An Excellent DISCOURSE Proving the Divine Original and Authority OF The Five BOOKS OF MOSES Written Originally in French by Monsieur Du Bois de la Cour and Approved by six Doctors of the Sorbon To Which is added a SECOND PART OR AN EXAMINATION Of a considerable part of PERE SIMON 's Critical History of the Old Testament wherein all his Objections With the Weightiest of Spinosa's against Moses's being the Author of the first Five Books of the Bible are Answered and some difficult places of Holy Scripture are Explained By W. L. London Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chappel 1682. A PREFACE Opening the true Nature and Reasons of a Saving-Faith § 1. THere is no Man that ever heard the Gospel and hath such a care of his everlasting State as beseemeth a reasonable Creature but must needs perceive of how great weight it is to be well assured of the truth of those supernatural Revelations delivered to us in the Sacred Scriptures Much may be known by the well studied Book of Nature But not enough to quiet the mind of Man by assured hopes of future Happiness and the way thereto And therefore almost all the Heathen and Infidel World have their Augures or Prophets on whom they depend as Conscious of the necessity of more than common natural Light Besides that it requireth greater helps and longer studies to understand the Book of Nature than the generallity of Mankind can use whereas God by his word hath made all necessary truth so plain that Children in a short time may grow wiser than the Philosophers § 2. No wonder then if it be the great work of the Prince of Darkness the Enemy of God and Man to deprive the World of the benefit of the Sacred Sacriptures which he doth First By keeping most of the Earth from knowing it for want of Teachers mostly kept out by the Persecution of Tyrants and Idolatrous Priests Secondly By keeping those that hear it from believing it Thirdly By keeping those that believe it from the right understanding of it Fourthly By keeping those that partly understand it from a serious considering what they understand Fifthly By keeping Men from a willing obedience to what they know and think of § 3. Among professed Christians it is the want of a sound Belief which is the great cause of all Ungodliness and Misery And no wonder For it is an high and excellent work to live on the joyful belief and hope of an unseen everlasting Life And in this dark State believing must conquer many difficulties which slothful Men will rather yield to than duely strive to overcome § 4. First We have contracted so inordinate a Love to this kind of life in Flesh that corrupt Nature is loth to think of any other because it would not part with this And when Men are convinced only of a necessity of looking forward beyond the Grave this changeth not their love but still an unwilling backward heart receiveth the notices of the Life to come but as unpleasant Physick which nothing but meer necessity will get down And how ill a Receiver an unwilling mind is experience telleth all the World Yea so backward and senseless is depraved Nature that even this necessity is seldom seriously considered till the Sentence of Death awaken the Soul and are Men then fit to begin so hard a study as must shew them the certainty of the Gospel and the Life to come and to get Faith when they must use it § 5. Secondly And I write it as necessitated and with Lamentation it is not all Mens Lot to have Teachers that shew them the right way even of founding their Belief and discerning the certainty of the Gospel and the Immortality of Souls If I should tell you how many Parishes that have Weekly Sermons in which Faith and Christianity and Heaven are mentioned have Teachers that cannot confute an Infidel or Sadducee or teach Men clearly how to be sure that their Faith and Hope are not meer Errour and that cannot tell which way well to prove the truth of their profest Religion some would be offended at it that are not offended at their own sad defect who are ignorant of so needful a part of the Catechisme which every Christian should be taught § 6. Sad numerous instances are too clear a clear a proof First It is become so great a controversie whether Faith have any Evidence or not and whether we can certainly prove the Gospel to be true or rather must merit the more by believing it without proof that the Papists are together by the Ears about it and those Protestants that handle it differ among themselves But the most keep their peace by not daring to decide it And how can those Teachers shew the people the ascertaining Evidence and Proof who hold that there is none to be shewn The objects of Faith are not evident to Sense not seen not tasted c. but the truth of the Revelation hath ascertaining proof And nothing is provable but by intelligible Evidence Secondly The whole Papal Church almost holds That the method of believing the Gospel is to believe it on the Authority of the Church's proposal or affirmation As if Men must believe that Christ hath a Church and that it is thus Authorized before they believe that he is the Christ and hath Authority himself or any Law that gives Authority A multitude of impossibles are here supposed before Man can be a true believer which I have fully manifested elsewhere Thirdly Some that see how unable the vulgar and unlearned are to manage a matter of such weight and difficulty and fearing least a tryal of their Faith against hard objections should but overturn it perswade the weak only to believe and not to doubt but not to ask why nor to search for Reasons for their Faith least disputing the case and hearing objections which they cannot answer should make them Infidels or crack their Brains Fourthly Some tell them that it is only the inward witness of the Spirit in themselves that can assure them that the Scriptures are the word of God Not telling them well what that Testimony is nor how those that yet hear it not shall be convinced of unbelief Fifthly Some by overdoing tell us that the Scripture so shineth propria luce and conteineth its own evidence of Divinity so clearly that a Man that doth but read it though he found it by the high-way and never before heard of it may there see sufficient evidence that it is all of God Sixthly Some by greater overdoing distinguish not the Essentials of Religion from the Integrals or Accidents nor the words from the matter nor the Law and Gospel from the subordinate parts of the Bible in point of evidence and necessity and so would tempt Men to think that if any sentence in our Bibles translation or original be mistaken we can have no certainty of the truth of any of
