199 



error in the numerical items in the text, he would absolutely 

 reject it as interpolated and suppositious— as the result of 

 Jewish fraud, executed without ingenuity, and open on the 

 simplest enquiry to detection and exposure. His arguments 

 certainly possess much of the plausibilit}' of conviction, and 

 are proposed with all the confidence of success; indeed the 

 author leaves the reader in doubt whether to admire more 

 the singular sagacity and research, which, after the lapse of so 

 many ages, has happily succeeded in rescuing them from the 

 rust of antiquity, and bringing them adorned with all the 

 lights of criticism and philosophy into day; — or the singular 

 fatality that concealed from the enquiries of the learned and 

 the investigations of the wise, truths, at once so evident and 

 so simple, lying as it were embossed upon the very surface of 

 the authorities, from which they were derived, and only requi- 

 ring to be known and to be recognized, in order to destroy 

 the influence of pernicious or unsubstantiated testimony, 

 both injurious to the authority of Scripture, and at variance 

 with the conclusions of reason; — but 1 shall state the ar- 

 guments of the learned author in nearly his own words. 



1. The assigned period is not found in any ancient Hebrew 

 or Greek copies, and it is not in the parallel passage of 

 Chronicles, 11. 3. 2. 



2ndly. None of the ancient Jewish or Christian chrono- 

 lo2;ers have mentioned it. 



VOL. XI. 2 V 3dly. That 



