thing in it self there is no less Absurdity to dispute our Saviour's Resurrection than the Creation of the first Man. Now if this Argument holds as there can be no easier so neither can there be a stronger proof of the truth of the Christian Religion for provided we be once well assured of the certainty of Christ's Resurrection we must acknowledge him to be the true Messiah and consequently embrace his Religion But it seems in the heat of Meditation I was insensibly carried further in my Observations upon the Promise of the Messiah than I thought at first to be Therefore instead of passing now as I proposed in the beginning to the proof of Christ's Resurrection which is a solid and compendious way of demonstrating the truth of his Religion I find my self engaged according to my present Method to continue to make the like Reflexions upon the other Books of Holy Scripture that I may yet more fully demonstrate that Jesus Christ is the true Messiah whom God promised to Man immediately after his sin And this I intend to shew so plainly as will make it evident that God hath really accomplished his first designs and exactly performed all his Promises relating to the Messiah according to the first Idea's he gave of his coming to the Ancient Patriarchs First Then I design to trace up the Method that God was pleased to use to make the Messiah known without mistake when ever he should come into the World. Secondly I will make some Reflexions upon the several Notions he gave of him long before in his Oracles to Characterize his Person his Offices his Actions his Sufferings his Glory c. Last of all I will shew that we have all this whole Project and Design exactly accomplished in the History of the Gospel as it was written by Christ's Disciples Now as this Method which God hath particularly chosen to make the Messiah known appears also in the other Books of Moses So I think it will not be amiss for me particularly to view and examine these Books that I may have occasion to illustrate several things in them which deserve a particular attention especially when they are considered together and as it were at one view For the Prophecies being thus consider'd together in their Connexion and Progress do more plainly evidence God's Design and may better convince or confound the Jews Therefore I intend accordingly to consider those Oracles with attention and to join them together that so they may in their Conjunction cast forth the brighter Beams of Light to the Conviction of all Infidels who may happen to peruse this Book For I am perswaded that after the perusal of my Observations in it an ordinary attention in the reading of the Gospel will be sufficient to convince any Man that Jesus Christ is the true Messiah which is all I intend to prove as the Conclusion of this Treatise Now as the examination of the Patriarchs Religion according to the account Moses hath given us of it in his Book of Genesis hath taken up the first part of it so I design to examine in this second part the Israelites Religion and to follow in my search the account which Moses gives of it in his other four Books And as to effect this it is very important to establish beforehand the Authority of those four Books so I intend to shew first of all that Moses is the true Author of them and that they have Intrinsick Characters of undeniable certainty Then Secondly It will be natural for me to shew that Moses in the writing of them had the Promise of the Messiah in view as particularly promised of God to the Patriarchs of his own Nation and as being consequently the principal if not the sole Object of their hope Thirdly I intend to shew that if we seriously examine Moses's Laws we shall find in them such a Method observed as is both very agreeable to the manifestation of God s design in Genesis and very worthy of his Wisdom especially if we consider what he was pleased to reveal unto us of his Intentions by the Prophets who followed Moses REFLEXIONS Upon the Four Last BOOKS OF MOSES To Establish the Truth OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION CHAPTER I. That it cannot reasonably be doubted but that Moses is the Author of Exodus and of the three other following Books THis is a Truth which may be grounded upon several solid Arguments I might observe That Moses hath always been acknowledged by the very Heathens themselves not only to be the most Ancient Historian but also the most Ancient Legislator in the World. I might likewise observe That there is a particular connexion betwixt the Book of Genesis and the other Books of Moses as well in regard of the general Design of their Author as of the Matters treated of in them For Example We see that the greatest part of the Laws and Transactions which we find written and recorded there derive their Original from those Transactions and Passages that we read of in Genesis Thus we may plainly discern that the pretension of the Israelites upon the Land of Canaan was grounded upon the Promise that God made to Abraham to give it to his Posterity in the fourth Generation Thus we may see That the Amalekites could have no other reason to make War against the Israelites than the old Alliance that was formerly made betwixt Amalek and the Canaanites which without doubt engaged his Posterity to be the first Opposers of the establishment of the Israelites in the Land of Canaan Thus we see that the Seditions of the Israelites against Moses under Corah Dathan and Abiram did proceed from the Order of the Birth of the Children of Israel as it is set down in Genesis because the eldest thinking themselves wrong'd of their Birthright thought they might justly Rebel against Moses in order to recover it But I haste to things more material than these And first it is here observable That those Books were not only religiously kept in every Family of Israel but that they were also once solemnly deposited in the Tabernacle as a publick Record and that by Moses himself a little before his death that they might be a Testimony against that People as we read it Deuteronomy XXXI 26. Secondly It cannot be denied that Moses did straightly charge both Joshuah and the Heads of the People to read them frequently and carefully for it is expresly said so Joshua 1.8 Nay we see about 500 years after the holy Man David who had made during his life Psal I. the supream felicity of a man to consist in the reading the Law of God day and night We see I say that holy Man give in his Death-bed the same Charge to Solomon I Kings Thirdly Moreover it is certain that there were many Laws and Sanctions contained in those Books which are the Foundation of the History of succeeding Times And this is the reason why we read nothing in the Book of
Reflexions upon the Book of Genesis That the Facts of the Creation and the Promises of the Messiah are Truths not to be questioned and that the Idea's of this Messiah continued vigorously all the time that preceded the Children of Israel's going out of Egypt We have seen afterwards in the Remarks which I have made upon the Laws which God gave to Moses that it was the great design of God to keep men in the expectation of this Messiah and to take care that they might certainly know him whenever he should appear in the World. I have taken notice in the third part of these Reflexions of the care which God took to give a great number of Oracles to explain particularly all the Characters of this Messiah the Place and Manner of his Birth the principal Circumstances of his Life Death and Resurrection and to foretel the Effusion of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost upon the Gentiles their Call to the Religion of the Messiah and lastly the overthrow of the whole Model of the Jewish Religion and Common-wealth which was no longer of any use after the Coming of the Messiah and the Calling of the Gentiles My present business is now to shew That in the Books of the New Testament we may find an exact accomplishment of this whole Design wherein God had with so much care instructed the World so long before and there is nothing more easie if we will but take a little pains to read these Books attentively and to compare them with the Model which God himself made as we have hitherto described it To make this Truth yet more evident I think it will be necessary to do two or three things which seem to be very important for my present Design And first I am to observe that there appears a most perfect Coherence between the Idea's of the Old Testament and those of the New which is absolutely necessary to shew that there is in these Books a perfect unity of Design notwithstanding the vast difference there is between the Jews who preserve the Old Testament and the Christians who preserve the New. Secondly I am to demonstrate that the Idea's of the Messiah were very strong in the minds of the Jews at the very time that Jesus Christ appeared in the World. This was absolutely necessary that they might not have wherewith to accuse those who received Christ for the Messiah of being deceived in their choice for not having had the exact Idea's of the Messiah which God had promised I shall upon this account shew in the third place That when Jesus Christ did appear in the World the Model which God had framed in the Law of Moses whereby the Messiah might be plainly known did then subsist in the manner wherein God had framed it After this I shall endeavour to shew by prooss which are indeed unquestionable That in examining all the Characters which the Prophets gave by which the Messiah might be known we cannot conceive a more exact execution of God's Design as to the Messiah than that which we find in the Person of Jesus Christ whereof the Books of the New Testament have given us the History Lastly I shall shew clearly that this Model which God had framed in giving the Law and in forming the Common-wealth and Religion of the Jews in so proper a manner to make the Messiah certainly known is not in being at this day but that it was so destroyed by the total Dispersion of that People that we should not be able to know the Messiah if he should now appear again in the World. And that indeed the principal Events which according to the Oracles were to follow the Coming of the Messiah are already come to pass in part and do still come to pass every day I hope to evince these Truths beyond all contest Indeed the bare reading of the Books of the New Testament plainly discovers the Coherence which they have with the Books of the Old. It shews clearly that the Idea's of the Messiah were at that time very strong in the minds of the Jews and it supposeth without any affectation that that Model which God had made so necessary to distinguish the Messiah stood at that time intire In particular It is certain that the four Evangelists by the Relation of unquestionable matters of Fact have proved that Jesus the Son of Mary is the Messiah which God had promised Saint Luke shews in the Acts of the Apostles that after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Effusion of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost the Gospel was preached to the Heathens The Epistles are a natural Consequence of this Vocation of the Heathens and of the abolishing of the Law of Moses which the Apostles had undertaken They unanimously conspire to shew that God had resolved to call the Heathens to partake of Salvation that the Jews for the greatest part should be justly deprived thereof because they obstinately rejected the Messiah Several Questions are examined which arose either from the Calling of the Gentiles or from the abolishing of the Ceremonial Worship The Succession of the History of the Christian Church justifies That after the Destruction of Jerusalem all People imbraced the Religion of Jesus Christ in receiving him for the Messiah whom God had promised to the Patriarchs and to the Jews I shall resume all these Articles one by one in that Natural Order in which I have proposed them REFLEXIONS Upon the BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT To Establish the Truth OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION CHAPTER I. That there appears a very just Connexion bètween the Idea's of the Old Testament and those of the New the latter borrowing light from the former AS it is not much the Character of Romances even then when they are most tyed up to the Rules of Probability to borrow either the Stile or Idea's of those Authors from whom they take their-Subject so I suppose that in this my Undertaking to shew that the New Testament is an exact accomplishment of the Old it is very important to make out that at the first reading of the Gospels and Apostolical Writings one finds in them a perfect conformity of Idea's with the Writings of the Old Testament One may to this purpose observe in general That the Gospel supposeth the Divine Authority of the Book of the Old Testament as an unquestionable Truth The Gospels and Epistles have the same coherence with the Books of the Law and Prophets which the Writings of the latter Prophets have with those of the former and which the Books of all the Prophets together have with the Books of Moses and with the Prophecies Laws and Histories which are contained therein One may take notice afterwards That all the Books of the New Testament have an essential relation to those of the Old in their most principal Designs I have shewed that their design was no other than to raise men to expectations of the Messiah and to paint him to the life whom God
carrying away of the ten Tribes by the Assyrians Thus we see the Truth of these Books and more especially those of Moses confirmed till the time of the revolt of the ten Tribes and confirm'd beyond exception at least far beyond the certainty we can have of the truth of any other Book in the World. It remains only now to examine whether as to the Books of Moses we find not the same certainty when we look back from the departure of the ten Tribes to the time of Moses that is to say whether there be the least probability that they were forged in any part of that interval of about 580 years I say then in the Fourth place that it is no less ridiculous to suppose them forged during that period First because it is impossible that these Books should have been forged in the form we now see them but that the Forgery must have been apparent to all the World. Nothing could be more notorious than whether the Jews did read the Law of Moses every Sabbath day in all their Families or Synagogues and every Seventh year besides Nothing was of more easie observation than whether they did keep their three solemn Feasts viz. that of the Passover Pentecost and of Tabernacles Nothing could be more apparent than whether the Jews did obey the Laws contained in the Pentateuch whether relating to particular persons to Tribes or their Lands and the manner of possessing of them Indeed nothing can be imagin'd more absurd than to suppose an insensible change wrought either in in the Form of their Civil Government or the Ceremonies of their Religion Indeed it is an unsufferable peice of boldness to charge the Jews with forging these Books of Moses or adulterating of them in this period of time when it appears they have kept them without any alteration for the space of 2700 years as hath been shewed already If it be said that the Jews being divided into two Kingdomes and dispersed into distant Countreys were not in a condition to forge or adulterate any of the said Books because it might easily have been discovered it may be answered that the same reasons took place in this interval of 580 years for from the time of Moses to Rehoboam they were not only greatly divided amongst themselves but almost continually subject to neighbouring States who subdued them by turns as we see in the Book of Judges Moreover we are to take notice First that these Books of Moses are the rise and foundation of the Laws and Customes of the Heathens as well as of their Fictions which we shall have occasion to point at in the sequel of this Discourse Secondly That the History contained in the Pentateuch is evidently confirm'd by the following Books of Joshuah and Judges which have an essential reference to the same and contain a relation of the publick acts of many Nations attested and acknowledged by Heathen Authors who were the mortal Enemies of the Jews Thirdly That the said Books are so closely link'd and related to those publick and known actions that it is impossible to separate the Laws they contain from the Matters of fact attested by Pagan History or to be ignorant that the Form of the Jewish Government was nothing else but an execution of the Laws contained in the Pentateuch which equally lays down that Platform of their Policy and worship My business at present only is to hint these general Reflexions concerning the Truth of the Books of the Old and New Testament tho the sequel will oblige me to make some more particular Reflexions upon each Book when I shall come to consider the several Relations they contain I now come to the Matter in hand beginning with the Book of Genesis where we find an account of the Creation of the World the Forming of Man the Fall the Promise of the Messiah the Propagation of Mankind the Deluge with other Matters until the Death of Joseph which contains the History of the World for the space of 2369 years CHAP. IV. That the Testimony of Moses concerning the Creation of the World and the Promise of the Messiah is unquestionable FOrasmuch as amongst those Matters which Moses relates in the Book of Genesis that of the Creation of the World in seven days and of the Promise of the Messiah are such upon which all the rest do depend as I shall shew hereafter it is evident that I must make it my business in a special manner to evince the truth of the same Towards the confirmation of which matters of fact the one of which is that God Created a first Man the other that God hath promised in due time to send the Messiah for Redemption of Mankind from the punishment of sin I shall propose these following Remarks Moses the great Law-giver of the Jews laid these two Matters of Fact as the Basis of the Laws he was to publish and he relates them to us as things which were not only known to him and some others of the Jewish Nation but to all the People of the World and particularly the whole Nation amongst whom he lived To understand the force of this Argument we must mind three things the First is the Nature of the Matters themselves the other is the Character of him that relates them and the third the use Moses makes of them For the first nothing was more needful to be known than these two things before us they were Matters which concern the whole World and of which every one ought to be informed they are Matters about which it is not easie to be deceived every one being in a condition to satisfie himself about them and of which consequently they could not but be most throughly informed I dare maintain that there are no Facts in prophane History of importance comparable to these of the Creation of the World and the Promise of the Messiah as Moses has related them 2. And as for the Author who relates these points it is as plain that his Character did wonderfully contribute to the making of his Book famous He was a Man Illustrious as well by reason of his Education as the Rank he held amongst Men a Man equally expos'd to the Judgment of Enemies and Friends and who could not vent theleast thing contrary to truth in Matters of great importance without seeing himself immediately refuted or rather without exposing himself to publick scorn Besides I aver and am ready to maintain that we find no Author of so illustrious a Character as Moses was or who is distinguish'd with so many essential marks of Faithfulness and Veracity as appears throughout the whole Tenour of his Writings 3. This will appear more evidently when we consider the use to which Moses designs these two Relations of the Creation of the World and the Promise of the Messiah In a word his design was not in furnishing his Books with the Recitals of these important Facts to engage others to read them with more attention or to
prescrib'd to them in the other Books of Moses but the occasion and ground of them all is no where to be found but in Genesis to which all these Laws have a natural Relation The Second is That the Book of Genesis taking for granted that the Posterity of Abraham as well as his Ancestors had always observ'd the Sabbath and Circumcision and the Books of Moses ordering the same to be constantly read in every Family to which the Sabbath day was more peculiarly appropriated and the whole to be read over every seventh year as we know the Jews practice was according to the Law of Moses the first of which Injunctions they practice still in all places and have left off the other only because they cannot do it now they are out of their own Land I say supposing all this it is absolutely impossible that any other than Moses could have made this Book to be received The forgery at the beginning would have been palpable even to Children themselves As for Example let us suppose that Solomon had form'd a design of deceiving the People in publishing the Book of Genesis for a Book of Moses Is it possible he should so far impose on his People as to make them to receive the said Book all at once as that which had been constantly read in their Families every seventh day and year and that for 600 years before his time and therefore as a Book that had been so long in all their Families tho' indeed it was never heard of by them before that time If an Impostor can create a Belief in others that he hath some secret Communication with the Deity those who are thus perswaded by him will easily submit themselves to his Laws but it is absolutely impossible that a whole People should all at once forget whatsoever they have learn'd or heard of their Parents and Fore-Fathers and instead thereof admit of Tales forged at pleasure Some Nations have been so ridiculous to derive themselves from a Fabulous Original but they never fell into such Mistakes about those things which were at no great distance from the time in which they lived Besides we know that these Fabulous Originals never made so lively an impression upon the Minds of a whole Nations especially the Learned amongst them as generally to be believed but we rather find that they have endeavoured to reconcile them to truth by shewing something else was hinted thereby as we may see by the Explication the Heathens themselves have given us of all their Fables and utterly rejected those which they could not reconcile to good sense But in this case we find a whole Nation to this very day maintaining all the Matters of Fact related in Genesis and in particular that of the Creation as of Matters whose Memorial they have constantly celebrated every seventh day since the time they first happened Lastly It cannot be deny'd but that this Book was constantly used to be read amongst the Jews especially on the Sabbath day and that under the Name of Moses For instance since the time of Jesus Christ or since that of David Neither can it be denied but this constant reading was observ'd by virtue of a Law contain'd in the said Book Now if this Law has always been in this Book from the first appearing of it which cannot be question'd how was it possible to forge and foist in this Book under the Name of Moses the Founder of the Jewish Government I say this Book which besides all this contains such extraordinary Matters and is the very Foundation of all their Religion I will not repeat here what I mention'd in the third Chapter to make the Vanity of those Men appear who imagine the Book of Genesis and the four that follow it might have been forged by others under Moses his Name Yet I think I ought before I proceed further to remove a seeming difficulty which is often alledg'd by this sort of People For say they it cannot be that these Books were ever read with that care and constancy we speak of because a time can be pointed at wherein the said Book was wholly unknown in the Kingdom of Judah and indeed the History plainly informs us that the Book of the Law was found again in the Reign of Josias from whence they infer that if it were then unknown it might as well be forged But indeed they may conclude from hence that which willingly we allow them that there was a time wherein Ungodliness did prevail and Idolatry was publickly establish'd in the Kingdom of Judah it self yet can they not from this instance draw any other Consequence which might support their pretensions They must needs acknowledge first that the Books of Moses were not only amongst the three Tribes but also amongst the ten since the time of their Revolt under Rehoboam that they who were carried by Salmanassar into the Land of Assyria had the said Books amongst them as well as those of the ten Tribes who were left in their own Countrey Thus we see that when the King of Assyria sent some of the Priests of Samaria to instruct the Colony which he had setled in their Countrey in the Law of God it is not said that those Priests went to borrow the Law of Moses from them of Judah nor that the said Laws was altogether unknown in that Countrey but only that they had formerly violated the Law of God in serving strange Gods as they still did but that withal they kept the Law of God which to this day is yet found among their Posterity Secondly It is evident that tho the wickedness and violence of Manasseh caused a great change in Matters of Religion yet not so great but that his Subjects notwithstanding had still the Books of Moses amongst them the Blood which he shed in Jerusalem was an evident sign that there were some Godly men left amongst them who continued true to their Religion and observed the Laws of God. Besides if we consider his Repentance we must conclude that towards the end of his Reign he did in some degree re-establish the purity of that Religion he had before prophaned a main part of which was the expounding and reading of the Books of Moses according to those Laws before mention'd In the third place it is visible that the reason why Hilkiah having found the Book of the Law in the Temple as they were cleansing and repairing it sent the same to Josiah was not because there was no other such Book left in Judah but because the said Book being written by the hand of Moses himself there seem'd to be something very extraordinary in the finding of it at that very time when they were endeavouring a Reformation and it was this Circumstance which did in a more particular manner excite the Zeal of this good Prince And indeed if we suppose that Josiah had never before seen the Book of the Law how could he have apply'd himself to the reforming of his