ea quae non comprehenduntur ita neque scripturae divinitati per eam totam diffusae quidquam detrahitur ex eo quòd ad singulas dictiones imbecillitas nostra non possit adesse arcano splendori doctrinae qui in tenui contemptâ locutione delitescit Orig. Philoc. cap. 1. pag. 5. Edit Cantabrig 1658. London Printed for Tho. Parkhurst 1682. The Second Part. WHat is contained in these following Sheets was first intended for a Preface unto the foregoing Discourse Translated out of French into English but when I had finished it I found it would be too long a Preface unto such a short Discourse and therefore upon Second thoughts I concluded it would be better to subjoin◠it thereunto by way of Appendix or Second Part. Who was the Author of the Discourse I do not certainly know but it is probable that Monsieur du Bois de la Cour who wrote the Discourse on Paschal his Thoughts or Meditations on Religion c. was likewise the Author of this Discourse for they are frequently bound together and were both Published the one in 1671 and the other in 1672 with the approbation of the same Doctors of the Sorbon excepting one whose name is not subscribed with the other Six unto the approbation of this Discourse But who ever be the Author he is a Man of Parts and has done worthily in this Discourse in which he hath shewed his high Veneration of the Holy Scriptures and hath irrefragably proved the truth of the most Signal and Miraculous matters of Fact contained in the Books of Moses and by that means he hath proved the Divine Original and Authority of all the Laws and Ordinances given by Moses unto the Israelites and Recorded in his Books So that the Translation of it cannot but be of good use unto English Readers for confirming them in the Faith and strengthening them against Tentations unto Infidelity in these Backsliding Times The Discourse is so well Penned by the Author that it needs no Recommendation from any it s own great Excellency and Usefulness will abundantly suffice to commend it unto any ingenious Man that shall be at the pains of spending half an Hour in Reading of it It would therefore have been altogether needless for me to have added unto it what follows here in this Second Part if there had not been lately Published in English a Book of P. Simon 's Intituled A Critical History of the Old Testament where Book 1. Chap. 5. Pag. 36. in the Contents of that Chapter he hath these very Words Moses cannot be the Author of the Books which are attributed to him I had no sooner Read this in the contents of the Chapter but I was desirous to know what Arguments he used to prove such an uncouth Assertion as had seldom been heard of from any before but such as Hobs in his Leviathan Pereyre in his Systema Praeadamiticum and Spinosa in his Tractatus Theologico-politicus all Atheists or Infidels And thereupon having Read and Examined all he says to prove his Assertion I thought it would be necessary together with the Precedent Discourse to Publish a few short Animadversions on what he has written in his Critical History against the Pentateuchs being written by Moses And that what I have to say may be the better understood and the more convincing and satisfactory unto the Reader I shall proceed in this Method First I shall shew what is the Truth to be believed and what is the Belief of the Christian Church Secondly What is the opinion of P. Simon and wherein he agrees with or differs from the common Faith of the Church in this matter Thirdly Answer his Arguments whereby he endeavors to prove his Opinion That Moses could not be the Author of the Books which are attributed to him Now for the First The Truth to be believed is 1. That the whole Scripture of the Old Testament and consequently the Pentateuch or first Five Books of the Bible were written by Divine Inspiration and that God is the primary Author thereof this is proved from Luke 16. 29 31. They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them c. And Luke 24. 25 27 44 45 46. And from 2 Tim. 3. 16. where it is expresly said That all Scripture or the whole Scripture is given by Inspiration of God And 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. where it is expresly affirmed that the first thing to be known concerning the Scriptures is this That no Prophecy of the Scripture is of any private Interpretation that is of any Man 's own Inventing for the Prophecy came not in old time by the will of Man but Holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost The same Truth is clearly proved from Psalm 147. 19. compared with Rom. 3. 2. 9. 4. 2. That this being first known and believed and so the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures secured it matters not very much whether we ever certainly know the names of all the Holy Men whom God used as his Instruments in writing the several Books of Sacred Scripture for there are some Books of Scripture that bear the names of no Man as Author of them under God and yet they are as much of Divine Authority as those Books that have the name of some Prophet or Apostle expressed in their Title and the names which Books of Scripture bear do not always import that the Man whose name the Book bears was the Writer of the Book but that the Book was written of and concerning him and his Acts. Thus the Book of Joshua is so called because it was written of and concerning Joshua though it is probable it was not written by him but by some other Holy Man of God after his Death see for this Bishop Richardsons Observations on the Old Testament pag. 45. the like may be said of some other Books of Holy Scripture That then which concerns us most is to know whether God be the Author of the several Books in the Canon of Scripture and if we be once sure of this we need not trouble our selves much about the knowing of the names of the several Men by whom it pleased the Lord God to consign them to Writing Gregory the Great in his Preface to his Exposition on Job has this Remarkable saying Si Magni cujusdam viri susceptis Epistolis c. If having received the Letters of some great Man we should read the Words and enquire by what Pen they had been written truly it would be ridiculous if we should endeavor not to know the Author of the Letters nor to understand the sense but to find out by what Pen the several words of them had been written since then we know the thing and that the Holy Spirit is the Author of it what else do we in enquiring after the Writer but in reading the Letters stand asking by what Pen they were written Yet 3. when a Book of Holy Scripture bears the name of its
