with the Pentateuch. Thus Manetho, Cheremon, Apollonius, Lysimachus, and many others testify that Moses was the leader of the Jews, as well as the writer of their law, and conducted them from Egypt where they served as slaves. Eupolemus, Artapanus, Strabo, Trogus Pompeius, Chalcidius, and Juvenal speak of Moses as the author of a volume which was preserved with great care among the Jews, by which the worship of images, and eating of swine's flesh, were forbidden, circumcision and the observance of the sabbath strictly enjoined. Longinus who has been already quoted, expressly mentions the account of the creation of the world, as having been written by Moses the Jewish lawgiver. Diodorus Siculus in his catalogue of those lawgivers who affected to have received the plan of their laws from some deity, mentions Moses as ascribing his to that God whom he calls Jaoh or Jah. And further he speaks of Moses as a man illustrious for his courage and prudence, who instituted the Jewish religion and law, divided the Jews into twelve tribes, established the priesthood among them with a judicial power, &c. Numenius, a Pythagorean, held the Jewish scriptures, and especially the books of Moses, in such great esteem, that his books are full of passages quoted from Moses and some of the prophets with great reverence. He says, Plato was only Moses speaking Greek,' and affirms that Moses by his prayers brought dreadful calamities upon Egypt. Justin Martyr enumerates many poets, historians, and lawgivers, and philosophers of Greece, who mention Moses as the To this testimony from profane authors may be added the positive assertions of the sacred writers both of the Old and New Testament. Moses frequently speaks of himself as directed by God to write the commands which he received from him, and to record the events which occurred during his ministry. (See Exod. xvii. 14. xxiv. 4. Num. xxxiii. 2.) And in Deut. xxxi. 9, 24. he speaks of himself as the writer of the book of the law, in the most express terms; and it may safely be asserted, that no person who had forged the Pentateuch, or even written it in a subsequent age from existing materials, would have inserted such passages, as they must have excited inquiry, and have caused the fraud to be detected. In many subsequent books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch is repeatedly quoted and referred to under the names of 'The Law,' and The book of Moses; and in particular we are told that Joshua read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law; there was not a word of all that Moses commanded which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel.' (Josh. viii. 34, 35.) From which passage it is evident that the book of the Law, or Pentateuch, existed in the time of Joshua, the successor of Moses, and was acknow-leader and prince of the Jewish nation. Berosus and ledged by him. In the New Testament also the writing of the Law, or Pentateuch, is expressly ascribed to Moses. In a variety of passages in the Gospels, Acts, and Epistles, Moses is evidently considered as the author of the Pentateuch, and every one of the five books is quoted as written by him. Thus the books of Moses have constantly been received as his, and have been delivered down to us as his by the consent of all ages, by Jews, Heathens, and Christians; nor was their genuineness ever denied or questioned by those whose interest it was to deny it; by any of the Jews in their frequent apostasies, or by the greatest enemies of the Jews, the Samaritans, and they both certainly would have done so, if there had been Abydenus mention the deluge; Artapanus, Eupolemus, and Abydenus, speak of the tower of Babel; and the latter of the failure of the attempt to build the tower. Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Tacitus, Pliny, and Solinus, give an account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, in the main, agreeable to that of Moses. Berosus, Alexander Polyhistor, and others make express and honourable mention of Abraham and some of his family; and even speak of his interview with Melchisedec.Gregory's Letters on Christ. Rel. let. v. To this enumeration of testimonies from the remains of early writers in favour of the truth of the Mosaic writings, many others might be added. And whether we consider the information to be found in the later works of plain recital, however, of the creation, the fall, the deluge, and the dispersion of mankind, does unquestionably develope that origin, and bring to light those facts; and it therefore follows, not only that the account is the true one, but there being no human means of his acquiring the knowledge of it, that it was, as he asserts it to have been, revealed to him by God himself. We have now seen, from undoubted testimony, that the Pentateuch has been uniformly ascribed to Moses as its author; that the most ancient traditions remarkably agree with his account of the creation of the world, the fall of man, the deluge, the dispersion of mankind, and the departure of the Israelites from Egypt under Moses; that a people with such laws and institutions as he professes to have given them, have existed from remote antiquity; and we ourselves are eye-witnesses that such a people, so circumstanced, exist at this hour, and in a state exactly conformable to his predictions concerning them. But it may be observed, that the civil history of the Jews is seldom contested, even by those who imagine the Pentateuch to have been written in some age subsequent to that of Moses, from a collection of annals or diaries; it is the miraculous part of it which is chiefly disputed. To this observation, however, we may oppose the conclusive argument of a professed enemy to revealed religion, 'that the miraculous part of the Mosaic history is not like the prodigies of Livy and other profane authors, unconnected with the facts recorded; it is so intermixed and blended with the narrative that they must both stand or fall together.'