throws out many scornful accusations of falsehood, folly, and corrupt intentions on the part of its fabricators. In this essay a stricter method will be attempted. With a careful discrimination between the characteristics and proofs of genuineness and authenticity, I shall consider the reasons which induce the belief that the Pentateuch was written by Moses, examine the validity of the several objections to this hypothesis, correct various errors of the writer, upon whom I have already made some remarks and then investigate the subject of the truth and divine origin of that book, which is the great depository of the laws of the Jews, and the most important of their historical records.

SECTION II.

The Pentateuch traced to the Babylonish Captivity.

THE Jewish people is the most remarkable of all those to whom the earth has been assigned as an habitation. Other nations have been more renowned in arts or arms, in literature or civil polity. No one has been comparable to it in its religious distinctions, or resembled it in its peculiar destiny. Presenting for ages, amid the almost universal defection of the human race from the primeval and pure worship, an example of a mono

theistic faith and elevated moral system; possessing historical and sacred records extending into the remotest antiquity; and after a national existence of fifteen centuries, and the continuance in a state of dispersion for a still longer period, yet remaining an insulated portion of the family of man, resisting all the amalgamating influences of time, servitude, and an active spirit of proselytism in those among whom they live-the Hebrews have occupied and still possess a station of solitary pre-eminence on the pages of history. Nor are they alone distinguished by the circumstances just indicated; they possess a more remarkable prerogative derived from the fact, that the religious systems, which sway the minds and influence the conduct of the most important portion of mankind, are founded upon that which was promulgated among the descendants of the renowned individual, to whom the divine promise was given, that in "his seed should all the families of the earth be blessed." The Christian and Mohammedan religions, widely dif fering in their genius, their moral influence, and the character of the evidence upon which they rest -alike refer to the revelations made through Moses and the prophets. And while the disciples of the former, regard themselves as the spiritual children of Abraham; the tribes of the desert among whom the latter originated, glory in him as their natural progenitor. And with respect to the great law

giver of the Jews, as observed by J. Von Muller, "his institutions, his history and his name, are now, after near four thousand years, the objects of veneration among all the nations from the Tagus to Hindoostan, from the frozen seas of Scandinavia to the country of myrrh and frankincense." Apart therefore from the sacred considerations associated with the Hebrew Scriptures, there should be produced in reference to them, a high respect and lively curiosity—as records of an age long gone by, as a picture of a very primitive condition of society, and as the great original depository of those religious truths or errors, as they may be differently esteemed by various persons, which have powerfully and permanently influenced the human mind in these latter ages. Such being the interest attached to these writings, the inquiry into their antiquity, genuineness and credibility has been often prosecuted, and must ever be deemed an important one, in a point of view both literary and religious.

It is intended in the following essay to attempt a brief outline of the reasons, which induce a belief of the Mosaic origin of the Pentateuch, the most ancient of those writings which constitute what is called the Old Testament. The name has respect to the division of this production into five parts. The four last of these divisions, contain a full account of the organization of the Jewish polity, civil and religious, with a narrative of those events

which preceded or attended its establishment. The first book furnishes a necessary historical introduction to the others, exhibiting brief notices of the origin of the human race, and the distribution of it into several tribes and nations, with a more particular account of the immediate progenitors of the Jewish people.

It will be recollected that reference has already been made to the distinction between the genuineness and authenticity of any book. It is not doubted that both these characteristics can be shown to belong to the work under consideration. These topics will, however, be made the subjects of separate investigation, and in the first place the proposition will be maintained-That the Pentateuch was written by Moses, at or about the time to which it is usually assigned. Pursuing this course we shall not be liable to embarrassment from the extravagant requisitions, which are grounded upon the supposition of the perfect accuracy and divine inspiration of this production; a thing which however true, it is not necessary in the first instance to establish, being more properly the subject of after consideration. The point which it is incumbent on us first to ascertain, is, that the Pentateuch possesses the same character of genuineness which marks other productions of antiquity-the works for instance, of Herodotus, Thucydides, Tacitus or Livy. It is manifest that evidence of a higher

nature or of a different kind should not be sought in one instance, which is not required in the other. But here the principle is interposed by our objectors, that the extraordinary or miraculous nature of the facts detailed in any book demand that a more exalted standard of proof in reference to its genuineness should be applied. The principle might have force with respect to the authenticity, or truth of the incidents recorded in any author; otherwise it is perfectly futile and irrelevant. And no one ever thought of doubting that Livy wrote the history which bears his name, because there are many prodigies recorded in it.

It is now between three and four thousand years, since the delivery of their law to the Israelites in the Arabian desert. In tracing the existence of any literary production through so prolonged a period, it will be convenient to fix upon some great landmarks; some intermediate points, at which we may pause in our investigation, and taking a survey of the results already ascertained, prepare to penetrate into a still more remote antiquity. There are two such epochs as those above referred to-the more recent, the coming of Christ; the more remote-the return from the Babylonish captivity, about five hundred years before. We might, indeed, at once, advance to this earlier period, and assume the existence at that time, in their present form, of the books ascribed