relyed upon in matter of Belief yet this hath such very particular Characters as keep up its own authority First it supposeth a small number of persons from Adam to Moses who put it in Writing Secondly It supposeth that those who have preserved this Tradition lived very long and for the most part for many Centuries of Years Thirdly It relates to such Facts as every one is desirous to be rightly inform'd of and which he is particularly concern'd to examine as relating to his own private Interest because they are the Principles of his Actions and the rules of his Conduct both in Civil and Religious Matters Fourthly it supposeth such real Marks as served to keep it up such as the pains of Child-bearing the Paradise before the Flood the duration of the Ark after the Flood Fifthly It supposeth a Publick Service and Worship whose Celebration is repeated fifty two times a year that the remembrance of it should be preserved by all Posterity Sixthly It was preserved entire by passing from Father to Son and we know that Fathers or Mothers do not naturally engage in a Design of deceiving their Children Seventhly It supposeth strange Controversies betwixt Brothers the Elder having almost all been excluded and the younger as Abel Seth Abraham Isaac Jacob Juda chosen to accomplish the Promise of the Messiah which bred great Jealousies and tended much to preserve those Ideas of the truth Lastly It supposeth great Contests betwixt whole Nations who all strove one with another for the advantage of being the Heirs of the Promise and Depositaries of those Verities as the Moabites for instance the Ammonites the Ishmaelites the Edomites and the Jews each of them pretending to a preference before the others by God himself and so making it a matter of Credit and Honour to themselves All these Characters contribute to the distinct preservation of the knowledge of any truth CHAP. XVIII An Explication of Moses 's way of Writing where it is shew'd that in writing the Book of Genesis he mentioned nothing but what was then generally known THis is a truth which at first I took for granted and afterwards proved it the reasons whereof I explained particularly as I went on But it ought to be fixed as solidly as the Matter will bear because it often happens that those who do not foresee the Consequences which may be drawn from the contrary Opinion do contradict it before they are aware of it and that too under pretence of exalting the Divine Authority of the Book of Genesis which gives occasion to the Atheists to look upon it no otherwise than as learned Men do on the greatest part of Legends The Prophetical Spirit acts in two manners The First is by way of Revelation in respect of those things the Prophet hath no knowledge of Thus the Evangelist St. John hath foretold those Events which we read of in the Revelations For those Events being all hidden under the shadows of Futurity it was impossible for him to have foretold them unless the Spirit of God had immediately revealed them to him The Second is by way of direction in respect of those things with which the Prophet was himself acquainted either because he was an Eye-Witness of them himself or because he learnt them from those who were so Now this direction of the Spirit consists in the guiding the Prophets so as that he may write of his Subject just as it was either spoken or done Thus the Evangelists St. Matthew and St. John drew up an Abridgment of those Sermons of our Saviour which they had heard and of those Miracles which they had seen And thus St. Luke and St. Mark have written of those things which they had heard from those that were Eye-Witnesses of them as St. Luke particularly tells us Now I affirm that when Moses wrote the Book of Genesis he had only the second sort of Prophetical Influences and not the first Although in our Disputes against Atheists to convince them by Arguments from Matters of Fact we may consider him only as an Historian who might have written his Book without any other particular direction and might have preserved in it the memory of those ancient Events which were then generally known Now what side soever Divines may take in their Disputes against the Atheists I may easily establish my Assertion First because it is not necessary to suppose an entire Revelation where Tradition being distinct enough is sufficient to preserve a clear Remembrance of all those Facts Now it cannot be denied but that the Tradition concerning the Creation and the Promise of the Messiah was of this nature especially if we consider the little Extent of it and the immediate Succession of Moses's Ancestors down to himself Secondly If Abraham's and Jacob's Travels through so many places were as I have observed already very useful to give them a further view of the common belief of all the several Nations descended from Noah and of their agreement in this Tradition it were unjust to suppose that Moses's forty years sojourning in the Country of Midian and that too when he was forty years old and consequently had that ripeness of Age and Judgment as is fittest for such Observations did not serve to acquaint him with the several Passages he records of Abraham as well as of the several Divisions of his Posterity Thirdly We may observe in the Book of Genesis a way of writing very different from that which we see in the greatest part of Exodus and in the following Books for whereas God speaks to him in those latter Books which he always did vivâ voce And the Jews have wisely observed that herein consisted Moses's advantage above the other Prophets to whom God was used to speak only in Dreams and Visions He uses commonly those words And the Lord spake unto me He marks out the place where God spoke to him as well as the time and occasion of God's speaking to him which he do's not in his Book of Genesis Fourthly The Book of Genesis is not divided into several Revelations as all Prophecies are wherein the several returns of the Holy Spirit of God are all exactly set down which was absolutely necessary not only to ease the Reader who might be tired if he was to carry a long Series of Predictions in his mind at once as if it were only one single Vision or Revelation but also to condescend to the nature of the minds of men For according to the Rules of probability we cannot suppose them to be filled with so many differing Idea's at the same time but a great confusion must necessarily follow But supposing that these Observations should be thought insufficient yet those that follow will seem capable of convincing the minds of all There are in the Book of Genesis certain Characters of its being written in that way which I spake of First one needs only just look into that Book and he will see that the ancientest Facts which are those of
little more than forty years interval betwixt the Conquest of Canaan by Joshua and the Bondage of the Israelites under the Neighbouring Nations Had it not been a fit time then to cast off the Yoak of Moses's Laws and to publish the pretended Lies and Impostures of his History Was not the Comparison which the Israelites could easily make betwixt the Mosaick Writings and the Tradition generally received in the Countrey of their Captivity a natural and ready means to undeceive them Yet notwithstanding all this we see that they obstinately entertain the belief of the several Transactions recorded by Moses and stand firmly to all their Pretensions Nay we see them have recourse to the Remedy of Repentance which Moses prescribed them to use in those sad Misfortunes which he foretold should befal them and out of which he promis'd at the same time that God would miraculously deliver them which indeed was done accordingly even fourteen times within less than four hundred years as is manifest from the Book of Judges Can there then be a more pregnant Argument that if Moses made it Death by one of his Sanctions for any of the Israelites to contest the truth either of his Writings or of his Oracles and Miracles it was not to force the belief of them without examination but rather only to prevent the corruption of that People and their mingling and confounding themselves with the Heathens which God intended to hinder on purpose because he would have the Messiah to be born according to his Promise out of that Nation which to effect he thought fit in his infinâ—â—e Wisdom to employ the rigour of some Capital Laws to keep that people unmixt and distinguish'd from all other Nations of the World till the Messiah was born CHAP. XXII The Consequences of what we have proved in our foregoing Observations upon the Book of Genesis THese several Observations which I have made upon the Book of Genesis are all I think very natural and easie and if I am not mistaken sufficient to prove solidly the truth of Moses's Account of the Creation of the World and of the Promise of the Messiah which is the foundation of the Christian Religion The Conclusion that I draw out of the Premises is That First I assert that Moses that famous Hebrew who was design'd to be the Heir of Pharaoh's Daughter is the true and sole Author of the Book of Genesis Secondly I maintain that this being once granted he could not according to his way of Writing record those important Transactions he relates otherwise than they really came to pass Thirdly I maintain that tho he had not been an Eye Witness of the Creation of the World yet he hath made the Description of it according to such an Authentick Tradition as cannot be reasonably doubted of because it was then the Universal Tradition not only of the Moabites of the Ammonites of the Ishmaelites and of the Edomites who were all of Sem's Posterity and amongst whom he had been travelling for forty years together but also of the Egyptians of his own People and in a word of all Men then living in the World. Fourthly I maintain that he never was found fault with nor contradicted till true Reason and Sence if I may say so was lost and banish'd from amongst Mankind till the Egyptians for example they who used before to look upon the Greeks as meer Children and Ideots were fallen into so great a Stupidity and Deprivation of Sence as to believe and maintain that Men were first born in Egypt because forsooth Frogs did naturally as they thought breed out of their Muddy Fenns and Marshes Fifthly I maintain that for many Ages after Moses no body did ever publickly declare for the Eternity of the World nor yet for its Fortuitous Production These Opinions are meer Absurdities and Chimeras brought forth into the World by the Chaldeans and Greeks only about Alexander's time or perhaps an hundred years before him i. e. about eleven or twelve hundred years after Moses's Decease Sixthly I maintain that seeing there is no particular time to be found wherein the reading of the Law was interrupted and discontinued for any considerable time amongst the Jews seeing it continues still to this very hour amongst them every Sabbath day in the several places of the World wherein they are dispersed and seeing besides that it is certain that this Law which enjoyns the Observation of the Sabbath in remembrance of the Creation could never be imposed upon them without their perceiving and declaring presently the Novelty and Supposition of that Account and consequently of the Book wherein it is related Seeing all this is certain I do positively maintain that the truth of the Creation can never be better proved than it is by the Book of Genesis because in it Moses hath followed the Tradition of all the Ages that preceded him and only recorded in Writing what was then generally known of all Men in the World and that in a time when every Man was able to run his own Pedigree up to Adam Lastly I maintain that as the certainty of the Creation cannot reasonably be doubted of without rejecting at the same time all those Proofs from Facts which I have brought to strengthen my Assertion So there is all the reason in the World to entertain the belief of it as of a matter of Fact which is indisputable As being Related by the most Ancient Historian Confirmed by the most Ancient Tradition Believed by the most Ancient People of the World who did not only believe it but also had always had according to God's Command the Memory of it Celebrated amongst them and their Ancestors in all their Generations fifty two times in a Year from the very beginning of the World. REFLEXIONS Upon the Four Last BOOKS OF MOSES To Establish the TRUTH OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION PREFACE WHen I began at first these Reflexions upon the Book of Genesis I design'd only to demonstrate the certainty of the Creation of the first Man and so to shew by Arguments from matters of Fact that neither the Creation of the World nor yet the Promise of the Messiah which God made to Man after his sin can reasonably be disputed or doubted of I design'd after that to establish the truth of Christ's Resurrection by such another undeniable Argument viz. by shewing that the Apostles were Eye Witnesses of it and instituted a solemn Day in every Week to celebrate and perpetuate the Memory of it amongst Men from their time down to the end of the World. And this I thought was sufficient to demonstrate the truth of the Christian Religion For as the Jews by the continual Celebration of the Sabbath every Week could easily run back to the Creation of the World which was the occasion of the Institution of the Sabbath so the Christians may by the Weekly Observation of the Lord's day prove Christ's Resurrection which occasioned the Institution of the Lord's day If we consider the
any thing to them as we see it Deuteronomy IV. 2. It is then impossible seeing that the whole people of the Jews have always acknowledged the Divine Authority of those Books that they should ever have attempted the alteration of any thing in them Nay we see not without wonder that after the greatest part of the ten Tribes of Israel were transported into Assyria those that were sent from Assyria to inhabit their Countrey did receive that Law and that their Posterity have kept it all along to this day as uncorrupted as the Jews altho' they continue their Mortal Enemies and have been exposed to all the Changes and Revolutions that can befal a Nation during the long interval of 2400 years The Third Observation which deserves a singular Attention is That notwithstanding the great and many Corruptions which the Common-Wealth of Israel fell into yet these Books have still been kept up in the same form that we have them now It appears out of the History of Josiah related 2 Kings XXIII 21. That after the Book of the Law of Moses own writing was found in the Temple the King commanded all the People to keep the Passover unto the Lord as it is written in the Book of this Covenant Now we have the Institution of the Passover Exod. XII which shews that Josiah by the Book of this Covenant meant the Books of Moses such as we have them now adays and such as they were when Moses deposited them into the Sanctuary It is important to consider well all that is related in the forementioned Chapter of II Kings for we may gather out of it that it was according to the Directions of this Law that they began to reform all the Superstitions and Idolatries which had been introduced in their Religion and countenanced by the Royal Authority from Solomon's time to Josiah this Chapter relates and commends the proceeding of Josiah only in opposition to the ill government of his Predecessors and to the publick Monuments of their Superstitions which he abolished in obedience to God's Laws contained in the Books of Moses However it is certain that it was no easie matter to impose herein upon Posterity For First The Transactions recorded in the Books of Moses did not only relate to the People of Israel but also to most of the Neighbouring Nations Secondly The Memory of them continued so lively and universal that almost 1500 years after Moses the Names of those Magicians spoken of Exod. VII 11. were as yet known not only amongst the Jews as we see it by an express Passage of S. Paul who speaks of them Hist Nat. l. 30. c. 1. and mentioneth their Names 2 Tim. III. 8. but also among the Heathens as both Pliny and Numenius do attest it I point only at those general Proofs at present because I have already made use of them and shew'd their force in my Observations upon Genesis and because I intend to repeat and improve some of them hereafter in this Treatise But now in order to follow my present design I must come to the more particular Consideration of the things contained in these Books which will much conduce to the Confirmation of the same Truth CHAP. II. That both the Character of Moses 's Person and the nature of the things he relates has always made men read his Books with attention The Subject of some Books is such as that alone would recommend them to the attention of any Reader tho' their Author had no reputation in the World but when besides the importance of their Subject the Author of them is famous and of great repute then to be sure they never fail to be read with serious attention and preserved with as great a care The Books of Moses have both these advantages so that they cannot reasonably be suspected of the least alteration or Forgery The first Character that we discover in these Books at the first viewing of them is the great singularity and admirable diversity of their Stile and of the Matters they treat of We do not see that other Legislators did ever affect to act the parts of Historians no they content themselves with their absolute power to make Laws without giving any reason for the Sanction of them Therefore we see that there is commonly nothing more dry and sapless than all their Regulations about both Civil and Religious Matters But Moses we see hath followed a more reasonable and more satisfactory method all his Regulations are grounded upon the great Transactions which he relates he enacts no Law of any consequence but he intimates to the Jews at the same time the Reasons which challenge their Obedience and makes them by that means reflect both upon the several Mercies of God bestowed upon them and call to mind the great Miracles they had been eye witnesses of I confess indeed that the use and scope of some of his Regulations is very abstruse especially now that we are ignorant of the several Heathen Customs which God design'd to abolish from among that People newly come out of Egypt where during their Captivity they had complied and accustomed themselves in a great measure to the Rites and Religion of their Masters the Egyptians But yet how abstruse soever the design of some of those Laws may now appear to be We have good ground to affirm that the general scope of them all was to keep that People from Idolatry in distinguishing them from all other Nations as also to quicken their Desires and Expectations of the Messiah the Promise of whose coming had been made by God in the very beginning of the World and renewed several times to the Heads of their Nation However we see in the Books of those Laws Religion and Policy so interwoven together that the latter seems to subsist only by the support and assistance of the former which is contrary to the custom of human Legislators who do not so much regard the establishment of Religion as the preservation and welfare of the State and Common-wealth If any Jew had a mind to be informed about the Tradition of his Ancestors and the transactions of old Moses hath preserved it with such care with so many marks of Fidelity and so clear and plain that there is no other History besides his that can give any satisfactory Information about the Original of things All the Fables of the Heathens which yet make up the most ancient Tradition they have being nothing else but a corruption and depravation of the several Truths that Moses relates in his History If any Jew desired to see the beginnings of that Common wealth of which he was a Member Moses gives an accurate account of them If any Jew desired to know the Original of Mankind or what was the true happiness of Man and what he ought to do in order to be a partaker of that happiness Moses teaches all that with great evidence and exactness If any Jew had a mind to know the occasion of
that Alexander preserved them in the Enjoyment of their Rights and Liberties as they enjoyed them under the Kings of Persia and in particular exempted them from paying any Tribute every seventh year because then they did not sow their Ground and consequently could not reap And if we find that Ptolemy took Jerusalem on a Sabbath day the Jews making Conscience of defending themselves because the Law required their ceasing from all work from whence Agatharcides an Heathen Author takes occasion to blame their Law if we find him carrying a great number of Jews with him into Egypt yet withal we find him treating them with as much kindness as the Macedonians themselves appointing distinct places in Egypt and Lybia for their Habitation If we find that powerful Princes such as Antiochus Epiphanes and some others of his Successors broke the power of the Jews prophaned their Temple and forc'd great numbers of them to abjure their Religion yet we see them also at the same time giving the highest instances of an immoveable constancy and courage in defence of their Law and in enduring the most exquisite Tortures we see others of them encouraged with the love of their Country as well as Religion putting themselves into a posture of defence purifying the Temple and celebrating a Festival which is observed even at this day and lastly obtaining favourable Treaties at the hands of their Enemies as may be seen in the Books of the Maccabees and in the Twelfth Book of Josephus his Antiquities yea we find their name and glory at that time spread as far as Lacaedemon with which Common-wealth they made an Alliance during the High-Priesthood of Onias One see 's them after this so considerable under the Successor of Antiochus their Persecutor that even those Kings sue for their Alliance with great presents One see 's that Ptolomy Philometor granted to Onias the Son leave to build a Temple in Egypt for the convenience of those Jews whom Ptolomy the Son of Lagus had carried thither as well as for those who left their Country for the oppression of the Seleucidae for Judea being situate between Syria and Egypt was ordinarily the Theatre of War between those two States 'T is here worth our noting That the Jews undertook the building of the Temple in Egypt as thinking themselves authoriz'd by that Prophecy Isai XIX 24. it being a thing otherwise forbid by the Law. One sees in the same Prince's Reign a great contest between the Samaritans and the Jews about the pre-eminence of their Temples at Jerusalem and Mount Garizim decided by him in favour of the Jews on which occasion the Jews shewed that Prince their Law and acquainted him with the Series of their History to confute the Samaritans pretensions One see 's after this when the Jews had conferred the Soveraignty and High-Priesthood on Simon that their State became so powerful that under Hyrcanus his Successor they were in a condition to attacque their Enemies in Syria and compel the Edomites to admit Circumcision Aristobulus his Son was crowned his Brother succeeded him in the Royal Dignity and left the State in a flourishing condition notwithstanding the Civil and Foreign Wars he was engaged in We find afterwards That the intestine Divisions among the Successors of those Jewish Princes did by degrees open a gap for foreign power to enter and prevail over them Pompey siding with Hyrcanus took Jerusalem and made the Jews tributary to the Romans but without changing any thing in their Religion Julius Caesar a while after bestowed the Kingdom of Judaea upon Herod the Edomite Augustus after him used the Jews with the same Equity as Pompey before him had done as appears from one of his Declarations publish'd in favour of the Jews of Egypt and Asia recorded by Josephus This Herod and Augustus are the same under whom our Saviour Jesus Christ was born It is evident therefore That the State of the Jews has continued distinct from other Nations and sufficiently known from the time of the Prophet Malachy until Herod We may also truly assert That whatever inclination the Jews of old had for the Idolatries of their Neighbours yet we don't find them given that way during this interval between the last of their Prophets and Herod as if the charge and command of that Prophet Malachy had always sounded in their Ears Mal. IV. verse 4. Remember the Law of Moses my Servant c. One see 's that the Jews under the Maccabees in great numbers suffered Martyrdom rather than abjure their Religion and that they observed the Ceremonial Law with all carefulness of which Augustus himself was witness One see 's that under Strangers and Heathen Kings they exempted themselves from answering any Suit at Law on the Sabbath day from paying Tribute the seventh Year and preserving the Rights and Priviledges of their Temple in spight of all opposition Lastly one finds them during Herod's Government supported by the favour of the Roman Empire in refusing to set up the Emperour's Trophees for fear least some Images might be hid under them which they looked upon as a Crime against their Law. I am not ignorant that since Malachy some Heresies sprung up among the Jews their Commerce with the Greeks who applyed themselves to Philosophical Speculations having contributed to make them much more Disputacious than they were before The Authority likewise of their Kings who were High-Priests also may have had a great stroke in blemishing the Purity of their Religion But yet the Disputes which we find amongst them as that of the Fatality of Events did not at all touch the Substance of their Religion They no sooner found the Spirit of Epicurisme to creep in amongst them but they framed such additions to their publick Liturgy as they thought most proper to eradicate or at least condemn that Corruption I confess also that the Pharisees and Doctors of their Law had greatly alter'd their Morality in making their own Explications by the great Authority which they had amongst the People to pass for Authentick but yet this change and corruption in their Morals as to practice did not go so far as to abolish the Laws themselves which were only wrested from their true meaning This was indeed a great Corruption but not such a one as could make it to be no more the same Religion So that we may boldly assert which is a thing very important to our present purpose That the State and Religion of the Jews have continued sufficiently entire till the time of the appearing of the Messiah in the World for their preserving of whatsoever was necessary viz. as well the Books of the Old Testament as the knowledge of those Oracles which foretold the coming of the Messiah together with the Knowledge of these Principles according to which the Prophets have spoken in their Predictions concerning him REFLEXIONS Upon the BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT To Confirm the TRUTH OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION THE PREFACE I Have shewn in my
