remarkable fact of an interruption of pure Babylonian supremacy at this time; and from the monuments we are able to pronounce that the supremacy was transferred to Elam, and that under a king, the Semitic form of whose name would be Chedor-laomer, a great expedition was organized, which proceeded to the distant and then almost unknown west, and returned after "ravaging" but not conquering those regions.

The Exodus of the Jews was an event which could scarcely be omitted by Manetho. It was one however of such a nature so entirely repugnant to all the feelings of an Egyptian that we could not expect a fair representation of it in their annals. And accordingly, our fragments of Manetho present us with a distinct but very distorted notice of the occurrence. The Hebrews are represented as leprous and impious Egyptians, who under the conduct of a priest of Heliopolis, named Moses, rebelled on account of oppression, occupied a town called Avaris, or Abaris, and having called in the aid of the people of Jerusalem, made themselves masters of Egypt, which they held for thirteen years; but who were at last defeated by the Egyptian king, and driven from Egypt into Syria. (81) We have here the oppression, the name Moses, the national name, Hebrew, under the disguise of Abaris, and the true direction of the retreat; but we have all the special circumstances of the occasion concealed under a general confession of disaster; and we have a claim to final triumph which consoled the wounded vanity of the nation, but which we know to have been unfounded. On the whole we have perhaps as much as we could reasonably expect the annals of the Egyptians to tell us of transactions so little to their credit; and we have a narrative fairly confirming the principal facts, as well as very curious in many of its particulars. (82)

I have thus briefly considered some of the principal of those direct testimonies which can be adduced from ancient profane sources, in confirmation of the historic truth of the Pentateuch. There are various other arguments — some purely, some partly historic-into which want of space forbids my entering in the present Course. For instance, there is what may be called the historico-scientific argument, derivable from the agreement of the sacred narrative with the conclusions reached by those sciences which have a partially historical character. Geology-whatever may be thought of its true bearing upon other points—at least witnesses to the recent creation of man, of whom there is no trace in any but the latest strata. (83) Physiology decides in favor of the unity of the species, and the probable derivation of the whole human race from a single pair. (84) Comparative Philology, after divers fluctuations, settles into the belief that languages will ultimately prove to have been all derived from a common basis. (85) Ethnology pronounces that, independently of the Scriptural record, we should be led to fix on the plains of Shinar as a common centre, or focus, from which the various lines of migration and the several types of races originally radiated. (86) Again, there is an argument perhaps more convincing than any other, but of immense compass, deducible from the indirect and incidental points of agreement between the Mosaic records and the best profane authorities. The limits within which I am confined compel me to decline this portion of the inquiry. Otherwise it might be shown that the linguistic, geographic, and ethologic notices contained in the books of Moses are of the most veracious character, (87) stamping the whole narration with an unmistakable air of authenticity. And this, it may be remarked, is an argument to which modern research is perpetually

adding fresh weight. For instance, if we look to the geography, we shall find that till within these few years, "Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar"1. Calah and Resen, in the country peopled by Asshur2. Ellasar, and "Ur of the Chaldees," were mere names; and beyond the mention of them in Genesis, scarcely a trace was discoverable of their existence. (88) Recently, however, the mounds of Mesopotamia have been searched, and bricks and stones buried for near three thousand years have found a tongue, and tell us exactly where each of these cities stood, (89) and sufficiently indicate their importance. Again, the power of Og, and his "threescore cities all fenced with high walls, gates, and bars, besides unwalled towns a great many," in such a country as that to the east of the Sea of Galilee, whose old name of Trachonitis indicates its barrenness, seemed to many improbable — but modern research has found in this very country a vast number of walled cities still standing, which show the habits of the ancient people, and prove that the population must at one time have been considerable. (90) So the careful examination that has been made of the valley of the Jordan, which has resulted in a proof that it is a unique phenomenon, utterly unlike any thing elsewhere on the whole face of the earth, (91) tends greatly to confirm the Mosaic account, that it became what it now is by a great convulsion; and by pious persons will, I think, be felt as confirming the miraculous character of that convulsion. Above all, perhaps, the absence of any counter-evidencethe fact that each accession to our knowledge of the ancient times, whether historic or geographic, or ethnic, helps to remove difficulties, and to produce a perpetual

1 Gen. x. 10.
3 Ibid. xi. 31; xiv. 1.

2 Ibid. verses 11 and 12.

4 Deut. iii. 5.

supply of fresh illustrations of the Mosaic narrative; while fresh difficulties are not at the same time brought to light

is to be remarked, as to candid minds an argument for the historic truth of the narrative, the force of which can scarcely be over-estimated. All tends to show that we possess in the Pentateuch, not only the most authentic account of ancient times that has come down to us, but a history absolutely and in every respect true. All tends to assure us that in this marvellous volume we have no old wives' tales, no "cunningly devised fable;"1 but a "treasure of wisdom and knowledge"-as important to the historical inquirer as to the theologian. There may be obscurities there may be occasionally, in names and numbers, accidental corruptions of the text-there may be a few interpolations-glosses which have crept in from the margin; but upon the whole it must be pronounced that we have in the Pentateuch a genuine and authentic work, and one which would even were it not inspired be, for the times and countries whereof it treats, the leading and paramount authority. It is (let us be assured) "MOSES," who is still "read in the synagogues every sabbath day;" and they who "resist " him, by impugning his veracity, like Jannes and Jambres of old, "resist the truth."

1 2 Pet. i. 16.

3 Acts xv. 21.

7*

* Col. ii. 3.
4 2 Tim. iii. 8.

LECTURE III.

WHEN HE HAD DESTROYED SEVEN NATIONS IN THE LAND OF CHANAAN, HE DIVIDED THEIR LAND TO THEM BY LOT. AND AFTER THAT HE GAVE THEM JUDGES ABOUT THE SPACE OF FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS, UNTIL SAMUEL THE PROPHET. AND AFTERWARD THEY DESIRED A KING.-ACTS XIII. 19-21.

THE period of Jewish history, which has to be considered in the present Lecture, contains within it the extremes of obscurity and splendor, of the depression and the exaltation of the race. The fugitives from Egypt, who by divine aid effected a lodgment in the land of Canaan, under their great leader, Joshua, were engaged for some hundreds of years in a perpetual struggle for existence with the petty tribes among whom they had intruded themselves, and seemed finally on the point of succumbing and ceasing altogether to be a people, when they were suddenly lifted up by the hand of God, and carried rapidly to the highest pitch of greatness whereto they ever attained. From the time when the Hebrews "hid themselves in holes,"1 for fear of the Philistines, and were without spears, or swords, or armorers, because the Philistines had said, "Lest the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears," 2 to the full completion of the kingdom of David by his victories over the Philistines, the Moabites, the Syrians, the Ammonites, and the Amalekites, together with the submission of the Idumæans,3 was a space little, if at all, exceeding half a

1 1 Sam. xiv. 11.

Ibid. xiii. 19-22.

2 Sam. viii.