ea quae non comprehenduntur ita neque scripturae divinitati per eam totam diffusae quidquam detrahitur ex eo quòd ad singulas dictiones imbecillitas nostra non possit adesse arcano splendori doctrinae qui in tenui contemptâ locutione delitescit Orig. Philoc. cap. 1. pag. 5. Edit Cantabrig 1658. London Printed for Tho. Parkhurst 1682. The Second Part. WHat is contained in these following Sheets was first intended for a Preface unto the foregoing Discourse Translated out of French into English but when I had finished it I found it would be too long a Preface unto such a short Discourse and therefore upon Second thoughts I concluded it would be better to subjoin◠it thereunto by way of Appendix or Second Part. Who was the Author of the Discourse I do not certainly know but it is probable that Monsieur du Bois de la Cour who wrote the Discourse on Paschal his Thoughts or Meditations on Religion c. was likewise the Author of this Discourse for they are frequently bound together and were both Published the one in 1671 and the other in 1672 with the approbation of the same Doctors of the Sorbon excepting one whose name is not subscribed with the other Six unto the approbation of this Discourse But who ever be the Author he is a Man of Parts and has done worthily in this Discourse in which he hath shewed his high Veneration of the Holy Scriptures and hath irrefragably proved the truth of the most Signal and Miraculous matters of Fact contained in the Books of Moses and by that means he hath proved the Divine Original and Authority of all the Laws and Ordinances given by Moses unto the Israelites and Recorded in his Books So that the Translation of it cannot but be of good use unto English Readers for confirming them in the Faith and strengthening them against Tentations unto Infidelity in these Backsliding Times The Discourse is so well Penned by the Author that it needs no Recommendation from any it s own great Excellency and Usefulness will abundantly suffice to commend it unto any ingenious Man that shall be at the pains of spending half an Hour in Reading of it It would therefore have been altogether needless for me to have added unto it what follows here in this Second Part if there had not been lately Published in English a Book of P. Simon 's Intituled A Critical History of the Old Testament where Book 1. Chap. 5. Pag. 36. in the Contents of that Chapter he hath these very Words Moses cannot be the Author of the Books which are attributed to him I had no sooner Read this in the contents of the Chapter but I was desirous to know what Arguments he used to prove such an uncouth Assertion as had seldom been heard of from any before but such as Hobs in his Leviathan Pereyre in his Systema Praeadamiticum and Spinosa in his Tractatus Theologico-politicus all Atheists or Infidels And thereupon having Read and Examined all he says to prove his Assertion I thought it would be necessary together with the Precedent Discourse to Publish a few short Animadversions on what he has written in his Critical History against the Pentateuchs being written by Moses And that what I have to say may be the better understood and the more convincing and satisfactory unto the Reader I shall proceed in this Method First I shall shew what is the Truth to be believed and what is the Belief of the Christian Church Secondly What is the opinion of P. Simon and wherein he agrees with or differs from the common Faith of the Church in this matter Thirdly Answer his Arguments whereby he endeavors to prove his Opinion That Moses could not be the Author of the Books which are attributed to him Now for the First The Truth to be believed is 1. That the whole Scripture of the Old Testament and consequently the Pentateuch or first Five Books of the Bible were written by Divine Inspiration and that God is the primary Author thereof this is proved from Luke 16. 29 31. They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them c. And Luke 24. 25 27 44 45 46. And from 2 Tim. 3. 16. where it is expresly said That all Scripture or the whole Scripture is given by Inspiration of God And 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. where it is expresly affirmed that the first thing to be known concerning the Scriptures is this That no Prophecy of the Scripture is of any private Interpretation that is of any Man 's own Inventing for the Prophecy came not in old time by the will of Man but Holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost The same Truth is clearly proved from Psalm 147. 19. compared with Rom. 3. 2. 9. 4. 2. That this being first known and believed and so the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures secured it matters not very much whether we ever certainly know the names of all the Holy Men whom God used as his Instruments in writing the several Books of Sacred Scripture for there are some Books of Scripture that bear the names of no Man as Author of them under God and yet they are as much of Divine Authority as those Books that have the name of some Prophet or Apostle expressed in their Title and the names which Books of Scripture bear do not always import that the Man whose name the Book bears was the Writer of the Book but that the Book was written of and concerning him and his Acts. Thus the Book of Joshua is so called because it was written of and concerning Joshua though it is probable it was not written by him but by some other Holy Man of God after his Death see for this Bishop Richardsons Observations on the Old Testament pag. 45. the like may be said of some other Books of Holy Scripture That then which concerns us most is to know whether God be the Author of the several Books in the Canon of Scripture and if we be once sure of this we need not trouble our selves much about the knowing of the names of the several Men by whom it pleased the Lord God to consign them to Writing Gregory the Great in his Preface to his Exposition on Job has this Remarkable saying Si Magni cujusdam viri susceptis Epistolis c. If having received the Letters of some great Man we should read the Words and enquire by what Pen they had been written truly it would be ridiculous if we should endeavor not to know the Author of the Letters nor to understand the sense but to find out by what Pen the several words of them had been written since then we know the thing and that the Holy Spirit is the Author of it what else do we in enquiring after the Writer but in reading the Letters stand asking by what Pen they were written Yet 3. when a Book of Holy Scripture bears the name of its
