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A farther confirmation of the fame Scripture accounts of the flood, difperfion of mankind, and patriarchal revelations, may be had from the following very remarkable particular: it appears from hiftory, that the different nations of the world have had, cæteris paribus, more or lefs knowledge, civil and religious, in proportion as they were nearer to, or had more intimate communication with, Egypt, Palæfline, Chaldæa, and the other countries, that were inhabited by the most eminent perfons amongst the first defcendants of Noah, and by those who are faid in Scripture to have had particular revelations made to them by God; and that the first inhabitants of the extreme parts of the world, reckoning Palaeftine as the centre, were in general mere favages. Now all this is utterly inexplicable upon the tooting of infidelity, of the exclufion of all divine communications. Why fhould not human nature be as fagacious, and make as many difcoveries, civil and religious, at the Cape of Good Hope, or in America, as in Egypt, Palæstine, Mefopotamia, Greece, or Rome? why fhould Palæstine fo far exceed them all, as it did confeffedly? Allow the Scripture accounts, and all will be clear and easy. Mankind, after the flood, were firft difperfed from the plains of Mefopotamia: fome of the chief heads of families fettled there, in Palæftine, and in Egypt. Palestine had afterwards extraordinary divine illuminations beftowed upon its inhabitants the Ifraelites and Jews. Hence its inhabitants. had the pureft notions of God, and the wifeft civil eftablifhment. Next after them come the Egyptians and Chaldæans, who, not being removed from their firft habitations, and living in fertile countries watered by the Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates, may be fuppofed to have preferved more both of the antediluvian and poftdiluvian revelations, alfo to have had more leisure for invention, and a more free communication with the Ifraelites and Jews, than any other nations: whereas thofe fmall parties, which were driven farther and farther from each other into the extremes of heat and cold, entirely occupied in providing neceflaries for themselves, and alfo cut off by rivers, mountains, or distance, from all communication with Palæftine, Egypt, and Chaldæa, would lofe much of their original stock, and have neither inclination nor ability to invent more.

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Let us now confider the history of particular facts, and inquire what atteftations we can produce from Pagan history for the Scripture accounts of Abraham, and his pofterity the Ifraelites and Jews. We cannot expect much here; partly because these things are of a private nature, if compared to the univerfal deluge; partly becaufe the Pagan hiftory is either deficient, or grofsly corrupted with fable and fiction, till we come to the times of the declenfion of the kingdoms Ifrael and Judah. However, fome faint traces there are in ancient times, and many concurring circumftances in fucceeding ones; and, as foon as the Pagan records come to be clear and certain, we have numerous and ftrong confirmations of the facred hiftory. Thus the hiftory of Abraham feems to have tranfpired in fome measure. It is alfo probable, that the ancient Brachmans were of his pofterity by Keturah, that they derived their name from him, and worshipped the true God only. Mofes is mentioned by many Heathen writers, and

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the accounts which they give of his conducting the Ifraelites from Egypt to Canaan are fuch as might be expected. The authors lived fo long after Mofes, and had fo little opportunity or inclination to know the exact truth, or to be particular, that their accounts cannot invalidate the Scripture hiftory, though they do a little confirm it. The expulfion of the Canaanites by Jofhua feems to have laid the foundation of the kingdom of the Shepherds in the Lower Egypt mentioned by Manetho, and of the expulfion of the natives into the Upper Egypt; who, after fome centuries, drove the fhepherds back again into Canaan about the time of Saul. The Canaanites mentioned by St. Auftin and others, upon the coaft of Afric, may be of the fame original. See Newton's Chronology, page 198. We may conclude from the book of Judges, that there were many petty fovereignties in the neighbourhood of Canaan; and it appears from Pagan hiftory, as Sir Ifaac Newton has rectified it, that the firft great empire, that of Egypt, was not yet rifen. When David fubdued the Philiftines or Phænicians, Cadmus and others feem to have fled into Greece, and to have carried letters with them, which the Philiftines had probably learnt, about a generation before, from the copy of the law found in the ark taken from the Ifraelites. After Solomon's temple was built, the temple of Vulcan in Egypt, and others in other places, began to be built in imitation of it; juft as the oracles of the Heathens were imitations of God's communications to the Ifraelites, and particularly of that by Urim and Thummim. Shifhak, who came out of Egypt in the fifth year of Rehoboam, is the Sefoftris of Herodotus and this point, being fettled, becomes a capital pin, upon which all the Pagan chronology depends. Hence Herodotus's lift of the Egyptian kings is made probable and confiftent. As we advance farther to the Affyrian monarchy, the Scripture accounts agree with the profane ones rectified; and when we come ftill farther to the æra of Nabonaffar, and to the kings of Babylon and Perfia, which are pofterior to this æra and recorded in Ptolemy's canon, we find the agreement of facred and profane hiftory much more exact, there being certain criterions in the profane hiftory for fixing the facts related in it. And it is remarkable, that not only the direct relations of the historical books, but the indirect, incidental mention of things in the prophecies, tallies with true chronology; which furely is fuch an evidence for their genuineness and truth, as cannot be called in question. And, upon the whole, it may be obferved, that the facred history is diftinct, methodical, and confiftent throughout; the profane, utterly deficient in the firft ages, obfcure and full of fictions in the fucceeding ones; and that it is but juft clear and precife in the principal facts about the time that the facred history ends. So that this corrects and regulates that, and renders it intelligible in many inftances, which muft otherwife be given up as utterly inexplicable. How then can we fuppofe the facred hiftory not to be genuine and true, or a wicked impofture to rife up, and continue not only undiscovered, but even to increase to a most audacious height, in a nation which of all others kept the most exact accounts of time? I will add one remark more:

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This fame nation, who may not have loft fo much as one year from the creation of the world to the Babylonish captivity, as foon as they were deprived of the affiftance of prophets, became moft inaccurate in their methods of keeping time, there being nothing more erroneous than the accounts of Jofephus, and the modern Jews, from the time of Cyrus, to that of Alexander the Great; notwithstanding that all the requifite affiftances might eafily have been borrowed from the neighbouring nations, who now kept regular annals. Hence it appears, that the exactnefs of the facred hiftory was owing to the divine affiftance.

It is an evidence in favour of the Scriptures, allied to thofe which I am here confidering, that the manners of the perfons mentioned in the Scriptures have that fimplicity and plainnefs which is alfo afcribed to the first ages of the world by Pagan writers; and both of them concur, by this, to intimate the novelty of the then prefent race, i e. the deluge.

Befides the fe atteftations from profane hiftory, we may confider the Jews themselves as bearing teftimony to this day, in all countries of the world, to the truth of their ancient hiftory, i. e. to that of the Old and New Teftaments. Allow this, and it will be eafy to fee how they fhould fill perfift in their attachment to that religion, thofe laws, and thofe prophecies, which fo manifeftly condemn them, both in paft times, and in the prefent. Suppofe any confiderable alteration made in their ancient hiftory, i. e. any fuch as may answer the purpofes of infidelity, and their prefent ftate will be inexplicable.

The books of the New Teflament are verified by hiftory, in a manner fill more illuftrious; thefe books being written, and the facts mentioned therein tranfacted, during the times of Auguftus, Tiberius, and the fucceeding Cæfars. Here we may obferve,

Fift, that the incidental mention of the Roman emperors, governors of Judæa, and the neighbouring provinces, the Jewifh highpriefts, fects of the Jews, and their cuftoms, of places, and of tranfactions, is found to be perfectly agreeable to the hiftories of thofe times. And as the whole number of thefe particulars is very great, they may be reckoned a full proof of the genuinenefs of the books of the New Teftament, it being impoffible for a perfon who had forged them, i. e. who was not an eye and ear witnefs, and otherwife concerned with the tranfactions as the books require, but who had invented many hiftories and circumftances, &c. not to have been deficient, fuperfluous, and erroneous. No man's memory or knowledge is fufficient for fuch an adaptation of feigned circumftances, and especially where the mention is incidental. Let any one confider how often the best poets fail in this, who yet endeavour not to vary from the manners and cuftoms of the age of which they write; at the fame time that poetry neither requires nor admits fo great a minuteness in the particular circumftances of time, place, and perfons, as the writers of the New Teftament have defcended to naturally and incidentally.

Secondly,

Secondly, that Chrift preached in Judæa and Galilee, made many difciples, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, at the inftigation of the chief men among the Jews; alfo that his difciples preached after his death, not only in Judæa, but all over the Roman empire; that they converted multitudes, were perfecuted, and at laft fuffered death, for their firm adherence to their mafter; and that both Chrift and his difciples pretended to work many miracles; are facts attefted by civil hiftory in the ampleft manner, and which cannot be called in queftion. Now thefe facts are fo connected with the other facts mentioned in the New Teftament, that they muft ftand or fall together. There is no probable account to be given of these facts, but by allowing the reft. For the proof of this, I appeal to every reader who will make the trial. It may also be concluded from the remarkable unwillingness of the prefent unbelievers to allow even the plaineft facts in exprefs terms; for it fhews them to be apprehenfive, that the connexion between the feveral principal facts mentioned in the New Teftament is infeparable, and that the atteftation given to fome by civil hiftory may eafily be extended to all.

