of punishing him, Moses ordered three thousand men to be murdered."

ANSWER.

The people who were put to death were the leading idolators, who obliged Aaron to establish the idolatry of Egypt. Neither were they put to death at random, but judged by the judges in each tribe, and thus they were put to death by the sentence of the law.

OBJECTION.

The DEIST says: "All the books of the Bible are silent upon even the name of Moses, from the book of Joshua until the second book of Kings, a period of about a thousand years. Strange that even the name of such a man should not find a place in their books for a thousand years, if they knew any thing about him, or the books he is said to have written."

ANSWER.

This statement is like all the rest I have examined, totally destitute of truth. It is not a little surprising that these writers should thus commit themselves, by asserting that which is refuted by opening the Bible.

If the reader will turn to the following passages, the fallacy of such an assertion will be obvious. I need not tell the reader of the Bible, but I find it necessary to inform the DEIST, that the book of Judges immediately follows the book of Joshua, and in the 1st chapter and 20th verse, we find that the name of Moses is mentioned, viz. "And they gave Hebron unto Caleb, as Moses had said." Also ch. iii. 4. "Which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses."

Again, in the xiith chapter of the first book of Samuel, and the 5th verse, we read-" It is the Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron;" verse 8. "The Lord sent Moses and Aaron." Now from Joshua to Samuel, which was little more than three hundred years, we find that the sacred writers have not been silent "upon the name of Moses for a thousand years." Such bold unfounded decla

rations can only be made through ignorance, or with a design to mislead the unthinking multitude.

OBJECTION.

"How could Abraham call God by the name Jehovah,' when it is said in Exodus vi. 3. that God had made himself known to nobody before Moses, under the name "Jehovah?" "

ANSWER.

Mr. Volney, who asks this question in a recent publication, should have known, and Voltaire also, as well as objectors of less note, that the Hebrew word nodagnti signifies to distinguish. The name Jehovah came down through all ages to the time of Moses; but until that period this name was never invoked in their public and private worship that is, God was not distinguished by this ineffable name, because, as it comprehends the attributes of the Deity, which cannot be explained to mortals, he was till that period distinguished by the name GOD ALMIGHTY, but from the time of Moses, by the name JEHOVAH.

OBJECTION.

"It is in vain to look for any indication whatever of the existence of the Pentateuch, either in the book of Joshua, one of the most ancient, or in the book, so called, of Judges; or in the two books intitled Samuel; or finally, in the history of the first Jewish kings."

ANSWER.

These are the words of Mr. Volney in the above-mentioned recent publication alluded to. It is surprising that this writer did not make himself better acquainted with the book of Joshua before he had told his readers, that " It is in vain to look for any indication whatever of the existence of the Pentateuch in the book of Joshua ;" for in the viiith chapter it is said, that this very Pentateuch was read by Joshua, before all the congregation of Israel." See ver. 8. "And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all

that is written in the book of the law." Now in order to prove that the whole Pentateuch is here referred to, if we find that the whole of the "words of the law, the blessings and cursings," cannot be found but in the whole of the Pentateuch, it will prove that there is a plain "indication of the existence of the whole Pentateuch in the book of Joshua."

It will not be denied that "all the words of the law" which Joshua read before all the congregation of Israel, the elders, officers, judges, priests, and Levites, comprehend the whole of the "moral law," and the whole of the "ceremonial law;" for surely these objectors cannot suppose that the law here mentioned only embraced the seventeen verses of the xxth chapter of Exodus; these contain only the ten commandments.

The words of the law, thus expressly said to be," all the words of the law," are contained in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers; and the last verse of the last chapter of Numbers concludes, "all the words of the law;" thus" These are the commandments and the judgements which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel, in the plains of Moab, by Jordan, near Jericho."

Now the "blessings and the cursings," which confirm the existence of the Pentateuch in the time of Joshua, are to be found in Deut. xxvii. and xxviii. when the children of Israel were assembled before the two mountains, Gerizim and Ebal: six tribes standing on mount Gerizim to bless, and six tribes standing on mount Ebal to pronounce the cursings.

