ciple of their sacrifices a recognition of the great leading doctrine of inspiration, redemption through the vicarious sacrifice of the cross. This single principle has ever been a kind of pole star amidst the darkness of heathenish night.

There is nothing in which the traditions and opinions of the hea then bear stronger testimony to the doctrines of Scripture than the conviction which prevailed of the necessity of an atonement for sin, and the intervention of a Divine Mediator, and the universal practice of devoting peculiar victims which has at one period or another prevailed in every quarter of the globe. It has been alike adopted by the most barbarous, and by the most refined nations. The rude idolator of this recently discovered hemisphere, and the polished votary of polytheism equally concur in the belief, that without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sins. Among the ancient Egyptians the worshiper placed his hands on the head of the victim, loaded it with imprecations, and its last gasp was viewed as the seal of his pardon.

Nor was the life of the brute creature always deemed sufficient to avert the wrath of heaven, for frequently the death of a nobler victim was required, and the altars of paganism were bedewed with human blood. Thus, the Canaanites caused their first born to pass through the fire to appease the anger of their false deities; and one of the kings of Moab is said to have offered up his eldest son as a burnt offering, when in danger from the superior power of the Edomites. Nor was the belief that the gods were rendered propitious by this peculiar mode of sacrifice, confined to the nations which were more immediately contiguous to the territories of Israel. We learn from Homer, that a whole hecatomb of fatling lambs was no uncommon offering among his countrymen. And the ancient Goths have laid it down as a principle that the effusion of the blood of animals appeased the anger of the gods, and that their justice turned aside upon the victim, those strokes which were destined for man. Mankind soon proceeded to greater lengths, and adopted the horrid practice of offering human victims. In honor of the mystical number three, a number deemed peculiarly dear to Heaven, every ninth month witnessed the groans and dying struggles of nine unfortunate victims. The fatal blow being struck, the lifeless bodies were consumed in the sacred fire, which was kept perpetually burning, while the blood, in singular conformity to the Levitical ordinances, was sprinkled, partly upon the surrounding multitude, partly upon the trees of the hallowed grove, and partly upon the images of their idols. Even the aborigines of this continent retained similar customs and for similar rea

sons. It is observed by Acosta, that in cases of sickness it was usual for a Peruvian to sacrifice his son to Virachocu, beseeching him to spare his life, and to be satisfied with the blood of his son.

Whence then, we may ask with Faber, could originate this universal practice of devoting the first born of either man or beast, and of offering it up as a burnt offering; whence but from a deep and innate consciousness of moral deprivation? Whence, but from some perverted tradition respecting the true sacrifice to be once offered for the sins of all mankind? In the oblation of the first born, originally instituted by God himself, and faithfully adhered to by Jew and Gentile, we behold the death of him who was the first born of his virgin mother accurately, though obscurely, exhibited. And in the constant use of fire, the invariable scriptural emblem of wrath and jealousy, we view the indignation of that God, who is a consuming fire, averted from our guilty race and poured out on the immaculate head of our great intercessor. Had a consciousness of purity reigned in the bosoms of the ancient idolators, it does not appear why they should have more reason to dread his vengeance than to expect and to claim his favor; yet that such a dread did universally prevail, is too well known to require the formality of a labored demonstration.

The translation of Enoch may be traced in the Grecian fables of the translation of their heroes and demi-gods, and particularly of Hesperus and Astrea among the ancient Greeks, who are fabled to have ascended to heaven alive, and to have turned into stars and celestial signs; of Dhruva among the Hindoos; of Budha among the Ceylonese, and of Xaca, another name for Budha, among the Calmucks of Siberia.

The longevity of the antediluvian inhabitants mentioned by Moses, is confirmed by various heathen writers. All, says Josephus, "who have committed to writing the antiquities either of the Greeks or Barbarians, attest this longevity of men before the flood." And he immediately subjoins, "Manetho, who wrote an account of the Egyptians, Berosus, who compiled an account of the affairs of Chaldea, and Mochus, and Hertiæus, and with them Hieronymus the Egyptian, who have treated of the affairs of Egypt, agree with me in this. Also Hesiod, and Heratæus, and Hillamicus, and Acusilaus, and Ephorus, and Nicolaus, relate that the ancients lived a thousand years." Similar traditions of the longevity of men, in former ages, are still to be found among the Burmans of the farther Indian peninsula, and also among the Chinese.*

The Mosaic account of men of a gigantic stature, who were inured to deeds of lawless violence and rapine, is confirmed by the Greek and Latin poets, who relate that there were giants in the past ages of the world, and also by the Greek and Latin historians, particularly by Pausanius and Philostratus among the Greeks, and Pliny among the Romans, who have recorded that, on opening some sepulchers, the bodies of men were found to have been much larger in old times. Josephus also speaks of bones seen in his day of a magnitude almost exceeding credibility. These testimonies of historians of former ages furnish a satisfactory answer to the petty cavils of those who object to the credibility of Moses, from his mentioning the gigantic size of Og's bedstead But men of very large size are seen even in our days.