suppose if Jesus Christ had not been raised from the dead and they had not seen him after his death that they should have had any concern for his Glory they would certainly have condemned and anathematiz'd him as an Impostor who by means of some false Miracles and an affected Holiness had abused them Whereas indeed we find that they defended the Glory of Jesus Christ with so much heat and that with so constant a Testimony to his Resurrection that they exposed themselves to all manner of Reproaches to all sorts of Punishment and most cruel Deaths to confirm the belief of that Fact. They despise the Anathema's of the Jewish Synagogue they contemn their publick Obloquies they value not the hatred of their whole Nation They preach this crucified Person in Judea they preach him also in other Countries that he might be equally adored by Jews and Heathens They leave their Employments to follow this Jesus and after they had accompanied him three years they depart from Judea to go and confound the Idolatry of the world and within Rome it self to decry the Gods they worshipt obliging them to acknowledge him whom the men of Jerusalem had crucified for their God him who had been the detestation of the Jews him whom the Roman Magistrate had given up to their Fury in making him undergo the punishment appointed for Slaves Lastly One ought to observe it as a thing of great weight in this whole Question That this Testimony of the Apostles which is so uniform so solemn so well confirmed by all manner of means and sealed with their deaths is not contested or contradicted by any Historian of that time There was nothing more easie either for Jews or Gentiles than to convince the World of the falshood of the Facts related in the Gospel they had the Books of the Apostles in their hands they were Masters of the publick Records it was a matter of general Concernment to the Jews to oppose themselves to an imposture of so terrible a consequence as the History of the Evangelists was if it had been entirely false neither was it less the interest of the Romans to expose a Sect of whom Pliny the younger tells us that all sorts of People joyned with them tho' they were persecuted with incredible violence In the mean time we find no body that hath contradicted the Relation of the Apostles nor any Author that has writ against Jesus Christ or his Apostles A long time after indeed there was a Book seen call'd The Acts of Pilate published by the Order of the Emperour Maximian which endeavoured to overthrow the truth of the Facts that are related in the Gospels but those Acts are contradicted by all the Heathen Historians yet remaining that were contemporay with the Apostles Finally a vast number of Jews and Gentiles were immediately convinced by the Authority of the Apostles and a Belief in the Gospel hath passed from Judea to the Ends of the World according to the Predictions which God gave by the Ministry of the Prophets and by the mouth of our Saviour CHAP. XIX More Reasons to manifest the faithfulness of the Apostles WHat I have already alledged might be sufficient to establish the faithfulness of the Apostles but for a fuller conviction of the Reader concerning so weighty a truth of our Religion I shall superadd some few more Reflexions First of all It cannot be deny'd that the form of the Writings of the New Testament is vastly different from those which may be suspected as Forgeries When the four Evangelists had related the miraculous Birth of John the Baptist they next set down that of our Saviour Christ with the Actions of his Life until his Death which does not comprehend above four or five years S. Luke writes the History of the Apostles and in particular that of S. Paul and takes in only the space of about Thirty years Now let any one judge whether they who confine themselves to so narrow limits in respect of time place and persons have any design to impose The remainder of these Books is composed of two sorts of Writings one Epistolary and the other Prophetical For the Prophetical parts time must prove the truth of the Predictions which are contained in the Apocalyps as well as of those which are found in some of the Epistles of the Apostles As for the Epistles besides some Moral Instructions they are almost all employ'd in deciding some questions which the Calling of the Gentiles to the Gospel and the abolishing of the Ceremonial Law had raised in the minds of the Jews who were converted to Christianity We know that of all Writings Epistles are the most certain Monuments and those which men endeavour to forge least After all It is certain that the Sacred Writers have with great care set down the time in which every Event happened as well according to the stile of the Jews in pointing out to us their solemn Feasts as that of the Gentiles by setting down the year of the Roman Emperour and the Character of the Roman Magistrates A second Character which hinders us from accusing these Books as Forgeries is this That we cannot deny but that these Books are of a very particular nature they contain several considerable Oracles which were to be fulfilled in the same Generation as that of the Prophecies of Nebuchadnezzar and Croesus a continued Series of Miracles of which all Judea was witness they contain a great number of Sermons preached upon several illustrious Occasions in the Synagogues in the Temple of Jerusalem and before thousands of People in the Wilderness Let any one judge whether it would be an easie thing to make these Writings to be received if we should suppose them to be lately forged This third Reflexion is also considerable It is certain that the Gospel was preached in the greatest Cities of the Empire by the Apostles and the Disciples of Jesus The History of the Apostles and their Epistles themselves make it evident that there were numerous Churches at Rome Corinth Thessalonica Philippi Ephesus Antioch and in several other famous places It is also known that there were Jewish Synagogues in the same places now if this be the Case what possibility is there of suspecting the least imposture in the Books of the Apostles if we consider how they were drawn up The Disciples of Christ did not only preach in the Synagogues the same things which they have put in writing but they also engaged the Jews to examine them because they affirmed them with a constancy which the Jews could not but look upon as incredible obstinacy First of all That these were things beyond dispute and could not be doubted of Secondly That they had been long since foretold by the Prophets Thirdly That they were an exact accomplishment of other Prophecies which had relation to the promised Messiah Fourthly That seeing they could not question the Facts contained in the Gospel they ought to renounce Judaism to receive Baptism and
last Objection of Atheists is answered 120 Chap. 22. The Consequences of what we have proved in our foregoing Observations upon the Book of Genesis 126 The Contents of the Chapters of the Second Part of the First Volume Chap. 1. THat it cannot reasonably be doubted but that Moses is the Author of Exodus and of the three other following Books Page 137 Chap. 2. That both the Character of Moses 's person and the nature of the things he relates has always made Men read his Books with attention 146 Chap. 3. That the truth of the Miracles related by Moses cannot reasonably be doubted of 153 Chap. 4. A Continuation of the proofs of the truth of the Miracles wrought by Moses 158 Chap. 5. That Moses 's Description of the manner of God's giving him his Laws is evidently true 164 Chap. 6. Some other proofs that confirm Moses 's Description of the manner how the Law was given and promulgated 169 Chap. 7. That there is no just Exception can be made against Moses 's History in what relates to the Oracles which he hath recorded in his Books 173 Chap. 8. That the Testimony of the Jews is a constant proof of the truth of the Oracles related by Moses 177 Chap. 9. That it appears by the nature of his Relations that Moses had the Messias in view when he wrote the Book of Genesis 180 Chap. 10. That the same perswasion appears throughout the whole Conduct of Moses until his Death 185 Chap. 11. That Balaam 's prophesie which Moses relates is a further Argument of the same perswasion in him 188 Chap. 12. That one may see also in Moses 's Law plain Footsteps of God's Design in distinguishing these from whom he would have the Messiah to be Born. 194 Chap. 13. That the manner of God's promulgating his Law amongst the Israelites did much conduce to the distinguishing them from all other Nations 200 Chap. 14. That God seems to have designed to keep up a Spirit of Jealousie in the very Bosom of the Jewish Nation 206 Chap. 15. That Circumcision was a means of distinguishing the Israelites from other Nations 212 Chap. 16. That the Law of Moses engaged the Jews to the study of their Genealogies that they might certainly know that of the Messiah 219 Chap. 17. A Solution of some Difficulties in these Genealogies 223 Chap. 18. That the manner whereby the Law of Moses fixed the people of Israel to the Land of Canaan was to keep them separated from other Nations 228 Chap. 19. That the Law tied the people of Israel to the Land of Canaan and by several other means established the distinction betwixt Tribes and Families amongst them 234 Chap. 20. That the Laws which Moses made coneerning the state of Virginity did principally relate also to the Messiah which holds also as to several other Laws 241 Chap. 21. That it was the design of God by all these Ceremonies and particularly by that Veneration which he inspired the Jews with for the Tabernacle to preserve the Idea's of the Messiah whom he had promised in their minds by distinguishing them from all other Nations 249 Chap. 22. That it appears by the Books of Moses that this whole Model which God had framed was to last but until the coming of the Messiah 256 To the Courteous Reader THE Errata's are so small that they will not disturb the sense any where and so few that we need not trouble the Reader with a Table of them And therefore hope he will take such inconsiderable pains upon himself and excuse the Author REFLEXIONS UPON THE BOOKS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE For the Establishing of the Truth OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION CHAPTER I. Concerning the Fundamentals of the Christian Religion WE are to consider three things in the Christian Religion the Matters of Fact it propounds to us for true the Promises it affords us and the Worship it commands The Matters of Fact it propounds to us as true are that God created the World that he formed the first Man from whom the rest of mankind have been propagated that a while after this Man was created he violated the Law God had given him and that whereas he deserved to have perished for this his disobedience God was pleased instead thereof to comfort him with the hopes of a Saviour which was to be born of the Seed of his Wife that God hath actually sent this Saviour into the World which comprehends the whole Oeconomy of Christ viz. His Birth Life Preaching Miracles Death Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven c. The Promises it vouchsafes are the forgiveness of our Sins the Resurrection of our Bodies and a state absolutely happy for ever in Heaven And lastly the Worship or Divine Service it prescribes consists in Obedience to the Law of God in Prayer for the pardon of our Sins and his Protection and in a grateful Acknowledgement of what we owe him for all his Benefits towards us The first of these three parts of the Christian Religion viz. The Truth of the Matters of Fact it relates may be said to be the foundation of the other two viz. The Promises and Commands It is impossible to be perswaded that God hath created this World in which we live and made Mankind of one and the same blood that after the Fall he promised to save Men and did actually redeem them in sending Jesus Christ who suffer'd Death and being rais'd the third day Ascended into Heaven c. I say it is impossible to look upon these Facts as true without being assured that God will accomplish the Promises he hath made to us And it is as evident that we cannot be convinc'd of the truth of these Matters without being sensible of a strong obligation laid upon us to perform all the Duties of the Christian Religion As soon as a Man reflects upon his being Gods Creature he finds himself naturally oblig'd to obey God universally according to his utmost ability but when he comes further to believe that God did not destroy the first Man for his disobedience but was graciously pleased to promise him a Saviour for himself and all his Posterity and when moreover he is assured that God hath really sent this Saviour in the way and manner the Gospel relates to us we cannot conceive but that he must find himself under the highest engagements imaginable of rendring to God a religious obedience and believing his Promises But there is yet another obligation whereby Man is bound to obey God to pray to him and to offer him all manner of Religious Worship God by redeeming him hath obtained a new claim to and right over him and a more indispensable obligation is laid upon Man to submit himself to God in all religious Concerns as being not only created but also redeemed by him Reason acknowledgeth that if the truth of these things be once admitted nothing can be more just and natural than those consequences which the Christians thence infer All the difficulty
get himself reputation by exciting a Curiosity in people for his Books This would not have been becoming the Gravity and Wisdom of so great a Legislator of whom all succeeding Ages have borrowed their Laws It is apparent that his end in the recording of these Matters was to inspire with a sense of Piety and Religion those who were committed to his charge This is that which in general we may observe about these Matters but more particularly it is certain that Moses his end in recording the Oracles by which God promised to Abraham the establishing his Posterity in the land of Canaan was to represent to the Jews the right they had to that Land according to the design and intent of the Divine Wisdom But without making this particular Reflexion it is clear that the Law took its beginning at the twelfth of Exodus where God prescribes to his People the manner of celebrating the Passover at least this is the first Law which God gave them through the Ministry of Moses but forasmuch as Moses his end was to justifie in the minds of his People the design he had to make them leave Egypt as well as their pretensions to the Land of Canaan whither he was to lead them it was natural for him to lay before them the ground of those Pretensions which he could not do without relating the whole Series of the History until the time of their Bondage in Egypt which we read in Genesis the greatest part of which only concerns the Ancestors of that People after that Moses had first laid down the grounds of Religion and that which was known to all Nations Let us now imagin to our selves a Man endeavouring all of a suddain to introduce into the World the belief of things so far distant from common apprehension as these two points must needs be viz. That of the Creation and the Promise of Christ in case we suppose them generally unknown Let us yet further conceive a Man not only relating those things but making them the foundation of a new sort of Laws never before heard of Is there any Wit or Judgment in such an undertaking Can we therefore suppose that Moses whose Writings testifie his great Wisdom should ever have entertain'd such unaccountable thoughts I dare aver that there was any never Legislator so stupid and inconsiderate as to pretend to engage a whole people to submit themselves to the yoke of obedience and to receive a great number of Laws respecting their Civil Government and Religion by declaring to them two Fictions of which they had never before had the least Idea It is also very considerable that these things are not recited by Moses as a Preface to the Decalogue as if then first they had been proposed to Moses or the People by God but Moses sets them down as Truths known to them all and as Principles universally admitted and such as the meer mentioning of them could not but strongly engage the Jews to render a ready obedience to the Laws which God gave to Moses in their presence of the Divine Authority of which their very Senses were convinc'd Let us also consider the nature of those things the Relation of which Moses has joined with these two General Points to make an impression on the Minds of the Jews Let us consider the account he gives them of their Ancestors nearer or farther off whom he represents as equally inform'd of these Matters as having severally delivered the knowledge of them to their Children and having join'd to these first Truths of the Creation and the Promise of a Saviour many other Notions thereon depending and which tied their hopes and expectations to the Land of Canaan And now judge whether Moses were not to be accused of great folly and senselesness if he had proceeded to make such a vast People all of the sudden to receive for Truths publickly and generally owned what indeed was nothing but the most ridiculous and ill cohering Romance that ever was broached Now since as it is visible taking in the Circumstances I have hinted that the Authority of such an Historian and Law-giver as Moses was relating such importent Matters cannot be call'd in question it follows that the Atheist can have nothing to object against his Testimony with the least shadow or pretence of reason So that we may already assert that there is nothing better attested than the Creation of the World and the Promise of Christ which are the immoveable Foundations of the Christian Religion Nevertheless for a more evident Conviction we are willing before we draw this Conclusion to make it appear how weak and inconsiderable all those Objections are which Atheists can possibly frame against what Moses relates concerning these Matters What can they with Reason object Perhaps they 'l say that Moses is not the Author of Genesis but that it was foisted in under his Name and consequently that whatsoever is built upon the Authority of Moses and his evidence is all without ground Or they may object that if Moses be indeed the Author of Genesis that he lived at such a distance of time from the things which he relates that it makes void the authority of his Writings They may moreover alledge that Moses relates things impossible and of which therefore those that mentioned them before the things themselves being so long since past and done could not be fully inform'd of and that they may well be suppos'd greatly changed and alter'd by a Tradition of so many Ages They may also alledge that according to the common Opinion Moses penn'd not these things as an Historian but as a Prophet and that the apprehension of most concerning his Books are that he wrote of things whereof the knowledge before his time was very obscure and confuse or rather were generally unknown They may object against these relations of Moses that which the most ancient People such as the Aegyptians Chaldeans and Chinese alledge for their Antiquity which far surpasseth the date of the World according to Moses These are the principal ways to assault the Truths which Moses relates either by maintaining with the Atheists on one hand that the things which Moses relates are indeed mentioned by other Authors but that they forged them themselves or that Moses being an able and refin'd Politician design'd by Creating a belief of these Matters in the Jews to make them more submissive and obedient to him In a Word it may be said that supposing the Book of Genesis to be writ by Moses it was an easie matter for him to dictate whatsoever he pleased to a People who were under a Law that made it Capital to call in question the truth of his Relations or the Authority of his Laws This certainly is the farthest to which the height of Obstinacy can carry this matter and the very last refuge of the strongest prejudice But it is an easie matter to confound the Atheists and Libertines in every one of these Articles and
to shew that all their Objections do in effect serve for nothing else but to make a more lively impression of this Argument taken from Matter of fact which I have undertaken to set forth in a full and clear light CHAP. V. That Moses is the Author of the Book of Genesis I Shall in the Sequel of this Discourse make it appear that we cannot with reason contest the Authority of a Tradition which hath those Characters which we find in the Relations contain'd in the Book of Genesis The only thing that can be question'd in this matter is Whether Moses the great Captain of the Israelites and Founder of their Common-wealth be the Author of it This therefore is the thing which we ought solidly to evince Tho it seems that we might dispense with this trouble forasmuch as it is easie to shew that the greatest part of the most considerable Events which are recorded in the Book of Genesis were generally believed by others as well as the Jews At least it must be granted that these Matters have given occasion to most of their Fables viz. To that of the Chaos to that of the Marriage of Peleus and Thetis for the forming of Man to that of Prometheus to that of Jupiter's continued Laughter for the seven first days of his Life which they look'd upon as the Original of the Solemnity of the seventh day known amongst the Heathens to that of the Golden Age and of the Deluge to the Name of Deucalion to the Fable of Janus to that of the Division of the World amongst Saturn's Sons to the Name of Jupiter Hammon to the Fable of the Titans and of the changing of Women into Statues of Stone to the Stories of the Incest the Gods committed with their Daughters to that of the firing of the World by Phaeton and to a great number of other Fictions which cannot be otherwise explained as the learned have shewn at large Whosoever was the Author of Genesis whether Moses or another sure it is that he was exactly inform'd of the Matters he relates and that he lived soon after Joseph First then I say that it appears he was fully inform'd of those matters of which he treats he sets down the Names of the Heads or Fathers of the several Nations of the World and does it so that what he saith doth very well agree with what the most Ancient Historians have left us concerning that matter He speaks of these Nations of the Countreys they possest and their Kings as of things he was perfectly inform'd of He very carefully distinguishes the Original of these several Nations and the same being at that time commonly known no Historian could represent them otherwise than they were without exposing himself to the laughter of all by endeavouring to mix Fables with Relations of this nature In the Second place I say that this Book was writ by a Man that lived soon after Joseph He speaks very exactly of what Joseph did in his place of chief Minister to Pharaoh in particular he sets down the first Original of the fifth Penny which the Egyptians so many Ages after continued to pay to their Kings being a thing which no Egyptian could be ignorant of And Lastly It is visible that this Book serves for an Introduction to Exodus and the following Books which have no other Foundation but the truth of those things which are related to us there and do throughout allude and refer to the several passages of it and that all Matters of Religion and Worship contained in them are founded upon the truth of the Creation and the Promise of the Messiah which we find in Genesis and upon the truth of all those other succeeding Matters of Fact until the coming of the Children of Israel into Egypt when Joseph was chief Favourite and Minister of Pharaoh But we have yet a more easie way to make out that Moses whose History is contain'd in Exodus and the following Books is the Author of Genesis For first it cannot be deny'd that the Heathens themselves have acknowledged Moses for the most antient Law-giver for this we have the Testimonies of Plato Polemus Artapanus Pythagoras Theopompus and Diodorus Siculus who places Moses in the front of Six of the most antient Law givers thus Moses Sauchnis Sesonchosis Bachoris Amasis and Darius Father of Xerxes But further if when the Lacedemonians tell us of the Laws of their Law-giver Lycurgus and the Athenians of those of their Solon we think our selves oblig'd to believe them because naturally every Nation is suppos'd to be a faithful Depositary of the Laws of him who first founded their Government yea if we do not in the least doubt of these Relations though there be no People at this day who live according to the Laws of Lycurgus or Solon can any valuable reason be imagined for us to doubt whether Moses wrote the Book of Genesis when an entire Nation have constantly averr'd that he did so I say when all the Jews who continue at this day do in all places where they are scatter'd throughout the World equally and with one consent maintain that they received this Book from him together with the Laws and Worship therein contain'd Nay when it is notorious that many of them have suffer'd Martyrdom in confirmation of this Truth I omit now to mention the consent of the Christians who tho' they be not descended of Abraham and do not observe the greatest part of the Laws of Moses yet do not cease highly to defend this truth throughout the World the Gospel in their sense being nothing else but the literal accomplishment of that Promise The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Head of the Serpent I shall shew in the Sequel of these my Reflexions with how much Justice they assent to this Truth but at present I tie my self only to the Testimonies of the Jews and that which confirms the Authority thereof CHAP. VI. That the Book of Genesis could not be forged under the Name of Moses I Should never have done should I go about to set down all the Observations which might be made incomparing this Book of Genesis with other Histories commonly known to the World and whose faithfulness is unquestionable Without entring upon this comparison we may boldly assert that there is no History in the World whose Author we can be so sure of as that Moses was the Pen-man of Genesis But I go further and assert that the Jews could not be mistaken in the Testimonies they give to this Truth which I prove by these two Remarks The First is That their Observations both Civil and Religious are at this day founded upon no other Principles than those which we find in Genesis As for instance they compute the beginning of their day from the preceding Evening they keep the Sabbath they observe Circumcision they abstain from eating the Muscle which is in the hollow of the Thigh c. The Observation of which Laws is indeed