-Lord Bolingbroke. With respect to the annals which are mentioned as the supposed foundation of this history, they must have been either true or false; if true, the history of the Israelites remains equally marvellous; if false, how was it possible for the history to acquire the credit and esteem in which it was so universally held? But upon what is this supposition founded? No particular person is mentioned with any colour of probability as the author or compiler of the Pentateuch; no particular age is pointed out with any appearance of certainty, though that of Solomon is usually fixed upon as the most likely. Yet why the most enlightened period of the Jewish history should be chosen as the best adapted to forgers or interpolation, nay, to the most gross imposition that was ever practised upon mankind, it is difficult to conjecture. Was it possible, in such an age, to write the Pentateuch in the name of the venerated law-giver ❘ of the Jews, from a collection of annals, and produce the firm belief that it actually had been written more than 400 years before; and this not only throughout the nation itself, but among all those whom the widely extended fame of Solomon had connected with him, or had induced to study the history and pretensions of this extraordinary people? even by his enemies, and several testimonies from heathen authors, in favour of his character as a historian, and as a sublime writer, have already been adduced. Whether we view him as a historian, as a prophet, as a poet, or as a law-giver, we find him varying and accommodating his style to his subject, and few writers excel in any one of these characters so much as he does in them all. It is evident also, that Moses had a chief concern in all the transactions recorded in the four last books of the Pentateuch, as legislator and governor of the Jews. Every thing was done under his eye and cognizance, and therefore he cannot be charged with ignorance of the facts which he relates. With regard to the book of Genesis, although there are many things in it which could be derived only from divine revelation, yet there are many other events and facts which must have been known in the time of Moses by tradition, and when this book was first delivered many persons then living must have been competent to decide on the fidelity with which he relates those events. They must have heard of, and believed, the remarkable incidents in the lives of the patriarchs, the prophecies which they uttered, and the actions which they performed; for the longevity of man, in the earlier ages of the world, rendered tradition the criterion of truth; and in the days of Moses, the channels of information must have been as yet uncorrupted; for though ages had already elapsed, even 2432 years, before the birth of the sacred historian, yet those relations were easily ascertained, which might have been conveyed by seven persons from Adam to Moses; and that the traditions were so secure from error, we shall immediately be convinced, if we consider that Methusalem was 340 years old when Adam died, and that he lived till the year of the flood, when Noah had attained 600 years, In like manner, Shem conveyed tradition from Noah to Abraham, for he conversed with both for a considerable time. Isaac also lived to instruct Joseph in the history of his predecessors, and Amram, the father of Moses, was contemporary with Joseph. The Israelites then must have been able, by interesting tradition, to judge how far the Mosaic account was consistent with truth.-Gray's Key to the Old Testament, Introd. to Genesis. As to the hypothesis which some have entertained, namely, that Moses compiled the book of Genesis from written records preserved in the family of Shem, and extant in the time of Moses, we reject it as fanciful and destitute of any proper foundation. Moses was also an honest and disinterested writer, and has given such proofs of impartiality and veracity, as are rarely to be found in the most faithful historians. Instead of flattering his countrymen, or courting their applause, he rather exposes their infidelity and wickedness; and while he celebrates the virtues of some of their ancestors, he at the same time records the failings and The truth of the Mosaic history receives farther con- imperfections of the very best of them. He does not firmation from the character of Moses, from his qualifi- spare even his own family and his nearest relations. cations as a historian, and from the opportunities he en- He freely relates the cruelty and barbarity of Levi, the joyed of becoming acquainted with the events and trans-founder of his family, in the affair of the Shechemites, actions which he records. Moses was well qualified to