he doth, he know's nothing before it comes to pafs; or that he hath no wife purposes to answer by over-ruling the affairs of the world, and executing the purposes of his own good pleafure; or that if he hath, he cannot 'discover these purposes to men; or that if he could, there is no wife and kind purpose to be answered by 'fuch a revelation; or that if there is, thofe to whom he ⚫ vouchfafes a revelation cannot discover it to others".' Referving all the other general obfervations on prophecy to a subsequent part of the chapter, I fhall here introduce thofe extracts, which refpect the authenticity of the Hebrew scriptures. By the fubfiftence of the Jewish people at this time,' fays Dr. Lardner, all are affured of the antiquity and genuineness of the fcriptures of the Old Testament. 'These are received by them, and read in their fynagogues and they allow, that therein are contained promises of a great and eminent deliverer. None therefore can pretend, that the fcriptures, fo often appealed to by Chrift and his apoftles, are forgeries of • Chriftians'.' 'There can,' fays Dr. Priestley, be no doubt but that the canon of the Old Teftament was the fame in the time of our Saviour as it is now; nor could it have • Vindic. of Dan. 1728, p. 30. Lardner's Works, vol. X. p. 84. The Jewish fynagogues in all countries were,' fays Mr. Gray, numerous: wherever the apoftles preached, they found them; they were • established by the direction of the rabbins in every place, where there ⚫ were ten perfons of full age and free condition.' Accordingly the jealous care, with which the fcriptures were preserved in the tabernacle, and in the temple, was not more calculated to fecure their integrity, than that ⚫ reverence which afterwards displayed itself in the dispersed synagogues, and in the churches confecrated to the Christian faith. A Key to the Old Teftament by the Rev. Robert Gray, late of St. Mary Hall, Oxf. 1791, P. 13, 16. • been 'been corrupted materially after the return of the Jews 'from the Babylonifh captivity', on account of the sect ' of the Samaritans, which took its rife about that time. For these people profeffed the fame regard to the facred 'books with the Jews themselves, and were always at ' variance with them about the interpretation of the 'fcriptures. The Samaritan copy of the Pentateuch is now in our hands, and excepting fome numbers, in which the different copies and translations of all an'cient writings are peculiarly fubject to vary, and a 'fingle text, in which mount Gerizim and mount Ebal ⚫ are interchanged, it is the very fame with the Jewish copy. Not long after this, the books of the Old Testament, beginning with the Pentateuch, were tranflated ' into Greek, and dispersed, by means of the Jews, into ' almost every part of the known world. There is not 'the leaft probability, that any change, worth any man's ' attempting to make, or in the least affecting any principal point of the Jewish religion, was made during their captivity; which, however, was not fo long, rec'koning from the time of the deftruction of the city by ⚫ Nebuchadnezzar, but that many of those who returned 'from it had a perfect remembrance of the temple of • Solomon, which had been burned in the fiege by Ne'buchadnezzar; for they wept when they saw how * much the new temple was inferior to it, and can it be supposed, but that fome of these people would have 'taken the alarm, and a fchifm have been occafioned, if ⚫ any material change had been attempted to be made in 'the conftitution of the law, or the contents of the fa'cred books. If we go farther back into the Jewish hiftory, we shall be unable to pitch upon any time, in 4 5 The Jews, according to Prideaux, returned from their captivity af Babylon in the year 535 before the Christian æra. ⚫ which which any material change in the facred books could have been attempted, with the leaft profpect of fuccefs. It was one of the moft earnest instructions of Mofes himself, that the book of the law, a copy of which was 'lodged in the ark, fhould be the fubject of conftant 'reading and meditation in every Ifraelitish family; and it was exprefsly appointed, that it fhould be read publicly every feven years, at the feaft of Tabernacles, Deut. xxxi. 9, 13; and the Levites, who were dif'perfed through all the twelve tribes, were particularly appointed to study and to explain it to the reft of the nation; and notwithstanding the times of defection and idolatry, they were never entirely without prophets, and even many thousands of others, who continued firm in the worship of the true God, and therefore must ' have retained their regard to