universal credit which it must have obtained; no body of men, even no individual can be discovered, whose interest it was to form such a fabrication, or who could have had an influence sufficiently powerful and permanent to give it currency.

The history of the Jews proves, indeed, that they were very far from adhering strictly to the Mosaic Law during that period. We find that they frequently violated it in the grossest manner, and fell into great disorders and idolatries, and in consequence suffered great calamities. But what was the general effect of these calamities? That they repented of their disobedience, and again submitted to the Law of Moses as the Law of God. Now would this have been natural, if they entertained any doubts of the authenticity of the code containing that Law? Would the people and the rulers and the priests, on the authority of a new compilation, have received as the ancient constitutions of the land, laws and customs they had never before heard of, which condemned the vices and idolatries of every class in the strongest terms, and threatened them with the severest punishments? Surely this is utterly improbable. That prosperity should corrupt a nation, and lead it to neglect the most sacred obligations, is credible. That, though corrupted and depraved, calamity should rouse them to repentance, is also credible. But that they should ascribe their calamities to the violation of a Law whose authority they had never acknowledged: that in the midst of vice and corruption a new code should be fabricated, condemning that vice and corruption, and imposed upon the nation as the known Law of their fathers without opposition, is surely most improbable and strange.

We are not, however, driven to rest the universal reception of the Pentateuch on presumptive arguments or probable conjecture alone. We have the most decisive and uninterrupted, the most positive and direct external testimony. We have a number of different tracts, acknowledged by the Jews as not only genuine, but divine. These works are, the latest of them, written during or shortly after the Babylonish Captivity, as their very language indicates. They take up the history of the Jews from that period, and carry it regularly back to their first settlement in their country by Joshua the successor of Moses, and thus oring us into contact with the legislator himself. They are to a certainty written by a great variety of persons and for very

B

different purposes; some of them plain histories, and almost chronological annals: others of them prophetical and mysterious; others poetical and popular; hymns in praise of God, his providence, and laws, or celebrating great national events or deploring national calamities. And all these multiplied and various compositions unite in presupposing the existence and the truth of the Pentateuch: and uniformly refer to and quote it, as the only true and genuine account of the ancient history, and known laws of the Jews. They recite its facts, they refer to its laws, they celebrate its author; they appeal to the people, to the kings, to the priests; they rebuke and threaten them for neglecting the Mosaic Law, as it is contained in the Pentatench; and what is most decisive, they never once give the least hint of any rival law, of any new compilation, of any doubt as to its authenticity. To quote from all, would be as unnecessary as it would be tedious. I will adduce one or two testimonies from the book of Joshua, the immediate successor of Moses, which will, I trust, be satisfactory and decisive.

When Joshua is represented as receiving the divine commission to undertake the command of the Jews, it was on this condition: * "Only be thou strong, and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the Law which Moses my 66 servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand “ or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou "goest. This book of the Law shall not depart out of thy "mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that "thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written there"in." When he had conquered a considerable part of the promised land, we find him forming a great assembly of the people, in compliance with the direction of the Law: and he "built an "altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal, as Moses the "servant of the Lord commanded the children of Israel, as it is "written in the book of the Law of Moses,† an altar of whole "stones, over which no man hath lift up any iron: and they offer"ed thereon burnt-offerings unto the Lord, and sacrificed peaceofferings. And he wrote on the stones a copy of the Law of "Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.‡

* Josh. i. 7.

+ Ib. viii. 30.

This, as Mr Locke observes, is evidently a completion of the direction in Deuteronomy, ch. xxvii. And the Law engraven on the plastered stones, now set up, was no

“And all Israel, and their elders and officers and their judg"es, stood on this side the Ark and on that side, before the "Priests and the Levites which bare the Ark of the Covenant "of the Lord, as well the stranger, as he that was born "among them; half of them over against Mount Gerizin, and "half of them over against Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant "of the Lord had commanded before, that they should bless "the people of Israel. And afterwards he read all the words "of the Law, the blessings and cursings, according to all "that is written in the book of the Law: there was not a "word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not "before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the "little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them." Such was the solemn promulgation of the Mosaic Law, at the very commencement of the settlement of the Jews in the land of their inheritance; and in every subsequent transaction of Joshua, we find he acted according to the same Law.* "As the "Lord commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command "Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that "the Lord commanded Moses." Moses had appointed the mode of distributing the land among the tribes, and according to his command was the mode adopted. He commanded the Levites should have no inheritance in land, and no inheritance was given them. He commanded that six cities of refuge for him who had been unintentionally guilty of manslaughter should be appointed, and they were appointed. He commanded that eight-and-forty cities should be given to the Levites out of the different tribes, by lot, and they were so given. When the conquest of the land was completed, and the people had rest, the soldiers of the two tribes and a half, whom Moses had planted east of Jordan, wished to be dismissed to their families; Joshua dismissed them with this panegyric and this charge:† "Ye have kept all that Moses the servant of the Lord com"manded you, and have obeyed my voice in all that I com"manded you; therefore now return ye, and get ye unto your

more than the decalogue itself, or the formula of blessing and cursing in confirmation of the decalogue, contained in twelve verses of that chapter, and to be solemnly pronounced by the twelve tribes assembled for that purpose at the erection of this public monument, of the solemn public reading and recognition of the Mosaic Law. Joshua, xxii. 2, 4, 5.

* Joshua, xi. 15.

"tents, and unto the land of your possession, which Moses the "servant of the Lord gave you on the other side Jordan. But "take diligent heed to do the commandment and the Law, "which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you, to love "the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep "his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him "with all your heart and with all your soul." And, to close all, when Joshua was old, and was conscious of his approaching death, he "called for all Israel, and for their Elders, and "for their Heads, and for their Judges, and for their Officers;" he recounts the benefits of God, he recapitulates the history and the warnings of the Pentateuch, and commanded them, "Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is "written in the book of the Law of Moses, that ye turn not "aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left. And the "people said unto Joshua, the Lord our God will we serve, "and his voice will we obey: so Joshua made a covenant with "the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance "in Shechem; and Joshua wrote these words in the book of the "Law of God, and set up a monument of the transaction by the "sanctuary of the Lord."* Now what was this book of the Law? Undoubtedly the same of which it is said, that "when Moses had "made an end of writing the words of the Law in a book, until "they were finished; he commanded the Levites, and said, take "this book of the Law, and put it in the side of the Ark of the "Covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be a witness against "you." That book which he commanded to be read before all Israel, at the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, at the feast of tabernacles. This surely must have been the same with that which the Jews have received, from the present hour back to the Babylonish Captivity: which must have preceded that event, because it is also received by the hostile Samaritans, who were planted in Judea at the commencement of the Captivity; which must have preceded the division of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, because it was acknowledged ir both; which must have preceded the establishment of the kings because it supposes no such form of government, but rather con demns it. In a word, that book of the Law, which every writer,

Joshua, xxii. 2, 6. xxiv. 24—26. Vide the entire twenty-third and twenty-fourth chapters.

and every sect amongst the Jews have quoted and acknowledged, in every possible form of quotation and acknowledgment, from the present period, back to the immediate successor of Moses himself, who solemnly attests its authenticity and divine original. I trust, therefore, I have sufficiently established the introductory point I wished to prove; even that the Jewish nation has received the Pentateuch, as containing an authentic account of the conduct and institutions of their celebrated legislator, from the very era when these institutions commenced.