Author and an Universal Historical Tradition assures us that such a Man was indeed the Author of it we are bound to believe it and cannot rationally disbelieve it without a demonstration to the contrary Thus we know the Books of Plato Aristotle and Cicero to have been written by those Authors and this is so clear and certain a truth Vt de istorum librorum Authoritatibus dubitare dementis sit utque ridendus sit non refellendus qui de iis questionem movet That none but a Madman will doubt of the Authors of those Books and he is to be laughed at and not confuted who moves a Question concerning them as holy August writes contra Fanstum Manich. lib. 32. cap. 21. And as he says That he knew the writeings of the New Testament to be the writings of the Apostles by the same means that the Manichees knew the writeings of Manes to be the writings of Manes so I say That by what means we here in England know the late Critical History of the Old Testament to be the writing of Pere Simon a Priest of the Oratory by the like means we know the Pentateuch to be the writing of Moses and we ought not to disbelieve it having the Universal Testimony of Jews Christians Mahumetans and many Heathens to ground our Faith upon unless it be first clearly demonstrated to us that it implies a contradiction that Moses should have written it which I know that neither Pere Simon nor any Man else can do And the reasonableness of what I have now said will yet further appear if it be considered that our Lord Christ himself gives Testimony unto the writings of Moses in general John 5. 46 47. Moses wrote of me But if ye beleive not his writeings how shall ye beleive my words and both he and his Apostles frequently appeal unto them and quote passages out of them This is the truth to be believed and this is actually believed by the Christian Church Yet it is no matter of Faith that there are no various Lections in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament nay it is a matter evident to Sense that there are various Lections it is no matter of Faith that through the length and injury of time and Negligence of Transcribers and Printers there are no mistakes at all in the Originals of Holy Scripture on the contrary we acknowledg that there may possibly be some mistakes even in the Pentateuch through the length and injury of time and the negligence of Transcribers and Printers but those mistakes we believe do not at all hinder the Holy Scriptures from being a perfect Rule of Faith and Life in all things necessary to the Glorifying of God and Saving of our Souls Nor lastly is it matter of Faith That Moses wrote every Word and Sentence Chapter and Verse of the Pentateuch with his own hand It is sufficient that we believe he wrote it himself or by other persons whose help he used in the writing of it and when it was written he revised it and approved it and in this he was assisted by the Holy Spirit inspiring guiding and directing him And if there be any thing in the Pentateuch besides the mistakes of Transcribers and Printers that was written after Moses's time it was added upon good Reasons by Joshua or Ezra and the great Assembly who were Men of a Prophetical Spirit and inspired by God in what they did of that nature Now in the Second place let us see what is the opinion of Pere Simon and wherein he agrees with or differs from the common Faith of the Church in this matter And First He agrees with us in these following particulars 1. That the whole Scripture of the Old Testament and consequently the Pentateuch was of Divine Inspiration and that God was the primary Author thereof this is demonstratively proved from his own express words in his Preface pag. 4. But besides that this Principle of a Divine of Paris That the whole Scripture is not equally Divine and Canonical is dangerous it is directly opposite to the Doctrine of the New Testament which acknowledges every thing throughout the whole Scripture for Prophetical and to have been inspired wherefore I thought I ought to lay down some Principles whereby we might ascribe every thing in the whole Scriptures to Prophets or Persons inspired by God even to the alterations themselves those only excepted which had happened through length of time or negligence of Transcribers And Book 1. Chap. 1. Pag. 3. I have divided this work into Three Books the First of which Treats at large of the Authors of the Bible which I have called Prophets with Josephus contra App. and most of the Fathers because they were in effect directed by the Spirit of God and that St. Peter calls the whole Scripture Prophecies During the Hebrew Common-wealth there were from time to time among them these sorts of Persons inspired by God were it to write Divine and Prophetick Books as the same Josephus has remarked or as Eusebius says to distinguish betwixt those that were truly Prophetick and others that were not And Pag. 4. They the publick Writers had the liberty in collecting the Acts which were in their Registeries to add diminish and change according as they thought fit and the Books as Eusebius says which were declared Sacred were reviewed by Persons inspired by God who Judged whether they were truly Prophetick or Divine And Pag. 21. I know it is expresly forbidden in Deuteronomy either to add or diminish any thing from the Word of God But we may Answer with the Author of the Book Intituled Cozri that this prohibition relates only to private Persons and not to those whom God had expresly commanded to interpret his Will God promised to the Prophets and to the Judges of the Sanhedrim who succeeded Moses the same Grace and the same Spirit of Prophecy as those had who lived in his time and therefore they have held the same Power not only of Interpreting the Law but also of making new Ordinances which were afterwards writ and placed in the Registeries of the Republick And Pag. 22. The Church has not the Right of making Books Canonical and Divine as the Prophets had in the Old Testament but only to declare them Canonical In fine Book 1. Chap. 1. Pag. 1. None can doubt but that the truths contained in the Holy Scripture are infallible and of Divine Authority since they proceed immediately from God who in this has only made use of the Ministery of Men to be his Interpreters So there is no Person either Jew or Christian who does not acknowledg that the Scripture being the pure Word of God is at the same time the first principle and foundation of Religion Here is clear and full proof from his own express words of his agreement with us in the first particular before mentioned Secondly He agrees with us in this That though Men having been the Depositories of these Sacred