Author and an Universal Historical Tradition assures us that such a Man was indeed the Author of it we are bound to believe it and cannot rationally disbelieve it without a demonstration to the contrary Thus we know the Books of Plato Aristotle and Cicero to have been written by those Authors and this is so clear and certain a truth Vt de istorum librorum Authoritatibus dubitare dementis sit utque ridendus sit non refellendus qui de iis questionem movet That none but a Madman will doubt of the Authors of those Books and he is to be laughed at and not confuted who moves a Question concerning them as holy August writes contra Fanstum Manich. lib. 32. cap. 21. And as he says That he knew the writeings of the New Testament to be the writings of the Apostles by the same means that the Manichees knew the writeings of Manes to be the writings of Manes so I say That by what means we here in England know the late Critical History of the Old Testament to be the writing of Pere Simon a Priest of the Oratory by the like means we know the Pentateuch to be the writing of Moses and we ought not to disbelieve it having the Universal Testimony of Jews Christians Mahumetans and many Heathens to ground our Faith upon unless it be first clearly demonstrated to us that it implies a contradiction that Moses should have written it which I know that neither Pere Simon nor any Man else can do And the reasonableness of what I have now said will yet further appear if it be considered that our Lord Christ himself gives Testimony unto the writings of Moses in general John 5. 46 47. Moses wrote of me But if ye beleive not his writeings how shall ye beleive my words and both he and his Apostles frequently appeal unto them and quote passages out of them This is the truth to be believed and this is actually believed by the Christian Church Yet it is no matter of Faith that there are no various Lections in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament nay it is a matter evident to Sense that there are various Lections it is no matter of Faith that through the length and injury of time and Negligence of Transcribers and Printers there are no mistakes at all in the Originals of Holy Scripture on the contrary we acknowledg that there may possibly be some mistakes even in the Pentateuch through the length and injury of time and the negligence of Transcribers and Printers but those mistakes we believe do not at all hinder the Holy Scriptures from being a perfect Rule of Faith and Life in all things necessary to the Glorifying of God and Saving of our Souls Nor lastly is it matter of Faith That Moses wrote every Word and Sentence Chapter and Verse of the Pentateuch with his own hand It is sufficient that we believe he wrote it himself or by other persons whose help he used in the writing of it and when it was written he revised it and approved it and in this he was assisted by the Holy Spirit inspiring guiding and directing him And if there be any thing in the Pentateuch besides the mistakes of Transcribers and Printers that was written after Moses's time it was added upon good Reasons by Joshua or Ezra and the great Assembly who were Men of a Prophetical Spirit and inspired by God in what they did of that nature Now in the Second place let us see what is the opinion of Pere Simon and wherein he agrees with or differs from the common Faith of the Church in this matter And First He agrees with us in these following particulars 1. That the whole Scripture of the Old Testament and consequently the Pentateuch was of Divine Inspiration and that God was the primary Author thereof this is demonstratively proved from his own express words in his Preface pag. 4. But besides that this Principle of a Divine of Paris That the whole Scripture is not equally Divine and Canonical is dangerous it is directly opposite to the Doctrine of the New Testament which acknowledges every thing throughout the whole Scripture for Prophetical and to have been inspired wherefore I thought I ought to lay down some Principles whereby we might ascribe every thing in the whole Scriptures to Prophets or Persons inspired by God even to the alterations themselves those only excepted which had happened through length of time or negligence of Transcribers And Book 1. Chap. 1. Pag. 3. I have divided this work into Three Books the First of which Treats at large of the Authors of the Bible which I have called Prophets with Josephus contra App. and most of the Fathers because they were in effect directed by the Spirit of God and that St. Peter calls the whole Scripture Prophecies During the Hebrew Common-wealth there were from time to time among them these sorts of Persons inspired by God were it to write Divine and Prophetick Books as the same Josephus has remarked or as Eusebius says to distinguish betwixt those that were truly Prophetick and others that were not And Pag. 4. They the publick Writers had the liberty in collecting the Acts which were in their Registeries to add diminish and change according as they thought fit and the Books as Eusebius says which were declared Sacred were reviewed by Persons inspired by God who Judged whether they were truly Prophetick or Divine And Pag. 21. I know it is expresly forbidden in Deuteronomy either to add or diminish any thing from the Word of God But we may Answer with the Author of the Book Intituled Cozri that this prohibition relates only to private Persons and not to those whom God had expresly commanded to interpret his Will God promised to the Prophets and to the Judges of the Sanhedrim who succeeded Moses the same Grace and the same Spirit of Prophecy as those had who lived in his time and therefore they have held the same Power not only of Interpreting the Law but also of making new Ordinances which were afterwards writ and placed in the Registeries of the Republick And Pag. 22. The Church has not the Right of making Books Canonical and Divine as the Prophets had in the Old Testament but only to declare them Canonical In fine Book 1. Chap. 1. Pag. 1. None can doubt but that the truths contained in the Holy Scripture are infallible and of Divine Authority since they proceed immediately from God who in this has only made use of the Ministery of Men to be his Interpreters So there is no Person either Jew or Christian who does not acknowledg that the Scripture being the pure Word of God is at the same time the first principle and foundation of Religion Here is clear and full proof from his own express words of his agreement with us in the first particular before mentioned Secondly He agrees with us in this That though Men having been the Depositories of these Sacred
