243 



thenticitj of the text, and the system by which we have at- 

 tempted to reconcile and explain it, seem to be established as 

 the conclusion of a great and extensive chain of reasoning 

 and induction; as the natural result which all the preceding 

 arguments and inferences finally indicated; as the point to 

 which all the collateral series of proofs and premises, ultimately 

 converged; as the term and object of the several principles 

 which have guided and directed us; the last link in the con- 

 catenation of the several distinct, and independent chains of 

 evidence we have collected, and the final resting place at 

 which all the paths conducting to the temple of truth, meet 

 together. 



And, surely, whenl have submitted a mode of following the 

 sacred historian, exempt from the errors and mistakes which 

 are usually ascribed to the other supporters of the Hebrew 

 reading, no Christian chronologist will have any hesitation,. 



from 



in the tribe of Dan, and that tribe affciijed the last of the (lay) Judges to Israel, and it 

 was not permitted to him to redeem his country. The first Idol was made of 1 100 

 pieces of Silver; Sampson was betrayed for the same sura; by treachery the triije of 

 Dan gained their inheritance ; by treachery their judge was surpr.sed. Dan is omitted 

 among the sealed tribes, (Revel.) for their idolatry ;"^ to which he might have added, 

 that .Sampson's jurisdiction is, in pari, confounded with that of Eli, anl .vas not acknow- 

 ledged by some of the tribes, probably from the same cause; " Micahof Ephraim, was 

 the tirst di.lat ir, Samuel of Ephraim, the first reformei : " and as ihe settlement of the 

 Danites was contemporary with the fust act of Idolairy ; so as we have seen, the 6r3t 

 reformer was contempoiary with ihe Danile judge: these obstivatiuiis 'te luriher evi- 

 dence against the theory of Vignolts, (on the jurisdiction of bainpson, which we have 

 examined so much at length above, 



Bedford Scrip. Chron. London, 1723. 