the facred books of the law. Upon the whole, the Jews have, no doubt, acted the part of moft faithful and even fcrupulous guardians of their facred books, for the use of all the world in the times of Chriftianity. After the laft of the prophets, Malachi, they admitted no more books into their canon, fo as to permit them to be read in their fynagogues, though they were written by the most eminent men in their nation; it being a maxim with them, that no book could be entitled to a place in the canon of their feriptures, unless it was written by a prophet, or a 'perfon who had had communication with God. That the fcriptures of the Old Teftament have not been materially corrupted by the Jews fince the promulgation of Chriftianity,--is evident from the many pro'phecies fill remaining in their fcriptures, concerning the humiliation and fufferings of the Meffiah, in which the Chriftians always triumphed when they difputed with the Jews. Thefe paffages, therefore, we may ' affure ourselves, would have been the firft that the 'Jews Jews would have practifed upon, if it had been in their 'power, or in their inclination to do it".' 6 • When corruptions in worship and manners, and many fuperftitious usages, grew among them, they were,' fays Dr. Worthington, obliged to devise an oral law, to be handed down by oral tradition, to countenance 'those corruptions and innovations; which law they ' afterwards collected into a body, and committed to 'writing likewise. But the Mifhna had been needless * and fuperfluous, durft they have incorporated their tra⚫ditions with the fcriptures. As they have not done this, in a cafe in which they were moft tempted to do 'it, there is less room to suspect their having wilfully 'corrupted them in other repects.' So fcrupulously vigilant were the Jews in preferving the fcriptures, ⚫ that their Maforites numbered not only the fections, 'but even the words and letters, that no fraud or inadvertency might corrupt-the leaft iota of what they 'esteemed fo facred. If a word happened to be altered in any copy, it was to be laid afide as useless, or given 'to a poor man to teach his children by, on condition it was not brought into the fynagogue. The prince was to copy the original exemplar of the law, laid up in the fanctuary, with his own hand: and every Jew was to make it his conftant difcourfe and meditation, to 'teach it to his children, and wear part of it on his 'hands and forehead'.' 6 We fhall,' fays Mr. Gray, be ftill farther convinced, that the facred volume has preferved its genuine purity in every important point, if we con'fider how little the Septuagint verfion of the fcriptures differs from the Hebrew copies, notwithstanding the • Inftitutes of Nat, and Rev. Rel. 1782, vol. I. p. 297. " many many ages that have elapfed fince the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, the king of Egypt, who was the fecond monarch of the Macedonian race, about 270 years before Chrift, and under whofe reign this translation was made into Greek. It has been maintained, indeed, by fome learned men, that only the Pentateuch was 'tranflated at first, and that the other books were ren'dered into Greek fucceffively at different times; however this may have been, they were all tranflated long before the birth of Christ. This version has no im'portant variations from the Hebrew, except in fome chronological accounts, occafioned probably by the careleffness of the copyifts. It was used in all thofe countries, where Alexander had established the Gre'cian language, and feems to have been admitted into the Jewish fynagogues in Judæa, and even at Jerufalem, where that language prevailed; and the Septua'gint was certainly most used there in the time of our • Saviour. Thus does the general coincidence between the Hebrew copies, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the • Septuagint verfion of the Old Teftament, demonftrate 'the unaltered integrity of the fcriptures in important points, as we now poffefs them, and this integrity is ftill farther confirmed by the conformity which subfills between thofe various tranflations of the Bible into different languages, which have been performed fince the time of our Saviour.-It appears, therefore, that, from the time of their firft infpiration to the prefent day, the facred writings have been difperfed into 'fo many different hands, that no poffible opportunity could be furnished for confederate corruption, and 6 In the bible of Kennicott are the moft confiderable variations of nearly 700 different Hebrew manufcripts; and many more have been collated by the more recent labours of De Roffi. ' every |