(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 under"stand the words of the Law; and they found written in the Law

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

"which the Lord had commanded by 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

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reverse.

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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The Mosaic code commanded that Jews should not intermarry

* Nehemiah, xiii. I and 3.

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 re-assembling 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 Shecaniah 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 the elders and judges were appointed to examine

Ezra, the entire chapters ix. and x.

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 Esarhaddon, "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. and vi. 2 Kings, xvii. 27, 28.

lem; but in all other respects it is precisely the same with the Pentateuch which is preserved by the Jews with the same scrupulous reverence, as of unquestioned divine authority. Does it then admit a doubt, that the code thus received by these two hostile nations, had been acknowledged by both as of divine authority before that hostility took place? I conclude that the Pentateuch was the known sacred Law of the Jews before the Babylonish Captivity commenced, about 580 years before our Saviour's birth.

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Further: An argument of a similar nature brings us through a period of 377 years, and establishes the authority of the Pentateuch, from the destruction of the kingdom of Judah by the Babylonish Captivity, back to its separation from the kingdom of Israel under the son and immediate successor of Solomon. From the revolt of the ten tribes, it became the decided political interest of their monarchs, to alienate them as far as possible from the religion and the Temple of the monarch of Jerusalem. The very first king of Israel discerned this interest, and prosecuted it to the utmost of his power, without the least scruple as to the religious or moral consequences of the means which he determined to adopt. For "Jeroboam* said in his heart, Now "shall the kingdom return to the house of David; if this people "go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, "then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their Lord, even unto Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they shall kill me, "and go again to Rehoboam, king of Judah. Whereupon the 'king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto 'them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold "thy Gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons "of Levi: and he ordained a feast in the eighth month, like "unto the feast which is in Judah; and he placed in Bethel the priests which he had made." Such was the design of the first king of Israel; a design almost uniformly adhered to by all his successors. Now, to the full and secure completion of this design, the Pentateuch interposed the great obstacle. It allows no such separation of the tribes; it supposes them all united in one confederate body, governed by the same common counsel, * 1 Kings xii. 26.

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