culty that may be supposed to exist touching the foundation of the Mosaic annals. But we must, after all, have recourse to inspiration, operating at least so far upon the mind of Moses, as to hinder him from placing upon record any statements which were not in all respects true; and if we allow that the Divinity interfered at all, as it is impossible to do otherwise, we may likewise allow, without injury to the fame of the historian, that he interfered throughout. The question, however, is one of no importance. Wherever Moses obtained his materials, we cannot doubt that they were ample, and that the Spirit of God effectually guided him in making proper use of them.*

With respect to the other books which complete the canon of the Old Testament, as it is difficult to imagine how any one can reject them, who is satisfied of the authenticity of the Pentateuch, we shall not enter into any argument for the purpose of proving that they deserve the unqualified credit of all readers. Of the prophetic tracts, it is sufficient to observe, that they have already received, and are daily receiving, the strongest testimony in their favour, by the exact fulfilment of their numerous and wonderful predictions; of the devotional treatises, that their own

* The same mode of reasoning which has been employed to demon strate the authenticity and Divine authority of the first five books of the Old Testament, may, by a mere change of terms, be used to show, that the four Gospels of St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. John, together with the book of the Acts of the Apostles, and the twenty-one canonical tracts which succeed them, were aii written by the individuals whose names they bear, and all relate to matters of fact. The authors of these several treatises speak of themselves as eye-witnesses of the miracles which they describe; they appeal to their readers as to persons living in the same age and country, and of consequence fully competent to judge of the truth of their assertions; and they take all Judea to witness, inasmuch as they represent every one of the wonderful deeds of their Master to have been performed openly in the sight of crowds. Men desirous of palming a fiction on any people, however credulous, never act thus. The miracles recorded of Mohammed are all stated to have been performed in secret; and hence, the credibility of his immediate intercourse with the Divine Being rests entirely upon his own unsupported assertion.

purity sufficiently recommends them; while the historical books are no more to be rejected, than any other series of well-attested and faithfully-preserved annals. But we need not pursue the subject farther. The Bible is to be read or rejected, not piece by piece, but as a whole. If the books with which it opens be of a Divine original, as has, we think, been satisfactorily shown, there is no ground for refusing our assent to those that follow, of which it may be truly asserted, that they contain nothing but what perfectly and accurately accords with the spirit and design of the Pentateuch.

Before bringing this Introduction to a close, we think it right to warn the reader, that we have rejected, as manifestly erroneous and corrupt, the system of chronology established by Usher, on the authority of the Masoretic text. It would lead us into details quite foreign from the design of the present work, were we to assign our reasons at length for the course which we have found it necessary to adopt. Enough therefore is done, when we state, that the chronology of the Hebrew Bible abounds with contradictions and inconsistencies; that it is at variance with that of the Samaritan and of the Septuagint versions, as well as with the calculations of Josephus, and with the voice of antiquity, and that there is no longer the smallest ground of doubt that it has been rendered thus faulty, not through accident or the blunders of transcribers, but by design. We have accordingly taken as our guide Dr. Hales's very able analysis of ancient chronology as being by far the most rational and consistent treatise with which we are acquainted; and we have regularly transcribed from it, at the head of each chapter, the dates within which its principal events befell. The following enumeration of the Jewish months of the moneys, weights, and measures of length and of capacity, may be of use to a right understanding of several events recorded in the history,

With an intercalary month (Escadar) thrown in, when the beginning of Nisan would otherwise be carried back to the end of February.

The Palm or Hand-breadth, somewhat more than .

The Fathom 4 cubits, do.

Ezekiel's Reed=6 cubits, do..

The Chin-80 cubits, do.

A Sabbath day's Journey=2000 cubits

A Mile 4000 cubits

A Day's Journey=about

It will be seen, that in conducting our argument in favour of the authenticity of the Pentateuch, we have taken no notice of lesser objections-such as are sometimes urged against the credibility of particular facts mentioned there. These will be remarked upon as we proceed; but there is a circumstance of the kind which we deem it right to discuss here, rather because of its excessive prominency, than its importance. It has been objected to the History of Moses, that circumstances are from time to time recorded, such as it is quite impossible for Moses himself to have introduced: as, for example, names are given to places which they obtained in later times, and remarks are made apposite only on the supposition that the writer speaks to men ignorant of antiquity. Above all, the narrative of the inspired penman's death has furnished food for ridicule to many who find it more convenient to sneer than to argue. We have only to remark, that such expressions as these give to the details, in general, an air of truth which they certainly could not have had without them. No impostor would fall into blunders so palpable, or so easily detected, though the interpolations alluded to are precisely such as the individual or individuals, who revised or edited the works of Moses, may be supposed to have inserted. Thus, the account of the lawgiver's death came doubtless from the pen of Joshua, who succeeded Moses in the guidance of Israel; while all such expressions as "the Canaanite was then in the land," and "as remaineth until this day," are clearly attributable to the pen of Ezra, or the person, whoever he might be, that completed the Jewish canon. Infidelity is driven to its last shifts, when it has recourse to quibbles so contemptible.