all this while even the same that appeared to him in the Bush Moses being thus employ'd by the Word of God as his Messenger to the Children of Israel for the discharge of his Ministry had both his Instructions and Credentials from the Word according to the Targums For the first of these God appeared to him oftener than to any before him R. Akiba who lived since Christ's time saith that Moses acted as Mediator between the Gevura that is the Word of God and the People of Israel and observeth that God spake to him 175 times They were times without number that God spake to him from off the Mercy-seat upon the Ark of Testimony from between the two Cherubims Numb vii 89. But those which R. Akiba reckons were Appearances upon extraordinary occasions In both these Appearances ordinary and extraordinary it was the Word of God that spake to Moses according to the Targums Thus of God's speaking to him from the Mercy-seat to appoint my Word for thee as God promised there according to Onkelos and Jonathan on Exod. xxv 22. xxx 36. So Numb vii 89. Jonathan saith it was the Word that spake to him And thus likewise in those Occasional Appearances both Jonathan and the Jerusalem Targums tell us once for all Deut. xxxiv 10. The Word of the Lord knew Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking to Moses as oft as Moses spake to him on any occasion For his Credentials were as we see Deut. xxxiv 11. All the Signs and Wonders which the Lord sent him to do or according to the Targums which the Word of the Lord sent him to do in Egypt to Pharaoh and his Servants and all his Land and in all that mighty Land and that great terrour which Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel For the Acts of his Ministry they were chiefly these three 1. His bringing the People out of Egypt 2. His giving them Laws and Statutes and Judgments from God 3. His Leading them through the Wilderness to the Confines of Canaan In each of these was the Word that appeared to him according to the Targums His bringing the People out of Egypt is wholly ascribed to the Word by Onkelos and Jonathan on Deut. xx 1. and by Jonathan on Deut. xxiv 18. The People were commanded to teach this to their Children that it was the Word of the Lord that did all those Signs and Wonders in Egypt saith Jonathan on Exod. xiii 8. It was the Word that sent all those Plagues on Pharaoh and his Servants and all the Land of Egypt saith Jonathan on Deut. xxviii 6. and xxix 2. Especially it was the Word that gave that stroke which finisht the work according to the Jerusalem Targum Exod. xii 29. namely It was the Word of the Lord that appeared against the Egyptians at midnight and his right hand kill'd the first-born of the Egyptians and delivered his own first-born the Children of Israel After this the Word of the Lord led the People through the Desert to the Red-Sea saith the same Targum on Exod. xiii 18. The Word of the Lord being their Leader in a Pillar of Fire by night and of a Cloud by day saith Onkelos on Deut. i. 32 33. And when the People being come to the Red-Sea and seeing Pharaoh with his Army behind them were in a rage against Moses and he cried to God Exod. xiv 15. according to the Jerusalem Targum the Word of the Lord said to Moses How long dost thou stand and pray before me Bid the Children of Israel come forward and do thou reach out thy Rod and divide the Red Sea He did so and according to the Jerusalem Targum on Deut. i. 1. The Word divided the Sea before them So that the Children of Israel went into the midst of the Sea on dry ground Exod. xiv 22. the Egyptians following them And at morning v. 24. according to the Jerusalem Targum The Word of the Lord lookt upon the Army of the Egyptians and threw upon them Bitumen and Fire and Hail out of Heaven and v. 25. The Egyptians said Let us fly from before the People of Israel for this is the Word of the Lord that gets them victory But their flight was in vain for by the Word of the Lord the waters were made heaps according to Onkelos on Exod. xv 8. And according to him also when God spoke by his Word the Sea covered them v. 10. Thus as the whole work of the People of Israel's Deliverance out of Egypt so every part of it has been ascribed to the Word of the Lord by the Targums For the giving of the Laws by which they were to be formed into a Church and Kingdom First immediately after their coming out of the Red-Sea Exod. xv 25. according to the Jerusalem Targum the Word of the Lord gave them Precepts and Orders of Judgments particularly as Jonathan has it the Word of the Lord gave them there the Law of the Sabbath and that of Honouring Father and Mother and Judgments concerning Bruises and Wounds and for the Punishment of Transgressours Afterwards when they were come into the Wilderness of Sinai Exod. xix 3. the Text