re-establishment in the said Country about the year of the World 3600. Here we read the Conquest of Palestina under the Conduct of Joshua how it was divided amongst the Tribes after they had destroyed drove out or subdued the Inhabitants thereof how often they were brought into bondage by the bordering Nations whose rise and pretensions Moses sets down Here we have recorded the several Names and actions of the Judges which God from time to time raised to the Israelites to restore them to their first estate Here we have an account of the establishment of a Kingly Government amongst them which happened about the year 2909 as likewise of the division of this people into two Kingdomes which for three Ages together were most opposite in their interests and made great wars against each other as well as against their neighbouring States We find here the utter ruin of the most puissant of these two States viz. That of Israel by the Arms of the Kings of Assyria about the year of the World 3283 and after that the destruction of that of Judah by Nebuchadnezar King of the Chaldeans Anno Mundi 3283. And last of all we have an account of the Jews Restoration by Cyrus King of Persia and the State of the Jews under his Successors The Third thing observable is That in the remaining Books of the Old Testament we find several historical Relations relating to both Kingdomes with several prophecies relating to their decay and restoration as likewise many Discourses of Morality and Piety and that all these relations and prophecies appear to have been writ at such a time and with those circumstances which have a natural reference to what the other Books recite to us and an essential Relation to the Books and Laws of Moses which we find to be the foundation of all these prophesies relations and whatsoever else we find there concerning their Government or Religion The Fourth is That the Books of the New Testament contain an exact relation of the Life of Jesus Christ who appeared to the World under the Reign of Tiberius of the establishment of his Religion in the World together with some disputes with the Jews who refused to own him for the Messiah promised by the Prophets and lastly Prophesies declaring what in in process of time was to happen both to the Jews and Christians until the end of the World. These Books take the Truth of Moses's Writings every where for granted as also of all the other Sacred Writings of the Old Testament both Historical Prophetical and Moral These Four particulars do in a manner give us an intire Idea of the Holy Scripture and we shall scarcely stand in need of ought else to manifest the Truth of those Writings if we consider those undisputable matters of fact I am now to speak of and will but make some very natural reflexions upon them The First is That the Christians notwithstanding their being divided into several Sects and Parties presently after our Saviours time have and do still in all places every first day of the Week read the Books of the New Testament translated into their respective Languages so that it appears absolutely impossible that any spurious Writings should have been slipt in amongst them The Second is That as the Christians have had the Books of the Old Testament amongst them in Greek these 1600. years so the Heathens had them in that Language 300. years before being translated by order of one of the Ptolomy's Kings of Egypt whither a considerable party of the Jews were carried after that Alexander the Great had conquered the greatest part of Asia having overthrown the Empire of Persia to which the Jews were in subjection The Third is That tho' the Jews had not all the Books of the Old Testament from the beginning of their Commonwealth they that followed the Party of Jeroboam and formed the Kingdom of Israel having only had the Five Books of Moses amongst them yet notwithstanding their irreconcilable hatred against the House of David they have most religiously preserved the said Books from Anno Mundi 3030. in which the divisions of the two Kingdoms happen'd even until this day The Fourth and last is That as the Jews every where at this day read the Books of Moses and of the Prophets each Sabbath day which is also observed by the Samaritanes and the Christians read them every first day of the week so the Jews have always continued to read them for a long series of Ages as esteeming it a great part of the sanctification of the Sabbath Besides which they also solemnly read them every seventh year in obedience to a Law of Moses as being one of the principal parts of their Religion I say that the sole consideration of these matters of fact which are indisputable are sufficient to prove in general the truth of the Books of the Old and New Testament First then I affirm that it is as ridiculous to maintain that the Books of the Old and New Testament translated into so many Languages cited by an infinite number of Authors and which have been the subject of various disputes from the very times of the Apostles or soon after should be supposititious as to aver that the Books of Justinian or Mahomets Alcoran have been falsly obtruded on the World under their names I speak now only of the Books themselves not of the truth of the History they contain Secondly It is ridiculous to suppose that the Books of the Old Testament were forged since the time of Ptolomy Philadelphus forasmuch as they have been in the hands of the Heathens themselves ever since that time Thirdly It is as inconsistent to suppose them contrived since the time of the separation of the ten Tribes from Judah because we find the Books of Moses among the Samaritanes who have preserved them ever since their Revolt without any other change but what is incident to all Manuscripts that pass through many hands I grant indeed that the Samaritans have none of the other Books of the Old Testament but this being to be look'd upon only as an effect of their departure from the Kingdom of Judah it cannot in the least shake the certainty we have of those Books For first the three other Tribes had them and preserv'd them with the greatest care esteeming them of Divine Authority Secondly there were also reasons of State which made the Kings of Israel not to regard the divisions made by Joshuah of the Land of Canaan nor the authority of the Priesthood which Reasons of State hereafter mentioned where the cause why the ten Tribes would not allow the same authority to some of those Books which were written before their Revolt as those of Samuel and the writings of David and Solomon which they did to the Pentateuch of Moses Most of the others we know were pen'd since the Division of the two Kingdomes and so did more particularly respect the Kingdom of Judah and some them after the
was chosen by God out of the Family of Abraham because the Author of it decides these Important Questions and Differences without any visible partiality and without being by assed by the pretensions of his Birth Now there are three things in it which clearly prove that it could not be unknown to Moses The First is That immediately after this Prophesie which was as publick and well known amongst the Moabites as any Prophesie could be after the tedious preparation and the many difficulties which Balaam made to come to Balac After the many Ceremonies and Mysteries which he used upon that occasion and notwithstanding the great and panick terror of the Moabites at the approach of the Israelites Nay and notwithstanding the express Threats and Ominous Prophesies of Balaam against that people notwithstanding all this I say we see the Daughters of Moab imitating the carnal prudence of Lot's Daughters and courting the alliance of the Israelites as if they had had a mind to make themselves amends that way for the loss and wrong they had suffered by the Sentence which Balaam pronounced in favour of Israel We see I say that Moses immediately after he had related the Prophecies of Balaam tells us that the Daughters of Moab invited the People of Israel to the Sacrifices of their Gods and that the People of Israel accepted of the invitation and accordingly feasted and began then to defile themselves with the Daughters of Moab Now that such a thing should happen presently after Balaam had uttered his Prophesie shews evidently that there was some Relation betwixt those two Transactions And this may be further made out from the manner and nature of the punishment which God inflicted upon the Israelites for their Criminal Commerce with the Moabites although the pretence of it might be grounded upon the design which the Daughters of Moab had formed according to the Principles of their Education to share in the accomplishment of the Promise by their conceiving and getting Children by those whom Balaam's Prophesie had invested with the right and priviledge of accomplishing that Promise The Second is That accordingly about two hundred years after Moses we see that Ruth the Moabitess left her own Country to settle and live at Bethlehem and affected besides to marry there again one of the Tribe of Judah no doubt because she had got in her own Country a certain knowledge of that famous Oracle which afterwards made her easily yield to the Counsels and receive Instructions both of her Mother in Law and of her own Husband who was of the Tribe of Judah and no doubt had the Books of Moses wherein were inserted both the Prophesie of Jacob in favour of Judah and that of Balaam in favour of the Israelites against the Moabites The Third is That the Jews have now for several Ages constantly maintained I Kings II. 8. that Simei's Curses against David which afterwards he called Maledictionem pessimam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contained an upbraiding Reflexion as well upon the meanness of his Birth as being descended from a Moabitess as upon his Adultery c. This is related by St. Jerome or some other ancient Author who writ that Discourse de Traditionibus Hebraeorum upon the second Chapter of the third Book of Kings This Jewish Interpretation would be very proâ—â—ble if that was but true what Rabbi Salomon saith upon the II. Chap. of the first Book of Kings v. 19. that when we read there that Solomon caused a Seat to be set for the King's Mother we ought to understand it of Ruth the Moabitess and not of Bathsheba we know the Jews ascribe a much longer Life to Zarah the Daughter of Asher one of Jacob's Sons for they are still of the same Opinion as they were in St. Hierome's time that she was yet alive in David's time No Body can condemn this Reflexion upon Ruth if he will but consider that her Faith having been so rewarded that the Messiah came our of her Posterity she is particularly made mention of in his Genealogy and that on the other hand her History hath been preserved amongst the other Books of the Old Testament as a kind of prescription not only against the Moabites pretensions long before condemned by Balaam's Prophesie but also against those of the Ismaelites and Edomites who had no better claim to the Promise than the Moabites having no other than that of a general Call and of their Birthright before Jacob's Posterity CHAP. XII 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. IT was altogether necessary for the execution of my design to establish well the Authority of Moses's Books upon which I intend to make some Reflexions It was likewise necessary to shew as I think I have done sufficiently that Moses was perfectly acquainted with God's Promise concerning the Messiah Therefore I believe I may now come to shew that both Moses and those that came after him had all an Eye upon the Messiah in their chiefest Regulations But to give a greater insight and understanding into the things that I am to say I think it may not be amiss to remind the Reader and to lay before him once more the several Characters of God's Conduct in that matter that he may be the better able to judge of the whole Series of his design I have heretofore shew'd that Moses's intention was to establish two things in the Book of Genesis The one that all Men have derived their Original from Adam whom God Created The other That Men having sinned God promised to reinstate him by one of his own Posterity The First of these was then solidly proved by a plain matter of Fact when I shew'd that such a Tradition as Moses relates about the Creation of the World cannot reasonably be doubted of As for what concerns the other viz. The Promise of the Messiah which was the chiefest Object of Man's hope and comfort I have also shew'd I think that the Notion and Expectation of it was very strong and lively and the original cause of all the extraordinary Actions recorded by Moses But as this promise was not to be fulfilled for many Ages so God made it only in very general terms and had still reserved to himself the Revelation for after Ages as he thought fit both as to the manner and time of its accomplishment It is therefore absolutely necessary that we should consider also how God preserved all along the distinct knowledge of it amongst men Now in reading my Reflexions upon Genesis one must needs have observed that God even in those early times of the World did restrain the priviledge of accomplishing that promise by little and little to some particular Men till at last he openly declared that he had setled it in the Tribe of Judah as we read it Gen. XLIX Thus we see that God in the very beginning of the World restrained
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
were either false or forged This Eusebius has clearly proved de Praepar Evangelicâ Lib. IX cap. 5. The Proverb of the Sibyll's or Delphick Priestess's favouring of Philip is commonly known It was easie for these Heathen Princes to biass their People with such Predictions Lib. IV. de Praeparat Evangel Lib. IV. initiò But what Eusebius says puts the thing beyond all Question for he expresly shews That when the Priests were put to the Rack they confessed the whole contrivance of those Oracles which they pronounced to abuse the Credulity of the People V. We ought to observe That we cannot find great numbers of Oracles upon the same Subject whereas one see 's that the Prophets follow'd as it were Moses's Model of the State of the Common-wealth of the Jews and that they frequently concur in foretelling the same Facts from one Generation to another VI. We ought to remember that these Oracles were not kept within the Limits of one single State or Nation VII It may be said that they were not publickly known having been only proposed in private places before a very few and in short that they were not actually known to the most part of the Neighbouring People whereas one see 's that the Jewish Prophets gave their Oracles in the most solemn Assemblies and when they were committed to Writing they were known to all those who had any Commerce with that Nation So that Isaiah's Prophecies were questionless known to Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus who look'd upon himself as designed by God to restore their Liberty to the Jews We may make the same Judgment of the Book of Daniel which was known to Alexander without all question as one may collect from the favourable Reception the Jews found from him VIII We ought to observe That these pretended Oracles were given for the most part in favour of those Princes who could satisfie the greediness of the Priests Whereas the Prophets among the Jews lived in the most dis-interested manner in the World and usually pronounced nothing but Reproaches and Menaces of cruel Calamities to those Princes who had the Government in their Hands Their Ministry consisted in a couragious opposition to the Corruptions in their Laws and their Religion and in censuring their Princes and Governours with a singular Intrepidity and indeed we see that most of them met with the punishment of their Boldness and made trial of the most cruel Tortures IX Last of all We ought to take notice that as the Oracles which are mentioned in Heathen Authors were only of Facts of small importance to those People amongst whom it is said that they were pronounced so we do not find that they thought themselves much concerned in their preservation whereas one see 's that the Jewish Nation were so perswaded of the Truth of these Oracles with which they were entrusted that nothing to this very day could ever oblige them to discontinue the reading of them whatever Disputes they may otherwise have with the Christians who make use of them to establish their Pretentions notwithstanding all the Claims of the Synagogue When this is laid down it would seem as if I might reasonably conclude That the wonderful variety of Oracles which are to be found amongst the Jews cannot be at all weakned by those Oracles of which we find so frequent mention in Pagan Writers But we ought to go further in explaining two things which will perfectly clear this matter One is That