Books written in former Ages at any considerable distance are the Books of those Authors whose they are said to be 32. And let none say that there are Books which after they had passed for a time under the Name of certain Authors have at last been found to be supposiâ—icious for without entring upon the Examination of that matter I say that it is absolutely Impossible that this could happen to a Book of the greatest importance to which the certainty of the Authors Name is Essential and whereof in all Ages Men have had so much cause and so great an Interest to examine the Origination and Truth for as Truth is of such a Nature that all things except falshood agree with it all things concur to Establish it and there is neither care nor labour that can find out any thing which is able to overthrow it so on the contrary it is impossible but falshood will at last be found out if we endeavour it because it cannot be but there will be an infinite number of things that are contrary unto it and how great soever be the foresight and cunning of Impostors it is not possible though the humane understanding were not so limited as it is to foresee all inconveniencies or to suit and accommodate every thing to the preventing of them when they are foreseen for in fine though there were for that purpose certain effects whereof men were Masters and had the disposal It is cettain that there is also an infinite number of things which they have no power at all to dispose of to be able to prevent all things that might discover their forgery they must be in a condition to dispose of things present and to come to change the order of all things and in a word to command the Nature the wits and wills of men at their pleasure 33. But besides this we have yet incomparably more and stronger proofs of the Books of Moses than there are of any other Books Other Books are in few peoples hands and there are not many who think themselves concerned in them those that are concerned in them do but seldom mind them or their Interest in them and even that Interest can be but comparatively of small importance But the Books we speak of are of a much different nature they have always been in the hands of a whole great Nation they have been the object of their continual meditation and since they were the foundation of their Religion and that a Religion which abhors lying and deceiving how could they have suffered themselves to be imposed upon in the matter of the Authors name and the Book it self to be corrupted by the addition of so many Fables or could it be done without their knowledg yea and who durst be so bold as ever to attempt it 34. Let men take a full view of that prodigious Series of Miracles wrought in Aegypt and in the Wilderness and then judge impartially whether these are things that could be inserted into a Book and yet that Book be made to pass for the Original This is the most that could be done to some inconsiderable Book which should fall into the hands but of a few persons and with some particular Miracle pretended to have been wrought before a few witnesses and moreover we see that such things do not spread far nor last long they are scarcely sooner forged but they begin to be questioned in so much that in time they come to be regarded by none but the simple people who believe by the Faith of the next intruder and do not so much as think of getting clear and certain notions of the least thing in the World But there is nothing upon Earth clear if this be not that such things could not happen to such a Book as we have described this to be I might as well say that it would be no hard matter to insert now into the New Testament an History as long and as considerable as that of Moses his Miracles in Aegypt and the Wilderness and how ridiculous soever this supposition appeareth to be I know not whither it was not yet more difficult to insert such fabulous stories into the Books of Moses since the Jews had at least as high an esteem for their Sacred Books of the Law as we have for ours of the Gospel and there were none among them whose most near and natural Interest it was not to know what they contained had it been only that they might learn how to save themselves from that death which they were to suffer without reprieve upon failure of the performance of some duties prescribed by their Law 35. But that which invincibly proves the falshood of this supposition is this That there are in a manner two Histories of Moses the one written in the Book that bears his name the other as it were Engraven on the Ceremonies and Laws observed by the Jews the practice whereof is a living Witness in behalf of the Book which Instituted them and even in behalf of the most wonderful things which it contains for the greatest part of those most astonishing Miracles were represented by the Ceremonies and by the other things which belonged to the Worship of the Jewish Religion the Pot of Manna kept in the Ark was a standing Monument of the Miraculous Food wherewith God fed that People in the Wilderness Aarons Rod that Budded was a Monument of the way how God confirmed unto him the Office of High-Priesthood and the Tables of the Covenant were a Memorial of that which is Recorded in Exodus concerning the establishment