that Order as P. Simon would have it and we ought to read the Three Verses aforesaid backwards because the Jews in this Age do not name their Children till after their Circumcision But can P. Simon prove that in Abrahams time Children were not named till after their Circumcision might they not be numbred at their Circumcision yea or before their Circumcision in Abrahams time God left it free unto Abraham and his Posterity to name their Children at vvhat time they pleased before at or after their Circumcision and no Man living can prove that in Abrahams time People vvere bound to name their Children after their Circumcision or that they generally used so to do such Arguments as this of P. Simons deserves no Ansvver but to be hissed at and his Immodesty in saying That the Sacred Historian ought to have kept the Order he speaks of is to be lamented by all that desire to fear God Thirdly He Objects Gen. 31. 46. This Verse says he is methinks likewise out of its Order as well as all the Discourse which treats of the Covenant between Jacob and Laban because they did not eat till the Alliance was made Answer Here is an Argument little better than the former only it is more modestly proposed They did not eat till the Alliance was made ergo all the Discourse which treats of the Covenant between Jacob and Laban is out of its order Any Man that attentively reads the Text of Moses would conclude the quite contrary that seeing they did not eat till the Alliance was made therefore all the Discouse that treats of the Covenant c. is in its Order because it is all set down before the offering of Sacrifice or killing of Beasts and eating of Bread mentioned Vers 54. As for Vers 46. there is nothing affirmed in it but what is most true It is most true that Jacob's Brethren gathered Stones it is most true that they made an heap and it is as true that they did eat there upon the heap But says P. Simon They did not eat till the Alliance was made I Answer Nor does the Historian say in Vers 46. that they did eat before the Covenant was made there he only says That they did eat upon the heap but does not say when and a little after in Vers 54. he tells us when it was they eat upon the heap to wit after the Covenant was made So that here is nothing to cavil at and find fault with only the same thing is twice expressed in somewhat different words First The matter of Fact is related in general without telling what was meant by it Vers 46. They took stones and made an heap and they did eat there upon the heap Secondly The meaning of the heap of stones and of their eating upon the heap is cleared up and the time mentioned when they eat upon the heap there it is shewed that the heap of stones was by agreement between Jacob and Laban ordained to be a Witness or Token of the Covenant between them Two and their eating upon the heap is clearly implyed to have been a federal Feast signifying and sealing up a lasting Friendship between the Parties Covenanted and last of all it is expresly declared when this Feast upon the heap of stones was to wit after the Covenant between Jacob and Laban was made and confirmed by the Oaths of both Parties Vers 53 54. To conclude this Answer Let it be considered that Vers 46 speaks only of the place where they eat without mentioning the time when But Vers 54 speaks only of the time when they eat without mentioning the place where that is without mentioning that it was upon the heap of stones and now why Moses yea why Gods Holy Spirit might not be the Author of both these 46 and 54 Verses and of all that comes between them it is above my capacity to understand I dare challenge any Man to bring an Argument from this place to prove that Moses could not be the Author of the Pentateuch an Argument I say that any Man of Judgment would not be ashamed of Fourthly He Objects Gen. 35. 28 29. The Death of Isaac there related seems to be out of its place says P. Simon because Isaac died not at that time and that Joseph was sold Twelve Years before the Death of Isaac yet nevertheless the History of Joseph begins but at the 37th Chapter of the same Book I Answer The Death of Isaac hath that place in the History which the wisdome of God thought fit to assign unto it and that we should account to be its place which Gods Wisdome by his Prophet hath put it in But says P. Simon Isaac died not at that time I Answer There is no other time of his Death mentioned there but that after he was One Hundred and Eighty Years Old he Died and was Buried which is most true but it is not at all said by the Sacred Historian that Isaac Died at that time when his Son Jacob came unto him unto Mamre for that had been false and I desire this may be taken notice of But says P. Simon Joseph was Sold Twelve Years before the Death of Isaac and yet the History of Joseph begins but at the 37th Chapter of the same Book I Answer This is indeed true for Isaac was Sixty Years Old when Jacob was Born Gen. 25. 26. And Jacob was One Hundred and Thirty Years Old when he stood before Pharaoh Gen. 47. 9. Now 60 and 130. make One Hundred and Ninety which is but Ten Years more than the Years of the Age of Isaac who Died when he was One Hundred and Eighty Years Old that is Ten Years before Jacob stood before Pharaoh so that Isaac must have Died about the time of Joseph's advancement in Aegypt as appears from Gen. 41. 