،، from the priesthood." Nor was this exactness in tracing genealogies confined to the Priests; we are told of others, * who "could not show their father's house and their seed, whether they were of Israel." And the reason of this exactness

is plain from this; that such of the Jews as believed their prophets, expected a return into their native land after a period of seventy years, and preserved their genealogies, † as the titles on which they might resume their properties, with the same care which they had always employed from the very first commencement of the state. Thus Jeremiah the prophet, for the express purpose of impressing upon the Jews the expectation of their deliverance, is represented as "purchasing a field according to “ the right of redemption, subscribing the evidence, and seal"ing it before witnesses, and giving it to Baruch the scribe," and charging him before all that were present, saying, “Thus "saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, Take these evi"dences, this evidence of the purchase, both that which is "sealed and that which is open, and put them in an earthen "vessel, that they may continue many days; for thus saith the "Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, houses and fields and vine"yards shall be possessed again in this land." Now is it possible that the whole nation should lose all public records of their public Law, when they preserved public records of the descent of private families? Is it possible that the genealogies of the priests and their distinct offices should be preserved, while the Law that described these offices, and assigned them to different families, was forgotten? Is it probable that the § identical vessels and furniture of the Temple which had been carried away at the beginning of the Captivity, should be restored as they are recorded to have been, and that no one copy of whatever code existed to regulate the laws and religion of the whole nation, as well as the Temple worship, should be preserved ?

The only thing which gives the least plausibility to this suspicion is, that we are told that the Jews had during the Captivity

* Ezra, ii. 59 and 60.

To show the constant accuracy of the Jews in preserving their genealogies, and the necessity of their doing so, vid. Numb. i. compared with ch. xxxiii. 54. and Josh. xiv. Vid. also I Chronicles, the nine first chapters, particularly ch. v. 7 and 17, and ch. ix. 1 and 22.

t Vide Jeremiah, xxxii. 14. Vide the entire chapter, from ver. 6 to the

end.

§ Ezra, vi. 5.

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(as these objectors say) lost their language; hence it is rashly inferred, that they also lost all records in the language. Now the real fact is this, that the original language of the Jews had indeed degenerated among the great mass of the people, by the corruption of foreign dialects; but the learned part of the nation still perfectly understood it, and were able to interpret it with ease; and the records contained in it✶ lost nothing of their clearness or their use. Further, this very circumstance supplies no weak presumptive argument, that as the Pentateuch which now exists is written in pure Hebrew, it was composed before the Captivity.

This probable conclusion acquires almost resistless force, when we consider the direct testimony, first of the Jews, and next of the Samaritans. The tenor of their history after the Captivity represents the Jews, not as regulating their religion and policy by any new Law, but as reviving the observance of the old Law given by Moses, interpreting it with humble veneration, and submitting to it with the most prompt obedience.

Ezra is distinguished as the scribe, because he was a ready scribe in the Law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given; and very many others also are mentioned, "who caused the people to understand the Law." The manner in which, by the assistance of those learned interpreters, it was read and explained to the people, is so decisive of the present point as to deserve our whole attention. We are told that + "all the people "were gathered together as one man; and they spake unto "Ezra the Scribe, to bring the book of the Law of Moses, "which the Lord had commanded to Israel; and Ezra brought "the Law before the congregation both of men and women, "and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month-and he read therein from the morning until the mid-day, and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the Law.-And all the people "went their way, to eat and to drink, and to make great mirth, "because they had understood the words which were declared "unto them; and on the second day were gathered together "the chief of the fathers of all the people, the Priests and "the Levites, to Ezra the scribe, to understand the words of

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* Vid. Ezra, passim; particularly ch. ii. 2. vi. 18.
† Vid. Nehemiah, the entire chapters, viii, ix. and x.

"the Law; and they found written in the Law which the Lord "had commanded to Moses, that the children of Israel should "dwell in booths, in the feast of the seventh month; and all "the congregation of them that were come again out of the "Captivity made booths, and sat under the booths; for since "the days of Joshua the son of Nun unto that day, had not "the children of Israel done so, and there was very great "gladness. Also day by day, from the first day unto the last "day, he read in the book of the Law of God; and they kept the "feast seven days, and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly according to the manner which the Law prescribed." Undoubtedly it is probable that Ezra prepared for use new copies of the Mosaic Law, that a sufficient number might be ready to supply the demands of the people. In doing this he may have inserted some notes, to explain or complete passages obscure or defective. But what symptoms are there in this history of a new compilation, a code of doubtful authority, a collection of uncertain traditions? How idle is it to talk of these things, when the fact is so plainly the reverse.