write his history, in consequence of his having received a princely education in the court of Pharaoh, and it is certain that Egypt was the most famous school of learning in ancient times. His parts and attainments are allowed to have been great, and the curse entailed upon him on account of it. He gives an exact detail of the conduct of Aaron his brother, with respect to the golden calf, and also of Aaron and Miriam's sedition. Neither does he conceal his own faults, but fairly acknowledges his want of faith and confidence in God; and if at any time he commends himself, it is when he finds it necessary to do so in order to vindi- | to have happened, unless there had been the clearest cate himself from unjust calumnies. No one can charge Moses with avarice, or with ambitious motives. He forsook all the pleasures and all the honours of the court of Egypt, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God;' and though he was appointed to a high command, yet it was attended with continual labour and pain, with great trouble and vexation to himself, and with little profit or advantage to his family. The priesthood he settled in the line of Aaron, the supreme command he resigned to one of another tribe, and his own family he reduced to the rank of common Levites. His excellent moral qualities furnish an additional argument in proof of his fidelity as an historian. Not only does he appear in all his writings to have had an ardent zeal for the glory of God, but also for the service and happiness of his countrymen. He delivered them from the meanest and bitterest slavery in a foreign land, and conducted them safely, through dangers and diffi- | culties, to a land of liberty. Often did he stand between them and destruction, and rather than that they should be cut off, as they had deserved, he prayed and entreated that he himself might be blotted out of the book of life. A man who had so sincere a love for his friends and country, could not be a bad man; and if he had been a Grecian or Roman legislator, those who are now the most forward to traduce him, would then, perhaps, have been the most profuse and lavish in his praises.—Bishop Newton's Works, vol. i. dissert. i.-See also Grave's Lectures on the four last Books of the Pentateuch, Lectures ii. iii. iv.—Blunt's Veracity of the five Books of Moses.-Horne's Introduction, vol. i. But a more particular consideration of the contents of the Pentateuch, as relating immediately to the Jews, will furnish irrefragable arguments to prove its authenticity, and the truth of its claims to inspiration. The Pentateuch contains directions for the establishment of the civil and religious policy of the Jews, which, it is acknowledged, existed from the time of Moses; it contains a code of laws, which every individual of the nation was required to observe with the utmost punctuality, under pain of the severest punishment, and with which, therefore, every individual must be supposed to have been acquainted; it contains the history of the ancestors of the Jews, in a regular succession, from the creation of the world, and a series of prophecies which, in an especial manner, concerned themselves, and which must have been beyond measure interesting to a people who were alternately enjoying promised blessings, and suffering under predicted calamities; it contains not only the wonders of creation and providence in a general view, but also repeated instances of the superintending care of the God of the whole earth over their particular nation, and the institution of feasts and ceremonies in perpetual remembrance of these divine interpositions; and all these things are professedly addressed in the name, and to the contemporaries, of Moses-to those who had seen the miracles he records, who had been witnesses to the events he relates, and who had heard the awful promulgation of the law. Let any one reflect upon these extraordinary and wonderful facts, and surely he must be convinced, that they could never have obtained the universal belief of those among whose ancestors they are said evidence of their certainty and truth. Nor were these facts the transient occurrences of a single hour or day, and witnessed only by a small number of persons; on the contrary, some of them were continued through a space of forty years, and were known and felt by several millions of people: the pillar of the cloud was seen by day, and the pillar of fire by night during their whole journey in the wilderness; nor did the manna fail till they had eaten of the corn in the land of Canaan, We see Moses in the combined characters of leader, law-giver, and historian, not once or twice, or as it were cautiously and surreptitiously, but avowedly, and continually appealing to the conviction of a whole people, who were witnesses of these manifestations of divine power for the justice of their punishments, and resting the authority of the Law upon the truth of the wonderful history he records. And farther, in order to preserve the accurate recollection of these events, and prevent the possibility of any alteration in this history, he expressly commanded that the whole Pentateuch should be read at the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, at the feast of tabernacles, in the hearing of all Israel, that all the people, men, women, and children, and the strangers