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restraints, mortifying to their sensuality and ambition they were "not to multiply wives to themselves, nor silver and gold;" neither to have troops of horses; but to make the Law of Moses their guide in all points (Deut. xvii.). Now these restraints were grossly and fatally violated by Solomon, the most renowned of the Jewish kings. Had, then, the Mosaic Law not been fully acknowledged, previous to the time of Samuel, he never would have ventured to have opposed the wishes of the people, or to lay these restraints upon their kings. Neither would Saul or Solomon have failed to expose the fabrication; the former of whom was in bitter enmity with Samuel; and the latter must have felt his fame and passions tarnished and rebuked, by the stern condemnation of the Mosaic Law. Samuel, therefore, could not be the compiler of the Pentateuch.

This brings us to within 400 years from the promulgation of the Mosaic Code; and between that and the time of Moses, no possible period or mode can be assigned as credible for its promulgation and universal reception, other than the generally received one, viz. by Moses himself, on the Israelites entering into Canaan.

It is admitted, that the Jews often violated the Mosaic Law; but the fact of their repentance when in distress, and submission to it again, from a persua

sion that the calamities were in consequence of its violation, is a clear proof of their previous universal acknowledgment of it.

This, however, does not rest on inference alone; there is also direct external testimony to support it. There are a number of different works extant, received by the Jews as divine; histories ;-annals;-prophetical and poetical works, written by various persons,— the latest soon after the captivity;-which take up and carry back the history of the Jews, to their first settlement in Canaan by Joshua, the successor of Moses. And thus we are brought into contact with the Legislator himself. All these multifarious works unite in presupposing the existence and truth of the Pentateuch; and uniformly refer to, and quote it, as the only true and genuine account of the history and laws of the Jews; they recite its facts; refer to its laws; celebrate its author; rebuke both people, priests, and kings, for neglect of its injunctions; and never give the slightest hint of any other law, than that which it contains. Can any further argument be necessary?

The Book of the Law, then, must surely have been the same which the Jews have received from the present hour back to the Babylonish Captivity;-must have preceded that event, because received by the hostile Samaritans, planted there at its commencement; and must have preceded the division of the kingdoms of

Judah and Israel, because acknowledged by both;must have preceded the establishment of Kings, because acknowledging no such form of government, but rather condemning it; and, inasmuch as it is quoted in every possible form, by every writer, and every sect, from the present time, back to the immediate successor of Moses, who also solemnly attests its divine original, must have been the very Code delivered by the great Jewish legislator Moses.

CHAPTER II.

The Genuineness and Authenticity of the Four last Books of the Pentateuch proved, from the subject and structure of the History ;-so far as the facts are not miraculous.

THE four last books of the Pentateuch contain the Law of Moses, and the facts whereon its authority is founded. The proof of their genuineness and authenticity may be deduced, either from external testimony; or from internal evidence, as seen in the structure of the works themselves. The former has been noticed in the previous chapter, wherein it has been shown, that these books were received and acknowledged by the Jews, from the period of their first settlement in Canaan'; and the latter is now to be considered.

If the Pentateuch be not the work of Moses, it is a

1 It must be remembered, that the history professed to be, and was received as, contemporaneous with the facts it records; and not as a compilation long after the nation was settled, and liable, in conse. quence, to fictitious embellishment.

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forgery imposed upon the nation in his name; and that by some compiler, long subsequent to his time; for no one would have ventured on such a fabrication, at any period proximate to his days, or even those of his contemporaries; it must also have been compiled with some design in view; and hence, some traces of this could not fail to be detected in the work itself.

I. The facts and institutions, which the books contain, were so public and important, that it seems impossible a fabrication could be imposed upon the nation. The account of their settlement in Egypt; of their increase there; of their subsequent cruel oppressions and bondage; of their departure thence, in one vast body; of Pharaoh's pursuit and destruction of their wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, under Moses; of the Code of religious and civil laws he laid down; of the splendid and elaborate Tabernacle he constructed; of the Tribe set apart as religious instructors; of the division of the land which he appointed; of his last solemn dying exhortation, not to forsake the law he had promulgated; all these things are of such a kind, that if not true, it is utterly impossible they could be imposed upon a whole nation; and that not an infant colony, or a savage horde, but a numerous host of "six hundred thousand men, besides women and children," accompanied also "by a mixed multitude, and flocks and herds, and much cattle;" and whose