the Historical and Prophetical Books of the Old Testament after Moses can be no Forgeries The other is That in truth those Oracles which we find inserted in those Books could not possibly have been forged after their Completion CHAP. V. That the Books in which we may find these Oracles were never forged I Have observed formerly That it is absolutely necessary that the Authority of those Books in which these Oracles are inserted be established before we can build upon the Authority of the Oracles And indeed if we cannot clearly shew that these Books were written and publickly known before the Things happened which are said to be Accomplishments of those preceding Oracles it would be natural to call in question the Authority of these Oracles But it is very easie to satisfie an equitable Reader herein and to establish in general or severally the Existence of these Prophetical Writings before the times in which those Facts happened which we propose as the Accomplishment of those Prophecies I shall make use of two sorts of Reflexions to establish my Proposition The First consists in general Considerations upon the Books themselves The Second has respect to particular Facts which are uncontested and whence the same Truth very naturally results I. We ought to observe That whereas in Genesis Moses makes use of no other Epocha to fix the time of any Event but the years of the Life of some famous Patriarch As for Instance He fixes the Flood to the 600 year of Noah's Age Exod. XIX Numb XXXIII 38. in Exodus and Numbers he uses the time of their coming out of Egypt for his Epocha in the Books of the following Authors the years from their departure out of Egypt were carefully set down 'till the Fourth year of King Solomon's Reign which was 480 years after their departure This was a Character to fix the time of all those who lived after that Epoch◠II. The Building of the Temple began a new Epocha amongst the Jews as appears from II Chron. VIII 1. tho' they began after that time to reckon by the years of the Kings of Juda and Israel as appears by the Books of the first Prophets Which is a Character sufficiently certain to distinguish those who liv'd after Solomon with the time when they liv'd III. It 's plain That the Babylonish Captivity and afterwards their subjection to the Persian Empire obliged them to fix their Events and to date their Prophecies by the years of the Governments of those Foreign Kings See Daniel Ezechiel Zechariah and Haggai So the Author of the Book of Maccabees refers to the years of the Seleucidae Now that we may the better perceive the force of this Observation we must remember three things 1. That the Authors who lived after the carrying away of the Jews into Babylon make use of some Chaldee Terms which are not to be found in the foregoing Prophets For we may see in the Books of Haggai Ezech. XL. 1. Daniel X. Zach I. Hagg. I. Zechariah and Malachi the same style with Ezra Nehemiah and Daniel 2. The Authors of these Books give names to the Months which they had not before the Captivity The Jews only called their Months Talm. Rosch Hassanah c. 1. First and Second c. and so they gave Names which were unheard of before 3. The Authors of these Prophecies take particular notice of any newly instituted Fasts thus we see that the Prophet Haggai mentioned those Fasts of which we have nothing in the Law but which were
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
so prophane as to deny that if in the same Author and in the same Chapter any man should read in one continued Series Predictions which should explain the miraculous Birth of the Messiah his Family his Preaching his Miracles his Sufferings his Resurrection his Ascension into Heaven the Sending of the Holy Ghost the Calling of the Gentiles but that the History of the Gospel would sufficiently justifie Jesus Christ to be the promised Messiah But they take it to be a very strange thing that the Apostles should apply several passages in ancient Authors to the History of Jesus Christ tho' the whole Contexture of their Books do not seem to oblige us to make any such Interpretations They therefore suppose that the Apostles made several fortunate Allusions to the more remarkable passages in those ancient Authors which may pass for Predictions of those Events which afterwards happened just as Nonnus wrote the History of the Gospel in Homer's Verses and as Eudoxia made a Cento out of Virgil's Poem which contained the same History tho' neither Homer nor Virgil had any of the Mysteries of the Christian Religion then in view That this apparent Difficulty may be solved it will be necessary to examine Three things I. The Matter of Fact it self II. The Reasons which gave occasion for the doing of it III. The Impression which this Fact has produced in the minds of men to this very time For the First Tho' it is well known that common use do's not allow men to joyn Foreign Idea's in the same Discourse yet we may easily conceive that God might and ought to do it if we will allow what may be easily collected that he resolved to send the Messiah into the World Such a practice was the more natural because the ancient Patriarchs before Moses and Moses himself who form'd the Commonwealth of the Jews had prepar'd the minds of the People to such sort of Expressions as were raised above the present Subject And certainly if one takes but the pains to consider the wisdom and beauty of the Authors who writ these Prophetical Books on the one side and the Character of the Writers of the New Testament on the other he would perceive that if these words That it might be fulfilled were of necessity to be changed into these As one may perceive a sort of Completion of such or such Passages in the Old Testament yet notwithstanding that the most part of those Quotations would evince an exact Accomplishment and the Oracles which they alledge would bear a just proportion to those Events which are related by the Evangelists in our Saviour's Life Can any thing be more singular than the Prophecy in the Seventh of Isaiah of the Messiah's being born of a Virgin of the piercing of his hands and feet Psal XXII of the mixture of Gall which was offered him to drink hinted at Psalm LX. 22. of his being sold for Thirty pieces of Silver Zechar. XI 3. or then several others of a like nature which at present I shall not stand to reckon up It must be confessed however that these Oracles are interwoven for the most part with Matters relating to Events happening in the time when each Prophet lived or which seem to be applicable personally to the Prophets Three Orders or Reasons may be conceived which will justifie the Wisdom of God in the ordering of these Oracles in a way which seems so contrary to the common practice of the World. The first Order contains Reasons drawn from the person of the Messiah himself of whom we speak The second Order contains those which arise from the consideration of the People amongst whom the Messiah was to be born The third contains those Reasons which respect other Nations amongst whom the Messiah was to be preached I shall examine these three sorts by themselves and I hope that we may gather from thence that the Eternal Wisdom presided over this mixture of these Oracles which relate to the Messiah with other Idea's which seem to be wholly foreign to the Subject In short it may be urged That the belief of a Messiah form'd of so apparent Contradictions cannot easily be received of the suddain A Messiah of the Seed of David whom David calls his Lord a Messiah who complains that he is forsaken by God whom however he ought to adore A Messiah born with the weaknesses of Youth who at the same time is called a mighty God and the Father of Eternity c. However these Idea's which seem so opposite ought of necessity to have been so separated by the Prophets least they should have been looked upon as Chimerical Descriptions and incompatible in one and the same Subject A second Reflexion which may be made upon this Matter is That the Jews were bound not only to preserve their Oracles but also to execute them in part Thus for instance there was a necessity for them to reject the Messiah to deliver him up to the Gentiles to be crucified there was a necessity that their punishment should be as signal as their Crime and that they should be dispersed over the World after the Destruction of Jerusalem as the Prophets have clearly shewn Now how could all this have ever been effected if the Description of the Messiah by the Prophets had been as Historical as that of the Apostles or the Evangelists who gave us only a Narrative of Matters of Fact. In a word was it not the interest of the Gentiles to whom the Gospel was to be preached that these Oracles should be scattered up and down the Writings of these ancient Authors They were to be Called upon the Rejection of the Jews The Jews were bound to preserve the Books of the Old Testament after they were cast off by God that the Authority of these Books and these Oracles might be beyond all contest as Testimonies with which we are furnished by the adverse Party which ought to have place until the fulness of the Gentiles should profess Christianity Let any one therefore judge if it was not necessary in this state of Affairs that there should be some obscurity in the Prophetical Descriptions and by consequence that this interweaving of foreign Idea's with those which concerned the Messiah as also this dispersion of the Oracles through different places of the Sacred Writers was not necessary and so much the more as they were uttered upon several Occasions by different Authors And we may affirm it as a certainty That according to the purpose of God this obscurity did not hinder either Jews or Pagans from perceiving those ruling Idea's of a Messiah when they read the Old Testament Neither was the dispersion of these Oracles through so many different places any greater hindrance to their application since the Jews laid it down as a constant Maxime That the accomplishment of every thing which we find to be foretold as great and illustrious by the Prophets ought to be looked for in the Person of the Messiah when the
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
would have taken by force to make him their King What likelyhood was there that the Apostles a company of poor miserable Jews should bring over the Gentiles to the Religion of a man who was accursed by the Synagogue of the Jews and crucified like a Slave by the Authority of the Roman Magistrate What probability was there of the destruction of Jerusalem whilst the Jews accustom'd to the Roman yoke made it their business to avoid all manner of occasions that might stir up the indignation of their Masters against them It is expedient say they rather that one man perish meaning Jesus than to hazard the welfare of the whole Nation The third is That these Oracles were written by the Apostles not only amongst Discourses of another nature but also linked together in such a Chain that their connexion will not permit us to believe that they were contrived after the matters which they relate to were past and also that they are constantly related by three Evangelists long time before the things came to pass S. John being the only Witness of the Destruction of Jerusalem The fourth is That these Oracles gave the Apostles as much grounds to expect Calamities and violent Deaths as to Jesus Christ himself so that there is no pretence of doubting that they were not faithfully recorded by the Evangelists and that therefore seeing the Accomplishment has exactly answered to the Oracle we ought to look upon them as Divine Oracles I confess that these Oracles no more than the Books of the New Testament were ever committed to the publick custody of the Jews as formerly the Oracles of the Prophets of old were but this cannot really diminish their Authority I will not observe at present that because the Temple was to be burnt it was not proper to depose them there and 't was for this reason God thought fit to cause the Oracles of the Old Testament to be translated long before Nor yet that it was very proper that these Predictions as well as the Books of the New Testament should be put into the hands of the Gentiles who thence-forward were to be the People of God and his Temple But this I observe that nothing can be imagined more solemn than these Prophecies of our Saviour and his Disciples as well as never any thing was more exactly fulfilled Jesus Christ was born at Bethlehem according to the Oracles Now as no man is Master of the place of his Birth so it is plain that here is no room left for imposture neither is a man any more the Master of his Death wherefore to give a certain Character to his Prophecy he foretells his dying at Jerusalem which accordingly was accomplished in all its Circumstances can any thing be more exact But one may say That it was easie for the Disciples to forge Predictions suitable to the Event in like manner as Virgil hath done in the sixth of his Aeneids of Marcellus One may indeed contrive an imposture which shall be possible and which may answer to some few Oracles but I shall hereafter shew the folly of that thought when I come to prove the faithfulness of the Apostles and Evangelists But can we conceive such a suspicion concerning the Conversion of the Gentiles the ruin of Paganism the Victory of Christianity after Ten Persecutions 'T is now above 1600 years that the Christian Religion subsists whereas who could have assured the Disciples of Jesus Christ that their Doctrine would have had so much as one or two followers after their Death The greatest Empires that of the Chaldeans of the Persians of the Grecians and that of the Romans have been overturned and none of them singly have been of so long continuance as the Kingdom of Jesus Christ which nevertheless was attack'd by all that was great and powerful in the World. Who see 's not that this is the Empire whereof Daniel speaks in the seventh of his Revelations which was never to have end Jesus Christ foretold as it is set down by his Disciples according to the Prophecy of Daniel that the Temple of Jerusalem should be destroyed and never built again who could tell the Apostles if they had forged this Oracle themselves that the endeavours of Julian to confound this Prophecy when he began to rebuild the Temple would be in vain as indeed they proved by an effect of the Divine vengeance against the Jews who were engaged in the rebuilding of it Ammian Marcellin Lib. 23. under the Authority of that Emperour Indeed if one reflects on the Oracles of Jesus Christ one shall find them a thousand times more known than those of the Jews 1. The greatest part of them were penn'd at one and the same time 2. They were writ by several Authors who lived in different places 3. They were read over the whole Earth every Lord's day they have been explained and commented upon soon after every one endeavouring to take notice of their Accomplishment 4. They have been alledged in Disputes against Jews and Gentiles and have served for a Foundation to the Faith of the Christian Church whose Teachers have made it their business to shew their uniformity with the Oracles of the Old Testament which are in the hands of the Jews tho' the Jews have always considered the Christians as their most mortal Enemies But one may also find that these Oracles being for the most part much more clear and express their Accomplishment also hath been so much the more easily discernible from whence it evidently follows That Jesus Christ ought to be acknowledged as the Prophet that was like unto Moses as is mentioned in the Eighteenth of Deuteronomy that is indeed the true Messiah CHAP. XII That Jesus Christ died precisely in the same manner as it was foretold that the Messiah should dye I Have shewed in my third part that God had given to his Church several Oracles to explain distinctly this great Truth concerning the Messiah 1. He had set this up for a Rule by Moses Cursed is he that hangeth on a Tree 2. He had proposed by David the Idea of the Messiah as having his hands and feet pierced the Gentiles and Jews uniting themselves against him 3. He had foretold by Isaiah that the Messiah was to be accounted a Malefactor and put to death 4. He had repeated the same Idea's by the Prophet Zechariah who describes the manner of his being pierced which has a natural reference to the notion of Crucifixion I have also set down the Reasons for which God separated the several parts of those Prophetical Descriptions of so surprizing an Event the difficulty there was on the one hand to make these Idea's to be received which seem full of Contradictions the Messiah having been at first set forth as the Fountain of Blessing and on the other hand their seeming incompatibility with the Glory which God had promised to the Messiah and by him to the Israelites And at last I have shewed that these Oracles do exactly
