ful in the celestial science (3)," which character agrees with that of Abraham, who is said by Josephus to have taught the Egyptians astronomy and arithmetic, of which sciences they were utterly ignorant before his time (a). The account also given by Berosus of the ten generations between the Creation and the Flood, the preservation of Noah or Xisuthrus in the ark, and the catalogue of his posterity, accord with the Mosaic history. Moses Choronensis, the Armenian historian before referred to, mentioned these and many other circumstances, which equally agree with the narration of Moses; and in particular he confirms the account of the Tower of Babel, from the earliest records belonging to the Armenian nation. In the time of Josephus there was a city in Armenia, which he calls Aroßarngiov, or the place of descent; it is called by Ptolemy, Naxuana; by Moses Choronensis, Idsheuan; and at the place itself it was called Nach-idsheuan, which signifies the first place of descent. This city was a lasting monument of the preservation of Noah in the ark, upon the top of that mountain at whose

foot

(z) Jos. Ant. lib. 1. cap. 7. Eus. Præp, Evang. lib.9. cap. 16.

(a) Jos. Ant. lib. 1. cap. 8. The recent discovery of the old Chaldæan sphere seems to place this assertion be yond the possibility of doubt. Vide Maurice's History.

1

foot it was built, as the first city or town after the Flood (b). Moses Choronensis also says, that another town was related by tradition to have been called Seron, or the place of dispersion, on account of the dispersion of the sons of Xisuthrus from thence (c). Nicolaus of Damascus related, in the fourth book of his history, that Abraham reigned at Damaseus (d); that he had come thither as a stranger, with an army, from a country above Babylon, called the Land of the Chaldæans; that after a short time, going thence with his multitude, he fixed his habitation in a country which was then called Canaan, and now Judæa, where his numerous descendants dwelt, whose history he writes in another book (e). To this enumeration of authorities from the remains of early writers, in which the facts, as related by Moses, may be evidently discerned, although in general they are mixed with fable, many others might be added. And whether we consider the information to be found in the later works of learned

(b) Jos. Ant. lib. 1. cap. 3.

(c) Note to Whiston's Josephus, b. I. c. 3.

(d) Haran, where Abraham first settled, after he left Ur, was a part of Syria, of which Damascus was afterwards the principal city.

(e) Jos. Ant. lib. 1. cap. 7.

learned men, as derived from the Jewish Scriptures, or from other sources, the credit of the Mosaic history will perhaps be equally estab lished, since they quoted from earlier authors. For let it be remembered, that Josephus appeals to the public records of different nations, and to a great number of books extant in his time, but now lost, as indisputable evidence, in the opinion of the heathen world, for the truth of the most remarkable events related in his history, the earlier periods of which he professes to have taken principally from the Pentateuch.

Of the many traditions according with the Mosaic history, which prevailed among the antient nations, and which still exist in several parts of the world, the following must be considered as singularly striking (f): That the world was formed from rude and shapeless matter by the Spirit of God; that the seventh day was a holy day (g); that man was created perfect, and had the domi❤ nion given him over all the inferior animals; that there had been a golden age, when man, in a state of innocence, had open intercourse with heaven;

(f) Vide Stillingfleet, and Maurice.

(g) Many antient testimonies concerning the observ ance of the seventh day will be found in Whiston's Josephus, vol. 4. Index 1st.; and in Archbishop Usher's Letters,

heaven; that when his nature became corrupt, the earth itself underwent a change; that sacrifice was necessary to appease the offended gods; that there was an evil spirit continually endeavouring to injure man, and thwart the designs of the good spirit, but that he should at last be finally subdued, and universal happiness restored, through the intercession of a Mediator; that the life of man, during the first ages of the world, was of great length; that there were ten generations previous to the General Deluge; that only eight persons were saved out of the flood, in an ark, by the interposition of the Deity: these, and many other similar opinions, are related to have been prevalent in the antient world by Egyptian, Phoenician, Greek, and Roman authors; and it is no small satisfaction to the friends of revealed religion, that this argument has lately received great additional strength from the discovery of an almost universal corresponding tradition, traced up among the nations, whose records have been the best preserved, to times even prior to the age of Moses. The treasures of oriental learning, which Mr. Maurice has collected with so much industry, and explained with so much judgment, in his History and Antiquities of India, supply abundance of incontrovertible evidence for the existence of opinions in the early ages of the world,

which perfectly agree with the leading articles of our faith, as well as with the principal events related in the Pentateuch. I must confine myself to a single extract from this interesting author. "Whether the reader will allow or not the inspiration of the sacred writer, his mind on the perusal must be struck with the force of one very remarkable fact, viz. that the names which are assigned by Moses to eastern countries and cities, derived to them immediately from the patriarchs, their original founders, are for the most part the very names by which they were antiently known over all the East; many of them were afterwards translated, with little variation, by the Greeks in their systems of geography. Moses has traced, in one short chapter (h), all the inhabitants of the earth, from the Caspian and Persian seas to the extreme Gades, to their original, and recorded at once the period and occasion of their dispersion (i).” This fact, and the conclusions from it, which are thus incontrovertibly established by the newly acquired knowledge of the Sanscreet language, were contended for and strongly enforced by Bochart and Stillingfleet, who could only refer to oriental opinions and traditions, as they came to them through

(h) Gen. ch. x.

(i) History of Hindostan, vol. 1.