It has been objected, that more mention ought to have been made of the common facts by the profane writers of thofe times, alfo fome acknowledgment of the miraculous ones, had they been true. To this we may anfwer, firft, that Judea was but a fmall and diftant province of the Roman empire; and the Jews themfelves, with whom the Chriftians were for a long time confounded, much defpifed by the Romans. Secondly, that hiftorians, politicians, generals, &c. have their imaginations fo much preoccupied by affairs of ftate, that matters purely religious are little regarded by them. Gallio cared for none of thefe things. Thirdly, that a perfon who attended in any great degree to the Chriftian affairs, if a good man, could fcarce avoid becoming a Chriftian; after which his teftimony ceafes to be Pagan, and becomes Chriftian; of which I fhall fpeak under the next head. Fourthly, that both thofe who were favourers of the Chriftians, and thofe averfe to them in a moderate degree, one of which must be the cafe with great numbers, would have motives to be filent: the halfchriftians would be filent for fear of being perfecuted; and the others would affect to take no notice of what they difliked, but could not difprove; which is a fact that occurs to daily obfervation. Laftly, when these things are laid together, the atteftations of the profane writers to the common facts appear to be fuch as one might expect, and their filence as to the miraculous ones is accounted for.

Thirdly, all the Chriftian writers, from the time of the apoftles and downwards, bear teftimony to the genuineness of the books of the New Teftament, and the truth of the facts, in a great variety of ways direct and indirect, and in fuch manner as might be expected. Their quotations from them are numberlefs, and agree fufficiently with the prefent copies. They go every where upon the fuppofition of the facts, as the foundation of all their difcourfes, writings, hopes, fears, &c. They difcover every where the highest regard, and even veneration, both for the books and the authors. In fhort, one can

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not see how this teftimony in favour of the Books of the New Tefta ment can be invalidated, unless by fuppofing all the ecclefiaftical writings of the first centuries to be forged alfo; or all the writers to have concurred to write as if they believed the genuineness and truth of these books, though they did not; or to have had no ability or inclination to diftinguish genuineness and truth from forgery and falfehood; or by fome other fuch fuppofition as will scarce bear to be named.

Here three queftions may be asked, that bear fome relation to this fubject; and the anfwers to which will, I think, illuftrate and confirm what has been advanced in the last paragraph.

Thus, firft, it may be asked, why we have not more accounts of the life of Chrift tranfmitted to us. To this I anfwer, that it is probable from St. Luke's preface, that there were many fhort and imperfect accounts handed about very early; the authors of which, though they had not taken care to inform themfelves accurately, did not, however, endeavour to impofe on others defignedly; and that all these grew into difufe, of course, after the four Gofpels, or perhaps the three first, were published, or at leaft after the canon of the New Teftament was formed; alfo that after this the Chriftians were fo perfectly fatisfied, and had the four Gospels in such efteem, that no one prefumed to add any other accounts, and especially as all the apostles were then dead.

The fecond question is, How come we to have fo little account, in the primitive writers, of the lives, labours, and fufferings of the apoftles? I anfwer, that the apoftles feem to have refided in Judæa, till Nero's army invaded it, and afterwards to have travelled into diftant parts; and that neither their converts in Judæa, nor those in the diftant barbarous countries into which they travelled, could have any probable motive for writing their lives: alfo, that, as to other Chriftians, they had neither opportunities nor motives. The Chriftians looked up to Chrift as their mafter, not to the apoftles. Their great bufinefs was, to promote Christianity, not to gratify their own or others fruitlefs curiofity. They were not learned men, who had spent their lives in the study of annalists and biographers. They did not fufpect, that an account of the lives of the apoftles would ever be wanted, or that any one could call their integrity, infpiration, miracles, &c. in queftion. St. Luke feems to have defigned by his Acts, chiefly to fhew how the Gofpel firft got firm footing amongst Jews, profelytes of the gate, and idolatrous Gentiles; in order to encourage the new converts to copy the examples of the apoftles and first preachers, and to publish the Gospel in all nations. Laftly, the primitive Chriftians had early difputes with Jews, Heathens, Heretics, and even with one another, which took up much of their attention and concern.

Thirdly, it may be afked, who were the perfons that forged the fpurious acts and revelations of several of the apoftles, &c. I answer, that, amongst the number of thofe who joined themselves to the Chriftians, there must be many whofe hearts were not truly purified,.

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