the planks of the ship, he saw it rested upon a mountain.

Eusebius says that Abydenus made mention of the dove that was sent out to explore the

waters.

The burning of Sodom is related by Diodorus, Strabo, and Tacitus.

The account of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, was found in many ancient historians quoted by Eusebius; and is mentioned in Justin from Trogus Pompeius.

And the actions of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt, and receiving the two tables of stone from the hands of God, are to be found in many authors, but particularly in the verses which are ascribed to Orpheus; and in the Egyptian histories.

Sanchoniathon also mentions several of the facts related by Moses.

In the reign of Darius Hystaspes, about five hundred years before our blessed Saviour, Zoroaster appeared in the world; in whose books are contained many things out of the Old Testa ment; a great part of the Psalms of David; the history of the creation and deluge. He mentions Adam and Eve, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and Solomon.

Numenius the Pythagorean, before mentioned, asserts that the Brahmins of India were not unacquainted with the religion of the Hebrews; and that the laws of the wisest of the heathen nations were taken from the laws of Moses.

Strabo mentions Moses and the ancient Jews with commendation: he says that many, in honour to the Divine Majesty, went out of Egypt with Moses, rejecting the worship of the Egyptians and other nations; inasmuch as Moses had instructed them that God was not to be worshipped by any image, and that he would reveal himself only to the pure and virtuous. He observes, that Moses had great success in the establishment of his government, and the reception of his laws among the neighbouring nations; and that his successors for some ages pursued the same methods, being just and truly religious.

Philostorgius says, that the place called by the natives Clysma, was 'the place where the Israelites of old passed over to the other side without wetting their feet.

Abulfeda, a Mahometan writer of considerable antiquity, says, "Not far from Alkolsum, is the place where Pharaoh and his army were drowned in the sea."

Dr. Shaw says, that near Corondel the natives still preserve a tradition that a numerous army was formerly drowned near Beden, the same is Clysma.

The names of places which are still preserved in that country bear some testimony to the truth of the events. Etham is now called Etti; and we still find the wilderness of Sdar and Sin, and the region Paran.

Beyond Corondel or Clysma is a hill called Gibel al Marah; not far from which is a desert called Sin; and the coast downward seems to have the same name as it had of old, from the bitter waters with which it still abounds.

Elah and Madian also yet remain, and are mentioned by Abulfeda. Below this region are the palm-trees and the twelve wells of water.

Diodorus Siculus mentions the palm-grove as it was described by Ariston, who was sent by Ptolemy to descry the coast of Arabia upon the Red Sea.

Here also is still the desert of Faran, the Pharan of Ptolemy, or Paran of the Scriptures. Diodorus further speaks of some rocks or pillars here, graven with some unknown characters; and he gives the reason why this district is so much honoured:" because all the country

round about was parched up with heat, being without water, and without any other trees that could afford a shade."

Strabo gives a similar account of the palmgrove and the wells.

In these names we may see the traces of the ancient Marah, as well as the other places mentioned by Moses. The engravings upon the rocks seem still to remain, as they were seen by Moncony some years since, just in this part of the desert, as he was returning from Mount Sinai.

Ariston, Artemidorus, Agatharchides, and Diodorus, who mention these facts, all lived before the Christian æra. Even Strabo was but a few years after; and Abulfeda had no temptation to misrepresent what he saw.

We will now proceed to look into other histories and works of learned heathen writers, to see what traces we can find of the great lumi, nous doctrines taught by Moses, as received from God.

Porphyry, the pagan philosopher, who lived in the third century, and wrote much against Christianity, as quoted by Eusebius, says, "The way of the gods is steep and very craggy: the Barbarians found out many of its paths; but the Greeks wandered from them; and those who

kept them spoiled them: but God revealed those hidden ways to the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, Chaldeans, to the Lydians and to the Hebrews." It is well known that the three first received much of their religious knowledge from Abraham the father of the Hebrews, from Moses, and the Jews. Porphyry adds, “ For this reason, Apollo says in an oracle, the Chaldeans and Hebrews alone have got wisdom, by purely 'worshipping the self-begotten king, God."

Chalcidius, in his Timæus, says, "To this the Hebrews agree, when they say that God gave to man a soul by a divine breath, which they call reason, or a rational soul; but to dumb creatures, and wild beasts of the forests, one void of reason; the living creatures and beasts being by the command of God scattered over the face of the earth; amongst which was the serpent, who by his evil persuasions deceived the first of mankind." He mentions Moses by name; and says, "He was the wisest of men; who was enlivened, not by human eloquence, but by divine inspiration."

Dionysius Longinus, who lived in the time of the emperor Aurelian, and was the great favourite of Zenobia the queen of Palmyra, in his book of The Sublime, after saying "that

they who speak of God ought to take care to