Mosaic statement, concerning the history of the_LECT. VI. Jewish church, by the entire reasonableness of the account itself, its perfect consistency with the profession of being founded in revelation, its harmony with the Christian dispensation, which arose out of it, and which we know to have existed above eighteen hundred years and further, by the opposite test of the unreasonableness and incredibility of any other hypothesis concerning the Jewish church; I might even say, the impossibility of maintaining any other theory, because it is impossible to substantiate any other facts concerning the religion and nation of the Jews, than those their own records contain. To form a just conception of the credibility of the scriptural history, it will be necessary to take a somewhat comprehensive survey of its leading facts, and bear in mind, as we proceed, the question applicable to the whole series; namely, how far do these statements appear to afford a reasonable and credible explanation of the events that followed in succession, and how far do the causes stated appear to account for the effects that attended them? There will also here be afforded us an opportunity for inquiring, whether the events stated, many of them very surprising, but, in some instances, susceptible of proof, as facts from other authority, besides that of the Bible, could have been produced, by any other causes than those to which they are ascribed? LECT. VI. of Judea, through many ages preceding the origin of Christianity, and the special features of their religious system, as essentially different from all the other forms of religious opinion then in the world, are facts as clearly ascertained by history, as those we have already noticed; and are all of them either admitted or stated in the classic authors of Greece and Rome. Allusions are frequently made to the nation of the Jews, their peculiarities, more or less, pointed out, their temple, their worship, and their history, so far noticed by the ancient classic writers, as to leave no doubt upon any of the general facts hitherto mentioned. Collateral evidence of this fact. Credibility tory. Respecting the circumstances which, through a long succession of ages, brought them, as a nation, into that particular moral and religious condition, in which they were, when first noticed by the Greek and Roman authors, we find no testimony discordant with their own; and whatever facts can be collected from other sources, or have been preserved among the records of any other nation, fully corroborate their own. In the absence, therefore, of all conflicting testimony, their own account of their origin, history, and religion, deserves to be received as credible; especially when its facts and principles can be subjected to so many different kinds of tests as we have in the former Lectures already applied, and with results so uniformly favourable to their authority. From the point at which we have now arrived, we must proceed to try the credibility of the Mosaic statement, concerning the history of the LECT. VI. Jewish church, by the entire reasonableness of the account itself, its perfect consistency with the profession of being founded in revelation, its harmony with the Christian dispensation, which arose out of it, and which we know to have existed above eighteen hundred years: and further, by the opposite test of the unreasonableness and incredibility of any other hypothesis concerning the Jewish church; I might even say, the impossibility of maintaining any other theory, because it is impossible to substantiate any other facts concerning the religion and nation of the Jews, than those their own records contain. To form a just conception of the credibility of the scriptural history, it will be necessary to take a somewhat comprehensive survey of its leading facts, and bear in mind, as we proceed, the question applicable to the whole series; namely, how far do these statements appear to afford a reasonable and credible explanation of the events that followed in succession, and how far do the causes stated appear to account for the effects that attended them? There will also here be afforded us an opportunity for inquiring, whether the events stated, many of them very surprising, but, in some instances, susceptible of proof, as facts from other authority, besides that of the Bible, could have been produced, by any other causes than those to which they are ascribed? section of the church. LECT. VI. The Mosaic narrative is brief in every thing Origin of this but what related to the selection, separation, and establishment of the Jewish church and nation. It traces up the principles of their faith to the earliest times, connecting them harmoniously with the faith of the first man, and showing how they arose, gradually, and became incorporated with the moral and religious principles, which had been transmitted from Noah and his sons, and by them derived directly from Adam. According to the statement, which Moses gives of these very early times between Adam and Noah, it is apparent, that they enjoyed what may, with the strictest propriety, be denominated both a moral and a religious system. The purity, simplicity, and excellence of this may easily be made apparent; while its harmony with the more elaborate, moral, and religious code of Moses, and its ultimate completion and perfection in the religion of Christ, will, if we can make it appear, identify the characteristics of revelation, through the history of the people of God or the church, from Adam to the Christian believers of the present day. This will complete the whole chain. The first great portion of the ascending series is, as we have already shown, perfect and unquestionable. The history of the Jewish section of the church we have seen, is scarcely less clear and certain; and the third portion, or that which was earliest in the order of time, we shall now endeavour to show, was characterized by the LECT. VI. same great principles of faith and morals. with the pa triarchal It is to be certainly inferred, that the particu- Connexion lars related by Moses, respecting the intercourse church. between Adam and his Creator, do not include every thing that transpired; because the fact of conversing or communing together is mentioned, without recording any thing of the object or matter of their intercourse. It is further certain, that, after the fall and the sentence denounced upon the man, woman, and serpent, respectively, and after the intimation respecting the bruising of the heel of the promised seed, and of the serpent's head, by the seed of the woman,-that Adam taught his sons to worship God, as, without doubt, himself and his wife had done, prior to their fall. It seems manifest, that they had been taught to respect the seventh day, which was evidently, from the first, the day of their worship. principles identical. From the history of Cain, Abel, and Enoch, Religious it clearly appears, that they understood and regarded the purport of the first command of the Mosaic law, as to the fear and love of God. It is further certain, that they enjoyed some standard of social morals, or law of appeal; otherwise there could have been no propriety in the words attributed to God in his address to Cain-" Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door." Gen. iv. 6, 7. This is, unquestionably, an appeal |