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death_n	aaron_n	appoint_v	law_n	27	3	4.4620	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56539	Monsieur Pascall's thoughts, meditations, and prayers, touching matters moral and divine as they were found in his papers after his death : together with a discourse upon Monsieur Pascall's, Thoughts ... as also another discourse on the proofs of the truth of the books of Moses : and a treatise, wherein is made appear that there are demonstrations of a different nature but as certain as those of geometry, and that such may be given of the Christian religion / done into English by Jos. Walker.; Pensées. English	Pascal, Blaise, 1623-1662.; Walker, Joseph.; Perier, Madame (Gilberte), 1620-1685. Vie de M. Pascal. English.; Filleau de la Chaise, Jean, 1631-1688. Discours sur les Pensées de M. Pascal. English.	1688 (1688)	Wing P645; ESTC R23135	228,739	434

as that they subsist no longer unless it be amongst some ignorant People who only taking things on the first Credit of them never trouble themselves in throughly searching into the Truth of Matters But there is nothing clear in the World if it be not that no such thing can happen for the Book we now speak of and describe I could as well say that it would be no hard matter now to Insert in the New Testament as long and considerable a History as that and how idle soever this Supposition seems I cannot tell but that 't was harder to do it in the Books of Moses seeing the Jews respected it as much every jot as we do our New Testament and that there was not one amongst them that had not a very particular Intrest to know what was contain'd in it were it only to preserve themselves from the Sentence of Death which without Remission they were to suffer if they omitted certain Rites they were to perform But what does absolutely prove the Vanity of this Supposition is that there is as it were two Histories of Moses one that was written in the Book that bears his Name the other which is as it were engrav'd in the Ceremonies and Laws observ'd by the Jews the Practice whereof is a pregnant Proof of the Book that enjoin'd them and also of what it contain'd of greatest importance For the greatest part of the most Wonderful Miracles were shewn by the Ceremonies and other things that served in the Worship of the Jewish Religion The Pot of Manna kept in the Ark was a Monument of Gods Miraculous feeding that People in the Wilderness Aaron's Rod that blossom'd was a Sign of the manner how God confirm'd the Priesthood to him and the Two Tables shew'd what 's related in Exodus touching the Establishing the Law. The Sacrifice of the Pascal Lamb the Ceremony of the Azymes and the appointing the Tribe of Levi for the Service of the Temple shew'd the Passage of the Angel the Death of the First born of the Aegyptians and the deliverance of the Children of Israel The Plates of Gold nail'd to the Altar was a Memorial of the Death of those unadvis'd Levites that disputed the Priest-hood with Aaron To conclude The Ark the Tabernacle the sundry Orders of Priests and Levites all the Ceremonies of Sacrifices and Washings all the Laws the appointing the Countries beyond Jordan to the Tribes of Reuben Gad and the half Tribe of Manasses The Cities of Refuge for Man slaiers I say all these things which it were no less absurd to deny than it were to say there were never any Jews have a necessary reference and dependance on the Books of Moses and do invincibly prove that they could not be writ since his Time. For to this purpose it must be either that all we have said has not also been settled but since Moses's time and after publishing the Books attributed to him or that being Established by Moses his Word and without any Book some should add these Books to the Ceremonies and Laws that were in use and added these Miracles the more to enjoin this People to the observation of this Law. But all this is so unlikely that there was never any Person known that durst seriously maintain any such thing How can it be said for Example that the Pentateuch was made and published a long time after Moses his Death and that it was the Cause of Establishing the Law and Worship of the Jewish Religion contain'd in it It may as well be said the Ark and the Tabernacle which are the Foundations of this Religion were not made neither but a long while after Moses and after the publishing of this Book Now this cannot possible be for all the Jews were perswaded their Ark and Tabernacle were made by Moses as this Book does mention and it cannot be conceiv'd by what Fancy they could be of this Opinion if they themselves had made them after they had seen and receiv'd this Book which had not been known till a long time after Moses his Death doubtless this would have been one of the Pleasantest things in the World and the most unparallel'd either that this Book being made of a sudden and in a readiness with this great number of Laws and Ceremonies as being already in use they afterwards came to be Establish'd or that being made by little and little and just as all those things were settled it had always as is said at the Palace Retroactive Effect to make each of these Establishments be attributed to Moses How also could this People who beginning to receive this Law had they at least known it had been untrue that it had been practis'd since Moses and that it had a constant Succession of Priests since Aaron could they have Universally perswaded themselves that what this Book Commanded had been always practis'd and that the Priests it Established