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facts attending his degradation, leading to the miseries to which he is exposed, and accounting for the thousand natural shocks that 'flesh is heir to."-The narrative thus instantly connects itself with the scheme chosen for his recovery, into which all other events necessarily resolve themselves; and the grand march of providence is distinctly visible, through all the shadows of ages; from the chorus of the sons of God at the birth of nature, to the final shout of the archangel, and the trumpet which shall awaken the dead.

evidences.

To go over the various periods of this history is not the business of a preliminary dissertation; but to advert to them thus generally, at this early stage of the discussion, is sufficient to establish the position, that the events recorded are such, in their nature, as might be expected from revelation, and as are suitable to the dignity and the purposes of history. To apply to them the general rule of historical judgment, they have all the collateral evidences of which such facts could be capable. Moses has no contemporary historian; the most Collateral ancient writers fall centuries after him; and he records events which took place centuries before his birth. The deluge forms the common epoch from which all nations commence their records; and under different names, Noah is the first monarch announced in history. Traditions relative to the creation agree with the narrative of Moses, in all essential points, and even in form, whatever speculations and fables may disfigure the simple account. Historians, and poets more ancient than historians, drew from this common source. Traditions of the fall are to be traced over all the East, and among the Western nations; they traverse the north, and occupy the south: they have penetrated the wilds of America, and are planted in the islands of the Pacific Ocean: in truth, the forms of worship and observances added to these traditions, every where authenticate the Mosaic narrative; and from their universality, which would have been impossible had they not originated in fact, a sanction is given to sacred history, which could scarcely have been expected, and which is altogether unexceptionable, because it is indirect in its nature, and infinitely diversified in its form.

History a

other.

It is no small collateral proof of the truth of sacred history, that Sacred it furnishes a clue to many facts, which although known, could not clue to all have been understood without its assistance. It serves to correct other historians, and in every instance into which the sacred writings and gene ral history come in contact, it is to them what the chro

Fidelity of narration.

nometer is to the common watch; it measures the same period, but does it with superior precision; it relates the same events, but with greater accuracy. Still further, as the floating traditions of the heathen world bear upon the facts recorded in the Scriptures; so, by a reaction, sacred history developes the hidden import of many an ancient institution, the intention of which was not comprehended by those who lived under it,-nor could it be otherwise understood; and gives consistency and reality to the traditions of antiquity. It brings distant occurrences to bear upon each other; it discloses political interests jarring among themselves, all tending to the harmony of the universe, and the ultimate amelioration of the human race. It supplies, in short, to time, what gravity is to space -the principle which holds and draws every thing together.

If we examine the manner of narration; one of the most striking features of sacred history, which, while it demonstrates its authenticity, renders it invaluable, is the fidelity with which it relates occurrences offensive to the existing powers, and not always honourable to the historian himself. Patriotism is evidently a moral principle highly appreciated by Moses; yet he disguises nothing that reflects disgrace upon his country. While he could even desire to sacrifice himself for the interests of the people whom he governed; yet he never conceals and never palliates their rebellions, their ingratitude, and their vices. Self-love cannot be supposed to have been extinguished in the bosom of the historian; yet he records his own follies and infirmities, with the same simplicity and sincerity with which he wrote down the sins of his countrymen. What a principle must that have been, which could thus absorb the prejudices of the writer, and induce him, with whatever painful feelings, to give his testimony alike against himself and his people! This Biography. faithfulness is especially exhibited in the Biography of the Old

and New Testaments. It is more difficult to be honest in this, than in almost any other species of writing. In history the disgraces of a country are borne by multitudes; the guilt of a people, large in itself, is so divided among them, that the individual participation appears comparatively small, while our self-love induces us to take more than our share of its honours: but in biography the attention is fixed upon an individual; to whom the whole praise or blame exclusively belongs. The writer also, in most instances, stands in some personal relation to him. If as a friend, he too

frequently gives the beau ideal, the creature of his own imagination, instead of the living being, whose characteristics he professes to have marked as they arose, and to have written down in all the reality of their existence. If as an enemy, it is difficult for him to perceive, and still more difficult to record, real excellencies. He sometimes dips his pen, not in ink, but in the gall which flows from an envious heart; and in no instance fails to give a tone to his narrative corresponding with the actual state of his feelings in respect of his subject.

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In this, as in all other cases, sacred history maintains its high Instances. purity of character; and the same inflexible adherence to facts, and the same simplicity of detail, pervades its biography. The writer is indeed always a man of like passions with others," but his passions are subordinate to sincerity and truth. Abraham, "the friend of God," shall be placed before us in all the pusillanimity of his equivocation, as well as in all the strength of his faith ;-Balaam, the adversary of Israel, shall be delineated by the Jewish historian in all the intellectual grandeur of his mind; and his sins, and his talents, shall be given in the same clear and undisguised language.