Therefore the whole of the moral and ceremonial law, and the blessings, and the cursings, comprehending the whole of the Pentateuch, being thus read by Joshua, before -all the people of Israel, it fully confirms the existence of the Pentateuch in the time of Joshua.

Now let us turn to the book of Judges; for this writer positively says, that "there is no indication whatever in the book of Judges, of the existence of the Pentateuch."

In the first chapter, ver. 20. it is said, " And they gave Hebron unto Caleb, as Moses said." Now if by referring

to the Pentateuch, we should find that it is there recorded concerning this circumstance of giving this division to Caleb, it will evidently prove that there is in the book of Judges a positive "indication of the existence of the Pentateuch."

In Numbers, chap. xiv. 24. we read-"But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully; him will I bring unto the land wherein he went, and his seed shall possess it." And in Deut. i. 36. "Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, he shall see it, and to him I will give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children."

The whole execution of the commission given to Moses, which was to bring the Hebrews out of Egypt, is also confirmed in the first Book of Samuel, chap. xii. 8. "When Jacob, was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried unto the Lord, then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought forth your fathers out of the land of Egypt."

And in the lxxviiith Psalm, ver. 5. a summary of all the principal circumstances and things are mentioned, which took place from the time that Jacob went into Egypt, to the going forth of the Hebrews, the rejection of the priesthood of Joseph, ver. 67, and the establishment of the worship of God on mount Zion at Jerusalem. So that in all these books, even to "the history of the first Jewish kings," the entire existence of the Pentateuch is ascertained in the most positive terms: and which clearly shows that this writer has been most eminently mistaken, in not having acquainted himself with the facts recorded at different periods of the history. This has induced him and other writers to say, "Because we cannot discover the slightest indication of the existence of the Pentateuch before king Josiah." I hope these remarks will tend to convince such writers that their conduct is most unjustifiable both in the sight of God and man; because it has the pernicious tendency of poisoning the minds of those who may be unacquainted with the fallacy of these representations, and which can have no other effect with such, than that of causing them to think lightly of the precepts of morality contained in the Bible, from which every precept of morality observed by all nations, even among the Mahometans and Pagans, has been taken.

OBJECTION.

"These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel beyond the Jordan, in the wilderness.' It is well known that Moses did not cross that river, and that he died in the desert to the east of it: consequently, the word beyond means, with respect to Moses, the western bank, the side on which Jerusalem stands. Reciprocally, the eastern bank where Moses died, is beyond the Jordan, with respect to the country of Jerusalem. Therefore this phrase, Moses died beyond, was written on the Jerusalem side; and therefore it was not Moses who wrote it.”

ANSWER.

This is one of Mr. Volney's objections, who has the confidence to tell us, what no Hebrew scholar will allow, that "b'aber means literally beyond." Thus he wishes to make it appear that the person who wrote thus, was on the western bank of the Jordan, and that as Moses never crossed that river, he could not be the writer of the book. But it is surprising that a writer like Mr. Volney, who has a character to lose, should tell us, that "the word b'aber means literally beyond." The word " b'aber," (begneeber) is a compound word, of the preposition beth, at, and gneeber, a passage: and the clause literally reads, at the passage of the Jordan. So that it has no relation to the situation of the writer, either on the east or on the west side of the river. It says that the writer was at the passage of the Jordan. Now it is perfectly admissible for a writer under the direction of Moses to say, "These be the words which Moses spake; or Moses himself might write in the third person. The words are sufficiently intelligible, concerning the place where Moses was when he spake these words; for it is expressly said in the same verse, that it was " in the wilderness." Therefore it is absurd for this writer to assert what was never denied, viz. “It is well known that Moses did not cross that river, and that he died in the desert to the east of it." From which it is undeniable, whether the narrative be written in the third person, or by Joshua the minister of Moses, under his