we read in the eighth Chapter of Genesis about the Deluge doth refer to this custom where we find Noah sending forth the Dove and the Raven on the seventh day which plainly hints to us his observing of that day for it seems that Noah having in an especial manner on that solemn day implored the assistance of God in the Assembly of his Family he expected a particular Blessing from it And we cannot but make some Reflexion on that which we read in the XXIX of Genesis concerning the term of a Week set apart to the Nuptials of Leah Gen. XXIX 27. where at the twenty seventh Verse Laban thus expresses himself Fulfil her Week and we will give thee this also for the Service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other Years This Week here doth so plainly signifie a Week of days that it cannot be more naturally express'd and indeed all generally understand by this Week of the Marriage Feast of Leah that term of time which in succeeding Ages hath been customary to allot to Nuptial Festivals as appears from the Book of Esther where the Wedding Feast of Vasthi lasted seven days this term of seven days having so long since been Consecrated to Nuptial Rejoycings The same we may also gather from the time which was ordinarily allotted to mourning for the Dead to which we find the Patriarchs allotted a term proportion'd to that of their rejoicing For as we see that the Egyptians mourned ten Weeks for Jacob because of his Quality as being the Father of Joseph so we find that Joseph and those that accompanied him mourned seven days at his Enterment in the Land of Canaan And as we find that this Custom was perpetually afterwards observ'd by the Jews as appears from Ecclesiasticus XXII 12. so likewise we find the same observed by the Asiaticks as may be seen in the History of Ammianus Marcellinus at the beginning of his nineteenth Book De fide Resur in obitu Sat. p. 321. Seven days were fulfilled after that the Lord had smote the River Jalkut in h. l. and from them it passed to the Christians as we find in St. Ambrose Thirdly It appears from Exod. VII 25. that God observed seven days after he had smote the River to change the Waters thereof into Blood from whence the Jews conclude that the three Plagues Viz. that of Blood of Frogs and of Lice abode on the Land of Egypt six days and were withdrawn on the seventh which is the Sabbath We may also gather if we calculate the time exactly that the Jews in Egypt observed the Sabbath We find from the History of their departure out of Egypt that the same happened on a Thursday being the fifteenth of the Month Nisan and the day in which they sung those Hymns of Deliverance was the Sabbath which God had particularly set apart for this Week It is also evident from Exod. XVI that the keeping of the Sabbath was observ'd by the Israelites before the Law was given on Mount Sinai For we find God speaking there concerning the Sabbath not as of a thing newly instituted but as of an antient Law which they wer e not to transgress by gathering the Manna on that day for he orders them to gather a double portion the sixth day and not to gather any on the seventh We see that the Israelites resting on the seventh day is here supposed a known and customary thing prescribed to them by a Law of old They who went forth to gather Manna on the seventh day are represented as Transgressors of a known Law as appears from the words of the Lord to Moses How long refuse ye to keep my Commandments and my Laws Moses also speaks of the Sabbath which was to be the next day as of a thing customary and received amongst them To morrow saith he at v. 23. is the rest of the Sabbath of holiness unto the Lord words which would have been unintelligible to the Israelites and express'd a Law altogether impracticable in case they had been destitute of any further knowledge concerning it and had not been acquainted that it was the very day in which the great work of Creation had been finished My fourth Observation I take from the very words of the Decalogue where first of all we find God speaking in this manner Remember the Sabbath day which words clearly import Exod. XX. 8. that the Law he gave was not a new Law but indeed as old as the World and which had been observed by their Forefathers It seems probable also that God expresses himself in these terms because the Tyranny of Pharaoh had forc'd them to break this Law by obliging them to deliver their Tale of Bricks every day without excepting the Sabbath which before he had allowed them to keep This is explained very distinctly in the fifth of Exodus and seems to have been the occasion of Moses's demanding Straw of Pharaoh for the Israelites to go and Sacrifice in answer to which demand Exod. V. 5. Pharaoh expresses himself in terms which shew that formerly they had observed a rest on that day However it be yet thus much is apparent that God commands them to make their Bond Servants to observe the Sabbath because the Egyptians by their example inclin'd them not to be very careful in exempting them from all labour on that day Moreover in the second place we are to take notice that in the last words of the fourth Commandment God speaks of it as of a thing formerly appointed and determin'd by him saying For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it which words have a manifest and undeniable reference to that which happen'd the seventh day after the Creation and to the Law then given to Man concerning it We may gather from the fourth Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews that the sense which we have put upon the third Verse of the second of Genesis is the same which the Jews have always had of it The Apostle discoursing from those words of David Psal XCV To whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest doth suppose a threefold rest the first of which is the rest of the Sabbath of which mention is made in the second of Genesis where we have the first institution of it the second was the rest in the Land of Canaan promised to the Jews upon their enduring all those Tryals in the Wilderness the third the rest in Heaven of which the two foregoing were but the Figures He argues therefore that these words of David could not be understood concerning the Sabbath day forasmuch as from the beginning of the World Men entred into that rest of the Sabbath and he proves this by that passage in Genesis of which he only cites the first words viz. That God rested the seventh day from all his works as supposing that the Jews
