permit us to ask you: Why so many mistakes among nations so wise, and so much wisdom among the ignorant, barbarous Hebrews?-Does it not proceed from this, that all other nations had only the weak and glimmering light of human reason for a guide; and that among the Hebrews a superior reason had enlightened its darkness, and fixed its uncertainties? We shall insist no longer on our religious and moral laws; they are too well known, and their superiority over all ancient legislatures is too remarkable, to require any further discussion. To conclude, every part of the Jewish legislature displays the high and Divine wisdom of the Legislator.

"Its doctrines are rational and sublime; its religious and moral precepts holy and pure; its political, military, and civil laws, are wise, equitable, and mild; even its ritual laws are founded on reason. All of them, in short, are admirably suited to the designs and views of the Legislator: to the circumstances of time, place, and climate; to the inclinations of the Hebrews, and to the manners of the neighbouring nations, &c.

"There is nothing in this legislature that contradicts the laws of nature, or of virtue; every thing here breathes justice, piety, honesty, and benevolence. Its object, its antiquity, its origin, duration, the talents and virtues of the Le

gislator, the respect of so many ages;-all these things conspire to prove the excellence of it. Your greatest men have admired it and looked upon it as the primary source of divine and human law; and you, >ir, can see nothing in it but absurdity and barbarism! When you spoke of it in such opprobrious terms, did impartiality guide your criticism?

"As for our parts, when we consider the just censures that have been passed on ancient and modern governments; when we reflect on the baneful system set up in ages past, and in this age also, by philosophers; when we see the Providence of God, his justice, even his existence contested; fatality introduced, liberty destroyed; the land marks of right and wrong, daringly torn up, or placed with uncertainty, by those pretenders to wisdom; man degraded; all the bonds of society dissolved; vain imaginations and racking doubts, substituted in the place of the most comfortable and salutary truths, &e: when we see these things, our spirit is stirred up at all these errors; and we cannot but think ourselves happy in having been preserved from them by such reasonable and holy laws. Oh Israel!

are pleasing

happy are we; for the things that to God are made known to us. He hath not

dealt so with any nation."

This testimony, as far as it concerns the Divine origin of their religion, merits our most ample concurrence. But if any of our readers desire further information on this subject, they may be referred to the writings of Josephus, of Philo, of Abravemel, of Jarchi, and of Maimonides.

There can remain no doubt of the Scriptures having laid the foundation of most, if not of all religions, however defaced and obscured by the corrupt notions of mankind.

We meet with imitations of that divinely instituted emblem, the ark, among several Heathen nations, both in ancient and modern times. It is very remarkable, that in Lieut. Cooke's voyage round the world, published by Dr. Hawkesworth, in vol. ii. page 252, we find that the inhabitants of Huaheine, one of the islands lately discovered in the South Sea, had a kind of chest, or ark, the lid of which was nicely sewed on3, and thatched very neatly with palm nut leaves. It was fixed upon two poles, and supported upon little arches of wood, very neatly carved. The use of the poles seemed to be to remove it from place to place, in the manner of the English sedans. In one end of it was a square hole, in the middle of which was a ring, touch

x Parkhurst's Heb. Lex. page 684, 4th edit.

ing the sides, and leaving the angles open, so as to form a round hole within, and a square one without.

The first time Banks saw this coffer, the aperture at the end was stopped with a piece of cloth, which, lest he should give offence, he left untouched. Probably there was something then within it, but now the cloth was taken away, and upon looking into it, it was found empty.-The general resemblance between this repository and the ark of the Jews is remarkable; but it is still more remarkable, that upon inquiring of the boy what it was called, he said, Ewarre no Eatau, "The house of God."

The late excellent Sir William Jones, to whom we are chiefly indebted for the light thrown from the east upon scripture history, has supplied abundance of evidence of the existence of opinions in early ages of the world, which perfectly agree with the principal events of Moses's history. His candour and benevolence in his researches, in laying no restraint on the opinions of others, notwithstanding the evidence he has met with, at once proclaim him worthy the admiration and regard of every good man. "Theological inquiries," says he, "are no part of my present subject; but I cannot refrain from adding, that the collection of tracts which we call the scriptures,

contain, independently of their Divine origin, more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, purer morality, more important history, and finer strains, both of poetry and eloquence, than could be collected in the same compass from all other books, that were ever composed in any age, or in any idiom.

"The two parts of which the Scriptures consist, are connected by a chain of compositions, which bear no resemblance in form, or style, to any that can be produced from the stores of Grecian, Indian, Persian, or even Arabian learning.

"The antiquity of those compositions no man doubts; and the constrained application of them to events long subsequent to their publication, is a solid ground of belief, that they were genuine productions, and consequently inspired.”

In his tenth Discourse, he says, "We cannot surely deem it an inconsiderable advantage, that all our historical researches have confirmed the Mosaic accounts of the primitive world; and our testimony on that subject ought to have the greater weight, because if the result of our observations had been totally different, we should nevertheless have published them, not indeed with equal pleasure, but with equal confidence ; for truth is mighty, and whatsoever be its consequences, must always prevail."