for information relative to God-the creation of all things-the history of Providence, and a knowledge of our duty to our Maker, and to one another. what is the help which they afford?

And

The first that are entitled to our attention are the PHINICIANS, who were amongst the most ancient nations of the earth. The sons of Ham were divided into eleven families, of which the most powerful was Canaan, the head of the Canaanites properly so called, whom the Grecks called Phinicians. Before Joshua conquered Palestine, that country was in their possession, and they preserved their independence under Joshua, and under David, Solomon, and the succeeding Kings, but were at length subdued by the Kings of Assyria and Chaldea. Their celebrated historian Sanchoniathon, is supposed to have been contemporary with Solomon. His writings are lost, with the exception of a fragment translated by Philo Biblious, and copied by Eusibious, Bishop of Cæsarea. Porphyry, the shrewdest antagonist ever Christianity met with, read this fragment with much care to ascertain whether he could find evidence to prove the author to have been older than Moses. After the most careful perusal he felt obliged to admit two facts:-1st. That

Stillingfleet's origines Sacra, 29. c Miller, vol vi. 297.
C

he had made it his business to search after the writings of former ages, but could find no profane author, more ancient than Sanchoniathon: and 2nd. That the works of this author contained copious extracts from the writings of Moses; thus settling the question of seniority in favour of Moses! "Nobody had examined the Theology of the ancients more deeply than Porphyry. He was a determined Pagan, and his evidence on this point is unexceptionable.' The Phinician account of Creation is as follows:"The principle of the universe is a dark and windy air; and a turbulent evening chaos. These things were boundless, and for a long time had no figure. Of this wind was begotten the putrifaction of a watery mixture and of this came all the seed of this building, and the generation of the universe. There were certain animals which had no sense, out of which were begotten intelligent animals; which were called. Zophesemen, that is, the contemplators of heaven. Thus shone out of Mot (or mud) the sun and the moon; the less and the greater stars." Such, says Eusebious, is the Phinician generation of the world, which banishes divinity, and introduces atheism.”↳ Surely no one will say that the creation of any one

a Bryant, v. i. 395. 6 Dr. Cumberland's Phinician History.

thing is here accounted for. There is indeed a "begetting"-there is also matter sublimated into intellectual existence-and the celestial orbs are represented as rising out of mud;" but no adequate "generating" cause is introduced-no intelligent mind recognized as directing the agents employed in forming matter into conscious being no "spirit of the Lord," brooding over the "watery mixture," separating its lighter and more volatile particles, arranging and giving new and peculiar properties— concentrating and then suspending them in the magnificent temple of the universe, to shed their light upon its entire circumference to disclose its just proportions, and to show off the order, and har mony, and beauty of the whole. And did the Phinician rites of worship originate in the above opinions relative to the work of creation? Yes! Has Sanchoniathon laid down the principles upon which their national institutions were based, and from which they took their character? Yes! Did their laws embody the same principles, and derive from them their chief sanctions? Yes! Were the moral habits of the people formed upon and regulated by such principles as these? Yes! Then I confess that I can see nothing in such worship. institutions, laws, or habits

calculated to excite the admiration of the unbeliever. What sufficient motive could be drawn from such a source, to induce obedience to law-to promote social order in a state-or to impose salutary restraint upon the factious and lawless? Had the seeds of truth been thickly planted amongst the Phinicians, yet what great national virtues could have been expected to grow, out of such a soil? Were these handed down to us as the sentiments of the individual only, who has recorded them, we might smile at their absurdity; but when we consider that individual as the representative of one of the first organised communities in the world-as the annalist of a mighty, an independent, and an ingenious nation; his statements assume an extraordinary degree of importance, and fill the mind with the most painful anxiety, as to the final destiny of the millions of human beings who lived and died under the influence of the doctrines he records. "For my part, says Miller, I see nothing in the fragment of Sanchoniathon but some scraps, stolen out of the Mosaic history of the creation, blended with such a heap of fables as one can scarce understand them.” In his dissertation, on the age and writings of this historian, the President

a Miller, vol. vi. 391.

De Goguet, remarks: "The most absurd tales and fables run through the whole work of Sanchoniathon. We perceive, it is true, in the writings of this author, some vestiges of the primitive tradition concerning the original state of human nature; but this tradition appears there quite disfigured as to the most important truths, and visibly changed even in the most material circumstances, of the historical events which it relates." We make a present of this author and his book to the Infidel.

I shall now direct your attention to the EGYPTIANS, who acquired, at an early period, a high character for science and literature.

poses the following questions, and

Infidelity pro

insists upon a

peremptory answer:-" Did not Moses receive the religion he enjoined the laws he established, and the form of government which he adopted, from Egypt? or, at least, did he do more than improve upon their religion, increase the number, expensiveness, and burthensomeness of their rites of worship, and administer their laws under new circumstances ?b" On both those points we may obtain ample satisfaction, by enquiring into the nature and extent of their knowledge their means of communicating it to

b Divine Legation of Moses, vol. ii. 303.