in the form of a serpent, and seduced the first human pair from their allegiance to Ormusd, by persuading them that he was the author of all that existed. The man and woman, both believing it, became criminal.

In the tenth volume of Asiatic Researches, it is stated, that long before Christ, a renovation of the universe was expected all over the world, with a Saviour, a king of peace and justice. Capt. T. Wilford says, this expectation is frequently mentioned in the Puranas: "The earth often complains that she is ready to sink backinto Patila, under the accumulated load of all the iniquities of mankind."

Dr. Buchanan, informs us, in his Star in the East, that there have been lately discovered in India, certain Sanscrit writings, containing testimonies of Christ. They relate to a prince who reigned about the period of the Christian era, and whose history, though mixed with fable, contains particulars which correspond in a surprising manner with the advent, birth, miracles, death, and resurrection, of our Saviour. It is exactly recorded, that certain holy men, directed by a star, journeyed toward the west, where they beheld the incarnation of the Deity.

x Late Vice Provost of the College of Fort William, in Bengal.

This testimony accords with that of Chaleydius, the ancient Commentator on Plato, who adds, that the Infant Majesty being found, the wise men worshipped and gave gifts suitable to to so great a God.

Buchanan, in the work above mentioned, describing the oriental nations, says: "Every where there appears to be a counterfeit of the true doctrine. The inhabitants have lost sight of the only true God, and they apply these doctrines to their false gods." Page 16, he states: "Another monument of the Christian religion in the east, is the state of the Syrian churches, subsisting for many ages, a separate and distinct people, in the midst of the corruption and idolatry of the heathen world. They exist in the very midst of India, like the bush of Moses, burning, and not consumed; surrounded by the enemies of their faith, and subject to their power, but not consumed."

Having given these testimonies from the Asiatics, we shall exhibit some of those of the western and European nations, and particularly of the Greeks, who, from their superior advancements in science, became the principal historians in the world.

Grotius, in his Treatise on Truth, informs us, that what Moses says of the world, is recorded by the Phoenicians and Egyptians. That there

was such a universal destruction by water, as Noah's flood, is established by the records of the most ancient writers and nations. The account of the deluge, of the ark, and of those who were saved in it, is mentioned by the Chaldean writer Berosis, and by Plutarch, and Lucian.

The burning of Sodom, is related by Diodorus, Strabo, and Tacitus.

An account of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, was found in many ancient histories quoted by Eusebius, and is mentioned in Justin, from Trogus Pompeus.

Artepanus has recorded the killing of the Egyptian by Moses; and mentions a tradition at Heliopolis, of the passage of the Egyptians through the red sea.

Diodorus and Herodotus, take notice of the terrible scourges brought on the Egyptians by Moses.

Many of the actions of Moses, when leading the Israelites out of Egypt, and his receiving the two tables of stone, are to be found in many authors, and Egyptian histories; and particularly in the verses ascribed to Orpheus the poet, who lived 576 years before the Christian era.

Sanchoniathon, a Tyrian writer, who was contemporary with Joshua, mentions several facts recorded by Moses.

Chaleydias, in his Timeus, mentions Moses by name, and says he was the wisest of men, who was enlivened, not by human eloquence, but by Divine inspiration.

Strabo says, that " many, in honour to the Divine Majesty, went out of Egypt with Moses, rejecting the worship of the Egyptians, and that of other nations; insomuch as Moses had instructed them, that God was not to be worshipped by any images, and that he would reveal himself to the pure and virtuous." He observes that Moses had great success in the establishment of his government.

On the history of the brazen serpent set up in the wilderness for the healing of the Israelites, pagan antiquity has founded the fabulous narrative of Esculapius, the pretended god of medicine, whose symbol was a serpent twisted round a rod.

The memory of Joshua and of his conquests, was famous among the heathens; there are ancient monuments", which prove, that the Carthaginians were a colony of the Tyrians, who escaped from Joshua ; as also that the inhabitants of Leptis, in Africa, were originally from the Zidonians, who forsook their country because of the miseries which afflicted it.

x Præcops Vandaliorum.

The fables of the Phoenician Hercules, arose from the History of Joshua; the overthrow of the giants and the famous Typhon, owe their origin to the overthrow of Og, king of Bashan, and of the Anakins, who were called giants.

We find among the Heathen poets, several relations which show that the matters of fact related by the sacred writers, were well enough known to them.

The tempest of hail, spoken of in the eleventh of Joshua, was transformed by the poets into a tempest of stones; with which, they say, Jupiter overwhelmed the enemies of Hercules, in Arim; which is exactly the country where Joshua fought with the children of Anak.

The memorial of the actions of Gideon, is preserved by Sanchoniathon, who lived soon after him, and whose antiquity is attested by Porphyry.

In Jephtha's vow, and the account of his daughter after defeating the Ammonites, we have the original of the sacrificing of Iphigenia ; it being usual with the Heathens, as Elian' judiciously observes, to attribute to their late heroes, the glory of the actions of those who liv ed long before them.