promised Land and others those when they were re-established by visible Miracles To convince the incredulity of a People who were wholly devoted to their Senses God took a long extent of Ages in which he distributed his Miracles and his Prophets that so he might often renew the sensible Testimonies by which he attested his holy Truths In the New Testament he tooks another conduct He would no more reveal any thing anew to his Church after Jesus Christ In him was perfection and fulness and all the Divine Books that have been composed in the New Testament were made in the times of the Apostles That is to say that the Testimony of Jesus Christ and of those whom Jesus Christ hath been pleased to choose for the Witnesses of his Resurrection hath been sufficient for the Christian Church All that has come since has edified it but it has not been looked upon as purely inspired by God but what the Apostles have written or what they have confirmed by their Authority But in that difference which is found between the Books of the two Testaments God hath always observed that admirable order of making things to be written just at the times when they happened or at least when the memory of them was very fresh And so those that knew them wrote them those that knew them received the Books which bore witness of them and both the one and the other have left them to their Posterity as a most precious and invaluable Inheritance and they most carefully and piously have preserved them And thus was formed the Body of the Holy Scriptures as well the Old as the New Testament Scriptures which from their Original have been regarded as true in the whole as given by God himself and which have been also kept with that great Religion that it was thought none could dare to alter the least Letter of it without a strange Impiety And thus it was that they came down to us always holy always sacred always inviolable the one kept by the constant Tradition of the Jews and the other by the Tradition of the Christians so much the more certain as it was confirmed by the Blood and Martyrdom as well of those who wrote those Divine Books as of them that received ' em St. Austin and the other Fathers demand upon whose Faith we attribute the profane Books to certain Times and Authors Aug. cont Faust 11. 2. 32. 21. 33. 6. Every one readily answers that the Books are distinguished by the different Relations they have to the Laws Customs and Histories of a certain Time by the Stile it self which bears impressed the Character of particular Ages and Authors and more than all that Iren. 1.2.17 Tertul. adv Marc. 4. l. 4 5. Aug. de utilit ced 3. 17. cont Faust Manich. 22. 79. 28. 4. 32. 33. Cont. adv leg Porph. 1. 20. c. by the publick Faith and by a constant Tradition All these things concur to the establishment of the Divine Books to distinguish the Times and to mark out the Authors of them and the more Religion there was in preserving them entire the more indisputable is the Tradition which preserved them for us Thus hat it been always acknowledged not only by the Orthodox but also by Hereticks and even by Infidels Moses has ever passed in all the East and afterwards in all the World for the Legislator of the Jews and for being the Author of those Books that are attributed to him The Samaritans who had received them from the ten separated Tribes have as religiously kept them as the Jews You have seen their Tradition and their History Two People so opposite took them not one from the other but both received them from their Common Original in the Times of Solomon and David The ancient Hebrew Characters which the Samaritans still retain do sufficiently shew that they have not followed Esdras who changed them Thus the Pentateuch of the Samaritans and that of the Jews are two compleat Originals independant one on the other The perfect conformity that is seen in the substance of the Texts justifies the Sincerity of both those People They are faithful Witnesses that agree without understanding one another or to speak better who agree together notwithstanding all their Enmities V. sup 1. part p. 24 25 34 49 59 63 80 86 87. and which only Immemorial Tradition of both Parties hath united in the same mind Those therefore who say tho' without any reason that those Books being lost or having never been were set up or composed a new or altered by Esdras besides their being contradicted by Esdras himself as may very well be observed in the course of his History are likewise so by the Pentateuch which is even now at this day to be seen in the hands of the Samaritans so as it had been read in the first Agas by Eusebius of Cesaria St. Jerome and the other Ecclesiastical Author so as those People had kept it in their Original and a Sect so weak as that seems not to continue so long but to bear this Testimony to the Antiquity of Moses The Authors that wrote the four Evangelists received no less assured Testimony from the unanimous consent of the Faithful the Heathens and the Hereticks That great Number of various People who received and translated those Divine Books as soon as they were made agree in their date and in their Authors The Heathens have not contradicted this Tradition Nor Colsus who attacked those Sacred Books even in the first beginning of Christianity nor Julian the Apostate tho' he was neither ignorant of any thing nor omitted any thing that might descredit them nor has any other Heathen ever suspected them to be supposititious but on the contrary they have all given them the same Authors as the Christians The Hereticks although they were confounded by the Authority of those Books yet durst not say that they were not of the Disciples of our Lord. Nay some of those Hereticks saw the beginnings of the Church and before whose eyes were written the Books of the Gospel So that fraud if there could possibly be any would have appeared too near to have been successâ—ul 'T is true after the time of the Apostles and when the Church was already spread over the face of the Earth Marcion and Mannes always the most rash and the most ignorant of all the Hereticks notwithstanding the Tradition coming from the Apostles coâ—tinued by their Disciples and by the Bishops to whom they had left their Chair and the Conduct of the People and unanimously received by all the Christian Church were so bold as to say that there Evangelists were supposititious and that that of St. Luke which they preferred to all the others they knew not why since it came by no other way had been falsified But what proofs gave they of this nothing but meer Visions no positive Matters of Fact All the reason they gave was that what was contrary to their
what is fabulous or at most things that are confused and half forgotten the Holy Scripture that is to say without controversie the most antient Book in the World brings us back by so many curious but precise accidents and by the same thread of things to their true principle that is to say to God the Maker of all things and does point out to us so distinctly the Creation of the Universe that of man in particular the happiness of his first Estate the causes of his miseries and frailties the Corruption of the World and the Deluge the beginning of Arts and those of Nations the distribution of Countries in a word the propagation of Mankind and other matters of the same importance whereof humane Histories speak but confusedly and oblige us elsewhere to seek for the certain sources of them And if the Antiquity of Religion gives it so much Authority its continued course without interruption and without alteration for so many successive Ages and notwithstanding all its manifold surprizing obstacles does manifestly discover to us that it is the hand of God alone that sustains it What is there more marvellous than to behold it always subsisting upon the same foundations of the beginnings of the World and neither the Idolatry and Impiety which surround it on every side nor the Tyrants that have persecuted it nor the Heretics and Infidels who have endeavoured to corrupt it nor the Cowardly that have betrayed it nor the unworthy Schismatics who have dishonoured it by their Crimes nor to conclude the length of time which alone was sufficient to wear away all humane things neither of these I say have been capable not only not to extinguish but so much as to alter it If we now shall consider what Idea this Religion for whose Antiquity we have so great a Reverence gives us of its object that is to say of the first Being we shall confess that it is superiour to all humane apprehensions and deserving to be regarded as coming from God himself That God whom the Hebrews and the Christians have always served and worshiped hath nothing in common with those Divinities full of Imperfection and even of Vice which the rest of the World adored Our God is One Infinite Perfect only worthy to revenge Wickedness and Vice and to Crown Vertue because that He alone is Holiness it self He is infinitely above that first Cause and of that first Mover which the Philosophers of old have acknowledged but yet have not adored Those of them that have been the most remote have proposed to us one God who finding a matter Eternal and existing by it self as well as He hath put it into frame and fashioned it as a common Artificer constrained in his work by that matter and by those dispositions which he did not make without ever being able to comprehend that if the matter were of it self it could not stay to have its perfection from a strange hand and that if God be infinite and perfect he hath not to do whatsoever he pleaseth but only of himself and of his omnipotent Will But the God of our Fathers the God of Abraham the God of whom Moses hath delivered wonders to us hath not only ranged this World but he hath done it all entire in its matter and in its form Before he had given it a Being nothing had it but himself He is represented to us as that God that made all things