which we most desire a particular account are there described in a very short and concise manner The History of 1656 years is all contained in Eight Chapters There are no Actions described therein with more Circumstances than only some few of the most important the remembrance whereof was still fresh amongst them The History of Lamech's Polygamy and the Murders of which he was guilty is there set down so compendiously that it is very obscure Secondly One sees that he speaks more copiously of all that had been transacted near his time He explains and mentions all the particulars and circumstances thereof He speaks so shortly of Melchisedeck that it is doubted to this day whether he was not the Patriarch Sem or some other faithful worshipper of the true God settled in the Land of Canaan whereas he sets down at length all the particulars of the History of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob whose last Oracles which he spoke on his Death-bed he carefully records Thirdly He describes with the same exactness all the Genealogies of the Edomites their several Tribes and the Names of their Heads and Captains c. As when he speaks of those of the people of Israel which indeed he could easily do having liv'd forty years of his life amongst those Nations as well as he had other forty years amongst the Israelites Those who maintain the contrary Opinion must of necessity suppose First That Tradition is of no use at all to preserve the Idea of any illustrious Action Secondly That in Moses's time there were none who knew any particulars of the History of the Flood c. of the Tower of Babel of the division of Tongues tho' we see plainly both by the nature of the Facts themselves in which all Nations were concern'd and by Moses his description that the generality of Mankind were sufficiently instructed in them already Thirdly It must be supposed that Moses hath set down the manner how that Tradition was infallibly preserved so carefully to no purpose tho' he took notice of all the Circumstances necessary for that effect Fourthly They must suppose that Moses whilst he sojourned in the Land of Midian heard nothing either of their Original and Pedigree nor yet of the other neighbouring Nations who were descended from Abraham altho' all these Nations valued themselves upon their being descended from that Patriarch and kept up their several Pedigrees by which they could trace their Original with the same care as the Israelites did theirs because they had the same pretensions that the Israelites had Lastly We must absolutely take away the Authority of the Oracles recorded by Moses in Genesis These Oracles promise to Abraham the possession of the Land of Canaan for his Posterity and threaten the Canaanites with several Curses Jacob by his Will bequeathed Sichem to the Tribe of Joseph He expresly marks out the Country which one of the Tribes was to possess he gives a description of the Character and Rank of every Tribe The accomplishment of those Oracles tho' never so exact and admirable is of no manner of consequence if we suppose that these particular Predictions were absolutely unknown in Abraham's Family whereas their accomplishment which he carefully describes from time to time is the most solid demonstration which can be desired to establish the Divinity of those Revelations as well as of Moses his other Books CHAP. XIX An Answer to an Objection which may be drawn from the Histories of the Egyptians and Chaldeans concerning the Antiquity of the World. WHat I have already represented is sufficient to prove that Moses writ nothing in the Book of Genesis but what was then generally known by all the World. And I know nothing that can be objected with any probability but what we read in the most ancient Authors concerning the Egyptian and Chaldean History and in the Modern ones concerning that of China We must then examin both the one and the other with attention that we may leave no Difficulties in so important a Subject All that the Atheists can object against the History of Moses concerning the Epocha of the Creation of the World as he hath fixed it is what Diodorus Siculus relates that in the time of Alexander the Great there were some Egyptians that reckon'd up Three and twenty thousand years from the Reign of the Sun to Alexander's time and that those who reckon'd least yet reckon'd somewhat more than Ten thousand years which account exceeds the Antiquity which Moses ascribes to the World in the Book of Genesis by many Ages where he represents the Creation as a Fact which happened some few years more than Two thousand five hundred before he wrote that Book How then did Moses write of things universally acknowledged by all the World And they may here further aggravate what the same Diodorus hath observed That the History of the Egyptians was not written like that of the Greeks amongst whom those who came first wrote their own Histories every man according to his own private humour which caused that great variety amongst their Historians whereas amongst the Egyptians none wrote but by publick Authority the Priests alone having that particular employment reserved for them to write their Histories in their several Generations This Objection is easily confuted in two words In short How could the Egyptians have always had men to write their Histories by publick Authority in all their succeeding Generations seeing there were as Diodorus observes such a strange and vast Divisions amongst themselves If there were but two or three Ages difference more or less no body would look upon it as a material Exception against the History of such a long Series of time But who can imagine that those men who differ no less than Thirteen thousand years in their Accounts of the Duration of the same interval of time had yet certain Histories upon which these things were grounded This shews sufficiently that as Varro the greatest Scholar the Romans ever had hath divided Antiquity into Fabulous and Historical which he begins from the first Olympiad leaving all which went before to the fabulous part so we must of necessity make the same distinction in the Matter of the Antiquities of Egypt But I intend to do some thing more and to consider this Egyptian History with a little more attention out of which I think I may draw good Arguments to confute the vanity of those Passages in it opposed to Moses and to confirm the Authority of his Book of Genesis and the truth of the chiefest Transactions recorded in it I shall not at present take notice that altho' the Egyptians about their latter times have maintain'd that the Elements were eternal yet they have sufficiently acknowledged that the World had a beginning seeing they make no mention of any thing before their thirty Dynasties which in all did at the most amount to no more then 36525 years Neither do I think necessary to mention here that they have sufficiently
Joshua concerning the several Blessings and Curses which were to be pronounced upon the Mounts Ebal and Gerizim because the form of them was to be borrowed from the Books of Moses which were Publick and Authentick The same Reflexion may be made upon the Law of the First-fruits and upon the Prayer which was to be made upon the Tithes of the third year as likewise upon many other Laws Fourthly It is certain that those Books were read over every seventh Year according to the Injunction of that Law which we find Deuteronomy XXXI 10 11. which was commanded to be done for the instruction of Posterity as it is intimated in the Thirteenth Verse of the same Chapter Whereupon it may not be preposterous to consider here God's Methods to prevent all Forgery and Imposture in this Matter We see that it was during the Longaevity of Human Life a constant and universal Custom amongst all the Patriarch's to Moses's time to put when they lay on their Death beds their Posterity in mind of the most important Truths and of the Fundamental Articles of Religion because as all Admonitions and Exhortations made at such a time are always look'd upon as sincere so they seldom fail of being favourably construed and better entertained than they would be at any other time We have as instances of this ancient Custom the Examples of Abraham of Isaac of Jacob of Joseph c. who in that I make no doubt follow'd the Custom of their pious Ancestors who in all likelyhood derived it from Adam himself That Custom we see was of an admirable use to perpetuate the memory of illustrious Transactions What was then spoken by those pious venerable men was a kind of a publick Sermon because it was delivered before those numerous Families which met then altogether about the Bed of their common Head and Father and that upon such an Occasion as did extraordinarily excite their attention To this Custom succeeded another which was that when the greatest Captains and Judges of the People of Israel were sensible of their approaching Death then they usually called the People together to give them such Exhortations Reproofs and Admonitions as they judged most proper either for their encouragement or for their Reformation nay and that even in some occasions many of them have affected to have their Speeches made publick and deposited in the Tabernacle Thus did Moses and Joshuah and the greatest number of the Judges and Samuel and Solomon c. We know that the Books of Moses were formerly read every Sabbath day as St. James does attest it in Acts XV. And tho there be no express command about it in Moses's Writings yet we find there something equivalent to it in the strict charge given by him to all the People to be continually conversant in his Books and to instruct their Families at all times in the Laws and Doctrines delivered in them for it is plain that if the Israelites were bound by that command of Moses to read his Books every day they were more particularly obliged by the same command to read them on the Sabbath day which was made a day of rest by God particularly on purpose that all Men might the better attend on that day to the reading and meditating God's Laws and the performing all other Religious Duties We know besides that those Books were continually explained both by the Doctors of the Law and the Levites who were on purpose dispersed through the whole Land of Canaan that they might the better attend and perform the Duties of their Ministry We see that Moses in his Writings hath exactly kept a kind of Journal which cannot easily receive any alteration If we read hereupon what relates to the sojourning of the Israelites and the several removals of their Tents in the Desert we shall be easily convinc'd by the very form and stile of those Books as we have them now that they were formerly publickly received and were exactly transcribed out of the Original and that if in Process of time they suffered any alteration it was only as to some Appendices or Postscripts inserted by Esrah or some other Prophet by way of Explication We see in those Books a History written without disguise or partiality exact in relating all Circumstances of Places Times and Persons even in the Narration of things of small importance for the main drift of the Author there are besides some Passages recorded in them which any Author who lived after Moses's time would certainly have left out if for no other reason yet at least to abolish the memory of some actions dishonourable to some great Families and whole Tribes of Israel Again we read in them the Songs and other Publick Monuments which were made upon extraordinary occasions to preserve the memory of them the better I have but three Observations more to make here and then I have done with this Chapter The First is That those Books have been constantly quoted by all the Authors amongst that People who followed Moses and that their Quotations do exactly agree with the Text of those Books as we have them now which is a certain sign as well of the Sincerity as of the Antiquity of that Author They were as much esteemed in Israel as in Juda both People did observe them as their Law The Prophets that arose from time to time did always and upon all Occasions acknowledge and maintain their Authority Thus we find in the Book of Joshua quoted out of them what relates to the Curses and Blessings to the Prophecies and Divisions of the Land of Canaan amongst the Tribes of Israel The whole History of the thirteen Judges whom God raised up amongst the People is nothing in general but an account of the accomplishment of that Promise which God had made formerly by Moses to raise up from among that People such Men in the time of their Afflictions and Captivities as would be the Assertors of their Liberty We see there in particular the Execution of Moses's order concerning Caleb Judg I. 20. Judg. VII 3. Judg. XIII 3. and of that Law in Deuteronomy which prescribes the manner of dismissing from the Army those that are fearful and faint-hearted and of that other concerning the Nazarites c. Thus we see that the Rule and Laws prescribed in those Books continued in force in the time of Ruth David's Great Grand-Mother that appears plainly by their Observation of those Laws which enjoyn'd the next Kinsman to take to Wife the Widow of his Deceased Relation and to redeem his Inheritance As for David and Solomon they are continually alluding to something or other delivered in those Books Nehemiah quotes them in Chap. XIII of his Book and that was in the year of the World 3563 and so does Malachy in the IV. and V. Chapters of his Prophesie in the year 3580. The Second Observation which is very material is that the Author of those Books hath inserted in them an express prohibition of adding
by Moses BUt least any Body should think it strange that I should build the truth of Moses's Prophecies upon the Testimony of the Jews I will restrain its authority of it within just and certain Bounds First Although the Jews bear Witness in their Sacred Books that the greatest part of Moses's Prophecies are already fulfill'd yet they say some are not As for instance those which relate to the Messiah's coming But their obstinate blindness is not a just prejudice against such an important truth to be convinced of which we need only to compare Moses's Words with the Actions of Jesus Christ Thus for what relates to the Destruction of Jerusalem we need only compare Moses's Prophesie of it with the Description Josephus their own Historian hath made of the same in his History of the Siege and ruine of that City and of the dissipation of all the Nations of the Jews But without the Jews Testimony in what regards the accomplishment of those Prophesies whereof the execution was deferred for a very long time it is easie to convince any the most Incredulous Man of their Truth and Divinity if he please but to make this one Reflexion which is that when Moses relates amongst the Oracles of the Patriarch Jacob a particular Prophesie concerning the Messiah's coming and when he mentions that of Balaam concerning the rising of that Divine Star he subjoins also at the same time that concerning the Vocation of the Gentiles to the Faith and brings it in as a certain sign and consequence of the Messiah's being come into the World. Now if we examine the meaning of Moses's Predictions about the Vocation of the Gentiles which the Prophets that came after him did better explain and illustrate we shall be apt from thence to conclude that he in effect foretold that God in the days of the Messiah would follow quite another Method than that which he had used before until the time of Moses viz. That whereas God might seem to restrain then the Priviledge of his Covenant to one people alone which was in effect to restrain the honour of the Messiah's Birth to one sole Nation of the World to one sole Tribe of that Nation to one sole Family of that Tribe to one sole Branch of that Family and so to one sole person of that Branch He would after the Messiah's coming take a contrary Method and call all men to Salvation in him Now that being supposed the truth of all Moses's Prophesies cannot be question'd And whatever the Jews Opinion be concerning the accomplishment of some of them It is sufficient for us that they have carefully and faithfully preserved the Books wherein those Prophecies which we see so exactly fulfilled are contained For we cannot reasonably suspect Moses or any other Jew of forging the Prophesies which foretold the calling of the Gentiles not Moses seeing all his Laws do tend as I shall shew hereafter more at large to establish that restriction I was just now speaking of which was to continue to the Messiah's coming Not the Jews seeing that none of them can still endure to hear of the removal of that Restriction by the calling of the Gentiles and that they are all possest with such a Spirit of Envy and Jealousie against all other Nations that they perfectly hate and abominate them But besides we cannot desire a better nor a more authentick accomplishment of those Oracles which are so opposite to the Jewish Principles and Prejudices than that which we our selves are Witnesses of The same Reflexion belongs to the other Prophesies of Moses concerning the total Dissipation of the Jewish State as also to the dreadful accomplishment of them in our days The most resolved Obstinacy can suggest but one Objection in this matter which is that either the Christians or the Jews have falsified Moses's Writings and inserted those Prophesies which we now find there concerning the Vocation of the Gentiles and the dispersion of the Jews after those things were come to pass But First The Books of Moses which both Christians and Jews have are Written in Hebrew and penn'd in such a Stile as evidences their Antiquity and as would be inimitable now Secondly That these Books have been all Translated into Greek almost 300 years before Jesus Christ and about 350 years before the destruction of Jerusalem Neither the Jews nor yet the Christians were any longer sole Masters of them when the Heathens had them also in their hands Besides those who were Converted to Christianity from Judaism and Heathenism did not only find these Prophesies of Moses in the hands of Jews and Heathens long before the Conversion of the Gentiles and the Destruction of Jerusalem but did also make use of them to evince against the Jews that the Messiah was already come Thus I think I have sufficiently demonstrated the Truth and Divinity of all Moses's Prophesies which we find in Exodus and the following Books CHAP. IX That it appears by the nature of his Relations that Moses had the Messias in view when he wrote the Book of Genesis I Have shew'd in my former Reflexions upon Genesis that those who lived before Moses's time had a distinct knowledge that God would certainly raise up a Deliverer amongst them although they were not certain of the manner of his appearance And I have besides I think sufficiently proved that the various Idea's which the Ancients entertained of him upon the first Promise made by God of his coming were the occasion of several Criminal Actions committed by the Patriarchs and by those of other Nations who had the same pretensions with them I am now to prove that Moses himself had the same knowledge and lived in the same expectation with the Ancients that preceded him It is of more importance to be shewn and that henceforth no Body may wonder if I pretend that the greatest part of the Laws he gave to the Jews both in reference to Civil and Religious Matters and the greatest part of his Prophesies as also those others mentioned by Prophets that lived after him in that Jewish Common-wealth do all suppose a distinct relation to the promised Messiah And to make this evident I beg leave to offer to the Reader 's Consideration some general Reflexions upon Moses's History in Genesis First It cannot be denied that Moses was one of the greatest and wisest Historians that ever was There cannot be a greater design nor a more difficult Task than his was to write the History of 2400 years He gives an account of the Creation of the World in general and in particular of that of Man of his sin of the Promise God made him after the Fall of the Flood of the Original of all the Nations that were in his time His way and manner of Writing is also very extraordinary The Majesty of his Stile is tempered with an admirable plainness he describes all sorts of Passions to the Life he is admirable in his Characters of the Men he speaks
to have designed to keep up a Spirit of Jealousie in the very Bosom of the Jewish Nation WE have seen in general that God by giving his Law to the Israelites intended to discriminate them from all other Nations of the World and in particular from those Nations which had shewed themselves to be jealous of that distinction I mean from the Moabites the Ammonites the Ismaelites and the Edomites as I shall hereafter shew I have likewise observed that God by his Conduct and his Oracles did also excite a Spirit of Jealousie amongst the several pretenders to the Promise I come now to shew that God hath follow'd the same design in his Law and that he hath made use of that Jealousie as of another means to make that People which he had separated from all other Nations keep up always amongst themselves a lively Notion and Expectation of the Messiah Perhaps the Reader may think that these Reflections may interrupt the Series of the Observations I have undertaken to make upon Moses's Law But besides that I shall resume them presently so one may easily discern that these two Remarks concerning the Spirit of Distinction and the Spirit of Jealousie kept up in the Bosom of this people ought to be well considered by those that desire to know the Genius of God's Laws and the original Causes of all the Transactions related by Moses and by the other sacred Authors who acted in pursuance of that Design which appears in those Laws which Moses gave to the People of Israel I begin with two general Reflexions which I think are very useful in the explication of God's Conduct upon this Occasion Two things as I have already observed have conduced to keep up that Jealousie whereof Moses has given so many instances in the Book of Genesis The first is The Preference which God hath commonly given to the younger Brothers before the elder The second is The choice which God hath made of such particular persons as appeared absolutely unworthy of God's choice So that here one see 's a continual Series in the Jewish History written by Moses and by the Prophets who made the same Observations upon that Model which Moses had given them First of all The Tribe of Judah is preferred before all the other Tribes of Israel and particularly before the Tribe of Reuben which afterwards occasioned the Insurrection of some Reubenites in their Sedition against Moses wherein Corah Dathan and Abiram perished Just as God's preferring Abel offended Cain and as Joseph's Brethren conspired together to put him to death because of his Dreams which foretold his greatness and their fall Secondly One see 's that Phares Judah's youngest Son is preferred not only before all the other Children of Judah but even before Zerah the eldest of the Twins which Judah had by Thamar just as Jacob was preferred before his Brother Esau tho' they were Twins and Esau born the first of the two One see 's afterwards That God having chosen Jesse of all the Posterity of Phares David the youngest of all his Sons was preferred before his Brethren when God was pleased to translate the Kingdom to the Tribe of Judah and to the Family of Jesse Just as we saw before that in the Election of the first King whom the Israelites desired to be set over them that he was chosen by Lot by an extraordinary effect of Providence out of the Tribe of Benjamin tho' the youngest of all Jacob's Children Thus one see 's that Solomon the youngest of David's Children was preferred before his Brothers and that the same Solomon built the Temple of God in the Tribe of Benjamin tho' he himself was of the Tribe of Judah We shall afterwards see That the Messiah was descended from David by Nathan Son to one of David's younger Children and by Resah Zorobabel's youngest Son from whom the Blessed Virgin drew her Original The second Remark is about the care God hath taken by his choice of some particular persons to accomplish the promise to furnish those with pretences and objections who might be interessed to oppose the Restrictions which God had made in favour of their equals for as they served to keep up a Jealousie amongst all the pretenders to the Promise so they also served to preserve a distinct knowledge of it and to make them inquire more diligently after it In short as we see that the Ismaelites might upbraid Sarah both with her frequent Rapes and with her Cruelty to Agar and Ismael As the Edomites might upbraid Jacob's Posterity with Rebecca's supplanting their Father Esau and cheating him of his Blessing so likewise we may observe that God not only chose Thamar to have the Messiah descend from her but also would have her Incest with her Father in-Law recorded What might all the other Tribes of Israel say were there then no honest Women in Israel that the Messiah's Ancestors must descend from those that were born of an Incestuous Commerce What probability is there that God should choose the Tribe of Judah Had not all the other Children of Judah a fairer pretension to this priviledge than Phares could have And might not their Posterity revive against the Posterity of Phares that severe Law against Bastard Children which we read of Deut. XXIII God chose in the like manner Ruth the Moabitess and had her History written and his choice recorded as if he had intended to prepare an excuse for those of the Israelites who afterwards would refuse to submit to David What probability is there might they say that God would have the Messiah to be born of a Moabitess seeing it was by his order that Moses caused all those Israelites to be put to death who after the pronunciation of Balaam's Prophesie held any commerce with the Daughters of Moab Was there any likelihood that such a thing could be possible especially seeing there was a Law which God would have to be inserted in Deuteronomy which excludeth the Moabites from the possibility of ever being admitted into the people of God. But at least was not this choice of Ruth the Moabitess a fair cause of Jealousie to all the other Families of Judah God caused the Adultery of Bathsheba the Mother of Solomon to be carefully recorded as it were on purpose to excuse the Rebellion of those who afterwards sided with Jeroboam against Rehoboam and his Authority Is it probable might these Rebels say that God would have chosen that Bloody Cruel Man David that Adulterer that he and Bathshebah should beget the Messiah together Had Jesse no other Children besides David And if David must needs have been the Man why should Solomon born of Bathshebah be preferred before all his Brothers There are three things considerable in this Matter The First is That God having given to Joshuah the conduct of the Israelites after he had formerly raised Joseph so much above his Brethren by his advancement in Egypt and given to his Tribe two portions of the Land of Canaan
