translation of the Septuagint, and beyond that we
can carry the proof up to the separation of the Jews and Samaritans;
we can ascend up to the time when we discover that the law must have
been given by a person called Moses to a people in the wilderness, at
a time when idolatry was universal, and just as we have the facts
recorded in the nineteenth and twentieth chapters of the book of
Exodus. And if Moses did not get the law from God, the getting it at
all--the having it then as it is--is just as great a miracle as its
coming from God Himself; and you may take your choice of the
miracles--for the one is as great a miracle as the other. Tatian, one
of the Greek fathers, tells us, that "Though Homer was before all
poets, philosophers, and historians, and was the most ancient of all
profane writers, yet Moses was more ancient than Homer himself."
Tertullian, another celebrated writer of the second century, speaks to
the same effect. "The Pagans themselves have not denied that the
books of Moses were extant many ages before the states and cities of
Greece; before their temples and gods; and also before the beginning
of Greek letters." He moreover adds, "Moses lived five hundred years
before Homer's time; and the other prophets who came a long time after
Moses were yet more ancient than any of the wise men, lawgivers, and
philosophers of Greece. And as the writings of Homer were a pattern to
them, so in like manner he followed the writings of the prophets, as
they were then known and spread abroad in the world." And the
excellent and learned Sir W. Jones, adverting to the same point,
remarked, "The antiquity of these writings no man doubts."

_From its uncorrupted preservation._ Though it has been hated and held
in utter detestation by thousands, yet it has been preserved amidst
all the revolutions of time, and handed down from generation to
generation, even until now. And that it is in all essential points the
same as it came originally from the hands of its authors, we have the
most satisfactory evidence that can be required. "With regard to the
Old Testament," says the late learned William Greenfield, "the
original manuscripts were long preserved among the Jews, who were
always remarkable for being most faithful guardians of their sacred
books, which they transcribed repeatedly, and compared most carefully
with the originals, of which they even numbered the words and letters.
That the Jews have neither mutilated nor cor