they establish the writings of Moses in such a manner that infidelity must veil itself in confusion, while it tremblingly acknowledges, that the Bible is the revealed word of God. We may emphatically say of the fulfilment of God's promise to Abraham, in the possession of Canaan by his posterity, that it was engraven on stone throughout the whole land, by the finger of God himself.

Thus we might in a similar manner follow up the subject by the examination of all the books of the Old Testament; and they would each supply us with numberless proofs of their authenticity: but this would be doing what we are most desirous to avoid; it would be swelling this work to a much more extended size than that of a small volume, which will be within the compass of any one's perusal, who will only now and then devote a few leisure moments to promote his dearest interests ; namely, the interests of his eternal soul. Before, however, we leave the subject entirely, we will mention two or three more of these historical monuments, as contained in other parts of the holy volume. In the Book of Judges we find the account of an altar left by Gideon to posterity*, and of an ephod made from the spoils of those Mi

* Judges vi. 25, &c.

dianites, whose seductive arts were so fatal to the children of Israel *.

In the First Book of Samuel also, a very considerable memorial is to be discovered in the presents made by the Philistines to the Israelites, at the restoration of the ark †; and another, in the stone which was set up by Samuel at Mizpah, in memory of the miraculous victories obtained by the Israelites over the Philistines. The history here conducts us to the reign of King David, from whence we will not push the subject of monuments any further than to remark on that one, the most powerful of all memorials, that strongest of all monuments for the truth of the Bible; that continual memorial, that living monument, the Jewish nation, scattered throughout all countries, yet separate from every nation, and with one voice claiming Moses to be their lawgiver, and their laws themselves to be Divine.

I do not suppose that among the enemies of religion, call them by what name we will, whether Atheist, Deist, or Freethinker, we shall find any bold enough to deny the existence of such a king as David, whose sepulchre was well known in the days of the Apostles §. St. Peter speaks of this as a matter not of doubt, but clearly under

Judges viii. 27. †1 Sam. vi 1 Sam. vii. 12. § Acts ii. 29.

stood d; as a circumstance of which no one could be ignorant, as an indisputable fact which every body knew. And we need not be surprised at this ; for, be it remembered, that all monuments of this kind were held inviolable by the people of antiquity. Now, we have in the Bible the entire history of King David, with many beautiful Psalms of his composing. His writings, and the history of his eventful life, which we find in Samuel, are all powerful proofs of the truth of revelation: they all confirm the Law as given by Moses, and the various recitals which are contained in his writings and those of Joshua.

Proofs drawn from monuments, or memorials publicly established and well supported, we have before said, are to be considered as convincing arguments in favour of the truth of profane history. The name of a town has been sufficient to prove its founder. As this is allowed to be the case, would it not be the height of injustice to deny to sacred history the sufficiency of those proofs, which we admit in support of other writers. Sacred history, we have seen, has an infinity of monuments which cannot be denied ; and so closely are they allied to each other, that they are only to be compared to a multiplicity of stones in the same building, or various links in the same chain. For instance, it is only necessary to admit the existence

of the Temple of Solomon, to draw from it inferences and conclusions which carry themselves back to the promulgation of the Law of Moses.

Thus the truth of holy writ extends itself on all sides by thousands of proofs; some of the most powerful of which remain for the next chapter, in which we shall demonstrate by the prophecies which it contains, that the Bible is indeed the WORD OF OUR GOD, THE GOD OF PERFECT

KNOWLEDGE.

CHAPTER XVI.

PROOFS OF THE DIVINE TRUTH OF THE BIBLE, DRAWN FROM THE PREDICTIONS WHICH ARE CONTAINED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

THE truth of sacred history may be demonstrated in a manner which admits of no reply, by the infinite number of predictions, which are contained in its various books. If we examine this part of Scripture with attention, we shall perceive that the chief of the prophecies, which have been fulfilled, were regularly more or less obscure in their expressions, according to whether the time of their accomplishment was far distant or comparatively near. When, by the power of the Holy Spirit, a remarkable event was foretold, which was not to happen for many ages, we find that it was predicted in general terms, and in very few words: and as the time of its fulfilment approached, we discover, that the Prophets spoke much more particularly and distinctly, adding many circumstances to their first predictions. In those regarding the Messiah it is exactly so.