HORE MOSAICÆ. BOOK I. THE CREDIBILITY OF THE MOSAICAL RECORDS. I. THEIR EXTERNAL CREDIBILITY, OR THEIR COINCIDENCE WITH PROFANE ANTIQUITY. II. THEIR INTERNAL CREDIBILITY. There are as manifeft proofs of the undoubted truth and certainty of the hiftory recorded by Mofes, as any can be given concerning any thing, which we yield the firmeft affent unto. STILLING. ORIG. SACRE, B. II. C. 2. VOL. I. B BOOK I. A VIEW OF THE CREDIBILITY OF THE ITS EXTERNAL SECT. I. CREDIBILITY, ARISING FROM THE COINCIDENCE OF THE MO SAICAL HISTORY WITH PROFANE TRA- CHAP. I. STATEMENT OF THE SUBJECT-A VIEW OF PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. RESEARCHES into antiquity have this Statement of the fub peculiar recommendation, that while they jet. interest the fancy, they also gratify our curiofity, and enlarge the boundaries of our knowledge. To many other pursuits the mind may perhaps devote itself from a conviction of their neceffity, but it is obliged SECT. at the fame time to own its reluctance and I. averfion. It will readily acknowledge their importance, but it will view them in the light of a task, rather than that of a pleafure; and fubmit to the requifite labour, more from an expectation of future benefit, than from any profpect of immediate gratification. But the fatigue, attendant upon the study of antiquity, is relieved by an unceafing variety, and diminished by the charms of perpetual novelty. The lure of prefent pleasure is added to the anticipation of diftant advantage; and, while every faculty experiences the powerful ftimulus of unfated curiofity, the purfuit is dignified by a consciousness that its object is not devoid of utility to the interests of literature. Nor is this defire of contemplating the deeds of other times merely an acquired tafte, confined to fome particular age or country: it is a difpofition of the mind, which equally characterizes a period of rudeness, and an age of civilization. The romantic fables indeed of a barbarous people are gradually rejected by progreffive fcience, and the wild uncertainty of tra dition is fucceeded by the laborious accu- CHAP. racy of patient investigation: but the rul- ́ 1. ing principle of curiofity ftill remains unaltered, though the faculties of the human mind are directed to an end more worthy of reason. As learning increases, legendary absurdities vanish; and the religious opinions, the customs, the origin, and the architecture of our predeceffors in various parts of the globe, all serve in their turns to arreft the attention, and to exercife the ingenuity of the antiquary. Even those, who have no inclination to fubmit to the fatigue of accurate fcrutiny, will readily avail themfelves of the labours of others, and perufe with pleasure the minute historical detail, or examine with eagerness the well fupported hypothefis. Let it however be remembered, that the life and the abilities of man were never defigned by Providence to be folely employed in profecuting conjectures, which can ferve no other purpose, than that of gratifying a vain curiofity. The Chriftian scholar will endeavour to make every literary purfuit, in which he is engaged, tend, if poffible, to promote the glory of his Creator, and the best, the religious interests of mankind. In the folemn B 3 |