and that by his word as well because he did all by the most excellent reason as because he did it without the least of difficulty and that to make such a most glorious work as this World he was only at the expence of one word that is to say it cost him no more than his bare will and pleasure And to follow the History of the Creation since we have begun it Moses hath taught us That that mighty Architect to whom things cost so little was pleased to make them at several times and by returns from thence where he had before given over and to create the World in six days to shew that he acted not through an impulse of necessity or through a blind impetuosity as some Philosophers have vainly imagined The Sun emits at once without any reserve the power of all its rays but God who acts by intelligence and with a Sovereign liberty applies his Virtue and Power to what he pleaseth and just to so much too as he pleaseth And as in making the World by his word he discovers that nothing can trouble or with-hold him by making it at several resumptions it is sufficiently plain and evident to us that he is the Master of his Matter of his Action of all his Enterprises and that he hath not in any of his proceedings any other Rule but his Will which is always right by it self This Conduct of Almighty God doth likewise shew to us that every thing cometh immediately out of his hand The People and the Philosophers who have believed that the Earth mingled with Water and assisted forsooth with the warm beams of the Sun had produced of it self through its own fecundity Plants and Animals were most grosly mistaken The Scriptures have made us to understand that the Elements are barren if the word of God makes 'em not fruitful Neither the Earth nor the Water nor the Air would ever have had Plants or Animals which we now see in them if God who had made and prepared the matter of them had not also formed them by Almighty Will and had not given to every thing the proper Seeds whereby to multiply in all the succeeding Ages Those who see the Plants to take their birth and their increase by the heat of the Sun might think that that is the Creator of them but the Scripture hath plainly made it out to us that the Earth was clothed with Grass and all sorts of Plants before ever the Sun was made that so we might be satisfied that on God alone was all dependence It pleased that great Workmaster to create Light before he had put it into the form which he hath given it in the Sun and the Stars because he would inform and convince us that these great and magnificent Luminaries which we would so willingly make Divinities had by themselves neither that curious and shining Matter whereof they are now composed nor that admirable form to which we see them now reduced In a word the account of the Creation such as Moses has given us of it discovers to us that great Mystery of the true Philosophy that in God alone resides absolute Fullness and Power Happy Wise Almighty alone sufficient in himself he acts without necessity as he acts without need never straitned nor constrained nor puzzled with his matter wherewith he doth whatsoever he will because he hath by his alone Will given to it the foundation of its Being By this Sovereign right he turns it he fashions it he moves it without pain or uneasiness all
in his time had discovered to them the punctuality of the Declension set forth in the Prophecy they doubted not but that Christ was coming and they should see that new Kingdom in which all People were to be reunited One thing which they took notice of was that the power of life and death was taken from them Talm. Hierosol tr Sanhed Dan. 13. That was a great change since they had ever enjoyed that great priviledge till then to what Dominion soever they were subjected nay even in Babylon during their Captivity The History of Susanna plain enough shews that and it was a most certain Tradition among them The Kings of Persia who re-established them 1 Esdr 7.23 24 25 26. left them that power by an express Decree which has been already observed in its proper place and we have also seen that the first Seleucides had rather enlarged than straitned their Priviledges I need not here to repeat any thing of the Reign of the Maccabees where they were not only enfranchised but became mighty and formidable to their Enemies Pompey who weakened them as we have already likewise seen being content with the Tribute he had laid upon them and with putting them in such a condition that the People of Rome might dispose of them upon occasion left them their Prince with all his Jurisdiction It is sufficiently known that they received such usage from the Romans and that they never medled with their Government among themselves in those Countreys where they suffered them to have their Natural Kings In fine the Jews were resolved to lose that power they had of life and death but forty years before the Destruction of the second Temple and it is to be questioned whether this was not the first Herod that ever attempted to make this breach on their Liberty For since Joseph an t 14. 17. as well to be revenged of the Sanhedrim where he had himself been obliged to appear before he was made King as afterwards to gain over to himself the absolute Authority he had attacqued that Assembly which was as the Senate founded by Moses and the perpetual Council of the Nation that exercised the Supreme Jurisdiction by little and little that great Body lost its power and but very little of it did remain at the time when Christ came into the World Affâ—irs grew worse and worse under Herod's Sons when the Kingdom of Archelaus whereof Jerusalem was the Capital City being reduced into a Roman Province was governed by Presidents whom the Emperours sent thither In that wretched and pitiable estate the Jews had so small a share of the power of life and death that to get Jesus Christ to be put to death whom notwithstanding they were resolved to crucifie whatsoever it should cost them they were fain to have recourse to Pilate and that weak Governour having told them that they should judge him to Death by their own Law they presently answered him that it was not lawful for them to put any man to death John 18 31. Acts 12.1 2 3. And so likewise by the hands of Herod they caused St. James the Brother of St. John to be beheaded and clapt St. Peter into Prison When they had resolved on the death of St. Paul they delivered him into the hands of the Romans as they had already done Jesus Christ Acts 24. and the Sacrilegious Vow of their false Zelots who had sworn neither to eat or drink before they had killed that holy Apostle sufficiently discovered that they were sensible they had lost their power of taking away his life in a Judicial Course of Proceeding If they stoned indeed St. Stephen that was done tumultuously by the Rabble and by an effect of those Seditious Transports which the Romans could not always suppress in those who called themselves at that time the Devout Acts 7.57 58. This is held for certain then as well by those Histories as by the consent of the Jews and by the posture of their Affairs that towards the time of our Saviour and especially in that when he began the Exercise of his Ministry they absolutely lost their Temporal Authority They could not behold that their loss without remembring that ancient Oracle of Jacob which had foretold them that in the time of the Messiah there should be no longer among them either Power Authority or Magistracy One of their most ancient Authors takes notice of it and it is but reason in him to acknowledge that the Scepter was not then in Judah nor any Authority among the Heads of the People seeing that the publick Power was taken from them Tract voc magn Gen. seu com in Gen. and the Sanhedrim being degraded the Members of that great Body were no more looked on as Judges but as bare simple Doctors Therefore according to their own reckoning it was much about the time that Christ was to appear And as they saw then that certain Sign of this new King 's coming to be very near at hand whose Empire was to extend it self over all People they did effectually believe that he would appear The noise thereof spread it self round about and all the East were fully persuaded that it would not be long before they saw come out of Judah those who should Reign over all the Earth Tacitus and Suetonius report this Story as being established by a positive Opinion and by an ancient Oracle which was found in the Sacred Books of the Jews Suet. Vespas Tacit. l. 5. hist c. 13. Joseph de bell Jud. 7.12 Hegisip de Excid Jer. v. 44. Josephus relates that Prophecy in the same terms and says as they did that it was found in the holy Scriptures The Authority of those Books whose Predictions were seen so visibly accomplished in so many Instances was very great in all the Eastern Country and the Jews more attentive than any other in observing the several Conjunctures which were chiefly written for their Instruction acknowledged the time of the Messiah which Jacob had pointed out in their declension Thus the Reflections they made upon their Condition were very just and without being deceived about the time of Christ's Advent they confessed he was to come just in that very point of time he did But O the weakness of Humane Understanding and the Vanity which is the inevitable Source of Blindness the Humility of their Saviour concealed from those proud Souls the true Grandeurs which they were to look for in their Messiah They would have had him to have been a King like to the other Kings of this World which was the reason that the Flatterers of the first Herod dazled with the Greatness and Magnifâ—cence of that Prince who as much a Tyrant as he was yet forgot not to inrich Judea Epiph. lib. 1. haer 20. Herodian said that he himself was that King so much promised 'T was that also which gave way to the Sect of the Herodians by whom he was so much