is not caring to know whether it be true or false as if it were a thing whereof the truth were unsearchable and indifferent or who shall dare desperately to run-counter unto such abundance of truth and light as that Sacred Book holds forth and without other help than that of his own Fancy and wretched Reason to Determine from the bottom of that dark Dungeon where Nature hath confined him that there is no Being in the whole Universe able to work so many Miracles and that they are but so many Fable and Visions 60. But the reason why some persons are not moved and affected with these proofs which are so sensible unto others is because their Interest and their Passions have so much command of them that they see other things but by halves This is the true Spring of all the Doubts that are moved against Religion because there is really nothing so contrary to their lusts as the manner of Life which it prescribes and so it is no ways difficult to conceive that Mens Lusts should oppose a thing which doth directly fight against them and can never be established but by their Extirpation and Ruine 61. And indeed this may well be so on the account of the contrariety that is between Religion and Mens Lusts since we see the like even in natural things and if sometimes the meer imagination of a thing which Men do not at all like though it be impossible the thing should ever come to pass makes them Act as if they really doubted it would come to pass even when they cannot really doubt how much more may the necessary forsaking of all that is dear and near to Men in the World be apt to blind them and to make them doubt of Religion unto the belief of which the Heart and Will must contribute no less than the Reason and Understanding 62. To give an instance there is a well known Person of great Wit and of great Judgment but so much afraid of Death that being one Day asked if he would not lay his Life that there is such a City as Rome thought the gain were small to be got by the wager he freely answered That he would not now certainly such a doubt as that there may not be such a City as Rome never came into his thoughts before and if the proposal had been made to him upon any other terms than the laying down of this Life it had not been possible for him to have made the least hesitation at the matter but as soon as the Idea of Death presented it self to his mind it wholy took up his thoughts all the Evidences he had to prove it impossible for Rome not to be vanished and came to nothing and if there did not arise in his mind a formal doubt that all which hath been said for the existence of Rome may be false at least there came something into his head or rather into his heart which made him Act as if he had indeed doubted of Romes existence 63. I know very well no Man will confess that addictedness to Pleasures or love of Life can thus far blind him and that every one pretends his doubts are very sincere and that the aversion he hath from believing the things of Religion proceeds only from his Reason and Understanding neither is it good to press Men upon this point since we cannot make them to see that in their our own hearts which they see not there of themselves for the motions of the Heart or Will are not like the motions of the Head or Undestanding These of the Head arise either by degrees and a Series of ratiocinations or else by a certain quick and clear light which makes us take up our Resolutions and fall to Action and it is not possible that this should be unknown to us and that we should not feel it But now as for that which we do by the Byass of the Heart it is far otherwise for there it is certain Springs hidden in us and Born with us which prompt us to this or that without proceeding in a discursive way of Reasoning and almost without our knowledg and hence it comes to pass that except we reflect frequently and attentively upon the motions of the Heart and timely accustom our selves so to do it is almost impossible not to be deceived in Judging of them for the Heart if one may so say doth so mix it self with the Reason or rather doth so much master it that it becomes the principle of all the Actions yet so as it is scarcely perceived to have any influence upon them 64. But let such doubting Persons at least acknowledg that they do not do all that is in their power to get a clear Resolution of their Doubts which must needs be from some defect in the Will they will easily grant this if they have the least measure of sincerity since they cannot deny but that the whole Life-time of Man should be employed in the search of so important a truth as that of Religion is whereas they have scarcely thought upon it a few Minutes and of all things in the World it may be the truth of Religion is that on which they have made least reflection 65. When Men are brought unto 〈◊〉 sincere willingness to apply themselves unto the serious consideration of the proofs Religion it will not be difficult yet further to set forth unto them the Evidences of it taking the way which we have here chalked out for besides the proofs taken from matters of Fact whereof we have given an Essay or Specimen in this Discourse there is yet a very great number of proofs that depend upon sensible perception and which appear to us in great abundance when we read the Scriptures with attention and it is even these last sort that deserve chiefly to be minded because they have this advantage that in perswading us to believe the truth they move us also to love it without which all is unprofitable It is true there are but few Persons duely qualified with the dispositions necessary to their being feelingly moved and affected by them that is to say with a certain Spiritual Gust of Truth and an uprightness of Heart which are rarely to be met with But we must at least endeavor to help others unto these dispositions and to awaken and stir up in them that Spiritual sense which shall be revived in them sooner or latter if ever they believe in a saving manner The End of the First Part. THE SECOND PART Containing An EXAMINATION Of a considerable part of Pere Simon 's Critical History of the OLD TESTAMENT WHEREIN All his Arguments with the weightiest of Spinosa's against Moses's being the Author of the first Five Books of the Bible are fully and clearly answered and several difficult places of Holy Scripture are explained By W. L. Sed quemadmodum apud eos qui semel providentiam probè receperunt non minuitur aut perit fides providentiae ob
