Here I shall recite some of the principal heads under which these circumstances may be found. Thus, there are mentioned in the book of GENESIS the rivers of Paradise, the generations of the antediluvian patriarchs, the deluge with its circumstances, the place where the ark rested, the building of the tower of Babel, the confusion of tongues, the dispersion of mankind, or the division of the earth among the posterity of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the generations of the post-diluvian patriarchs, with the gradual shortening of human life after the flood; the sojournings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with many particulars of the state of Canaan, and the neighbouring countries in their times; the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the state of the land of Edom both before and after Esau's time, and the descent of Jacob into Egypt; with the state of Egypt before the time of Moses.

In the book of EXODUS are mentioned the plagues of Egypt, the institution of the passover, the passage through the Red Sea, with the destruction of Pharaoh and his host there, the miracle of manna, the murmurings of the people, the victory over the Amalekites, the solemn delivery of the law from Mount Sinai, many particular laws both moral and ceremonial, the worship of the golden calf, the circumstance of Moses breaking the tables on which the law had been inscribed, and a very minute description of the tabernacle, priests, garments, urim and thummim, ark, &c.

In LEVITICUS there is a collection of ceremonial laws, with all their particularities, and accounts of the consecration of Aaron and his son, and of the remarkable deaths of Nadab and Abihu.

The book of NUMBERS Contains the first and second numberings of the several tribes, with their genealogies; the peculiar offices of the three several families of the Levites, many ceremonial laws, the journeyings and encampments of the people in the wilderness during forty years, with the relation of some remarkable events

which happened in this period; such as the searching of the land, the rebellion of Korah, the victories over Arad, Sihon, and Og, with the division of the kingdoms of the two last among the Gadites, Reubenites, and Manassites; the history of Balak and Balaam, and the victory over the Midianites; all described with the several particularities of time, place, and persons.

The book of DEUTERONOMY contains a recapitulation of many things contained in the last three books, with a second delivery of the law, chiefly the moral one, by Moses, upon the borders of Canaan, just before his death, with an account of that death, and the true reason assigned why he saw, but did not enter, the promised land.

In the book of JOSHUA are related, the passage over Jordan, the conquest of the land of Canaan in detail, and the division of it among the tribes; including a minute geographical description.

The book of JUDGES contains a recital of a great variety of public transactions, with the private origin of some. In all, the names of times, places, and persons, both among the Israelites, and the neighbouring nations, are noted with particularity and simplicity.

In the book of RUTH is a very particular account of the genealogy of David, with several incidental circum

stances.

The books of SAMUEL, KINGS, CHRONICLES, Ezra, and NEHEMIAH, contain the transactions of the kings before the captivity, and of the governors afterwards, all delivered in the same circumstantial manner. And here the particular account of the regulations, sacred and civil, established by David, and of the building of the temple by Solomon, the genealogies given in the beginning of the first book of Chronicles, and the lists of the persons who returned, sealed, &c. after the captivity, in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, deserve particular notice, in the light in which we are now considering things.

The book of ESTHER Contains a like account of a very remarkable event, with the institution of a festival in memory of it.

The book of PSALMS mentions many historical events both common and miraculous, in an incidental way, or sometimes by way of celebration; and this, as well as the books of Job, PROVERBS, ECCLESIASTES, and CANTICLES, allude to the manners and customs of ancient times, in various particulars.

In the PROPHECIES there are blended some historical relations; and in other parts the indirect mention of facts, times, places, and persons, is interwoven with the predictions in the most copious and circumstantial

manner.