perswade a whole Nation even the old Men who had seen that Prophet and had always looked for that miraculous Deliverance which he had foretold them of Esdras and Nehemiah could not have written the History of their Time some other must have done it in their Name and those who have made all the other Books of the old Testament would have been so esteemed by Posterity that the other Falsifyers would have gained little Credit to their Imposture No doubt but they would have been ashamed of so many Extravagancies and instead of saying that Esdras had of a sudden brought to light so many Books so different one from the other by the Characters both of Stile and Time one must affirm that he might have inserted into them the Miracles and Predictions which made them to pass for Divine An Error more gross still than the former since that those Miracles and those Predictions are so interspersed in all those Books so often inculcated and repeated with such different turns and so great a variety of powerful Figures in a word they have so constituted the whole Body of them that if we have ever but so much as opened those holy Books we must see that it was a great deal more easy perfectly to make a new Model of them than to insert in them those things which the Incredulous are so much puzled to find there And tho' it should be granted them whatsoever they ask yet the miraculous and divine Parts are so much the Foundation of those Books that they must be yet acknowledged whatsoever Aversion any may have to them And admit that Esdras might have added afterwards the Predictions of those things that had already happened in his time yet those which were fulfilled since which you have seen in so great a number who should superadd them God it is possible might have bestowed on Esdras the gift of Prophecy that so the Imposture of Esdras might seem the more probable and they might rather have a false one to be a Prophet than Isaiah or Jeremiah or Daniel Or else every Age might have had a prosperous Counterfeit who might impose upon the Faith of a whole Nation and that new Impostors thro' an admirable Zeal of Religion might have continually been adding to the divine Books after that the Canon might have been closed that they might be spread abroad with the Jews over all the Earth and translated into so many strange Languages Would not this have been out of eagerness of Desire to establish the Religion the way utterly to destroy it Would a whole Nation so easily suffer a Change of what they verily believed to be Divine whether thro' Conviction of Reason or thro' the power of Error Could any one hope to persuade Christians nay or Turks to add but one single Chapter either to the Gospel or to the Alcoran But perhaps the Jews might be more docile than other People or not so Religious as to preserve their holy Books What Monsters of Opinions must come into their Minds to make then willing to shake off the Yoke of divine Authority and not to regulate their Sentiments no more than their Manners but by their distorted Reason Let none say that the discussion of these Matters is perplexing and troublesom For if it should be so they must either lay the Charge of it on the Authority of the Church and the Tradition of so many Ages or else push on the Examination to the utmost Extremity and never believe they can be rid of it but say they require still more time than will be given to their Salvation But certainly not to turn over the Books of both the Testaments with an endless Labour we need only read the Book of Psalms where are collected so many antient Songs of Gods People to see there in the most divine Poetry that ever was the immortal Monuments of the History of Moses of that of the Judges and Kings imprinted by Song and Measure in Men's Minds And for the new Testament The bare Epistles of St. Paul so Lively and Original so strong as to time both of the Affairs and Motions which then were and in short of so pointing a Character those Epistles I say received by the Churches to which they were addressed and from thence communicated to other Churches will be sufficient to convince all honest Minds that every thing in the Scriptures which the Apostles have left us is according to the Original So likewise do they support one another with an invincible Force The Acts of the Apostles are but a continuation of the Gospel their Epistles suppose it necessary but that all may agree together both the Acts and the Epistles and Gospels do every where own the antient Books of the Jews St. Paul and the other Apostles are continually alledging what Moses hath said Act. 3.22.7.31 32 c. Rom. 10.5.19 what the Prophets have said and writ after Moses Jesus Christ calls to witness the Law of Moses the Prophets and the Psalms as Witnesses who all depose the same Truth When he hath a mind to explain his Mysteries Ibid. 27. John 5.46 47. he begins at Moses and all the Prophets and when he tells the Jews that Moses wrote of him he lays down for a Foundation what was most certainly believed among them and brings them back to the very Spring Head of their own Traditions But however we will see what can be opposed to this so acknowledged an Authority and to the Consent of so many Ages For since in our days Men have been so presumptuous and daring as to print in all sort of Languages Books against the Scriptures we ought not to dissemble or conceal what they alledge for the decrying its Antiquities Therefore what say they to justify the Pentateuch's being supposititious and what can be objected to a Tradition of three thousand Years standing upheld by its own Power and by the course of things Nothing of Consequence nothing that is positive nothing that is of weight and substance Some little Chicaneries and Quarrels they have at Numbers Places and Names and such Observations that in all other matters are reckoned at most but as vain Curiosities uncapable of reaching the stress of the Case are here alledge to us by way of Decision of an Affair the most serious that ever was There are say they Difficulties in the History of the Scripture No Question to be made on 't which yet there would not be weâ—e the Books less antient or had they been supposititious and made as they are so bold to say by a cunning and industrious Man If they had not been so Religious as to give it us as they found it but had taken the liberty to correct it where it did not please them There are Difficulties which arise by length of time when places have changed their Name or Condition when Dates are forgot when Genealogies are no further known when there is no remedy for the Faults which a Copy
Years of the World 3116 to change Figure in the Kingdom of Judah Athaliah the Daughter of Ahab and Jezabel carried Impiety along with her into the House of Jehosaphat Jehoram the Son of so pious a Prince chose rather to imitate his Father-in-Law than his own Father Years be ∣ fore J. C. 885 The Hand of God was upon him His Years of the World 3119 Reign was short and his End dreadful In the midst of his Chastisements God wrought unheard-of Prodigies even in favour of the Israelites whom he would now recaâ—l to Repentance They saâ— without ever being converted the Wonders of Elijah and Elisha who prophesied during the Reign of Ahab Mâ—rrâ— Aâ—â—na and five of his Successors At this time Hâ—mer flourished as Hesiod had done Thirty years before The Ancient Manners aâ—d Customs which they represent to us and the Vestigia that they still keep with much Grandeur and with the ancient Simplicity does not a little serve to let us understand the Antiquities that are a great deal more remote and the Divine Simplicity Years be ∣ fore J. C. 884 of the Scripture There had been terrible Years of the World 3120 Spectacles in the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel Jezabâ—l was thrown down out of a Tower-window by the command of Jehu who valued not the painting her Face and tyring her Head but fulfilled the Word of the Lord in causing his Horses to tread her under their Feet He killed Jehoram King of Israel the Son of Ahab even all the House of Ahab was destroyed and it wanted but a little of drawing that of the Kings of Judah into its own Ruine King Ahazia the Son of Joram King of Judah and of Athaliah was slain in Samaria with his Brethren as an Ally and Friend to the Children of Ahab As soon as this News was brought to Jerusalem Athaliah resolved to cut off all that remained of the Seed-Royal without sparing her own Children and so to reign and govern by the loss of her own Only Jehoash the Son of Ahaziah a Child that then hung at the Breast was stole away from her Fury by Jehosheba his Aunt Jehosheba the Sister of Ahaziah and Wife of Jehoiada the High-Priest hid him in the House of the Lord and saved that only precious Remainder of the House of David Athaliah who thought him dead with the rest lived without fear Plat. de Repâ—◠〈…〉 Arist â—olit l. 2. c. 9. Lycurgus prescribed Laws to the Lacedemonians He is rebuked for having made them all Martial after the Example of Minos whose Institutions he had followed and for having but little provided for the Womens Modesty for that so he might make all his Men Soldiers he obliged them to a very laborious and temperate Life Nothing was stirring in Judah against Athaliah and therefore she thought her self established during a six years Reign But God raised her up an Years be ∣ fore J. C. 678 Avenger in the holy Sanctuary of his Temple Years of the World 3326 When he was come to be seven years old Jehoiada made him known to some of the Rulers over Hundreds with the Captains of the Guard and the Royal Army whom he had carefully managed and being assisted with the Priests he anointed the young King in the Temple Easily were the People persuaded to acknowledge the Heir of Davâ—d and of Jehosaphat At the noise whereof Athaliah ran to dissipate the Conspiracy but being forced without the Ranges of the Temple she there received the Reward of her