53 54. compared with Gen. 45. 6. where we see that Seven Years of Plenty and Two Years of Famine had passed from the time of Joseph's advancement until the time of Jacob's coming into Aegypt Isaac then Living One Hundred and Eighty Years could not Die till about the time of Joseph's advancement either the Year of his advancement or the Year before his advancement and if it was the Year before his Advancement that Isaac Died then it was about Twelve Years after Joseph was Sold that Isaac Died for Joseph was Seventeen Years Old when he was Sold Gen. 37. 2. and Thirty Years Old when he was advanced in Aegypt Gen. 41. 46. and consequently he was not advanced till the Thirteenth Year after he had been Sold so that Isaac Dying the Year before his advancement he must have Died Twelve Years after he was Sold. But what is all this to the purpose this doth not prove that the Relation of the Death of Isaac is out of its place for as I have said that is its place which the Wisdome of God thought fit to assign unto it and there we find it in the end of the 35th Chapter
body must have written those Books and accommodated them to the Ceremonies and Laws which were already in use adding thereunto those Miracles the more to engage the People unto the observance of that Law But all this is so far void of all probability that there was never any till now that durst in earnest assert it 37. How could it be said for example that the Pentateuch was written and published long after the Death of Moses and that it caused the Establishment of the Law and Worship of the Jewish Religion which it contains Then it must be said also that the Ark and Tabernacle which are the Foundations of that Religion were not made till long after Moses and till that Book had been published but this is a thing absolutely impossible for all the Jews firmly believed that their Ark and Tabernacle were made by Moses as that Book relates and it is not conceivable why or on what account they could have taken up such an opinion if they had made them both themselves after they had seen and recived that Book which is now supposed not to have appeared in the World till a long time after Moses it would be doubtless one of the prettiest things in the World and the most unparallel'd either that this Book having been compiled all at once and beforehand with that prodigious number of Ceremonies and Laws as already in use they should afterwards have been Instituted and setled or that being compiled by degrees and according as all those things were Instituted and Established it should always have had as they say a retractive effect or influence and have wrought backwards so as to cause each of those Institutions to be Ascribed unto Moses 38. Likewise how could this People who at their first Imbracing of this Law must at least have known that it was not true that it had been in use amongst them ever since Moses his time and that there had been a continued Succession of Priests ever since Aaron how I say could this People have been able to perswade themselves Universally to believe that what was prescribed by that Book had always been practised amongst them and that the Priests whom it Ordained had received their Ministry from Aaron by an uninterrupted Succession And finally how upon the same principle could all the other Tribes and Families have suffered the Tribe of Levy and Race of Aaron to appropriate unto themselves all the priviledges belonging to the Priesthood and to the Office of the High Priest 39. There is no less absurdity in the other Supposition to wit that the Law having been given by Moses by word of Mouth was preserved for a time among the Jews by means of Tradition only and that afterwards those who committed it to writing added thereunto all those Miracles For besides that even this would be a kind of Miracle and a thing very hard to conceive that that People should have received a Law so strict and severe as that was from a Man who had done nothing extraordinary for proving that he had it from God how could it be that Moses who doubtless had the use of writing should have omitted a thing so necessary and not have committed to writing a Law that contained so many Observations so many Ceremonies and so many Rules that it was necessary to have it always before ones Eyes for fear of failing in some or other point of duty prescribed by it 40. And indeed we learn also from the Book it self that Moses did not sail to commit it to writing Moses as it is said Deut. 31. 