of the Law the Sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb the Ceremony of Unleavened-Bread the assigning of the Tribe of Levy unto the Ministry of the Temple did represent the destroying Angels passing over the Houses of the Israelites the Death of the First-born of the Aegyptians and the deliverance of those of the Israeletes The brazen Plates which were fastned to and covered the Altar were a memorial of the Death of those audacious Levites who willfully contended with Aarons Race for the Priesthood in fine the Ark the Tabernacle all the different Ministries of the Priests and Levites all the Ceremonies of the Sacrifices and Purifications all the Laws the Assignation of the Country beyond Jordan to the two Tribes of Reuben and Gad and to the half Tribe of Manasse the Cities of Refuge for such as should happen to slay a Man unwittingly all these things I say which it would be as Ridiculous to deny as to pretend that there never was any Jew in the World have a necessary respect unto and connexion with the Books of Moses and Invincibly prove that they could not have been written since his time 36. For otherwise either all that we have been now discoursing of must also have been Established since Moses and after the Publishing of the Books ascribed unto him or else having been Established by Moses by word of Mouth and without any Book some other
body must have written those Books and accommodated them to the Ceremonies and Laws which were already in use adding thereunto those Miracles the more to engage the People unto the observance of that Law But all this is so far void of all probability that there was never any till now that durst in earnest assert it 37. How could it be said for example that the Pentateuch was written and published long after the Death of Moses and that it caused the Establishment of the Law and Worship of the Jewish Religion which it contains Then it must be said also that the Ark and Tabernacle which are the Foundations of that Religion were not made till long after Moses and till that Book had been published but this is a thing absolutely impossible for all the Jews firmly believed that their Ark and Tabernacle were made by Moses as that Book relates and it is not conceivable why or on what account they could have taken up such an opinion if they had made them both themselves after they had seen and recived that Book which is now supposed not to have appeared in the World till a long time after Moses it would be doubtless one of the prettiest things in the World and the most unparallel'd either that this Book having been compiled all at once and beforehand with that prodigious number of Ceremonies and Laws as already in use they should afterwards have been Instituted and setled or that being compiled by degrees and according as all those things were Instituted and Established it should always have had as they say a retractive effect or influence and have wrought backwards so as to cause each of those Institutions to be Ascribed unto Moses 38. Likewise how could this People who at their first Imbracing of this Law must at least have known that it was not true that it had been in use amongst them ever since Moses his time and that there had been a continued Succession of Priests ever since Aaron how I say could this People have been able to perswade themselves Universally to believe that what was prescribed by that Book had always been practised amongst them and that the Priests whom it Ordained had received their Ministry from Aaron by an uninterrupted Succession And finally how upon the same principle could all the other Tribes and Families have suffered the Tribe of Levy and Race of Aaron to appropriate unto themselves all the priviledges belonging to the Priesthood and to the Office of the High Priest 39. There is no less absurdity in the other Supposition to wit that the Law having been given by Moses by word of Mouth was preserved for a time among the Jews by means of Tradition only and that afterwards those who committed it to writing added thereunto all those Miracles For besides that even this would be a kind of Miracle and a thing very hard to conceive that that People should have received a Law so strict and severe as that was from a Man who had done nothing extraordinary for proving that he had it from God how could it be that Moses who doubtless had the use of writing should have omitted a thing so necessary and not have committed to writing a Law that contained so many Observations so many Ceremonies and so many Rules that it was necessary to have it always before ones Eyes for fear of failing in some or other point of duty prescribed by it 40. And indeed we learn also from the Book it self that Moses did not sail to commit it to writing Moses as it is said Deut. 31. 