hands. The history in the beginning of Exodus evidently proceeds on the ground of what had been previously written concerning the departure of the Ifraelites into Egypt, concerning Jofeph and Pharaoh. Nothing could be imagined more ftrange and abrupt than the beginning of this book, if it was not a continuation of the history recorded in Genefis.

The force of this reafoning cannot be confistently rejected by any who believe divine revelation. For they must certainly acknowledge, that, according to the teftimony of the Spirit in a variety of paffages, the different books of the Pentateuch are afcribed to Mofes as the infpired penman. But as little can it be fairly rejected by infidels. For the many books of Scripture, above quoted, although not acknowledged as infpired writings, muft neceffarily be admitted as expreffing the general belief of the Jewish nation in the different periods in which they were written. This general belief has been traced up from our own time to that of the fettlement of Ifrael in Canaan. It has been formerly fhown, that this nation, in no period of their existence, could have been induced to receive these books as true, had they not been perfuaded of their truth; and that they would never have been perfuaded of their truth, had they not been actually true. The fame reafoning applies to the fubject immediately in hand. When the Ifraelites first received thefe books, they must have been no lefs perfuaded that they

a Exod. i.-viii,

were

were written by Mofes, than that they gave a just account of their law, and of the wonderful events respecting their nation. For if this univerfal perfuafion, that the Pentateuch was written by Mofes, has run through all their generations; it is juft as easy to conceive that they fhould have 'been impofed on as to the books themselves, as that they should have been deceived with respect to the writer.

It is conceivable, that the Ifraelites might have received the peculiar inftitutions of the law, and acknowledged the truth of thofe miraculous events which were honourable to themselves as a nation, although they had entertained fome doubts as to the infpiration of the writer. But they would in all probability have rejected the books as laid, especially as they contain the most particular accounts of their own rebellions, and of the most severe judgments inflicted on them immediately by the hand of God; had they not been fully convinced that Mofes was not only employed by God as the inftrument of giving the law, but that he was alfo infpired as an amanuenfis. Such has ftill been their veneration for the law, that it is not credible that they would have allowed any pofterior writer to reduce it into another form than that in which they had received it from Mofes. Had Mofes left them, in his own handwriting, only the greatest part of Deuteronomy, the fhort account of their journeys, and of their victory over Amalek, with the fong which he compofed before his death, they would

would not have permitted any later writer to alter thefe precious memorials at his pleasure.

III. The book of the law of Mofes must have been imperfect, had he written only the principal part of Deuteronomy, or that which contains the repetition of the law. For it has been feen, that various precepts are recorded in the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, which are not repeated in Deuteronomy. Let it be supposed, that fome other perfon or perfons had been employed, by divine authority, for collecting and recording thefe other precepts. In this cafe, it might have been faid, that "Mofes made an end of wri

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ting;" but it could not have been truly faid, that he made an end of writing the words of "this law in a book, until they were finished." For, according to this fuppofition, Mofes had neglected to record many important ordinances. He had finished his book; but ftill the law was incomplete.

IV. The prophecies contained in these books, while they prove their divine inspiration, also increase the evidence of their being written by Mofes. The truth of thefe prophecies undeniably appears from their accomplishment. "The feed

"of the woman" hath bruifed the head of the ferpent, by deftroying the kingdom of Satan b. The prophecies of Noah concerning the fubduction of the Canaanites, and the union of the pofterity

terity of Japhet to that of Shem, in the worship of the true God, have been remarkably fulfilled a. The truth of the oracle delivered to Rebekah concerning Jacob and Efau, has fignally appeared in the fubjection of the Edomites to the Ifraelites b. The Gentiles have been gathered to that Shiloh who was to fpring from Judah. Not to mention the predictions of Balaam recorded in the Pentateuch, have we not in our own day un-. queftionable evidence of the completion of the prophecies concerning the Ishmaelites and Jews? The character of Ifhmael is evidently written in that of thofe Arabian tribes which are known to be his pofterity. Their "hand is against every man, "and every man's hand against them." Yet they have ftill "dwelt in the prefence of their "brethren d." The most powerful nations have in vain attempted to fubdue them. The Jews are ftanding witneffes of the truth of those predictions delivered by Mofes. Themselves acknowledge their completion. They are fo literally fulfilled, that the incredulity, which can afcribe fuch predictions to mere conjecture, fuppofes one miracle in order to avoid another.:.

That Mofes wrote prophecies as well as precepts and hiftories, appears from his recording that prophetical fong which we have in Deuteronomy. But his prophecies are not confined to this book. We have fome very remarkable ones in the twenty-fixth chapter of Leviticus.

Thofe which

which were delivered before his time, were received by the Ifraelites as authentic, on the faith of Mofes as an infpired writer. Hence it became customary with them to afcribe to him all the prophecies recorded in the Pentateuch. Our Lord expreffes the general fenfe of the nation, as to all the prophecies contained in these books refpecting the Meffiah, when he fays concerning Mofes, "He wrote of me " Paul alfo declares the universal faith of his nation, when he affirms in the prefence of Agrippa, who was a Jew, that he "faid none other things than those "which the prophets and Mofes did fay fhould

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come; that Chrift fhould fuffer, and that he "fhould be the first that should rife from the “dead, and should fhew light to the Gentiles b.?? Now, if Mofes wrote no other prophecy concerning Chrift than what is recorded in the eighteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, he faid none of thefe things which Paul afcribes to him. For in that prophecy, Mofes fays nothing of the fufferings of Chrift, of his refurrection, or of the converfion of the Gentiles. The enemies of Paul could easily have contradicted his affertion, had they not, as well as he, attributed to, Mofes thofe prophecies in Genefis, which foretel the bruifing of the Meffiah's heel, and the confequent gathering of the people to him.

V. The Samaritans have not only ftill acknowledged the divinity of the first five books of the Bible, but ftill acknowledged them as the writings