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after leaving the bottom some time, the sea again came back, and raged with great fury."* This is the testimony of a heathen historian, not writing on the subject of revelation, but merely speaking of the country, the history of which he was writing, and recording the knowledge he had obtained from the natives.

Artepanus mentions a tradition of the manner of the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, among the people of Heliopolist-and Tacitus says of the Jews, that they worshipped the Supreme Eternal, immutable Being.‡ Dion Cassius says, that many had written of the God of the Jews, and of the worship that they paid to him||-and Varro, the most learned historian among the Romans, much approved the Jewish way of worship, as being free from that idolatry which he could not but dislike in the heathen religion.§

The tradition of a seventh day Sabbath among all the heathen nations, could only be derived from the writings of Moses or the teachings of Abraham and his descendants. Clement Alexandrinus, in his Strom V. quotes out of Hessiod, "That the seventh day was sacred." The like out of Homer and Callimachus, to which may be subjoined, what Eusebius has taken out of Aristobulus, lib, 13. ch, 12. "Theophilus Antiochanus to Antelychus, concerning the seventh day, which is distinguished by all men,"

Suetonius, in his Tiberius 32d, says, "Diogenes the grammarian, used to dispute at Rhodes on the

• Encyclop. Tit. Red Sea.

† Hist. lib. 15.

† Euseb. Præp. Evang. lib. 9. ch. 27. || Lib. 37.

St. August. de Civ. Dei. lib. 4. ch. 31. Reas. Christ. 100.

Sabbath day." Lucian tells us in his Paralogist, " that boys were used to play on the seventh day." Dion Cassius, lib. 33, says, "The day called Saturnus, and the custom of computing time by weeks, was derived from the Egyptians to all mankind." Herodotus, in his second book, tells us, "That the keeping the seventh day was not a new, but a very ancient

custom."

Josephus against Appion, about the end of the 2d book, says, "There is no city, Greek or Barbarian, in which the custom of resting on the seventh day, is not preserved, as it is among the Jews." And Philo says, " It is a festival not only celebrated in one city or country, but throughout the whole world."

That there was such a univeral destruction by water, as Noah's flood, is confirmed by the concurrent testimony of several of the most ancient writers and nations in the world. That the Egyptians were no strangers to this event, appears from the testimony of Plato, who says, that a certain Egyptian priest recounted to Solon, out of their sacred books, the history of the universal flood, which happened long before the particular inundation known to the Grecians.

The inhabitants of Heliopolis in Syria, showed a chasm or cleft in the earth in the temple of Juno, which they said had swallowed up the waters of that flood.* Herodotus says the Egyptian priests told him, that the sun had four times deviated from his course, having twice risen when he uniformly goes down, and twice gone down when he uniformly rises.†

Grotius, in his Treatise on Truth, informs us, "That what Moses says of the origin of the world, is recorded by the Phœnicians and Egyptians. Ovid describes the creation of man and his absolute dominion over the brute creation. Maimonides says, "That the Indians in the east, formerly had the story of Adam and Eve-the tree of knowledge, and the temptation of the serpent; and it is said that the Brahmans and inhabitants of Siam, have them at this day."

Manetho who wrote the history of the Egyptians -Berosus who wrote the Chaldean History-Hesiod among the Greeks; Hecateus, Hellanicus and Ephorus, all unanimously agree, that in the first ages of the world, men lived one thousand years.* The account of the ark, the deluge, and those who were saved therein, is also mentioned by Berosus, Plutarch, and Lucian. Berosus was a priest of Belus, † and a Babylonian born, but afterwards flourished in the island of Cos. He gives an account of Noah under the name of Xisuthrus, to whom Saturn appeared in a dream, and gave him warning, that on the 15th day of the month Desius, mankind should be destroyed by a flood, and therefore commanded him to build a ship, and having furnished it with provisions, and taken into it fowls and four-footed beasts, to go into it himself, with his friends and nearest relations; this ship was five furlongs in length, and two wide. All this Xisuthrus did, and when the flood came, and began to abate, he let out some birds, which finding no food, nor place to rest on, returned to the ship. After some days he let

out the birds again, but they came back, with their feet daubed with mud. In a few days he let them go again, but they did not return, whereby he understood that the earth appeared again above the waters; and so taking down some of 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 of the same authors, but particularly in the verses which are ascribed to Orpheus, and in the Egyptian histories. Sanchoniathan also mentions many 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 Testament: 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 Pythagorian, before mentioned, asserts, that the Brachmans 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 andthe 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.

Philostorgis 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 Carondal, the natives still preserve a tradition, that a numerous army was formerly drowned near Beden, the same as 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