longer preserve the Tradition of 2000 years as they had done till Moses's time God was of necessity obliged to make use of some other means to supply that defect He had already made use of several before amongst which was that which we find prescribed Deut. XXVII where he ordered the building of an Altar with rough stones whereupon the Names of the twelve Tribes and the whole Law were to be ingraved He afterwards follow'd other Methods and thus we see that Samuel following Moses and Joshuah's Example repeats before a Solemn Assembly of the people met at Gilgal for the Consecration of Saul the things that came to pass during the Government of Bedan or Sampson of Jepthah and his own But yet the best way was to fix this people to one Tabernacle wherein we see that besides the Monuments which preserved the Memory of the great Miracles that God had wrought at the Foundation of the Jewish Common-wealth as the Pot of Manna Aaron's Rod that blossom'd the Plates of the Altar that had been made out of the Censers of Corah Dathan and their Confederates One see 's that the Law and the Books of the Covenant were deposited there by God's order and the principal Transactions and Deliverances that were wrought by God in the behalf of that people were continually Celebrated with Hymns and other Tokens of publick Thankfulness It was no doubt upon this account that he caused the Book of the Law to be laid up there with many Ceremonies and Expiations and that he enjoyned it to be read publickly in the presence of the whole Congregation every seven years One see 's that he commanded that every Family should read this Book continually and that all should entertain their Wives and Children from their tenderest years with the design of the Law Night and Day in the Countrey and in the Town at all times and in all places One see 's that God engaged them to it not only by an express command but also by an indispensible necessity because he made it death for any Man to violate any of those Ceremonial Laws from a principle of obstinacy no pardon could be obtained for the Transgressions committed through ignorance before they were expiated by certain Sacrifices the Forms whereof were scrupulously prescribed in the Law and which could be violated upon no account whatever If one considers those things he may say that the Jews had scarce one moment free in their Lives so pressing was the necessity which lay upon them to consult the Law of God the regulations of which were so very exact and particular that there no actions publick or private could happen but what were regulated and determined by those Constitutions If a Beast was born the Owner was to examine whether it was the first-born or no whither it was clean or unclean and whither it was to be Redeemed with several other things of this nature If a Woman was big with Child there were many questions to be asked When she came to Lie-in several very different Ceremonies were practis'd according as the Child was a first-born or not The Law enjoyned various Purifications according as the Woman brought forth a Son or a Daughter God had prescribed a great number of Laws for all the Accidents of Life for Marriages for Successions for Funerals for Mourning for unforeseen Accidents as the Death of a Man that was kill'd without the design of his Murtherer for the several Crimes that might be committed in their several Pollutions and Sequestrations c. It seems that this whole people from the time that they came to the use of their reason to the time of their Death was still continually obliged to keep up a Correspondence with the Priests and Levites whom God had for this purpose dispersed amongst all the Tribes of Israel and to consult the Law and the Testimony to be instructed in the manner of governing themselves But particularly they were to look upon the Temple and the Tabernacle as the Center of their whole Religion And how could they do this without carrying their Prospect at the same time to those great Promises of the Messiah of which the Israelites were Depositaries I say upon those Promises which raised up so many Jealousies betwixt their Forefathers and the Ancestors of those Neighbouring Nations with whom they had always some Controversie and were to be considered as glorious and honourable to the whole Nation CHAP. XXII That it appears by the Books of Moses that this whole Model which God had framed was to last but until the coming of the Messiah BUt if we find in Moses's Law a severe restriction in all that belongs to the execution of the Promise of the Messiah which shews that God intended to have that Nation distingnish'd from all others till the Blessed Seed was come if we find that he restrained that Promise to one Tribe one Town one Family one particular individual person in that Family that they might not be to seek in a confused Crowd of a whole people made up of several Millions of persons or in a whole Tribe or even in a City filled up with several Families If upon this account his Birth was restrained to one People one Tribe one little Town and one single Family which was setled there the Jews could not but observe that it was God's design to break all those Restrictions and to follow quite another Method when the Messiah was once come For in the First place the first Promise of the Messiah was express'd in very general Terms which mentioned a common benefit to all the Sons of Adam This Promise was made before God had rejected Cain's Posterity by preferring that of Seth it was made before the Restriction was made to Noah in Seth's Family and to Shem in Noah's Family Secondly God who by Circumcision had distinguished Abraham and his Posterity from the rest of the Family of Sem did expresly promise to Abraham that in his Seed all the Nations of the World should be blessed This Promise was made also before God had restrained the Promise to the person Isaac in prejudice of Ishmael and then afterwards to the person of Jacob in the prejudice of Esau Thirdly One see 's this same Truth yet more clearly explained out of Jacob's Oracle concerning Judah Gen. XLIX wherein Jacob expresly foretels that the Messiah should be the expectation of the Nations that is to say the Comfort the Glory the Hope and the Joy of all the Nations of the Universe As this was a Capital Truth so God proposed it by Balaam at the Israelites entring into Canaan that they might thus understand that all those distinctions which their separation living in Canaan from the rest of the World might keep up were not always to last But this particularly appears out of Moses's Law which allows of several sorts of Proselytes receiving some without tying them to the observance of all the Ceremonies in the Law which it would never have done
if it had been absolutely necessary to be a Jew before they have a share in the benefits of the Promise Secondly It supposes that God was to remove that People out of Canaan into remote Countreys and to disperse them as it were into the uttermost parts of the World which was done by Divine Providence only to publish the Promise of the Messiah to establish the Belief in the Prophets and so to facilitate the calling of the Gentiles to the Faith. Thirdly He declares expresly as St. Paul observes that he was to call his people that which was not his people that he might by that means provoke the people of Israel to Jealousie This Notion of Jealousie mentioned by St. Paul deserves to be taken notice of with very great care if we reflect upon the Spirit of Jealousie which reigned amongst the Israelites and their Neighbours I shall take notice in another place of the great number of Oracles of David upon the same Subject altho he otherwise insults upon the Moabites and Edomites upon all occasions and shews as much Aversion and Jealousie against those Nations as was possible for one that lived in a continual War with those people I shall also make some Reflexions upon Solomon's Marriage with the Princesses of Tyre of Sidon and of Egypt that is to say with the Posterity of Ham which was united to that of Judah to take a part with them in the Blessing from whence it came to pass that the Song that was written upon that Marriage was preserved as a piece divinely inspired and ought to be considered as a happy presage of the calling of the Gentiles to the Communion of the Messiah One may also joyn here the manner of Solomon's giving to Hiram's Subjects who had helped him in the building of the Temple the Countrey of Chabul which was inclosed within Judea altho those people were of the Canaanites Posterity upon whom Noah had particularly pronounced Gen. IX Cursed be Canaan One may also see that as God had permitted his people to be Transported into Chaldea and Babylon and had raised up there Prophets amongst them on purpose to acquaint the World with the glorious hopes of the Jews so he caused the Books of Scripture to be Translated into Greek about 300 years before our Saviour's Birth not only to prevent all suspicion of falshood in the minds of the Gentiles if they were produced of a suddain after the Birth of the Messiah but also to instruct the Heathens by little and little of the Right which all Nations had as well as the Jews to that Promise that they might take their share in it whenever they should be invited to it by God and especially to take away the Scandal which was to follow upon God's destroying the Form of that Commonwealth by the Romans according to Daniels Prediction All these things no doubt engaged the Jews who read the Books of Moses to make particular Remarks upon them But they ought to have observed three things especially The First was That altho God had at first chosen their whole Nation yet he was pleased to disperse afterwards almost ten parts of thirteen which plainly shew'd that this choice which he had made was only an Oeconomical choice and for a particular design The Second is That altho he was very severe and punctual in exacting obedience to the Ceremonial Service yet he had fixed the most part of their observances to certain places to certain times and to certain persons It was easie to judge that when God bounded them in this manner it was only for an Oeconomical Service prescribed only upon a particular prospect which was one day to have an end The Third is That experience convinced them that altho God seemed to have fixed his Service to the Temple yet he suffered the Chaldeans to destroy the first and did not restore to the second the first Marks of his presence when it was rebuilt by the order of Cyrus From whence it was natural to conclude that such a glory as retired by little and little from that place which God had chosen was only design'd to be there for a time till God should extend his Service by calling all the World to his Religion and so making the whole Universe his Temple as we see it done in our days by the calling of the Gentiles to the Religion of our Saviour FINIS REFLEXIONS Upon the BOOKS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE To Establish the TRUTH OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION Volume II. LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXVIII THE PREFACE IN my Reflexions upon the Book of Genesis I have shewed the means God made use of to imprint the Idea's of the Creation of the World and the Promise of the Messiah during that long Tract of 2500 years before the Children of Israel departed out of Egypt and before the History of it was penn'd by Moses They that consider that God at first prescribed the Law of the Sabbath to fix the belief of the Creation of the World and that this Law hath been constantly observed since the beginning of the World until Moses and is still to this day observed amongst the Jews easily apprehend that this Fact of the Creation could not be more incontestably proved or more firmly grounded In like manner an attentive Reflexion upon the Oracles which I have mention'd and which alone at first were the foundation and hope of the Religion of the Patriarchs and were afterwards recorded in the Book of Genesis is sufficient to perswade any one that it was impossible but the memory of the Promise of the Messiah should be deeply engraven in the minds of the Israelites tho' we should suppose that the Spirit of Jealousie which God had raised amongst the several Pretenders to the execution of that great Promise did not much contribute to preserve the remembrance of it as I have shown very carefully that it was very useful for that purpose I have in my Reflexions afterwards proved upon the four last Books of Moses that God prosecuted the same design in the Laws which he gave to the People of Israel as well as in the peculiar Forms and Regulations of their Government and Religion the great design of which Rules was only that the Messiah at his appearance in the World might be unquestionably known Whoever shall read the Reflexions which I have made upon this matter will easily perceive that the long Life of the Patriarchs was of great efficacy to make so fresh and lively an impression of those illustrious Facts the Creation of the World and the Promise of the Messiah that there was no need of very frequent Oracles to confirm the same as indeed we find that in the space of 2553 years only five or six principal Oracles were given which have a particular Relation to the Messiah as I shall shew afterwards Now this Reflexion being once supposed as the Life of Man was afterwards
The first part takes in all that happened after Moses 'till the establishment of the Kingdom which is related in the Books of Joshua Judges Ruth and the First Book of Samuel The second contains the History of the Kings of Juda and Israel 'till the Destruction of Samaria and Jerusalem The third contains an Account of what passed during the Jewish Captivity and after their re-establishment Now there is not one of these Books which concern the History of this People in one or other of these Epocha's which has not certain Characters of the truth of its Relations by the necessary Connexion which it has either with those Events which went before it or with those which follow'd it and this by a natural and immediate dependance This ought to be confirm'd by some Observations The Book of Joshua which contains the Conquest and division of the Land of Canaan is the Execution of Moses's design who brought the People of Israel out of Egypt to go and make themselves Masters of a Countrey which the Jews pretend that God promised to Abraham The Division of this Land amongst the Tribes is the Title which each Tribe had to its Possessions in it and this Division subsisted a great while very distinct and well known by the several Tribes of this People There happened no considerable Change but only when the Kings of Assyria carried the Ten Tribes into Captivity after the taking of Samaria in the Three thousand two hundred and eighty third year of the World The Country continuing in the same state under the two remaining Tribes without any Change ensuing upon their Transportation into Babylon as I have observed in the Nineteenth Chapter of my Reflexions upon Exodus and the following Books This Book has a very natural Influence upon the following Books as is manifest from the History of the Alliance which the Gibeonites got from the Jews by surprize It serves for a foundation to all that happened for Four hundred and thirty years after in David's Reign under whom the Commonwealth being already changed into a Monarchical Government had in all appearance undergone a great Alteration The Book of Judges has an essential Relation to the Books of Moses and Joshua the most part of the Captivities of the People of Israel being a Consequence of their Quarrels with the Nations which they had subdued or with their Neighbours as the Moabites and Ammonites descended from Lot who were jealous of this People that was descended from Abraham There we may see for Instance the Israelites upon the Defensive part because God forbad them to set upon the Moabites and the Ammonites whereas these last pretended that Israel had usurped some part of their Country It must be granted that there is nothing so remarkable markable as the Actions of these Judges whom God raised up to deliver his People from those different Captivities through which they passed for Three hundred fifty six years together But we may find the Memory of some of them preserved by those publick Hymns which were famous throughout the Nation and by these illustrious Monuments of their Judicial Authority which were preserved amongst them and which kept up a Remembrance of them amongst the Israelites and the Neighbour Nations For this ought to be observed with care That since the Jews could not invent any thing upon this Head which would not be well known by all the Neighbouring Nations as the Tyrians who kept up their own Government 'till Alexander's time who subdued them intirely and the Moabites whose Empire continued for Fourteen Ages after Lot's time until the Destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar it was not easie for any fabulous Relations in this matter to obtain Authority The Book of Ruth seems not to have any thing considerable but the Conversion of Ruth a Moabitess who rely'd upon the hopes of the House of Juda out of which she had marry'd her Husband But we may take notice of three things besides 1. Of the exact Practise of that Law which obliged them to marry the Widow of a Relation who dy'd without Issue 2. Of their lively remembrance of the Deeds of their Ancestors as of Juda's Incest with Thamar which was look'd upon however as a fountain and a pattern of Blessings 3. Of the Lineage of David whom this Author represents as deriving his Pedigree from a Moabitess which not making much for the Honour of a King of Israel do's at the same time confirm the Truth of the Relations which are contained in that Book The First Book of Samuel contains the History of Eli's and Samuel's Judicatures of the change of the Government from a Commonwealth to a Monarchy under Saul of David's Anoynting Saul's Rejection and Death The Second contains the History of David his Victories his design of building a Temple a design which God left to Solomon to execute his Wars with the Ammonites his Crime with Bathshebah his Son Absalom's Insurrection against him and his great Successes against his Enemies There is nothing in these two Books which has not an exact Connexion with what went before and what follows One see 's throughout an exact Relation to the Law of Moses One see 's throughout Monuments set up in several Places to preserve the memory of particular Actions One see 's also in the Wars of the Israelites with their Neighbours a constant Series of those old Differences which were the Fruits of the Jealousie of these Nations against the Children of Israel The Books of the Kings which the Jews reckon but as one Book contain an Abridgment of Solomon's Establishment in the Place of David of the Glory of his Empire which was carried by David to the Banks of Eüphrates according to the ancient Prophecyes of his Marriage with the King of Egypt's Daughter of the Building of the Temple and his own Palace with the help of Hiram King of Tyre One see 's the manner of the Queen of Sheba's visit to Solomon of his Alliances with the Moabites the Ammonites the Edomites the Zidonians and the Hittites thinking by these Marriages to have put an end to the old Quarrels between his People and these Nations who were jealous of the People of Israel All this was done in the Forty years of Solomon's Reign and as there never was so famous a Reign in Judea so never was there any of which there are left so many Monuments as well there as in the Neighbouring Countreys One see 's afterwards in the same Book the Division of Solomon's Empire into two Governments that of Juda which continued from Solomon's Death during the Reign of Eighteen Successors for Three hundred eighty six years to the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchaanezzar and that of Israel form'd by Jeroboam which lasted Two hundred fifty four years under the Reign of Nineteen Successors until the taking of Samaria the Capital City of the Kingdom of Israel The History of the Chronicles which was written about Twenty six years after that of the Kings carries
Syria obtained over the Kings of Samaria One finds that the Story of Phaeton is solely founded upon the Translation of Elijah in a Chariot of Fire II Kings II. All that I have taken notice of happened before the time of the first Olympiad from whence the learned Varro has observed That the first Knowledge of History began amongst the Greeks whence also it is that they call all the precedent Time fabulous the Greeks having before nothing but Fables into which they had turned whatever ancient History they were acquainted with Since that time we do not find fewer Marks of the Truth of the Sacred Histories One see 's in the Pagan Writers the Reign of Tiglah-Pileser who is the same with the younger Ninus as also the destruction of the Syrian Monarchy by his means as it is described to us in the Sacred Historians Nicholas Damascenus in Josephus Antiq. Lib. VII cap. 6. One see 's amongst the Heathens Castor in Euseb the Succession of Shalmaneser as it is described in the Scriptures One see 's the manner of Sennacherib's conquering the most part of the Towns of Palestina Menander apud Joseph Lib. IX cap. ult of Tyre and Sidon described in Heathen Writers particularly as we have it in the Scriptures The manner of Sennacherib's Succession to Shalmaneser of his desolating the Country of Palestine while he carried on his Victories is described by the Heathens Herodot Lib. II. Berosus in Josephus Lib. X. c. 1. exactly as the Sacred Historians relate it The Memory of Tirbakah King of Aethiopia Strabo Lib. I. XV. as of a great Conqueror is preserved amongst the Heathens for it was his coming in short which obliged Sennacherib to arise from before Libna whence he intended to go and besiege Jerusalem One finds amongst the Heathens the remembrance of the manner of the Destruction of all Sennacherib's Army for his Blasphemies against God which the Egyptians disguised to appropriate to themselves Herodot Lib. II. cap. 141. One finds the ruin of Ashdod by King Psammetichus described by Heathen Authors Herodot Lib. I. cap. 104. Lib. II. cap. 1. Lib. VII cap. 10. as we have it in the Sacred Scriptures Herod Lib. II. One finds an Account of the ways by which the Medes lost the Empire of Asia under Cyaxares after his Conquests over the Assyrians in the Heathen Writers much the same as it is described in Nahum H. 5. The Account of the taking of Ninive by Nabopollasar Alexand. Polyhistor ap Syncellum and by Astyages is much the same in Heathen Authors with the description of it in Nahum Esaiah and Ezekiel The manner of Josia's undertaking a War against Pharaoh-Necho King of Egypt when he was overthrown in the Plains of Megiddo Herodot Lib. II. as it is described by the Heathens agrees with the Relation which are given of it in the Holy Scriptures The Victories of Nebuchadnezzar over the Egyptians and the Jews II Kings XXIII 29 30. the carrying away of the consecrated Vessels of the Temple and of the Jews to Babylon are described by the Heathens The manner of the yielding up of Tyre to Nebuchadnezzar as they describe it Annal. Phoenicic ap Joseph Lib. I. contra Apionem agrees with what Ezekiel says Chap. XXVIII 18 19. One finds in Heathen Authors an Account of the stately building of Babylon by Nebuehadnezzar Beros Abyden which is described exactly in the Scriptures One finds also in them Herodot Lib. II cap. 163 169. That the death of Pharaoh-Hoptha or Vaphres as they call him happened according to Jeremiah's Predictions Chap. XL. 30. One finds also the taking of Babylon by Cyrus Herod Lib. I. cap. 178. as it is described by the Prophet Jeremiah Chap. LI. 46. One finds also that the Death of Belshazzar happened exactly as Daniel had described it Xenophon Histor Lib. VII Chap. V. One see 's there an Account of Xerxes's great Undertaking against Greece Herod Lib. VII capp 5 6. as Daniel had foretold it Chap. XI Here then is an Agreement which is perfect enough in several Articles to which we might add a greater number if we had a greater number of Pagan Historians But as we cannot find after the Reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus Histories amongst the Jews of equal Authority with those which were written by and after Moses as Josephus the Jewish Historian observes so we cannot compare the Jewish and Pagan Histories together afterwards in that form we have done hitherto But it is easie to observe four things which are very considerable upon this Head. I. That the Credit of the Sacred Historians may be grounded upon the great number of Remarks we have made already or else nothing will ever establish it For how can we conceive that all sorts of Historians of all Nations and all Ages Babylonians Assyrians Tyrians Egyptians and Greeks could agree so exactly with the Jews in those Facts they relate if the Jewish Authors had not exactly follow'd the Rules of Truth II. That as the Prophecies of Zechariah and Daniel describe with an almost incredible exactness the considerable Events which happened in the Countries near to Judea and in Judea it self in a time which was not expired until the Sacred Writers had given over writing amongst the Jews so there was need of almost nothing else but to look over the Books of Daniel to see what happened from day to day And here we may observe That the Reason why Porphyry thought the Book of Daniel was forged after the time of Antiochus Epiphanes was because this Book seem'd to him to be rather a History than a Prediction which he justify'd in making a sort of Commentary upon this Prophecy by comparing with it the Pagan Historians which were then extant III. That as the Jewish Commonwealth came under the Power of the Greeks who were Masters of Learning and of the Art of writing Histories so there is little need of any other Witnesses beside the Greek Authors as Josephus demonstrates in effect by proving that the Greeks were well enough acquainted with the Affairs of the Jewish Nation IV. That we do really find after the time of Artaxerxes a very great part of the Jewish History composed by the care of some particular Men with sufficient exactness tho' it be not of equal Authority with the Sacred Writers CHAP. III. That there is an uninterrupted Series of Events foretold by the Sacred Oracles of which we may see a very great number accomplished in every Age. AS we may very reasonably say That all the History of the People of Israel has a very exact dependence upon the Writings of that famous Legislator so we may also observe That there are scarce any considerable Events which make up the Body of this History which do not deserve a particular Remark either as a fulfilling of Moses's Prophecies or of those other Prophets whom God raised up after him to reform the Errors of that Nation And
