ages, since they were neither forgeries of the "heathen priests nor founded on the Jewish pro

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phecies, must have been derived from prophecies

more ancient than the Jewish-They were frag

ments, (mutilated perhaps and otherwise cor"rupted), but they were fragments, of the most "ancient prophecies of the patriarchal ages."

He proceeds to shew that "fragments of the prophecies of the patriarchal ages might be preserved among idolatrous nations," and after shewing that the first idolatry consisted in blending the worship of the true God, "with the superstitious adoration of fictitious deities, and even of images," he adds that "paganism in this milder form was rather to be called a corrupt than a false religion."

Hence he argues "that means might be used "on the part of God to keep up the remembrance "of himself among them, by a right use of which

they might have recovered the purity from "which they fell, and which, though through "the extreme degeneracy of mankind they pre"vented not a general apostacy for many ages, "had a tendency however to the general restoration

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by raising an universal expectation of the great restorer."

Having shewn that both Melchisedek and Potipherah, may be considered as priests of a corrupted patriarchal church, He adduces the instances of Job and Balaam to shew that prophets also were to be found among that church.

Now we are to remember that if the gift of prophecy were not wanting among any people, they must certainly be in a state which would render them capable of preserving prophecies already delivered.

The family of Abraham was indeed chosen by God, but being chosen to be the origin of that seed in which all the nations of the earth should be blessed at the first coming of the Messiah, any prophecy concerning the latter days, and applicable to others rather than to them, would not with any especial reason be committed to the custody of that chosen race. And therefore, if any such prophecy existed, it might not improbably be looked for in the first instance, among those, who, while corrupted in some degree by

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their addition of idolatry, still preserved among them the knowledge of the true God.

Bishop Horsley appears to have thought the existence of such prophecies not to be unlikely.

If," says he, any other prophets of that “ "period existed, and many might although their "works and their very names have been long "since forgotten, it is more certain, I say, of the

prophecies of these ages that they would be "committed to writing, than of the earlier tradi"tions. For that letters were older than the be

ginnings of idolatry cannot be proved, although "in my opinion it is more probable than the contrary."

The learned Walton, in his prolegomena, expresses the same opinion, applying it to the book of Enoch.

"Enochum prophetâsse ejusque prophetiæ par"tem temporibus apostolorum extitisse, ex epistolâ "Judæ certum est. Sine Scripturâ vero tot 66 annorum millibus conservatum fuisse, nullo " modo probabile videtur."

If, continues Bishop Horsley, "Balaam's Prophe"cies were committed to writing, why not those

"of earlier prophets?" and he afterwards adds that "to the mutilated words of the patriarchal "church, the Greek Philosophers were probably "indebted for those fragments of the patriarchal "creed from which they drew the just notions "which we find scattered in their writings of the "immortality of the soul, a future retribution, the unity of the Divine substance, and even of the

trinity of persons. And to no other source can "we refer the expectation that prevailed in the "heathen world at large, of a great personage "to arise in some part of the East for the general 'advantage of mankind."

It will be admitted that the very subjects, as to which the learned Bishop conceived that the heathen world must have acquired their knowledge of them, from fragments of true prophecy preserved beyond the pale of the Jewish church, are, in fact, to be found in the book which is now under our consideration.

The simple terms in which the trinity is described, as the "Lord of Spirits, the Elect one, "and the Power that was over the waters on that

day," express most forcibly the meaning of their

author, but it is in vain that we seek to trace in these expressions any resemblance in terms, to those used by the Jewish Prophets, to those of the new Testament, or to the explanations of the early Christian Church; and yet there is no subject with respect to which a similarity of terms would more probably be employed.

Thus also as to the Messiah's coming, we find predicted the synchronism of the day, when "the "elect one shall sit on his throne," with the period at which "those who have been destroyed "in the desert, and who have been devoured by "the fish of the sea and by wild beasts, shall "return and trust in the day of the elect one, "for none shall perish in the presence of the "Lord of Spirits, nor shall any be capable of "perishing."

Now although this harmonizes most exactly with the recognized predictions of the Apocalypse, yet there is no trace of imitation discoverable; while the general description of the Messiah's coming is such as might easily have been perverted into a mistaken expectation of an immediate and temporal kingdom.