saith Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him out of the Mount saying Thus shalt thou say to the House of Israel c. there Onkelos saith according to one of Clark's various Readings Moses went up to meet the Word of the Lord Exod. xix 8. Moses returns with the People's Answer to the Lord then v. 9. according to the Jerusalem Targum the Word of the Lord said to Moses Go to the People and sanctifie them to day and to morrow and let them wash their Clothes and be ready against the third day for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the People upon Mount Sinai Accordingly the People having prepared themselves on the third day according to Onkelos Exod. xix 17. Moses brought the People out of the Camp to meet the word of God Yet the People only saw Thunder and Lightning and the Mountain smoking and felt the Earth quake under them They also heard the noise of the Trumpet which so affrighted them that they removed and stood at a distance and said to Moses Speak thou to us and we will hear but let not the Word from before the Lord speak with us lest we die Exod. xx 19. according to Onkelos in one of Clark's various Readings Moses therefore according to Jonathan on Deut. v. 5. Stood between them and the Word of the Lord to shew them the Pithgama the matter and words that were spoken to him from the Lord. What they were we read Exod. xx 1 c. where according to the Jerusalem Targum the Word of the Lord spoke the tenor of all these words saying I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the House of Bondage then follow the Ten Commandments commonly called the Decalogue That it was
the Targums but these are abundantly enough to shew the sense of the ancient Church what they thought of him that so often appeared to their Fathers in the Wilderness and spoke to them by his Servant Moses When Moses understood that God was not willing he should live to bring his People into the Promised Land thereupon he besought God to send him a Successor in these words according to Jonathan's Targum Numb xxvii 16. Let the Word of the Lord who has dominion over the souls of men appoint a faithful man over the Congregation of his People God having appointed Joshua in his stead Moses gave him this Charge in the hearing of the People Deut. iii. 21 22. according to Onkelos and Jonathan Thy eyes have seen what the Lord hath done to Og and Sihon so shall he do to all the kingdoms where thou art to pass therefore fear them not for the Word of the Lord your God shall fight for you The same he repeated afterward to all the People telling them first Deut. xxxi 2 3. according to Jonathan The Word of the Lord hath said to me Thou shalt not pass over this Jordan but the Lord your God and his Shekinah will go before you Josh iv He addeth And Joshua will go over before you as the Lord has spoken And for all your Enemies ver 5. The Word of the Lord shall deliver them up before you therefore saith he ver 6. according to Onkelos Fear them not for the Word of the Lord your God goes before you he will not fail nor forsake you After this he calleth to Joshua and saith to him before them all ver 7. according to Jonathan Be strong and of a good Courage for thou must go with this People into the Land which the Word of the Lord has sworn to their Fathers that he would give them and the Shekinah of the Word of the Lord shall go before thee and his Word shall be thy help he will not leave thee nor forsake thee fear not therefore neither be dismay'd He repeats it again from God to Joshua ver 23. according to Onkelos and Jonathan Thou shalt bring the Children of Israel into the Land which I have sworn to them and my Word shall be thy help It was the same day that together with this Charge Moses gave to Joshua his Prophetical Song Deut. xxxi 22 23. And the self-same day xxxii 48. God bade him Get thee up into Mount Nebo and dye After which Moses staid no longer than to give the Tribes of Israel his Blessing before his Death xxxiii 1. That being done he went up to Mount Nebo xxxiv 1. There according to Jonathan It was the Word of the Lord that gave that Satisfaction to his Bodily Eyes to see all the Land of Canaan before they were closed So ver 5. Moses the Servant of the Lord died there according to the Word of the Lord. He was translated by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Sacr. Abr. p. 162. C. D. according to Philo. It was certainly the current Tradition of the Church in his Age that his Soul was taken out of his Body by a Kiss of the Word of the Lord as Jonathan renders it or according to the Jerusalem Targum at the Mouth of the Decree of the Word of the Lord. After his Death Joshua entred into the Government ver 9. and according to the Jerusalem Targum the Children of Israel obeyed Joshua and they did as the Word of the Lord had commanded Moses Besides