Doctrines with which Christ upbraids the Pharisees and Saduces but this corruption respected rather their Morals than the Externals of their Religion as appears plainly from hence that Jesus Christ upbraids the Pharisees with their tithing Mint and Cummin that is with their observance of outward Niceties whilst they neglected the very Essentials of Piety They held that Heathens could not pass for their Neighbours from whence it would follow that God did not forbid them to bear false witness against a Heathen Hence also they concluded that it was lawful for them to kill their Enemies and this fomented their hatred and animosity against all other Nations It was on this account that the Disciples of Jesus Christ marvelled that he talked with a Samaritan Woman Their Decisions concerning Adultery were no less corrupt which they declared to be no sin so long as it did not proceed to the outward Act which Opinion of theirs was more gross than that of many Heathens who had a truer Idea of the Purity of Heart which God requires of us as well as that of the Body But yet this did not altogether destroy their Religion tho' it obscured the Excellency and Sublimity thereof As for the Saduces besides that their Errours were only speculative amongst the greatest part of them it is certain that what the Gospel saith of their denying the Existence of Souls and Spirits and the Doctrine of the Resurrection must be understood with some qualification as the Learned have solidly proved and amongst others Dr. Lightfoot on the Gospels And without repeating those things which seeur'd the preservation of their State and which also visibly tended to the preserving of their Religion I shall only observe That the Jews at this day with very little difference are found in the same practices and opinions as to their Religion which they had at the time of our Saviour Seeing then that after so long a time of Sixteen hundred years we find no greater change in their Belief though their Traditions are considerably encreased the Rules whereof they have infinitely multiplyed and thereby encreased this Corruption how can it be imagin'd that the Religion of the Jews was wholly lost or had no being at the time of our Saviour Jesus Christ Let this therefore be established as a certain Truth That the Common-wealth of the Jews subsisting entirely it was easie to know whether the distinctions which were necessary to discover and make known the Messiah were still found in the state of the Jews and their Religion This is that I am now going to make out CHAP. IV. That all the Distinctions necessary for discovering of the Messiah still continued in the State of the Jews at the time of our Lord. I Do not know whether any man can deny that Circumcision which is one of the principal Marks of the Jews was practised at that time if any one should dare to dispute this Truth we need only to represent to him that the main Dispute between the first Disciples of Jesus Christ and the Jews was about the Observation of this Ceremony Neither were the Jews only obstinate in this Belief but we find also that those who first embraced the Christian Religion maintained that the Heathens themselves ought to submit to the Yoke of Circumcision before they could enter into the Divine Covenant and enjoy the Priviledges of Gods People whom Circumcision distinguished from the rest of the World. One see 's that tho' God scattered the Ten Tribes yet some of them still remained in Palestine and were distinctly known as such This appears from the Acts of the Apostles where mention is made of a Widow of the Tribe of Asher and S. Paul boasts of his being a Benjamite They upbraided Herod notwithstanding he was their King with his being an Edomite and not originally a Jew One see 's that about Tyre and Sidon there remained still a distinct knowledge of the Canaanites It is known that Galilee was less esteemed than Judea because many of the Gentiles were settled there by which means the Jews of that Province were obliged to some Commerce with them from which those who lived more distinct thought that they had a right to undervalue those that were settled in Galilee One may also boldly assert That all places were still distinctly known to what Tribe they did belong Thus it is observed that Capernaum was in the Borders of Naphthali and Zebulun that Bethlehem was in the Tribe of Juda which is related as a thing publickly known It is known that the Priests still possess the Cities which Joshua had assigned to them Zacharias the Father of John the Baptist dwelt at Hebron Josh XXI 10 11. a City belonging to the Priests in the Tribe of Juda. One see 's that even the Samaritan Woman had a distinct knowledge of some famous places in the Holy Land as Jacob's Well and the Possession which he gave to his Son Joseph and that those of her Religion took a Prejudice against the Jews because Jacob had built an Altar at Sichem One see 's that they kept up the Practise of Redeeming their First-born which at this day is still observed by the Jews As also the practise of Polygamy which was so common amongst them that S. Paul thought himself obliged to forbid the same to the Pastors of the Christian Church that he might abolish it by little and little amongst those that embraced the Doctrine of Jesus Christ One see 's from the Nineteenth of S. Matthew that Divorces were publickly practised amongst them as they are to this day If one makes any Reflexion upon the Objection the Sadduces made to our Saviour concerning the Woman that successively had seven Brothers for her Husbands we shall perceive that the desire of Posterity being predominant amongst them was the cause of the continuance of this Custom which began in the time of the Patriarch Judah We have elsewhere taken notice of the extream carefulness of the Jews in preserving the marks of their Daughters Virginity which has constantly continued down since the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ The Gospel which informs us that the Jews were deprived of the power of the Sword doth notwithstanding sufficiently signifie to us not only the extream horrour which the Jews had conceived against Adultery thus we find Jesus Christ upbraiding the Pharisees that Adulterers that is the greatest of sinners entred into the Kingdom of Heaven before them but also that the Laws against Adulterers and Adulteresses were severely executed In short one see 's that by a Judgment of Zeal as they call it they brought a Woman to our Saviour which was taken in Adultery before they went about to stone her for one ought to know that the Law only subjected young Women who were defiled after a Contract to that sort of Punishment because after they were once contracted they were reputed the Wives of those to whom they were betrothed and such an one was she of whom we read
