toms which have, no doubt, been kept up, without interruption from the time of heathenifm, the origin of which is merely con ́jectural, even among the learned, and altogether unknown to the common people who practice them.

On the subject of this part of my work I must obferve, that the earth itself bears feveral indelible marks of the tranfactions which are recorded in the hiftories of the Jewish and chriftian religions. At least, they are fuch as are easily and clearly accounted for, on the fuppofition that those hiftories are true, and they are not easily accounted for on the fuppofition that they are falfe.

That there has been fome fuch convulfion in the earth, as must have been produced by the general deluge, is acknowledged by many naturalifts, even those who are not believers in revelation. The dead fea is very likely to have been occafioned by fuch a deftruction of an inhabited country as is related in the Mofaic hiftory of Sodom VOL. I. Cc and

1

and Gomorrah.

Travellers of unqueftionable authority fay, that it is almost poffible to trace the progress of the children of Ifrael through the wilderness. More especially, feveral of them have given drawings of the rock at Rephidim, and they are unanimous in their opinion, that the holes and channels which are worn in it must have been made by water, and yet that it is in a place where it is not at all probable that there should ever have been any natural fpring or river, and where there is far from being any water at present. Matthew fays, that the rocks were rent at the time of the crucifixion of Jefus; and travellers say that there is, at this day, a most remarkable cleft in the rocks of mount Calvary, fuch as cannot well be fuppofed to have been produced by any natural earthquake, not having feparated the ftrata, but dividing them all perpendicularly.

These laft-mentioned circumstances are far from amounting to a demonstration of the truth of the Jewish and christian histories, but they agree fo remarkably with them,

them, as must add to their credibility; and all the facts which have been recited in this part put together, certainly reprefent the known state of things to be fuch, as cannot be accounted for without supposing those histories to be true. Admitting the truth of those histories, the present state of things has arifen cafily and naturally from the preceding; but on the contrary supposition, we can fee no connection between them, fo that what is known to all the world, and is the fubject of every day's obfervation, is altogether inexplicable.

SECTION III.

Various internal evidences of the truth of the Scripture history.

ESIDES the direct evidences, which

BESI

may be drawn from the canonical books of the New Teftament, in favour of the truth of christianity, an attentive reader of them cannot but obferve feveral internal characters, which bear the strongest marks of Cc 2 genuineness

genuineness and truth, on account of their perfect refemblance to other genuine and true hiftories. Some of thefe circumstances, intermixed, as they neceffarily are, with others of a different nature, I fhall take notice of in this place. Every thing of this nature is plainly a standing evidence of the truth of the chriftian hiftory, independent of any teftimony in its favour.

The whole of the fcripture hiftory abounds with so many particulars concerning times, places, and perfons, as are ftrong internal marks of authenticity, and make it look exceedingly unlike any fiction. Befides, it is hardly poffible to imagine any reason or motive for contriving such a history as that of the Old Teftament, and endeavouring to impose it upon the Jewish nation, as the genuine history of their ancestors, and the only authentic ftandard of their laws and cuftoms.

The Jewish history is also very unlike the accounts which the writers of all other nations have given of their antiquities, and

has

has much more the appearance of truth, with respect to the times affigned for generations of men, and fuccefions of Kings. Those of the Jewish hiftory, from before the time of Mofes, are agreeable to the present state of things, and the prefent condition of human life, whereas the antient hiftories of Egypt, Affyria, Babylon, Greece, and Rome, represent the term of human life, and the state of human affairs, as in a condition much unlike what it is now, and fuch as it is ftill more improbable that it should have been then. The reigns of Kings do not, at a medium, exceed nineteen years. This Sir Ifaac Newton has fhewn from the hiftories of all nations which are certainly known to us.

Now thofe of the Kings of Judah and Ifrael do not exceed, but fall fhort of this number; whereas, thofe of the states abovementioned, are faid to have reigned, one with another, some thirty, and others forty years a-piece, and this in times of great confufion, when many of them died violent deaths. In like manner, the generations of