I.

iniquitous fcene of tyranny enfued, when CHAP. Mofes was raised up by God to be the deliverer of his brethren. A feries of miraculous plagues inflicted by the hand of the prophet, at length forced the reluctant prince to consent to the departure of the Ifraelites. Soon however, repenting of his conftrained permiffion, he pursued them as far as the waters of the Red Sea ; which, in obedience to the divine command, opened a paffage through its waves for Mofes and his followers, but returning immediately to its accustomed channel, overwhelmed Pharaoh and his Egyptians.

These are some of the principal circumftances recorded in the Pentateuch; and they are faid to have happened in the earlieft ages of the world: but the fingularity of the events, and the remote period to which they are afcribed, feem to give us, as reasonable beings, an undoubted right to examine their claim to veracity. A blind acquiefcence in received opinions is required as a duty only by fuperftition and impofture; genuine Chriftianity difdains the lurking artifices of deceit, and founds

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her

SECT. her empire no lefs upon the allegiance of I. the understanding, than upon the fubjugation of the paffions.

Preliminary

obferva

tions.

Perhaps no method of ascertaining the authenticity of the books of Mofes is more ftriking or more convincing, than to bring together into one point of view the various traditions of Paganifm, and to compare them with the hiftory contained in the Pentateuch. The refemblance, between them, in many inftances, is fo wonderfully accurate, that the neceffity of a formal and laboured comparison is almost precluded. A bare statement of facts is fufficient to fix the attention, and to convince the understanding of any unprejudiced inquirer. This however is not always the cafe. Truth is frequently blended with fiction, or obfcured with allegory; her form is fometimes feverely mutilated, and fometimes unnaturally dilated; fhe is often nearly buried beneath a load of extraneous matter, and her features perpetually vary with the varying mythologies of different countries. Hence, it is abfolutely neceffary, that fome rules of interpretation fhould be laid down, which may enable us

to

to penetrate through the thick gloom of CHAP. heathen tradition.

1. Allegory and perfonification seem to have been peculiarly agreeable to the genius of antiquity, and the fimplicity of truth was perpetually, facrificed at the fhrine of poetical decoration. Obedient to the call of a luxuriant fancy, inanimate objects burst forth into life and action, and the whole material creation affumed a new degree of importance. The progenitors of mankind were elevated to a rank above that of mortality, and were adored as gods by the blind superstition of their defcendants. Universal nature, and even abstract ideas, received not unfrequently the honours of canonization, and acted a confpicuous part upon the stage of ancient mythology. The ocean put on the menacing frown of a gigantic demon; the ark was transformed into a myfterious female; and creative love was fymbolized under the image of a beautiful fylph, decked with golden wings, and hovering over the wide expanse of the chaotic abyfs.

2. The obfcurity, neceffarily attendant upon allegorical defcriptions, was height

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ened

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1

SECT. ened by the vanity, which prompted each I. nation to adapt, to their own peculiar mythology, facts equally connected with the whole race of mankind. Commemorative ordinances were established, and remarkable events were exhibited in a kind of scenical representation. In fome cafes their origin was remembered, in others it was totally forgotten, and thus would for ever have remained, had not the page of Scripture afforded that explanation, which had long been obliterated from the annals of Paganism.

3. A confiderable portion of ancient fable has been handed down to us, through the medium of the literature of Greece, and in its paffage has received a very great degree of corruption. The religion of that celebrated peninfula is confeffedly of foreign extractionc. Egypt and the east were the fources, from which the Greeks equally derived their origin and their mythology: but the faftidious delicacy of claffical ears, and the vain affectation of remote antiquity, induced them to corrupt various oriental words, and to seek for the radicals of them in their own language.

HORE MOSAICE.

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23

This vanity has been productive of many CHAP. abfurd mifrepresentations, and has fuperinduced much obfcurity over feveral remarkable traditions. It will be necessary therefore, in the elucidation of Greek antiquity, frequently to have recourfe to the oriental dialects. The derivation of the very alphabet, ufed by that polite and ingenious. nation, offers itself as a clue to direct us in our researches. It naturally leads us to that wide spreading language, which once extended itself over so many of the western nations of Afia, and which still prevails, in the fhape of one of its dialects, through fo large a portion both of Africa, and of the East the fame radicals equally serve to form the basis of the kindred tongues of Chaldea, Syria, Palestine, Phenicia, and Arabia. By the commerce of Tyre this language was diffufed round the coafts of the Mediterranean; and the adventurous navigators of Carthage have left fome traces of it even upon the remote shores of Bri

yag,

d Upon the propriety of adopting this fyftem, let Plato himself speak: Evvow ὅτι πολλα οἱ Ελληνες ονόματα, αλλως τε και οἱ ύπο τοις Βαρβαροις οικεντες, παρα των Βαρβάρων ειλήφασι κει τις ζητοι ταυτα κατα την Ελληνικην φωνην, ὡς εοικοτως κείται, εκείνην, εξ ἧς το ονομα τυγχανει ον, οισθα ότι αποροι PLAT. Cratylus.

αλλα μη αν.

καλ