which we most desire a particular account are there described in a very short and concise manner The History of 1656 years is all contained in Eight Chapters There are no Actions described therein with more Circumstances than only some few of the most important the remembrance whereof was still fresh amongst them The History of Lamech's Polygamy and the Murders of which he was guilty is there set down so compendiously that it is very obscure Secondly One sees that he speaks more copiously of all that had been transacted near his time He explains and mentions all the particulars and circumstances thereof He speaks so shortly of Melchisedeck that it is doubted to this day whether he was not the Patriarch Sem or some other faithful worshipper of the true God settled in the Land of Canaan whereas he sets down at length all the particulars of the History of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob whose last Oracles which he spoke on his Death-bed he carefully records Thirdly He describes with the same exactness all the Genealogies of the Edomites their several Tribes and the Names of their Heads and Captains c. As when he speaks of those of the people of Israel which indeed he could easily do having liv'd forty years of his life amongst those Nations as well as he had other forty years amongst the Israelites Those who maintain the contrary Opinion must of necessity suppose First That Tradition is of no use at all to preserve the Idea of any illustrious Action Secondly That in Moses's time there were none who knew any particulars of the History of the Flood c. of the Tower of Babel of the division of Tongues tho' we see plainly both by the nature of the Facts themselves in which all Nations were concern'd and by Moses his description that the generality of Mankind were sufficiently instructed in them already Thirdly It must be supposed that Moses hath set down the manner how that Tradition was infallibly preserved so carefully to no purpose tho' he took notice of all the Circumstances necessary for that effect Fourthly They must suppose that Moses whilst he sojourned in the Land of Midian heard nothing either of their Original and Pedigree nor yet of the other neighbouring Nations who were descended from Abraham altho' all these Nations valued themselves upon their being descended from that Patriarch and kept up their several Pedigrees by which they could trace their Original with the same care as the Israelites did theirs because they had the same pretensions that the Israelites had Lastly We must absolutely take away the Authority of the Oracles recorded by Moses in Genesis These Oracles promise to Abraham the possession of the Land of Canaan for his Posterity and threaten the Canaanites with several Curses Jacob by his Will bequeathed Sichem to the Tribe of Joseph He expresly marks out the Country which one of the Tribes was to possess he gives a description of the Character and Rank of every Tribe The accomplishment of those Oracles tho' never so exact and admirable is of no manner of consequence if we suppose that these particular Predictions were absolutely unknown in Abraham's Family whereas their accomplishment which he carefully describes from time to time is the most solid demonstration which can be desired to establish the Divinity of those Revelations as well as of Moses his other Books CHAP. XIX An Answer to an Objection which may be drawn from the Histories of the Egyptians and Chaldeans concerning the Antiquity of the World. WHat I have already represented is sufficient to prove that Moses writ nothing in the Book of Genesis but what was then generally known by all the World. And I know nothing that can be objected with any probability but what we read in the most ancient Authors concerning the Egyptian and Chaldean History and in the Modern ones concerning that of China We must then examin both the one and the other with attention that we may leave no Difficulties in so important a Subject All that the Atheists can object against the History of Moses concerning the Epocha of the Creation of the World as he hath fixed it is what Diodorus Siculus relates that in the time of Alexander the Great there were some Egyptians that reckon'd up Three and twenty thousand years from the Reign of the Sun to Alexander's time and that those who reckon'd least yet reckon'd somewhat more than Ten thousand years which account exceeds the Antiquity which Moses ascribes to the World in the Book of Genesis by many Ages where he represents the Creation as a Fact which happened some few years more than Two thousand five hundred before he wrote that Book How then did Moses write of things universally acknowledged by all the World And they may here further aggravate what the same Diodorus hath observed That the History of the Egyptians was not written like that of the Greeks amongst whom those who came first wrote their own Histories every man according to his own private humour which caused that great variety amongst their Historians whereas amongst the Egyptians none wrote but by publick Authority the Priests alone having that particular employment reserved for them to write their Histories in their several Generations This Objection is easily confuted in two words In short How could the Egyptians have always had men to write their Histories by publick Authority in all their succeeding Generations seeing there were as Diodorus observes such a strange and vast Divisions amongst themselves If there were but two or three Ages difference more or less no body would look upon it as a material Exception against the History of such a long Series of time But who can imagine that those men who differ no less than Thirteen thousand years in their Accounts of the Duration of the same interval of time had yet certain Histories upon which these things were grounded This shews sufficiently that as Varro the greatest Scholar the Romans ever had hath divided Antiquity into Fabulous and Historical which he begins from the first Olympiad leaving all which went before to the fabulous part so we must of necessity make the same distinction in the Matter of the Antiquities of Egypt But I intend to do some thing more and to consider this Egyptian History with a little more attention out of which I think I may draw good Arguments to confute the vanity of those Passages in it opposed to Moses and to confirm the Authority of his Book of Genesis and the truth of the chiefest Transactions recorded in it I shall not at present take notice that altho' the Egyptians about their latter times have maintain'd that the Elements were eternal yet they have sufficiently acknowledged that the World had a beginning seeing they make no mention of any thing before their thirty Dynasties which in all did at the most amount to no more then 36525 years Neither do I think necessary to mention here that they have sufficiently
