Judah's marriage was not folemnifed before the 27th year of his age;-neither was Pharez born before, the expiration of 20 years more, and 27+20=47: which obvious and fhort operation continues the reckoning to within two years of Jacob's removal with his whole family from Palestine to Egypt; in which expedition, Pharez, Hezron, and Hamul, are mentioned among the threescore and fix fouls who accompanied Jacob and his defcendants, from the 12 patriarchs. Much more natural it is to poftulate, that thefe and many other names, now extant in the xlvith chapter of Genefis, were taken from records of a fubfequent date, to fill up deficient names.

Exodus

4. THE generations pofterior to the entrance inte Geneen, and prior to the birth of David, are but four, and the interval in time 406 years; cach fon must there, fore have been born at or after the 100th of his father's life. In four fucceffive inftances fuch incidents are improbable, efpecially on the popular hypothefis, that natural life was reduced to its present standard so early as the egrefs from Egypt. Such incoherent principles and contradictory decifions, found criticism must not only explode, but re-establish self-confiftent truths.

FROM natural phenomena the facred annals derive confirmation. Memorials of a deluge once univerfal exift in every climate. The acomplishment of predictions, which threatened the defolation of feveral cities, fome of them never to be rebuilt, is recorded in authentic hiftory, though difficult it is to afcertain the names of fome, or the fite of others. Of many notable

terms

terms in computation, commemorative ordinances were appointed at the time, and remain to this day ;-the weekly fabbath from the creation, the Paffover and other periodical folemnities of Judaism from the Exodus, the Feast of Purim, &c. No fuch credentials occur in the annals of paganism. The vaunted achievements of Semiramis, Sefoftris, Alexander, Auguftus, &c. are not perpetuated by memorials, in a continuous feries, from the ages in which they lived to the present times.

THE antiquities of Egypt have been carried thousands of years beyond thofe of the Hebrews; thofe of Chaldea, hundreds of thoufands; and thofe of China, millions; but their wildly exorbitant computations reft on no fcientifical principles. Their feveral dynafties, conftructed without regard to a firft point of reckoning, to natural measures of time, or combinations of its integral parts; to generations, in a continued progreffion; or to hiftorical incidents; exhibit every afpect of allegory, fiction, and deliberate forgery,

WITH the like characters of incredibility, though of an inferior degree, is the chronology of the Gr. Pentateuch chargeable. It enlarges the count of years from Adam to Abraham by almoft fifteen centuries, Not the leaft veftige of evidence occurs, or can be produced, to juflify the conjecture, that the Mofaical numbers in the fifth and eleventh chapters of Genefis were greater in the days of Ptolemy Philadelphus than in our Bibles now; or that they have been abbreviated in the intermediate ages. The Alexandrian Translators,

1

mifled by the incredible antiquity, which the Egyptian priests afcribed to their monarchy, rafhly adventured to falfify the true Mofaical chronology, not by changing the genuine numerical notations, but by adding one century to the age of feveral patriarchs at the nativity of their specified fons. In the ivth century of the Chriftian era was the fraud discovered, and in part rectified, by Jerome, in his vulgate Latin verfion. His authority, however, was inadequate to remove the pre judices in favour of a scheme established by prescription. The Jews at last, adhering to the Mofaical text, withdrew their regard from its faulty verfion; and the western churches of Chriftendom, adopting Jerome's Latin Pentateuch, received unawares the true Hebrew chronology. Yet the Proteftants at the Reformation generally approved the amplified numbers of the Alexandrian interpreters. About the middle of the past century, A. B. Usher restored the Hebrew computation, which Whiston and certain later writers have ventured once more to explode. Were this verfion, now preferred to the original, in every other respect fuperior to reprehension, in one view it is exceptionable. Mofes was the first who inftructed mankind concerning the origin of the world, the time of its formation, and the hiftory of the firft ages. No ftrefs is here laid on the evidences which authenticate his fpecial and peculiar commiffion, to teftify that the univerfe is the production of wisdom, goodness, and power, all adequate to the exifting phenomena. With refpect to priority of time, harmony of parts, congruity with nature,

and

and every circumftance of credibility, whether intrinfic or adventitious, his report has every criterion of truth. Neither the Scribes who executed the Samaritan copy, nor the commiffioners who fabricated the Greek verfion, and, from finister views, corrupted the original numbers of the Pentateuch, have the leaft claim to implicit belief, much lefs to preferable credit. On the moral character of witnesses always depends the validity of their teftimony. That of Mofes is fuperior to every fufpicion of deficient or fallacious materials, artfully connected to mislead a credulous multitude.

WHAT though his account of events and dates was not compiled from records of former times! Originality is not an infallible criterion of impofture. Counterfeit coin implies a pre-exiftent model. It must be noted, that Mofes could not impofe on his contemporaries a fictitious hiftory. By his arrangements above 2500 years had elapfed from the creation to the paffage Over the Red Sea. From Adam to Noah tradition had paffed through but 9 ftages in 15 centuries, a term fcarcely equivalent to three of our generations, as now compreffed within the limits of a fingle century. Shem the fon of Noah lived five centuries after the birth of his fon Arphaxad, and consequently died in the 60th of Ifaac, which is the year of Jacob's birth, co-incident with A. M. 2159. Levi, the fon of Jacob, converfed with his own grandfon, Amram, the father of Mofes. So that from Jacob to Mofes, both excluded, are but two generations during the lapfe of 420 years before the Exodus ;-a period, not much.

exceeding

exceeding 60 years of traditional hiftory. As the memory of the patriarchs, collectively, was in the ages prior to alphabetical compofition, the treasury of authentic hiftorical truth, impoffible it was for Mofes to escape detection, if he had pretended to contradict the univerfal report of uncorrupted tradition,

INCREDULITY may ftill remonftrate, that tradition could not preferve pure and unvitiated the contents of the Mofaical hiftory, during the currency of twentyfive centuries.

It is replied, that the hiftory of the world's origin could not be known without a fupernatural communication. To Adam it was firft of all revealed. Who will venture to deny, that it was, if need were, repeated to Mofes? A late tranflator of the primeval history scruples to admit the divine inspiration of the writer. Let him enjoy all the credit and comfort of his own paradox.

In the writings of Mofes, as in the other volumes of the facred code, are recorded many things, which human fagacity could not foresee. The Lawgiver of the Hebrews, in particular, foretold the fpecifical punishments referved for that people, if they fhould degenerate into idolatrous practices, and reject the GREAT PROPHET, to be raised up from among their brethren. They contracted that guilt, and underwent the awful judgements, which had been denounced. The difperfed and forlorn condition of their pofterity, at this day,

Geddes,

bears