account of the ftate of the religion and the government of the Jews and Ifraelites, under one view.

Let us go on to other proofs to establish this truth.

That there is a frict Connexion between the Sacred Hiftory, and the oldef Monuments which we have of Profane Hiftory.

S there were but few very ancient writers of Profane Hiftory, and as we have but fmall fragments of them difperfed here and there, preferved for the moft part by the care of Jofephus the Jewish hiftorian, and of Eufebius in his books De Præparatione Evangelica, fo we ought not to be furprifed, if but few of the more illustrious paffages and events of the Jewish history be taken notice of by Pagan writers. The people of Ifrael being otherwife engaged, by the observation of the Mofaic law, to keep clofe to that country where it was eftablished; this made their neighbours have lefs knowledge of their history.

However, there is enough left to fhew with how great fidelity and exactness the facred writers penned the hiftory of their own nation: in fhort, we may find amongst the Heathen hiftorians and poets (who were their first hiftorians), feveral relations which fhew that the matters of fact related by the facred writers, were well enough known to them, and in the fame manner that they are related in those historical books which were written after Mofes.

The memory of Jofua and his conquefts was famous amongst the Heathens: there are ancient monuments extant which prove that the Carthaginians were a colony of the Tyrians, who escaped from Joshua ; as alfo that the inhabitants of Leptis in Africa came originally from the Zidonians, who forfook their country, because of the miferies which afflicted it.

The fable of the Phoenician Hercules arofe from the hiftory of Joshua (f); the overthrow of the giants, and the famous Typhon, owe their original to the overthrow of Og the king of Bafhan, and of the Anakims, who were called giants (g).

The tempeft of hail spoken of in the eleventh of Joshua, was tranfformed by the poets into a tempeft of ftones, with which, as they fay, Jupiter overwhelmed the enemies of Hercules in Arim, which is exactly the country where Joshua fought with the children of Anak.

One finds the memorial of the actions of Gideon preferved by Sancheniathon, a Tyrian writer, who lived soon after him, and whose antiquity is attefted by Porphyry.

(f) Procop. Vandalicorum, lib. ii. c. 10.

Polybius, Frag. cxiv. Salluft. de Bello Jugurthine.

One

One finds, in the manner of Jephtha's facrificing his daughter after his victory over the Ammonites, the original of the facrificing of Iphigenia; it being usual with the Heathens, as Elian judiciously obferves (h), to attribute to their later heroes the glory of the actions of those who lived long before.

We have an account of a feaft which was obferved by the Heathen Romans in April, the time of the Jewish harvest, in which they let loofe foxes with torches faftened to their tails, which certainly came from the ftory of Sampson, and was brought into Italy by the Phoenicians (i).

One finds, in the fame hiftory of Sampfon and Delilah, the original of the story of Nifus and his daughter, who cut off those fatal hairs upon which the victory depended (k).

Nicolaus Damafcenus has preferved the account of the victory which David obtained over the Syrians of Zoba, upon the banks of the Euphrates, as it is defcribed by the facred writers (1).

There are monuments extant which defcribe the part which Hiram king of Tyre had in the building of the temple of Solomon, almoft the fame with the account which the facred authors give us of his part in, the erection of that great work.

One finds in Herodotus an account of the taking of Jerufalem by Sefoftris, king of Egypt, as it is described in the hiftory of Rehoboam (m).

One finds the hiftory of the kings of Syria related by Nicolaus Damafcenus in the fame manner as it is defcribed by the facred writers, when they give us an account of the victories which the kings of Syria. obtained over the kings of Samaria.

One finds that the ftory of Phaeton is folely founded upon the transla tion of Elijah in a chariot of fire (n).

All that I have taken notice of, happened before the time of the first Olympiad, from whence the learned Varro has obferved that the first knowledge of hiftory began amongst the Greeks; whence alfo it is that they call all the precedent time fabulous, the Greeks having before nothing but fables, into which they had turned whatever ancient history they were acquainted with.

Since that time, we do not find fewer marks of the truth of the facred hiftories.

One fees in the Pagan writers the reign of Tiglab-Pilefer, who is the fame with the younger Ninus; as alfo the deftruction of the Syrian monarchy by his means, as it is defcribed to us in the facred hiftorians. Nicholas Damafcenus in Jofephus, Antiq. lib. vii. cap. 6.