9 10 11 12 13. wrote this Law and delivered it unto the Priests the Sons of Levy and unto all the Elders of Israel and commanded that it should be read before all Israel in their hearing at the end of every Seventh Year in the Feast of Tabernacles And it is also said in I do not know how many places of that Book That God commanded Moses to write that which he revealed to him upon the Mount if the Jews then had received that Law from him only by word of Mouth how could they have ever received a Book which should have contained a Lie so gross evident and which should have carried in it an express order from God which their Law-giver had not obeyed 41. That very Order to read the Law every Seventh Year at the Feast of Tabernacles as having been given by Moses doth further clearly show that it could not have been changed nor corrupted for it would have been impossible for such corruptions not to have been discovered or that being discovered they should have been suffered by a People devoted to that Law and whose devout Subjection to it was grounded upon their believing it to be of God and written by Moses besides that those Miracles being most visible to the Eye scattered throughout the Books repeated in divers places of them and linked with the principal transactions therein Recorded there had been a necessity of making a new Book to take them in and not meerly to alter for that purpose an old Book which had been already received 42. The Infidel then must yet once more return to that pretended vain-glorious humor of the Jewish Nation and maintain that the Jews could easily suffer this falsification and that they were even glad that all those Miracles were added to their Law and that their Chronicles were filled with them 43. This might have some probability if the Question were only about a matter of Civil or Political concernment as for example The Romans could have been content that one should have told them that they were the Off-spring of Aeneas and it may be the French would be well enough pleased that one should derive their Original from the Trojans these are things which please some Mens Fancies and may pass without contradiction it being no Bodies interest to oppose them and they do not interfer with other things that have been established and stedfastly believed time out of mind and that are looked upon as the only considerable But as touching the Jews a People so devoted to their Religion so faithful Observers of the least Traditions and to whom lying was so severely forbidden this supposition is altogether without any appearance of truth 44. For I cannot believe that the Infidels boldness to deny any thing that makes against them dare adventure so far as to dispute all the Evidence we have of the Jews Zeal for their Religion since even yet to this day they have so great a veneration for that Law that though they have been dispersed above these Sixteen Hundred Years and see no accomplishment of what was promised to them notwithstanding they observe it still as far as they can with the same strictness as they did at first and wait continually for the fulfilling of those promises how improbable is it then that they should have suffered that which they looked upon as God's own word to be mixed and blended with
few in which the Israelites could not be deceived that is sufficient to convince us and oblige us to believe all the rest and to look upon Moses as the Minister of God who would reveal himself to Men since the Laws of Nature once Violated suffice to teach us and make us see that there is something above Nature and never Man before Jesus Christ appeared so visibly to have been entrusted with the power of that Lord of Nature as this Man that we speak of 26. It may be some will rather chuse to say That in truth it is impossible that Moses should have deceived the Jews but That it may very well be that they themselves have helped on the Cheat and that they may have looked upon that heap of Miracles as fabulous as they were as a thing that might make them to be admired by other Nations But in truth there is nothing but the desire of devising to ones felf some ground of doubting what ever it be that could produce such a Phantastical supposition for of all the suppositions that Infidelity could suggest this certainly is the most undefensible We shall show by and by that this people could not have contributed their help to this Imposture by supposing that presently or some time after Moses his Death and the Law being already established amongst them some new Upstart devised such a strange way to make them considerable and famous in the World and by proving that their Love to their Nation would have been so far from inducing them to consent to it as that it will appear that that alone would have been an invincible obstacle thereunto which is no less true with respect to Moses than it is with respect to any other But there is yet infinitely less probability that the first Jews would consent to any such thing for who could imagine that they would have plotted with Moses to bring themselves in Subjection to a Law which they believed to be the meer product of his invention and that for the same Law of which they had such an opinion they would have suffered themselves to be used so rigorously as that a meer omission in Ceremonies should be punished with Death and that without murmuring or repining at it what more can be done or suffered on the account of things that are most seriously managed and believed and that are found to be established time out of mind besides that it would be a rare sight indeed to see Five or Six Hundred Thousand Men all agreed to report a known Falshood and that none of them all nor of