the glory which Jacob found in Egypt when he was invited thither by Joseph did not make him forget the Right which he claimed upon that Land by virtue of the Sepulchre both of his Father and Grandfather that was there For Moses informs us that he desired to be carried thither after his Death and that he did expresly require this Duty from Joseph and his other Children who paid it in sovery solemn a manner and with a Mourning so very great and famous that the Name of Abel-Mizraim continued to that very place where the Canaanites saw the Solemnization of that Funeral by the Sons of Jacob who were attended by great numbers of Egyptians One see 's that Jacob's Children still entertained the same hope Joseph solemnly engaged his Children to carry his Bones into the Land of Canaan And one may judge that the other Patriarchs were not less solicitous to require the same Office at the hands of their Children Jalkut ex Siphre fol. 311. col 2. as St. Stephen supposes it Acts VII agreably to the common opinion of the Jews All which shews that Abraham's Posterity had their Hearts set upon his Sepulchre as upon the Pledge and security of God's Promise that they should be once possest of that Land where he was Buried And as the carrying the Body of Jacob into Canaan sufficiently shew'd what were the claims of the Israelites so the same was very evident by their care in keeping themselves unmixt with the Egyptians all the time they sojourn'd in Egypt The Splendor of Joseph was a natural engagement for them to settle themselves there for ever besides their vast encrease forced them in a manner to it For a long time the Miseries which they endured invited them to seek the Alliances of the Egyptians by Marriages and to mix themselves with a people who were their Masters and so to renounce hopes which appeared to be so very groundless They seemed to have been warranted by Joseph's Example who had Married an Egyptian However one never finds that they tried that method One see 's on the contrary that there was little correspondence between the Hebrews and Egyptians in their Sacred things For the Hebrews sacrificed to God the abomination of the Egyptians that is those very things which the Egyptians worshipped One see 's afterwards by the great number of Flocks which they drove along with them at their going out of Egypt that they had continued to follow the profession of their Ancestors who were Shepherds a very odious Employment to the Egyptians One see 's at last that after the many Miracles which Moses wrought in the Egyptian Court that this people followed God's Conduct and went out of that Countrey to possess the Land of Canaan which none of them had ever seen and yet they lookt upon the obtaining it as a Blessing they could not miss of There are several things very remarkable upon that Subject The First is That some Egyptians went out with the Israelites to dwell with them in the Land of Canaan which was done not only that there might be some indisputable Witnesses from among the Enemies of God of the truth and greatness of the Miracles which Moses had wrought amongst them which also was a presage of the calling of the Gentiles to the Faith by their insertion into the Body of the Jews but also that there might be some Witnesses of the extraordinary affection which the people of Israel had for the Land of Canaan and of their claims to it by virtue of God's promise that he would put them into possession of it For otherwise it is not a common thing that a Colony of Slaves should be suffer'd to run away much less that they should perswade their Masters to forsake their own Countrey and their settlements at home to go and conquer another for them The Second Remark is That God made the Jews travel for forty years in the Deserts of Arabia not only to make them forget any Tyes they might have had to return again into Egypt and to accustom them to depend wholly upon Divine Providence but also to redouble their desires after the possession of this Land of Promise It was for the same reason that God forbad them so straitly either the mingling with or the setling themselves amongst the Midianites tho Moses had given an Example by Marrying Sephora or the Edomites or the Ismaelites or the Moabites or the Ammonites tho all those Nations were descended from Therah their common Father or from the Patriarchs In execution of which severe prohibition God commanded the Jews to put all those to the Sword who should make any alliance with those Nations as we have instance of it Numb XXIII after the description of Balaam's Prophesies And it could be for no other end that he so straitly charged the Israelites to cut off the Hivites Ammorites and other Nations of Canaan even to the Women and little Children but in pursuance of his first design to prevent all mixture of his People with those Nations which without that extream rigour would infallibly and insensibly have come to pass I know very well that God preserved the Gibeonites by ratifying that Alliance which gave leave to those People tho of the Posterity of Ham to continue amongst his own people in the Land of Canaan but tho God did in effect preserve the Gibeonites amongst the Jews yet he forced them to undergo the Drudgery and Servile Offices of the Tabernacle and that they might be kept as unquestionable Witnesses of the Hebrews pretensions and of their miraculous Conquest of the Land of Canaan for the continuance of that Nation in the heart of the Countrey and their submitting to the drudgery of carrying Wood and Water for the use of the Tabernacle tho they were at first of another Religion was as I have observed already a continual Subject of admiration to the Posterity both of the Jews and of the Gibeonites themselves CHAP. XIX That the Law tied the People of Israel to the Land of Canaan and by several other means established the distinction betwixt Tribes and Families amongst them ONe may say that one of the most effectual means which God used to fix his people to the Land of Canaan was the Law which he gave them to meer thrice a year and Celebrate three Solemn Feasts together which hardly gave them leave to travel far into other Countreys and engaged them every time they met to renewin the publick Acts of their Religion the memory and the Idea's of their hopes And they conduced to this Design of God in this manner Those Feasts were Celebrated at three times which were the most commodious Seasons of the year for Travelling betwixt the Months of March and October The Celebration of the Passover was upon the fourteenth day after the appearance of the Moon in March The Pentecost was fifty days after and the Feast of the Tabernacles lasted from the first to the tenth day of September
