frequent intercourse with Judæa, that it could not be difficult there to learn the Jewish tenets, and have access to the Jewish Scriptures; while at the same time Assyria was full of the dispersed and captive Jews.

We have indeed the most decisive proof of the constant intercourse and close connexion of the Jews with Egypt, from the multitudes who at the beginning of the Babylonish captivity fled thither, and settled there in direct opposition to the commands of their God, and the warnings of his Prophet; an event speedily followed by the reduction of Egypt under the Assyrian empire, and the signal punishment of the idolatrous Jews in that country, according to the prediction of Jeremiah; occurrences which would naturally excite a considerable degree of attention to the Law and the Prophets amongst the remaining Jews both in Egypt and Assyria; and possibly even amongst such of the natives of those countries, as well as foreigners, who were more learned and inquisitive.

From this period the intercourse between Europe, Asia, and Egypt, continued to increase; and consequently, access to the sacred treasures of revelation became more practicable.

It is another remarkable circumstance, connected with our present subject, that the tenets of the earliest Grecian philosophers were delivered, not in the form of regular systems, discovered by sagacious investigation, and supported by regular proof; but rather as unconnected dogmas learned from tradition, and resting on authority:† which would have been the natural consequence of their being formed from fragments of the Jewish revelations and records, separated from the scheme, and unsupported by the proofs and facts, with which they had been originally combined.

It is equally remarkable, that the higher we trace the theological opinions of the Grecian philosophers, and the popular systems of religion in the ancient world, the more pure and uncorrupted are they found. The nearer we approach to the * Vide Jeremiah, xlii. xliii. xliv. and xlvi.

The sages known by the name of the seven wise men of Greece, it is acknowledged, delivered their doctrines in this form; and Brucker observes of Thales, "As "the real reason which induced Thales to admit his grand principle is unknown; "it is not improbable that he arrived at it by tradition rather than by reasoning." Vol. I. p. 467.

Vide Leland on the Advantage and Necessity of the Christian Revelation, Part I. ch. ii. and xx.; and the learned Shuckford, in his Connection of Sacred

sources of Eastern tradition, the more conspicuous appears the radiance of that heavenly light of original Revelation, whose beams, though clouded and dispersed, still contributed to enlighten and direct mankind: the more clear traces do we discover of that primeval and patriarchal religion, which acknowledged the existence and inculcated the worship of the true and only God. We find no mortals yet exalted to divinities, no images in their temples, no impure or cruel rites. But when men "knowing God, glorified him not as God, their "foolish hearts were darkened."* Notwithstanding the progress of reason, and civilization, the absurdities, profanations, and crimes of idolatry multiplied without end;† philosophy, plunging into vain disputations, wandered from the truth, or, shrinking from the terrors of persecution,‡ did not dare to avow it.

But amidst this increasing gloom of idolatrous ignorance and error, this wide-spreading confusion, which threatened to reduce the whole moral and religious world to a wild chaos of vice and disorder, an over-ruling Providence gradually prepared for introducing the glorious light of the Gospel, and turning mankind from the power of Satan unto God. Literature, philosophy, and the fine arts, were rapidly diffused over Greece, and cultivated with a degree of ardour unequalled in any other age or country. Broken into small and free governments, blessed with the finest climate, the most picturesque scenery, and the most ingenious and animated people, here was formed a language, copious, expressive, and harmonious; and here were produced those immortal works in poetry, eloquence, and philosophy, which rendered that language the universal dialect of the polite and learned, both in the East and West; and thus prepared it to become a general and permanent medium of communication, in which the records and the truths of Christianity might be distinctly and safely handed to succeeding ages.

In the mean time, Rome was gradually emerging from weakness and barbarism to power and celebrity on one side; while on the other, the connexion of the European world with the East, the residence of the chosen people of God, and conse

and Profane History, the Preface, and Book v. sect. ii.; Dionysius Halicarnassus on the Ancient Religion of the Romans; Plutarch in Numa; and Juvenal, Sat. xiii. 46.

Vide Leland's Advantage of Revelation, Part I. from chap. x. to xxii.

quently the fountain of religious knowledge, became daily more close and constant, by the mutual wars and invasions of the Greeks and Asiatics, the settlement of the Grecian colonies in Asia, and the extended commerce of the Greeks and Phoenicians; until at length the conquests of Alexander cemented the two continents together, and rendered the Grecian language universal and popular over the East.