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
examine their Principles and confute them which is the easiest thing in the World the Wisest Men having formerly acknowledged as they also own to this very day that there is but one God. And indeed it seems that the greatest part of Philosophers did own a plurality of Gods only in compliance with the Opinions of the people which it was dangerous to contradict And as for the Jews forasmuch as they agree with the Christians and Mahometans about the Vnity of God we are only to prove to them the truth of that which is the very Essence of the Christian Religion in opposition to their prejudices One may prove this against the Jews without any trouble because they are agreed in most of those Principles which the Christian Religion supposes So likewise it is easily established against the Mahometans who grant the truth of Christian Religion in general but pretend that it ought to give place to Mahometanism as the Law ought to give place to the Gospel preach'd by Jesus Christ My design is not to prosecute every one of these ways in particular There are Books enough in the World which solidly prove the necessity of Religion against all sorts of Atheists as well those who are so through ignorance as those who profess themselves such from Love to Libertinism and to pass for Men of a mighty reach There are also several Famous Authors who have made it evident that Reason alone is sufficient to overthrow all Pagan Religions whatsoever I am resolved to follow a more compendious and sure Method that is to demonstrate the Truth of the Christian Religion considered by it self In short It is impossible considering the opposition there is between the Christian Religion and all other Religions in the World that the Christian Religion should be the true but that all others must be false in those Articles wherein they essentially differ from it And on the other hand one cannot explain those Arguments which clearly evince the truth of Christianity without convicting all other Religions of falsehood because they are destitute of those proofs which are peculiar to the Christian Religion I know very well that there are several ways which lead to the end which I propose Men that think much wish that a perfect Conformity of the Christian Religion with the Conscience of Man might be demonstrated from Reflexions on the Heart of Man and the Dictates of it which to them would be a convincing and demonstrative proof Others apply themselves to a speculative examination of the Doctrines and Proofs of the Christian Religion to shew their Conformity with the Notions of Reason I will not deny but that both these employ themselves usually in this sort of study and that Truth finds a considerable support from their Meditations But how useful soever they may be I have rather chosen to follow another course as thinking it of more advantage solidly to establish the Facts which the Christian Religion proposeth which appears to me to be more proper to perswade all sorts of Readers and better levell'd to the ordinary Capacity of those who newly enter upon the examination of this Truth And as the necessity of Revelation is generally owned by Heathens and by all other Nations of the World I thought it a thing altogether unnecessary to enter upon the examination of several abstracted Questions such as these Whether there be any natural knowledge of God whether Men are naturally inclined to be Religious and the like When I shall have firmly proved that God revealed himself that he prescribed a Service to the first Men who left the Rules of it to all their Posterity from whence all the Religion that ever was or is yet in the Heathen World was derived I shall have prevented many very unprofitable Disputes and which can only perplex the mind by their obscurity I have therefore confin'd my self to certain Considerations which do so establish the truth of the Books of the Old and New Testament as by their Vnion they firmly prove the truth of the Christian Religion I hope that it will not be thought needful for me to demonstrate that the Mahometan Religion ought not to abolish the Christian as the Christians pretend that the Christian Religion abrogated the Ceremonial part of the Jewish Worship As soon as an understanding Reader shall make some Reflexions upon the nature of the Arguments which demonstrate the Truth of the Christian Religion he may easily perceive that God never framed the Model of that Religion which the Mahometans would obtrude upon us THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS OF THE First Part of the First Volume Chap. 1. COncerning the Fundamentals of the Christian Religion Page 1 Chap. 2. That the Christian Religion is founded upon Proofs of Matter of Fact 5 Chap. 3. Some General Remarks in order to establish the Truth of Holy Scripture 8 Chap. 4. That the Testimony of Moses concerning the Creation of the World and the Promise of the Messiah is unquestionable 16 Chap. 5. That Moses is the Author of the Book of Genesis 23 Chap. 6. That the Book of Genesis could not be forged under the Name of Moses 27 Chap. 7. That it appears from Genesis that the Sabbath was constantly observed from the beginning of the World until Moses 34 Chap. 8. That Adam was convinced of his Creation by Reason and Authority 44 Chap. 9. That Adam was confirmed by his own Experience in the perswasion he had entertain'd concerning his Creation 49 Chap. 10. That the Children of Adam had reason to be convinc'd of the Creation 52 Chap. 11. That the Children of Adam were actually convinced of the Truth of the Creation and the Promise of the Messiah 54 Chap. 12. That Noah was fully perswaded of the Creation of the World and the Promise of the Messiah 61 Chap. 13. That the Children of Noah were convinced of the truth of these Matters 64 Chap. 14. That the Posterity of Noah 's Children were perswaded of the truth of the Creation and first Promise 67 Chap. 15. That we find the Family of Abraham and his Posterity till Jacob fully perswaded of those Truths 71 Chap. 16. That this very perswasion seems to have been kept up amongst the Posterity of Jacob until Moses 's time 81 Chap. 17. That the Tradition which gives us an Account of the perswasion which the Ancients had of the truth of the Creation of the World and of the Promise of the Messiah before Moses cannot be suspected 86 Chap. 18. 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 89 Chap. 19. An Answer to an Objection which may be drawn from the Histories of the Egyptians and Chaldeans concerning the Antiquity of the World. 95 Chap. 20. An Answer to the Objection which may be drawn out of the History of China against the Mosaick Hypothesis concerning the newness of the World. 106 Chap. 21. Wherein the
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
own Tribe at their going forth out of Egypt but that God did also engage every Man to know his Tribe exactly nay he compelled them all in a manner to study their own Pedigrees that every one might claim and reap the benefit of the Law of Jubilee which had the force of an Entail in respect of every Family as I am now going to shew There are three things observable in that Matter The First is That it was by a superabundant precaution that God would engage the Tribes to continue distinguish'd from one another and to preserve and study their several Pedigrees namely he intended by that means to prevent the Objection which might otherwise have been made that it was impossible for a Tribe and a Family in that Tribe to continue distinguished from the rest of the Nation for so many Ages for certainly if all the Tribes in that Nation and all the Families in every Tribe did continue by God's Providence so long distinguished from one another there is no doubt to be made but he could preserve the single Tribe of Judah and the Family of the Messiah distinguished from all other Tribes and Families of the people of Israel The Second Remark is That it was for this distinction sake that the Books of the Old Testament were fill'd with Genealogical Tables to what purpose else had Books of that importance and which treated of such great Subjects been filled with Genealogies Moses's Books are full of them The first Book of Chronicles resumes those Genealogies with all possible exactness There is nothing more considerable in the Book of Ruth than the Genealogy of David and his Family The Third Remark is That if the Genealogy of the Priests seem to have been better known than that of other Families by reason of their being the Publick Ministers of Religion which seems to give the advantage of certainty of distinction to the Tribe of Levi above that of Judah in that particular yet we find that all the Families of the whole Nation took much the same care to preserve their own Genealogies so that if after the Babylonian Captivity some particular persons were excluded from the Priestly order to which they pretended because they could not make out their Pedigree So likewise all were thrown out from the other Tribes that could not justifie their Lineal Descent Nay there is something further deserves to be taken notice of as being very singular in that of Judah and one ought here to consider a Mistery of God's Providence and admire the Wisdom of his Conduct in pursuing the design which Moses first sets down and upon which one sees that the whole Jewish State was formed for when God resolved that the Messiah should descend from the Tribe of Juda and the House of David he made it more particularly known and distinguish'd than any other Family in the whole Nation and for that reason he sets David upon the Throne Every one knows that in every Kingdom the Genealogy of a King and of the Royal Family is of all others the most publickly known Now if the Blood Royal alone is always distinguished how much more must it be so when that Supream Dignity is conferred upon such a Family as God had particularly chosen to have the Messiah who is set forth as the desire of all Nations to be born out of it From hence I will boldly conclude that the only end for which God raised David's Family to the Throne was because the Messiah was really to be born out of that Family reduc'd to a low and private Condition which Isaiah foretold saying Isa XI LIII That a Rod should come forth out of the Stem of Jesse and a Branch grow out of his Roots and in another place That he should grow up as a Root out of a dry ground which was very agreeable to the Character of a Prophet and to the low state of Humiliation in which our Saviour was to appear in the World. CHAP. XVII A Solution of some Difficulties in these Genealogies INdeed the dispersion of the Ten Tribes seems to be a very Natural Objection to those who would dispute the Reflexions which I have already made upon these Genealogies But after all there is nothing in it but what confirms the more the said Reflexions And we may say that the intire dispersion of the whole Tribe of Ephraim and of the others which adhered to it in Jeroboam's Rebellion is a Mistery of Providence which challenges our admiration as much as the raising up that Family to the Throne out of which the Messiah was to be born To apprehend this the better we need only call to mind the pretensions of the Tribe of Ephraim This Ephraim was the younger Brother of Manasseh but Jacob had given him the Birth-right just as Isaac before had given it to Jacob tho it did of right belong to the elder Brother Jacob had particularly blessed Ephraim and even made it a Form of Blessing for after Ages as we read in the Book of Ruth that there was one made for Pharez Jacob had given to Joseph two Portions in the Land of Canaan and Ephraim had the Birthright before Manasseh by God's order it was then very natural for the Tribe of Ephraim as all Tribes did apply to themselves the several priviledges promised to their respective heads to look upon themselves as having a particular right to God's Blessing And they thought this right of theirs was plainly made out as by Joseph's Dreams so especially by the Words of that Prediction which Jacob gave in favour of Ephraim the words of which run so very high that after such a prejudice there might very well be a fair pretence for the hope which the Tribe of Ephraim had once to see a Messiah come out of their Tribe as those of Judah expected one out of theirs If to all this we add That Jeroboam's Rebellion was authoriz'd by a Prophetical Inspiration and by a special sign of God's Approbation and that on the other hand he desired to propose to his people the two Calves which he set up in Dan and Bethel as Symbols of the Deity only to pursue the Idea's of Pharaoh's Dreams which Joseph interpreted the representation whereof did clearly shew both the greatness of Joseph and the particular care of God's Providence over him Talm. in Succa c. 5. in Gem. It was then natural to the Men of Ephraim to feed themselves with such hopes as the Jews teach us they did when even to this very day they speak of a Messiah of the Tribe of Ephraim What did God then do to obviate these pretensions of the Tribe of Ephraim He dispersed them together with the other nine Tribes that submitted to the Authority of its Kings and so confounded them with all those Tribes which followed their fortune that tho there should be still some Ephraimites in the World yet it would be impossible for any of them to justifie his Pedigree so clearly as
considerably shortned at the time of Moses so one may judge that this Promise ought to be more frequently proposed and more clearly explained And we ought to suppose that in proportion to the delaying of the Promise and the shortness of Mens Lives which discouraged their hopes of ever seeing a Promise fulfilled which their Ancestors whose Lives were much longer could never attain to the more distinct knowledge which God gave of this great object was in order to stir up strong desires in the minds of the Israelites as well as of the Gentiles to whom God was afterwards to renew the Ideas of it and consequently we find that a greater number of Oracles and Prophesies were required from time to time to entertain and strengthen the belief of a Promise the accomplishment whereof was so considerably deferred And indeed this was exactly the Method which God followed the Spirit of Prophesie having in a most illustrious manner been employ'd to preserve the Idea's of the Promise of the Messiah and to increase them in the minds of the Jews until the time of the accomplishment it self and God hath so exactly set down by the Prophets the several parts of his design as there needs not be afterwards any difficulty in discerning the prosecution of that design which he had formed at first I intend in this Third part of my Reflexions on the Writings of the Old Testament to explain this Method which God hath followed in shewing how he hath accommodated himself to the state of the Jews whom he had made the Depositaries of his Oracles and proportioned them to their understanding and desires For the more happy execution of this Design and a clearer discovery of this Conduct of God which seems somewhat obscured by intermixing these Predictions concerning the Messiah with a great number of Events during that Series of Ages whereof we have the History written by his own order I think my self obliged first of all to explain the Reasons why God was pleased to interweave the Oracles which relate to the Messiah with other Matters that seem to be of a very different nature and then shall lay down the Rules which one ought to follow in applying the ancient Prophesies to the Messiah After these Preliminary Reflexions I suppose that in order to a fuller discovery of the Series of God's design and a more distinct knowledge of the Progress of the Revelation of this Matter that I ought again to resume and to set before the Eyes of the Reader the five or six principal Oracles which God hath given concerning the Messiah from the beginning of the World to Moses together with that Oracle which he uttered by the mouth of that illustrious Legislator One will easily judge without my undertaking to prove it that the Idea's of these Oracles were familiar to the Jews until David during the space of 400 years after which God began to discover the same more particularly in choosing David to be the Person in whose Family that Prophecy should be accomplished because the Messiah was to be born of his Seed And so I shall immediately pass on to the consideration of those Oracles which David himself uttered on this Subject which deserve so much the more attention because God who at that time changed the Government of the Jews did considerably augment the Idea's which the Ancients had concerning the Promise of the Messiah Lastly I shall collect under certain Heads those Oracles which were uttered by the Prophets concerning the Messiah some hundred of years before