Crimes As long as Jehoiada lived Joash reigneth well keeping to the Law of Moses After the Death of this holy Man of God corrupted by the Flatteries of his Courtiers he falls in with them to downright Idolatry The High-Priest Years be ∣ fore J. C. 840 Zacharias the Son of Jehoiada was resolved Years of the World 3164 to reprove him for it but Jehoash without ever being mindful of what he owed to his Father caused him to be stoned But Vengeance followed close at the heels of Years be ∣ fore J. C. 839 this for the next year Jehoash being beaten Years of the World 3165 by the Syrians and fallen into contempt was assassinated by his own Subjects and Amaziah his Son a better Man than himself was set upon the Throne Years be ∣ fore J. C. 825 The Kingdom of Israel being wasted and Years of the World 3179 depressed by the Victories of the Kings of Syria and by Civil Wars re-assumed its Forces under Jeroboam II. who was more pious than his Predecessors Hoziah otherwise called Azariah the Son of Amaziah also governed the Kingdom of Judah with no less Honour and Glory This is that Years be ∣ fore J. C. 810 Famous Hoziah that was smitten with Leprosie Years of the World 3194 and often reproved in Scripture for having towards his latter days presumed to take upon him the Priestly Office and against the Prohibition of the Law had himself offered up Incense upon the Altar of Perfumes He was to be set aside though he was a King according to the Law of Moses and Jotham his Son who was afterwards his Successor did wisely govern the Kingdom Under the Reign of Hoziah the Holy Prophets the Chief of whom at that time were Hosea and Isaiah began to publish their Prophecies in Writing and in particular Books the Originals of which they deposited in the Temple to serve as a Monument to Posterity The Lesser Prophecies which were given only vivâ voce were as was usual registred in the Rolls of the Temple with the History of the time The Years be ∣ fore J. C. 776 Olympic Games instituted by Hercules and Years of the World 3228 long discontinued were re-established and from that re-establishment came the Olympiades by which the Grecians counted their Years Aboâ—â— this time ended that which Varro calls thâ— Fabulous because the profane Histories then were full of confusion and falsities and the Historical times began wherein the affairs of the World were reported with more exactness and fidelity The first Olympiad is marked out by the victory of Corebus They were renewed every five years and after four years Revolution There in the Assembly of all Greece at Pisa first and afterwards at Elida those famous Combats were celebrated where the Conquerors were crowned with incredible Applauses The Exercises likewise were in great honour and Greece every day became more strong and more cultivated Italy as yet was almost all over savage The Latin Kings of Aeneas's Race reigned at Alba. Phul was King of Assyria 'T was believ'd he was the Father of Sardanapalus called according to the Eastern Custom Sardan Pul that is to say Sardan the Son of Phul. 'T was also thought that this Phul or Pul had been King Years be ∣ fore J. C. 771 of â—ineveh who joined with his People in Years of the World 3233 Repentance at the Preaching of Jonas That Prince invited by the Confusions of the Kingdom of Israel went to invade it but
lower but the difference is very little and the Circumstances of time do much assure the Date of Eusebius They are likewise pretty agreeing with Thucydides a most exact Historian Thucyd. l. 1. and that grave Author almost a Contemporary as well as a fellow Citizen of Themistocles makes him to write his Letter about the beginning of Artaxerxes his Reign Cornel. Nep. in Themisto Cornelius Nepos an Ancient and Judicious as well as an Elegant Author will not have us question this Date after the Authority of Thucydides and it is so much a stronger Argument because another more Antient Author than Thucydides was agrees with him 'T is Charon of Lampsacus cited by Plutarch Plut. in Them and Plutarch adds himself That the Annals this is to say those of Persia concur with those two Authors But however he does not follow them tho' he gives us no reason for it and those Historians who begin the Reign of Artaxerxes eight or nine years later agree neither in time nor are they of so great an Authority Therefore beyond all dispute we ought to reckon the beginning of it toward the end of the seventy six Olympiad and near the 280 year of Rome and so the twentieth year of this Prince will come to be about the end of the eighty first Olympiad and near the 300 year of Rome Whereas those who to conciliate Authors reject this and make the beginning of Artaxerxes his Reign to fall out lower are forced to conjecture that his Father had at least associated him to the Kingdom when Themistocles wrote his Letter but which way soever it be our account is secure This Foundation being settled and granted the rest of the Account is easie to be made and the Consequence will render it plain and evident After Artaxerxes had made his Decree The Jews laboured mightily to rebuild their City and the Walls thereof as Daniel had prophesied Dan. ix 25 Nehem. ii 17 18 19. Nehemiah managed and ordered the work with a great deal of Prudence and Courage in defiance to all the oppositions of the Samaritans Arabians and the Ammonites The People sat about the Work and Eliashib the High-Priest incouraged them by his Example In the mean while the new Magistrates which were set over the People of Rome increased the Divisions of that City and Rome brought under a Monarchy did want those Laws which were necessary for the good Constitution of a Common-weal The Reputation of Greece which had made her self more famous by her Government than Years be ∣ fore J. C. 452 by her Victories excited the Romans to Years of Rome 302 follow her Example so that they sent Deputies to search into the Laws of Greece and especially into those of Athens which were more agreeable to the State of their Years be ∣ fore J. C. 451 Republick According to this Model ten Years of Rome 303 absolute Magistrates which they created the next Year after under the Name of the Decemviri digested and set down the Laws of the Twelve Tables which are the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 450 Ground and Foundation of the Roman Law Years of Rome 304 The People overjoy'd at the Equity wherewith they were made suffered them to usurp the supreme power which they used Years be ∣ fore J. C. 449 with Tyranny enough So that there were very Years of Rome 305 great Convulsions by the Intemperance of Appius Clodius one of the Decemviri and by the Murther of Virginia whom her Father had rather have slain with his own Hand than have abandoned her to be a Sacrifice to the Passion and Lust of Appius The Blood of this Second Lucretia awakened the Romans so that the Decemviri were quite thrust out But whilst the Laws were framing under these ten Magistrates Esdras a Doctor of the Law and Nehemiah the Governour of the Jewish People newly re-established in Judah were reforming the Abuses and bringing in the Law of Moses so that they began to be observed in the first place One of the main points of their Reformation was to oblige all the People 2 Esdr xiii Deut. xxiii 3. and particularly the Priests to leave their strange Wives whom they had married contrary to the express Letter of the Law Esdras put the Holy Books in order and made a very exact review of them and collected the Antient Memoires of the Jews to compile out of them the two Books of Paralipomena or Chronicles to which he added the History of his own Time which Nehemiah finished By those Books is that long and tedious History which Moses had begun ended and which the following Authors continued without interruption till the re-building of Jerusalem The rest of the Sacred History is not writ in the same train Whilst Esdras and Nehemiah were making the last part of this great Work Herodotus whom the Prophane Authors call the Father of History it self began to write So that the last Authors of the Holy History met with the first Author of the Greek History and when this began That of the Jews only to take it from Abraham already had made up five Ages Herodotus never thought to speak of the Jews in that History he hath left us and the Greeks would not inform themselves of any but such People whom War Commerce or a great Fame had made notorious and considerable Judah that with great difficulty began to raise it self from the Ashes of its Ruine never in the least attracted their regards And it was in this miserable and calamitous time that the Hebrew Language ceased to be common During the Captivity and afterwards by the commerce that happened between them and the Chaldeans the Jews learned the Chaldee Tongue which very much bordered upon their own and had almost the same Idiom and Genius This reason induced them to change the ancient Figure of Hebrew Letters and so they writ Hebrew in the Chaldee Characters which were most in use among them and easier to be made This alteration was almost insensible between the two Neighbouring Languages whose Letters were of the same value and efficacy only differing somewhat in their formation From that time the Holy Scripture was only to be found among the Jews in the Chaldee Letters But the Samaritans still kept their old way of Writing Their Posterity have persevered in the same Custom even down to our days and by that means have preserved the Pentateuch which they call the Samaritan in ancient Hebrew Characters such as they found them in Medals and in all the Monuments of past Ages The Jews lived very peaceably and quietly under the Authority of Artaxerxes That Prince being forced by Cymon the Son of Miltiades General of the Athenians to make a shameful peace utterly despaired of overcoming the Greeks by force and so only thought of making his advantage by their feuds and divisions There happened very great Convulsions between the Athenians and Lacedemonians Those two people being jealous each of other shared all