few in which the Israelites could not be deceived that is sufficient to convince us and oblige us to believe all the rest and to look upon Moses as the Minister of God who would reveal himself to Men since the Laws of Nature once Violated suffice to teach us and make us see that there is something above Nature and never Man before Jesus Christ appeared so visibly to have been entrusted with the power of that Lord of Nature as this Man that we speak of 26. It may be some will rather chuse to say That in truth it is impossible that Moses should have deceived the Jews but That it may very well be that they themselves have helped on the Cheat and that they may have looked upon that heap of Miracles as fabulous as they were as a thing that might make them to be admired by other Nations But in truth there is nothing but the desire of devising to ones felf some ground of doubting what ever it be that could produce such a Phantastical supposition for of all the suppositions that Infidelity could suggest this certainly is the most undefensible We shall show by and by that this people could not have contributed their help to this Imposture by supposing that presently or some time after Moses his Death and the Law being already established amongst them some new Upstart devised such a strange way to make them considerable and famous in the World and by proving that their Love to their Nation would have been so far from inducing them to consent to it as that it will appear that that alone would have been an invincible obstacle thereunto which is no less true with respect to Moses than it is with respect to any other But there is yet infinitely less probability that the first Jews would consent to any such thing for who could imagine that they would have plotted with Moses to bring themselves in Subjection to a Law which they believed to be the meer product of his invention and that for the same Law of which they had such an opinion they would have suffered themselves to be used so rigorously as that a meer omission in Ceremonies should be punished with Death and that without murmuring or repining at it what more can be done or suffered on the account of things that are most seriously managed and believed and that are found to be established time out of mind besides that it would be a rare sight indeed to see Five or Six Hundred Thousand Men all agreed to report a known Falshood and that none of them all nor of their Posterity should ever contradict it and give the rest the Lie 27. For there was not one of those Miracles whereof every particular person of that numerous people all encamped together could not but have known the Falsity if they had been false and which yet he was to Authorize as having seen it with his own Eyes or as having been done in his own or his Fathers time what a work then had this been for Moses to make sure of so many persons and especially amongst a people so difficult to be Governed and how comes it to pass that among so many there should not be either some conceited Fellow or some sober understanding man that set himself to oppose such a design whosoever should have undertaken to do so he must be very ignorant of the Nature of Man who cannot see that such an one would quickly have had as many followers as Moses or at least that he would have been desirous to acquaint Posterity with this Imposture and that he would have easily accomplished his desire or purpose to do so 28. Besides what could be a more proper and likely means to render the Jews ridiculous among all Nations so far was it from being a fit means to make them be admired and how blind must they have been not to have seen this for instance what would the Aegyptians have said concerning all those Plagues which Moses says he brought upon them concerning that Death of all their First-born and that Drowning of Pharaohs Army in the Sea and how came all those other Nations whom they braged to have conquered in so extraordinary a manner to be so enchanted as to let so many fabulous Stories pass in the World without contradiction unless they were also in the Plot against themselves and were as real Enemies to and haters of their own Fame and Glory in the World as it is imagined and supposed that the Israelites were ridiculously in Love with theirs 29. Men may invent Fables I confess yet they do not carry them to that excess when they would have them to be believed and above all they are very careful to place the first rise of them in far distant times and to vail them with the obscurity and darkness of many remote Ages But as men never design to Pass for knaves or fools so they never invent such fabulous stories as may be gainsaid and proved false by living Witnesses yea by whole and much concerned Nations as for instance it had been a pretty project in the Moors when they were returned into Africa after they had been driven out of Spain if they had undertaken to make the World believe that they came out of it voluntarily by Miracles like to Moses his Miracles and that after the Mediterranian Sea had opened it self to make way for their passage they saw it close again to drown an Army of I know not how many Thousands of Men that pursued them and yet the design we speak of had been no less extravagant in the Jews for we must not represent unto our selves those so remote times although gross or rude as so dark as they may seem to be in those times Men heard from one another they had the same Interests and the same Passions that we have they saw what they saw and felt what was to be felt as well as we do 30. These two hypotheses then must be absolutely abandoned neither was Moses an Impostor that deceived the Jews neither were the Jews in confederacy with him to carry on the Plot. There remains nothing to be objected but that Moses was not the Author of the Book that bears his Name or at least that it is but since his death that all those Miracles which it contains have been added to it This is unbeliefs last Refuge but Reason will not suffer a Man that hath the least measure of common sense to take up with it 31. Although we had nothing else to certifie us that these are really the Books of Moses and that we have them such as they were penned by him but this that they bear his Name as they themselves witness that they have been always attributed unto him and that it came into no mans mind until now to affirm the contrary this should be enough and because of this we could not reasonably doubt of their being his since we have no other assurance that any