the Captivity of the Jews in Babylon and soon after and forasmuch as the Light concerning this matter was at that time much encreased and the Oracles themselves are much more clear and distinct as giving many more particular Characters of the Messiah so I shall content my self briefly to touch upon them in following the principal Characters which they give concerning the Messiah After which I shall have nothing else to do but to make some Reflexions upon the state of the Jews from the time of the last of the Prophets until that wherein the Christians pretend that this Promise and these Oracles were accomplished in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Tho' the multiplicity of the things which I am to handle and which I intend to do with the greatness briefness that is possible might seem to oblige me to omit the examining the succession of the History of the Jews yet God having been pleased to intermix the History of the Jews and many other Transactions with these Prophecies it obligeth me in this third part to make also some Reflexions upon the Historical Books of the Old Testament And indeed this will be of great use to prove the truth of these Oracles and the manner how God hath constantly followed that Draught which he at first form'd to himself as also to make it appear that notwithstanding the different Revolutions of the Jewish Common-wealth he hath always continued those Means which he chose at first to facilitate the distinct knowledge of the Messiah whenever he should appear It is very necessary to explain this Series of the Design of God to make the Authority of these Prophecies more firm and unmoveable those Laws the observation of which served to distinguish the Family of Judah and that of the Messiah being so many Boundaries and Limits within which God was pleased to confine himself that his Conduct in this matter might be the more easily observable and known And forasmuch as in my Reflexions upon the Books of Moses I have begun by the firm establishment of the Truth of those Books on which I made my Reflexions without which that Work would have wanted all its strength so I intend also in this part to follow the same Rule and accordingly I shall at first establish the Truth of the Historical and Prophetical Books of the Old Testament for if one ought to prove that these Prophecies were well known and very famous then it will be expected from me that I should solidly demonstrate the Truth of those Books in which those Oracles are recorded before I can of right conclude that the Facts which are related by other Authors are the accomplishment of these Prophecies This design would naturally engage me to prove the Truth of every one of these Books in order particularly but as I have not only proved the Truth of the Books of Moses already but that moreover I intend in my reflexions on the Books of the New Testament to demonstrate the Truth of them beyond all contest and besides that the Historical and Prophetical Books of the Old Testament are so essentially linked with those of Moses and the Disciples of Jesus Christ that it is impossible to acknowledge the Truth of the one without owning at the same time the Truth of the others I believe I may be dispensed with as to the proving the Truth of every Book of the Old Testament in particular And therefore because I intend to
be very short I will confine my self to some general Reflexions upon those Books of the Old Testament which were writ since Moses but such as I hope will be sufficient to satisfie an equitable and intelligent Reader THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS OF THE First Part of the Second Volume Chap. 1. THat there is in the Historical Writings of the Old Testament an uninterrrupted Series of Events which have a natural and necessary dependance for more than Ten Ages Page 1. Chap. 2. That there is a strict Connexion between the Sacred History and the oldest Monuments which we have of prophane History 8 Chap. 3. 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. 15 Chap. 4. 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 24 Chap. 5. That the Books in which we may find these Oracles were never forged 28 Chap. 6. That the manner of Writing the Prophetical Books of the Old Testament shews that those Oracles could not have been forged after their Completion 35 Chap. 7. For what reason the Oracles which relate to the Messiah were interwoven with other things which seem to be very widely distant 45 Chap. 8. General Rules for the understanding of ancient Oracles and for the Application of them to the Messiah 51 Chap. 9. Of those Oracles concerning the Messiah which are to be found in the Book of Genesis 60 Chap. 10. Of the Oracles which concern the Messiah in the Book of Psalms 71 Chap. 11. Considerations upon the Sufferings of the Messiah and upon his glorious Ascension into Heaven foretold by David in the XXII and CX Psalms 80 Chap. 12. That the Messiah was to have a Forerunner and what was to be his Character 89 Chap. 13. That the Messiah was to be born before the dissolution of the Jewish State and the destruction of the second Temple 93 Chap. 14. That the Messiah was to be born of a Virgin of the House of David 101 Chap. 15. 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 107 Chap. 16. That the Messiah was to work great Miracles for the establishing of his Mission and of the Truth of his Doctrine 111 Chap. 17. That the Messiah was to be an illustrious Prophet 114 Chap. 18. That the Messiah was to propound a new Covenant from God with all men 119 Chap. 19. That the Jews by a dreadful effect of their blindness were to reject the Messiah 125 Chap. 20. That the Messiah was to dye and an Account of the several Circumstances of his Death 130 Chap. 21. That the Messiah was soon after to rise again 136 Chap. 22. That the Messiah was to ascend into Heaven and send down from thence the miraculous Gifts of Prophecy Languages c. 140 Chap. 23. That the Gentiles in the time of the Messiah were to be called to the knowledge of the true God. 144 Chap. 24. That the Jews were to be rejected in the time of the Messiah 152 Chap. 25. Of the time which succeeded the publishing of these Prophecies till the Coming of the Messiah 157 The Contents of the Chapters of the Second Part of the Second Volume Chap. 1. That there appears a very just Connexion between the Idea's of the Old Testament and those of the New the latter borrowing light from the former Page 175 Chap. 2. That the Idea's of the Messiah continued very fresh in the Minds of the Jews at the time of the Coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ 183 Chap. 3. That the Commonwealth of the Jews did still subsist and follow the Model which God had formed in order to the certain knowing of the Messiah 189 Chap. 4. That all the Distinctions necessary for discovering of the Messiah still continued in the State of the Jews at the time of our Lord. 197 Chap. 5. That the time pointed out by the Prophets for the Coming of the Messiah is the very time in which Jesus Christ appeared to the World. 202 Chap. 6. That Jesus Christ had precisely such a Forerunner as the Prophets had described to precede the Messiah 207 Chap. 7. That Jesus Christ was born of the Family of David then reduced to a mean Condition as had been aforetold by the Prophets 213 Chap. 8. That Jesus Christ was conceived by the Virgin Mary without any Operation of Man. 222 Chap. 9. That Jesus Christ lived and preached after the same manner as the Prophets had foretold the Messiah should do 229 Chap. 10. That the Miracles wrought by our Saviour clearly prove that he is the Messiah 237 Chap. 11. That the Predictions of our Lord Jesus Christ clearly prove him to be the Messiah 242 Chap. 12. That Jesus Christ died precisely in the same manner as it was foretold that the Messiah should dye 250 Chap. 13. That Jesus Christ was raised again the third day according to the Prophets and afterwards ascended into Heaven 258 Chap. 14. That Jesus Christ sent to his Apostles and to the primitive Christians the miraculous Gifts of his Holy Spirit as he had promised in the Ancient Prophecies 270 Chap. 15. That according to the Prophecies the Apostles of Jesus Christ have called the Gentiles to the profession of the Christian Religion 277 Chap. 16. That the Christian Religion is founded on proofs of Fact and that consequently nothing in the World is so certain as the truth of it 284 Chap. 17. That it cannot be questioned Whether the Books of the New Testament were written by the Apostles 292 Chap. 18. That one cannot doubt of the faithfulness of the witness of the Apostles concerning those Facts which they relate 298 Chap. 19. More Reasons to manifest the faithfulness of the Apostles 304 Chap. 20. That the whole Model of the Religion and Commonwealth of the Jews is at this day so entirely destroyed that the Messiah could no more be known 311 Chap. 21. 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 317 REFLEXIONS UPON THE Historical and Prophetical BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT To Establish the Truth OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION CHAPTER I. That there is in the Historical Writings of the Old Testament an uninterrupted Series of Events which have a natural and necessary dependance for more than Ten Ages THE first general Proof which I make use of to establish the Truth of the Historical Books of the Old Testament after Moses may be lawfully drawn from the uninterrupted Series of Events which are related by those Authors who have written the History of the State and Church of Israel We may observe several considerable Epocha's of this History which takes in about One thousand and forty years
manner of writing the Prophetical Books of the Old Testament shews that those Oracles could not have been forged after their Completion I Have several things to taken notice of to make this Truth more sensible The first is taken from the necessary connexion of all the parts of the History of the Old Testament the truth of which I have proved by several Characters This History is exactly written by several Authors Now the History of the Prophets and of their Oracles is so exactly framed into the History that it is impossible to take it out without confounding the whole The Books of Samuel which were written by Samuel by Nathan and by Gad as appears by I Chron. XXIX 29. contain the History from the Year of the World 2888 to the Year 2987. The Books of the Kings contain the History of the Kings and of the Prophets from the Year 2989. to the Year 3442. The Books of the Chronicles recapitulate the History from the beginning of the World to the Year 3468. Ezra writ his History from the Year 3468. to the Year 3538. Nehemiah continued it from 3550. to 3563. Here is therefore on the one side an uninterrupted Series of History and on the other side a continued Succession of Prophecies David who began to Reign in the Year 2950. with several other Prophets of that time writ the most part of the Psalms which are full of Oracles and which were sung by the People as a part of the Divine Service Isaiah began his Prophecy in 3246. and dy'd in the Year 3306. Hosea Micah and Nahum were contemporary with him Jeremiah begun his Prophecy in the Year 3375. and liv'd at the same time with Zephaniah Daniel was carry'd into Babylon in 3401. and prophesied until 3470. Ezechiel prophecy'd at Babylon in 3509. Haggai and Zachariah prophecy'd in 3590. soon after Ezra in the time of Nehemiah Malachy seems to have lived until the Year 3589. Can we therefore in the least imagine that a History should be so intermixed with Prophesies and Oracles without conceiving at the same time the Truth of both by an invincible necessity But we may make a second Reflexion hereupon There are three general Characters which distinguish Prophets very sensibly from the generality of Authors I. They were publick Censors Let us but read the History of Isaiah's conduct who called all the Heads of the People Rulers of Sodom or that of Jeremiah Chap. XXXVI or of any other of the Prophets in general II. They were Comforters of the People when they had brought them to Repentance by their preaching There are as many Instances of this as there are Prophets III. They foretold remarkable Occurrences happy or unfortunate long before there was any probability that they should happen It is impossible to consider these Characters without seeing that the state of Affairs was that which gave a foundation for their Sermons So that one must of necessity have framed their History of new to give ground for a Forgery This change in the style of the Prophets follows the Circumstances of the Jewish State exactly All that Isaiah or Jeremiah say will hold no longer than whilst you suppose the State of the Jews to be as corrupt as the History of that time represents it But if you suppose it to be as the History do's distinctly explain it nothing can be imagined more forcible than their Sermons For as they joyned Oracles with Promises in their thundring Sermons so one see 's that they cannot be parted One may make another Reflexion upon this matter by shewing that these Oracles and these Books were so famous amongst the Jews that no Forgery can be supposed The times in which they were writ are a great proof for they appeared upon very remarkable Occasions One may rank the Prophets into four Orders according to the several times in which they appeared David and the Prophets of his time Those who lived before the Babylonish Captivity as Jonah Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Isaiah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Jeremiah Those who prophesied during the Captivity Jeremiah Ezekiel and Daniel Those who lived after their Return from Babybylon Haggai Zechariah and Malachy Now we have an equal Assurance of all these Prophets that they were famous Who can deny the Oracles of David to have been famous when they were preserv'd amongst their publick Hymns One see 's that Micah's prediction sav'd Jeremiah whom they would have condemned for prophecying the Ruin of the Temple under Jehoiakim when Micah had prophesied the same thing under Hezekiah that is to say about One hundred and twenty years before this Prediction of Jeremiah Here 's an Event which assures us without affectation That this Prophecy was very well known were not therefore the other Prophecies which were in the hands of the Jews very well known by the whole Nation The other Prophets lived in very remarkable times Isaiah under Jotham Ahaz and Manasseh impious Princes the last of which put him to a cruel Death for the freedom of his Censures and Predictions There was in the time of every Prophet a great number of Circumstances which may be enlarged upon and which will further prove That their Works must of necessity have been very publick and very famous amongst the Jews We must not here neglect what do's more particularly regard the persons of the Prophets I. Some of them were Priests that is to say publick Ministers of their Religion Jeremiah and Ezechiel were of that number This may be observed in reading of their Works and in observing the nature of their Revelations which were for the most part accommodated by God to those Idea's about which the Prophets were most employ'd II. Some were very illustrious by their Birth Thus David for instance was King of Israel Isaiah was a Prince of the Blood and Daniel was one of the Princes of Judah which may be easily found out by considering the Majesty of their Style and greatness of their Expressions III. Some were very contemptible by their Employment and by their Birth So Amos for instance and those other Prophets whose Father is barely named without joyning to it any honourable Title if the Jews observation has any strength Now it is well known that tho' the gift of Prophecy made him who had it sufficiently famous yet the Character of the Person often made the Prophecy famous Sometimes indeed the meanness of the Person as in Amos made the Work to be more regarded every Body taking occasion from the ancient Profession or the Prophet to consider the Prophecies which he published with more attention One ought to observe with care That those Prophets whose Writings are preserv'd as well as those who did not write were continually struck at by false Prophets who opposed them with great heat Since then we have no Prophecies preserved but of those whose Predictions were accomplished the Event justifying the Truth of their Predictions with regard to particular Facts near the time which they had foretold
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