An Excellent DISCOURSE Proving the Divine Original and Authority OF The Five BOOKS OF MOSES Written Originally in French by Monsieur Du Bois de la Cour and Approved by six Doctors of the Sorbon To Which is added a SECOND PART OR AN EXAMINATION Of a considerable part of PERE SIMON 's Critical History of the Old Testament wherein all his Objections With the Weightiest of Spinosa's against Moses's being the Author of the first Five Books of the Bible are Answered and some difficult places of Holy Scripture are Explained By W. L. London Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chappel 1682. A PREFACE Opening the true Nature and Reasons of a Saving-Faith § 1. THere is no Man that ever heard the Gospel and hath such a care of his everlasting State as beseemeth a reasonable Creature but must needs perceive of how great weight it is to be well assured of the truth of those supernatural Revelations delivered to us in the Sacred Scriptures Much may be known by the well studied Book of Nature But not enough to quiet the mind of Man by assured hopes of future Happiness and the way thereto And therefore almost all the Heathen and Infidel World have their Augures or Prophets on whom they depend as Conscious of the necessity of more than common natural Light Besides that it requireth greater helps and longer studies to understand the Book of Nature than the generallity of Mankind can use whereas God by his word hath made all necessary truth so plain that Children in a short time may grow wiser than the Philosophers § 2. No wonder then if it be the great work of the Prince of Darkness the Enemy of God and Man to deprive the World of the benefit of the Sacred Sacriptures which he doth First By keeping most of the Earth from knowing it for want of Teachers mostly kept out by the Persecution of Tyrants and Idolatrous Priests Secondly By keeping those that hear it from believing it Thirdly By keeping those that believe it from the right understanding of it Fourthly By keeping those that partly understand it from a serious considering what they understand Fifthly By keeping Men from a willing obedience to what they know and think of § 3. Among professed Christians it is the want of a sound Belief which is the great cause of all Ungodliness and Misery And no wonder For it is an high and excellent work to live on the joyful belief and hope of an unseen everlasting Life And in this dark State believing must conquer many difficulties which slothful Men will rather yield to than duely strive to overcome § 4. First We have contracted so inordinate a Love to this kind of life in Flesh that corrupt Nature is loth to think of any other because it would not part with this And when Men are convinced only of a necessity of looking forward beyond the Grave this changeth not their love but still an unwilling backward heart receiveth the notices of the Life to come but as unpleasant Physick which nothing but meer necessity will get down And how ill a Receiver an unwilling mind is experience telleth all the World Yea so backward and senseless is depraved Nature that even this necessity is seldom seriously considered till the Sentence of Death awaken the Soul and are Men then fit to begin so hard a study as must shew them the certainty of the Gospel and the Life to come and to get Faith when they must use it § 5. Secondly And I write it as necessitated and with Lamentation it is not all Mens Lot to have Teachers that shew them the right way even of founding their Belief and discerning the certainty of the Gospel and the Immortality of Souls If I should tell you how many Parishes that have Weekly Sermons in which Faith and Christianity and Heaven are mentioned have Teachers that cannot confute an Infidel or Sadducee or teach Men clearly how to be sure that their Faith and Hope are not meer Errour and that cannot tell which way well to prove the truth of their profest Religion some would be offended at it that are not offended at their own sad defect who are ignorant of so needful a part of the Catechisme which every Christian should be taught § 6. Sad numerous instances are too clear a clear a proof First It is become so great a controversie whether Faith have any Evidence or not and whether we can certainly prove the Gospel to be true or rather must merit the more by believing it without proof that the Papists are together by the Ears about it and those Protestants that handle it differ among themselves But the most keep their peace by not daring to decide it And how can those Teachers shew the people the ascertaining Evidence and Proof who hold that there is none to be shewn The objects of Faith are not evident to Sense not seen not tasted c. but the truth of the Revelation hath ascertaining proof And nothing is provable but by intelligible Evidence Secondly The whole Papal Church almost holds That the method of believing the Gospel is to believe it on the Authority of the Church's proposal or affirmation As if Men must believe that Christ hath a Church and that it is thus Authorized before they believe that he is the Christ and hath Authority himself or any Law that gives Authority A multitude of impossibles are here supposed before Man can be a true believer which I have fully manifested elsewhere Thirdly Some that see how unable the vulgar and unlearned are to manage a matter of such weight and difficulty and fearing least a tryal of their Faith against hard objections should but overturn it perswade the weak only to believe and not to doubt but not to ask why nor to search for Reasons for their Faith least disputing the case and hearing objections which they cannot answer should make them Infidels or crack their Brains Fourthly Some tell them that it is only the inward witness of the Spirit in themselves that can assure them that the Scriptures are the word of God Not telling them well what that Testimony is nor how those that yet hear it not shall be convinced of unbelief Fifthly Some by overdoing tell us that the Scripture so shineth propria luce and conteineth its own evidence of Divinity so clearly that a Man that doth but read it though he found it by the high-way and never before heard of it may there see sufficient evidence that it is all of God Sixthly Some by greater overdoing distinguish not the Essentials of Religion from the Integrals or Accidents nor the words from the matter nor the Law and Gospel from the subordinate parts of the Bible in point of evidence and necessity and so would tempt Men to think that if any sentence in our Bibles translation or original be mistaken we can have no certainty of the truth of any of