who should become their Kings is likewise foretold In short one see 's express Predictions of the Ruin of Jerusalem and of the whole Nation under the Roman Empire after the coming of the Messiah As the People of Israel had always great quarrels with the Neighbouring Nations so one finds that amongst the Oracles which particularly regard the state of the Jews the Prophets have interwoven a great number which concern those strange People with relation to those Differences which were kept up between the People of Israel and them So one see 's the Egyptians and the Canaanites punished in the Execution of the Oracles pronounced against the Descendants of Cham. One see 's the Prediction of the Ruin of Benhudad King of Syria and of his House foretold to the Tenth Generation One see 's the Prediction of the Ruin of Egypt and Tyre which happened under Nebuchadnezzar One see 's the Prediction of the Ruin of the Moabites which was under the same Nebuchadnezzar after that Kingdom had subsisted almost Fourteen Ages from its first Foundation One see 's frequent Oracles concerning the Ruin of Niniveh and its Empire One see 's Oracles concerning the Ruin of Babylon which happened under Cyrus One see 's Oracles of the Destruction of the Persian Empire by Alexander One see 's Oracles concerning the manner of this Princes conquering the greatest part of the World and of his leaving his Empire divided into four Kingdoms One see 's frequent Oracles concerning the state of the Empire of the Seleucidae and the Ptolemees who had particular Quarrels with the Jewish Commonwealth One see 's the Alliances which were to be between the two Kingdoms foretold and the small Success which should arise thence in terminating their Differences One see 's Predictions of the Treatment which the Jews should meet with in those Kingdoms One see 's a Prediction of the Retreat which Egypt was to give to the Jews and of the Temple they were to build there One see 's an exact Prediction of the manner of the prophanation of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes for Three years together One see 's the Prediction of the Ruin of these two Governments by the Arms of the Roman Empire It is very natural to make some Reflexions upon such a various multitude of Oracles I. That there are no Books in the World which are formed like those which we find in the hands of the Jews One finds there a History exactly pursued and in a natural dependance from the beginning of the World for 3500 years One finds there a Series of Oracles which foretel all sorts of Events so inseparably united with the History that it is impossible to find by what means the Prophecies could have been so brought to support the History and the History to support the Authority of the Prophecies One finds Oracles so clear and so particular especially in the Book of Daniel That Porphyry a mortal Enemy to the Christians was forc'd to assert that the Book of Daniel was forged after Antiochus Epiphanes's time a ridiculous Imagination For this Prophecy was translated into Greek more than One hundred years before and was in the hands not only of the Jews but of the Egyptians also mortal Enemies to the whole Jewish Nation This also is very surprizing That since the Jews after their Dispersion preserve these Histories wherever they are as the Accomplishments of the Oracles and these Oracles as Predictions of those Events of which their History is very full they should never think of proposing to us any Books of a like Nature considering that now for One and twenty Ages they have had no paralel Authors who have both writ History and pronounced Oracles II. But as these Reflexions lead us on to others so we ought to enter upon them by considering what the most unreasonable Obstinacy can oppose to the Authority of the Historical and Prophetical Books of Scripture CHAP. IV. That how common soever Oracles may have been amongst the Pagans yet nothing amongst them can justly be compared with those which are found amongst the Jews ONe of the greatest Objections which can in all probability be made against this surprizing Series of Oracles which are found in the Books of the Old Testament is taken from that great number of Oracles which are found amongst the Pagans This Objection deserves to be considered because it will more clearly demonstrate the Authority of the Prophetical Books which are in the hands of the Jews I confess there have been false Prophets And indeed since God has given us Marks to distinguish them from true Ones which may be seen in the Books of Moses it cannot be denied but there have been some false Prophets And that moreover the History of the Prophets discovering to us Impostors frequently we may freely acknowledge that amongst the Pagans and the People bordering upon Judea there have been Men who have boasted of Predictions of things to come as well as amongst the Jews I confess also That some Heathen Writers speak of certain Oracles which in all appearance are very well circumstantiated and of which they relate a very exact Accomplishment But several things ought to be observed upon this Argument which deserve an attentive Consideration I. We see that their most celebrated things have been only an imitation of what was done amongst the Jews The Egyptians imitated the Urim and the Thummim of the Jewish High Priest And they appropriated to him the right of giving Oracles And so we see they are given by a Voice from Heaven which the Jews saw was granted to their Prophets We may see it in the History of Socrates's Life and in Apuleius p. 339. II. We see that the same Pagan Historians take notice that very many even the greatest part of their Oracles were very ambiguous and false The Philosophers and Tully particularly openly laugh'd at them Lib. I. II. de Divinatione They thought it a ridiculous thing that Apollo Delphicus the God of Poetry should give his Answers in very bad Verse and at last be reduced to Prose Eusebius quotes a Discourse of Oenomaus a Greek Philosopher who wrote against Oracles to decry them as Impostures III. We see that those Oracles which had acquired the greatest Reputation by their Accomplishment were borrowed from the Prophets of the Synagogues We have an illustrious Example in the Birth of Cyrus which the Prophet Isaiah had foretold about the Year of the World 3292. and concerning which they pretend to shew Prophecies of Nebuchadnezzar and Craesus Abydenus Herodot Lib. I. cap. 55. 91. about the Year 3492. which shows that if the thing was really known to them they could not have known it but by the Prophetical Writings which were amongst the Jews and which could not have been concealed from them because the Jews read them with care to comfort themselves under that Captivity to which they were reduced by Nebuchadnezzar IV. It is in effect proved by examining their Oracles most of which
instituted during the Captivity We must blind our selves of purpose to conceive that any Impostor could forge Books which have so exact a Relation and such certain Characteristicks to fix them to the time in which every Author lived and to the Circumstances wherein he wrote We must of necessity grant That before such an Impostor could bring about such a Design he must have made himself Master of the whole Prophane History to fix so exactly the History of the Jewish Nation and of those Oracles which have been given in Circumstances which are unintelligible without the help of Prophane Histories of different Nations I come now to Facts which cannot be contested It is sufficient that those Facts be acknowledged as true to establish in general the Truth of those Books whereof we teach I. It cannot be denied that the Jews preserve these Oracles to this day with great fidelity II. It cannot be denied that they are in the hands of Christians who preserve them as well as the Jews since they have been separated from them that is for almost Seventeen Ages III. It cannot be denied that these Prophecies have been exactly read by the Jews because of those Oracles upon which they believe to this day that the whole happiness of their Nation is founded IV. It cannot be denied that the Jews have read these Books exactly to refute the Disciples of Jesus Christ who have pretended from the first Age of their appearing that Jesus Christ is the Messiah mark'd out by these Oracles In short whereas the Christians pretend to prove by the accomplishment of the ancient Oracles that Jesus Christ was the Messiah It is known that the Jews endeavour to this day to wrest the sense of these Oracles and to shew that there are many things which are not literally accomplished and which by consequence cannot be apply'd to Jesus Christ V. It cannot be deny'd that most of the Controversies of the Jews with the Christians only regard the Application of the Text of the Prophetical Authors The Christians explain them in a Mystical Sense the Jews maintain that they ought to be explained Literally VI. It cannot be deny'd that about 300 years before the Birth of our Saviour the Prophetical Books were translated and put into the Hands of the Egyptians having been carried to and translated at Alexandria by a publick Order of the whole Nation for the satisfaction of a King of Egypt The History of that Version which put those Sacred Books into the Hands of the Greeks and the Jews who dwelt in Egypt is the most famous thing in the World and which made those Books perfectly known Here we have now these Books in Hebrew and in Greek that is to say in the Primitive Language of the Jews and the Vulgar Language of the Empire which Alexander founded It is known that from that time the Christians took care to make great numbers of Translations into all the Vulgar Tongues after the preaching of the Gospel and that they preserved those ancient Books as the first Elements of their Religion Now it will be sufficient to acknowledge those Truths to consider That those Oracles were true which foretold things which happened almost four Ages after their Prediction Thus for Instance the Destruction of Jerusalem the Overthrow of the Jewish State the calling of the Gentiles to the Service of the God of Israel the Destruction of the Syrian and Egyptian Monarchies are all contained in the Books of Daniel Haggai Zachariah and Malachi Now there is not more difficulty to conceive that such Authors as Isaiah Amos Joel should have foretold the same thing Eight or Nine hundred years before than there is to believe that they were foretold by those who liv'd but little above Four Ages before they actually came to pass There is therefore no difficulty in conceiving that these ancient Oracles were proposed as we see them and in those times to which we find them fixed But we ought to go further into this matter and to establish the same thing by the consideration of the things themselves I confess that we might have a suspicion of those Oracles which are not related upon the Faith of a publick Volume As for Instance those of Elijah Elisha and Uriah the Son of Shemaiah who seem never to have published any thing But here we are to observe 1. That usually the Authors who publish the Oracles are not the same with those who tell us of their accomplishment 2. That the Oracles of which we now speak were upon Subjects perfectly known and upon very illustrious Exigencies What more illustrious than the Destruction of Ahab's Family foretold by Elijah What more extraordinary than the manner of Jezebel's Death foretold by the same Prophet In short we ought to take notice I. That these Oracles were written for the most part in compleat Volumes We have Sixteen Prophets sufficiently distinguish'd by their proper Volumes II. Each of these Authors has a very different Character from the rest so that some as Daniel for instance write in a peculiar Language one part of his Book being in Chaldee III. Every one has some relation to the rest So those who liv'd together often treat of the same things So Isaiah for instance Joel Amos Hosea But they had separate Idea's and particular Oracles and a turn which perfectly distinguishes them one from another IV. One needs only read their Works to find that they wrote in different places Amos was of Juda and went to prohecy in Israel that appears plainly Ezechiel and Daniel prophesied in Chaldea that 's seen by reading their Works V. There is a natural dependance between the Books of Moses and those of the Prophets in general For the Prophets were continually reproaching the Kings and People with the Crimes which they committed against the Law of God proposed by Moses VI. There is a natural dependance between the Writings of the former and of the latter Prophets Dan. IX 2. So Jeremiah is quoted by Daniel as foretelling the time when the Desolations of Jerusalem were to have an end this he proposes not as if he had learnt it by a Revelation but as a thing which he had found out by an attentive examination of the Prophecy of Jeremiah VII There is an exact Connexion of these Oracles with the History of the time which is often interwoven with the Prophecies One see 's it in the Books of Isaiah Jeremiah and Daniel the other Historical Books not being altogether so particular as these Prophetical Books are VIII In short one see 's that these Books are interwoven with Oracles concerning ancient Events and People which have now no Existence so thaâ— that hinders us from suspecting any Forgery I shall not repeat here the common Arguments which establish the Credit of these Books I brought in most of them when I established the Authority of the Books of Moses I shall only make some Reflexions here to establish the same Truth CHAP. VI. That the
to establish their Authority whereas the Predictions of others wanting this Character were neglected and at last absolutely lost It appears plainly That those which remain were things of the greatest Reputation among the Jews Besides I may add That one needs only read their Books to see that they not only foretold obscure things or what particularly concerned their State but also things of a more splendid Nature the overthrow of Kingdoms of Cities the Destruction of whole Nations the Destruction of their own City with its re-establishment Matters which would render their Books very illustrious and which would cause them to be read not only by the Jews but also by the Neighbour Nations the Ammonites Moabites Assyrians Persians Egyptians c. Is not this therefore a very particular thing and that which made the Prophets very illustrious That the great lustre of the Prophets continued but for a certain time There have been none since the Year 3553. their Glory appeared in the History of Eight Ages but it do's not extend it self any farther Now why I pray should there be no Impostors after Malachy as well as there were Impostors before him One may imagine perhaps That the Prophecies were immediately disperst some being uttered in one place and some in another Some in the Kingdom of Judah and others in the Kingdom of Israel Some in Babylon others in Egypt which might give Opportunites for Impostors But I. This Objection may be strongly retorted back For how can we conceive that in the Division which separated the Israelites from the Jews those of Judah would charge themselves with the Writings published in a Kingdom so much an Enemy to them without examination when every thing which comes from thence ought to appear suspected II. They were all collected into particular Volumes But the Prophecies of Hosea Isaiah and Jeremy and the most considerable of the rest are preserved in Books which contain many other things III. They are all exactly joyned with the History of the same Nation each one in a place where there was an equal concern to preserve and to gather them together But besides they were all collected into one Body In short the LXXII Interpreters translated them into Greek in the Year of the World 3727. and so submitted them to the Examination of the Egyptians and this also keeps us from doubting of their Truth This Translation was made but One hundred thirty and eight years after Malachy the last of the Prophets But what Judgment soever may be made of these Reflexions the Design whereof is only to establish the Reputation of these Prophecies and of the Books wherein they are written that so no room may be left for any suspicions of Forgery I shall add two Considerations to what I have said already which ought to appear convincing to every attentive man. I. One can suspect none but the Jews as Forgers of these Oracles Now not to say any any thing of the Absurdity of supposing that a whole Nation should have subscribed to such an Imposture all the Jews throughout the World were after their return from the Captivity strongly prepossessed with an opinion of the Messiah's being a great Temporal King and they have the same belief to this very hour in all places of the World wherever they are disperst This being once laid down I affirm it to be impossible that the Jews should forge Oracles which assert expresly That the Messiah should be put to death in so very odious a manner For as I shall afterwards shew the oldest Doctors attributed to the Messiah all those Oracles which speak of the Death of the Messiah according to the Christians and which they themselves in process of time were forced to interpret of two Messiah's one exposed to a world of Miseries and the other only glorious Or at least I may say it is impossible that the Jews should consent to a Forgery which thwarted their common Idea's and Pretensions in so very sensible a manner II. The second Consideration establishes the same Truth with no less firmness which is that the Call of the Gentiles to have a share in the Blessings of the Covenant which God made with the People of Israel was the thing in the World from which the Jews had the greatest aversation they looked upon the Blessings which the Messiah was to communicate as advantages entirely reserved for those of their own Nation How then can we conceive that the Jews should forge so many Oracles which should thwart their Prejudices so sensibly or how can we imagine that a whole People would authorize with their approbation an Imposture so contrary and so very opposite to their own Opinions But it is no hard thing to imagine That when the Jews were once perswaded of the Authority of their Prophets either by their Miracles or by the ready Accomplishment of every Oracle which they had publickly pronounced that they should receive their Books with a profound submission and preserve them with the utmost care But it appears to be an incomprehensible thing for a People to receive Impostures contrary to their Prejudices and Impostures reiterated so often without any ground but what a vast number of Records never before heard of would produce But I suppose these Reflexions will suffice to establish the Truth of the Historical and Prophetical Books of the Old Testament So that there will be no need of alledging particular proofs which might demonstrate the Truth of each Book in particular which would carry me out to too great a length I shall now consider the Oracles themselves and I shall shew the progress of the Light of this Revelation with respect to the Promise of the Messiah That this progress may be the better observed I shall do three things as I have formerly observed without which the mind of a wise Reader will not receive satisfaction I. I shall explain in a few words the Reason why these Oracles are interwoven with several Histories or Prophecies which seem to have no Relation to the Promise of the Messiah II. I shall give such Rules as will serve to justifie the Application which both Jews and Christians have equally made of several Oracles only to the Messiah III. I shall set the Oracles according to the Order of Time which will manifest the Advancement and Progress of that Light which is to be found in the Revelation it self As indeed it is natural to conceive that God should explain himself more clearly in this matter in proportion as the things themselves were nearer to their Completion CHAP. VII For what Reason the Oracles which relate to the Messiah were interwoven with other things which seem to be very widely distant ONe of the greatest Difficulties which may be raised against the Oracles of the Old Testament which concern the Messiah is that surprizing mixture which one see 's of those Oracles and of other Subjects which seem to be widely distant from any Idea of the Messiah There are none
