We have an account, as we have already noticed, of the feast kept by the Romans, in which they let loose foxes with torches fastened to their tails, which came from the story of Sampson, and was brought into Italy by the Phoenicians.

We find in the same history of Sampson and Delilah, the original of the story of Nisus and his daughter, who cut off those hairs on which the victory depended'.

The story of Phaeton is solely founded upon the translation of Elijah in a chariot of fire. Ovid evidently begins his Metamorphoses with a poetical transcript of the beginning of Genesis, respecting the Creation, the corruption, and the flood; and Virgil, who lived within eighteen years of the birth of Christ, must have had an intimate knowledge of the predictions contained in the Old Testament, of the birth of Christ.

We shall give the translation of a part of Virgil's language: "Justice is about to return upon earth; and the happy reign of Saturn to be restored. A Divine child is to descend from heaven.

When he is born, the iron age will cease. And the golden age will be renewed over all the earth. He will partake of the Divine life. See the heroes associated with the gods; and they

x Ovid Fast. lib. iv. y Ovid Metamor. lib. viii. 7.

shall see him governing the world in peace by his Father's virtue. Then the earth shall produce all things of its own accord; all wars shall cease, and all things be restored to their primitive simplicity."

The pious Justin Martyr, in his second apology to the emperor Antoninus, asserts, "that all the fables made use of, and all the wonders attributed to Mercury, Bacchus, Hercules, Perseus, Esculapius and Bellerophon, were only disguises of some ancient traditions concerning the Messiah. And indeed the origin of those allegorical fables among the Greeks, which gave rise to the mythology of the Heathens, may be plainly traced to the traditions received from Noah, which would be carried into all countries at the dispersion of Babel, or would be borrowed from the Pentateuch.

We shall now adduce historical testimonies to the authenticity of the sacred records.

Nicholaus Damascenes has preserved the account of the victory which David obtained over the Syrians of Zobah, on the bank of the Euphrates, as it is described by the sacred writers.

There are monuments extant, which describe the part Hiram king of Tyre had in the building of the temple of Solomon.

Herodotus gives account of the taking of Jerusalem by Sesostris king of Egypt, as it is described in the history of Rehoboam*.

Nicholaus Damascenes refers to the reign of Tiglath Pileser, and the destruction of the Syrian monarchy by his means.

We see among the Heathens, the succession of Shalmaneser, as it is described in the Scriptures; and the manner of Sennacherib's succession to Shalmaneser; of his desolating the country of Palestine, while he carried on his victories; and the manner of the destruction of his army*, for his blasphemy against God.

The account of the taking of Nineveh, is much the same in Heathen authors, as it is described by Nahum, Isaiah, and Ezekiel. The manner of the yielding up Tyre to Nebuchadnezzar, as they describe it, agrees with Ezekiel's account of it.

Berosus's account of the stately buildings of Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, accords with that of the Scriptures.

Zenophon's account of the death of Belshazzar, is exactly as Daniel describes it.

x Joseph. Antiq. lib. viii. 6. y Castor Euseb.

y Alex. Polyist ap Synccifum

x Herodot. lib. iii.

≈ Annal Phænic.

T

The taking of Babylon by Cyrus, and Xerxes's great undertaking against Greece, are represented by Jeremiah and Daniel, as they are described by Herodotus.

The credit of the Sacred History must be established, by the great number of attestations which we have now adduced, or else nothing will establish it. For how can we conceive that all sorts of historians, of all nations and ages, could agree so exactly with the Jews, in those facts they relate, if the Jewish authors had not exactly followed the rules of truth!

With such a body of evidence before us, we can scarcely repress indignation at the effrontery of that buffoon, Voltaire, in his attempt to turn to ridicule some of the most important events of the Old Testament. Tronchin assured his friends, that Voltaire died in great agonies of mind. "I die forsaken of God and men," exclaimed this hero of infidelity, in those awful moments, when truth will force its way. “I wish," added Tronchin, "that those who have been perverted by his writings, had been present at his death. It was a sight too horrid to support."

But to oppose the flimsy attacks of Voltaire, it will be sufficient to bring forward some extracts from the celebrated Letters, addressed to

him by certain Jews: "Where could you find, in all antiquity, religious institutions more pure, and moral precepts more congenial to the feelings of nature, and the sacred rules of decency and virtue? Recal to your mind the laws of the most celebrated ancient nations. What false and whimsical ideas of the Divinity; what objects of worship; what extravagant, impure, and cruel rites; what impious opinions, scandalous excesses, barbarous customs, are authorized or tolerated by those boasted legislators! From the heavenly bodies which give us light, down to the onions which grow in our gardens; from the man celebrated for his erimes or his talents, down to the venomous reptile which creeps among the grass; every thing had its worship

pers.

"Here we behold a sacrifice of female modesty; there human blood flows upon the altars; and the dearest victims expire in those flames which superstition has lighted up. A little further, violence is offered to nature by brutal love; and humanity debased by unworthy and barbarous treatment. Every where the people live in shocking ignorance.

"Let us draw a veil over this mortifying picture of human blindness. But whilst we are turning our eyes from these dismal objects,