had received their Ministry from Aaron by an uninterrupted Succession And how also upon this same Foundation could all the other Tribes and Families have sufferr'd the Tribe of Levi and the Sons of Aaron to usurp to themselves the Prerogatives belonging to the Priest-hood and to the Office of the High-Priest There is no less absurdity in the other Supposition which is That the Law being given by Moses his bare Word was preserv'd by the Jews for some time only by meer Tradition and that afterwards those that wrote it added thereunto all these Miracles for besides that it were already a kind of Miracle and hard to believe that this People should receive so severe and troublesom a Law as that was from a Man that had done nothing extraordinary How could it be that Moses who doubtless had the use of writing should have omitted so Essential a thing and should not leave in Writing a Law that contain'd so many Rights and Ceremonies and so many Directions that it was necessary to have it always in readiness not to fail in some part or other of it Also we are inform'd by this Book it self that Moses fail'd not herein Moses it is said wrote this Law and gave it to the Priests the Sons of Levy and command it should be Read every seventh year at the Feast of Tabernacles And it is there said in several places That God commanded Moses to Write what he commanded him on the Mountain If the Jews then had receiv'd this Law from him only by Word how then could they receive a Book that contain'd so gross and manifest a Lye and that had in it an Express Command from God wherein their Legislator had fail'd This same Command of Reading the Law every Seventh year at the Feast of Tabernacles as being given by Moses does shew also that it could not be chang'd nor alter'd for it was impossible but those alterations would have been discover'd and being so that they should be sufferr'd by a People so wedded to this Law and whose Love for it was grounded on the

this Law may be easily seen only by Reading it where it doth appear that all things are dispos'd with so much Wisdom Equity and Judgment that the Antientest Greek and Roman Legislators having some knowledge of it have form'd their principal Laws by it which appears by that they call their Laws the Twelve Tables and by the other Proofs mention'd by Josephus But this Law is at the same time the strictest ●nd most rigorous Law in the World obliging this People to keep them within bounds in observing a thousand particular laborious Duties under pain of Death so that it is as wonderful that it should always be kept for so many Ages by so head-strong and impatient a People as this whereas all other Nations chang'd their Laws from time to time although more easie to be kept 2. * This People is yet more admirable in their Sincerity They keep with great respect and fidelity the Book wherein Moses declares they have ever been ungrateful to God and saith that they will be so also after his Death but he calls Heaven and Earth to witness against them that he hath warn'd them of it that to conclude God growing displeas'd at them would disperse them over the Face of the Earth that as they provok'd him by Worshipping those which were not Gods he would provoke them by calling a Nation that was not his People nevertheless this Book that renders them so perverse they keep it as safe as their Life It is a sincerity that cannot be equall'd in the World nor has not its Root in Nature 3. * Moreover I do not find any cause at all to question the truth of this Book which contains all these things for there is a great difference betwixt a Book made by a single Person and that he disperses amongst the People and a Book that is made by a whole People 4. * This is a Book made by Authors that were contemporaries any History that is not Contemporary is Suspitious as the Books of the Sybills Trismegistus and many others that have been cry'd up in the World and have been found false afterwards But 't is not so with Contemporary Authors §. IX Of the Injustice and Corruption of Man. 1. MAn is visibly made for thinking it is his greatest Merit and Dignity his whole Duty is to think as he ought the true method of thinking is to begin by ones self by ones Author and by ones latter End. Nevertheless what is it is thought of in the World Seldom of these things but of taking ones Pleasure of growing Rich of getting Reputation of becoming a King without thinking what 't is to be a King or to be a Man. 2. * The thought of Man is a thing admirable by Nature It must needs have very great faults to be undervalu'd yet it has such that nothing is more ridiculous How great is it by its Nature how despicable through its Defects 3. * If there be a God he it is that ought to be lov'd and not the Creatures The Reasoning of the Wicked in the Book of Wisdom is only grounded upon this That they perswade themselves there is no God this being granted say they let us enjoy the Creatures But had they known there is a God they would have concluded the quite contrary And it is the conclusion of the Wise There is a God let us not therefore enjoy the Creatures Then all that invites us to cleave to the Creature is Evil because it hinders us either from serving God if we do know him or to seek him if we do not ●now him Now we are full of Concupiscence ●hen we are full of Evil therefore we should ●bhor our selves and every thing that fastens to ●ught else but God only 4. * When we would think of God how ma●y things do we find that would hinder us and ●hat tempt us to think of something else All ●his is Evil and even