Books as well as of all others and in their first Originals having been lost it was in some sort impossible but that there must needs happen some changes as well by reason of the length of time as the carelesness of Transcribers as it is impossible it may be to find one English Bible in all England without some Letter Sillable or Word Misprinted yet God by his special Providence hath taken such care of the Sacred Scripture as that it is preserved to this Day perfect intire and uncorrupt in all things relating to Faith and Manners and necessary to be believed or practised in order to Salvation This is proved also from his own words pag. 7. The Fathers were perswaded that these Errors that were crept into the Bible by the means of these Transcribers had no relation to Faith or good Manners or carried any weight to the framing of the Judgment which we ought to make of the Scriptures in general This does not hinder us but that we should acknowledg the Divine Providence in the preservation of this Book which has past through so many hands and so many Ages a great many of these Errors of Transcribers relate to the Chronology and Genealogies in the Books of the Old Testament but we may say with S. Augustin that these difficulties are in the number of those of which we may speak freely and we may be ignorant of Salva fide qua Christiani sumus This same Providence has likewise not permitted the Jews malitiously to corrupt the Holy Scriptures as many Fathers seem to reproach them Origen S. Jerome and S. Augustin have done them more Justice and those who at this day reproach the Jews with the same thing have not throughly examined the matter And pag. 9. This Author Mariana shews very plainly that the intention of the Council of Trent in declaring the Vulgar Translation Authentick was not to exempt it from all sorts of Faults but only from Errors which might introduce a change either in Faith or Manners which he confirms by several Authorities and principally by the Testimonies of Andrew de Vega and Jacob Lanis at that time superior of the Order of Jesuits who assisted at that Council Thirdly He agrees with us in this That being sure that God is the primary Author of the several Books of Scripture it is no great matter whether we certainly know or not the names of the Men by whom God was pleased to commit them to writing this is proved from his own words in his Preface pag. 2. Having Established in the Hebrew Common-wealth the Prophets or Publick Writers who took care of collecting faithfully the Acts of what past of most importance in the State we need not too curiously inquire as usually Men do who were the Authors of each particular Book of the Bible because it is certain that they were all writ by Prophets c. And in Book 1. Chap. 1. Pag. 3. We ought not to search with too much curiosity who have been the particular Authors of every Book of the Bible it sufficeth according to the Maxime of Gregory the Great praefat in lib. Job that these Books were written by Prophets Quis haec scripserit valde supervacue quaeritur cum tamen Author libri Spiritus Sanctus fideliter credatur Fourthly yet farther He agrees with us so far as to hold That in a true and good sense Moses may be the Author of the whole Peutateuch This is clearly proved from his own express words in Book 1. Chap. 1. Pag. 3. If these Publick Writers were in the Hebrew Common-wealth from the time of Moses as is extreamly probable it will be very easie to satisfie all difficulties that may be brought to shew that the Pentateuch was not wholy written by Moses which is ordinarily proved by the manner of its writing which seems to insinuate that some other than Moses collected the Acts and put them down in writing supposing these Publick Writers to them we may attribute what relates to the Historical part of these Books and to Moses all that which belongs to the Laws and Ordinances and it is this which the Scripture calls the Law of Moses thus one may say in this sense that the whole Pentateuch is truly Moses's because those who made the collection lived in his time and did not do it but by his Order And Pag. 20. According to this principle we ought to expound that passage where it is said that Moses wrote what God commanded him for there is nothing more ordinary in the Scripture than to ascribe unto one person what he Orders another to do chiefly when the thing is done in his name Thus we see wherein Pere Simon agrees with us in the common belief of all Christians He agrees with us so far as to acknowledg not only that the whole Scripture of the Old Testament is of Divine Inspiration and that it is uncorrupt in all things that relate to Faith and Life and are necessary to be believed or done in order to Salvation but also that the whole Pentateuch is truly Moses's because if it was not all written by himself immediately yet it was written by others in his time and in his name and by his order and then sure what was so written was reviewed and approved by himself If P. Simon were sincere in all this and did not deny it again by his self-contradiction we needed not much to oppose him in this matter for we are under no necessary obligation to believe that Moses wrote down with his own hand all the occurrences of every Day during the whole space of the Churches being in the Wilderness he might possibly appoint some other person or persons of known Integrity to do that for him and in his name and being so done and then reviewed and approved by himself it was all one as if he had done it with his own hand But notwithstanding this agreement we shall find that there remains yet a difference between P. Simon and other Christians as to this matter and that is it we are next to take into consideration And First He differs from the whole Church of God and from himself too by self-contradiction in this That he thinks Moses may have written the Pentateuch by an humane and fallible Spirit I prove this by consequence from his own words Pag. 40. It is true says he that the best Authors sometimes fall into little mistakes so likewise do we not pretend to draw from thence an infallible consequence to prove that Moses could not be the Author of the Pentateuch in the Order that it is Here he manifestly supposes that Moses in writing the Pentateuch might fall into little mistakes and so he might be the Author of it notwithstanding the disorder that is in it and is not this to suppose that Moses might write it by an humane and fallible Spirit for none I think will say that a Man writing by Divine Inspiration can fall into any mistakes little
