LAWS, POLITY, RELIGION, SECTS, ARTS AND TRADES, DIVISIONS OF TIME, WARS, CAPTIVITIES, ETC. WITH A SHORT ACCOUNT OF The Ancient and Modern Samaritans. WRITTEN ORIGINALLY IN FRENCH, BY CLAUDE FLEURY, " Abbe of Argenteuil, and Member of the Royal Academy, Paris. THE WHOLE MUCH ENLARGED FROM THE PRINCIPAL WRITERS ON JEWISH ANTIQUITIES, BY ADAM CLARKE, L. L. D. F. S. A. From the Second London Edition. NEW-YORK, PUBLISHED BY N. BANGS AND J. EMORY, AT THE METHODIST T.L. PREFACE. EVERY attempt to illustrate the BIBLE, the oldest and most important book in the world, a book that has God for its Author, and the eternal happiness of the human race for its end, deserves the most serious attention of all those who profess the Christian religion. It is granted on all hands, that this book has many dif ficulties; but this is not peculiar to the Jewish scriptures; all ancient writings are full of them: and these difficulties are generally in proportion to the antiquity of such writings; for the customs, manners, and language of mankind are continually changing; and were it not for the help received from the records of succeeding ages, which are only accessible to the learned, many valuable works of primitive times must have remained in impenetrable obscurity. Scholars and critics have exerted themselves in the most laudable manner to remove or elucidate the difficulties occurring in ancient authors; and (thanks to their industry) they have rendered the study of these writers not only easy but delightful; and brought the literature of ancient Greece and Rome within the reach even of our children. But the heathen writers have not been the only objects of regard in the grand system of critical disquisition. A host of the most eminent scholars that ever graced the republic of letters, or ennobled the human character, have carefully read, and diligently studied, the Sacred Writings; have felt their beauties, and prized their excellencies; and, by their learned and pious works, have not only recommended them to mankind at large, but rendered them useful to all who wish to read so as to M300742 |