One fees amongst the Heathens, the fucceffion of Shalmanefer as it is described in the Scriptures (o).

One fees the manner of Sennacherib's conquering the most part of the

(b) Varia Hiftoria, lib. v. cap. 3.
(i) Ovid. Faftorum lib. iv.
(1) Jofeph. Antiq. lib. vii. cap. 6.
(m) Jofeph. Antiq. lib. vii. cap.
(x) II. Kings ii.

6.

towns

(k) Ovid. Metam. lib. viii. fab. i.

(0) Caftor in Eufeb.

towns of Palestina, of Tyre and Sidon, defcribed in Heathen writers, particularly as we have it in the Scriptures (p).

The manner of Sennacherib's fucceffion to Shalmanefer, of his defolating the country of Palestine while he carried on his victories, is defcribed by the Heathens, Herodot. lib. ii. & Berofus in Jofephus, lib. x. c. 1. exactly as the facred hiftorians relate it.

The memory of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, as of a great conqueror, is preferved amongst the Heathens (q); for it was his coming, in fhort, which obliged Sennacherib to arife from before Libna, whence he intended to go and befiege Jerufalem.

One finds amongst the Heathens the remembrance of the manner of the destruction of all Sennacherib's army, for his blafphemies against God, which the Egyptians disguised, to appropriate to themselves. Herodot. lib. ii. cap. 141.

One finds the ruin of Afhdod by king Pfammetichus defcribed by Heathen authors, as we have it in the facred Scriptures. Herod. lib. ii. (r). One finds an account of the ways by which the Medes loft the empire of Afia under Cyaxares, after his conquefts over the Affyrians, in the Heathen writers, much the fame as it is described in Nahum, ii. 5.

The account of the taking of Ninive by Nabopolaffar, and by Afyages, is much the fame in Heathen authors (s) with the defcription of it in Nahum, Efaiah, and Ezekiel.

The manner of Jofiah's undertaking a war against Pharaoh-Necho, king of Egypt, when he was overthrown in the plains of Megiddo, as it is defcribed by the Heathens (t), agrees with the relation which is given of it in the holy Scriptures.

The victories of Nebuchadnezzar over the Egyptians and the Jews, the carrying away of the confecrated veffels of the temple, and of the Jews to Babylon (u), are defcribed by the Heathens.

The manner of the yielding up of Tyre to Nebuchadnezzar, as they defcribe it (x), agrees with what Ezekiel fays, chap. xxviii. 18. 19.

One finds in Heathen authors an account of the ftately buildings of Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar (y), which is described exactly in the Scrip

tures.

One finds alfo in them (z), that the death of Pharaoh-Hoptha or Vaphres, as they call him, happened according to Jeremiah's predictions, chap. xl. 30.

One finds alfo the taking of Babylon, by Cyrus (a), as it is described by the Prophet Jeremiah, chap. li. 46.

One finds alfo that the death of Belshazzar (b) happened exactly as Daniel defcribed it, chap. v.

(p) Menander apud Jofeph. lib. ix. cap. ult.

(q) Strabo, ib. i. & xv.

() Herodot. lib. i. cap. 104. lib. ii. cap. 1. lib. vii. cap. 10.

(5) Alexand. Polyhiftor. ap. Syncellum.

(t) Herodot. lib. ii.

(a) II. Kings xxiii. 29, 30.

(x) Annal. Phanic. ap. Jofeph. lib. i. contra Apionem.

(y) Berof. Abyden.

(a) Herodot. lib. i. cap. 173.

One

(x) Herodot, lib. ii. cap. 163. & 169. (b) Xenophen. Hiftor. lib. vii.

One fees there an account of Xerxes's great undertaking against Greece (c), as Daniel had foretold it, chap. xi.

Here then is an agreement which is perfect enough in several articles, to which we might add a greater number, if we had a greater number of Pagan hiftorians: but as we cannot find, after the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus, histories amongst the Jews of equal authority with those which were written by and after Mofes, as Jofephus the Jewish hiftorian obferves, fo we cannot compare the Jewish and Pagan hiftories together afterwards, in that form we have done hitherto.

But it is eafy to obferve four things, which are very confiderable, upon this head.