's afterwards that the Prophets explain in a more particular manner all these Idea's which David had already proposed Isaiah speaks of his Birth by a Virgin of his Spiritual Gifts of his Miracles of his Sufferings of his Resurrection of his Calling of all Nations in to his Worship and of his Casting off the Jews Those who come after point out the place particularly and the Town where the Messiah was to be born they describe his Covenant and the Calling of the Gentiles to the Service of the God of Israel In short they describe both the Character of the Forerunner of the Messiah and the Empire under which he was to appear and the very Year in which he was to dye as Daniel particularly doth I cannot undertake to relate all the Oracles which are contained in the Books of the Old Testament they are so very numerous But I hope at least to mark the more principal and the most illustrious ones and to explain them in such a manner that all shall be obliged to acknowledge I. That God designed to give infallible proofs to his Church of his design in sending the Messiah into the World and to preserve the continual remembrance of him as of a Person who was promised to give all Comfort to his Church and whose coming should bring Salvation to all Mankind II. That the care which he took in specifying all the Circumstances of his coming into the World shew that he designed to prevent the Scandal which the abject Life and Death of a Messiah might produce and the false Judgments which Men might form of the Works of a Divine Wisdom when they only judge of them by the outside III. That he designed to give an infallible proof that this sending of the Messiah was the Work of his Wisdom and Fidelity which at last accomplished a thing the Design whereof had been proposed to Mankind immediately after the Fall. CHAP. IX Of those Oracles concerning the Messiah which are to be found in the Book of Genesis I Begin with those Oracles which are contained in the Book of Genesis since it is convenient to touch them all over again in few words The first Oracle is comprized in these Terms Gen. III. 15. I will put Enmity between Thee and the Woman and between thy Seed and her Seed it shall bruise thy Head and thou shalt bruise his Heel This Oracle has considerable advantages tho' it is expressed in figurative Terms God uttered it in the beginning of the World after he had given Sentence against Adam and the Woman and the Serpent in a very sensible manner even under a Human shape if we may dare to affirm it He uttered it before the Head of all Mankind which ought to make it considerable to all his Posterity He expresses it by an Allusion to the nature of the Temptation and to the form of the Serpent which the Tempter had took upon him He preserves thereby the memory of the Temptation by inspiring all Mankind with an invincible Hatred against all Serpents in general tho' the Tempter had took the shape but of one particular kind for an Instrument to accomplish his Design In short this Oracle clearly shews I. That it should be particularly the Seed of the Woman Adam not being touched at II. That the Seed of the Woman that is to say the Messiah should destroy the power of the Serpent expressed by the Head that is to say the power of the Devil III. That this Seed should however receive a considerable wound from the Devil tho' it should only touch his Heel the least considerable part of the Messiah IV. That all the Blessings which God should give to Mankind after the Fall should be grounded upon the sending of this Seed into the World This is more clearly expressed by God's telling Abraham Gen. XXII 18. That in thy Seed all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed That this Oracle Gen. III. has relation to the Messiah is plain I. Because it is the Source and Abridgment of the whole Revelation II. Because all the ancient Jews in effect understood it so III. Because the Apostles in following the Idea's of the Synagogue plainly referred them to the Messiah Targum in h. l. by the Allusions which they make to them John XII Romans XVI II Cor. XI 1 John III. The second Oracle which relates to the Messiah is contained in these Terms when God spoke to Abraham In thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed This Oracle is very illustrious I. By the person of Abraham whom God made the Depositary of it and who made himself ready to Sacricrifice his own Son. II. By the frequent Repetitions which God made to this Patriarch using in effect all those ways which he afterwards follow'd in his Revelations to the Patriarchs for fifty years together from the Year 2083. to the Year 2133. of the World. III. Because it was accompanied by the Circumcision so that tho' it foretold that the Advantages should be in common to all Nations yet it limited the Messiah to be born of Abraham's Seed It also intimates very clearly I. That the Blessings which it promises should be in common to all Nations II. That this Blessing should be quite of another nature from Temporal ones as the encrease for instance and the power of Abraham's Posterity which had been promised to him before S. Paul's Reflexion Gal. III. 8. That God spake of Seed in the singular Number is very remarkable and so much the more because the Jews make a like Observation upon a parallel place in the Old Testament As God repeated this Promise when he spoke to Isaac in the Year 2200 and to Jacob in the Year 2245. Gen. XXVIII 14. And thy Seed shall be as the Dust of the Earth and thou shalt spread abroad to the West and to the East and to the North and to the South and in thee and in thy Seed shall all the Families of the Earth be blessed so one ought to repeat again the same Reflexions This ought only to be added That God restrained the honour of bringing forth the Messiah to Jacob the Son of Isaac that the Edomites might not come in to challenge the right as I have very particularly explained in my Reflexions upon Genesis We come now to the Oracle which Jacob gave in the Year 2315. It is one of the clearest Predictions in the whole Bible and it is expressed in these Terms Judah thou art he whom thy Brethren shall praise thy hand shall be in the neck of thine Enemies thy Father's Children shall bow down before thee Judah is a Lions whelp from the Prey my Son thou art gone up he stooped down he couched as a Lion and as an old Lion who shall rouze him up The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a Law giver from between his Feet until Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the People be Binding his Fole unto the Vine
of one that was Blind and another that was Lame at Alexandria He that would know the Particulars may consult Tacitus his History And last of all we ought to observe That the Jews do not only agree that this Oracle of Isaiah refers to the Messiah but they also still propose the Power of working Miracles as a Character which would render the Messiah very illustrious and certainly known CHAP. XVII That the Messiah was to be an illustrious Prophet THis Truth I have already asserted in the Reflexions I made on the Prophecy of Moses Deut. XVIII But one ought to explain this Character of the Messiah more particularly God having been pleased further to illustrate this Oracle of Moses First then We say that the word Messiah implies Anointing which was common to Kings Prophets and Priests and since David's time we find nothing more common than this Title in the Books of the Old Testament where we may observe that Moses was dignified with this Gift of Prophecy and that Samuel communicated the same to Saul and David when he anointed them to be Kings Yea the Jews to this day are of opinion that Elias the Prophet shall anoint the Messiah that is initiate him in his Prophetical as well as his Royal Function Secondly God more precisely signifies this Isai XI Vers 1 2 3. where he declares he would communicate all the necessary Gifts of the Prophetical Function to the Messiah There shall come forth a Rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his Roots And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding the Spirit of Counsel and Might the Spirit of Knowledge and of the Fear of the Lord. So that he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes neither reprove after the hearing of his ears These words need no Commentary For the Jews refer them constantly to the Messiah and they plainly import that he was to be a great Prophet forasmuch as all the Characters which are there given to the Spirit which was to rest on the Messiah are the same which in the Old Testament we find attributed to the Prophets and may easily be taken notice of in the History of the Prophets especially of David and Solomon And much to the same purpose is that passage Isai XLII vers 1 2 3 4 5 6 and 7. Behold my Servant whom I uphold mine Elect in whom my Soul delighteth I have put my Spirit upon him he shall bring forth Judgment to the Gentiles He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street A bruised Reed shall he not break and the smoking Flax shall he not quench he shall bring forth Judgment unto Truth He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set Judgment in the Earth and the Isles shall wait for his Law. Thus saith God the Lord he that created the Heavens and stretched them out he that spread forth the Earth and that which cometh out of it he that giveth breath to the People upon it and spirit to them that walk therein I the Lord have called thee in Righteousness and will hold thine and will keep thee and give thee for a Covenant of the people for a Light of the Gentiles to open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house In which Oracle one ought to take notice particularly of those things which the Jews apply to the Messiah 1. That God proposes the Gifts of the Spirit which he bestowed upon him as an Effect of his Love and the choice he had made of him 2. That the Messiah was to make use of the same as Rules for reforming the Country and propounding Gods Covenant to the Gentiles which clearly suppose the necessity of the Gift of Prophecy to qualifie him for such great Undertakings 3. That contrary to the thundring Character which distinguished the rest of the Prophets who were as so many publick Censors the Messiah was to speak with all meekness and sweetness to the Nations which should receive his Preaching One see 's that Isaiah repeats the same Idea's Chap. LXI vers 1 2 3 4 5 6 and 7. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek he hath sent me to bind-up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the Prison to them that are bound To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of Vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion to give unto them Beauty for Ashes the Oyl of Joy for Mourning the Garment of Praise for the Spirit of Heaviness that they might be called Trees of Righteousness the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified And they shall build the old Wasts they shall raise up the former Desolations and they shall repair the waste Cities the Desolations of many Generations And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks and the sons of the Alien shall be your Plowmen and your Vine dressers But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord men shall call you the Ministers of our God ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles and in their glory shall ye boast your selves For your shame ye shall have double and for confusion they shall rejoyce in their portion therefore in their Land they shall possess the double everlasting joy shall be upon them In short he represents in this and the former Oracle the Gentiles as a People being in darkness and in the misery of a Prison from whence we may easily infer First That the Messiah was to be a Prophet how vile and abject soever that Character might appear in the eyes of the World as I have shewed that it was where I spake of the Prophets in general Secondly That he was to discharge these Functions during the whole course of his Life and that it was to be his chief Employment here upon Earth David had before signified Psalm XXII verse 22. that the Messiah was to declare the Name of God unto his Brethren viz. the Jews by exercising his Prophetical Function in Judea but the Holy Spirit did something more when he seem'd to point out Galilee as the place where this Sacred Doctor was chiefly to fix his abode This is in effect insinuated when God tells us that he was to begin his Ministerial Functions in the Tribes of Naphtali and Zebulon Isai IX vers 1 2 and 3. Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation when at the first he lightly afflicted the Land of Zebulon and the Land of Naphtali and afterwards did more grievously afflict her by the way of the Sea beyond Jordan in Galilee of the Nations The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light they that dwell in the land
doubt whether the Jews were to be rejected at the Coming of the Messiah or no especially since the Apostles and St. Paul in particular have made it appear that the Prophets so plainly did foretel this Truth CHAP. XXV Of the time which succeeded the publishing of these Prophecies till the Coming of the Messiah THus we have seen an Abridgment of the most remarkable Oracles utter'd either by God himself or by Prophets whom he made use of to declare his Designs I might easily have alledged a far greater number but I chose rather to content my self with these to avoid the Confusion which the multiplicity of Citations is apt to occasion And I question not but these I have mention'd will suffice to give us an Idea of God's promise concerning the Messiah sufficiently great and enable us to make a Judgment whether that which the Christians declare to have been the accomplishment of it be so indeed In the mean time for the further clearing of this matter I desire the Reader to make some Reflexions on the whole Matter which seem to me to deserve a serious attention The first is That God hath by degrees put an end to those Divisions that were between some other Nations and the Jews founded on their hopes of the Promise of the Messiah as the time of its accomplishment drew near We hear little now of the enmity of the Ishmaelites against the Jews God having placed them in the Desert of Paran they have indeed continued there in a manner invincible but also without any great communication with their Neighbour Nations As for the Moabites and Ammonites they had their Kingdoms on the Borders of the Holy Land and continued there till the time of Nebuchadnezzar since which we find little mention made of them as being in a manner wholly confounded with other Nations only we meet with some few Memorials of the Ammonites whose pretensions to that promise were the weaker of the two as being the Posterity of Lot's younger Daughter It is worth our observing That most of the Prophecies of David as well as of the following Prophets which thunder forth such terrible Denunciations against the pride of those people threatning them with the Curse of God and final Destruction seem to have an eye to the old quarrel and jealousie their State quarrel which happened afterwards succeeding to this their first Aversion and hatred of the Jews The State and Government of the Edomites as well as their jealousie against Israel continued till after Cyrus who granted them the Liberty of returning to their own Country as well as to the Jews who had been carried away Captives with them by Nebuchadnezzar but contrary to the hope they had of being re-established to their former Estate we find that according to the Prophecy of Malachy they continued in Bondage to their Neighbours yea to the Jews themselves until Herod the Edomite possessing himself of the Throne of Judea was probably flattered by those of his own Nation and by some Jews also into a belief of his being the promised Messiah We must also take notice That the Divine Providence seems to have continued this people so long on purpose that the Spirit of Jealousie which was between them and the Jews might preserve the Notion of the promised Messiah more fresh and lively and to engage men to a more attentive consideration of the Prophecies concerning the same and that God by confounding them afterwards with other Nations intended wholly to take away their pretensions the Service which before they rendred to the Jewish Church being no longer needful after so clear and distinct a Revelation This Reflexion will be owned to be more than a Conjecture if we consider God's dealing with the Ten Tribes God suffers them to be carried away Captives by Salmanassar leaving only the Tribes of Judah Levi and Benjamin to be afterwards the Depositaries of the Divine Oracles The second is That as it appears that God hath kept some distance of time in his Revelation that the authority of the Prophets might be fully and firmly established which as I have observed was done by the accomplishment of some Prophecies respecting some particular Matters of Fact near at hand so it pleased God for above Four hundred years to leave the Jews without the light of Prophecy because that which