Books as well as of all others and in their first Originals having been lost it was in some sort impossible but that there must needs happen some changes as well by reason of the length of time as the carelesness of Transcribers as it is impossible it may be to find one English Bible in all England without some Letter Sillable or Word Misprinted yet God by his special Providence hath taken such care of the Sacred Scripture as that it is preserved to this Day perfect intire and uncorrupt in all things relating to Faith and Manners and necessary to be believed or practised in order to Salvation This is proved also from his own words pag. 7. The Fathers were perswaded that these Errors that were crept into the Bible by the means of these Transcribers had no relation to Faith or good Manners or carried any weight to the framing of the Judgment which we ought to make of the Scriptures in general This does not hinder us but that we should acknowledg the Divine Providence in the preservation of this Book which has past through so many hands and so many Ages a great many of these Errors of Transcribers relate to the Chronology and Genealogies in the Books of the Old Testament but we may say with S. Augustin that these difficulties are in the number of those of which we may speak freely and we may be ignorant of Salva fide qua Christiani sumus This same Providence has likewise not permitted the Jews malitiously to corrupt the Holy Scriptures as many Fathers seem to reproach them Origen S. Jerome and S. Augustin have done them more Justice and those who at this day reproach the Jews with the same thing have not throughly examined the matter And pag. 9. This Author Mariana shews very plainly that the intention of the Council of Trent in declaring the Vulgar Translation Authentick was not to exempt it from all sorts of Faults but only from Errors which might introduce a change either in Faith or Manners which he confirms by several Authorities and principally by the Testimonies of Andrew de Vega and Jacob Lanis at that time superior of the Order of Jesuits who assisted at that Council Thirdly He agrees with us in this That being sure that God is the primary Author of the several Books of Scripture it is no great matter whether we certainly know or not the names of the Men by whom God was pleased to commit them to writing this is proved from his own words in his Preface pag. 2. Having Established in the Hebrew Common-wealth the Prophets or Publick Writers who took care of collecting faithfully the Acts of what past of most importance in the State we need not too curiously inquire as usually Men do who were the Authors of each particular Book of the Bible because it is certain that they were all writ by Prophets c. And in Book 1. Chap. 1. Pag. 3. We ought not to search with too much curiosity who have been the particular Authors of every Book of the Bible it sufficeth according to the Maxime of Gregory the Great praefat in lib. Job that these Books were written by Prophets Quis haec scripserit valde supervacue quaeritur cum tamen Author libri Spiritus Sanctus fideliter credatur Fourthly yet farther He agrees with us so far as to hold That in a true and good sense Moses may be the Author of the whole Peutateuch This is clearly proved from his own express words in Book 1. Chap. 1. Pag. 3. If these Publick Writers were in the Hebrew Common-wealth from the time of Moses as is extreamly probable it will be very easie to satisfie all difficulties that may be brought to shew that the Pentateuch was not wholy written by Moses which is ordinarily proved by the manner of its writing which seems to insinuate that some other than Moses collected the Acts and put them down in writing supposing these Publick Writers to them we may attribute what relates to the Historical part of these Books and to Moses all that which belongs to the Laws and Ordinances and it is this which the Scripture calls the Law of Moses thus one may say in this sense that the whole Pentateuch is truly Moses's because those who made the collection lived in his time and did not do it but by his Order And Pag. 20. According to this principle we ought to expound that passage where it is said that Moses wrote what God commanded him for there is nothing more ordinary in the Scripture than to ascribe unto one person what he Orders another to do chiefly when the thing is done in his name Thus we see wherein Pere Simon agrees with us in the common belief of all Christians He agrees with us so far as to acknowledg not only that the whole Scripture of the Old Testament is of Divine Inspiration and that it is uncorrupt in all things that relate to Faith and Life and are necessary to be believed or done in order to Salvation but also that the whole Pentateuch is truly Moses's because if it was not all written by himself immediately yet it was written by others in his time and in his name and by his order and then sure what was so written was reviewed and approved by himself If P. Simon were sincere in all this and did not deny it again by his self-contradiction we needed not much to oppose him in this matter for we are under no necessary obligation to believe that Moses wrote down with his own hand all the occurrences of every Day during the whole space of the Churches being in the Wilderness he might possibly appoint some other person or persons of known Integrity to do that for him and in his name and being so done and then reviewed and approved by himself it was all one as if he had done it with his own hand But notwithstanding this agreement we shall find that there remains yet a difference between P. Simon and other Christians as to this matter and that is it we are next to take into consideration And First He differs from the whole Church of God and from himself too by self-contradiction in this That he thinks Moses may have written the Pentateuch by an humane and fallible Spirit I prove this by consequence from his own words Pag. 40. It is true says he that the best Authors sometimes fall into little mistakes so likewise do we not pretend to draw from thence an infallible consequence to prove that Moses could not be the Author of the Pentateuch in the Order that it is Here he manifestly supposes that Moses in writing the Pentateuch might fall into little mistakes and so he might be the Author of it notwithstanding the disorder that is in it and is not this to suppose that Moses might write it by an humane and fallible Spirit for none I think will say that a Man writing by Divine Inspiration can fall into any mistakes little