IV. That we ought to pay a much greater deference to the Opinion of the ancient Jews than of those who have been sowred by their Miseries and Disputes to such a degree that they have lost that principle of Equity which keeps Men from denying the most evident Truths and which have been the most universally acknowledged by a whole Nation that was not prepossessed with so great a degree of Obstinacy But we ought to observe besides That this seeming Confusion of those Oracles which relate to the Messiah with other Subjects treated of by the Prophets arose from several Causes I. From the Prophet's often joyning the Idea's of the principal Promise the sending of the Messiah with the promise of those means which were absolutely necessary for the accomplishment of that promise as the preservation of the Jews for instance So the Captivity of the Israelites in Egypt and their departure from thence with their settling in the Land of Canaan which he had promised them before were foretold as necessary means in the order of Providence to the Execution of the great Design of God. For so the Babylonish Captivity and their Deliverance there from which are both foretold are foretold as steps towards the execution of the promise of sending the Messiah And so likewise when they foretold the Persecutions by Antiochus and the other Neighbouring Nations they also foretell the deliverance which God would grant to the Jews and their re-establishment until the Birth of the Messiah which was the accomplishment of that great Promise II. This seeming Confusion arose from the writing of these Books piece by piece which afterwards were put into this order without having always a regard to the time in which they were writ and without taking notice of all the occasions which engaged the Prophets to write And thus we see the Prophecies which relate to the Messiah joyned to several other Transactions and to several other Predictions whose connexion is not always so very evident III. It arises from the writing of the Prophecies each by themselves so that all those of the same Prophet were put together as they came out making only a new Chapter in the Work whereas they ought to be considered rather with relation to the Matter than to the Order in which they lye in the Book as we have it at the present For the Prophets often borrow their Light from what they themselves had said some time before or from what some other Prophet had foretold which ought to be observed particularly of those who lived about the same time But besides those Rules which I proposed in the beginning of this Chapter and besides those Observations of the joyning the Oracles which relate to the Messiah with other Subjects I must add two Rules more which may be useful in determining the sense of great numbers of Oracles which are expressed in figurative terms The first is That it is natural to conceive that when the Prophets were to speak of the Messiah and when they were intent upon the Description of his Kingdom they should make use of Expressions which seem'd to foretell a sort of overturning of nature which should happen at that time But then these Expressions ought to be understood in a figurative sense in the same Spiritual sense in which the Christians understood them as the famous Maimonides allows in that passage of Isaiah Lib. de Regibus cap. XII where the Wolf and the Lamb are said to feed together Secondly Since the Messiah is described as one who should unite in his own Person the Glory of the Divinity and the meanness of the Human Nature together we ought to understand those Oracles in such a manner that what is great in those Prophetical Descriptions should not contradict the more contemptible part when we consider the Messiah as cloathed with all the meannesses of the Human Nature These Idea's which are often joyned in one and the same Oracles ought to be exactly applyed to the different consideration which the Prophets had of the Messiah or to those various States through which they themselves assures us that the Messiah was to pass An intelligent Reader will easily judge that I might have added a third Rule to the two former which is That when a person who has all the Characters of a Prophet applys an old Oracle to any Subject one cannot reasonably dispute his application This the Christians assure us was done by the Apostles in a very great number of Oracles But because this supposes a Prophetick Character in the Apostles before it has been established by solid proofs I shall wave the proposal of it at present After these general Remarks I shall gather together those Oracles in the Old Testament which relate to the Messiah I might here follow the order of the Matters by bringing under each Article those Oracles which relate to it which would give a great Light to the Subject as Eusebius has rightly observed and as he has practised himself in his Books de Demonstratione Evangelicâ However I rather chose to follow the Order of Time in which these Oracles were uttered which did not seem improper to explain those Truths which are contained in those Oracles In short this is of great importance I. Because it is very natural to consider the Series of God's design and the connexion which may be found in those Idea's which are made use of to express it II. Because of the necessity of the encrease of the Light in the Revelations proportionably as the time drew near so that it is of use to observe how the Divine Wisdom follow'd this natural Order in making the later Oracles clearer than the former and in hinting by little and little a greater number of Circumstances by which it was necessary to explain them III. Because this serves to give us a very strong proof That God intended to furnish us from the Scriptures themselves with that which should fix us in a Belief of this Capital Truth in our Religion In short when the Truth of each of the Books in the Old Testament is once approved and their Age set down it appears that several Prophets did agree wonderfully without any concert in the explication of the same Truths at several Times and in several Places and Circumstances which hinder men for the most part from agreeing in the most common Matters which are the Subjects of their Reflexions I have already considered that the Wisdom of God follow'd Rules very conformable to the Condition and Inclinations of the Patriarchs when it spoke of the Messiah We may see the same Conduct in the following times So since God had promised Children to Adam in Abel's stead one may see that he also promised David a Son who should set upon his Throne He explains almost all the Circumstances of his Coming his Humiliation his Exaltation the Oppositions he should meet with the Victories he should obtain and his Offices Prophetical Priestly and Royal. One see
Oracle as we understand it hath been entertain'd amongst the Heathens who built their Fable of Perseus upon it whom they pretend to have been born of a Virgin. 3. It appears that all those Laws which I mentioned in my Reflexions upon Exodus and the following Books Chap. XX. and which have Relation to the distinct knowledge of the state of Virginity receive much light from this Notion and are without it altogether useless 4. 'T is evident that the Jews did not dispute this Character till after they saw that the Christians apply'd it to Jesus Christ and thereupon have fallen upon such childish Fancies as may justly cover them with Confusion But we shall be yet further satisfied hereof if we add to all these just Prejudices only the following Reflexions on the terms the Prophet makes use of The first is That the LXX Interpreters have in translating this Prophecy made use of a word that signifies a Virgin and not a young Woman as the Jews have understood it since our Saviour's time The first who rejected the Interpretation of the Septuagint was Symmachus In Dialog cum Tryphon Tertull. cont Jud. cap. 9. who lived in the second Century as it is observed by Justin Martyr and Tertullian who for this reason accuse the Jews of having falsified the Holy Scripture The second is That the Hebrew word expresly signifies such an one as according to the Law of Virgins was kept under Lock and Key from the Eyes of Men according to the custom of the Eastern Nations and especially of the Jews which continues amongst them till this day The third is That this word hath been taken by the Africans in the same signification as St. Jerome observes The fourth is That the Prophet doth set forth this Child-bearing as a Prodigy and Miracle altogether unheard of and as a particular Character by which the House of David was to be strongly confirmed in the hope of seeing the accomplishment of the Promise which God had made of setling an eternal Kingdom upon it which could not be accomplished but by means of the Messiah The fifth is That tho' some Jews have applyed this Prophecy to King Hezekiah Raschi in h. l. which yet to others of them seems very ridiculous he being Nine years of Age when the Prophecy was uttered by Isaiah and themselves never making use of this Evasion except in their Disputes against the Christians and so on this occasion have dropt a Confession which alone was sufficient to confound them Yet it hath been a thing so generally received amongst them That this Prophecy did respect the Messiah that after they had applyed it to Hezekiah one of their most famous Doctors concludes Gemar in Sanhed Cap. Chelech That they ought to look for no Messiah since the time of Hezekiah that Prophecy having had its accomplishment in him an Opinion which those that succeeded him have rejected with the greatest abhorrence The sixth is That the Title of Immanuel given to this Son whose Birth is here promised is represented to us Chap. VIII as the Name of him who was Lord of the Land which is a true Representation of the Heir promised to David to whom David said O God thy God hath anointed thee with the Oyl of Gladness above thy Fellows Psal XLV 7 8. The seventh is That the Prophet Isaiah having alledged and cited two Witnesses Uriah the Son of Shemaiah a Prophet who was put to death by Jehoiakim and Zechariah the Son of Jeberechiah the former of which lived long after Ahaz and the latter since the Captivity under Darius King of Persia according to the account the Jews themselves give of them he sufficiently hints by this Circumstance That the Prophecy concerning the Birth of the Immanuel he speaks of was to be fulfill'd many Ages after and not in that Age wherein he prophecies CHAP. XV. That the Messiah was to be born at Bethlehem of the Family of David which at that time was reduc'd to a private state GOD had not only pointed out the time in which the Messiah was to appear with the miraculous Manner and Circumstances of his Birth but he had also named the Family the Place with the State and Condition of the Family in which he was to be born as a triple Character by which he might be known I say first That according to the Divine Oracles the Messiah was to be born of the Family of David as will appear if we consider the following Oracles 1. God expresly promiseth as much to David II Sam. Chap. VII a place I have quoted before which proves that the Messiah was to be born of the Family of David 2. It appeareth that David believ'd this himself from Psalm CXXXII vers 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 and 18. The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David he will not turn from it of the fruit of thy Body will I set upon thy Throne And after having said Verse 12. That if his Children would keep his Covenant that their Children also should sit upon his Throne for evermore And this because Vers 13 14. the Lord had chosen Zion and desired it for his habitation c. and promised Verse 15. That he would abundantly bless her Provision and satisfie her Poor with Bread that he would Verse 16. Clothe her Priests with Salvation and make her Saints shout for joy He subjoyns Vers 17 18. There I will make the horn of David to bud I have ordained a Lamp for mine Anointed His Enemies I will clothe with shame but upon himself shall his Crown flourish It is very evident That by this Horn of David is to be meant a King the Messiah whom he distinguishes by that Expression from all the rest of David's Children And Zachariah in his Song of Praise Luke I. verse 69. applying it to our Saviour puts the Matter out of all doubt 3. Hence it was the Prophets took occasion to give to the Messiah the Name of David So Ezek. XXXIV vers 23 24. And I will set up one Shepherd over them and he shall feed them even my Servant David he shall feed them and he shall be their Shepherd And I the Lord will be their God and my Servant David a Prince among them I the Lord have spoken it 4. The Jews are and have always been firm in this perswasion grounded on the foresaid and other like places of Scripture which they constantly refer to the Messiah I say in the second place That the Divine Oracles expresly point out Bethlehem for the Birth-place of the Messiah Micah the V. Verse 2. But thou Bethlehem Ephratah though thou be little among the thousands of Judah yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from of old from the days of Eternity The Jews acknowledge that this Oracle speaks of the Messiah and indeed the Prophet distinguishing by Bethlehem adding the word Ephratah whence the Family
teach no more every man his Neighbour saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their Sin no more Thus saith the Lord which giveth the Sun for a light by day and the Ordinances of the Moon and Stars for a light by night which divideth the Sea when the waves thereof roar the Lord of Hosts is his name If those Ordinances depart from before me saith the Lord then the Seed of Israel also shall cease from being a Nation before me for ever Nothing can be desired more particular than this Oracle 1. It tells us that God would make a new Covenant with his People which supposes an abolishing of the former 2. That this Covenant was not to be like the foregoing 3. That the old Covenant had been made vain and had been broken by those with whom it was made 4. That this Covenant was to be made after those days that is in the time of the Messiah 5. That this new Covenant was not to be engraven in Tables of Stone but in their Hearts 6. That in the same Covenant full Remission of Sin is promised The same thing is also expressed Chap. XXXII vers 40. And I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts and they shall not depart from me And Chap. L. vers 5. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward saying Come and let us joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant that shall not be forgotten To this purpose also Ezechiel who himself was a Priest speaks of a Religious Worship extended to all Nations and of a new Covenant which God was to make with them Chap. XVI vers 60 61 62. Nevertheless I will remember my Covenant with thee in the days of thy youth and I will establish unto thee an everlasting Covenant Then thou shalt remember thy ways and be ashamed when thou shalt receive thy Sisters thy elder and thy younger and I will give them unto thee for Daughters but not by thy Covenant And I will establish my Covenant with thee and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. Here is first a Covenant differing from the former 2. A Covenant wherein other Nations were to be included clearly intimated by the elder and younger Sisters of the Synagogue 3. A Covenant whereby the Gentiles were to enjoy the same Priviledges with the Jews and be incorporated with them Malachy follows the steps of these Prophets when he calls the Messiah the Angel of the Covenant Chap. III. vers 1. Behold I will send my Messenger and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddainly come to his Temple even the Messenger Angel of the Covenant whom ye delight in behold he shall come saith the Lord of Hosts I know very well that the Jews apply these words to Elias whose Ministry as they pretend was to consist in leading the Jews to Repentance But if we read the Text with attention we shall find two Messengers mentioned the first who prepare the way of the Messiah and the other is the Messiah himself who is called the Angel of the Covenant as being sent of God to make a new Covenant with men CHAP. XIX That the Jews by a dreadful effect of their blindness were to reject the Messiah THis is a very peculiar Mark which will guide us surely to the knowledge of the Messiah We find the Jews at this day very ready to follow every one that usurps that August Title and to take him for the only true Messiah that was promised them which is no other than what was infallibly to come to pass Neither will this much surprize us if we consider 1. That this People on divers occasions have given very strange instances of a prodigious blindness We see them reject Moses notwithstanding God had authoriz'd his Call by great and avowed Miracles Yea we find them rejecting David also whom God had so signally appointed to be their King and the Father of the Messiah of whom we hear these Prophecies 2. That God upbraids them with this blindness by his Prophets as a sin to which they were peculiarly inclin'd as appears from Psalm LXIX vers 23 24 25 26 27 and 28. Let their eyes be darkned that they see not and make their Loins continually to shake Pour out thine indignation upon them and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them Let their habitation be desolate and let none dwell in their Tents for they persecute him whom thou hast smitten and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded Add iniquity to their iniquity and let them not come into thy Righteousness Let them be blotted out of the Book of the Living and not be written with the Righteous One see 's the same thing in Isaiah Chap. VI. vers 9 10 11 and 12. where the Spirit of God foretells that the Jews should shut their eyes against the most evident and convincing proofs imaginable Go saith the Lord to the Prophet and tell this people Hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not Make the heart of this people fat and their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed Then said I Lord how long And he answered untill the Cities be wasted without inhabitant and the houses without man and the Land be utterly desolate and the Lord have removed men far away and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the Land. Nothing can be imagined more particular than this Oracle concerning the Jews resisting the Prophet which God expresses in terms very usual amongst the Prophets as if Isaiah who was only the foreteller of their being hardned should himself be the cause of it The Prophet Hoseah describes the very same Complaints of God against the Jews for their blindness and ignorance for which he denounces their destruction Hos IV. vers 1 2 3 4 5 and 6. Hear the word of the Lord ye children of Israel for the Lord has a controversie with the inhabitants of the Land because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the Land. By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery they break out and blood toucheth blood Therefore shall the Land mourn and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish with the Beasts of the Field and with the Fowls of Heaven yea the Fishes of the Sea also shall be taken away Yet let no man strive or reprove another for thy people are as they that strive with the Priest Therefore shalt thou fall in the day and the Prophet also shall fall with thee in the night and I will destroy thy Mother
had promised from the beginning of the World and the only design of the New Testament is to prove that the Messiah is come according to the Prophets The first speaks concerning the Messiah as expected the latter as already come But we must proceed to a more particular view of this matter I say then first of all That the Christians have the same Object of their Faith which the Jews had this Jesus Christ himself declares where he saith This is life Eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Behold here the true Character of the Christian Religion as well as of the Jewish to believe one only God to own a Messiah and to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is he The Jews agree with us in the two former Articles tho' they dispute the last I say in the second place That the Laws of the Gospel which regulate Religion and the Conduct of particular persons in that Society are exactly the same with those of the old Testament Jesus Christ in his Sermon upon the Mount which contains an Abridgment of his Ethicks had no other end but to restore the true sense and meaning of those Laws God had given upon Mount Sinai and tho' in the matter of Divorces it seems opposite to that Law wherein God had before permitted them yet we may easily conceive that he began to abrogate those Orders and Dispensations which were only given to make the Messiah known whenever he should appear The prayer which Jesus Christ taught his Apostles is full of Notions which reigned among the Jews as several Expositors have manifested I shall content my self with alledging the instance of the petition for our daily Bread which has an evident regard to the Manna which God gave the Children of Israel in the Wilderness for Forty years We know also that the Sacraments of the Baptism and the Eucharist are originally Jewish Ceremonies which Jesus Christ hath applied with a very little variation to much more important Subjects Baptism was a washing which accompanied the Sacrifices and Circumcision of Proselytes lites And the washing practised under the Law of Moses signified that the Proselyte who was admitted to the same was resolved to renounce his former Courses and for the time to come to follow an opposite way of living according to the Rules prescribed him by the Ministers of Heaven after that they in the Name of God had assured him of the remission of his sins The Eucharist was an Appendix of the Feast of the Passover which preserved the Memory of the Sufferings of the Israelites in Egypt and the deliverance he afforded them in punishing of the Egyptians This Ceremony did perpetuate the Memory of that Deliverance till the coming of the Messiah Jesus Christ hath substituted to this figure an instance of the Curse of God against the Posterity of Cham the Idea of his Death by which he hath communicated his Blessing to all Nations of the Earth according to his promise And he hath made it a more full and exact Memorial of his Death which he would have us to consider as the death of the true Lamb which takes away the sins of the World. As the old Covenant was made in the Blood of a Lamb so Jesus Christ with regard to the New Testament or Covenant promised by Jeremiah Chap. XXXI ordains the celebrating the Memorial of the Blood he had spilt This is the New Testament in my Blood c. And lastly whereas the Law ordained the Commemoration of the Paschal Lamb but once a year Jesus Christ seems to appoint a much more frequent celebration of the Eucharist when he saith As oft as ye shall eat this Bread c. the reason of which without doubt is taken from the greatness of the benefit which his death confers upon us It is well worth our Observation That ordinarily the same Prophetical Idea's that are found in the Old Testament may be met with in the New. The Book of the Revelations contains abundance of particulars set down in the Prophecies of Zachariah and Ezechiel Jesus Christ himself pursues the Idea's of the Prophet Joel in the XXIV of Matthew when he sets forth the Destruction of Jerusalem and afterwards he describes the same according to the Notions which Daniel gives us thereof Daniel foretels in the VII Chapter of his Book the Destruction of the Roman Monarchy by the Christians whom he stiles the People of the most High. St. Paul follows the same Notion 1 Cor. VI. 2. where he supposeth it as a known thing The Saints saith he shall judge the World. And St. John in the XX of the Revelations verse 4. represents Satan bound and the Government put into the hands of Believers It is also very remarkable That the promises and threats of Jesus Christ are expressed in terms borrowed from the Old Testament These words of Jesus Christ He that hears my words and believes in him that sent me hath eternal life and shall not come into Judgment c. have not they a plain relation to Adam's unbelief and disobedience to the judgment he underwent and the punishment imposed on him Is it not from this Spirit which penetrates both that the New Testament so oft makes mention of a New Canaan a New Jerusalem a New Name c. and that Glory is represented to us sometimes under the Notion of Paradise sometimes of a Feast where Abraham who is called the Father of the Faithful sits at the upper end Eternal Damnation is represented to us under the Notion of the Valley of Hinnom of a Lake burning with Fire and Brimstone with regard to the Lake of Sodom and to the place where the filth of Jerusalem was wont to be burnt up and consumed 'T is upon this account that Believers are exhorted to remember Lot's Wife Luke IX 62. and XVII 32. and to depart from the midst of the wicked Hebr. XIII If we consider the Election of the Apostles and of the Seventy Disciples we shall find the reference they have to the Heads of the Twelve Tribes and to the Seventy Elders whom Moses chose to preserve the memory of the Seventy Souls Jacob brought with him into Egypt These passages Ye shall sit on Twelve Thrones and your Names are written in the Book of Life and the Number of 144000 being the product of 12 times 12 by allusion to the Twelve Tribes do all borrow their Light from those ancient Histories Throughout the New Testament we find nothing but a continual allusion to the state of the Jews all those Idea's of the Liberty of the Sons of God do allude to the Ceremony of their Jubilee The First born mentioned there and the Kingdom of Priests are not to be understood but by casting our eye on the Old Testament If Jesus Christ be called the chief Corner Stone if Peter be called a Stone or Rock Believers living Stones and the Apostles Foundations it is by way of allusion to
the face of the whole Nation of the Jews as I have shewed in the precedent Chapter They relate them as Facts for the most part owned by the Jews from which the Malice of the Jews extorted other Consequences They give us an account of the Judgment which the Jews made concerning the Miracles that he wrought on the Sabbath day upon the Disciples gathering the Ears of Corn of the answer which the Jews made to Pilate We have no other King but Cesar The second is That the Apostles supposing a general expectation of the Messiah when Jesus Christ appeared shew that there was a very great knowledge of the Prophecies that respected the Messiah and a great impossibility of applying those Oracles to particular Facts if the truth of those Facts had not been beyond contest Now we find very few Oracles of which they did not make an application to the Life and Actions of our Saviour Wee 'l suppose the Apostles to have been Men of great Abilities and who had long studied the Books of the Prophets that they might tear out such small passages as they fancied might be applicable to Jesus Christ However it cannot be denied that it does not appear by their Writings that they had such an exact knowledge of the Prophecies whence it might follow that they judged them to be applicable to Christ by comparing them with the Facts which they relate 2. That they had this knowledge in common with the rest of the Jews who at this day apply the same Texts to the Messiah if they are not constrained by their clearness to wrest them some other way The third Reflexion is That in the Relation of these Facts they give us all the Marks of an extraordinary sincerity they represent indeed whatsoever was for their Master's Glory but they do as well relate those things which seem to be shameful to his memory They tell us of the Angels that assisted at his Birth and at his Death but tell us withal That he was tempted of the Devil and in all appearance forsaken by God at his death They tell us That the multitudes were resolved to take him by force and make him their King as acknowledging him for the Messiah and they tell us That the same multitude some time after demanded him to be crucified The fourth is That they represent very naturally all the Judgments of the Synagogue against Jesus They represent him as excommunicated and crucified by them they describe the reports that were current among the Jews That the Disciples had taken away his Body out of the Sepulchre that the Souldiers had deposed the same in the forms of Law before Pilate From all which it appears that they were faithful Historians and not at all prepossessed and that they used no Invectives against the Authors of these false Reports contenting themselves to establish the truth of the matter by specifying the places the time the witnesses and other circumstances which are proper to establish the truth of the Facts they relate These four Reflexions being once supposed I say it is impossible to dispute the truth of these Books or to call their Authority in question To be convinc'd of which one needs only consider these two things the first is That the Apostles are the Authors of the Books which pass under their Names the other is That their faithfulness is not to be suspected by us The former of these is so universally received that nothing will be certain in matters of this nature if this be questioned The four Evangelists have published their Writings in populous Cities where they have been constantly read every Lord's day in Christian Assemblies as S. Justin Martyr assures us in his Apology which was writ about the middle of the second Century The Apostles writ their Epistles to numerous Churches to whom their hand as well as the persons by whom they sent them were well known Can we instance in any Writing in the World that hath been preserved with the like carefulness Let the Jews tell us what they please concerning the care and faithfulness of their Ancestors to preserve the Books of the Old Testament they can alledge nothing but we can alledge the same in favour of the Books of the New Testament They tells us that Moses under the penalty of a Curse had forbid the adding any thing thereto and do not we read the same threatning in the last Book of the New Testament The Philosophers of each Sect have nothing of this weight to alledge as an Argument that the Books which they ascribe to their Masters are really theirs we find only a few men in every Age who made it their business to study the Books of the Philosophers Physicians and Lawyers but ever since the Apostles there have been Christians who made it their business to peruse and preserve their Writings as considering that they are the Fountains of Eternal Life One may upon this occasion take notice of two things which deserve some attention The one is That the design of some Hereticks as of Marcion for instance to corrupt the Copies of the Writings of the New Testament which were found in the hands of those of his Sect is a good Argument to prove that they could not be corrupted In short we find all the World opposed themselves against this Corruption and confuted them by the agreement of all the other Copies in the World which were exempt from this corruption The other is That if there are some Books whose Authority was doubtful for some time by those who otherwise were accounted Orthodox yet this cannot justly prejudice the truth of the New Testament the reason is because this happened only to some few Epistles which were written not to particular Churches but to whole Nations And indeed it is plain from common sense that when Writings are sent to whole Bodies as the Epistle of S. Jude without communicating the Copy to particular men that they may with more justice be suspected than those whose hand was known by many and particularly by those to whom the Epistles were sent Moreover The account which the ancient Fathers of the Church give us of the uncertainties of this nature sufficiently shew that they were very careful in examining these things and when at any time some particular men did not use care enough in examining these Books as it once happened in the Church of Ross Euseb Lib. VI. cap. 12. where a Book which was falsly attributed to S. Peter was preserved supposing it to have been his the other Churches not consenting to it that Abuse was soon remedied the Writings abolished that there is scarce a weak remembrance left of them One see 's that these Remarks are sufficient to assure us that the Apostles are the Authors of those Books which bear their Names And if this way of confirming a matter of this nature be accounted good and solid when we speak of the Books of Aristotle or Hippocrates it must be infinitely