all these Divine Appearances to Moses and the Children of Israel there are also some few that were made to Balaam on their account and are therefore recorded in the same Sacred History Where these are first mentioned Numb xxii 9. both Onkelos and Jonathan have That the Word came from before the Lord to Balaam and said what followeth in that place So again the second time ver 20. according to the same Targums The Word came from before the Lord to Balaam by night and said to him what followeth in that second place It is plain that so far the Ancient Jewish Church took these Appearances to have been made by the Word But what Opinion had they of the Angel's appearing to Balaam ver 22. Others may ask what they thought of the Dialogue between Balaam and the Ass that he rode upon occasioned by the Fright that the Beast was in at the Angel's appearing to him All this as Maimonides * More Nebochim 11. p. 42. saith happened only in Vision of Prophecy But that it was a thing that really happened we are assured by St. Peter who tells us 2 Pet. ii 16. God opened the mouth of the dumb beast to rebuke the madness of the Prophet As it cannot be doubted that Balaam was used to have Communication with Devils that spake to him in divers manners so there is reason to believe they spoke to him sometimes by the mouth of dumb Beasts and if so then to hear the Ass speak could not be strange to him And why God should order it so there is a reason in Jonathan and the Jerusalem Targum The Reader may see other Reasons elsewhere †Muis Varia p. 95. but they are not proper for this place But we are here to consider whether this that appeared to Balaam was a created Angel or no. It appears by the words ver 35. to have been the Lord himself that appeared as an Angel to Balaam for thus he saith to him Go with the men but only the word that I shall speak to thee that thou shalt speak Now it doth not appear after this that any other spoke to him from God but God himself Therefore Philo saith plainly that this Appearance was of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as has been already shown And that this was the Sense of the Church in his Age we may see in the two following Appearances to Balaam where as well as in the two that were before this the Targums say It was the Word that met Balaam and spoke to him Thus both Onkelos and Jonathan on Num. xxiii 4 and 16. CHAP. XV. That all the Appearances of God or of the Angel of the Lord which are spoken after Moses his time in the Books of the Old Testament have been referred to the Word of God by the Jews before Christ's Incarnation THUS far it has been our business to shew that it was the Word that made all those Appearances either of God or of an Angel of God that was worshipt in any part of the five Books of Moses We have been much larger in this than was necessary for our present occasion But whatsoever may seem to have been too much in this Chapter it is hoped the Reader will not wish it had been spared when he comes to reflect upon the use of it to prove that the Word was a Person and that he was God At present there will be some kind of amends for the prolixity hitherto in the
sayings is any where else in our Scriptures He must therefore mean it of one or other of the Apocryphal Books And one of the Fathers that was born within a hundred years after his death gives us a very probable guess at the Book that he intended It is Clement of Alexandria who saith of the latter Quotation These are the words of Moses Strom. iv p. 376. meaning in all likelihood of the Analepsis of Moses which Book is mentioned by the same Clement elsewhere on Jude v. 9. as a Book well known in those times in which he lived Therefore in all likelihood the words also of the former Quotation were taken from the Analepsis of Moses and it was that Apocryphal Book that S. James quoted and called it Scripture This can be no strange thing to him that considers what was intimated before that the Jews had probably these Books join'd to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Hagiographa and therefore they might well be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any addition The Apocryphal Books that are in our Bibles were commonly call'd so by the Primitive Fathers Thus Clement before mention'd Strom. v. p. 431. B. quotes the words that we read in Wisdom vii 24. from Sophia in the Scriptures And the Book of Ecclesiasticus is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seven or eight times in his writings Paed. i. 10. ii 5. ver 8 vis 10 vis iii. 3. 