9 10 11 12 13. wrote this Law and delivered it unto the Priests the Sons of Levy and unto all the Elders of Israel and commanded that it should be read before all Israel in their hearing at the end of every Seventh Year in the Feast of Tabernacles And it is also said in I do not know how many places of that Book That God commanded Moses to write that which he revealed to him upon the Mount if the Jews then had received that Law from him only by word of Mouth how could they have ever received a Book which should have contained a Lie so gross evident and which should have carried in it an express order from God which their Law-giver had not obeyed 41. That very Order to read the Law every Seventh Year at the Feast of Tabernacles as having been given by Moses doth further clearly show that it could not have been changed nor corrupted for it would have been impossible for such corruptions not to have been discovered or that being discovered they should have been suffered by a People devoted to that Law and whose devout Subjection to it was grounded upon their believing it to be of God and written by Moses besides that those Miracles being most visible to the Eye scattered throughout the Books repeated in divers places of them and linked with the principal transactions therein Recorded there had been a necessity of making a new Book to take them in and not meerly to alter for that purpose an old Book which had been already received 42. The Infidel then must yet once more return to that pretended vain-glorious humor of the Jewish Nation and maintain that the Jews could easily suffer this falsification and that they were even glad that all those Miracles were added to their Law and that their Chronicles were filled with them 43. This might have some probability if the Question were only about a matter of Civil or Political concernment as for example The Romans could have been content that one should have told them that they were the Off-spring of Aeneas and it may be the French would be well enough pleased that one should derive their Original from the Trojans these are things which please some Mens Fancies and may pass without contradiction it being no Bodies interest to oppose them and they do not interfer with other things that have been established and stedfastly believed time out of mind and that are looked upon as the only considerable But as touching the Jews a People so devoted to their Religion so faithful Observers of the least Traditions and to whom lying was so severely forbidden this supposition is altogether without any appearance of truth 44. For I cannot believe that the Infidels boldness to deny any thing that makes against them dare adventure so far as to dispute all the Evidence we have of the Jews Zeal for their Religion since even yet to this day they have so great a veneration for that Law that though they have been dispersed above these Sixteen Hundred Years and see no accomplishment of what was promised to them notwithstanding they observe it still as far as they can with the same strictness as they did at first and wait continually for the fulfilling of those promises how improbable is it then that they should have suffered that which they looked upon as God's own word to be mixed and blended with
many things which would have made them deservedly enough to be admired and esteemed an Historical Narrative which covers them with perpetual Ignominy 52. So we see that Josephus who was far more tender of the interess of his Nation hath chosen rather to expose himself unto the reproach of having violated the Laws of History by suppressing this publick Crime committed by the Jews in the Wilderness than to expose them to the contempt and scorn of the World by reciting it 53. Moreover how could be added to this History the Rebellion of Corah which is a thing so injurious to all his Posterity was their not cause to fear least some one or other of his Family should have discovered the Falshood of it to wash off the stain of it from themselves why must Corahs Family bear that Mark of Infamy rather than any other did they cast Lots for it was it a thing so necessary that they could not dispense with it and is it not manifest that if it had been a Fiction the whole Race in one Body and with one consent would have opposed it and desired the Authors of that Table to look out for some other Embellishment to their History 54. But if the last words of Moses be considered where he Denounces against them so many Curses Threatens them with so many Calamities and after he had upbraided them with all their Unfaithfulness further Declares That they would do the same things anew and for the Punishment thereof should fall into remediless Misery and Distress that they should be run down by their Enemies and reduced to the utmost Extremity even to the eating of their own Children that their Cities should be destroyed their Wives and Daughters should be Ravished their Sacrifices should be Abolished and finally that they should be led Captives and dispersed through all the Earth to be despised and abhorred by other Nations if all this I say be considered I know not what a Man he must be who imagins that this People could have Conspired with any Man be who he will that should have so grievously displeased them 55. But it is above all to be observed that these are not the Discourses only of a Man that would frighten his followers and bare Threatnings of Miseries which were to befall the Jews only in case they should grosly transgress their Law for if they seem conditional in some places they are in others positive and absolute Prophesies foretelling that they should really transgress their Law as they have grosly done and that all those Miseries should light upon them as in effect it is come to pass how improbable then is it that the Jews should have been so