Red Sea and the Raining of Quails and the forty years feeding them with Manna the Flaming Mount the terrible Sight and Voices the Glory of God and the Cloud before the Tabernacle the swallowing up of Thousands by the opened Earth with other such signs must needs convince the Nations of Gods Revelation And the Passeover and many other means were from the first appointed to be a practical Tradition of it uninterrupted But the Priests that were but to obey and teach this Law needed no new Miracles the Law being once so fully sealed 3. And so when Christ came with a new and more perfect Revelation to settle the Law of Grace in the last Edition he sealed it by multitudes of uncontrouled Miracles and his own Resurrection and the miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost by which the Apostles who were infallibly to Record his Law and Promises sealed their Word with the like wonderful works that Christ had done But the Law and Promise being thus Sealed and Delivered the Bishops or Ministers who are but to keep and teach it need not new Miracles for their Work If as some Usurpers pretend Christ had made Bishops in Councils Universal Legislators to make new parts of Divine Religion for the World God would have given them also the seal of such undoubted Miracles Conclus XIV I have oft said four evidences concur infallibly to prove the Gospel true And all are called The Witness of the Spirit as one 1. The Antecedent Prophesies 2. The Miracles and Resurrection and Ascension of Christ and the numerous Miracles of the Apostles and first Churches 3. The propria Lux or inherent impressions of God on the Gospel and all the Scriptures which greatly differenceth it from all other Books and Doctrines 4. The sanctifying efficacy of the Gospel on all true Believers in all Nations and Ages of the Earth which maketh them a holy peculiar heavenly just and sober sort of Persons quite differing from all other men which is certainly the work of God by the Gospel and by this his Spirit is a continuing Witness that God doth own it Conclus XV. The Order of Believing as to the Matter is to believe the first sealed Gospel First even the Essence of Christianity as past doubt And if there be a doubt whether the Spirit and Miracles sealed every by-word style or order that must not make us doubt of the Gospel which is surely sealed Conclus XVI It is undeniable that there are multitudes of different Readings in the Old Testament and the New in the Copies in the Original Tongues It is uncertain to us of many which of them is the right It is certain that when there was no Printing but it was the Scriveners Trade to write out Books many slips and differences would be among them How far imperfection of memory or style might shew it self in the first writers in any by-words may be doubted without doubting of the Gospel or Word of God It is treachery to tell men that they can be no surer of the Gospel than of the various Readings or Skill of the Writers Printers or Translators But it is certain that no corruption hath altered any necessary point Conclus XVII The Order of believing as to the Evidence is first to see the proof of the Matters of Fact by Historical Evidence and in that to see the certainty of the Doctrine which also sheweth its own credibility And this is a short and sure proof of our Religion 1. We may be as sure that the main History is true as that any History in the World is true 2. And if the History be true the Doctrine must needs be true Conclus XVIII And this History hath more than a moral uncertain Evidence For the understanding of which it must be noted that mans Soul hath two sort of Acts some free and mutable and some necessary by nature and immutable All moral acts are free and changeable the Belief that is grounded on them hath but a moral certainty which is strictly no proper certainty All men are lyars All belief grounded on mans mere honesty though it were a general Council that pretends a judging Authority is uncertain Though some good mens words give us so great a probability as that one may venture his life on it But the Love of a mans self and of felicity and an unwillingness to be miserable c. are acts Naturally necessary Therefore the beleif which is well founded on these hath a Physical Infallible certainty Of this sort is our beleif that there is such a City as Rome Venice Paris that there were such men as K. H. 7. 8. K. James c. that the Statutes of the Land are not Counterfeits For 1. Men that love themselves of cross interests capable of knowing have all agreed of the Truth of these and so do to this day Argu. 1. Where the Cause is ofnatural necessity the Effect is of natural certainty But the cause that the willing and unwilling of contrary Interests have all knowingly agreed to the things forenamed must needs be of natural necessity Ergo the said Agreement is of natural certainty Argu. 2. There can be no effect without an adequat Cause But for all knowing Men of contrary Interests and Wills to agree that there is such a place as Rome c. that there was such a man as King James that the Statutes are not counterfeit c. if these were false is an effect that hath no Cause in Nature Ergo it is naturally impossible E. G. For our Statutes It was easily knowable in the Age that they were made in whether they were counterfeit For men hold their Lands and Lives by them and plead them daily at the Tribunals for cross Interests against each other Therefore natural necessary Causes would make some discover it were they false And if any had then discovered it the same Causes would propagate the Discovery That this is the Case about the History of the Scripture and that Jesus Christ Lived Taught wrought Miracles Dyed Rose Ascended sent down the Holy Spirit that the Apostles by untaught Languagues and Miracles planted the Gospel and Christ gave the same Spirit by the imposition of their hands on their ordinary hearers that believed that they appealed to their own working Miracles and their Childrens to their accusers Gal. 3. 1. 3. 5. Mat. 12 c. this I have largely proved elsewhere In all this you may see that to lay the Faith of Christians on a pretended judging Power of the Church Pope or Councils and then first to enquire which is the Church that hath this Power is a cheat of ambitious men to catch the Ignorant The most universal agrement including Hereticks and Enemies and men of contrary Wills and Interests is the best Historical Evidence of Fact And the certainty of the History with the quality of the Doctrine it self and its effects is a certain proof that the Doctrine is of God And the particular Books aud
