Ezekiel was exactly fulfilled, which, probably, Zedekiah deemed inconsistent with that of Jeremiah. "I will bring "him to Babylon;---yet shall he not see it, though he "shall die there." Ez. xii, 13. There he died, not by the sword, but in peace; and doubtless received funeral honours from the Jews, by permission of the king.

His assertion, that Jeremiah joined himself to Nebuchadnezzar, and went about prophesying for him, against the Egyptians,' is a still less plausible calumny; as it militates against the whole history, on which it is grounded: while the exact accomplishment of all his predictions against the Egyptians, and especially against Babylon, will stand to the end of time as demonstrations, that Jeremiah spake by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Ezekiel and Daniel.

Mr. P. is of opinion that the books of Ezekiel and Daniel are genuine. This might surprise us, if we were not aware of the fecundity of his genius. Perhaps he was afraid, lest his readers' attention should flag, without some new source of amusement; which he supplies by imagining these books to contain a political cypher, or secret alphabet, under the pretence of dreams and visions, and that they relate to plans about recovering 'Jerusalem: Hence he infers, that we have nothing to do with them; and provided that be the inference, numbers' will excuse the want of proof, or probability.

It is, however, wonderful that these political devices, should contain so many prophecies which have been exactly fulfilled. Egypt has been subject to a foreign yoke almost from the time when Ezekiel predicted that it would be " a base kingdom;" nay, "the basest of the "kingdoms." (Ez. xxix, 14, 15.)

Prosperous Tyre is now a place for fishermen to dry their nets. (xxvi, 14.) The four great monarchies which succeeded each other, have, in their dominion and subversion, with all the events respecting Alexander and his successors, exactly fulfilled Daniel's prophecies. (Dan. ii, 31--45; vii, viii, xi.) At the appointed time, the Messiah came, and was cut off, aud Jerusalem desolated. (ix, 24-27.) And the state of that city, and of the Jews, after more

than 1700 succeeding years, confutes Porphyry's confident assertion, that the predictions were written subsequent to the event. Mr. P. states, that Ezekiel and Daniel were carried captive both together nine years before the desolation of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. This forms another instance of his ignorance on these subjects. Ezekiel was carried captive in the fifth year of Jehoiachin's captivity, about six years before Jerusalem was taken. Daniel was carried captive in the third year of Jehoiakim, about eighteen years before that catastrophe. (Ez. i, 2; Dan. i, 1.)

Mr. P. asserts, that Ezekiel's prediction concerning the desolation of Egypt never came to pass, and consequently 'it is false, as all the books that I have reviewed are;' but it requires a far more complete knowledge of the events, which occurred in those ages, than either he, or any man living has or can have, to prove this negative. It is evident that Nebuchadnezzar invaded and conquered Egypt; and that long-continued desolations prevailed; and forty years from the time of these events bring us to the days of Cyrus, when probably the Egyptians were allowed to return home and reinhabit their desolated country.

Mr. P.'s most ridiculous exposition of Ezekiel's vision may remind the reader of his own words: Such applications of scripture show the fraud or extreme folly, to which the credulity of modern infidels may go.'

Jonah.

Mr. P. after having diverted himself and his readers with the story of Jonah and his whale,'* undertakes to prove that whole book was a Gentile fable, intended to ridicule and satyrize the Jews and their prophets.

Jonah's conduct too much indeed resembled that malevolence, that blackness of character, which men ascribe 'to the devil:' that is, depraved nature greatly shewed itself; and the Lord sharply rebuked him for his rebellion, pride, and severity. Yet he is not to be blamed for faithfully delivering his message.

*It would have approached nearer to the idea of a miracle, if Jonah had swallowed the whale: this may serve as a specimen of all 'miracles.' This may indeed serve as a specimen of Mr. P.'s candour

and seriousness.

"Three days, and three nights," in the Hebrew idiom, denote any portion of time ending on the third day and as the Jews never objected on this ground to the application of the history of Jonah, to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ; it is vain for others to attempt it. Our Lord's express testimony confirms the narrative; it stands on all the evidence of the New Testament; and the fables of Hercules swallowed by a sea-monster; and shipwrecked Amphion carried on shore by a dolphin, seem to have arisen from the vague report of Jonah's extraordinary deliverance.

Mr. P. leaves the minor prophets to sleep undisturbed in the laps of their nurses the priests:' I suppose, because he could not find in them, any new occasion of buffoonery or scurrility. He, however, ridicules the idea of the 'greater and the lesser prophets;' which common sense understands to mean, that the books of the latter are much shorter than those of the former.

