though it is evident that others of them exceed the limits of human wisdom; and it would be equally impossible, as in the historical Scriptures, to ascertain the character of particular passages which might be proposed. But here again a discrimination would be entirely useless. The books themselves furnish sufficient proofs that the writers of them were occasionally inspired; and we know also, that they were frequently quoted, particularly the Psalms, as prophetical, by our Saviour and his apostles, in support of the religion which they preached. Hence we are under an indispensable obligation to admit the divine authority of the whole of these books, which have the same claim to our faith and obedience, as if they had been written under the influence of a constant and universal Inspiration. But whatever uncertainty there may be concerning the direct Inspiration of any historical narrative, or of any moral precept, contained in the Old Testament, we must be fully convinced that all its prophetical parts proceeded from God. This is continually affirmed by the prophets themselves, and is demonstrated by the indubitable testimony which history bears to the accurate fulfilment of many of these predictions; others are gradually receiving their accomplishment in the times in which we live, and afford the surest pledge, and most positive security for the completion of those which remain to be fulfilled. The past, the present, and the future have a connected reference to one great plan, which infinite wisdom, prescience, and power, could alone form, reveal, and execute. Every succeeding age throws an increasing light upon these sacred writings, and contributes additional evidence to their divine origin. I have thus given an historical detail of the gradual production and preservation of the books of the Old Testament, and of their formation into a regular Canon ; I have also stated the grounds of our belief in the integrity of the copies which have been transmitted to us, and the general arguments in favour of the Authenticity and Inspiration of these invaluable writings. But as it is the practice of the sceptics of the present day to endeavour to shake the foundations of Christianity by undermining the authority of the Old Testament; and as their attacks are particularly directed against the genuineness and credit of the Books of Moses, upon which the other antient Scriptures greatly depend, it may be useful to offer some farther considerations to prove, that the Pentateuch was really the work of Moses, and that it is our duty, as St. Paul thought it his, "to believe all things which are written in the law, and in the prophets (k)." The first argument to be adduced in favour of the genuineness of the Pentateuch, is the universal concurrence of all antiquity. The rival kingdoms of Judah and Israel, the hostile sects of Jews and Samaritans, and every denomination of early Christians, received the Pentateuch as unquestionably written by Moses; and we find it mentioned and referred to by many heathen authors, in a manner which plainly shows it to have been the general and undisputed opinion in the pagan world, that this book was the work of the Jewish legislator. Nicolaus of Damascus (1), after describing Baris, a high mountain in Armenia, upon which it was reported that many, who fled at the time of the deluge, were saved, and that one came on shore upon the top of it from an ark, which was a great while preserved, adds, "this might be the man about (k) Acts, c. 24. v. 14. (1) A peripatetic philosopher, and a poet, historian, and orator of great eminence, in the time of Augustus. Nothing remains of his works but some fragments preserved in other authors. 66 whom Moses, the legislator of the Jews, wrote (m).” We are told that Alexander Polyhistor (n) mentioned a history of the Jews, written by Cleodemus, which was agreeable to the history of Moses, their legislator (o)." Diodorus Siculus (p) mentions Moses as the legislator of the Jews in three different places of his remaining works: in the first book of his history, where he is speaking of the written laws of different nations, he says, that “ among the Jews Moses pretended to have received his laws from a God called Iao (q).” In a fragment of the thirty-fourth book he mentions "the Book of the Laws given by Moses to the Jews;" and in a fragment of the fortieth book, after giving some account of the conduct and laws of Moses, he says, that "Moses concludes his laws by declaring, that he had heard from God the things which he addresses to the Jews." Strabo speaks of the description which Moses gave of the Deity, and says, that he condemned the religious worship of the Egyptians. His statement is by no means accurate, but it is sufficient to show that he considered the Pentateuch as written by Moses (r). The accounts which Justin (s) and Tacitus (t) have left of the Jews are also very erroneous; but it is evident that they both admitted the Pentateuch to be the work of Moses. (m) Jos. Ant. lib. 1. cap. 3. (n) He was called Polyhistor from his great knowledge of antiquity. He wrote an Universal History, mentioned by several authors, but now lost. He lived about fifty years before Christ. (0) Jos. Ant. lib. 1. cap. 15. (p) He lived in the time of Augustus. Vide vol. 1. p. 105. vol. 2. p. 525 & 543. Edit. Wesseling. (9) That is, Jehovah. Geog. lib. 16. He lived in the time of Augustus. Trogus Pompeius, whose history Justin abridged, lived in the time of Augustus. Vide lib. 36. (t) Hist. lib. 5. He lived at the end of the first century after Christ. Pliny the elder (u) mentions “a system of magic," as he calls it, which was derived from Moses. Juvenal (x) the satirist speaks of the volume of the law written by Moses. The illustrious physician and philosopher Galen (y) compares the account given by Moses with the opinion of Epicurus concerning the origin of the world, and in that comparison he plainly refers 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 (z). Longinus (a), in his treatise upon the Sublime, says, "So likewise the Jewish legislator, no ordinary person, having conceived a just idea of the power of God, has nobly expressed it in the beginning of his law; And God said '-What?— Let there be light, and there was light. Let the earth be, and the earth was.'" Porphyry (b), 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 coincidence 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 (u) Hist. Nat. lib. 30. cap. 1. He lived in the reign of Vespasian. (x) Sat. 14. He lived in the reign of Domitian. De Usu Part. lib. 11. He lived in the middle of the second century after Christ. (z) Stillingfleet's Orig. Sacræ, b. 3. c. 2. Christ. Longinus lived towards the end of the third century after (b) He lived in the third century after Christ. Testament, in support of the divine origin of the doctrines which they taught. The power of historic truth compelled the emperor Julian, whose apparent favour to the Jews proceeded only from his hostility to the Christians, to acknowledge that persons instructed by the Spirit of God once lived among the Israelites; and to confess that the books, which bore the name of Moses, were genuine, and that the facts which they contained were worthy of credit. Mahomet maintained the Inspiration of Moses, and revered the sanctity of the Jewish laws; and when we consider the avowed enmity, and professed contempt of the pretended prophet of Arabia for both Jews and Christians, it cannot be imagined that any thing short of his conviction of the impossibility of lessening the general esteem, in which these books were held, in a country which had kept up a constant intercourse with the Israelites from the earliest times, could have drawn from him that concession in favour of the foundation of their faith. To this testimony from profane authors we may add the positive assertions of the sacred writers both of the Old and New Testament. Moses frequently (c) 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; and at the end of Deuteronomy he expressly says, " And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests, the sons of Levi, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and unto all the elders of Israel (d):” and afterwards, in the same chapter, he says still more fully, "And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they c) Ex. c. 17. v. 14. c. 24. v. 4. Numbers, c. 33. v. 2. |