ERRATA TO VOL. I.

Page 12, line 2 from bottom, after as, read as well as

28, line 17, note ‡, instead of lib. viii. c. 1-7, read Euseb. Præ Evang. lib. viii. c. 1-5; lib. ix. c. 6; lib. xiii. c. 12.

30, for Scripture, read Scriptures

160, line 15, after only, add the admission of

198, note*, last line, for dilengenza, read diligenza

219, line 12, for inspire, read inspires

241, last line, instead of ecords, read records

290, line 13, for Emperors, read Emperor

297, line 9, for easy, read early; and line 12, dele early

300, line 14, for Plato, read Philo

342, line 19, for double, read durable

368, note, instead of Raphael in Philet. 4022, read Raphel on Philip. iv. 22.

ERRATA TO VOL. II.

Page 82, line 10, after inmate, read with man

99, line 3, after communication, add except by individuals 130, line 8, for perspicacious, read perspicuous

172, note, before Alex. insert Clem.

187, line 12, for appears, read appear

197, line 4, for three knighted read three-nighted
203, line 2, after third, insert from

291, line 19, for grac read grace

598, line 13, for Jarisculan read Janiculan

CHAP. I.

Preface to the Classics.

THE Connection which subsisted between the Jews and the Heathen nations, has been very fully stated in the preceding part of this work, in order to illustrate the facilities which the Heathens enjoyed of deriving information from the chosen People. It has been shewn also, what opinions prevailed upon subjects universally important, and how apparently they were, in many instances, deduced from the records of Revelation, or the early reports of tradition, or from both. It is intended to prosecute, in the remaining chapters, a particular examination of those works of the Greek and Roman writers, which are characterized exclusively, by the denomination of the Classics, in order to point out what interest appertains to them in a religious point of tiew. The remark which was made with reference only to language, and to the as

sertion of the superiority of the original Scriptures over translations of them, might be applied to this subject; and we might observe, with respect to the matter, as well as to the style of the sacred and classical writers, that the Hebrews drank of the fountain, the Greeks of the stream, and the Romans of the pools.

How copiously, and to what a remote distance the derivative communications flowed, was very early observed; and if the persuasions of some of the fathers were adopted, we might suppose all the knowledge of the Heathens to be a mere transfusion of revealed information.

Tertullian enquires, which of the poets, which of the sophists, did not drink altogether of the sacred source; and many other writers carried their opinions so far, as to maintain that the natural, as well as the moral philosophy of the Heathens, and even geometry and arithmetic, were drawn from the Scriptures. It is not improbable, as has been already observed, that before the time of Alexander, much of the history and laws of the Jews was imparted by means of transla

Apologet. § 47. p. 36. Edit. Paris, 1664. Gales's Court of the Gentiles, lib. i. c. 2.