simple or rather so senseless as to suffer Prophesies of that Nature to be added to their History and that for the advancement of the Glory of their Nation they should have consented to a thing which could never but turn to their shame and disgrace for could not they clearly see that if those Prophesies were found to be false their Religion would be accounted an Imposture and they would inevitably lose the Reputation which they might otherwise have acquired by all the rest of the wonderful Events mentioned in their History or that if they chanced to fall really into those Miseries foretold they would be accounted the worst of Men and instead of comfort could expect nothing but blame from all the World for having fallen into those Calamities which they were warned of and for having fallen into them for no other cause but for breaking the Law and Covenant of their God whereby they drew down his Wrath and Indignation upon themselves and their Posterity 56. Thus then it appears that when Men have given the greatest liberty to their Fancy it can produce nothing but Chymerical and groundless Suppositions Moses did not deceive the Jews he could have no such design and though he had had such a design yet it was impossible for him to have compassed it by the ways and measures he took neither did the Jews combine with him to deceive their Posterity and all the other Nations of the World nor was it any new Upstart who to make them believe what he pleased made use of such things as he found established and practised amongst them either by Tradition or by Writing and it was as impossible that the Jews should have Conspired in this Imposture with any other as it was that they should have done it with Moses 57. Here you have some small part of what may be said on this great Subject for it is not to be thought that the proofs which the Pentateuch affords of its truth can be fully drawn forth the more we meditate on it the more Evidence we still find of its Divine Original for it is an inexhaustible Spring of Light and without being at the pains to unfold and set them forth if we read the Book it self we cannot but feel or sensibly perceive that the Language it speaketh is not the Language of Men nor the product of their Wit That nothing is further removed from the Methods not only of Impostors and Deceivers but also of the Prudent and Wise Men of the World That it is of a most peculiar character and altogether different from that of Men acting by their own Spirit and that therein are not to be seen either the common passions or the ordinary interests of Men or the drifts of prudence and forecast which may easily be seen in other Books that are of humane composure and in fine it may be sensibly perceived that it is impossible for any to put off the Man so far as were necessary for the production of such a work wherein so little of Man appears 58. Nevertheless this Book is in being we have it in our hands and it was not made by chance It hath been and yet is the greatest and most considerable object that ever was in the World during the space of above Two Thousand Years the most singular and famous People in the World have been so devoted to it and enamoured of it that they have never suffered it to be out of their sight from this People it is come into the hands of Christians that is to say it is spread abroad through the whole Universe and after Sixteen Hundred Years these Two sort of People irreconcileable Enemies to one another do yet look upon it with the same Veneration dispute the one against the other for the true meaning of it and both of them find in it the original Title of that Right which they pretend to have unto the Heavenly Inheritance in which both of them believe that the rest of Mankind have no part or portion 59. Who then dare be bold to say that it is free for him to stand Neuter and not to concern himself in a matter of this Importance nay who that rightly considers it can hinder himself from being concerned who is there that can let this Book pass as it
them at all For in the First Chapter Man is generally considered according to the common nature of both Sexes and there it is affirmed That on the first Day after the other works of God were finished God Created Man Male and Female in his own Image This is common to Adam and Eve the Male and the Female that they were both Man of the same specifical humane Nature and that they were both Created by God in his own Image on the Sixth Day after the other Works of God were finished But in the Second Chapter Man is considered more particularly and distinctly according to the proper differences of Sex and the way is described how the Individuals of humane Nature were Created each in their own Sex and 1. The Spirit of God by Moses declares how Man was Created in the Male-Sex and that he was put into the Garden before Planted and that he was appointed to dress and keep it and allowed to eat of the Fruit of it excepting the Fruit of one Tree only which God forbad him to eat of under pain of Death 2. The Spirit of God by Moses relates how Man was Created in the Female-Sex out of a Rib of a Male-Sex and then that the Female being thus of the Male was Married unto him and made one Flesh with him for his help and comfort In all this appears no Disorder nor Transposition nor is there the least shadow of Falshood or Contradiction But P. Simon Objects First That after Man and Woman were Created as it is written Chap. 1. 