3. The baleful workings of sin appeared with. their full horror in the next generation; and human blood was shed for the first time by the hand of a brother. As mankind multiplied, wickedness likewise increased; and the advanced age, to which they attained at that period, served only to augment the general corruption. At length the avenues to divine mercy were closed; and those wretched victims of sin were sealed up in final

ceeded by a seventh sabbatical day; they argued, that it would remain six days of God, which should be succeeded by a seventh divine day of sabbatism. Now I apprehend, that the day, of which the Lord speaks to Adam, is a day of God or a thousand natural years. The prophetic denunciation therefore is, that he should die in the millenary that he eat of the forbidden fruit. This, accordingly, was accomplished; for Adam died before he had attained the age of a thousand years that is to say, he died in the course of the same great day of God wherein he had transgressed the divine command. It is further worthy of observation, that, after the fall, the life of man was confined within the limits of one of these great days of the Lord; for not a single antediluvian patriarch reached the age of a millenary: so that, through sin, he literally became an ephemeral being.

We may observe some traces of such a mode of reckoning among the Hindoos; which I suppose them to have received, though with a corrupt exaggeration, from patriarchal antiquity. A thousand divine ages, each age comprehending a stupendous number of natural years, is said to constitute only a single day of the creative Brahma. Instit. of Menu. chap. i. §72.

On the same principle, the day of judgment, or the great day of Jehovah, must be viewed as commencing with the overthrow of Antichrist and as extending through the whole millennium. See Mede's Works. book iv. epist. 15. p. 762, 763.

impenitence. The elements waited to receive their commands from God; and the whole world trembled upon the verge of unexpected destruction. Suddenly the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. A tremendous flood deluged the surface of the globe; and every soul perished, except the household of one pious Patriarch. Inclosed within a capacious ark, this favoured family remained secure amidst the wreck of universal nature; perfectly free from the least danger, because under the immédiate protection of Omnipotence.

4. The waters at length abated; and Noah with his offspring prepared to quit the ark, in which they had been preserved. Their attention was first engaged by the cultivation of the earth and by the planting of vineyards: but the harmony of the new world was soon disturbed by the wickedness of Canaan. His unworthy treatment of his aged parent called down a curse upon his head ; while the piety of Shem and Japhet procured a prophetic blessing for their posterity.'

5. Unmindful of the late judgments of God, the descendants of Noah soon corrupted themselves under the conduct of Nimrod the son of Cush. With a view of laying the foundation of an universal empire and of preventing themselves from being scattered over the face of the earth, they prepared to build a city and a tower: but their im

See the history of this transaction fully discussed in my Origin of Pagan Idolatry. b. i. c. 1. § iv. 7.

pious design was frustrated by a miraculous interference of heaven; and they were doomed to the very condition, against which they had attempted to guard.'

6. The natural tendency to evil, so deeply rooted in the human breast, seems to have próduced at this period that remarkable system of gentile idolatry, which from Babel was carried to every quarter of the globe. Under such circumstances, God was pleased, in due time, to take Abrahain under his peculiar guidance, and to prove his faith by a variety of trials.

A signal example of divine vengeance is recorded to have taken place in his days. Certain cities of Canaan having filled up the measure of their abo⚫ minations, a torrent of sulphureous fire descended from heaven, and utterly consumed them; while the tract of country, in which they were situated, was converted into a noisome and stagnant lake. 7. From Abraham was descended, in a direct line, the patriarch Joseph. A number of providential events conspired together to throw him into the high situation of prime minister to the king of Egypt, and a dreadful famine of seven years produced the migration of his whole family into that country. Here, in process of time, they multiplied to such a degree, as to excite the jealousy of the

I

See this matter fully discussed in my Origin of Pagan Idolatry. b. vi. c. 1.

2 See my Origin of Pagan Idolatry. b. i. c. 1. § Iv, v. and passim.

reigning dynasty. A most iniquitous scene of tyranny ensued: but Moses was raised up by God to be the deliverer of his brethren; and a series of miraculous plagues, inflicted by the hand of the prophet, at length forced the prince who then occupied the throne to consent to the departure of the Israelites. Soon however repenting of his constrained permission, he pursued them as far as the waters of the Red Sea which, in obedience to the divine command, opened a passage through its waves for Moses and his followers; but, returning immediately to its accustomed channel, overwhelmed Pharaoh and his Egyptians.

IV. These are some of the principal circumstances recorded in the Pentateuch; and they are said to have happened in the earliest ages of the world but the singularity of the events, and the remote period to which they are ascribed, seem to give us, as reasonable beings, an undoubted right to examine their claim to veracity. A blind acquiescence in received opinions is required as a duty only by superstition and imposture genuine Christianity disdains the lurking artifices of deceit ; and founds her empire no less upon the allegiance of the understanding than upon the subjugation of the passions.

The argument, which I mean to prosecute in the first part of my inquiry, may be briefly stated in the following manner.

Namely that of the Indo-Scythic shepherds during their second occupation of Egypt. See my Origin of Pagan Idol. b. vi. C. 5.

If the early history contained in the Pentateuch be authentic, it is only natural to expect, that some traces of it at least will be found in pagan records. Thus, supposing the flood for instance to have ever really occurred, it is incredible that all knowledge of so awful a catastrophè should have been entirely lost among the Gentiles. The impression, which it would make on the minds of men, would be far too deep to be easily obliterated: and I scruple not to say, that, if its occurrence had been asserted by Moses alone, while not a single heathen nation had preserved any recollection of it; that one circumstance would, in my mind, have cast an indelible blot on the veracity of the Hebrew historian. Respecting the transactions of Joshua or Gideon or Sampson, the world at large might well be ignorant but, if the earth were ever inundated by an universal deluge, some tradition of it more or less vivid must inevitably have been preserved in every ancient nation. It was a matter of such a nature as utterly to preclude the possibility of total oblivion.

Let us then, for the purpose of ascertaining the authenticity of the books of Moses, bring together into one point of view the various traditions of Paganism and compare them with the history contained in the Pentateuch.