he had given them till Malachy's time was sufficient to make them know the Messiah when he should appear in the World. The third is That this Cessation of the Gifts of Prophecy among the Jews did serve to increase their desires for the Coming of the Messiah in whose days those Gifts which were the peculiar Glory of their Nation were to be restored in far greater abundance than had ever been granted to them before A fourth Reflexion which is well worth our attentive consideration is That God so ordered it in his Providence that all the Books of the Old Testament were translated into the Greek about One hundred years after Malachy that they might be communicated to all Nations the Greek Tongue being at that time and indeed ever since the Reign of Alexander the Great a Language the most known and generally spoken in the World he having with his power carried it into the South and East It is natural to conceive that the Divine Providence hereby designed these Three things First To establish and confirm the Authority of those Divine Oracles by delivering them into the hands of the Heathen by the publick Authority of the Jewish Nation at the desire of a King of Egypt Secondly To prevent cavilling about the explication of those Oracles Thus for instance we see there is no place left to dispute the Translation of that Prophecy Behold a Virgin shall conceive seeing the LXX Interpreters who were Jews have rendred it so themselves some Ages before any Contests were started about it between the Jews and Christians The third was To prepare and dispose the Heathen for receiving the Religion of the Messiah And indeed we may easily comprehend 1. That it was necessary that the Prophetical Writings should be communicated to the Heathen in order to their ready submitting themselves to the Authority of the Messiah whom they knew by those Characters which had been given of him 2. That it was not fitting that the Heathen should wholly depend on the Authority of the Jews forasmuch as the same Divine Oracles do expresly affirm That the Messiah was to be rejected by the greatest part of them I shall conclude these Reflexions with a short view of the State of the Common-wealth and Religion of the Jews since the last of the Prophets First One finds that this Government subsisted as distinct from all other Nations of the Earth as ever it did before we see the Honour wherewith Alexander the Great treated their High Priest and that when he was appointed Arbitrator of the difference between them and the Samaritans he determin'd the Matter in favour of the Jews One see 's
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
flattering themselves that God will one day re-establish them in Judea which they expect by means of the Messiah whom God at first promised to them 'T is now above 1600 years that they have been scattered throughout the World and yet we find not that their condition has made them change their Measures or Hopes and thô they have already been deceived by a great number of false Messiahs yet do not they for all that look upon the condition of their Common-wealth as irrecoverable Now if during so long a Series of Ages they have kept their Laws with so much carefulness if they still religiously observe all those Laws which could be kept without the Bounds of the Holy Land who sees not but that in all probability they must have kept them more exactly at the time of Jesus Christ and before his coming when they could keep them with much more ease than since that time and that for many considerable Reasons For first Their Dispersion then was in one only Nation whereas now they are scattered amongst Heathens Christians and Mahometans 2. They had then Prophets who exhorted them to the observance of these Laws which now they have wanted for so many Ages 3. They had often Princes that were very favourable to them such as Cyrus and Darius who ordered that Sacrifices should be offered for themselves in the Temple at Jerusalem and Pompey afterwards had the same inclinations for them whereas since the time of their Dispersion they have scarcely met with any one Prince that has been favourable to them if we except Julian the Apostate who from an effect of his hatred against the Christians did vainly strive to re-establish them 4. They had a Temple to which the whole state of their Republick was fixed Herod about the time of our Saviour had most magnificently repaired it whereas now for so many Ages they have neither Temple nor Altar 5. They had High-Priests amongst them that were entrusted with the Soveraign Power and were Kings of their Nation whereas now they have neither King nor Prince of their Faith. 6. Their Laws being translated into Greek since the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus it gave occasion to an extraordinary Jealousie between the Jews of Egypt who had the Text of the Scripture in Greek and between those of Jerusalem who had it in Hebrew whereas now all this is altogether ceased all the Jews now for many Ages making use only of the Hebrew Text. Since therefore we find that they without Prophets without King out of their own Country c. have observed these Laws for so many Ages notwithstanding their dispersion throughout all places and amongst all sorts of people how much rather may we conceive they did so since the time of Ezra who placed the Books of the Old Testament in the order in which we have them at this day There are only 542 years from the time of the return of their Captivity which happened in the year 3468 to the Birth of Christ and but 259 years from their return to the translation of the 70 and we know that above 1600 years are past since their general Dispersion Moreover it appears that the Romans had so well preserved the form of the Jewish Government from Pompey's time as well as that of their Religion that a Roman General sent to demand a kind of permission of the Jews to let him pass with the Roman Eagles through Syria We know that those Eagles were never set up at Jerusalem but it was at a time when a Roman Commander intended to stir up the Jews to Sedition and by that means to make the Emperour their Enemy Yea we find that tho' the Romans reserved to themselves the power of the Sword yet they permitred to the Jews the Judgment of Zeal against those whom they called Hereticks whom they tore to pieces to execute the rigour of the Law. If we find that a Roman Proconsul would not concern himself with Questions of their Law arising without the Bounds of their own Country how much rather may we judge that they enjoy'd an entire liberty within Judea And indeed we find the Priests sending their Acts IX 4. Commissioners to Damascus against the Christians without doubt with design to execute the Law against Impostors S. Paul was beaten several times with forty stripes save one which could not be upon any other pretence but to obey the Law in that matter These proofs are sufficient to make out that the Commonwealth of the Jews subsisted still in the same manner as God instituted it And as for what concerns the overthrow of their Religion as God had interwoven the Laws that regulated it with those of their Government so that their Religion was nothing else but a Religious Policy it is evident that their Government continuing at the time of Jesus Christ we cannot doubt but that their Religion notwithstanding the corruption which the Pharisees and Traditionary Jews whom Christ continually censures had introduced did still continue pure enough to answer the Model which God had framed They rejected the Samaritans as appears from the IV of S. John and looked upon them as Hereticks having no Commerce with them They lived in a perfect Alienation from the Heathen 't is with this S. Peter begins his Discourse to the Assembly at the House of Cornelius Acts X. 28. They lived in an exact Observance of the Solemn Feasts which God had prescribed them viz. the Passover Pentecost the Feast of Expiation and of Tabernacles They observed the Feasts which their Ancestors had joyn'd to these upon extraordinary Occasions as that of the Dedication that of Lots and some Fasts which they kept then as they do to this day This appears by the History of the Gospel and by the Acts of the Apostles They assisted at these solemn Festivals with much regularity They did not till their Ground in the Seventh year according to God's Command which made the Heathen Princes which were over them to release them from paying any Tribute that year as may be seen in Josephus and other Authors They taught the Law in their Synagogues and that every Sabbath day They were so scrupulous in their observation of the Sabbath that they accused our Saviour for healing the Sick on that day It appears that Lepers were sequestred and that they observed the distinction of the several kinds of Leprosie according to the Law of Moses We find by the History of the Gadarenes that Swine were looked upon as unclean Beasts It is certain that they paid the Tribute which was appointed for the use of the Temple according to the Law of Moses and the re-establishment of that Custom which we find II Chron. XXIV 5. Josephus tells us that this practise was continued till the destruction of the Temple Antiq. XVIII Ch. XII We meet with the same in Tacitus and other Heathen Authors of that time I acknowledge that at the same time they were extreamly corrupt in their
stronger when it is applyed to the Writings of the Apostles In short These Books were written to be read by persons of the meanest Capacities by Women by Children as well as by Doctors And they treat of matters of which the whole World hath reason to be informed If some Jews suffer'd Martyrdom under Antiochus to preserve the Books of the Old Testament we have like examples and as numerous of those who have done as much for the preservation of the Books of the New Testameat Lastly If the Jews have looked upon those as Traitors and Apostates who gave up those Books to the fury of their Persecutors the Christians have testified no less aversion for those who delivered the Books of the Apostles to the fury of Heathens even to the subjecting of them to the utmost rigour of Ecclesiastical Discipline in the third Century and before CHAP. XVIII That one cannot doubt of the faithfulness of the witness of the Apostles concerning those Facts which they relate NEither is it more difficult to establish this second Truth That the faithfulness of the Apostles cannot be reasonably questioned To be convinc'd of this one needs only consider the Character of the Apostles the Character of their Writings of their Sermons of their Sufferings and of their Martyrdom and last of all the Character of those amongst whom they wrote these things and preached them to their death As to their Sermons The Apostles were contemporaries with Jesus Christ they spoke of things which they had seen and distinguished them carefully from those which they had learnt another way They were honest men simple and without Learning very fit to bear witness in matters of Fact. They were Persons that preached nothing but Love and the study of Truth they protested in the midst of their Sufferings that they could not conceal the things which they had seen and heard they are men without covetousness or ambition they forsake all that they possess in the World S. Matthew leaves his House and Goods to follow Jesus Christ Their Epistles speak nothing more than instances of Christian Poverty of the loss of their Goods and of mighty instances of their Charity These witnesses are sufficiently numerous they preach and write in several places and yet they agree admirably in their relations of the same Facts it appears they had such lively and distinct impressions that they frequently make use of the very same words The difference which is found in some part of their Books is a manifest argument that nothing but the force of the matter made them agree in their Relations And indeed how is it otherwise conceivable that four such Authors as the Evangelists should agree about so many Opinions so many Miracles so many Prophecies so many Disputes and in a word about so many matters of Fact shall we say that the second took his Copy from the first the third from the second c. This appears to be evidently false by perusing of their works and by the difference of their stile And certainly there appears so great ingenuity in their writings that we cannot accuse them of having had a design to deceive the world they tell you plainly of the meanness of their condition and original they sincerely discover their own weaknesses their ambition their vanity their disputes their heats their murmurings S. Matthew tells us that he was a Publican that is a Servant of the Roman Power whom the Jews look'd upon as an excommunicated person and as an Enemy of their own Nation He relates the ridiculous pretension of the Sons of Zebedee founded on the carnal Notion of their Mother concerning the Temporal Kingdom of the Messiah They set down S. Peter's denying of his Master they do not dissemble their common ignorance which made them expect a Temporal King in Jesus Christ they frankly publish their own incredulity when Mary Magdalen brought them the news of our Saviour's Resurrection and they describe the obstinate resistance of S. Thomas about this matter against the unanimous testimony of all his Companions They do not content themselves with saying in general that some illustrious Facts have happened but they punctually set down all the Circumstances so that it clearly appears their design was to have their writings examined and that after an exact search men might acquiesce in the conclusions which they draw from thence For instance they do not tell us that Jesus Christ raised a great many from the dead they only tell us of three describing the Circumstances of their Resurrection the time the place the age the persons the assistants and all these with other particulars which Impostors care not to enter upon lest they should contradict themselves or be easily confuted I have already shewn That the nature of the things themselves which the Disciples of Jesus Christ have written is such as will not permit us to accuse them of having had a design to impose upon the world they are Facts and not Discourses which are left upon Record and Facts relating to the most important matter in the world than which none was ever more throughly examined they are Facts which are linked so closely and which have so strict a dependance one upon the other and so interwoven with the most publick Transactions either in Civil or Religious Affairs that it was impossible for them to form the design of such an imposture In short it is very remarkable that these Facts were publickly known to the Kings of Judea to the Roman Magistrate to the principal Ministers of State and of their Religion and to the whole Nation of the Jews assembled ten several times at their solemn Feasts to the several Sects of the Jewish Religion the Pharisees Sadduces and Essens who are attack'd censured and confuted in these Books One ought to consider after all that the Apostles at first preached and wrote in Judea where were the witnesses of those Miracles which they related the Impotent the Blind the Deaf which Jesus Christ had restored the Dead whom he raised the Scribes and Pharisees whom he censured the Sadduces whom he confuted the Auditors who had heard him preach the Towns wherein he had conversed most familiarly the same People that followed him the same Enemies that conspired his death the same Judges and the same Authority which condemned him to death S. Luke in the relation he gives us of the Speeches and Apologies which the Apostles made before Kings before the great Council of the Jews and in the midst of their Synagogues brings them in speaking of the Facts contained in the Gospel as of matters publickly known and attested by a vast number of witnesses Thus S. Peter speaks of them in the Tenth of the Acts and the other Sacred Writers spake of them in the same manner in their Epistles Here is a new Character which we ought carefully to observe we find no Temporal Interest which obliged the Disciples to adhere to Jesus Christ and we find yet less reason to
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
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
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
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
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