Authentique Precedents which being carefully reviewed and kept by the Priests and Levites were esteemed as Originals and Records The Kings for Moses had wisely foreseen that these People would at last have Kings as well as other Nations The Kings I say were obliged by an express law in Deuteronomy to receive from the hands of the Priests and Levites one of these Precedents which were so religiously corrected Deut. 17.18 that they might transcribe and read it all their lives The Precedents thus reviewed by publick Authority were held by all People in singular Veneration they looked on them as being immediately derived from the hands of Moses as pure and entire as God had dictated them to him An ancient Volume of this severe and religious Correction having been found in the House of the Lord 2 Kings 22.8 c. 2 Chron. 34.14 c. in the Reign of Josiah and peradventure was that very Original which Moses had caused to be put in the side of the Ark of the Covenant stirred up the Piety of that holy King and thereby was the occasion of bringing that People to Repentance The great effects which all along the publick reading of that Law wrought are innumerable In a word it was a perfect Book which being joyned by Moses to the History of the People of God it taught them their Origine their Religion Polity Manners Philosophy and whatsoever conduced to the regulation of Life whatsoever united and formed Society the good and the bad Examples The Reward of the one and the rigorous Punishments which had attended the other By that admirable Discipline a People brought out of Slavery and Bondage and kept forty years in the Wilderness came all fitted to the Land which they were to possess Moses brings them to the Entrance and being informed of his approaching end he commits the remains of what was yet to be done to Joshua Deut. 31.14 c. But before he dyed he composed that long and most excellent Song which begins with these words Give ear O ye Heavens Deut. 32.1 and I will speak and hear O Earth the words of my mouth In that Silence of all nature he speaks first to the People with a sorce that was inimitable and foreseeing their Infidelities he discovers to them the dreadfulness of it All of a sudden he goes out of himself as if he found all Humane Discourse below so great a Subject he reporteth what God saith and it makes him speak with so much elevation and so much sweetness that we know not which inspired him most whether Fear and Confusion or Love and Confidence All the People learnt by heart that Divine Song by the order of God Deut. 31.19 22. and of Moses That great Man after that died content as a Man that had forgot nothing which might preserve in the Memory of his People the Benefits and Precepts of God He leaves his Children in the midst of their Citizens without any distinction and without any extraordinary establishment He hath been admired not only by his People but by all the People of the World and never had any Legislator so great a name as He among all Mankind 'T is believed that he writ the Book of Job The Sublimity of the Thoughts and the Majesty of the Style make that History worthy of Moses For fear lest the Hebrews should be puffed up by attributing the Grace of God to themselves alone it was necessary to make them to understand that that great God had his chosen ones even in the Race of Esau And what Doctrine was more important and what more profitable Consolation could Moses give to the People afflicted in the Wilderness than that of the Patience of Job who being delivered into the hands of Satan to be exercised by all manner of Miseries saw himself deprived of his Wealth his Children and all the Comforts of this World presently after struck with a horrible Disease and moved within by the Temptation of Blasphemy and Despair yet he remaining firm and resolute in his Integrity made it evident that a faithful devout Soul supported by the Divine Relief in the midst of the fiercest and most frightful Trials and in spight of all the blackest thoughts which the Evil Spirit could suggest to it knew not only how to maintain an invincible Trust and Confidence Job 13.15.14.14.15.16.21.19.25 c. but also to raise up it self by his own greatest Afflictions to the highest Contemplation and to acknowledge in the Sufferings it endures with the Vanity and Nothingness of Man the Supreme Empire of God and his Infinite Wisdom This is what the Book of Job instructs us in To keep up the Character of Time here is seen the Faith of the holy Man crowned by Temporal Prosperities but yet the People of God are hereby taught to know what is the virtue of Sufferings and to have a fore-taste of the Grace which was one day to be fastened to the Cross Moses had tasted it when he preferred the Sufferings and Ignominy which he was to undergo with the People of God to the Delicacies and Abundance in the House of the King of Egypt From that time God made him to taste of the Reproaches of Jesus Christ He tasted them also again in his precipitated Flight and in his Exile of forty years Heb. 11.24 25 26. But he drunk even to the bottom of Christ his Cup when being chosen to save that People Numb 14.10 c. he was forced to undergo their continual Revoltings wherein he ran the hazard of his life He learnt what it would cost him to save the People of God and shewed at a distance what a higher deliverance 't was one day to cost the Saviour of the World That great Man had not so much as the consolation of entering into the promised Land he only saw it from the top of a Mountain Numb 20.12 13.27.14 Deut. 32.50 51. and was not ashamed to confess that he was excluded from it by a sin which tho' it seemed but little yet deserved to be punished so severely in a man whose Grace was so particularly eminent Moses served for an example to the severe Jealousie of God and to the Judgments which he executed with so terrible an exactness on those whom his Bounty and Kindness obliged to a more perfect Fidelity But still a higher Mystery is shewn us in this Exclusion of Moses That wise Legislator who by so many Miracles did only lead the Children of God in the Neighbourhood of their Land serves himself to us for an Evidence Heb. 7.19 that his Law made nothing perfect and that without being able to give us the accomplishment of the Promises it makes us only as it were to salute them at a distance or leads us at most but to the gate of our Inheritance It was a Joshua a Jesus for it was the true name of Joshua who by that name and by his office represented the Saviour of
spoken of in the Gospel and whom the Heathen confessed Matth. 22.16 Mark 3.6.12.13 Pers Vet. Schol. Sat. v. 11. 180. Joseph de bell Jud. 3.14 for Persius and his Schoâ—iast informs us that even in the time of Nero the Birth of King Herod was celebraâ—ed by his Followers with the same Solemnity as the Sabbath Josephus stumbles into the like Error That Man being instructed as he says himself in the holy Books of the Prophets and himself a Priest as his Parents â—ere acknowledged that indeed the coming of that King so much promâ—sed by Jacob exactly agreed with the time of Herod where he shews us himself with that industrious care a manifest beginning of the ruine of the Jews but as he saw nothing in his own Nation which filled up those ambitious Ideas that it had conceived of its Christ he went on somewhat further before the time of the Prophecy Lib. 3. de bell Jud. 14.7.12 and applying himself to Vespasian he assured that the Oracle of the Scripture signified that Prince the delared Emperour in Judea Thus did he wrest the holy Scriptures to authorize his Flattery and being miserably blind he bestowed upon Strangers the hopes of Jacob and Judah he sought in Vespasian the Son of Abraham and of David and to an Idolatrous Prince attributed the Title of him whose light was to draw off the Gentiles from Idolatry That conjuncture of time favoured it much But whilst he was attributing to Vespasian what Jacob had spoken of Christ the Zealots who defended Jerusalem attributed it to themselves And it was upon that only Foundation that they promised themselves the Empire of the World Joseph de bell Jud. lib. 7. as Josephus relates it more reasonable than himself in that aâ— least they went not out of the Nation 〈◊〉 seek for the accomplishment of the Promisâ—â— made to their Forefathers How blind were they to that great advantage which the preaching of the Gospel thâ—â— made among the Gentiles and to that nâ—â— Empire which Jesus Christ was setting up over all the Earth What was more glorious and beautiful than an Empire in which Piety was to reign the true God to triumph over Idolatry Eternal Life to be published and declared to Infidel Nations and was not even the Empire of the Caesars a piece of pompous vanity in comparison with this But however that Empire seemed not illustrious enough to charm the Eyes of the World How ought we to be disabused from these earthly Grandeurs before we can come to any true knowledge of Jesus Christ the Jews understood the time the Jews saw the People called to the God of Abraham according to Jacob's Prophecy by Jesus Christ and his Disciples and yet for all that they mistook even that Jesus who was signalized to them by so many signs And altho' throughout the whole course of his life and after his death he confirm'd his Mission by so many extraordinary Miracles yet those besotted and infatuated Wretches rejected him because they could see nothing in him but a solid Grandeur which was void of all that splendid Decoration which strikes the Senses and because he seemed rather come to condemn than to reward their vain Ambition And yet however forced by the Conjunctures and Circumstances of time in spight of their blindness and obduracy they sometimes seemed to vail to their Prepossessions Every thing at the time of our