Scripture in

We have noticed the moral purposes to which it is one of the Frankness of decided excellencies of the Scriptures to subordinate every thing. every thing. Hence the space assigned to the life of Abraham in the book of Genesis, and to that of the Jews as a people in the subsequent portions of scripture history. Upon that people were suspended the moral destinies of the world. But the most important objects that are held in view are never inconsistently pursued. They mislead us in nothing, they disguise from us nothing, to subserve any purpose. Unquestionably, the great object for which the whole narrative is placed before us, is to impress the claims of truth and virtue on the mind, and to win us to the path of wisdom by exhibiting its rewards. But the difficulties of a wise and virtuous course are not disguised. The total failures of some who have entered upon it: the partial failures of all. Cain, and Esau, and Lot's Wife, and Balaam, and Saul, stand in faithful record of a total departure from what most men would have thought the fear of God;—while the scripture history of Noah, and of Abraham, of Lot, and of David, and of Solomon, as faithfully exhibits the temptations that have charms for us all, and the failures of God's most favoured children. The whole Bible breathes the same tone of noble frankness. In the

Rules of
trying
Sacred
History.

Its characteristics.

New Testament we have a Judas and a Peter; a Demas and a Barnabas; a Simon Magus and an Apostle Paul! One is constantly reminded of God, who cannot lie.

And why-perhaps we may be permitted to ask in this place— does the Holy Spirit of God, whom we have seen to be the real historian of this volume, thus appear almost solicitous to detach our entire confidence from its greatest names? Because, in point of fact, even they were not worthy of that confidence-because other names less worthy had then claimed our unqualified imitation with some sort of specious precedent; but above all, because there was a Name above every name," toward which human attention was at last to be directed, and in which the most unhesitating confidence might be placed with safety.

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The rules of interpreting Sacred History must arise out of itself, and the peculiarity of its character. If its pretensions be established, so is its authority. It must be permitted to assume its own principles, and to furnish the data upon which it should be judged. To every science something is conceded, as the axioms whence its truths are demonstrable, or the reasoning process cannot advance, nor can any certain deductions be made. Its claims as revelation are first to be examined; and if these be granted upon satisfactory evidence, it must state its own principles; it must be compared with itself; and it must be judged by its agreement, or the contrary, with its own pretensions. This mode of investigation applies as well to its history as to any branch of its information; with this difference, that on certain doctrines, or descriptions relative to the Deity, to eternity, and to spiritual subjects, we can have no other evidence. than that which arises from the consistency of its own testimony, the harmony of the parts of the system with each other and with the whole, and the inherent dignity of the subjects themselves, but its history is capable of corroboration, from many collateral circumstances, and from external and foreign testimony. While, therefore, it must be judged upon its own principles, it does not shrink from critical examination; and we should avail ourselves of the confirmations afforded by contemporary historians, so far as they reach, and of the most ancient writers, relative to more remote facts, which they only learned from tradition.

Already its characteristics have been adverted to; and those points in which it is distinguished from all other history, are of no

istics of

History.

extensive,

small moment, in forming our judgment respecting its excellence Characterand superiority. It is more extensive than any other record. It Sacred has rolled back the cloud which hung over the earliest periods of It is time, and unveiled the fountain of being. It deduces the human race from one man, and not only traces all nations to a common stock, but discloses the political origin of the most distinguished among them. This is not the place to enumerate these, as they sprang from the sons of Noah, and were dispersed from the plains of Shinar, over the world: it is sufficient, at present, to advert to the fact. Herodotus, the father of Grecian history, did not flourish until after the regular records of the Bible had closed with the captivity of Judah; and Orpheus, if he ever existed, lived probably in the days of David or Solomon. Homer did not write until about eight centuries and-a-half before the christian æra. The earliest records of Egypt, of China, and of those nations which have assumed the remotest antiquity, have convicted themselves of misrepresentation in point of chronology; and by comparing their assumed dates with known ones, especially with astronomical observations which they have recorded, it is demonstrable that no historical fact exists which can be traced further than about two centuries later than Noah; while the usual origin of Ancient History is at least eleven hundred years later than Moses; or even calculating the traditions of the earliest Grecian poets, Hesiod himself did not write until seven centuries after the birth of the Jewish legislator; that is, about fourteen centuries after the flood: the renowned Grecian historian not flourishing until nearly nineteen hundred years subsequent to that grand event. Sacred History begins not with the narrative of any particular people, but is a history of the whole human race, until long after, when they were dispersed abroad, and the vast family of mankind divided into nations, it selected the illustrious ancestor of the Jews, and confined its attention principally to that people, as the stock whence the Messiah should spring, "in whom all nations of the earth are to be blessed.' Such is the extensive character of sacred history, and upon the principles already laid down, for reasons arising out of its inspiration, it must be more and certain. certain than human record.

matter of

It may be asked, how far its belief is matter of reason, and how Its belief far matter of faith? This is an important inquiry; for sacred reason. history, being such as we have described, is the object of both. On