their Posterity should ever contradict it and give the rest the Lie 27. For there was not one of those Miracles whereof every particular person of that numerous people all encamped together could not but have known the Falsity if they had been false and which yet he was to Authorize as having seen it with his own Eyes or as having been done in his own or his Fathers time what a work then had this been for Moses to make sure of so many persons and especially amongst a people so difficult to be Governed and how comes it to pass that among so many there should not be either some conceited Fellow or some sober understanding man that set himself to oppose such a design whosoever should have undertaken to do so he must be very ignorant of the Nature of Man who cannot see that such an one would quickly have had as many followers as Moses or at least that he would have been desirous to acquaint Posterity with this Imposture and that he would have easily accomplished his desire or purpose to do so 28. Besides what could be a more proper and likely means to render the Jews ridiculous among all Nations so far was it from being a fit means to make them be admired and how blind must they have been not to have seen this for instance what would the Aegyptians have said concerning all those Plagues which Moses says he brought upon them concerning that Death of all their First-born and that Drowning of Pharaohs Army in the Sea and how came all those other Nations whom they braged to have conquered in so extraordinary a manner to be so enchanted as to let so many fabulous Stories pass in the World without contradiction unless they were also in the Plot against themselves and were as real Enemies to and haters of their own Fame and Glory in the World as it is imagined and supposed that the Israelites were ridiculously in Love with theirs 29. Men may invent Fables I confess yet they do not carry them to that excess when they would have them to be believed and above all they are very careful to place the first rise of them in far distant times and to vail them with the obscurity and darkness of many remote Ages But as men never design to Pass for knaves or fools so they never invent such fabulous stories as may be gainsaid and proved false by living Witnesses yea by whole and much concerned Nations as for instance it had been a pretty project in the Moors when they were returned into Africa after they had been driven out of Spain if they had undertaken to make the World believe that they came out of it voluntarily by Miracles like to Moses his Miracles and that after the Mediterranian Sea had opened it self to make way for their passage they saw it close again to drown an Army of I know not how many Thousands of Men that pursued them and yet the design we speak of had been no less extravagant in the Jews for we must not represent unto our selves those so remote times although gross or rude as so dark as they may seem to be in those times Men heard from one another they had the same Interests and the same Passions that we have they saw what they saw and felt what was to be felt as well as we do 30. These two hypotheses then must be absolutely abandoned neither was Moses an Impostor that deceived the Jews neither were the Jews in confederacy with him to carry on the Plot. There remains nothing to be objected but that Moses was not the Author of the Book that bears his Name or at least that it is but since his death that all those Miracles which it contains have been added to it This is unbeliefs last Refuge but Reason will not suffer a Man that hath the least measure of common sense to take up with it 31. Although we had nothing else to certifie us that these are really the Books of Moses and that we have them such as they were penned by him but this that they bear his Name as they themselves witness that they have been always attributed unto him and that it came into no mans mind until now to affirm the contrary this should be enough and because of this we could not reasonably doubt of their being his since we have no other assurance that any
But says P. Simon The History of the Selling of Joseph begins but at the 37th Chapter of Genesis and yet Joseph was Sold Twelve Years before the Death of Isaac ergo the Death of Isaac should be related after the Selling of Joseph but it is related before and so is out of its place I Answer By denying the consequence it follows indeed that therefore the Death of Isaac was really after the Selling of Joseph and there is nothing contrary to this in Gen. 35. 28 29. but it doth not at all follow that the relation of the Death of Isaac must be placed in the History after the relation of the Selling of Joseph for God was free to place it where he pleased and he thought fit to place it before the relation of the Selling of Joseph in the end of the 35th Chapter And there was this good reason for it because the Sacred Historian was there to finish the History of the Life of Isaac and to speak no more of it afterwards And having no more to say of him but that Isaac being One Hundred and Eighty Years Old Died and was Buried by his Sons Esau and Jacob the Sacred Historian wisely Judged it better to place it where it is than in the middle of the History of Joseph Fifthly He Objects Gen. 38. 