27. the Woman is supposed not to be made Chap. 2. I Answer He might have said as well that the Man is supposed not to be made in Chap. 2. But the truth is neither the Woman nor the Man are supposed to be yet unmade after they were really made nor doth the Second Chapter at all contradict the First for what the First and Second Chapters say of the Creation of Mankind relate to the same thing and to the same time with this difference that what the First Chapter relates of Man's Creation is expressed in a few general Words which equally concern both Sexes Whereas the Second Chapter gives a full and particular account of the manner how and of the order of time in which each Sex were Created But he Objects farther That before the Woman was made it vvas forbidden the Man as he vvas her Husband vvhom she accompanied in the Garden to eat the Fruit of a certain Tree I Ansvver This is notoriously False I appeal to common Sense vvhether there be any such thing in the Text of Moses as that Adam vvas the Husband of Eve and that she accompanied him in the Garden before she vvas made of his Rib. Adam indeed vvas forbidden to eat the Fruit of a certain Tree before Eve vvas Created this is plain in the Text of Moses but that he vvas then the Husband of Eve or considered as her Husband before she had a Being there is not one Syllable of this in the Text nor any thing from vvhence it can ever be proved When Adam received that positive Command he neither vvas her Husband nor considered as such nor did she then accompany him in the Garden but he rally vvas the common Root of all Mankind of vvhom the several individuals vvere to spring he vvas moreover I believe the federal principal and head of all his Posterity excepting the Messias and as such he was considered in receiving that Law which the Lord God revealed unto Eve also after she was Created though it be not expressed in the Text for she had it revealed unto her one way or other otherwise she had not actually sinned in transgressing it and we have her own confession related by the Sacred Historian that God had revealed it unto her Chap. 3. 3. But whether God revealed it unto her immediately or by the mediation of her Husband we find not in the Text and therefore we cannot certainly say whether of the Two ways it was revealed unto her but we are sure that one of them it was and that is enough Here P. Simon has discovered himself and by this instance we may Judge what Spirit he is of an honest Heathen would have abhorred to have been guilty of such a gross Falsification that he might the better expose the Author of the History of the Creation whoever he was Sure I am that Longinus did not take the Author of that History to have been a Fool when having occasion to mention the History of the Creation he wrote thus of Moses whom he believed to be the Author of it He that gave Laws unto the Jews was a Man of no ordinary parts for he hath both conceived and spoken worthily and becomingly of the power of God In the very beginning of his Laws writing thus God said but what Let there be Light and it was Let the Earth be and it was Such an high opinion of the Sacred Historian had Longinus as is to be seen in his Book De Sublimi dicendi genere extant in several Languages unto this Day Secondly P. Simon Instances in Gen. 21. 3 4 5. and says That to understand the Books of Moses one must often join many Verses together by beginning with the last and coming up to the first That is in plain English we must read them backwards or we cannot understand them Thus Vers 5. And Abraham was One Hundred Years old when his Son Isaac was born unto him Vers 4. And Abraham Circumcised his Son Isaac being Eight Days old as God had commanded him Vers 3. And Abraham called the name of his Son that was born unto him whom Sarah bare to him Isaac And then he gives his Reason why these Three Verses should be read backwards in these numerical words This Order methinks the Historian ought to have kept for the Jews do not name their Children till after their Circumcision This is his Second Argument under the head of Transpositions to prove that Moses could not be the Author of the Pentateuch And is it not a goodly one Sure P. Simon must have very mean thoughts of the Learned Men of this Age to believe that he can perswade them by such ridiculous Reasoning as this to be of his opinion that Moses could not be the Author of the Pentateuch But it is no wonder that he have mean thoughts of the Men of this Age when he takes upon him to teach the Sacred Historian whom himself acknowledges to have been a Prophet how he ought to have written This Order methinks the Historian ought to have kept says P. Simon And your reason good Father why the Historian ought to have kept the Order that you fancy to be best Why that we have in the very next words For the Jews do not name their Children till after their Circumcision Now Reader I pray thee consider what a senseless Reason this is The Author of the Book of Genesis ought to have written in