and is and is to come of whom through whom and to whom are all things that we may be most happy in union with him and in the enjoyment of his Love and Favor for evermore I might here speak of that account which Moses gives of the Creation of the World and especially of Mankind of the Disobedience and Apostacy of Mankind and of the Miseries that came upon the World by reason thereof And of the restoring of Man to the favor of God again by the Mediation of the Messias who was promised and Prophesied of first under the name and notion of the Seed of the Woman that was to bruise the Serpents Head Gen. 3. 15. then of the Seed of Abraham by Isaac in which Seed all the Nations of the Earth were to be Blesied Gen. 22. 18. 26. 4. and afterwards of the Seed of Jacob by Judah and stiled SHILOH unto whom the gathering of the People was to be Gen. 28. 14. compared with Gen. 49. 10. Numb 24. 16 17 19. and lastly under the name and notion of a Prophet like nnto Moses and who by consequence was to be a Lawgiver and Mediator Deut. 18. 18 19. I might shew the Reader that Moses's Writings set forth God as placable and reconcileahle Gen. 3. 15. 4. 7. as pleased and reconciled Gen. 4. 4. 8. 20 21. and as pleased and reconciled by Faith Gen. 15. 6. I might demonstrate that the account which Moses gives of these things is highly agreeable to right reason and experience and that it is most comfortable and satisfactory to the mind of Man But all this cannot he done in the compass of a short Epistle The Reader may expect that I should at least say something in behalf of the Two following Discourses but if he do he will be disappointed for having said enough in commendation of the First Disconrse in the beginning of the Second I will say no more of either but leave both to speak for themselves Only I must advertise the Reader That the Translation varies from the Original in some Two or Three things and this is the reason of the variation I found that there were several palpable mistakes in the French Discourse and I am resolved through God's Grace to follow no Man in known mistakes therefore I mended them As where the Author says That the broad Plates for covering the Altar made of the Censers of Corah and his Company were Plates of Gold I say as the truth is that they were Plates of Brass Numb 16. 39. And again where the Author says That Moses Condemned Thirty or Forty Thousand Men and commanded them all to be presently Executed I say that he did so by several Thousands which is true for the number of the Slain was about Three Thousand Exod. 32. 28. but our Learned Author was certainly mistaken for his reckoning neither agrees exactly with the Vulgar Translation nor yet with the Hebrew Verity Christian Reader I will detain thee no longer from the perusal of the Discourses themselves and that the use of them may he blessed to thee for thy Souls good is and shall be the earnest desire of Thy Seavant in all things wherein he may Serve our Lord Christ and his Church W. L. A DISCOURSE On the Proofs of the BOOKS of MOSES 1. THE Christian Religion doth freely acknowledge that the wit of Man cannot reach the the height of the Mysteries which it teacheth and that the humane understanding is too narrow and limited to discover the grounds of them in the Eternal springs of Truth where they would appear to us as clear as first and self evident Principles if our sight could reach so far Nevertheless it pretends not that we should believe them absolutely without proof and by a blind Instinct and God hath not given Man Reason and Understanding to render so great a present not onely useless but also hurtful to him by propounding unto him such objects of Faith only against which his Reasoning faculty should be in a continual mutiny and contradictory opposition That is the case of those Sects which are founded only upon Wild Fancies Groundless Conceits and Phanatical Visions and which are Established upon and Upheld by no other Principle than such an extravagant abuse of Reason as that was by which they were first hatcht Whereas the Christian Religion is such that how impenetrable soever be the depth of its mysteries yet none can doubt of their truth but by such another kind of extravagancy 2. For the business is not to examine the possibility of those mysteries nor to cure the wit of Man as touching all the difficulties which it finds to submit unto them men would be unreasonable to desire to comprehend them since they cannot comprehend themselves and yet doubt not of their own Existence It is sufficient that it may be demonstrated to them that all those so unconceivable Truths are linked not only with other Truths which they know but also with such Truths as of all others are most proportionat to their understanding and whereof they may be assured by the most evident and certain means 3. If men have a certain knowledg of any thing it is of matters of Fact of all things which they know there is not any wherein it is more difficult to impose upon them and concerning which there is less occasion of dispute and so when it shall be clearly shewed them that the Christian Religion is inseperably linked with matters of Fact whereof the Truth cannot be questioned by men of common honesty and integrity they must either submit unto the belief of all its Doctrines or else they must renounce sincerity and reason 4. For instance if there was such a Man as Moses and if he was the Author of the Books commonly attributed unto him then the Jewish Religion is true if the Jewish Religion be true then Jesus Christ is the Messias and if Jesus Christ be the Messias then all that he said and taught is to be believed and consequently the Trinity the Incarnation and all the other mysterious Doctrines of the Christian Religion are to be believed 5. It is by this Divine concatenation of Truths that God leads Men unto the true Faith and that they are enabled to show that there is nothing more rational than their submission unto the most incomprehensible mysteries so far are they from deserving to be charged with weakness and imprudence on that account and since the great Body of Christian Religion is composed of a very great number of different Parts which all tend to the same end and hath had a Being about six thousand years it cannot be but that it must consist of very many particular Truths all linked together as in one chain and that every Age must have given new proofs thereof and consequently that wheresoever a Man begins to what point soever he applies himself he will always meet with such an abundance of light that it will be impossible for