that Prerogative to Seth's Family and excluded Cain's from it then afterwards of all Seth's Family he restrained it to Noah alone and his Family then of Noah's Family to Shem alone then afterwards of all Shem's Posterity to Abraham alone then of Abraham's Sons to Isaac alone and of Isaac's to Jacob alone whose Son Judah was alone invested with that priviledge and all his Brethren excluded It is moreover observable that in those seven forementioned Restrictions which God made he seems to have affected to prefer the youngest to the eldest as it is evident in his choice if not of Noah and Shem who was elder than the other Sons yet certainly in that of Seth who was younger than Cain of Abraham who was the youngest of Terah's Sons of Isaac who was younger than Ismael of Jacob who was younger than Esau and of Judah who was one of the youngest of Leah's Sons So likewise if the Reader would judge of God's design by the event alone he might justly conclude that God by this affected choice intended to raise continual Jealousies betwixt the Eldest who pretended that the priviledge of accomplishing the promise did belong to them because of their Birthright against their youngest Brothers whom they saw preserred by God's immediate choice One may also further add That God seems to have strengthen'd these Jealousies by introducing sometimes a sort of Conformity amongst the pretenders to the execution of this promise Thus for instance as Abraham had two Children so Lot had two as Jacob had twelve Sons so Esau also had twelve and sometimes one may find that those particular persons who are preferred are charged with very severe Accusations Now after all these general Refiexions it is natural for us to consider what care God hath upon all occasions particularly taken to distinguish and protect those whom he had invested with the right of accomplishing the Promise that their state and succession might never be uncertain 'T was this design no doubt which obliged God to make Seth the Depositary of his Service and Worship that he might thereby save Noah from the Flood and so procure to Shem his Father's Blessing 'T was for this Reason that he call'd Abraham out of his own Countrey and made him Travel from place to place to make him thereby famous in the World and to invite Men by that means to inquire after his Profession his Hopes and his Religion Again it was for this that he obliged this Patriarch to the practice of Circumcision which was a real distinction and an indelible Character and that he likewise confined him to a certain place by fixing him in some sort to the Cave of Machpela which he had purchased of the Children of Hamor Lastly It was for that reason that God would have the Posterity of Jacob distinguished from all other Nations of the World and that he prohibited all alliance with them as also all Imitations of the Customs and Religious Ceremonies practised amongst them Now all this being supposed I say that whether we consider the end and principal design of Moses's Laws or whether we examine his several Prophesies which do particularly characterize the Messiah we shall find that God did all along continue in his first design of distinction and consequently of keeping up the Jealousies of those that had any pretensions to the priviledge of accomplishing the Promise or which is all one that he hath prosecuted the same design to Jesus Christ's time in whom Christians do maintain that the first Promise was accomplished God having then and not till then both put an end to all those Differences and Distinctions which were only intended to make the Messiah the better known and the more certainly discerned at his coming and then to cease just as Scaffolds are taken away as soon as the Building is finished And having also on the other hand rectified the Principles from which flowed that Spirit of Jealousie amongst those who had the same pretension We see that accordingly God excluded all other Nations from the right of accomplishing this Promise We see that even in the Family of Judah who was himself the youngest of the first Set of Leah's Children he restrained the execution of it to the youngest Brothers We see that he raised occasions of Jealousies even amongst the Tribes of Israel In a word we see that of all those means which can distinguish any one people from all other Nations of the World or one Tribe from twelve one Family from all other Families of the same Tribe and one particular person from all the rest of his Family none were omitted but on the contrary all made use of by God to follow this his first design This I intend firmly to establish by examining the thing gradually from Moses's time by whose Ministry God enacted and published those Laws by the means whereof he intended the Messiah might certainly be known to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in whom we believe that the Promise was accomplished CHAP. XIII That the manner of God's Promulgating his Law amongst the Israelites did much conduce to the distinguishing them from all other Nations I Do not barely design here at first to observe the several Resemblances which are observable betwixt the things related by Moses in Genesis and those which one finds in the following Books Neither will I meerly establish here that as Jacob's going down into Egypt with all his Children and the protection that they all received there from Joseph did serve to fulfil the Prediction which God made of that Event by Joseph's Dreams so we may say in general that the sending of Moses his Miracles and his whole Ministry to the time of his Death when he entrusted Joshuah with the Conduct of the Jews were a litteral accomplishment of the first part of the Promise which God had formerly