Some allowance may also be made for royal vanity, as Alexander the great ordered his soldiers to enlarge the size of their beds, that they might give to the Indians of succeeding ages, a great idea of the prodigious stature of the Macedonian soldiers. Bishop Watson, treating on this subject, in answer to Paine, says: "My philosophy teaches me to doubt many things, but it does not teach me to reject every testimony which is opposite to experience. Had I been born in Shetland, I could, on proper testimony, have believed in the existence of the Lincolnshire ox, or the largest dray horse in London; though the oxen and horses of Shetland had not been bigger than mastiffs."

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CHAPTER III.

CREDIBILITY AND ANTIQUITY OF THe old testaMENT SCRIPTURES.

THE Mosaic narrative of the deluge is passed over in silence by both Mr. Paine and Mr. Olmsted. Mr. Taylor treats the account with derision, and asserts that Noah is merely a mythological personage who never had a real existence; but as he adduces no argument, (so far as known to the writer,) to support his assertions concerning the narrative of the deluge, it is deemed out of place here to present to the reader his bare assertion concerning Noah, and to combat that assumption. Infidels, however, generally object to the credibility of the Mosaic narrative on the grounds that his statements are contrary to the philosphy of Nature, and that no stock of water could be found sufficient to overflow the earth to the degree represented by Moses. The Hebrew historian however asserts that it was universal, and philosophy has at last found out that there is sufficient water in the ocean, if called forth, to overflow the highest mountains to the degree described by Moses, a conclusion it once stoutly denied. Keill formerly computed that twenty-eight oceans would be necessary for that purpose; but we are now informed that a farther progress in mathematical and physical knowledge has shown the different seas and oceans to contain at least forty-eight times more water than they were then supposed to do; and that the mere raising of the temperature of the whole body of the ocean to a degree no greater than marine animals live in, in the shallow seas between the tropics, would so expand it as more than to produce the height above the mountains stated in the Mosaic account.

The narrative of Moses is confirmed by the fossil remains of animals belonging to a former world, which are found in many parts of the earth. Stratified mountains of various heights exist, in and between whose strata various substances of marine, and some vegetables of terrestrial origin, repose either in their natural state or petrified. The plains of the arctic circle are overspread with shells of the Indian seas, and with the bodies of elephants and rhinoceri, and surrounded by masses of sub-marine vegetation. On the coast of Kent, in England, have been found together, the crocodile of Africa and the turtle of the West Indies. These facts, about which there is no dispute, and which are acknowledged by the advocates of each of the prevailing geological theories, give a sufficient attestation to the deluge of Noah,

in which the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and from which precisely such phenomena might be expected to follow.

Infidels also object to the Mosaic account of the deluge, that it was impossible for the ark, described by Moses, to contain the men and beasts, with their provisions, which Moses states were in it a whole year. Dr. Wilkins and others have learnedly discussed this subject; and after the nicest examination and computation, and taking the dimensions with the greatest geometrical exactness; the most learned and accurate calculators, and those most conversant in building of ships, conclude that if the most able mathematicians had been consulted about proportioning the several departments of the ark, they could not have done it with greater correctness than Moses has done; and this narrative is so far from furnishing Infidels with arguments wherewith to weaken the authority of the Scriptures, that on the contrary it supplies good arguments to confirm that authority, since it seems in a manner impossible for a man in Noah's time, when navigation was not perfected, by his own invention to discover such accuracy and regularity of proportion as is remarkable in the dimensions of the ark; it follows that the correctness must be attributed to divine inspiration and a supernatural direction.

Dr. Hales proves the ark to have been of the burden of forty-two thousand four hundred and thirteen tons, and asks, "Can we doubt of its being sufficient to contain eight persons and about two hundred or two hundred and fifty pair of four footed animals, (the number to which, according to Mr. Buffon, all the various distinct species may be reduced,) together with all the subsistence necessary for twelve months, with the fowls of the air, and such reptiles and insects as cannot live in water? Besides places for the beasts and birds and their provisions, Noah might find room in the third story for thirty-six cabins occupied by household utensils, instruments of husbandry, books, grains, and seeds; for a kitchen, a hall, and a space of about forty-eight cubits in length to walk in."

It should be observed that the presumptive evidence of the truth of the fact of the preparation of such a vessel, and the supernatural circumstances which attended it, is exceedingly strong. In truth it is the only solution of a difficulty which has no other explanation; for as a universal deluge is confirmed by the general history of the world, and by a variety of existing facts and monuments, such a structure as the ark for the preservation and sustenance of various animals, seems to have been absolutely necessary; for as we can trace up the first imperfect rudiments of the art of ship-building among the Greeks, there could have been no ships before the flood; and consequently no animals