Books written in former Ages at any considerable distance are the Books of those Authors whose they are said to be 32. And let none say that there are Books which after they had passed for a time under the Name of certain Authors have at last been found to be supposiâ—icious for without entring upon the Examination of that matter I say that it is absolutely Impossible that this could happen to a Book of the greatest importance to which the certainty of the Authors Name is Essential and whereof in all Ages Men have had so much cause and so great an Interest to examine the Origination and Truth for as Truth is of such a Nature that all things except falshood agree with it all things concur to Establish it and there is neither care nor labour that can find out any thing which is able to overthrow it so on the contrary it is impossible but falshood will at last be found out if we endeavour it because it cannot be but there will be an infinite number of things that are contrary unto it and how great soever be the foresight and cunning of Impostors it is not possible though the humane understanding were not so limited as it is to foresee all inconveniencies or to suit and accommodate every thing to the preventing of them when they are foreseen for in fine though there were for that purpose certain effects whereof men were Masters and had the disposal It is cettain that there is also an infinite number of things which they have no power at all to dispose of to be able to prevent all things that might discover their forgery they must be in a condition to dispose of things present and to come to change the order of all things and in a word to command the Nature the wits and wills of men at their pleasure 33. But besides this we have yet incomparably more and stronger proofs of the Books of Moses than there are of any other Books Other Books are in few peoples hands and there are not many who think themselves concerned in them those that are concerned in them do but seldom mind them or their Interest in them and even that Interest can be but comparatively of small importance But the Books we speak of are of a much different nature they have always been in the hands of a whole great Nation they have been the object of their continual meditation and since they were the foundation of their Religion and that a Religion which abhors lying and deceiving how could they have suffered themselves to be imposed upon in the matter of the Authors name and the Book it self to be corrupted by the addition of so many Fables or could it be done without their knowledg yea and who durst be so bold as ever to attempt it 34. Let men take a full view of that prodigious Series of Miracles wrought in Aegypt and in the Wilderness and then judge impartially whether these are things that could be inserted into a Book and yet that Book be made to pass for the Original This is the most that could be done to some inconsiderable Book which should fall into the hands but of a few persons and with some particular Miracle pretended to have been wrought before a few witnesses and moreover we see that such things do not spread far nor last long they are scarcely sooner forged but they begin to be questioned in so much that in time they come to be regarded by none but the simple people who believe by the Faith of the next intruder and do not so much as think of getting clear and certain notions of the least thing in the World But there is nothing upon Earth clear if this be not that such things could not happen to such a Book as we have described this to be I might as well say that it would be no hard matter to insert now into the New Testament an History as long and as considerable as that of Moses his Miracles in Aegypt and the Wilderness and how ridiculous soever this supposition appeareth to be I know not whither it was not yet more difficult to insert such fabulous stories into the Books of Moses since the Jews had at least as high an esteem for their Sacred Books of the Law as we have for ours of the Gospel and there were none among them whose most near and natural Interest it was not to know what they contained had it been only that they might learn how to save themselves from that death which they were to suffer without reprieve upon failure of the performance of some duties prescribed by their Law 35. But that which invincibly proves the falshood of this supposition is this That there are in a manner two Histories of Moses the one written in the Book that bears his name the other as it were Engraven on the Ceremonies and Laws observed by the Jews the practice whereof is a living Witness in behalf of the Book which Instituted them and even in behalf of the most wonderful things which it contains for the greatest part of those most astonishing Miracles were represented by the Ceremonies and by the other things which belonged to the Worship of the Jewish Religion the Pot of Manna kept in the Ark was a standing Monument of the Miraculous Food wherewith God fed that People in the Wilderness Aarons Rod that Budded was a Monument of the way how God confirmed unto him the Office of High-Priesthood and the Tables of the Covenant were a Memorial of that which is Recorded in Exodus concerning the establishment of the Law the Sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb the Ceremony of Unleavened-Bread the assigning of the Tribe of Levy unto the Ministry of the Temple did represent the destroying Angels passing over the Houses of the Israelites the Death of the First-born of the Aegyptians and the deliverance of those of the Israeletes The brazen Plates which were fastned to and covered the Altar were a memorial of the Death of those audacious Levites who willfully contended with Aarons Race for the Priesthood in fine the Ark the Tabernacle all the different Ministries of the Priests and Levites all the Ceremonies of the Sacrifices and Purifications all the Laws the Assignation of the Country beyond Jordan to the two Tribes of Reuben and Gad and to the half Tribe of Manasse the Cities of Refuge for such as should happen to slay a Man unwittingly all these things I say which it would be as Ridiculous to deny as to pretend that there never was any Jew in the World have a necessary respect unto and connexion with the Books of Moses and Invincibly prove that they could not have been written since his time 36. For otherwise either all that we have been now discoursing of must also have been Established since Moses and after the Publishing of the Books ascribed unto him or else having been Established by Moses by word of Mouth and without any Book some other