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We have yet a stronger proof that the Law thus offered to the people was not a selection and revival of such former laws alone as suited their present temper and situation; such laws as were agreeable to the general wishes of the people, and therefore might be supposed to obtain general submission without any minute inquiry into their authority. No, the case was otherwise; the code thus received enjoined in some instances sacrifices the most severe and distressing to individuals, sacrifices which no politic governor would have ventured to propose, and which no people would have submitted to, if any doubt could have been raised as to the authority of the Law requiring them. For, as the Scribes read the book of Moses "in the "audience of the people, therein was found written, * that "the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of the Lord for ever; now it came to pass, that "when they had heard the law, that they separated from Israel "all the mixed multitude." Even this must have created great discontent, and excited much opposition, if the authority of the law requiring it had not been clear and unquestioned. But there was yet a more trying proof of obedience required,

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* Nehemiah, xiii, 1 and 3.

The Mosaic code commanded that Jews should not intermarry with any of the neighbouring idolatrous nations. On the dissolution of the state and the dispersion of the people at the Captivity, this law was violated in numerous instances; on the reassembling of the people, the violation was too glaring to escape the notice of the zealous supporters of the divine code. The history of Ezra describes in the strongest colours the feelings of grief and alarm which this discovery excited, the vast numbers who were involved in this guilt, and the high rank and authority of many of the offenders.* "The princes," says Ezra, "came to me saying, The people of Israel, and the "Priests and the Levites, have not separated themselves from "the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations; "for they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for "their sons, so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with "the people of those lands; yea, the hands of the princes and "rulers have been chief in this trespass."

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"When Ezra," says the history, "had prayed, and when he "had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the "house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel, a very "great congregation of men and women and children; and "the people wept very sore, and Shechaniah on the part of the "chiefs of the people, answered and said unto Ezra, We have "trespassed against our God, and have taken strange wives of "the people of the land, yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing; now therefore let us make a covenant "with our God, to PUT AWAY ALL THE STRANGE WIVES, and "SUCH AS ARE BORN OF THEM, according to the counsel of "my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according to the Law. Then arose "Ezra, and made the chief priests, the Scribes, and all Israel, "to swear that they should do according to this word: and they "sware." And proclamation was made unto all the children of the Captivity to enforce this law. The greatness of the sacrifice may be estimated by the severity of the penalty under which it was enjoined: "Whosoever would not come within "three days, to comply with this law, all his substance was to "be forfeited, and himself separated from the congregation." And the offenders assembled in great numbers, and certain of

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* Ezra, the entire chapters ix and x.

the elders and judges were appointed to examine the matter, and so many did the enquiry extend to, that it held for three entire months; and among the offenders we find many of the Priests and Levites: it was not therefore a contrivance of theirs to strengthen their influence. In a word, I rely on this fact as a full proof, that the code the Jews received after the Captivity was in all respects the very same they had been subject to before it; not then newly compiled, not then artfully modified, but brought forward exactly as they found it, in the known records of the nation, and submitted to with scrupulous reverence, as of undoubted and divine authority.

Strong as this proof is, we have another which may perhaps be deemed even stronger; the Samaritans, * we know, from the period of the Captivity became the most bitter enemies of the Jews; this animosity was greatly enflamed at the close of the Captivity, because the Jews would not permit them to join in building the Temple. For they proposed to the chief of the fathers; "Let us build with you, for we seek your God, as you "do, and we do sacrifice unto him, since the days of Esarhad"don, king of Assyria, who brought us up hither." But their proposal was rejected with contempt. These Samaritans must then have derived their knowledge of the Mosaic institutions from a code which existed at the commencement of the Captivity. According to the history,+ which relates," a priest from amongst "the captive Jews was sent to teach the colony planted by the "king of Assyria in Samaria, the manner of the God of the

land, and he came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how "they should fear the Lord," undoubtedly by instructing them in the Mosaic Law. They would never have received as the rule of their religion a new compilation, formed by their enemies at the very moment when they rejected their alliance, and would not acknowledge them as partakers of their religion, or admit them to worship at their Temple. And what is the code which the Samaritans acknowledged? The Pentateuch, and nothing but the Pentateuch. This they preserved, written indeed in a different character from that which the Jews use; they have in some few places altered it, to support the claim of their Temple to a precedence and a sacredness above the Temple at Jerusa

* 2 Kings, xvii. from ver. 24 to the end; and Ezra, iv.; Nehem. iv. & vi. †2 Kings, xvii. 27, 28.