born with us 5. * It is not true that we are worthy others ●hould love us it is not just we should desire it were we born reasonable and with any degree of Knowledg of our selves and others we should not have this Inclination yet 't is born with us then are we born unjust Every one seeks-himself this is against all order we should be for the general to be for ones self is the beginning of all disorder in War Peace and Oeconomy c. 6. * If the Members of Societies Natural and Civil tend to the good of the Body the Societies themselves should tend to a more general Body 7. * Whoever hates not in himself this Self-love and this instinct of preferring himself above every thing is very blind seeing there is nothing more opposite to Justice and Truth for it is false that we deserve it and it is unjust and impossible to attain to it seeing all desire the same thing It is therefore an evident injustice that we are born in which we must free our selves from and yet we cannot divest 8. * Nevertheless no other Religion but the Christian ever observ'd this was a Sin nor that we were born in it nor that we were bound to resist it nor ever thought of pr●scribing any Remedies 9. * There is an intestine War in Man betwixt Reason and the Passions he might enjoy some rest had he Reason and not Passions o● had he Passions and not Reason but having both the one and the other he cannot be without Wars not being able to have Peace with the one without having variance with the other so that he is always divided and contrary to himself If it be an Ignorance which is unnatural to live without searching what one is it is yet a far more terrible one to live ill in believing God All Men almost are in one or the other of these two Mistakes §. X. Jews 1. GOD intending to shew that he could form a People Holy with an inward Holiness and fill them with an Eternal Glory did accomplish in the things of Nature what he was to have done in those of Grace to the end it might be seen that he could do things invisible seeing he did those that were visible He sav'd his People from the Deluge in the Person of Noah he brought them out of the Loyns of Abraham he redeem'd them from their Enemies and brought them into a Land of Rest The design of God was not to save from the Deluge and cause a great People to proceed from Abraham only to bring them into a Land of Plenty but as Nature is a Symbol of Grace so these visible Miracles are Images of invisible ones that he design'd to do 2. * Another Reason why he made the Jewish Nation was that intending to wean his People from Carnal and Perishable things he would shew by so many Miracles that 't was not for want of Power 3. * This People was plung'd in these Earthly Thoughts that God lov'd their Fa●her Abraham his Body and what should proceed

and be understood and not understood what can one think but that 't is a Cypher of a double Signification and by how much the more that we discover a manifest contrariety in the literal Sense so much the greater obligation should we have for those that explain the Cypher to us and make us understand the hidden Sense especially when the Principles they move upon are clear and natural It is what Jesus Christ did and the Apostles they opened the Seal they took away the Vail and manifested the Substance To this purpose they taught us that the Enemies of Man were his Lusts that the Redeemer should be spiritual that he should come after two manners the one in Humility to abase the Proud the other in Glory to exalt the Humble that Jesus Christ should be God and Man that the Law was Figurative 8. * Jesus Christ made it his business to teach Men that they should love one another that they were Slaves Blind Sick Unhappy and Sinners that he must deliver them enlighten bless and heal them that this was to be effected by hating themselves and following him by Poverty and the Death of the Cross 9. * The Letter Kills all was shewn in Figures it was requisite Christ should dye God humbled that there should be Circumcision of Heart true Fast true Sacrifice true Temple double Law two Tables of the Law two Temples double Captivity this is the Cypher given to us Last of all he shewed us all these things were but Figures and what it is to be truly free a true Israelite true Circoncision true bread of Heaven c. 10. * In those Promises every one finds what he has in his Heart Spiritual things or things Temporal God or the Creatures but with this difference that those who therein seek the Creatures do indeed find them but with many contradictions with commands not to love them with order to Adore God only and to love none but him whereas those who seek God find him without any contradiction and with command to love him only 11. * The Spring of the Contrarieties of the Scriptures is God humbled to the Death of the Cross the Messias by Death triumphing over Death two Natures in Jesus Christ two comings two States of Nature in Man. 12. * As one cannot well make the Character of a Person but in reconciling all the contrarieties and that 't is not enough to follow the consequence of agreeing qualities without reconciling those that are contrary So to understand the Sense of an Author all the contrary passages must be reconciled So to understand the Scriptures one must have a Sense wherein all the contrary passages agree 't is not sufficient to have one that agrees to several agreeing passages but one must have one that must reconcile even the passages that are contrary Every Author has a Sense to which all contrary passages agree or he has none at all This cannot