within their gates, might hear, and learn to fear the Lord their God, and observe to do all the words of the Law; and especially, that their children, who had not been eyewitnesses of the miracles which established its claim to their faith and obedience, might hear the marvellous history, which they were taught by their fathers, publicly declared and confirmed, and learn to fear and obey the Lord their God from the wonders of creation and providence, revealed to his servant Moses, and from the supernatural powers with which he was invested. (Deut. xxxi. 10, &c.). Can we require a more striking proof of the existence and designed publicity of the Law, than the command to write all the words of the Law very plainly on pillars of stone, and to set them up on the day they passed over Jordan, the day they took possession of the promised land, and to plaster them over to preserve them.' (Deut. xxvii. 2.)-See Patrick in loc. They were commanded also to teach the Law diligently to their children, and explain to them the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, and the history of their forefathers; to talk of them when sitting in the house, when walking in the way, when they lay down, and when they rose up; to bind the words for a sign upon their door posts and gates, and upon their hands, and as frontlets between their eyes. (Deut. vi.) Words cannot express more strongly than these do, the general obligation of the people to acquire an accurate knowledge of the Law, and to pay a constant, habitual attention to its precepts, whether these be taken in a literal or figurative sense. These repeated injunctions with regard to public and private instruction in the Law, also manifestly imply that the book of the Law existed in writing at that time, and that the people must have had easy access to copies of it, and without doubt the office of the Levite, whom every family was 'to keep within their gates,' must have been to teach the law. The command that every king upon his accession to the throne, should 'write him a copy of the law in a book, out of that which is before the priests,' (Deut. xvii. 18.) is a proof not only that the Law existed in writing, but that there | privileges, and government of a nation, there will always was a copy of it under the peculiar care of the priests; that is, deposited in the tabernacle or temple. be a sufficient number of persons whose interest will lead them to prevent impostures. It is no easy matter Is it credible that any people would have submitted to forge a magna charta, and to invent laws; the caution to so rigorous and burdensome a law as that of Moses, and prudence of men are never so much on the alert as unless they had been fully convinced, by a series of in matters which concern their estates and privileges. miracles, that he was a prophet sent from God? And The general interest of men lies contrary to such imbeing thus convinced of the divine mission of Moses, postures, and therefore they will prevent their obtaining would they have suffered any writing to pass under his credit among them. Now the laws of Moses are incorvenerated name, of which he was not really the author? | porated with the very republic of the Jews, and their Had fraud or imposture of any kind belonged to any subsistence and government depend upon them; their part of it, would not the Israelites, at the moment of religion and laws are so interwoven the one with the rebellion, have availed themselves of that circumstance other, that one cannot be separated from the other. as a ground or justification of their disobedience? The Their right to their temporal possessions in the land of Jews were exceedingly prone to transgress the law of Canaan depended on their owning the sovereignty of Moses, and to fall into idolatry; but had there been God, who gave these possessions to them, and on the the least suspicion of any falsity or imposture in the truth of the history recorded by Moses, concerning the writings of Moses, the ringleaders of their revolts would promises made to the patriarchs; so that on that achave eagerly availed themselves of it, as the most plausi- count it was impossible that those laws should be counble plea to draw them off from the worship of the true God. terfeited on which the welfare of the nation depended, Can we think that a nation and religion so maligned as and according to which they were governed ever since the Jewish were, could have escaped discovery if there they were a nation.-Stillingfleet's Orig. Sac. b. ii. c. i. had been any deceit in their religious polity, when so many lay in wait continually to expose them to all contumelies imaginable? Nay, among themselves in their frequent apostasies, and occasions given for such a pretence, how comes this to be never heard of, nor in the least questioned, whether the law was undoubtedly of Moses's writing or not? What an excellent plea would this have been for Jeroboam's calves in Dan and Bethel, for the Samaritan temple on mount Gerizim, could any the least supicion have been raised among them concerning the authenticity of the fundamental records of the Jewish commonwealth. And what is very remarkable, the Jews, who were a people strangely suspicious and incredulous while they were fed and clothed by miracles, yet could never find ground to question this; nay, Moses himself, we