or great I am sure not into such disorderly mistakes as he pretends to find in the History of the Creation of Man Secondly He differs from the whole Christian Church in affirming that for so much of the Historical part of the Pentateuch as Moses wrote or might write he copied it out of other ancient Books or else committed to writing what he had learned from Oral Tradition This difference is the same upon the matter with the former and I prove it also from his own express words Book 1. Chap. 3. Pag. 27. A Book of the Wars of the Lord of which mention is made in the Numbers Numb 21. 14. is an evident proof that the Stories which are related in the Five Books of Moses have likewise been taken out of several collections which have been lost And Pag. 54. most clearly We may likewise apply says he to the Book of Genesis what we have already said touching the manner of the inregistering the publick Acts in the time of Moses this Book contains the Creation of the World and many things which happened many Ages before him and in all Genesis there is no observation of Gods dictating to Moses what is there related it is not likewise said that he writ it by the Spirit of Prophecy but all these Histories and Genealogies are simply related as if Moses had taken them from some Authentick Books or else had had a constant Tradition And in the same place Moses without doubt has had other Records than the fabulous Books of Adam Seth Sem Abraham c. were they writ or were they preserve viva voce down to him in the Families which God had chosen to be faithful to him in the Worship of true Religion Doth not this look too like unto what I mentioned before that Moses might write the Book of Genesis by an humane fallible Spirit which is contrary unto Gal. 3. 8. 4. 21 22 30. Rom. 4. 17. 23 24. 1 Cor. 15. 45. James 2. 23. for these Scriptures do plainly assert the Divine Original and Authority of the Book of Genesis Thirdly He differs from the generality of Jews and Christians in that he not only says there may be some few things in the Books of Moses as we now have them which were not written by Moses but he positively and peremptorily affirms that there are de facto a great many things now in the Books of Moses which could not be written by Moses This is proved from his own words Pag. 4 5. The publick Writers which were in his time and writ out the ancient Acts have spoke of Moses in the Third Person and have used several other such like expressions which could not be Moses's but they for all that have never the less Authority because they can be ascribed only to persons which Moses had commanded to put into writing the most important Actions of his time And Chap. 2. Pag. 19. We shall distinguish in the Five Books of the Law what has been writ by Moses from what has been writ by these Prophets or publick Writers We may attribute to Moses the Commandments and Ordinances which he gave to the People and allow these same publick Writers to be the Authors of the greatest part of the History Moses in quality of Legislator writ all which relates to the Statutes and left to the Scribes or Prophets the care of collecting the Acts of the most material Transactions which past that they might be preserved to Posterity And Pag. 20. But if we consider with never so little attention the whole Body of the Pentateuch we may observe this diversity of Writers which I speak of which will more appear in the sequel of this Discourse where I evidently make the falsity of the reasons appear which the Jews use to prove that Moses is the Author of the whole Law And as was observed in the beginning in Pag. 36. Contents of Chap. 5. Moses cannot be the Author of the Books which are attributed to him Thus I have given a faithful account of the Judgment of P. Simon and shewed wherein he both agrees with and differs from the common Faith of Gods Church And since he hath the generality of Jews and Christians yea Christ himself and his Apostles against him he had need of very clear and strong irrefragable Arguments to support his singular opinion to wit that in his sense Moses could not be the Author of the Books which are attributed to him And now we come in the Third place to consider the grounds of his Opinion and to answer the Arguments by which he endeavors to prove it His Arguments may be reduced to Three Heads First He argues from the Repetitions that are in the Pentateuch Secondly From the Transpositions that are in it Thirdly From several passages in it where there are such expressions as seem to intimate that Moses could not be the Author of them I begin with the First His Argument from Repetitions There are says he Pag. 37. many Repetitions of the same thing in the Pentateuch which are apparently not Moses's but rather theirs who have made a collection of the Holy Scriptures and have joined together several Readings or Explanations of the same words not thinking it convenient to leave out of their Copies what might illustrate the Text. And then he gives Instances of these Repetitions But before I come to examine his Instances in particular I answer to all in general Since P. Simon acknowledges that those who made the collection of the Holy Scriptures were Men of a Prophetical Spirit and Divinely Inspired as Moses was what greater absurdity is there in Moses his being the Author of these Repetitions than in any other Prophets their being the Authors of them Was not God as free to repeat the same thing over and over again for illustrating the Text by the Ministry of one Prophet as by the Ministry of another P. Simon seems to be better acquainted with the Rules of Grammar than with the Rules of Reasoning now I come to his particular Instances First He begins with Gen. 7. v. 17 18 19 20 24. v. 21 22 23. and first finds fault with its being said Five times over in Five Verses That the Waters prevailed But I Answer If his Self-conceit had not blinded him he might have seen that there was good reason for and great Grace in this Repetition for as the Waters of the Flood prevailed gradually and still rose higher and higher so it was fit that the words should be adapted to the thing First The Waters increased so far on the Earth that they bore up the Ark and set it a floating and this is expressed as we have it in Verse 17. Secondly The Waters increased to that degree that they set the Ark a going or moving progressively from one place to another and this is expressed as in Verse 18. Thirdly The Waters increased so exceedingly that the highest Mountains in the World were covered with them and this