be said of the Prophets nor of the Scriptures they had undoubtedly very much good Sense there must then be sought one that may accord all contrarieties The true Sense then is not that of the Jews but in Jesus Christ all the contrarieties are accorded The Jews could not reconcile the end of the Royalty and Principallity foretold by Hosea with the Prophesie of Jacob. Look upon the Law the Sacrifices and the Kingdom as Realities and the Passages of the same Author can't be reconciled nor of the same Book nor sometimes of the same Chapter this sufficiently marks what was the Sense of the Author 13. * It was not permitted to Sacrifice but at Jerusalem which was the place God had chosen no nor to eat the Tythes but there 14. * Hosea foretold they should be without Kings without a Prince without a Sacrifice and Idols which is this day fulfill'd not being to Sacrifice but at Jerusalem only 15. * When the Word of God which is true is false literally it is true Spiritually sede à dextris meis this is false spoken literally In these expressions it is spoke of God after the manner of Men and only signifies but the intention Men have to set one at their right hand God has also It is then a mark of Gods intention not of his manner of executing it So when 't is said God has receiv'd the Odor of your Perfumes and in recompence will give you a fertile and plentiful Land God will have for you because you had for him the same intention as a Man had for one to whom he gave Perfumes 16. * The only Object of the Scripture is Charity any thing that don't tend to that only Mark is the Figure for seeing there is but one end all that don't tend thither in proper Words is Figure God doth thus diversifie this only Precept of Charity to satisfie our weakness that seeks after change by this variety that always leads us to our only happiness for there is but one thing necessary and we love diversity and God satisfies both one and the other by these diversities that conduce to this one thing necessary 17. * The Rabbins take breasts of the Spouse for Figures and every thing that don't express the only end they have of Temporal good things 18. * There are those that know very well that Man has no greater Enemy that hinders his coming to God than Concupiscence and no other chief good but God and not a fat Land. Those that think Mans happiness lies in the Flesh and his evil in what hinders him from pleasing his Senses let them glut themselves therewith and dye therein But those that seek God with all their heart whose greatest displeasure is to be depriv'd of his sight that only desire to enjoy him nor any Enemies but those that hinder him from it that are griev'd to be compass'd and rul'd by such Enemies let them be comforted there is a Redeemer for such a Messias was promis'd to deliver from Enemies and there is one come to deliver from Iniquities but not from Enemies 19. * When David foretold the Messias should deliver his People from their Enemies it may Carnally be believed it shall be from the Egyptians and so I cannot say the Prophesie was accomplish'd But it may also be believed that it shall be from Iniquities for in Reality the Egyptians are not Enemies but Iniquities are This word Enemy is equivocal But if he says to Man as he doth that he will deliver his People from their Sins as Esay and others the equivocation is taken away and the double Sense of Enemies is reduc'd to the single of Worldly Enemies for had he meant Sins he might have marked it by Enemies but if he meant Enemies he could not design it by Sins Now Moses David and Esay used the same Terms Who then dare say that they had not the same meaning and that the Sense of David which is clearly of Iniquities when he spake of Enemies was not the same of that of Moses in

not in it self and out of God but out of it self and in the very Will of God in the Justice of his Decree in the order of his Providence which is the true cause of it without which it had not arriv'd by whom alone it is come to pass and in the very manner that 't is hapned We should adore with an humble silence the impenetrable height of his Secrets We should adore the Holiness of his Decrees We should praise the Wisdom of his Providence and joining our Will unto Gods Will we should with him in him and for him desire the thing that he appointed in us and for us from all Eternity 2. * There is no Comfort to be found but in Truth only Doubtless Seneca and Socrates have nothing that can perswade or Comfort us on these occasions they were in the Ignorance that blinded all Men at first they thought Death was Natural to Man and all the Discourses they grounded upon this false Principle are so vain and empty that they only serve to shew in the general how weak Man is seeing the greatest Productions of the Wisest Men are so mean and childish It is not so of Jesus Christ it is not so of the Canonical Books of the Scriptures Truth is therein plainly discover'd and true Comfort is as Infallibly join'd thereunto as Error is infallibly separated from it Let us then consider Death in the Truth taught us by the Holy Ghost We have this admirable advantage to know that truly and effectively Death is a Punishment of Sin imposed upon Man to expiate his Crime necessary to Man to cleanse him from Sin it is that alone can deliver the Soul from the Lust of the Flesh which Saints are subject to while they live in this World. We know Life and the Life of Christians is a continual Sacrifice which cannot determine but in Death We know Jesus Christ coming into the World lookt on himself and offer'd himself