or great I am sure not into such disorderly mistakes as he pretends to find in the History of the Creation of Man Secondly He differs from the whole Christian Church in affirming that for so much of the Historical part of the Pentateuch as Moses wrote or might write he copied it out of other ancient Books or else committed to writing what he had learned from Oral Tradition This difference is the same upon the matter with the former and I prove it also from his own express words Book 1. Chap. 3. Pag. 27. A Book of the Wars of the Lord of which mention is made in the Numbers Numb 21. 14. is an evident proof that the Stories which are related in the Five Books of Moses have likewise been taken out of several collections which have been lost And Pag. 54. most clearly We may likewise apply says he to the Book of Genesis what we have already said touching the manner of the inregistering the publick Acts in the time of Moses this Book contains the Creation of the World and many things which happened many Ages before him and in all Genesis there is no observation of Gods dictating to Moses what is there related it is not likewise said that he writ it by the Spirit of Prophecy but all these Histories and Genealogies are simply related as if Moses had taken them from some Authentick Books or else had had a constant Tradition And in the same place Moses without doubt has had other Records than the fabulous Books of Adam Seth Sem Abraham c. were they writ or were they preserve viva voce down to him in the Families which God had chosen to be faithful to him in the Worship of true Religion Doth not this look too like unto what I mentioned before that Moses might write the Book of Genesis by an humane fallible Spirit which is contrary unto Gal. 3. 8. 4. 21 22 30. Rom. 4. 17. 23 24. 1 Cor. 15. 45. James 2. 23. for these Scriptures do plainly assert the Divine Original and Authority of the Book of Genesis Thirdly He differs from the generality of Jews and Christians in that he not only says there may be some few things in the Books of Moses as we now have them which were not written by Moses but he positively and peremptorily affirms that there are de facto a great many things now in the Books of Moses which could not be written by Moses This is proved from his own words Pag. 4 5. The publick Writers which were in his time and writ out the ancient Acts have spoke of Moses in the Third Person and have used several other such like expressions which could not be Moses's but they for all that have never the less Authority because they can be ascribed only to persons which Moses had commanded to put into writing the most important Actions of his time And Chap. 2. Pag. 19. We shall distinguish in the Five Books of the Law what has been writ by Moses from what has been writ by these Prophets or publick Writers We may attribute to Moses the Commandments and Ordinances which he gave to the People and allow these same publick Writers to be the Authors of the greatest part of the History Moses in quality of Legislator writ all which relates to the Statutes and left to the Scribes or Prophets the care of collecting the Acts of the most material Transactions which past that they might be preserved to Posterity And Pag. 20. But if we consider with never so little attention the whole Body of the Pentateuch we may observe this diversity of Writers which I speak of which will more appear in the sequel of this Discourse where I evidently make the falsity of the reasons appear which the Jews use to prove that Moses is the Author of the whole Law And as was observed in the beginning in Pag. 36. Contents of Chap. 5. Moses cannot be the Author of the Books which are attributed to him Thus I have given a faithful account of the Judgment of P. Simon and shewed wherein he both agrees with and differs from the common Faith of Gods Church And since he hath the generality of Jews and Christians yea Christ himself and his Apostles against him he had need of very clear and strong irrefragable Arguments to support his singular opinion to wit that in his sense Moses could not be the Author of the Books which are attributed to him And now we come in the Third place to consider the grounds of his Opinion and to answer the Arguments by which he endeavors to prove it His Arguments may be reduced to Three Heads First He argues from the Repetitions that are in the Pentateuch Secondly From the Transpositions that are in it Thirdly From several passages in it where there are such expressions as seem to intimate that Moses could not be the Author of them I begin with the First His Argument from Repetitions There are says he Pag. 37. many Repetitions of the same thing in the Pentateuch which are apparently not Moses's but rather theirs who have made a collection of the Holy Scriptures and have joined together several Readings or Explanations of the same words not thinking it convenient to leave out of their Copies what might illustrate the Text. And then he gives Instances of these Repetitions But before I come to examine his Instances in particular I answer to all in general Since P. Simon acknowledges that those who made the collection of the Holy Scriptures were Men of a Prophetical Spirit and Divinely Inspired as Moses was what greater absurdity is there in Moses his being the Author of these Repetitions than in any other Prophets their being the Authors of them Was not God as free to repeat the same thing over and over again for illustrating the Text by the Ministry of one Prophet as by the Ministry of another P. Simon seems to be better acquainted with the Rules of Grammar than with the Rules of Reasoning now I come to his particular Instances First He begins with Gen. 7. v. 17 18 19 20 24. v. 21 22 23. and first finds fault with its being said Five times over in Five Verses That the Waters prevailed But I Answer If his Self-conceit had not blinded him he might have seen that there was good reason for and great Grace in this Repetition for as the Waters of the Flood prevailed gradually and still rose higher and higher so it was fit that the words should be adapted to the thing First The Waters increased so far on the Earth that they bore up the Ark and set it a floating and this is expressed as we have it in Verse 17. Secondly The Waters increased to that degree that they set the Ark a going or moving progressively from one place to another and this is expressed as in Verse 18. Thirdly The Waters increased so exceedingly that the highest Mountains in the World were covered with them and this