logy attached to the English Tranflation of the Bible; which Paine here adopts, and too often indeed juftly cenfures.And the longevity of Job, furviving his trial 140 years, during which PROVIDENCE, to reward his fufferings and his conftancy, gave him other "Seven fons and three daughters," xlii. 13. to replace thofe he had loft, i. 2. admirably correfponds with the standard of life during the affigned period of Nahor's age.

The admirable Poem itself was probably written in Job's age; it properly begins at the third chapter, and ends with his humiliation, xlii. 6. But the Introduction and Conclufion might have been written long after; yet long before the Exode of the Ifraelites, which, by a correcter chronology, happened B. C. 1649.

VIII. Profeffor Eichhorn, by his fuperior fagacity, and "a liberality of investigation" bordering on licentioufness, has found out, that the Book of Jonah is "a pious romance ;" and the Book of Daniel, which even Paine refpected as a genuine compofition,)

compofition,) no other than "a popular legend"-" a work of no moral merit (b), and useful only to those who practife divination by the interpretation of Scripture." Witlings

(b) Jofephus, the great Jewish hiftorian, who witneffed the accomplishment of Daniel's prophecy of the deftruction of Jerufalem-and furely was, at leaft, as good an Hebrean, as profound an antiquary, and as judicious a critic as Eichhorn-thought differently :— Antiq. x. 7. p, 465. Huds.

1

"The books that he compofed, and left behind, are fill read among us even now; and from them we do believe that Daniel converfed with GOD. For he not only prophefied, in fucceffion, of future events, like the other prophets, but he also determined the season when they were to happen."-" Daniel wrote alfo about the Roman Empire, and that [Jerufalem] would be " defolated" by them.”—All these predictions, fhewn to him by GOD, he left behind in writing; fo that they who read and view the events, muft admire Daniel for the honour in which he was held with GOD."

of

"And from thefe the Epicureans may be convicted error, who reject PROVIDENCE from the concerns of life, and honour not THE DEITY with the superintendance of human affairs, nor admit that the Univerfe is governed by THE BLESSED AND IMMORTAL BEING, for the permanency of the whole; but fay that the world goes on at random, without guide or Confellor."

5

Witlings of the French School are apt to make merry with "the encounter of Jonah and the whale," and especially with his prayer in the whale's belly ;-while

counfellor."—" From the events then foretold by Daniel, they appear to me greatly to err from the true opinion, who affert that "THE DEITY exercifes no providence concerning buman affairs."

Such are "the moral" and religious "merits" of this highly gifted prophet; and fuch the authenticity of his writings, and the veracity of his " divinations,” furnished by an hiftorian of the highest character for probity and information-who was himself a priest, and eminently skilled in facred, Jewish, and profane literature Jofephus-whofe invaluable works (notwithstanding corruptions and mutilations both by Jews and Christians) compose the best comment extant on the Bible; as they who "fearch" moft deeply " will find."

Of the candour of this noble hiftorian, his honourable characters of Jefus Christ, and of James, ufually styled "Our Lord's Brother," and first Bishop of Jerufalem, who was murdered by the feditious, bear the fulleft teftimony :-the genuineness of the latter has never been impeached; and it ftrongly fupports the former, which has been called in question by hypercritics, as a forgery foifted by pious fraud into his work, but upon no fufficient 'evidence external or

internal.

while graver critics difcufs what species of whale it was, and whether it might not be a cow-bellied shark, &c. ;—the ribaldry of the one, and the hypercriticism of the

other,

internal.-Bryant, that veteran in literature, has ably vindicated it; and still more fully, Kippis, in his Life of Lardner, prefixed to the last compleat edition of his works.

The character of JESUS, which is naturally introduced in the account of Pilate's adminiftration, (in which He fuffered,)—Antiq. xviii, 4, 3. p. 798. Hudf. is as follows:

"Moreover, at this time [flourished] Jefus, a "wife man," if it be meet to call him man [Matt. xiii. 55.]; for he was "a worker of wonderful works," [John iii. 2.]; "a teacher" of men who gladly received the truth; and "many of the Jews," many alfo of the Gentiles, (John xii. 42.) he gained over. "THIS WAS THE CHRIST;" [ufually fo called, and by Pilate himself, Matt. xxvii. 17.] And when Pilate, on the information of the chief men among us, had punished him by crucifixion, they who had been attached to him at first did not ceafe. For " he appeared unto them on the third day, alive again;" [as they faid,] (the holy prophets having predicted thefe, and numberless other wonders, of him [THE CHRIST].) And ftill, until the prefent day, the fect of Chriftians (denominated from him) has not failed,

other, originating from ignorance of, or inattention to, the Sacred Text.

The original fays nothing either of whales or fharks :--it only obferves, that

66 THE

This is fpoken like a true difciple of the fage Gamaliel, diffuading the Jewish Council from perfecuting the followers of JESUS: Als v. 38.

"And now, I fay unto you, refrain from these men, and let them alone; for if this counfel or this work be from men, it will be overthrown; but if it be from GOD, ye cannot overthrow it; and [beware] left ye even be found fighters against God."—And furely the continuance of Chriflianity, under every worldly difadvantage, so long after the crucifixion of its Author, must have struck a contemplative mind like that of Jofephus, when he wrote his Antiquities, twenty years after his Jewish War; and who plainly altered, on fober reflexion, his hafty judgment, that Vefpafian was the predicted Chrifl-confidering The Chrift as fill to come," in his interpretation of Daniel's prophecies.

That the moft litigated claufe-i Xpis & ni "This was the Chrift"-must be understood with reference to the popular opinion, is plain from the other paffage, p. 896.-where "James, Tov adexqov Inox T8 aεloμev8 Xpis8, "the brother (or coufin) of Jefus, who was called Chrift,"-" and fome others, were stoned as tranfgreffors of the law, by the zealot Ananus and the Jewish Council-during the interregnum, after the

death