Lord was so exactly fitted to the Manifestation of the Messiah that they were in great suspicion lest St. John the Baptist might be he Luke 3.15 1 John 19.20 His manner of life which was austere extraordinary and very surprizing touched them sensibly and tho' the Grandeurs of the World was wanting yet they appeared at first as if they were willing to be satisfied with the lustre of so amazing and prodigious a life The simple and common life of our Jesus Christ was offensive to those gross as well as proud Spirits who were only capable of being taken by their Senses and who otherwise being far enough from a sincere Conversion would admire nothing but what they looked on as inimitable So that St. John the Baptist who they thought deserved to be the Christ was not believed when he declared to them the true Christ and Jesus Christ whom they must have imitated as soon as they had believed on him appeared to the Jews too humble and meek for them to follow him But yet the Impression that was made upon them that Christ must appear about that time was so strong and powerful that they could not wear it off for almost a whole Age. They thought the fulfilling of the Prophecies might have a certain extent and was not still wholly determined to a precise particular point of time so that for almost an hundred years they talked of nothing but of false Christs that got themselves to be followed and of false Prophets who declared them The foregoing had never seen any thing like it and the Jews made no such brags of the Name of Christ neither when Judas Maccabeus gained so many Victories over their Tyrant nor when his Brother Simon freed them from the Yoke oâ— the Gentiles nor yet when the first Hyrâ—â— got so many Conquests The time and the other signs did not then agree to it and it was only in that Age of Jesus Christ that they began to speak of all those Messiahs The Samaritans who read the Prophecy of Jacob in the Pentateuch made themselves Christs as well as the Jews and a little after Jesus Christ they called to mind their Dositheâ— Orig. Tract 27. in Matt. Tom. 14. in Joh. 1. cant Cels Iren. 1. 20 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 4.25 Simon the Magician of the same Country boasted also that he was the Son of God and Menander his Disciple called himself the Saviour of the World Whilst Christ was living and amongst them the Samaritans believed the Messias was near coming so generally was it expected in the Nation and among all those who read the ancient Oracle of Jacob that Christ was to appear in those days When the time was so past that there was no further expectation of him and that the Jews had seen by Experience that all the Messiahs whom they had follow'd were so far from delivering them from their Evils that they had but the more emerged them in 'em it was then a good while e're was seen among them any more new Messiahs and Barchochebas was the last whom they owned as such in those first and early times of Christianity But the old Impression could not yet utterly be done away In stead of believing that Christ had appeared as they had done in the time of Adrian under the Antonines his Successors they thought upon â—his to say that Christ was in the World â—ho ' he did not then make himself visible because he tarried for the Prophet Elias who was to come to consecrate him This was a common Discourse amongst
they never thought they did so Constance who persecuted St. Athanasius the Defender of the Ancient Faith ardently desired says Ammianus Marcellinus Id. lib. 15. to get him condemned by the Authority which the Bishop of Rome had over the others By seeking to support himself with that Authority he made the Heathens themselves sensible of what was wanting to his Sect and honoured the Church from which the Arrians had departed thus the Gentiles themselves acknowledged the Catholick Church If any one asked them where they kept their Assemblies and who were their Bishops they never deceived them As for Heresies whatsoever they made they could never get rid of the name of then Authors The Sabellians the Paulianists the Arrians the Pelagians and the rest were scandalized in vain at the title of the Faction which was given to them The World whatsoever they could do would speak naturally and designed every Sect by him from whom it first sprung As for the great Church the Catholick and Apostolick Church it was always impossible to affix any other Author to it than Jesus Christ himself nor to assign to it the first of its Pastors without going up as high as to the very Apostles nor to give it any other name than what it had before taken So that what Hereticks soever were made they could not conceal it from the Heathens She opened to them her Bosom all â—he World over and they ran to her in troops Some of them were possibly lost in the by-Paths but the Catholick Church was the great way wherein entred always most of those who sought after Jesus Christ and Experience has sufficiently discovered that to her it was given to bring in the fulness of the Gentiles Her also it was whom the unbelieving Emperours attacked with all their power and force Orig. cont Cels 7. Just. Apol. 2. Origen tells us that few of the Hereticks were sufferers for the Faith St. Justin more ancient than he hath observed that the Persecution spared the Marcionites and the other Hereticks The Heathens only persecuted that Church which they saw spread her self over the face of the whole Earth and only acknowledged her self for the Church of Jesus Christ What matters it to pull off some of the Branches her good Sap was not lost for all that she went into other places and the cutting down the superfluous Wood served but to make the Fruit come better In fine if we consider the History of the Church we shall always find that when ever one Heresie impaired it she recovered her losses both by enlarging outwardly and increasing inwardly light and piety whilst she beheld in some distant Corners the cut off Branches to dry and wither The work of man was perished notwithstanding the power of Hell to support it the work of God has continued and the Church hath triumphed over Idolatry and all Errours whatsoever THIS Church so always attacked XIII General Reflections on the Progress of Religion and the relation there is between the Books of the Scripture yet never overcome is a perpetual Miracle and a clear and shining Testimony of the Immutability of the Divine Councils In the midst of the agitation of Humane Affairs she still supported her self with an invincible force so that by an uninterrupted course for near these seventeen hundred years do we see her come up even to Jesus Christ in whom she hath collected the Succession of the ancient People and was found reunited to the Prophets and Patriarchs And so many astonishing Miracles which the Hebrews of old saw with their eyes do still serve at this day to confirm our Faith That great God who wrought them for a Testimony of his Unity and his Almightiness what could he do more authentick to preserve the memory of them than to leave in the hands of so great a People the Acts which punctually attest them in order of time this is what we now have in the Books of the Old Testament that is to say in the most ancient Books that are in the World in those Books which are the only ones of Antiquity where the knowledge of the true God is taught and his service ordained in those Books which the Jews have always so religiously kept 'T is certain that they were the only People who originally knew God the Creator of Heaven and Earth and consequently the only People to whom the Divine Secrets were to be committed They also kept them with a most religious care Those Books which the Egyptians and the other People called Divine are lost long since and there scarce remains so much as any confused Remembrance of them in ancient Histories The sacred Books of the Romans wherein Numa the Author of their Religion had written the Mysteries of them are perished even by the hands of the Romans themselves and the Senate commanded them to be burnt as tending to the overthrow of Religion And those same Romans at last suffered likewise the Books of the Sibyls Tit. Liv. li. 40. c. 29. Varr. l. de Cult Deor ap Aug. de Civ 12. 34. to be destroyed which were for so long time reverenced by them as Prophetical and wherein they would make the World believe that they found the Decrees of the Immortal Gods concerning their Empire and yet notwithstanding they never published I do not say one single Volume but so much as one single Oracle It has been only the Jews who have had the Sacred Scriptures in so much the greater Veneration as they were the more known Of all the ancient People these alone preserved the Primitive Monuments of their Religion albeit they so fully gave testimony of their Infidelity with that of their Ancestors And at this very day do this People still remain upon the Earth to carry into all Nations where they are dispersed together with the course and progress of their Religion the Miracles and Predictions which render it immoveable When Jesus Christ was come and sent by his Father to accomplish the Promises of the Law he confirmed his Mission and that of his Disciples by new Miracles which have been also written with the same exactness The Acts of them have been published all the World over the Circumstances of Time Persons and Places have made the Examen easie to all that have been careful of their Salvation The World was informed the World has believed and if we have but ever so little considered the ancient Monuments of the Church we must avow that never has any thing been determined with more of reflection and knowledge But as to the Relation which the Books of the two Testaments have to one another there is one difference to be considered that is that the Books of the ancient People were composed at divers times Some are the times of Moses others those of Joshua and the Judges and others of the Kings some are those when the People were brought out of Egypt and received the Law others those when they obtained the