1. And it came to pass at that time that Judah went down from his Brethren c. There is no Body says P. Simon in reading these words but would at first believe that they were joined with those that go before them and that the time is related in which this Action passed Nevertheless it is not so and the most Learned Interpreters of the Scripture agree that it happened at another time I Answer Here is indeed something that looks like an Argument and at first sight there seems to be a great difficulty in it not so much because it seems to be out of its proper place for that is easily Answered as before that whatsoever is in the place assigned unto it by the Wisdome of God is in its own place but because the thing here related is said to have come to pass at that time which at first sight seems plainly to refer unto the Selling of Joseph but it is not true that Judah was but newly Married to the Daughter of Shuah when Joseph was Sold into Aegypt for between the time of the Sale of Joseph and the time of Judahs going into Aegypt with his Father Jacob were but Twenty Two or Twenty Three Years as evidently appears from hence that Joseph was Sold at the Age of Seventeen Years and all his Fathers House went down to him into Aegypt when he was Forty or Thirty Nine Years Old But it is not possible that within the compass of Twenty Two or Twenty Three Years Judah should be Married unto the Daughter of Shuah and beget on her Three Sons Er Onan and Shelah and that after the Death of Er and Onan and after the youngest of them Shelah was Marriagable Judah should commit Incest with his Daughter in Law Tamar the Widow of Er and on her beget Pharez and Zerah and then Pharez should be Married and beget Two Sons Hezron and Hamul Gen. 38. throughout and Gen. 46. 12. I say it is not possible in the ordinary course of Nature that all this could be done within the space of Twenty Three Years Therefore I conclude that the words at that time in Vers 1 of Chap. 38 of Genesis cannot refer unto what goes immediately before to wit the Sale of Joseph into Aegypt Some Answer First That the words It came to pass at that time do not refer unto what goes immediately before them but that they mediately refer unto the time when Jacob came first into Canaan after he had left Laban his Father in Law in Mesopotamia they do not know certainly where to fix the time referred unto but suppose it to have been about the time of Jacob's dwelling at Succoth or at Shalem Gen. 33. 17 18. Secondly Others Answer That the words at that time or according to the Hebrew Baeth Hahi in that time do not at all refer unto any thing that went before either mediately or immediately but that they are a manner of Speech common to Jewish and other Writers such as diebus illis which signifies a large compass of time within which a thing came to pass without determining the Year as if the meaning were no more but that in such an Age such a thing came to pass But Thirdly That which satisfies me most and in which I acquiesce is this That this difficulty is only in Translations but not at all in the Original and therefore I humbly offer it unto the consideration of the Godly and Learned whether it be not expedient in this place to take some of the other significations of the Hebrew Particle Vau according to the prudent Advice of that excellent Person the Honourable Mr. Boyle in his Considerations touching the stile of the Scriptures Pag. 64 65. and thus to translate the passage under consideration Vaihi Baeth Hahi Vaijered Jehudah c. Vaijar Sham c. that is And it came to pass at that time When Judah went down from his Brethren and turned in c. that Judah saw there a Daughter c. here I render the Vau in Vaijerd When and I do it First Because the Particle Vau admits of this signification and accordingly is sometimes rendered in our own Translation as for instance Exod. 18. 1. Vaijishma Jithro c. when Jethro heard c. Secondly Because the subject matter doth require this signification of Vau in Vaijered for the better clearing up of the sense Thirdly Because our own Translatours recede from the primary signification of Vau in Vaijered and render it that why then may not we recede from the primary signification which is And and render it When since it is most evident that to render it When will sute better with the subject matter or thing spoken of then to render it That For if we render the Vau in Vajered When and the Vau in Vajar Vers 2. That with this little variation of the sense of one Hebrew Syllable the insuperable difficulty that seemed to be in this place of Scripture is evanished and come to nothing for the words at that time clearly refer unto Judah his going down from his Brethren and turning in to the Adullamite Hira then and at that time it was that he saw the Daughter of Shuah and took her to Wife but in what Year this came to pass is not revealed and therefore we are not concerned to know it P. Simon might have made a better use of his Critical Faculty in thus clearing up the difficulty which seemed to be in this place of Scripture than in cavilling at and finding fault with the Holy Scripture it self as he frequently doth but that seems to have been none of his design but rather to lessen the