doubtful or suspicious this kind of evidence may once have been, it is daily accumulating, and gathering strength as it accumulates. "Time," says Bishop Newton, "that detracts something from the evidence of other writers, is still adding something to the credit and authority of the Prophets." No man can read through, with a candid and unbiassed mind, Mr. Keith's book on the Prophecies, and remain an infidel. Actuated by these views, the Author has endeavoured to show the perfect correspondence of the predictions concerning Judæa and the Jews to the present condition of that country and people; history is employed as the interpreter of prophecy, and made to attest the minute and entire accomplishment of those events which were made known to the fathers by the inspirations of omniscience. The Author does not deem it requisite to enumerate the multiplied sources from which he has drawn his materiel. The truth is, many of them are compilations from preceding compilations, and, therefore, have no title to be specified as original authorities; whilst, in other instances, the matter gleaned from them has been so modified, altered, or interwoven with other matter, that it would be exceedingly difficult to assign each fragment of information to its proper original. In many instances, the authorities are specified under the articles illustrated and enriched by their contributions. Amongst the more prominent may be mentioned-Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Pliny, Quintus Curtius, Josephus, Eusebius and Jerome and amongst the moderns, Bochart, Wells, : Maundrell, Shaw, Pococke, Bruce, D'Anville, Dr. E. Clarke, Hasselquist, Van Egmont and Heyman, Chateaubriand, Niebuhr, Burckhardt, Buckingham, Richardson, Robinson, Morier, Ker Porter, Lamartine, Stephens, and Dr. Russel, Usher, Hales, Calmet, Newton, Prideaux, Michaelis, Faber, Keith, Dr. A. Clarke, Shuckford, and Rennel; Horne's Introduction, Watson's Biblical Dictionary, Harmer's Observations, Conder's Palestine, and Professor Paxton's Illustrations of Scripture, have been invaluable helps; Harris's Dictionary of Biblical Natural History, Malte Brun's Universal Geography, Ransom's Biblical Topography, and Applegate's Sacred Geography and History, have supplied some useful details; but to no single work is the Author so largely indebted as to Mansford's Scripture Gazetteer-decidedly the best work of the kind extant. It is written with great care, displays much critical acumen in the discussion of disputed points, and is in itself a complete thesaurus of Biblical information. The following volume is chiefly designed as a Manual, or book of reference for the young, which, while it gratifies to some extent the thirst for Scriptural knowledge, may provoke the appetite, and stimulate to further inquiry. It is the fruit of many laborious days and sleepless nights, and is now committed to the press in the earnest hope that it may minister to the instruction, enlarge the views, and confirm the faith of the youthful inquirer, and thus subserve in some humble measure the interests of true religion-that religion which is "the pillar of society, the safeguard of nations, the parent of b social order, which alone has power to curb the fury of the passions, and secure to every one his rights; to the laborious the rewards of their industry, to the rich the enjoyment of their wealth, to nobles the preservation of their honours, and to princes the stability of their thrones." Warwick, December 10th, 1843. |