Sentiments must necessarily have been invented by others than by the Apostles and for all their proof they alledged the very Opinions which were in Controversie Opinions otherwise so extravagant and so manifestly mad that it is not to be imagined how they could ever enter into the mind of man to conceive But certainly to accuse the Sincerity of the Church one must have in ones hands Originals quite different from those of hers or some demonstrative proof But they and their Disciples being called upon to produce some they are struck dumb and have left by their Silence an undoubted proof that in the second Age of Christianity in which they wrote there was not only an Index and manifest signification of Falsity in them Iren. Tertul. Aug. loc cit but there was not the least Conjecture that could be opposed to the Tradition of the Church What shall I say of the Consent and Harmony that is to be found in the Books of the Scripture and of that admirable Testimony which all the Times of the People of God gave one to the other The Times of the Second Temple presuppose those of the First and carry us back to Solomon Peace was only established by Combats and Fightings and the Conquests of God's People return us to the Times of the Judges to Joshuah and to the Children of Israel's coming out of Egypt In reflecting upon an entire People's coming out of a Kingdom where they were Strangers we shall remember how they got in thither The twelve Patriarchs appeared immediately and a People that were never look'd upon but as one single Family leads us naturally up to Abraham who was the Main-stock of it Were those People more wise and less addicted to Idolatry after their return out of Babylon It was the natural effect of a severe Chastisement which their own past Offences had drawn upon them If that People boasted that they had several Ages seen Miracles which never other People had seen they might also boast that they had had the knowledge of God which no other People had What would any have Circumcision the Feast of Tabernacles the Passover and the other celebrated Feasts in the Nation Time out of mind to signifie if not the things we find taken notice of in the Books of Moses that a People distinguished from all others by a Religion and by a Carriage so very peculiar who had kept from its Original upon the Foundation of Creation and upon the Faith of Providence a Doctrine so followed and elevated a so lively Remembrance of a long Succession of Facts so necessarily chained together Ceremonies so regulated and Customs so universal should be without a History to recount their Origine and without a Law to prescribe Customs to them for a thousand years whilst it continued in that Estate and that Esdras should all on the sudden begin to give them under the Name of Moses with a History of their Antiquities the Law that should form their Manners when that People who were then made Captives beheld their antient Monarchie utterly thrown down what more incredible Romance could any one ever invent And is it possible for any one to give Credit to it with joyning at the same time Ignorance to Blasphemy To lose such a Law after one has received it either a People ought to be quite exterminated or else through divers Changes be brought to such a pass that they have nothing but a confused Idea of their Original Religion and Customs If that Misery happened to the Jews and that the Law so well known under Zedekiah should be totally lost sixty Years after notwithstanding all the industrious Care of Ezekiel Jeremiah Baruch and Daniel without reckoning up the rest and in the time too when this Law had its Martyrs as the Persecution of Danâ—el and the three Children do plainly demonstrate If I say that holy Law was lost in so short a time and was so profoundly forgot till Esdras was permitted to re-establish it according to his own Fancy that was not the only Book which ought to be made them For he ought at the same time to compose all the Prophets both old and new that is to say those who had written both before and during the Captivity those that the People had seen write as well as those which they very well remembred not only the Prophets but also the Books of Solomon and the Psalms of Davâ—d and all the Books of History since in that whole History there can scarce be found one single considerable matter of Fact and in all those other Books so much as one Chapter which being taken out of the Books of Moses such as we have 'em can subsist one Moment Everything there speaks of Moses every thing there is sounded upon Moses and indeed every thing ought to be so for that Moses and his Law and the History which he wrote was effectually in the Jews all the Foundation both of their publick and private Conduct Indeed it was a very marvellous Enterprise in Esdras and very novel in the World to make at the same time so many Men to speak with Moses of a different Character and Stile and yet every one in a manner uniform and always like to it self And on a sudden to make so great and entire a People as they were to believe that those were the antient Books which they had always had in Reverence and the new which they had seen made as if they had never heard any thing spoke of and that the Knowledg of the present time as well as that of the time past was utterly defaced Such are the Prodigies we must believe if we will disbelieve the Miracles of the Almighty and refuse to receive the Testimony by which it was evident that they had told so great a People they had seen them with their Eyes But if that People were returned from Babylon unto the Land of their Fathers so new and so ignorant that they could scarce remember they had ever been so that without the least Examination they had received all that Esdras was pleased to give them How then is it that we see in the Book which Esdras wrote 1 Esdr 3.7.9 2 Esdr 5.8.9.12 13. and in that of Nehemiah his Contemporary whatsoever was there said of the divine Books With what Front durst Esdras and Nehemiah speak of the Law of Moses in so many places and that publickly as of a thing known to all the World and which all the World had in their Hands How were all the People seen to act naturally in Obedience to that Law as having had it always present with them But how was it said at the same time and at the Peoples Return that all that People admired the Accomplishment of the Oracle of Jeremiah concerning the seventy Weeks Captivity That Jeremiah which Esdras had been forging with all the other Prophets how had he on a sudden found Credit By what new Artifice were they able to
tho' never so little mistaken so easily introduces in such things or that matters of Fact which have slipt out of Mens Memories do leave a Darkness upon some part of the History But then is this Obscurity in the Issue it self or in the stress of this Affair By no means All there is followed and that which is obscure serves only to let us see a more venerable Antiquity in those holy Books But there are Alterations in the Text The ancient Versions do not agree together the Hebrew in several Places is different from it self and the Text of the Samaritanes beside the Word which they accuse them of for changing it expresly in favor of the Temple of Gerizim differs also in many other places from that of the Jews And from thence what do they conclude That the Jews or else Esdras had contrived the Pentateuch at the return of the Captivity 'T is just the contrary that they should conclude The Differences of the Samaritane serve only to confirm what we have already established that their Text is independant from that of the Jews So far can we be from imagining that those Schismaticks took any thing from the Jews and Esdras that we have seen exactly to the contrary that it was in spight to the Jews and Esdras and in hatred of both the first and the second Temple that they invented their Chimera of Gerizim V. sup 1. p. 49. Seq 57. 63. Who therefore does not see it plain that they would rather have accused the Imposhires of the Jews than followed them Those Rebels who scorn'd both Esdras and all the Prophets of the Jews with their Temple and Solomon that built it as well as David who had assigned the place of it what did they regard in their Pentateuch if not an Antiquity superior not only to that of Esdras and the Prophets but also to that of Solomon and David in a word the Antiquity of Moses wherein they both agreed How indisputable then is Moses his Authority and that of the Pentateuch that all the Objections tend only to the affirmation of it But then from whence come those varieties of Texts and Versions From whence indeed unless from the Antiquity of the Book it self which hath gone thro' the Hands of so many Transcribes for so many Ages that the Language in which it was written is almost now worn out But let us leave these vain Disputes and in one word pluck up the Difficulty by the Roots Let any one say if it be not evident that in all the Versions and Texts that are there are still to be found the same Laws the same Miracles the same Predictions the same train of History the same Body of Doctrine and in short the same Substance Wherein then after all this do the varieties of Texts hurt What do we need further than this unalterable Fond of the sacred Books and what can we demand more of the divine Providence And as for the Versions is that a sign of Forgery or Novelty that the Language of the Scriptures is so antient that the Delicacies of it now are lost and we find our selves puzled to give it all its Elegance and to express it in its full sence and Power of meaning Is not that rather a Proof of its greater antiquity and if one would stand upon little trifling matters let any one tell me if in those several places wherein they have found themselves perplexed