If we turn to the NEW TESTAMENT, the same observations present themselves at first view. Here also there are often comprehensive syllabuses of the leading facts of the Old Testament history, comprised in a single chapter, of which those mentioned at the foot of the page are striking instances. It is also observable, that our Lord, in his various conversations with the Jews, assumes the genuineness and authenticity of the Jewish Scriptures, that is, of the Old Testament books, and argues upon them. Thus we find him speaking of Moses as a lawgiver, referring to the decalogue, and various laws and observances mentioned in different parts of the Pentateuch; to Abram, to Jacob, to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, to the Queen of Sheba (mentioned in 1 Kings x.), and Solomon; to David as a prophet, and as inspired; to " Moses and the Prophets" generally; to Jonah, as a type of himself; and to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, and Malachi, as prophets. In the several parts of the New Testament, too, we have the names of friends and enemies, the conduct of both, the faults of

4 See especially Psalms 78, 105, 106, 114, 135, 136. And for a defence of the Canticles, see Theodoret's Commentary thereon; or Dupin's Bibliotheca Patrum, vol. iv. p. 62.

5 Acts, vii.; 1 Cor. x.; Heb. xi.; 2 Pet. ii.

friends told without gloss, those of enemies without exaggeration or virulence; the names of Jews, Greeks, and Romans, obscure and illustrious; the times, places, and circumstances, of facts specified directly, and alluded to indirectly, with various references to the customs and manners of those times and places. And here again we may notice, by the by, that many of the historical books, both of the Old and New Testament, contain prophecies which have been fulfilled; and from which both their truth and their divine authority may be inferred; as I shall show in my next letter.

Now, from the preceding enumeration it may be observed, First, that in fact we never find forged or false accounts of things to superabound thus in particularities. There is always some truth where considerable particularities are related, and they always seem to bear some proportion to one another. Thus there is a great want of the particulars of time, place, and persons, in Manetho's account of the Egyptian dynasties, Ctesias's account of the Assyrian kings, and those which the technical chronologers have given of the ancient kingdoms of Greece; and agreeably to this obvious principle, these accounts have much fiction and falsehood, with some truth. Whereas Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War, and Cæsar's of the War in Gaul, in both which the particulars of time, place, and persons are mentioned, are universally esteemed authentic to a great degree of exactness.

Secondly. A forger, or a relator of known falsehoods, would be careful not to mention so great a number of particulars, since this would be to put into his reader's hands criteria by which he may be detected. Hence appears one reason of the fact mentioned in the last paragraph, and which, in confirming that fact, confirms the proposition here to be established.

Thirdly. A forger or relater of falsehoods, could scarcely furnish such lists of particulars. It is easy to conceive how faithful records, kept from time to time, by persons concerned in the transactions, should con

tain such lists; nay, it is natural to expect them in this case, from that local memory which takes strong possession of the fancy in those who have been present at transactions: but it would be a work of the highest invention, and greatest stretch of genius, to raise from nothing such numberless particularities, as are almost every where to be met with in the Scriptures.

There is, besides, a circumstance relating to the Gospels, which deserves particular notice in this place. St. Matthew and St. John were apostles; and therefore, since they accompanied Christ, must have this local memory of his journeyings and miracles. St. Mark was a Jew of Judea, and a friend of St. Peter; and therefore may either have had this local memory himself, or have written chiefly from St. Peter, who had. But St. Luke, being a proselyte of Antioch, not converted, perhaps, till several years after Christ's resurrection, and receiving his accounts from different eyewitnesses, as he says himself, could have no regard to that order of time which a local memory would suggest. Let us try now how the gospels answer to these positions. Matthew's, then, appears to be in exact order of time, and to be a regulator to Mark's and Luke's, showing Mark's to be nearly so, but Luke's to have little or no regard to the order of time in his account of Christ's ministry. John's gospel is like Matthew's, in order of time; but as he wrote after all the other evangelists, and with a view only of recording some remarkable particulars, such as Christ's actions before he left Judea to go to preach in Galilee, his disputes with the Jews of Jerusalem, and his discourses to the apostles at his last supper, there was less opportunity for this evangelist's local memory to show itself. Yet his recording what passed before Christ's going into Galilee might be in part from this cause; as Matthew's omission of it was probably from his want of this local memory. For it appears that Matthew resided in Galilee, and that he was not converted till some time after Christ's going thither to preach. Now this suitable