is sutably expressed Verse 19. Fourthly The Waters increased yet so wonderfully upwards above the highest Mountains that they were Fifteen Cubits under Water and this is expressed as in Verse 20. And then Fifthly and Lastly Since the space of time in which the Waters prevailed upon the Earth was One Hundred and Fifty Days this is appositly expressed as in Verse 24 and last of the Chapter What now doth this Man deserve who quarrels with the Spirit of God for these repeated expressions which carry such a Grace in them being so well fitted to the nature of the thing spoken of Next he finds fault with the Repetitions in Vers 21 22 23. I Answer Here indeed is a Repetition of the same thing but it is in somewhat different words and who knows but it might be to assure us of the Truth of the thing which God foresaw some Men would not believe to wit That the Flood was so Universal as to destroy utterly every Living thing from off the Face of the whole Earth except Noah and them that were with him in the Ark and whatever be said of that yet it cannot be denyed but it is free for God to express his mind as he pleases if there be nothing in the expressions but what is true as certainly there is not in this place And it may be that in expressing himself thus he condescended to accomodate himself to the genius of the Hebrew Tongue and to speak with his People in their own way of speaking P. Simon himself confesses that there are some Repetitions which have their Grace in the Books of Moses as well as in the Poems of Homer And says he Pag. 40. it may be that good part of these Repetitions belong to the genius of the Hebrew Tongue which is a very plain Language and repeats often the same thing by different terms which appears in almost all the Books of Scripture and which we find even in the Ordinances of our Kings and in the Stile of the Chancery of Rome as well as in the Stile of our Courts for Civil Affairs where several words are placed after one another which signifie but the same thing Thus he And this Answer may serve to his other Instances from Exod. 31. 14 15 16. and Exod. 32. 15. But why Exod. 16. 33. compared with Verse 36. Levit. 6. 9. should be objected I can see no colour of reason Is it possible that ever a reasonable Man should think that these passages can afford so much as a probable Argument that Moses cannot be the Author of the Books attributed to him And if Pere Simon did not think that they could do him any Service in this matter why did he alledg them And moreover why any Man should find fault with the expressions there used I do not understand unless it be a fault for Almighty God so clearly and fully to express his mind as that his People cannot but understand his meaning might not P. Simon have been affraid least God should say to him as it is written Matth. 20. 15. Is thine Eye Evil because I am Good Lastly Under this head of Repetitions is alledged Levit. 3. 3. and here he finds fault with these expressions The Fat that covereth the Inwards and all the Fat that is upon the Inwards pretending that there is no difference between these two the Fat that covereth the Inwards and all the Fat that is upon the Inwards but this critical Objection ariseth from his own inadvertency for if he had weighed and considered the words he would have seen a manifest difference between these two the Fat that covereth the Inwards and all the Fat that is upon the Inwards and would have perceived that the words are very significant and give us plainly to understand that not only some of the Fat but all the Fat on the Inwards of the Sacrifice must be taken away not only the outward covering of Fat that is upon the Inwards but every bit and crum of Fat that adheres most closely to the Inwards here is an inadequat distinction between these two the Fat c. and all the Fat c. as there is an inadequat distinction between the part and the whole the thing included and the thing including I proceed to his Second Head of Arguments Secondly He Argues from the Disorder and Transpositions that are in the Pentateuch To which I Answer in general That no solid Argument can be drawn from this pretended Disorder to prove that Moses could not be the Author of the Pentateuch for if any other Man writeing by Divine Inspiration might be the Author of such passages as are pretended to be out of their proper places there can no reason be given why Moses might not as well be the Author of them surely it was as free for the Spirit of God to transpose things by the Pen of Moses as by the Pen of any other Man But as we have shewed P. Simon confesses that the whole Pentateuch except any little mistakes of Transcribers that may be in it was written by Men Divinely Inspired Secondly I Answer That in all such passages God may be supposed to have accommodated himself to the genius of the Hebrew Tongue and to have condescended to write unto his People in their own usual way of writing if it be true that P. Simon says Pag. 40 41. in these words following It seems to me that the Jews themselves did not much regard writing in Method as it would be easie to prove by the Stile of the Epistles of Paul and Haron a Caraite Jew who has made literal Commentaries on the whole Pentateuch observes often this confusion of Order which he calls Haphuck and says That it is usual enough in Scripture to begin with one thing then to pass unto another and afterwards to resume again the first If this be true no reason can be given why God might not make choice of writeing to them by the Pen of Moses in this very way and method which was usual amongst them there being nothing of Falshood in it So much in general Now let us come to a particular Examination of the several Instances he gives of this pretended disorder and First He begins with the History of the Creation and finds fault with its Order As that after the Man and Woman were Created Gen. 1. 27. The Woman is supposed not to be made and in the following Chapter the manner how she was taken from Adams side is described nevertheless in the same Chapter it was before forbidden him as he was her Husband whom she accompanied in the Garden to eat the Fruit of a certain Tree This is his first Argument in which there are several Falshoods shuffled in as if it were to make the History of the Creation seem ridiculous But if any Man will impartially and in the fear of God consider the words of Moses in the Two first Chapters of Genesis he will find no such disorder or falshood in