of the Worship of one God and to have annexed the Priesthood to the Kingly Power and to have regulated the Calendar and to have found out the Ephemerides of the five Planets after an intire Conjunction of those five Planets before the day of the Conjunction of the Sun with the Moon and to have fixed to that day the beginning of the year which agrees with our beginning the year in January But yet it is to be observed 1. That notwithstanding this pretended Astronomical Observation there have been several Alterations made of the beginning of the year according to the fansie and pleasure of several Emperors which shews that there was no constant rule observed in that Countrey 2. That Martinius seems to have approved of the Calculation of this Conjunction of five Planets in Aquarius to accommodate the false Astrological prejudice of the Chinese with that of several Authors who looking upon the Flood as a natural event have groundlesly imagined that it was brought to pass by the virtue and influence of such a Conjunction and that it was a certain sign of a Flood 'T is this foolish and whimsical Fansie which hath made some Grecians preposterously sedulous in seeking out that dreadful year the Winter whereof was to drown the World with a Flood and the Summer to burn it with a general Conflagration as Censorinus * Cens de die nat c. 18 and †Arist L. 1. meteor c. 14. Aristotle have observed it 'T is a Judicious Remark which Origanus ‖ Tom. 1. Ephemer P. 481. hath made upon the Observations of those Astrologers who from the Conjunction of the Planets in Humid Signs use to foretel prodigious Rains for he shews that there is nothing more groundless and uncertain than such Observations And he gives a famous and remarkable Instance of that uncertainty to the eternal shame of Astrology which is this John Staffler as Cardan tells us having observed such a Conjunction of all the Planets in Pisces in the year 1524. foretold that there should come a general Flood whereof several People being afraid retired to the tops of high Mountains but without any cause for there was never seen a greater Serenity of Weather 3. Martinius was certainly mistaken when he ascribed to Chuenhious the regulating the Ephemerides of the five lesser Planets seeing there are no such Ephemerides in China according to all the Relations we have of that Countrey nor yet any of the Sun and Moon so exact as we have in Europe a pregnant Demonstration of which is that the Missionary Jesuits have been raised up to the dignity of the chiefest Mandarins in China only because their skill and learning in Astrology was found to exceed that of any the most Learned Men amongst the Chinese by many degrees These things I thought fit to observe to shew that there is nothing in the History of China which they so much cry up that can any ways invalidiate the Authority of Moses's Accounts in his Book of Genesis but what rather confirms it if it be considered with attention It was not without reason that I have supposed that the memory of those Ancient Transactions was conveyed tho' confusedly to the Chinese we have already intimated one of those probable means of conveyance of this Tradition by their Commerce which the Chaldeans who were well informed of the greatest part of those several Transactions and who had great intercourse with the remotest Nations of Asia towards the East To this we may add another Argument yet more certain and sure which is the continual Commerce that hath always been betwixt the Indies and China and the Communication which the Inhabitants of the Neighbouring Countries of the Red Sea have always had with all the Eastern Nations of the World. For it is plain that this Commerce gave a great opportunity of Communicating to those Eastern Nations the knowledge of all those Passages which were known to the Chaldeans Just as the like Commerce with the Western Nations of the World proved a means of conveying to them the knowledge of the most part of the same things which in process of time became the ground of the most Ancient Fables amongst the Greeks among whom those Fables made up the best part of their Divinity But besides all this we may mention here another very likely means of conveyance viz. the Commerce of the Chinese with the Tartars among whom the Jews of the ten Tribes were dispersed and setled within a short time after their Captivity in Assyria For as those Jews had with them the Books of Moses so they easily gave a great insight and knowledge in ancient History to those Nations that have appropriated it to themselves as may be made out by comparing their Fabulous History with those Books of Moses which contain in effect all that relates to the Original of those Nations But whatever judgment be made of those forementioned means of conveying the Ancient Tradition to the Chinese I think that I have good ground to affirm 1. That the Historians that have written the Lives of the first Emperors of China were not Contemporaries with those Emperors and that consequently they have not recorded things so well known as it was supposed 2. That the Fables intermixt in their Histories do sufficiently evidence the easie and credulous temper of those Authors which takes away from them all credit and belief 3. That the greatest care of those Authors was to perswade the World of the pretended Antiquity of their Nation and so to raise the Honour and Reputation of it by glorious Stories and Fables 4. That their affectation in giving us an Account of Astronomy and Judiciary Astrology was only to bring into Credit and Reputation those Arts the end and scope of which is to impose upon Simple Men which is a ridiculous Affectation and such as hath exposed the Chaldeans and Egyptians to the just Contempt and Derision of all other Nations 5. That there is amongst them a Diversity of Opinions contrary to one another about their Antiquity just as there were some amongst the Egyptians who reckoned up 23000 years from the Reign of the Sun to Alexander when some others reckoned b◠a little above 10000 years 6. That the Chinese according to one of their own Opinions must say that the Earth was without almost any Inhabitants for 30000 years together and above whereas we see that in the space of five or six thousand years it is become inhabited as we see it and that within a little more it will be so overstockt as that it will not be able to yield Provisions enough for all its Inhabitants as a Learned English Man hath of late proved it by a Mathematical Demonstration which shews that the Chinese wanted certain grounds to go upon in several Accounts which they give of many Transactions and in the relating of which they are besides most confident Lastly That therefore what is reported that these Chinese Authors did
all write with publick allowance after every King's Decease might indeed be so about the latter times as it was practic'd in Egypt but that it is as absolutely false that the Chinese had ever in former times such Publick Historians and as it is false that the Egyptians had formerly any such although they were as confident to say they had in Alexander's time as the Chinese are now But this I think is sufficient for the clearing of that matter We must now answer the last Objection of Atheists against the Authority of the Book of Genesis CHAP. XXI Wherein the last Objection of Atheists is answered AS I intend to clear all the Difficulties which may arise about this important Matter in the Minds of those that shall peruse these Observations I think my self obliged to prevent and resolve the only plausible Objection I know remaining after all what I have said upon this Subject Perhaps some will be apt to reply here that they indeed confess Moses to be the Author of Genesis and that if that Book had really been Supposititious it could never have gone under his Name nor be received as his in after Ages But that yet all this does not prove sufficiently the truth of those Transactions recorded in that Book Because Moses may have forced upon the People of Israel the belief of them by those Laws that he enacted amongst them by which it was Death for any Man to dare to contest the truth of any thing he had written in his Books This I think is all that the most Contentious Atheists can think of to undermine the Authority of Moses's History But this Objection is easily answered for it consutes it self For First It supposes the truth of these great Miracles by which God establish'd Moses the Head and Captain of the People of Israel which Miracles are every whit as hard to believe as the several Accounts of other things which we read of in the Book of Genesis We find accordingly amongst the Heathens themselves many Monuments of those Miracles done by the Ministry of Moses when he brought the Israelites out of Egypt As I intend to shew in my Observations upon the other four Books of Moses Secondly They must at least suppose that Moses hath given a true account of several Passages in which he could not impose upon other Nations which did not acknowledge his Authority as for example all that relates to the building of the Ark the greatest piece of Architecture that was then in the World and to the raising of the Tower of Babel the greatest Building that ever was and part of which is yet extant for all these things were as so many Witnesses of the truth of those Transactions which he related Thirdly They must likewise suppose that he hath related several other Passages as exactly as he did those as for Example That of the Division of Tongues which is an Appendix of the History of the Tower of Babel that of the Destruction of Sodom the Original of the Neighbouring Nations of Canaan that of the Jews of the Moabites of the Ammonites of the Ishmaelites and Edomites for it is ridiculous to conceive that this Law-giver should ever hope to perswade other Nations to believe any false Stories about Matters so well and so generally known as those were amongst themselves Fourthly They must suppose further that he hath given a true account of the Original of the Israelites whose Head and Governor he was How great and absolute soever the Authority of Moses might be it is ridiculous to imagine that ever he would have derived the Original of the Israelites from any other than from their true Ancestors This appears the more necessary in that we see by the accounts he gives of things and Pedigrees in Genesis that he wrote that Book especially from the History of Abraham on to the end of it only to shew the Rights and just Pretensions of the Israelites upon the Land of Canaan Fifthly They must yet further acknowledge whither they will or not the truth of the accounts he gives concerning the Original of the Pretensions and Divisions which were kept up amongst the Twelve Tribes of Israel now these Pretensions having no other ground than the Oracles which are related in his History they sufficiently prove the Authority of those Oracles against all the Pretensions and Objections of the Atheists What violence soever they may pretend that Moses might use to force an Implicit Belief of his History and blind Obedience to his Laws yet no Man of common Sense and Reason can ever think that he would have fill'd the Accounts he gives of things of that nature with Lies or that if he had done it he could ever have expected that his false Accounts of them should ever have been credited by the Neighbouring Nations or even by his own Subjects But without urging here several other Absurdities which plainly shew that there is no distinction to be found betwixt the Accounts of things which Moses recites as publickly known and those which he relates of his own Head and private knowledge there being as I have already shew'd betwixt all those several Accounts such a natural Coherence and necessary Concatenation that they cannot be divided from one another without destroying the whole frame of his History I say that it is impossible that the Law by which he makes it death for any one to contest the truth of his Narration should make the sincerity of it suspected I do not urge here that there is an evident Absurdity to suppose that Moses would ever have related together all those Transactions as the grounds of Religion if they had been absolutely unknown in the World before him Neither do I mention here that suppose Moses had been so imprudent as to attempt such an undertaking yet there is no reason to believe that a whole Nation and that a very numerous one would have long persevered in a Profession forced upon them by meer Violence and Tyranny Nor do I think it necessary to observe here that the People of Israel were neither so patient nor so easily perswaded by Moses nor yet so submissive to him as these Objectors do imagine That is plain and apparent enough from all their Seditions and Conspiracies against him Nor do I judge it necessary to observe here what is plain enough of it self viz. that Moses had no Successor any ways concern'd to countenance and defend these pretended Fictions and Fables of his History Joshua his immediate Successor was of another Tribe and so were all the succeeding Governors of Israel until the Maccabees came But what I think deserves best to be observed here is that after Moses and Joshua's Decease the People of Israel was brought under the Subjection of the Canaanites and consequently freed from the Terror of that Law of Moses's making by which it was Death for any one to contest the Authority of his Laws â—nd the truth of all his Writings there is but a
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
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
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
those Songs that were so much in fashion amongst those of his Nation he might easily satisfie his Curiosity by reading Moses's History If any Jew desired to know what sort of Exhortations they were which the Founder both of their Religion and Common-wealth had formerly made to their Fore-fathers Moses relates a great many of them in his Books If any Jew had a mind to receive instruction about the Original and cause of those Temporal Blessings he enjoyed in the Land of Canaan which God had possess'd his Nation of after the Expulsion of those People that had been the Inhabitants of it for many Ages Moses gives as good account of all that as can be desired If any Jew had a mind to know the Original of the several Calamities that befel his Nation on several occasions Moses acquainted them both with the Cause and Remedy of all their Afflictions Lastly If the Jews desired to be informed of the future condition of their Common-wealth in after Ages Moses foretells it in so particular and clear a manner that they might look upon his Prophesies not as certain Prophesies only but as a plain History of future Events begun and traced out before their Accomplishment All this is so much the more considerable to oblige us to read the Books of Moses with care that we may justly observe three things in his person which as they raise him above all common Authors so they cannot but strengthen the belief and increase the Esteem and Veneration which we ought to have for his History The first is That whereas all Men are careful to conceal their own Infirmities and whatever is dishonourable to their Familles Moses on the contrary seems to have affected to record all the things that could blemish the memory of his Ancestors and derogate to his own Reputation He blemishes Jacob's memory by his relating how he preferr'd Joseph the Son of his Beloved Wife to Reuben his Eldest whom he unjustly deprived of his Birthright in favour of the other which injustice is expresly forbidden by one of Moses's Laws Thus he lays an eternal blot and reproach upon the memory of Levi the Head of his own Family when he mentions his Cruelty and Violence against the Sichemites and the dispersion of his Posterity amongst the other Tribes of Israel Nay what is more he vilifies his own Birth by forbidding any Marriage betwixt an Aunt and her Nephew seeing he relates that he himself was born of Jocabed both Aunt and Wife to his Father Amram he describes his own Incredulity with all the Ingenuity imaginable when he represents the several Miracles which God wrought by him he seems to speak of himself only to lay open his own failings and sins such a sincerity and Impartiality we know confirms and increases mightily the Authority of any Author The Second thing is That Moses not regarding the advantage and honour of his own Family left the Government of Israel to Joshuah one of the Tribe of Ephraim and so reduced his own Children and their Posterity to the low condition of the rest of the Levites who were of an inferiour Rank to that of Priests for we do not see that they ever after renew'd the pretensions which they might otherwise have had to succeed Moses now such neglect of his Family shews that Moses's Principles were raised much above the ordinary pitch of the generality of Law givers who were absolute and supream over their People The Third thing observable here is that Moses had no share in the Conquest of the Land of Canaan it all was subdued after his Death Nay it was that Conquest that fixed and setled the Common-wealth of Israel which was before unsetled and as it were ambulatory in the Desart Now how could such a singular design as Moses describes