find, was greatly envied by many of the Israelites in the wilderness, as is evident from the conspiracy of Korah and his accomplices, and that on the very ground that he took too much upon him :' how unlikely then is it, that amidst so many enemies heBp. Tomline's Elem. of Christ. Theol. part i. c. i. should dare to enter any thing into public records which was not most undoubtedly true, or undertake to prescribe a law to oblige the people and their posterity, or that after his own age any thing should come out under his name, which would not be presently detected by the emulators of his glory? What then is the thing itself incredible? surely not, that Moses should write the records we speak of? Were the people not able to understand the truth of it? What, not those who were in the same age, and conveyed it down by a certain tradition to posterity? Or did not the Israelites all constantly believe it? What, not they who would sooner part with their lives and fortunes, than admit any alteration or variation as to their law ?-Stillingfleet's Orig. Sac. b. ii. c. i. Can we have more undoubted evidence that there were such persons as Solon, Lycurgus, and Numa, and that the laws bearing their names were theirs, than the history of the several commonwealths of Athens, Sparta, and Rome, which were governed by those laws? When writings are not of general concernment, they may be more easily counterfeited, but when they concern the rights, Let those then who are disposed to deny the genuineness and authenticity of the Pentateuch, consider its real importance to the Jewish people, and the high veneration in which it was unquestionably held by them, and surely they must be convinced of the impossibility of ignorance or mistake concerning any fact relative to it; and in particular it will appear scarcely credible, that the Jews should err in attributing it to any person who was not its real author, or that they should not know who it was that digested it into the shape in which we now have it from materials left by Moses, had it been compiled in that manner in some subsequent age. The silence of history and tradition upon this point is a sufficient proof that no such compilation ever took place. If we believe that Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, why should we not believe that he wrote the account of that deliverance? If we believe that God enabled Moses to work miracles,* why should we not believe that he also enabled him to write the history of the creation? The prophecies contained in the books of Moses furnish undeniable evidence of his divine mission, and consequently of the divine authority of these books. These prophecies not only relate to former times, but several of them have been fulfilled in later ages or are fulfilling at this time in the world. God hath 'blessed' and enlarged' the posterity of Shem and Japhet, and Canaan, in his posterity, hath been' a servant of servants unto his brethren,' as Noah foretold. (Gen. ix. 25, 26, 27.) The posterity of Ishmael, the Arabs, are to this day wild men; their hand has been against every man, and every man's hand against them, and they still subsist a rude, unconquered race, notwithstanding the most powerful efforts of their enemies to subdue them; they still dwell in the presence of all their brethren. (Gen. xvi. 12.) The posterity of Abraham obtained possession of Canaan, according to the promise made to that patriarch, 400 years before its fulfilment. The seed of *The evidence on which the truth of the miracles recorded by Moses, as well as those of our Saviour, rest, will be fully stated in the New Testament part of this history. See b. viii. sect ii. c. iv. p. 985. Abraham multiplied as the stars of heaven, and it is computed that they are at this day as numerous as ever they were in Canaan, although they are dispersed into all parts of the world. (Gen. xv. 13. xxii. 17.) The sceptre continued in Judah till the time of the coming of Shiloh, and then departed, as Jacob foretold. (Gen. xlix. 10.) The prophet foretold by Moses has appeared, even Christ, the promised seed. (Deut. xviii. 15, &c.) In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses foretold that the Israelites should be blessed or cursed, according as they were obedient or disobedient to the commandments and statutes which he had given them; and all their subsequent history abundantly confirms the truth of the prediction. And what can be a stronger proof of the divinity of the Law of Moses? In particular, he foretold that a nation should come against them from far, swift as the eagle flieth, a nation whose tongue they should not understand; that this nation should besiege them in their gates; that they should be greatly straitened and distressed in the siege; that they should be plucked from off their own land; that they should become an astonishment, a proverb and a byword amongst all nations; that they should be scattered among all people, from the one end of the earth even to the other; and that their plagues should be wonderful, even great plagues, and of long continuance, (Deut. xxviii.) all which predictions the world has seen fulfilled, and still sees at this very day. And how was it possible for an author, who lived above three thousand years ago, to foretel so many particulars, which are transacting in the world even now, unless they were suggested by divine inspiration? Surely all reasonable men must conclude with the apostle, 'that prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.' (2 Pet. i. 21.)