I. That the credit of the facred hiftorians may be grounded upon the great number of remarks we have made already, or elfe nothing will ever eftablish it. For how can we conceive that all forts of hiftorians, of all nations and all ages, Babylonians, Affyrians, Tyrians, Egyptians, and Greeks, could agree fo exactly with the Jews, in thofe facts they relate, if the Jewish authors had not exactly followed the rules of truth?

II. That as the prophecies of Zechariah and Daniel describe, with an almoft incredible exactness, the confiderable events which happened in the countries near to Judea, and in Judea itself, in a time which was not expired until the facred writers had given over writing amongst the Jews, fo there was need of almost nothing elfe, but to look over the books of Daniel, to fee what happened from day to day. And here we may obferve, that the reason why Porphyry thought the book of Daniel was forged after the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, was, because this book feemed to him to be rather a hiftory than a prediction; which he juftified, in making a fort of commentary upon this prophecy, by comparing with it the Pagan hiftorians which were then extant.

III. That as the Jewish commonwealth came under the power of the Greeks, who were mafters of learning, and of the art of writing hiftories, fo there is little need of any other witneffes befide the Greek authors, as Jofephus demonftrates, in effect, by proving that the Greeks were well enough acquainted with the affairs of the Jewish nation.

IV. That we do really find, after the time of Artaxerxes, a very great part of the Jewish history compofed by the care of fome particular men, with fufficient exactnefs, though it be not of equal authority with the facred writers.

That there is an uninterrupted Series of Events foretold by the facred Oracles, of which we may fee a very great Number accomplished in every Age.

S we may very reasonably fay, that all the hiftory of the people of Ifrael has a very exact dependance upon the writings of that famous legiflator; fo we may alfo obferve, that there are scarce

(c) Herod. lib. vii. cap. 5, 6.

fiderable events which make up the body of this hiftory, which do not deferve a particular remark, either as a fulfilling of Mofes's prophecies, or of thofe other Prophets whom God raised up after him to reform the errors of that nation. And it is a very confiderable thing, that in all the feries of events foretold by the Prophets, there was not one generation amongst all the offspring of the people, but what faw the accomplishment of feveral of thofe oracles. A little attention and care in comparing the chronology of the oracles with that of the events, will fufficiently juftify what I fay. I fhall content myself with obferving their different orders, which will fatisfy a judicious reader, fince my defign does not engage me neceffarily to do a thing which would carry me too far, and which may be done with little application.

We may confider four forts of oracles: 1. thofe which have respect to particular facts nigh at hand; 2. those which have refpect to par ticular facts, but at a greater diftance; 3. thofe which have refpect to facts which belong to the whole Jewish nation; 4. thofe which have refpect to facts which belong to foreign nations, either bordering upon Palestina, or further from it. Now there is nothing fo exactly fulfilled, as those four forts of oracles.

You have, for particular facts, which were nigh at hand, and foretold by the Prophets, the oracle of Mofes concerning the advancement of Joshua, and the conqueft of Palestine, which happened foon after. You have Deborah's oracle of the victory promised to Barak.

You have Samuel's oracle of the advancement and rejection of Saul. You have an oracle of the fame Samuel, of the advancement of David.

You have Nathan's oracle concerning Abfalom's revolt.

You have Abijah's oracle concerning the advancement of Jeroboam, and the divifion of Solomon's kingdom into ten tribes, and into two tribes, whereof the leffer part was to continue in the poffeffion of Solomom's heirs.

You have Ahijab's prediction of the death of Jeroboam's fon.

You have a prediction of the advancement of Jehu in the place of Jehoram king of Ifrael.

You have Elijah's prediction of the exemplary punishment of Abab and Jezabel.

You have the prediction of Jehoiakim's death made by Jeremiah, chap. xxii. 18, 19. and chap. xxxvi. 30. which happened ten years

after.

You have the prediction of Jechoniah's miferies made by Jeremiah, chap. xxii. 3.

You have Jeremiah's prediction of the death of the falfe Prophet Ananiah, but feven months before it happened.

You have an exprefs defignation of Zorobabel to conclude the rebuilding of the temple, made by Zechariah, chap. iv. 9. and which was comp eted in four years.

It is therefore fully evident, that the prediction of particular facts, which were to happen in a very short time, ferved to establish the authority of the Prophets. And in effect one fees that they proceeded

upon