to God as a true Sacrifice that his Birth his Life his Death Resurrection Ascension and his Session at the Right Hand of God are but one only Sacrifice we know what befel Jesus Christ must happen to all his Members Let us then consider Life as a Sacrifice and that the Evils of our Lives make no impression on the Minds of Christians but in measure as they hinder or accomplish this Sacrifice Let us call that only Evil which makes the Offering of God the Offering of the Devil but let us call that Good which makes the Offering of the Devil in Adam the Offering of God and by this Rule let us examine the Nature of Death To this purpose we must have recourse to the Person of Jesus Christ for as God regards not Man but by the Mediator Jesus Christ so also Men should neither regard themselves nor others but by Jesus Christ if we do not pass the middle we find in our selves only true Miseries or abominable Pleasures but if we consider all things in Jesus Christ we shall find all manner of Consolation Satisfaction and Edification Let us consider Death in Jesus Christ not out of Jesus Christ out of Christ it is horrible detestable and the horror of Nature In Jesus Christ it is quite another thing it is Amiable Holy and the Joy of the Faithful All is sweet in Jesus Christ even Death it self it is for this he suffered and dyed to Sanctifie Death by his Sufferings and as God and as Man he was Great in the highest Degree and mean in the lowest degree to the end to Sanctifie in himself all things Sin excepted and to be the Pattern of all Conditions To consider what Death is and to die in Christ Jesus one should see what place it has in the continual Sacrifice and to this effect observe that in the Sacrifices the chief thing was the Death of the Offering The Oblation and Sanctification that went before were the Dispositions but the Substance is the Death wherein by the loss of Life the Creature gives to God all Obedience it can in becoming nothing in the sight of his Majesty and in Adoring his Sovereign Being which subsists alone essentially It 's true there is yet something farther after the Death of the Offering without which his Death is of no value it is Gods accepting the Sacrifice it is what is mention'd in the Scriptures Et odoratus est Dominus odorem suavitatis It is this indeed that crowns the Oblation but it is rather an action of God towards the Creature than of the Creature towards God and it don't hinder but the last Action of the Creature is Death These things were accomplish'd in Jesus Christ coming into the World he Offerr'd himself Obtulit semetipsum per Spiritum Sanctum Ingrediens mundum dixit Hostiam oblationem noluisti tunc dixi Ecce venio In capite libri scriptum est de me ut faciam Deus voluntatem tuam He offer'd himself by the Holy Ghost entring into the World he said Lord Sacrifices and burnt Offering thou wouldst not a Body hast thou prepared me And I said Behold I come as it is written to do thy Will O God and thy Law is written within my Heart this is his Oblation his Sanctification followed immediately after his Oblation This Sacrifice continued all his Life and was finished by his Death It was necessary that by Sufferings he should enter into Glory and though he was the Son of God it was requisite he should learn Obedience In the Days of his Flesh having with strong cries and tears offer'd Prayers and Supplications to him that was able to deliver him from Death he was heard according to his Obedience to God his Father And God raised him from the Dead and sent him his Glory figur'd under the Law by the Fire of Heaven that came down upon the Sacrifices to burn and consume his Body and to make it live with the Life of Glory It is what Jesus Christ obtained and has accomplished by his Resurrection So that this Sacrifice being perfect by the Death of Jesus Christ and consummated by his Resurrection where the Figure of the Flesh of Sin was swallow'd up in Glory Jesus Christ fulfilled all things on his part and there only remained that the Sacrifice should be accepted of God and that as the Smoak ascended and carry'd the sweet savour to the Throne of God also Jesus Christ should in that perfect State of immolation be offer'd carry'd and received at the very Throne of God and this was accomplish'd in the Ascension wherein he rose up by his own Power and by the power of the Holy Ghost that compass'd him round about he was raised up as the Smoak of the Sacrifices which was the Figure of Jesus Christ was carry'd up by the Air that supported it which is the Figure of the Holy Ghost and in the Acts it is said expresly That he was received up into Heaven to assure us that this Holy Oblation accomplish'd

Matters of Fact seeing that in rejecting them one should be ingag'd to hold nothing for assur'd in any History For the ground of all human Certainty is that Men are not Idiots and that there are certain Rules in Nature from whence they never depart but by a total subversion of Reason The contrary is no sooner admitted than that there would be nothing firm nor constant Let it be permitted to invent as one list that in the Days of Caesar and Pompey all Men were struck with a Distemper that made them take the Illusion of their Imagination for real Truths there would nothing remain certain in all the Revolutions that are Related of those times and the Battels of Pharsalia and Actium might be made pass for Dreams of Phanaticks So that when one is arriv'd to that pass that to believe a thing is not one must suppose an effectual Folly I do not say in a whole Notion but only in a great