in his Law be put in execution by any other than by him that formed it It was Joshua that made this Conquest of the Land of Canaan and possest the Jews of it now to be sure if that People had not been then fully perswaded of the Divine Authority of Moses's Law they would never have failed after so great an alteration to make use of their Power and Liberty in throwing off the troublesom yoak of his Laws nor yet would Joshua and all his Successors in the Government ever have maintain'd the Authority of those Laws if they had not lookt upon Moses not only as an extraordinary Man but also as one particularly Commissionated by God to make that Body of Laws for the regulating of his People We read in those Books of Moses's dying in the Mountains of Moab now that being supposed how is it possible that if the People of Israel had not been fully convinced that God himself gave their Law to Moses with all the Circumstances mentioned by him they would have continued to keep up such a ridiculous and ill grounded Conceit If he had really by his Tyrannical Authority forced the Israelites into a compliance to his Laws during his Life why did they not assoon as he was dead with the fear of his Authority shake off the yoak of his Laws and all respect for his memory One thing we may remark as very surprizing in the Relation of that Legislator's Death which is that his Body was not found after his Death For we do not see that that People which otherwise kept up and carried about with so much care the Bones of Joseph and his Brethren in order to Bury and Deposite them in the Sepulchres of their Ancestors for both Joseph and his Brethren were interred in Judaea did ever build a Tomb to their Law-giver or so much as pretend to shew his Sepulchre Josephus was of Opinion that Moses wrote himself the account of his own Death for fear the Jews should ever imagine and so give out that God had taken him up into Heaven I see I confess no solidity in that Conjecture of his but yet it may give us occasion to make a Reflection hereupon I think more natural and easie which is that God had a mind as Joshua intimates it to confirm the many Characters of Divinity that appeared in the Law of Moses by taking away from before the eyes of the Jews his Corps which they would certainly if they had not been so prevented have kept with more care than those of all their Patriarchs and Kings The Description of the manner of Moses's Death shews evidently that he was not only in great esteem during his Life but that even his Death did much conduce to the increase of it and to make Men look upon him as one gloriously raised up above the common condition of Men and in a manner not obnoxious to the Infirmities and Miseries incident to human nature But after these general Reflexions I must come to those that are more particular CHAP. III. That the truth of the Miracles related by Moses cannot reasonably be doubted of WHoever will examine with attention the four last Books of
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
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
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
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
Fact which they have asserted in the midst of the most cruel Torments and even until Death That Jesus Christ sent down upon his Apostles the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Spirit is a Fact of which all Jerusalem was a witness fifty days after the Feast of the Passover when Jesus Christ was crucified it is as remarkable a Fact as ever happened twelve Fishermen of Galilee maintain in the face of the whole Jewish Nation that the same Jesus whom the whole Nation had demanded to be crucified but fifty days before and who did actually suffer upon an infamous Cross is risen from the dead and ascended into Heaven after he had eaten and drunk with them and had appeared several times to them after his Resurrection and that he had given them the power of speaking all sorts of Languages and of healing all manner of Diseases That they spoke divers Languages is a Fact most notorious the truth whereof appears from the Conversion of the World which was found to be fill'd with their Disciples but a few years after this Fact was done That they had the power of healing all Diseases as well as their Master is a Fact the truth whereof is establish'd upon indisputable testimonies insomuch as their Successors received the same Gift by the laying on of their Hands Two hundred years after Tertullian mentions this Gift as being at that time well known amongst Christians That the Apostles after they were rejected by the Jews preached the Gospel to the Gentiles who also received it is a Fact of which there are so many proofs in the World that it cannot be called in question That the converted Jews strongly opposed themselves against the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles pretending as the Jews now do that the Messiah with his Gifts and Graces was confin'd to their Nation is a Fact so well attested that it cannot be called in question if we consider the first dispute which gave occasion to the first Council of the Apostles and to the contests of S. Paul with those of his own Nation That since that time the Apostles and their Disciples have maintained by their Writings and Disputes and finally by their Martyrdom that Jesus was the Messiah that they have constantly stood to this claim alledging the Facts which the Gospel proposes and maintaining that the matters there related were exact Accomplishments of the Promises of God and of the ancient Prophecies That all this is unquestionable one needs only read their Sermons and Speeches set down by S. Luke and their Epistles one needs only peruse the Heathen History and the Works of those that succeeded the Apostles who followed their footsteps in establishing the truth of the Christian Religion That the Apostles discharged their followers from the Ceremonies which Moses prescribed obliging them only to the Essentials of Morality That they annul'd the Law which permitted Divorces without sufficient cause and Polygamy these are things which none who have read their Writings or those of their first Disciples can in the least question Lastly That they foretold many things as well as their Master that they published their Predictions which they have extended to the end of the World and the return of Jesus from Heaven to judge the World and that they have recorded the particulars of many considerable Events observed by the Christians which have happened from time to time these are Facts as well known and as incontestable as any thing can be in the World of such a nature Whole Nations are Witnesses of it differing Sects Interpreters who have several Opinions concerning these Prophecies the Contests of the Jews the Opposition of Atheists the Cavils of Hereticks the Cruelty of Tyrants all these concur to prove clearly that the Christians received these Prophecies from the Apostles as well as the truth of them since even these Oppositions were foretold as well as the Persecutions Thus I have given you a view of the greatest part of the most important Articles which are contained in the Christian Religion and I think that they are so solidly grounded upon proofs of Fact that I can assert with reason That no Facts in the World can be produced so well established as these are which are the Fundamentals of our Religion What Facts are there which are attested by whole Nations as the Miracles of Jesus Christ were What Facts are there about which men were so careful to inform themselves as when a Man pretends to the Title of the Messiah What thing can we suppose that requires a stronger conviction because of the difficulties it involves than that of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ for those who were Eye-witnesses of his Crucifixion that is who had seen him punished by the Magistrate the horrour of all his own People and in all appearance forsaken of Heaven To speak the truth as there cannot be a greater instance of fanatical folly than to attribute to twelve poor Fishermen whose Master was crucified at Jerusalem by publick order and by an effect of the hatred of the whole Nation I say to attribute to them the design of perswading that People and the Gentiles also that this man was raised again from the dead that he rules in Heaven that he has bestowed upon them the miraculous Gifts of speaking all sorts of Languages and healing all manner of Diseases if this Jesus had been never raised from the dead nor had bestowed such Gifts upon them the mind of Man not being capable of so great folly So we have all the reason in the World to conclude That since they have attested this Fact and confirmed it by all the proofs which might convince those who tho' they were not prejudic'd yet were astonish'd at the difficulty of the things themselves so that nothing can be more certain than Facts so confirmed as we pretend that these actually were CHAP. XVII That it cannot be questioned whether the Books of the New Testament were written by the Apostles BEfore we alledge those Arguments which will invincibly confirm the truth of the Books of the New Testament I desire the Reader to make these three or four Reflexions which seem to be very important to our present design The first is That we can scarcely conceive a more simple and strong way of proving a Fact than what we find in the Books here mention'd The design of the four Evangelists for instance is to prove that Jesus the Son of Mary is the promised Messiah and that in his Birth his Life his Doctrine his Death and Resurrection we meet with all the Characters which the Prophets attributed to the Messiah How do the Evangelists execute this their design In the most proper way imaginable to convince others and most proportionable to their design They simply relate the Facts and Facts so clear that if we do not question the truth of them we cannot doubt that Jesus is the Messiah They relate the most important of these Facts as things that happened in
become Christians 'T is also of great importance to observe further as I have already done that the Books of the New Testament were penn'd before the overthrow of the Commonwealth of the Jews There are only some of the works of S. John which were writ after the Destruction of Jerusalem I have before observed that the Divine Providence order'd it so that all the Jews for five and thirty years together repairing thrice a year to Jerusalem at their three solemn Festivals might have greater opportunities to inform themselves of the truth of the Facts contained in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles To this Remark I shall now add two weighty Considerations The one is That the Christians for some years submitted themselves to the Ceremonial Law and repaired with the Jews to Jerusalem and by this means were engaged to examine the Facts contained in the Gospel The other is That after the Council of Jerusalem they were dispensed with as to that Custom as well as the observing of all the other parts of the Ceremonial Law which set the Christians in a greater opposition to the Jews and so encreased the necessity of examining very scrupulously on both sides whatsoever was for or against them in those matters of Religion This Observation leads us naturally to another That it is absolutely impossible that an imposture of this nature should not be discovered when there ariseth a Difference between those who may be looked upon as the Authors of the Forgery and those who after them endeavoured to gain credit to it Now if we find that one Disciple of Jesus Christ betrays him without accusing him of the least Crime or Imposture if we have seen the Christians at first united in the same Assemblies with the Jews and that there were several Contests and Disputes between the Apostles and those first Christians yet without calling those Facts which are continued in the Gospel in question by either side S. Paul takes notice of the Contests which happened betwixt him and S. Peter S. Luke relates the heats between S. Paul and Barnabas upon very slight occasions he sets down also the Dispute which arose about the distribution of Alms to the Greek and Jewish Widows One see 's that there arose a Dispute amongst the Apostles themselves about the Calling of the Gentiles to the Gospel one see 's afterwards the obstinacy of some of the Jews of the Sect of the Pharisees who maintained the absolute necessity of submitting to Circumcision and S. Paul's opposition set down in his Epistle to the Galatians We need no more to make it evident that there could be no concert nor collusion between them to deceive or impose upon those to whom they preached the Gospel Let us go a little further a Dispute happens about a Capital Point of Christian Religion about the Resurrection insomuch that S. Paul thinks himself obliged to write concerning it to the Corinthians so that there was a necessity of examining the truth of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ again Now we find that S. Paul to confirm this Doctrine in general chiefly makes use of the instance of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ which he proves by Arguments taken from the Fact it self that is by witnesses whom he produceth Whereupon I make this considerable Reflexion That in comparing this Dispute of S. Paul with the Writings of the Evangelists it clearly appears that they did not alledge all the proofs they might have done None of them relates in particular the number of those who saw Jesus Christ in Galilee upon the holy Mountain but S. Paul who had examined the faithfulness of their Relations and knew the witnesses specifies the number and observes that many of them were yet alive if perhaps any of them were already dead I shall add only two Considerations more which prove that it was even impossible for the Apostles to impose upon the World on this occasion The first is taken from their State and Condition They are no great Lords whose Power might terrifie any one from examining their Writings or whose Reputation could not have been called in question without danger On the contrary they were men of mean condition employ'd in base Professions often cast into Prisons and from time to time oblig'd to appear before Magistrates for the same Doctrine and the same Facts which they published to the World. Let us consider then whether it were an easie matter for S. Paul for instance I say for this S. Paul a maker of Tents this S. Paul without Reputation without Riches this S. Paul who was seized at Jerusalem after divers Persecutions this S. Paul who was sent a Prisoner to Rome and imprisoned there under the power of the Roman Magistrate and who at last lost his life by Nero's order to make those blindly believe all he said who were at liberty to examine whether all that Luke related as happening to him at Jerusalem at Maltha at Philippi at Athens were indeed true or only a framed Story The second thing we ought to observe is That not only the Books of the Apostles were publickly read every Lord's day by a constant Law of which we have most authentick witnesses in the Writings of the Apostles themselves and in other ancient Books which are still extant but also that they were all of them written not in Hebrew which at that time was a dead Tongue nor in Syriack a Language spoken in a very few places but in Greek which at that time was the Language commonly received throughout all the Roman Empire and besides was the Language into which the Divine Providence had caused the Old Testament to be translated about three Ages before that men might compare the ancient Oracles and their accomplishment together CHAP. XX. That the whole Model of the Religion and Commonwealth of the Jews is at this day so entirely destroyed that the Messiah could no more be known WHat I have before set down to establish the truth of those Facts which serve for a Foundation to the Christian Religion is certainly sufficient to answer the design which I formed in writing these Reflexions upon the Books of the Holy Scripture and I believe I may with justice conclude That as nothing is more uncontestable than the truth of those Books and of the Facts in them related so there is nothing more certain than the Truth and Divinity of the Christian Religion So that now I have only two things to do with which I conceive it will be necessary to conclude these Reflexions The one is to shew the absolute impossibility of conceiving any other accomplishment of the ancient Oracles than what is set down in the Gospel The other is that concerning the Divisions amongst Christians which are a scandal to the Jews and especially concerning the difficulty of the Mysteries which the Gospel proposes which are as so many stumbling Blocks to them which hinder them from discerning those Characters of Truth in the Gospel which by