I have now,' says this self-confident writer, gone through the Bible,' (meaning the Old Testament,) as a man would go through a wood, with an axe on his 'shoulder, and fell trees: here they lie; and the priests, if they can, may replant them. They may stick them in the ground, but they will never grow.' A man going through a wood with an axe on his shoulder, and fell trees; differs widely, from a man's cutting down the whole wood, and preventing the future growth of trees in it: and if Mr. P. supposed that he done this; it was "when an hungry man dreameth that he eateth, but he awaketh and "his soul his empty." You have busied yourself in exposing to vulgar contempt a few unsightly shrubs; you have entangled yourself in thorns and briars: you have lost your way on the mountains of Lebanon: the goodly trees whereof, lamenting the madness, and pitying the blindness of your rage against them, have scorned the blunt edge and base temper of your axe, and laughed unhurt at the feebleness of your stroke.' Bp. Watson. So far from it he has not substantiated one charge brought against the sacred writers; but has in very many instances proved himself ignorant of the book which he opposes; and a false witness and calumniator

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He has shown indeed, that the contents of the Old Testament do not always accord to modern nations, and man's imaginations, and self-flattering opinions; that its arrangement is not formed on modern notions of method; and that in a history of much above 3000 years, some trivial difficulties are found, for which after above 2000 years, since the close of it, it is not easy for us to account. But the grand design, tendency, and effect of the whole; and all the unanswerable proofs of a divine original from miracles, prophecies, internal evidences, and the present state of the Jews, and other nations, remains untouched; and I will venture to affirm, beyond the reach of every hostile assailant.

Aware of Mr. P.'s talents, and determined hostility and resolution, I opened his book with a kind of trepidation; conscious that a joyless life, and hopeless death must be the consequence, if this source of my confidence and consolation should be taken from me. But I never felt more confident, that the Bible is the word of God, than I do at this moment: nay, this confidence is increased, by discovering to how very little, and how very frivolous, the sum total amounts, which the keenest capacity, and the most virulent enmity can produce against it.

THE NEW TESTAMENT.

The Gospels.

The New Testament, they tell us, is founded on the prophecies of the old; if so, it must follow the fate of ' its foundation.' Thus Mr. P. begins his attack on this part of the sacred scriptures: and if it were so, it would have nothing to fear from his assaults.

The prophecies of the Old Testament prepared the way for the coming of the Messiah; and, as accomplished in Jesus Christ, form an unanswerable demonstration that Christianity is from God. The testimony of our Lord and his apostles likewise confirms the divine inspiration of the Old Testament: and when the apostles reasoned with the Jews, they reasoned from the Scriptures as allowed by them to be "the oracles of God;" not resting the cause

exclusively on miracles. in another manner.

But they addressed the Gentiles

The New Testament, however, stands on its own basis: external and internal proofs confirm unanswerably its divine original: and it might alone support the authority of the Old Testament, had we not other proof in abundance. Indeed the two parts of scripture give symmetry and stability to each other. The Old Testament led to an expectation of the New, as its completion: and the New Testament presupposes the truth of the history, and the divine authority of the laws, ordinances, and instructions of the Old.

Mr. P. admits, in a hesitating manner, that such a person as Christ might exist, adding, there is no ground either to believe, or disbelieve.' Indeed! Was the existence of any one man ever so undeniably proved? It would be a moderate degree of scepticism, to doubt, whether Alexander, or Julius Cæsar, or Mohammed ever existed: for the effects of their existence, on the state of the world, through all succeeding generations, though very great, have been immensely less than those produced by Christianity. And how could Christianity have existed, if Christ never existed?--But, it is the fable of Jesus Christ, as ⚫ told in the New Testament, and the wild and visionary 'doctrines raised thereon,' that he contends against.-It would have been more explicit had he stated what he thought to be the fable,' and what he allowed to be possibly the fact. But as he has not done this; we can only say, that the indisputable facts allowed by Jews and Gentiles, and commemorated in days and ordinances, from those times to the present day, leave but scanty materials for the fable, which he meant to oppose.

It is now generally allowed, that Matthew gives the genealogy of Joseph in the line of Solomon; and Luke that of Mary, in the line of Nathan, son of David.--I suppose the evangelists copied the genealogies as they stood in the publick registers: they must however have wanted common sense, to insert manifest contradictions in their writings and lists of names are strange things to forge!—The genealogy of Matthew contains no more than twenty-seven generations from the birth of David to Christ, a term of

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