many Men one is arriv'd at the Borders of human certainty in things It goes no farther neither also can it be greater even for things present Because to conclude we are no less permitted to suppose this defect of Reason in Men now and in our selves than in those that are past not only all things past are for us as if they had not been But we cannot tell neither what to think of those things we see transacted and shall be no less ignorant of what is past and of the present than we are for those to come Now there is no question but the Supposition that Moses deceiv'd the Jews is of this kind for not to speak of the Folly that must be attributed to him if he had taken such a way to attain to this End it is certain it would be to have made all that People pass for Fools and Senseless to say they had marcht over the Red-Sea on dry Land if it had not been so to have thought they had seen a Mountain all of a Flame if they had not seen it that they should have imagin'd to have been fed with Manna had they been fed only with ordinary Food that they should have believ'd their Garments did not wax old though they were forc'd often to change that they should have believ'd to see that with a stroke of a Rod Moses made Issue out of a Rock Streams of Water sufficient to satisfie Six hundred thousand Men although they had seen nothing Doubtless it would be no easie matter to invent Tricks or Machines that should imitate or produce such Effects as these and could there any one be found able to do it it might be very well said to him that he would not want Followers no more than Moses and that he might make Men believe almost what he pleas'd Nevertheless it must needs be that the Jews believ'd to have seen all these strange Effects and made no scruple at all of yielding so ready an Obedience to this Man's Law and by submitting that he should bear such an absolute sway over them that alone without Guards or Army he should condemn Thirty or Fourty thousand of them to Death and see the Sentence presently put in Execution There have been some that have assay'd not indeed to go so far as him for there was never any one so void of Sense as to attempt that but to fansy ways by which Moses might have deceiv'd the Jews For Example they pretend that to make the Israelites pass the Red-Sea he took the opportunity of the Tides being out and made them believe it divided of it self and that afterwards the Tide coming in he made them believe it of its own accord overflow'd and drown'd the Aegyptians They pretend also that the Water he made issue out of the Rock was nothing else but a secret Spring which he discover'd by means of a Wild Ass that he made follow him But this is so wretchedly weak that it does not deserve to be refuted Let it only be consider'd how a thing so common as the Ebbing and Flowing of the Tide could be unknown not only to the Jews who had liv'd above Two hundred years in Aegypt but also to the Natives of the Country that they should so ignorantly cast themselves into it How could that Stream be so little and hide it self from so many People who were all ready to Perish of Thirst and of a sudden become so abundant as to satisfie them with the Camels and all their other Beasts and Cattel And to conclude by what Art could Moses so dazle the Eyes of all this People that they believ'd that in an Instant with a stroke of his Rod he made the Water stream out of the Rock like a great Torrent To conclude It is to no purpose to explain one part of these Wonders seeing one is forc'd to confess that one cannot explain them all One must wholly forbear or shew the whole System intire without prejudicing any part for inasmuch as it appears the Jews were not impos'd upon it is sufficient to convince and oblige us to believe all the rest and to consider Moses as the Minister of a God that would make himself be known to Men for the Laws of Nature being once surpassed does suffice to shew that something appears greater than it and that never Man before Jesus Christ appear'd so visibly to be Dispenser of the Power of this Master of Nature as him of whom we speak Some it may be will rather chuse to say that indeed it is impossible Moses should have impos'd on the Jews but that it may very well be that they themselves might have contributed to the Deceit and that they might consider this heap of Wonders all false as it was as a thing capable to procure them the Admiration of other Nations But certainly there can be nothing but the desire of raising some pretext of doubting of one kind or other that can produce so unlikely a Supposition For of all things that unbelief can inspire this is the most unjustifiable We will make appear afterwards this People could not yield to this Imposture in supposing that soon or a long while after the Death of Moses the Law being already setled amongst them how any new comer should think of such a strange way of rendring them considerable And it was so unlikely the love of the Nation should inclinē them to it that it appears that that very thing would have been the greatest obstacle against it which is no less certain in regard of Moses than of any one else But there is also much less appearance of it in regard of the ancient Jews For who can imagin that by an intelligence with Moses they would have submitted to a Law which they believed to be nothing more than the Production of his own Brain and for which nevertheless they sufferr'd themselves to be so hardly used that for any little omission of its Ceremonies they were to suffer Death without Mercy What more can be done for