made to Abraham to deliver the fourth Generation of his Posterity out of the Captivity which it was to fall into and then to bring it into the Land of Canaan to possess it Moses indeed represents that people according to the Tenour of the Prophesie as groaning under the hard pressure of a cruel Captivity in Egypt when Joseph and his eminent Services were both forgotten Afterwards he tells us how they were miraculously delivered out of that Captivity And then Lastly he informs us that after he had carried them through many difficulties in the Wilderness he brought them at last to the very Borders of Canaan and so left them ready to conquer and possess it according to God's Promises and their pretensions grounded upon those promises which had been so often repeated to them ever since Abraham's time Joshua Moses Successour and in all likelihood the Author of the Description of his Death is he that accomplished the other part of God's promise to Abraham by introducing the Israelites into Canaan and actually possessing them of it So there is nothing can be imagined more precise in this whole matter But
of the shadow of Death upon them hath the light shined Thou hast multiplyed the Nation thou hast encreased the joy they joy before thee according to the joy in Harvest and as men rejoyce when they divide the spoil I shall afterwards take notice That the time of the Messiah was to be distinguished by an incredible abundance of Spiritual Gifts and so this shall suffice at present to prove that the Messiah was to be a very great Prophet CHAP. XVIII That the Messiah was to propound a new Covenant from God with all men THis is a Truth which is easily gathered 1. Because all Nations before they could be made partakers of the Blessing of God by the Messiah according to the promise made to Abraham were first to be received into the Covenant 2. From the nature of that Covenant it self of which Moses was the Mediator the end of which was to separate the Jews from other Nations some of which were not capable of being received amongst them till after several Generations whereas they were to be made partakers of this Blessing by the Messiah 3. Because in effect all the Ceremonial Law was only added to the Moral as it were contrary to God's principal intention and only upon occasion of the Jews worshipping the Golden Calf as St. Gal. 3.19 Paul observes in the Third Chapter of his Epistle to the Galatians Besides it appears that God at divers times had given sufficient hints concerning this 1. He had proposed a new Priesthood of the Messiah which was to abolish the Levitical Priesthood and this is the more remarkable forasmuch as David who pronounced that Oracle Psalm CX was he who first form'd the design of building the Temple to which all the Levitical Service was annexed 2. We find him rejecting in some sort the Levitical Ministry after he had despised it in comparison of the Spiritual Worship Psalm XL. vers 6. Sacrifice and Offering thou didst not desire mine ears hast thou opened Burnt-offering and Sin-offering hast thou not required And Psalm L. vers 8 9 10. I will not reprove thee for thy Sacrifices or thy Burnt-offerings which have been continually before me I will take no Bullocks out of thine House nor He-goats out of thy Folds for every Beast of the Forest is mine and the Cattel upon a thousand Hills And Psalm LI. verse 17. he tells us that the Sacrifices of God are a broken spirit in opposition to the Sacrifices which the Law prescribed and to signifie their imperfection the Law having appointed none for the expiation of Murther or Adultery Isaiah follows David Chap. 1. vers 11 12 13 14 and 15. To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of the Burnt-offerings of Rams and the fat of fed Beasts and I delight not in the blood of Bullocks or of Lambs or of He-goats When you come to appear before me who hath required this at your hands to tread my Courts Bring no more vain Oblations Incense is an abomination unto me the new Moons and Sabbaths the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn meeting Your new Moons and your appointed Feasts my Soul hateth they are a trouble unto me I am weary to bear them And when you spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when ye make many prayers I will not hear your hands are full of blood And Jeremiah speaks much to the same purpose Chap. VII v. 21 22 23. But besides God directly promiseth this new Covenant by Isaiah Chap. XLII vers 6 7. I the Lord have called thee in Righteousness and will hold thine hand and will keep thee and give thee for a Covenant of the People for a Light of the Gentiles To open the blind eyes to bring out the Prisoners from the Prison and them that sit in Darkness from the Prison house It is natural to observe That in this place where God speaks of the Messiah as the Jews themselves confess he expresly declares two things 1. That the Messiah should be a Covenant of the People that is that he should mediate a Covenant between God and the People 2. That the fruit of this Covenant was to extend to the Gentiles which plainly implyes that it was not the old Covenant forasmuch as from it several were excluded The same Covenant is also mention'd Chap. XLIX vers 8 9. Thus saith the Lord in an acceptable time have I heard thee and in a day of salvation have I helped thee and I will preserve thee and give thee for a Covenant of the People to establish the Earth to cause to inherit the desolate Heritages That thou maist say to the Prisoners go forth to them that are in darkness shew your selves they shall feed in the ways and their pastures shall be in all High-places He pursues the same Notion Chap. LV. vers 3 4. Incline your ear and come unto me hear and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you the sure mercies of David Behold I have given him for a Witness to the People a Leader and Commander to the People Than which nothing can be more particular And to the same purpose he speaks Chap. LXI vers 8 9. For I the Lord love Judgment I hate robbery for Burnt-offering and I will direct their work in truth and I will make an everlasting Covenant with them And their Seed shall be known among the Gentiles and their Off-spring among the people all that see them shall acknowledge them that they are the Seed which the Lord hath blessed It is as clear as the day That God in these Oracles promiseth an irrevocable Covenant because he calls it an Everlasting Covenant in opposition to the former He takes notice also in the same Book That the said Covenant was to be propounded in the midst of the Nations and that then that Blessing of God should be known according to the ancient Oracles which was promised universally to all Nations This is that which God more particularly explains afterwards by the voice and pen of a Prophet who was of the order of Priests thereby to prevent all sorts of Exceptions Jeremiah in effect speaks to the same purpose Chap. XXXI vers 31 32 33 34 35 and 36. Behold the days come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah Not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the Land of Egypt which my Covenant they brake altho' I were a husband to them saith the Lord But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their heart and I will be their God and they shall be my people And they shall
