TO THE HONOURABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND HUGH LORD BISHOP OF CARLISLE, THE FOLLOWING HISTORY IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, BY HIS LORDSHIP'S OBLIGED AND FAITHFUL SERVANT, THE AUTHOR. 414209 THE following volum Various circumstan THE following volumes are offered to the public, not without a lively sense of the serious responsi bility attaching to the task which the author has undertaken to perform. Of the rectitude of the end which it is designed to effect he entertains, indeed, no distrust whatever; for it has been his object not merely to describe events as they occurred, but to convey to the mind of the reader a connected view of that stupendous scheme, by which fallen man has been restored to the favour of his Maker. Yet is he well aware, that between the plan and the execution of every work there is the widest possible difference; and hence, should he have failed, even in the most minute particular, to place matters so sacred in their true light, no man will lament more sincerely than himself that his history was ever written. Various circumstances, however, induce him to hope not only that such will prove not to have been the case, but that his work will be found deserving of the approbation of all those upon whose good opinion he is disposed to affix any value. To much of novelty it cannot indeed lay claim;—the subject is not such as to admit of novelty; yet he is not desirous to conceal that neither labour nor research have been spared for the purpose of rendering it acceptable to all classes of the reading and inquiring public. Above all, he is strong in the consciousness that his volumes have been composed with the most profound reverence for the statements of Holy Writ; to elucidate, and only to elucidate which, reference has ever been made to more doubtful, because to uninspired authorities. The author is not unmindful that many abler guides have gone before him in the same path. Of the labour of these, as often as opportunity occurred, he has never scrupled to avail himself; though he has in no instance adopted either their continuity or assertions without the most deliberate investigation; on the contrary, as he has uniformly ventured to exercise his own judgment on points both of speculation and detail, he stands fairly responsible for whatever doctrines may seem to be taught in his pages. OF THE FIRST VOLUME. Page Offspring of our first Parents.-Death of Abel.-Descendants of Colonization of the Earth.-Progress of Idolatry.-Traditions among different Nations, of a Flood.-Call of Terah.-His Death....... 116 |