who declared himself to be the Messiah were so indeed so it is absolutely impossible to examine it or know it since the destruction of that Model if we suppose that God at first framed it for the determining of this question as we have no reason to doubt it The second is That the Christians exactly followed this Divine Model and being convinced of the truth of the Facts which exactly corresponded with it and which answered it in all its parts they had all the Reason imaginable to believe that Jesus Christ was the Messiah In short if we consider it well we shall find that the whole Christian Religion is nothing but a question of Fact between the Jews and Christians But such a question as the Jews at present are not in a condition to maintain against the Christians Both Jews and Christians agree in the Characters of the Messiah or at least about the most of them According to these Characters the Messiah ought to be come The Christians maintain that they may be found in Jesus Christ and they prove it by matter of Fact wherefore we must conclude That either these Characters attributed to the Messiah are not proper Characters to know him by and so the Wisdom of God will be eluded and both Jews and Christians equally deceived in taking that for a Character of the Messiah which is not or else that both the Messiah is certainly come and and that He is no other than that Jesus whom we worship CHAP. XXI That the greatness of the Mysteries of the Christian Religion and the Division which is amongst Christians cannot be any prejudice to the proofs of the truth of the Christian Religion I Come now to examine the double stumbling Block which the Jews pretend against the Christian Religion This Religion say they propounds Doctrines that are inconceivable and contrary to Reason For instance that of the Trinity that of the Incarnation and the Divinity of the Messiah These are the Doctrines which the Jews reject as absolutely incompatible with the Books of the Old Testament which we have received from their hands But it is an easie matter to answer this Objection 1. It is founded upon a total forgetfulness of the solidity of those proofs of Fact which I have alledged Jesus Christ is risen from the dead this is a Fact confirmed by several Witnesses It appears from Tacitus that Jesus Christ suffered death under Tiberius Pontius Pilate being Governour of Judea It is known that Claudius banished the Christians from Rome in the Year of our Lord 54. It is evident from Tacitus in his Life of Nero that he accused the Christians of burning the City of Rome which himself was the Author of the Christians therefore made a considerable Body in the Capital City of the Empire and this happened in the year of our Lord 64. Suetonius says the same thing 2. It appears that Pliny in Trajan's time takes notice of the manner of their Meetings 3. Dion Cassius sets down the Accusation brought in against Flavius and Domitilla as against Atheists which is the Title Julian the Apostate gives to Constantine because the Christians rejected the worship of the Heathen Gods. 4. It appears by the latter end of the Acts of the Apostles that this Book was writ in the Year of our Lord 63 and yet this Book supposes the Gospel of S. Luke to have been written before it and S. Luke's Gospel takes it for granted that some of the other Gospels were already published 5. It appears from the Writings of Clemens Romanus that the Epistle to the Hebrews was then written and the same may be gathered from the Books of S. Ignatius Polycarp and S. Justin. These Facts which are certain are sufficient to prove that immediately after the death of Jesus Christ his Apostles and their Disciples as Eye witnesses maintained the truth of his Resurrection After this it may indeed be disputed by what Power he was raised whether by a Divine Power or by his own but it is ridiculous to dispute the Fact by reasonings drawn from pretened Absurdities which one may think to find in the Doctrines of the Gospel Secondly These Mysteries as for instance that of the Trinity relates to the Divine Nature which is incomprehensible so that it is no strange thing if an Idea of it be proposed to us which not being distinctly known by us may raise Difficulties and Perplexities in our Minds If I would discourse with one born blind of the Sun of its Light and Heat and should attribute to the Sun the Production of Light and afterwards of Heat he would find an infinite trouble not to imagine three Suns It is known how the Philosophers who agreed about the Unity of the Soul have notwithstanding been obliged to attribute several Faculties to it which the common People look upon as very different things and which seem to oppose the Idea's of its Unity and Simplicity In the third place The Christians prove very solidly that these Mysteries have been clearly proposed by the Apostles who received their light from Heaven as to these Truths and so might necessarily be believed upon their word for the same reason that the Prophets of the Old Testament were formerly believed Moreover they assert that these Doctrines were first expressed tho' not so clearly in the Old Testament which is in the hands of the Jews the mortal Enemies of Christians I add to these Remarks that most of those Facts whose truth is so invincibly established suppose these Doctrines and that the whole frame of the Religion doth so necessarily require them that we rob it of a considerable part of its Glory in questioning or contesting any of them These Reflexions may suffice in general to resolve this difficulty of the Jews and for a more particular Satisfaction we refer the Reader to those Books which purposely treat of these Mysteries desiring him to observe carefully that commonly the most difficult Objections of Hereticks against these matters do rather oppose the terms which are made use of or the notions which men follow in speaking of these truths than the Propositions contained in the Writings of the New Testament At least one may be assured that the Jews are constrained to resolve several parallel Objections to which one can scarcely give a satisfactory Answer without borrowing some Distinctions and Notions from the Christians Neither can the second Objection of the Jews give us any more disturbance It is true that there have been Divisions amongst Christians and are still to this day What can we conclude thence Can we reasonably conclude that therefore the first Founders of Christianity were doubtful concerning the truth of those Facts which are the support and foundation of it On the contrary upon an attentive Observation one may find 1. That Heresies have only served to render the truth of these Facts more incontestable by obliging those that had consider'd of them to examine their certainty with more care and application This is the Judgment one ought to make upon all those Heresies in the second Age about the truth of the Flesh of Jesus Christ or about the truth of his Death From thence men took occasion to take notice of and collect with great care all the Circumstances that prove the truth of both these Facts 2. We find that the greatest part of these Contests do not concern the truth of the Facts but the several Consequences drawn from them the truth of those Matters continuing still beyond dispute This we find in the Dispute raised about the Millennium the truth of the Promises of Jesus Christ being equally believed by both the disputing Parties but differently understood according to the temper of those that consider'd of them some forming gross and sensual Conceptions concerning them others having a more spiritual relish which they had acquired by studying the Prophecies and their true sense 3. We find that this Division which hath sprung up amongst Christians is one of the most solid proofs of the truth of the Books of the New Testament If some Fools have endeavoured to decry some of them or to falsifie some particular places we see that both Parties unite to repel that violence by producing their Copies and beating back the Impostors with their united strength One see 's that Tertullian tho' a Montanist writ Prescriptions against Hereticks and Epiphanius takes notice without any respect to some that were Orthodox of their Crime in blotting out of their Copies that Christ had wept It is known that the Division of the Jews into Karaites and Thalmudists the Jealousie between the Jews and Samaritans and the Division between the Jews and Christians is a means of preserving the Scripture and hindering its Corruption each Party being very vigilant to hinder their Adversaries from attempting any thing to its prejudice in corrupting a Book which they consider as common to them all I might observe many other advantages which accrew to the Truth from these Human Failings but I will only instance in one which has always seem'd to me very considerable and that is That these Hereticks distinctly prove the truth of the Predictions of our Saviour An impious person would have reason to accuse our Oracles as false if there had never been any Heresies But Truth triumphs in seeing so great a multitude of them who the more they encrease the more she see 's her self confirm'd and established This is the Reason induced God to permit so great an increase in the first Ages when the Truth meeting with the greatest Opposition by Persecutions stood in the greatest need of sensible Characters by which it might be known I conclude this Work with desiring my Reader to consider these Reflexions upon the Holy Scripture here propounded with a serious attention and to examine the Coherence and Indissoluble Connexion of them and with prayer to God that it may please him to make them serviceable to advance the Glory of his Name which is the only end I have proposed to my self in the writing of them FINIS
acknowledged the beginning of Mankind seeing they held that men were first born in Egypt altho' they endeavoured to make good their pretensions by that sottish Assertion of the easie production of Frogs out of the mud of their Fen's as the same Diodorus tells us But there are three things which I must here take notice of because they do most certainly decide the question The first is That by that long Reign which they ascribe to their Gods and Hero's there is nothing else meant but the motion of the Stars and nothing like a real Kingdom That prodigious number of years does not relate to the duration of the World as if it had subsisted so long but to the return of the Sun and the Moon and the five other Planets and of the Heavens to the same point from whence according to the Opinion of the Egyptians they first began their Course In a word it is only the great Astronomical Year about which as Aristole tells us the Ancients have had so many different Opinions and the Egyptians have so little agreed as the History of their Antiquities related by Diodorus plainly shews One thing evidently-proves what I here alledge which is that they have reckon'd up but fifteen Dynasties to Jupiter the last of the Heroes that is to say but fifteen persons to Jupiter who is Ham the third Son of Noah This comes very near Moses's Calculation who reckoneth Noah as the tenth man from Adam for it is very likely that those ignorant people after a long process of time have joyned Cain and Abel with Sem and Japhet and Misraim the Son of Ham which makes up the sixteen Dynasties except we chuse to say that the Egyptians thought fit to joyn the seven Generations of Cain to those before the Flood which comes very near to the same Account All this according to the phantastick Notions of those ancient people who defied the first men and gave them afterwards the Names of some Stars to impress upon their Posterity a greater veneration for them and in particular according to the groundless imagination of the Egyptians who were resolved to maintain that the first men were formed in their own Country And in short we find that those Dynasties for the most part if we except those of Vulcan and of the Sun have been but of a very short continuance and even shorter than that which Moses ascribes to the lives of the ancient Patriarchs which we have already set down The second thing that is observable in the confutation of this false Antiquity if one would take what the Egyptians have related of their Dynasties before Menes and Jupiter the last of their Heroes in a Historical sense is that there are still sufficient marks of the newness of the World as Moses hath described it in the remaining Fragments of the true Egyptian History First We see that Egypt hath constantly carried the Name of Ham amongst the Gentiles as well as in the Holy Scriptures It was called so in Plutarch's time The Egyptian Thebes was called Hammon No Ezech. 30. which is the Name of the Egyptian Jupiter as the Heathen Authors Herodotus and Plutarch testifie Now it is visible that all this was for no other reason but because Egypt had fallen to the share of Ham Noah's third Son who settled there and whose Posterity did afterwards people Africa and gave it their several Names as Moses particularly observes Secondly One see 's that Egypt hath more particularly born the Name of Mizraim which it bares still and which was given to it in respect of one of its parts because of Mizraim the Son of Ham. And it would be ridiculous for one to imagine that those Characters given by Moses had been allowed of in the World except he had had good grounds to describe their original in the same manner as he hath already done Thirdly One see 's that all the Dynasties of Egypt that is to say all the several Branches of the Kings who have reign'd over the several parts of Egypt did all acknowledge Menes for their Common Founder This Menes being the same with that Mizraim of Moses as I shall shew hereafter It is visible that the Egyptians who in all likelyhood have ascribed to Menes what they might more justly have ascribed to Jupiter Hammon because they would distinguish their Kings from Hero's have exactly followed the Idea's of Moses in representing one as the common Father of all the several Branches of Kings who divided Egypt amongst themselves Fourthly One see 's that the Invention of the Arts most necessary to Human Life have been attributed either to Menes the first King of Egypt or to his Successors It was this Menes or one of his Successors who invented Laws Letters Astronomy Musick Wrestling Physick Hieroglyphicks Anatomy and Architecture All this plainly shews that the Egyptians had been mistaken if they had ascribed to the World as great an Antiquity as one would think they did by the vast extent of time which they ascribed to the Dynasties of their Gods and Hero's How could the World have continued above Thirty thousand years without those Arts which are so necessary for the convenience of Human Life How could men not have found out during such a prodigious succession of Ages those Arts the invention whereof the Egyptians do ascribe to their first King or to one or two of his Successors during a very short interval of time Fifthly One see 's in the History of Egypt the same decay in Religion that Moses speaks of Herod Lib. II. cap 4. Lucian de Dea Syr. The Ancients unanimously agree that the Egyptians had at first neither Statues nor Images in their Temples which perfectly agrees with what Moses tells us of the times after the Flood But they tell us also That the Egyptians afterwards made some Statues and consecrated in their Temples the Figures of great numbers of Animals Some are of opinion and that probably enough that this came from the belief which they entertained afterwards of the Transmigration of Souls into other Animals an opinion which they thought did necessarily flow from the Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul. Sixthly However one sees in the sixth place That as Moses represents Nimrod one of Ham's Posterity as the Founder of an Empire in Assyria where he formed the manners of the Inhabitants according to the Platform of the Egyptian Principles so the Ancients have observed That the famous Assyrian Belus came out of Egypt And it is natural to conceive Pausan in Messen p. 261. that there he planted Idolatry which began even before Abraham's time If it be true as the Jews observe that the Tower of Babel was a Temple wherein an Idol was consecrated to worship him At least that conjecture hath a very solid ground if we consider the Idolatry of the Babylonians towards this Bel whom they worshipped as a God according to the Pagans Custom of Adoring the Founders of Kingdoms after their
decease as Gods. The third thing we are here to take notice of contains a Demonstration of the Truth of the Book Genesis if that which is recorded in it concerning the time of the Flood be compared with the Dynasties of the Egyptian Kings I will not say that those Egyptians who had any knowledge of the Flood did exactly mark out the time of it as Moses doth But I believe I may be able to shew out of their common opinion's somthing very near equivalent They are all agreed that Menes was the first King of Egypt and lived about Fourteen hundred years before the famous Sesostris as Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus do both relate it Now who should this King of Egypt be whom some call Sesonchosis unless he is the same with Shishak whom the Scripture speaks of in the History of Rehoboam 1 Kings XIV 26. even the same famous Conquerer who took Jerusalem in the fifth year of Rehoboam's Reign If one calculates the time from the Flood to the fifth year of Rehoboam he will find that this Menes the first King of Egypt is no other than the Ham of Moses and on the other side that there is very little difference in respect of that interval of time betwixt the Chronology of the Egyptians and that of the Scriptures Thus the Egyptian Account confirms Moses's Narrative and the Authority of the Holy Writers who are very particular in stating the times of every thing whereas the Egyptians taking all in great could never arrive at that exactness This Observation is of very great use to shew the certainty of Moses's Chronology according to the Hebrew Text For that of the Septuagint reckons up above two thousand years from the Flood to Sesostris whereas the Egyptians did reckon up but a little above fourteen hundred years from Menes the first King of Egypt to Sesostris There is yet less difficulty to answer the Objection which may be made against the Book of Genesis from the pretended Antiquity of the Chaldeans The same Diodorus Siculus who saith Diodor. l. 2. Sect. 30 31. that the Egyptians proposed so great an Antiquity of the World tells us also that the Chaldeans believed it eternal and that they boasted in Alexander's time that they had learnt Astronomy by Tradition from their Ancestors who had all successively made it their study for four hundred seventy two thousand years together But there is nothing vainer than these Pretences I shall not stand to shew here the folly of their Opinions about the Eternity of the World If Aristotle seems to have authoriz'd it yet it is enough to confute that Opinion to consider that it is repugnant to the common notion of all the Nations of the World So that Democritus himself who pretended that the World was made by chance yet durst not oppose the common and general Opinion of the Worlds being new tho' he had the boldness to reject the Author of it and that action by which it was Created Neither do I intend to be prolix here in confuting the supposition of the Chaldeans about their Ancestors following the Study of Astrology for 472000 year successively The impossibility of the thing in it self is apparent by the certainty of the Flood which was acknowledged by all those Nations of whom we have any Antiquities tho' never so little considerable in Pagan Authors But I shall make two Observations whereof one shews the folly of the Chaldean Hypothesis and the other doth invincibly establish the Authority of the Book of Genesis if it be compared with what we know for certain and in the Chaldean History The First is That the most Ancient Authors are of Opinion that the Chaldeans are descended from the Egyptians who lookt upon them as a Colony of their own Diodorus Siculus saith that the Egyptians maintained that they had sent out several Colonies into several parts of the World that Belus the Son of Neptune and Lybia had conducted one into Babylon and that having fixed it near Euphrates he establish'd some Priests among them according to the Egyptian Custom who were free from all publick Charges and Offices whom the Babylonians do call Chaldeans and who according to the Example of the Egyptian Priests Ap. Joseph Antiq. l. 1. c. 5. Pausan Messen P. 261. Philosophers and Astrologers did apply themselves to the observation of the Stars Hestiaeus and Pausanias say the same with Diodorus Now one needs only examine here what the Egyptians do say about the invention of Astrology which they ascribe to Menes that is to say to Ham or to Mizraim who lived after the Flood thereby to discover the Foolish Vanity of the Chaldeans It is plain that the Chaldeans grew so vain by the growth of so considerable an Empire as theirs was that they would be no longer beholding to the Egyptian Astrologers whom all other Nations have lookt upon as the first Inventors of that Science to the inventing and perfecting of which all Men know that the Egyptian Climate where the Skie is always free from Clouds did very much contribute And it is very considerable that both the Chaldeans and the Egyptians began their Year with the same Month according to Censorinus's Observation c. XXI de die Nat. I know very well the Ancient Heathens were mistaken when they pretended that the Chaldeans went out of Egypt as a Plantation There is no doubt a kind of Illusion in this their Opinion but yet the ground and Origine of it is uncontroulable because the Chaldeans are descended from Cush Ham's Eldest Son as Moses tells Gen. X. Therefore tho' we should grant that the Chaldeans were the first Inventors of Astrology yet this would be always certain that it was found out only since Ham's time whom the Egyptians did look upon as the last of their Heroes or as the first of their Kings The other Observation which ought to be well minded here is taken out of the true and genuine Chaldean Antiquities One may prove by the Astronomical Demonstrations of the Chaldeans which the People of Israel was altogether unacquainted with that Moses followed a Calculation which was then generally known Aristotle the first Grecian that ever taught the Eternity of the World contrary to Moses's History is the Man who furnishes us with it He took care to send over into Greece the Astronomical Observations of the Chaldeans by which it appeared Simplic in l. 2. de coelo that Babylon was taken by Alexander about 1903 years after its Foundation Now that Calculation agrees exactly with that of Moses Gen. XI who gives us the Description of the Tower of Babel and explains the Original of the Name of that City which was built some Ages after by the Confusion of Tongues which then happened And truly it would be very admirable that the Heavens in their Motions should have entered into a Confederacy with Moses to justifie a Chronology invented by him in sport without keeping to any Rules but writing