any one of them has been setled by reason or by conjecture We have followed the Faith of Examples and as tradition never permitted the sound Doctrine to be altered so we thought that the other faults it there were any served only to prove that none hath innovated any thing here by the dictate of their own Spirit But now here is at last the main stress of the Objection Are there not some things added in Moses's Text and how comes it to pass that we find his Death at the end of the Book that is attributed to him What Marvel is this that those who continued his History should have added his happy end to the rest of his Actions and so to make one and the same Body of the whole for the other additions let us see what they are Is there any new Law or any new Ceremony any Dogma any Miracle or any Prediction they have not so much as dreamt of any such thing there is not the least suspition of it nor the least Sign That had been to add to the work of God the Law had forbid it and the scandal it would have occasioned would have been very horrible What then Deut. 4.12.12.5 supra 2. part p. 220. why they may have continued perhaps a Genealogy that he had begun or possibly may have explained the name of a Town changed by time upon occasion of the Manna wherewith the People were fed for forty Years they may have particularized the time when that Heavenly Nourishment ceased and that Fact written since in another Book shall be made a Remark Jos 5.12 Exod 16.35 upon that of Moses as a manifest and publick Fact of which all the People were Witnesses and four or five Remarks of this Nature made by Josuah or Samuel or some other Prophet of a like Antiquity because they had only regard to notorious Facts and where there was apparently no difficulty may have naturally past into the Text and the same tradition may have brought them down to us with all the rest shall presently all be lost Shall Esdras be accused thro' the Samaritane where those Remarks are found shew us that they have an Antiquity not only above Esdras but above the Schism of the ten Tribes It matters not all must fall upon Esdras If those remarks came higher the Pentateuch would be then more antient than it ought and we could not pay reverence enough to the antiquity of a Book the very Notes whereof would be of so great an Age. Esdras therefore may have done all Esdras may have forgot when he would make Moses to speak and may have made him to write so grossly as you see what things did happen after his time Shall a whole work be convicted of forgery by this only place the Authority of so many Ages and the publick Faith will then be of no further stead to him as if on the contrary we did not see that those remarks which they so much boast of are a new proof of Sincerity and Integrity not only in those that made them but also in those that transcribed them Has there ever Judgment passed on the authority I do not say of a Divine Book but of any Book whatsoever upon such slight and trivial reasons But it seems the Scripture is a Book that is an Enemy to Mankind it would oblige Men to submit their Minds to God to suppress their disorderly passions but Man is bent upon his own destruction and let the reward be what it will he will make himself a
into many Battalions and Squadrons and of forming Bodies of Reserve whose Motion was so proper for either pushing on or supporting what Side soever they saw to fail Make the Macedonian Phalanx to march against the Troops that were so disposed and ordered that heavy gross Machine 't is true would be terrible to any Army on which it should fall with all its weight but as Polybius speaks it can never long preserve its natural Propriety that is to say its Solidity and Consistence because it will want proper Places and as I may say manifest Atchievements and for want of finding them it will confound it self or rather break by its own Motion Add likewise that being once rushed in upon it can never rally more Whereas the Roman Army being divided into such little Bodies can make use of all places and get their Advantages by them They unite or separate as they please then unrank easily and come together again without any trouble They are ready for detachments for rallying for all manner of turnings and changes as they see are necessary to be made either in their whole Body or any part of it In a word they have more diversity of Motions and consequently more of action and force than the Phalanx Therefore we may conclude with Polybius that the Phalanx must needs yield to the Roman Army and that the Macedonian must be overcome It is very delightful to discourse with your Highness of those things you have been so well instructed in by excellent Masters and which you see practised under the orders of Louis the Great in so admirable a manner that I know not whether the Roman Militia ever had any thing more fine and perfect But not to dispute it here with the French Militia I shall content my self with shewing you that the Militia of Rome whether you look on the Science it self of taking its advantages or seriously consider the extream Severity in making all the orders and rules to be observed I say it hath by much surpassed all that ever has been seen in the Precedent Ages After Macedonia 't is needless to speak any more of Greece You have seen that Macedonia prevailed over it and that may teach you to judg of the rest Athens hath produced nothing more since Alexander's time The Etolians who had signalized themselves in several Wars were rather ignorant than free and rather brutal than valiant Lacedemonia had made her last effort for War in producing Cleomenes and the league of the Achaians in producing Philopaemen Rome fought not the against those two great Captains but the latter who lived in the time of Hannibal and Scipio Plut. in Philop by seeing the actions of the Romans in Macedonia judged very rightly that the Liberty of Greece was then upon the point of expiring and that he had nothing more to do but to retreat just at the time of its falling Thus the most warlike People were forced to yield to the Romans The Romans triumphed by their Courage among the Gauls and by art over the Greeks and with all that supported by the most refined Conduct in triumphing over Hannibal so that nothing could ever equal the glory of their Militia So likewise in all their Government did they never boast of any thing so much as of their Military Discipline They always looâ—ed on it as the Foundation of their Empire The Military Discipline was that which was first seen in their State and the last that was lost in it so closely was it fixed to the Constitution of their Republick One of the bravest things in the Roman Militia was that false Valour was never commended in it The Maxims of false Honour which have killed such a world of People among us were not only known in a Nation so covetous of Glory It is observed of Scipio Polix 9.13 and Caesars the two greatest Men of War and the most valiant that ever were among the Romans that they never exposed themselves but with all the Precaution imaginable and when the most pressing necessity called for it There was no good expected from a General that did not understand the care he ought to have of preserving his own Person and to reserve the actions of an extraordinary Courage Ibid. 29. for the most considerable Service The Romans would have no Battles hazarded unadvisedly nor desired Victories at the Expence of too much Blood so that in short there was nothing more bold and daring nor altogether better managed and disciplined than were the Roman Armies But as it is not enough to understand War unless there be a very wise Council to undertake it with most advantage and to keep all the rest of the State in good Order it is convenient you should understand the profound Politie of the Roman Senate To take it in the best times of the Republick there never was any Assembly wherein business was more maturely treated of not with greater Secrecy nor with a deeper foresight nor with a more general concurrence or lastly with a greater Zeal for the Service of the publick The Holy Ghost hath not disdained taking notice of this in the Book of Maccabees nor commending the high Prudence 1 Maccab. 8.15 16. and the vigorous Councils of that wise Company where none gave them any authority but by reason and all the Members whereof conspired to the publick benefit without impartiality and without Jealousie Tit. Liv. 42.14 As for secrecy Titus Livius gives us a very eminent Example Whilst they were consulting about the War with Perseus Eumenes King of Pergamus that Prince's Enemy came to Rome to join in League against him with the Senate He made there his propositions in the full Assembly and the matter was resolved on by the suffrages of a Company consisting of three hundred Men. Who should imagine that the secret could be kept and that nothing of that consultation should be known till four years afterwards when the War was ended But what is more surprising still is that Perseus had at Rome his Ambassadors to observe Eumenes All the Cities of Greece and Asia which feared to be enveloped in that Quarrel had also sent theirs and every one of them endeavoured to discover a Business of so great a Consequence And yet in the midst of so many able and subtle Agents the Senate was impenetrable To have a secret kept there was no need of punishments nor of forbidding commerce with Strangers under severe and rigorous Penalties the Secret commended it self alone and by its own weight and Importance 'T was a surprising thing in the conduct of Rome to see there the People almost always to look on the Senate with great Jealousie and yet nevertheless to referr all things to them upon great occasions and especially in times of great Danger Then all the People were seen to turn their Eyes upon that wise Company and to hearken to their Resolutions as to so many Oracles A long Experience had taught the Romans