make appear elsewhere The Third and last thing is That it was not easie to impose a forgery upon those times because their Lives were yet of a great extent tho' inferiour to those who lived before the Flood To these we may add this further Consideration that as the Jealousie which was between the Family of Seth and of Cain was a great means to preserve inviolably the important Truths of the Creation and first Promise a like Jealousie now being risen amongst the Sons of Noah Cham being Accursed of his own Father in the person of Canaan and the same being propagated to their Posterity it could not but effectually contribute to rescue these important Truths from Oblivion and particularly the Promise of the Messiah conceived in these words The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpent's head In a word Judg. VIII 23. IX 8. Talm. Hier. fol. 11 col 4 gloss in h. l. Avodazara c. III. fol. 43. col 1. De Dea Syr. p. 1069. we may not only in reference to the matter in hand take notice of what Lucian relates concerning the Religion of the Assyrians which did so lively preserve the memory of the Deluge and of what was done to Noah by his Son Cham when he scoffed at the Nakedness of his Father but also that the God of the Sichemites was called Baalberith whose Symbol was the figure of the Privy parts of a Man which seems a manifest allusion to their descent from the Family of Cham the Sichemites being some of the Posterity of Canaan It is also very natural to conceive First of all that it was from those old Pretensions that the Canaanites took occasion to prophane the most â—oly things with such shameful Idea's Secondly That it was in detestation of these Idea's that God ordered the killing of the Priests of Baal And Thirdly That it was for the same reason that the Jews were commanded to destroy them utterly Fourthly This was also the reason why the Israelites were so often desirous of imitating their Crimes In the Fifth place As we see that upon the like account the Moabites and Ammonites took Chemosh for their God and that the Women of those Nations were very zealous to propagate their Religion of which we have an Instance in Jezabel the Wife of Ahab so God was also willing to inspire his People with Horrour and Detestation for their Religion or any Alliance with them Lastly As there does appear a very great Conformity and resemblance between the first Birth of the World from the first Chaos and its being born again after the Deluge between Adam the first Man and Noah the second and between the Jealousies sprung up in both their Families upon the account of the Promise of the Messiah So this conformity could not but very naturally contribute to preserve the Memory of those Ancient Events which Noah and his Children had delivered to their Posterity with all the care which is taken to preserve the Tradition of the fundamentals of Religion CHAP. XV. That we find the Family of Abraham and his Posterity till Jacob fully perswaded of those Truths IT is no less easie to conceive how the distinct knowledge of these Truths was in process of time handed down to Jacob and his Posterity This I shall briefly explain I need not take notice here that the Religion practis'd by Abraham and his Posterity suppose these Matters as constantly owned and known It cannot be deny'd but that Lot having followed Terah and Abraham when God called the latter out of Chaldea might thence suppose that this Heavenly Call did separate and distinguish him from the rest of the Posterity of Shem and gave him a right as well as Abraham to pretend to the priviledge of fulfilling the Promise of the Messiah or at least to see it fulfill'd in his Posterity This we may infer from the Incest of Lot's Daughters their Crime which in another view appears very monstrous doth clearly prove that they were strongly possess'd with this hope which their Father had raised in them I know that some Interpreters suppose Lyra in Genes XIX that they were moved to commit this Incest from a pious intention of preserving Mankind as imagining to themselves that as the Deluge had drowned all Men besides Noah and his Family so the Flames which destroy'd Sodom had consumed all Mankind which they were the more ready to believe because they might have heard from their Father that the World one day was to perish by Fire Beres Rab. part 23. But indeed it may be consider'd as proceeding from a very different Motive the Jewish Doctors plainly averring that this was done by them in hopes of bringing forth the promised Redeemer And if we look upon this action of theirs in this view with reference to the Promise of the Messiah which was the grand object of the hopes of all those that fear'd God it is natural to conceive that considering their Father as one whom God had peculiarly chosen from amongst the Posterity of Shem to execute the Promise of the Messiah and seeing that their Mother was changed into a Statue of Salt they conceived themselves in some sort authoriz'd to surprize their Father in that manner and the rather because they conceived on the one hand that none of the Canaanites upon whom God had now begun to pour forth so hideous a Vengeance as a beginning of the Execution of the Curse against Cham having any part in this chiefest of Blessings could ever Marry them after that God had so manifestly separated and call'd forth their Father from amongst them and on the other hand supposing that God would dispence with the irregularity of this action by reason of their being reduced to an extremity There be three Circumstances which greatly confirm this my remark upon the Motive of their Incest The First is That they are represented to us as those who had behaved themselves very chastly in the midst of the Impurities of Sodom and that besides we find they design'd no such thing till after the Death of their Mother The other is That we see them contriving the thing together and that in a Matter which naturally is apt to separate the greatest Friends where the Motive proceeds from a Spirit of uncleanness Nor indeed do we find that they continued in this Incest The Third is That they were so far from being asham'd of an action in it self so criminal or concealing the knowledge of it from Posterity that they gave those Names to the Children born of this their Incest that might perpetuate and divulge the memory of this their action the one calling her Son Moab as much as to say Born of my Father and the other hers Benammi a Name of a like signification with the former This Observation is very necessary because these two Sons became the heads of two great People the Moabites and the Ammonites whose Kingdoms lasted above 1300 years and lived on
