can it be said that God sanctioned this crime, than by permitting it; or in other words, by leaving man free: in the same way that he suffers or permits evil at all in the world, and which could not be prevented unless by depriving man of his liberty, by making him a mere machine, incapable of either vice or virtue! The same may be said of every other vice and crime, as murder, theft, &c. See Wife, Abraham, David, Adam, Sin, Evil, Devil.

AGE, or longevity of the antediluvian inhabitants, is mentioned by many heathen historians. Josephus says, Manetho, who wrote an account of the Egyptians, Berosus, who compiled an account of the affairs of Chaldæa, Mochus, Hestiæus, and with them, Hieronimus, the Egyptian, agree in this. Also Hesiod and Hecatæus, and Hellanicus and Acusilaus, and Ephorus, and Nicolaus, relate, that the ancients lived a thousand years. There are also traditions to the same effect among the Burmans and the Chinese. See World.

AHAB. See Jehoshaphat.

ANCIENT. See Hindoo.

The

ALL. Nothing can be more evident, than that universal terms are used in all languages, in a limited sense. word all is repeatedly used even in common conversation to signify only a great many. It is often said, "such a man lost all his property by such an accident ;" when, in fact, he had lost only the greater part of it! All Paris or London, (that is, strictly speaking, every individual in these cities) were alarmed! When in fact, perhaps, thousands and tens of thousands in both those

cities were not at all alarmed. Lastly, it is written in Matth. iii. 5, “There went out to him (John the Baptist,) Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan," &c., when it is well known, thousands in all those places did not follow John the Baptist. See Language.

AMERICA. Some have endeavoured to raise an objection to the Mosaic account of the creation, and of the universality of the deluge, on the ground that this continent was peopled before it was discovered by Columbus, therefore that all mankind could not have proceeded from the family of Noah-But geographical discoveries have effectually removed this objection. The straits which divide North America from Tartary, are so narrow as to admit a very easy passage from one continent to the other, and it is not impossible that they might even have been united by an isthmus which the combined influence of time and the waves, have demolished. The resemblance found between the inhabitants of the opposite sides of that passage and their uncivilized state and rude ignorance of the arts, prove them to have been of one common origin. (Robertson's America, vol. ii. p. 45.) So fully convinced was M. Buffon of this fact, long before the last, and most important discoveries on the subject, (Cook and King's Voyages, vol. iii. p. 244) that he declares he has "no doubt, independently of every theological consideration, that the origin of the Americans is the same with our own. (Buffon's Nat. Hist. vol. i. p. 229.)

The parts of this New World, which are disjoined from the others, and which have been represented by ignorance and infidelity as vast continents, are by the most recent and complete researches, reduced to a few inconsiderable islands; whose inhabitants were, in all proba

ANIMALS. ANOINTING THE BODY OF JESUS.

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bility, conveyed to their present settlements from islands adjacent to the continent of Asia, from which continent all the inhabitants of the new world (except the Esquimaux, and a few other American tribes, that are evidently descended from the Greenlanders) have migrated. Nor can it excite surprise, that we are unacqainted with the circumstances of their migration, when we consider that this event probably happened at no great distance from the time, when our own ancestors set out for the same regions, to people the western world, by an opposite route. (Horne.) See World.

ANIMALS. The taking away the life of animals for food cannot be justified by an infidel, or by any man who denies the authority of Jehovah or of his revealed will as contained in the Bible. Will such persons attempt to justify themselves by saying "we like flesh, or it is necessary for us, therefore we must have it." This is exactly the plea of the Debauchee, of the Murderer, of the Pirate. Their excuse is "liking" and "necessity;" and their law is physical force. What that law enables them to do, they deem right. Upon the same principle, there is no crime but might be justified. If the Christian be asked for his authority for taking away the lives of animals for subsistence, he at once refers to their creator and owner, Jehovah, who says "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you" &c. Gen. ix. 3.

ANOINTING THE BODY OF JESUS. In John xii. 1, 3, and in Matthew xxvi. 2, 6, 7—it is recorded that Jesus was anointed in Bethany, in relation to which circumstance the following apparent contradictions occur, and deserve particular attention.

1st. Because these, in common with all the other ap

parent discrepancies in the Scriptures, prove indisputably that there was no collusion between the writers.

2d. Because Infidels urge the account given of this transaction as a palpable contradiction, and

3d. Because it affords another remarkable instance in the sacred Scriptures, of the surest test of the truth of human testimony, viz: "substantial truth under circumstantial variety."

Thus it will be perceived upon a candid and impartial examination, so far from there existing any actual contradiction between the sacred narrators of this transaction, they exhibit that candour, variety, simplicity, and undesignedness, which invariably accompany truth.

ANONYMOUS. When the name of the writer of a book is unknown, it is termed anonymous. Several of the records that constitute the Bible are anonymous. What then? If there were not the name of the writer of a single verse in the Bible known, so far would it be from militating against the authenticity of it, that it furnishes a strong presumptive argument in its favor: for it not only thereby more resembles the book of nature, which is totally anonymous; but it shows it was never the production of ambitious or designing men. For if a book be written to promote the sinister motives of individuals, by establishing a company or society, in which the authors are to take a prominent part; or if it be got up to promote the ambition, or to flatter the pride, of a nation, human nature is such, they would naturally desire that their names should not be lost sight of, or fall into oblivion, while their enterprise was flourishing, and other men deriving honor and profit thereby. What method then would be more calculated to secure for them this, than by annexing their names as the authors of those books which gave birth to the company or speculation. Not only then do we not find such the case to be in the Bible, particularly in the historical parts of the New Testament, but even those to whom the Gospels are attributed were so far from having been the most prominent characters in the establishing of Christianity, that they really appear to be the most humble and unnoticed actors in it! Of Matthew, little or nothing is said except that he had been a tax-gatherer: no