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ordinances more to their own liking, had they not been fully convinced of their Divine origin?

It is not without sorrow, that we are constrained by the oppositions of infidelity, to demonstrate things in themselves so clear; for at last we come to this-when the Books of Moses first appeared among the children of Israel, were they already in the observance of the statutes and ordinances, which they contain, or were they strangers to them? One of these two things must have been the case; either they practised them before Moses wrote, or they did not. No one can assert, with the slightest shadow of reason, that they were already in the observance of them; and we find no circumstance, which can with any probability lead us to suppose that they were even acquainted with either their nature or purport. If they were neither in the observance of them, nor had any knowledge of them, what could have given to the unknown volume of an impostor the weight of an unalterable law?

It is clear, then, by the most satisfactory demonstration, that Moses related nothing in these Books, but what the people of Israel were partakers of, and eye-witnesses to; and that, consequently, the laws enjoined by him are the commands of God; and that both the history and laws were written by Moses at the very time at which it is asserted they were.

CHAPTER XII.

ON THE BOOK OF GENESIS.

MOSES could not have chosen a more appropriate preface, nor one more worthy of his subject, and of the dignity of the Divine Author of the whole, than an abridged history of the creation of the world, such as he gives us in the Book of Genesis.

We have already considered this circumstance, according to the rules of right reason; and we have found, that among all the different systems, which the imagination of man has invented, there is not one which more clearly releases us from all difficulty, nor one which is more within the reach of probability, than that which acknowledges an infinite and all-wise Power, acting by will alone in the production of the universe, without being guided, or acted upon by any other

cause.

But Moses conducts us to a much more intimate knowledge of the subject: he teaches us the exact period of the Creation; and we learn also, in the Book of Genesis, the number of ages,

which elapsed between the time of that event and the establishment of the Jews in Egypt.

The most daring infidel will not be able to accuse Moses of imposture, in this book; for he has confined himself to so short a space of time from the beginning of the world to the death of Jacob, that it is only to be accounted for by its accordance with the truth. The very nature of the facts also, as recited in the Book of Genesis, establish them as circumstances which actually did take place. What possible honour could Moses hope to derive from his account of the universal Deluge? Where was the advantage of relating a tale so incredible? Again; what purpose was to be gained by asserting that the whole human race had spoken the same language for the first nine or ten ages; and that then for a daring act of rebellion towards the Almighty, they were punished by a confusion of tongues? One must suppose any impostor devoid of common sense, thus unnecessarily to invent such extraordinary relations, which could not have been of the slightest assistance to the historian, and which would have rendered detection the easiest thing possible. To this we may add, that an author of any ingenuity would have calculated better, than to have confined himself to the comparatively short space of two thousand years in a tale of fiction, which he wished to be received as true.

He would with care have avoided a circumstance which must have led to his certain exposure; and would have chosen rather to descend into the dark chambers of endless antiquity, there to veil his wonders in the gloom of many thousands, not only of years, but of ages far gone by. Had Moses been incorrect, how easily could the Egyptians or the Chaldeans have confuted him! Yet we find nothing of the kind attempted. The earliest histories of empires; the most received accounts of the commencement of nations; and the progressive invention of various arts and sciences; all accord with the relation given by Moses, as to the age of the world; thus convincing us beyond a doubt, that no other book carries with it such powerful proofs as the Bible does of its authenticity.

We will now consider another argument, which is grossly perverted by the enemies of religion. That we may not be tempted to follow their example, let us give it our most serious attention.

Moses, in the fifth chapter of Genesis, recites to us a catalogue of the generations of those men, who lived in the first eight or nine ages; and we find by it, that their lives extended far beyond the usual period of man's existence at the present day. To this account, the unbeliever raises a host of objections, which might all be summed up in a simple denial of the fact.

"Of what use was it?

Why, if it was so, do not men live as long now?" asks the child of impiety. Now, I shall maintain not only, that this is a truth established beyond all contradiction; but that it is a most important truth. It is not difficult to believe, that, at the time Moses wrote, all persons would naturally have been anxious to expose the falsehood, had it not been received as a well-known fact, that the lives of the first Patriarchs had been so extended. Besides, if it had been untrue, Moses might easily have rendered it difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain the exact state of this, as well as of many other particulars, by having confused and bewildered them in the labyrinth of ages? Will any one attempt to reply, that Moses knew that there could not be much risk in making this statement; because the flood had effaced all these things from the memory of man. At all events, this very answer is an acknowledgment of one wonderful truth, which is related by Moses; namely, the awful circumstance of the universal Deluge. Still further, I observe, that the idea is in itself a deception, and must be completely defeated by the recollection, that Noah is stated to have been in existence six hundred years before this dreadful visitation of the Almighty; that we are also told, of his children being married before they entered the ark, and of his eldest son having been at that time full a

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