We now find the Jews placed in a different situation from any preceding period of their history.* We see a sufficient part of the nation restored to Judea, and there settled, to answer the primary purpose of forming a separate people, in order to preserve the Law and the Prophets, rebuild the Temple, and prepare the scene where the Messiah was personally to appear; where he was to verify the prophecies, particularly with respect to his descent, the place of his birth, and the minutest circumstances of his personal character and sufferings; where he was to promulgate his religion, and lay down his life for man. We see another great body of the nation retiring into Egypt, building a temple there, publicly exercising their religion, and flourishing in such multitudes under the protection of Alexander and his successors, that the Jews in Egypt nearly, if not entirely equalled those of Judea, in number, wealth and influence;† while they adopt the Grecian language so universally, that it becomes necessary to translate the Scriptures into Greek for their use,‡ and thus make them accessible to the learned and inquisitive in every country, whenever their attention should be excited to this study. And it should be remarked, that so necessary was such an adjustment of circumstances to produce this salutary effect, in opposition to the exclusive temper of the Jews settled in Judea; that this translation, which must have been received with such joy by the Jewish colonies, was regarded as the subject of national mourning by the Jews at Jerusalem.§

* Vide the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Vide Prideaux's Connection, part ii. book i. sect. viii. vol. iii. p. 63; Josephus's Antiquities, book xi. ch. ii.; book xii. ch. i. iii. iv.; book xiii. ch. iii. as to the building of the temple in Egypt; also his History of the Jewish War, book vii. ch. x. sect. iii.; book xiv. chap. viii. and x.; also his work against Apion, book ii. sect. iv. v. and vi.; and the Universal History, vol. iv. book ii.

Vide Prideaux and Josephus, as quoted above; and the Universal History, vol. iv. book ii. ch. i.

§ Universal History, vol. iv. book ii. ch. i. p. 28.

The unspeakable importance of this translation, which gradually included all the Scriptures of the Old Testament, has been already noticed.* By it the grand truths of religion, the history of Divine Providence, and the prophecies announcing the Messiah, became accessible to the learned and inquisitive, in every part of the then civilized world. All possibility of either questioning the existence, or falsifying the contents of those prophecies was thus precluded, and the stability of this signal proof of Revelation secured; though the rulers, doctors, and priests of that nation, with whom they had been originally deposited, rejected that divine Personage, whom these prophecies announced; and must therefore have wished, had it been in their power, to alter their contents, in order to disprove their application.

About the period when this translation was completed, we see the Ptolemies collecting the celebrated library at Alexandria, which for such a length of time formed the greatest depository of learning in the world, and which was so much admired and imitated by other princes. And its being formed in the very same city with the most numerous colony of the Jews in Egypt, while it must have attracted thither all foreigners who were solicitous to acquire learning, must also have given them an opportunity of observing a form of religion so singular as that which the Jews maintained; and of inquiring into its principles and origin; an inquiry which the translation of the Scriptures into Greek rendered practicable; while the cessation of prophecy amongst the Jews, soon after their restoration from captivity, closed the canon of the Jewish Scriptures, and proved that the knowledge which that translation could supply was perfect and complete.

The same providential system of preparation for the introduction of a pure and universal religion, was equally conspicuous in many other gradual movements in the world, all concurring to promote the same effect. The inquisitive and vain-glorious turn of the Grecian character multiplied philosophic sects; which by their perpetual disputations directed the attention of mankind to religious and moral speculations; and gradually undermined the influence, by exposing the absurdity of Pagan superstition and idolatry. And though they did not substitute in their room any * Vide pp. 4 and 5.

† Vide Prideaux, part ii. book i. vol. iii. p. 21.; and book ii. p. 103.

perfect system of natural religion, yet in their controversies many of its great truths were occasionally debated upon with spirit and subtlety; and though not clearly proved or practically inculcated, became the objects of general interest and curiosity. And the want of further information,* and above all, of such divine instruction as should remove men's doubts and terrors on these most awful subjects, was felt and acknowledged by the most sagacious and reflecting minds: and therefore such instruction was likely to be more attentively listened to, and more thankfully and joyfully received.

Connected with the same system, and tending to promote the same effect, was the great and permanent extension of the Roman empire. This broke down all the barriers of separation between the Eastern and Western worlds, united the Euphrates and the Thames under the same masters, and blended all the civilized states of Greece and Asia, of Africa and Europe, in one great community; in every part of which the Grecian language, now the language of the Sacred Records, became as it were the common tongue of the learned and the polite: while a perpetual intercourse between the various parts of this mighty empire, the establishment of a firm and regular police through its whole extent, and above all, that universal peace, which its undisputed ascendancy secured through the entire civilized world, when the Gospel of peace was first promulgated-all these circumstances secured to the teachers of that Gospel, ready access to all the nations of the world capable of profiting by the sacred truths they taught; and gave men leisure to consider their unspeakable. importance, and examine the evidence to which they appealed.

* Vide Leland on the Necessity of Revelation, Part i. ch. xxi.; Clarke's Evidences of natural and revealed Religion, in Prop. vii.