-Bishop Newton's Works, vol. i. solemnity, purity, and decency in divine worship, unknown to heathen nations, or unpractised by them, the other institutions, both moral and political, were calculated to promote the prosperity and comfort of all who lived under them. They prohibited idolatry, perjury, theft, murder, adultery, and every species of covetousness and envy, and enforced the opposite virtues of justice, mercy, chastity, and charity, with a due reverence towards our natural parents and accidental superiors. In almost every page, the people are exhorted to amendment and submission to their God and king; they are reminded of their former murmurings and miscarriages, and compassionately forewarned of the grievous punishments that should await their disobedience. The theology of the Mosaic law was pure, sublime, and devotional. The belief of one supreme, self-existent, and all-perfect being, the creator of the heavens and the earth, was the basis of all the religious institutions of the Israelites, the sole object of their hopes, fears, and worship. His adorable perfections, and especially the supreme providence of Jehovah, as the sole dispenser of good and evil, and the benevolent protector and benefactor of mankind, are described in the Pentateuch in unaffected strains of unrivalled sublimity; which while they are adapted to our finite apprehensions, by imagery borrowed from terrestrial and sensible objects, at the same time raise our conceptions to the contemplation of the spirituality and majesty of Him' who dwelleth in light inaccessible.' In the decalogue, we have a repository of duty to God and man, so pure and comprehensive as to be absolutely without parallel. We recognise in the ten commandments, not the impotent recommendations of man, or the uncertain deductions of human reason, but the dictates of the God of purity, flowing from his immediate legislation, and promulgated with awful solemnity. The sanctions also of the remaining enactments of the law, point out their divine origin, whilst the moral precepts which are scattered throughout the whole of the Pentateuch, possess such intrinsic excellence, such dignity and authority, as no human precepts ever possessed. The rites and ceremonies prescribed in the law are at once dignified and expressive; they point out the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, the necessity of an atone The intrinsic excellence of the Mosaic writings, and their moral tendency, furnish another strong argument in favour of their divine origin. They give such a description of the Supreme Being, as our natural conceptions would lead us to acquiesce in. We behold him represented as infinite in wisdom, goodness, and power; and expecting from mankind that degree of submission and homage, which, we must easily perceive, is a reasonable service, and consonant with our notions of the relativement. situations of the Creator and his creatures. They deliver to the world things highly becoming of God to impart, and absolutely necessary for man to know. They explain the formation and origin of the universe, the creation of man, his state of innocence, fall, and expulsion from the seat of happiness; they announce to a guilty world the glorious promise of a deliverer, who should repair the ruin produced by the fall; they describe the propagation of mankind, their general corruption, the deluge, the confusion of tongues, the plantation of families, and their separation into kingdoms; they record the selection of a particular family, out of which the Messiah was destined to proceed; they commemorate the miracles by which God was pleased to redeem his chosen people from servitude, and lead them through the midst of many dangers and difficulties, to the land which he had promised them as their future inheritance. The laws which they enumerate as prescribed by God for the use of his people, are such as are consonant with his wisdom and goodness. Whilst the religious precepts and ordinances required a but As to the punishments of the law, they are ever such as the nature and circumstances of the crime render just and necessary; and its rewards are not such as flow merely from retributive justice, but from a fatherly tenderness and regard, which make obedience to the laws the highest interest of the subject. In short, the Mosaic law is calculated not only to restrain vice, to infuse virtue. It alone, of all other laws, brings man to the footstool of his Maker, and keeps him dependent on the strong for strength, on the wise for wisdom, and on the merciful for grace. It abounds with promises of support and salvation for the present life, which no false system dared even to propose. Every where Moses, in the most confident manner, pledges his God for the fulfilment of all the gracious promises with which his laws are so plentifully interspersed. Who that dispassionately reads the Pentateuch, that considers it in itself, and in its references to that glorious gospel which it was intended to introduce, (see Introduction to the New Testament, ch. i. ii. p. 826.) can for a moment deny it the palm of infinite superiority over all the systems ever framed or |