11. So it is quoted by Origen with the same Title Orig. in Jerem. Hom. 16. p. 155. D. There are many the like Instances to be found in the writings of the Ancientest Fathers They familiarly called such Books The Scriptures and sometimes The Holy Scriptures and yet they never attributed the same Authority to them as to the Books that were received into the Canon of the Old Testament which as the Apostle saith were written by Divine Inspiration 2 Tim. 3.16 The same is to be said of the Prophecy of Enoch out of which St. Jude brings a Quotation in his Epistle vers 14 15. Grotius in his Annotations on the place saith This Prophecy was extant in the Apostles times in a Book that went under the name of the Revelation of Enoch and was a Book of great credit among the Jews for it is cited in their Zohar and was not unknown to Celsus the Heathen Philosopher for he also cited is as appears by Origen's Answer to him Orig. in Cels lib. V. Grotius also shews that this Book is often cited by the Primitive Fathers and he takes notice of a large piece of it that is preserved by Georg. Syncellus in his Chronicon And whereas in this piece there are many fabulous things he very well judges that they might be foisted in as many such things have been thrust into very Ancient Books But whether his Conjecture in this be true or no it is certain that the piece which is quoted by St. Jude was truly the Prophecy of Enoch because we have the Apostle's Authority to assure us of the Historical truth of it 3. It is clear that the Jews had very good and authentic Traditions concerning the Authors the Use and the Sence of divers parts of the Old Testament For Example St. Mat. Chap. xxvii 9. quotes Jeremy for the Author of a passage which he there transcribes and which we find in Zechary xi 12. How could this be but that it was a thing known among the Jews that the four last Chapters of the Book of Zechary were written by Jeremy Medes Works p. 709. and 963. and 1022. as Mr. Mede has proved by many Arguments It is by the help of this Tradition that the Ancient Interpreters have added to the Psalms such Titles as express their design and their usage in the Synagogue Certainly these Titles which shew the design of many of the Psalms contribute much to make us understand the sense of those Psalms which a man that knows the occasion of their Composing will apprehend more perfectly than he can do that reads the Psalms without these Assistances And for the Titles of several Psalms in the Septuagint and other of the Ancient Translations which shew on what days they were sung in the publick Worship of the Jews as Ps xxiv 48 81 82 93 94 c. tho' these Titles are not in the Hebrew and therefore are not part of the Jews Scripture yet that they had the knowledge of this by Tradition we find by Maimonides who tho' a stranger to those Translations De cultu divino tract de sacrificiis jugibus c. 6. Sect. 9. yet affirms that those several Psalms were sung on such and such days and he names the very days that are prefixt to them in the said Titles It is from the same Tradition that they have these Rules concerning the Psalms I. This Rule to know the Authors of them namely that all Psalms that are not inscribed with some other name are David's Psalms although they bear not his name a Maxim owned by Aben-Ezra Praefat. in Psalmos and David Kimchi and we see an Instance of this Rule in that Quotation of Ps xcv 7. which is ascribed to David in Heb. iv 7. II. From hence they have learnt also another Rule by which they distinguish between the Psalms spoken by David in his own name Tehillim Rabbat in Ps 24. Fol. 22. col 2. and as King of Israel and those which he spoke in the name of the Synagogue without any particular respect to his own time but in a prospect of the remotest future times Tehillim Rab. Ib. From thence they have learned to distinguish between the Psalms in which the Holy Ghost spoke of the present times and those in which he speaks of the times to come viz. of the time of the Messias So R. David Kimchi and others agree that the Psalms 93 94. till the Psalm 101. speak of the days of the Messias So they remark upon Ps 92. whose Title is for the Sabbath-day that it is for the time to come which shall be all Sabbath Manasseh Ben. Is in Exod. q. 102. By the help of Tradition also they clear the Text Ex. xii 40. where it is said That the sojourning of the Children of Israel who dwelt in Aegypt was 430 years It would be a great mistake of these words to think the meaning of them should be that the Children of Israel dwelled in Aegypt 430 years For in truth they dwelled there but half the time as the Jews themselves reckon and all Learned men do agree to it But the Jews understand by these words that the sojourning of the Children of Israel all the while they dwelled in Aegypt and in the Land of Canaan they and their Fathers was 430 years Thus all the Rabbins do understand it and thus it was anciently explained by putting in words to this sense in the Samaritan Text and in the Alexandrian LXX That they were in the right we see by the Apostle's reckoning