the Borders of the Holy Land and were jealous of Abraham and his Posterity as pretending that Abraham could not be chosen before Lot their Father who being the Son of Abraham's Elder Brother was to be consider'd as the first-born of Terah and who were apt without doubt to take it for granted that if God had brought Abraham out of Chaldea and rescued him from Ur he had in a more peculiar manner saved Lot alone from the Conflagration of Sodom by the Ministry of Angels and that Abraham and Lot being equally descended from Terah the right of accomplishing the Promise did equally belong to them And indeed we find that in all succeeding times these thoughts did predominate with them as may easily be made out from the History of Balaam We see therefore that the Moabites who were descended from the Eldest Daughter of Lot look'd upon the pretensions of the Israelites that the Messiah was to be born of their Seed in Exclusion to all others with great impatience and it was for this reason that they sent for Baladm to decide by Divine Authority the difference between them concerning the right of the promised Blessing We may make very near the same Reflexions upon the calling of Ruth the Moabitess when she saith to Naomi her Mother-in-Law Thy God shall be my God and thy People shall be my People which signifies a renouncing of the Pretensions of her own People and an acquiescing in the Justice of those of the Israelites and it was upon this occasion that Ruth is more particularly taken notice of in the Genealogy of our Saviour as I shall have occasion to shew hereafter That which I have hinted concerning the intention and aim of the Daughters of Lot hath been observed before by the Jewish Rabbins as we may see in the most ancient of their Commentaries upon these words of Genesis Chap. XIX v. 32. Come let us make our Father drink Wine c. Upon which words R. Tanchumah following the footsteps of R. Samuel makes this Reflexion That we may preserve Seed of our Father it is not said that we may preserve a Son from our Father but that we may renew the Posterity of our Father because saith he they had regard to that Seed which was to proceed from a strange place and what Seed is that It is the King Messiah After this Observation upon this action of Lot's Daughters it can no longer rationally be doubted but that the violent passion which Sarah had for a Son proceeded from the very fame impression which made her contrary to the Inclinations of that Sex to deliver her Servant into her Husband's Bosom especially if we join to this the particular Promise God had made to Abraham which she could not be ignorant of Sarah sees her self destitute of Children and her Barrenness having continued so long a time she had no hopes of ever being a Mother what remain'd therefore for her but to think of adopting a Son of her Bond-woman And in consideration of this she perswades her Husband who had no inclination to any such thing by any thing that appears at least precedent to this desire of his Wife to take her unto him He sought the Seed of God that is the Seed which God had promised as Malachy expresses it Mal. II. 15. At least it is certain Yarg Jonath in h. l. Kimchi in h. l. that the Jews have taken these words of Malachy in this sense for a very long time as they do still to this day We may easily perceive that this was a predominant impression throughout that whole Family if to what we have already observ'd of Lot's Daughters and of Sarah we do but add the sorrow Rebecca conceived because of her Barrenness and the Contentions happening between the Wives of Jacob for their Husband's Company without which supposal the relation of such a Matter would be a thing of no importance Certainly as it would be ridiculous to suppose that so wise an Historian as Moses was should stoop to the recital of such mean and low particulars not to speak worse of them without aiming at something very high and considerable so it is rational to believe that in all these Relations he pointed at the Promise of the Messiah which at that time was the great Object of the Religion of the Faithful which God in process of time did explain by little and little more distinctly The Jealousie also which arose between Ishmael and Isaac is no less considerable Ishmael was the eldest Son of Abraham and Circumcis'd as well as Isaac he was saved from Death by the Ministry of an Angel and was the head of a great People who from that time to this very day have always been Circumcised It may be also of great use to take notice here that Ishmael could not but be instructed by Abraham concerning the Promise God had made to him to which he pretended as being the Elder and therefore mocked at the great stir was made at the weaning of Isaac as thinking that he being the Eldest could not be deprived of the natural right of his Primogeniture At least it is very probable that except it had been thus Sarah's anger approved by God himself would not have prov'd so violent as well against Ishmael as Hagar who flatter'd him in these pretensions nor would Abraham so far have comply'd with it And forasmuch as Isaac on the other side was born to fulfil a particular Promise was Circumcised and saved from death by an Angel and that besides all this Ishmael and he had been equally educated in the practice of Religion 't is impossible but that this Conformity of Events which has been the cause of such lasting Contests between them and their Posterity must have engaged them to inquire into the truth of the Creation and the Promise of the Messiah and into all other Matters which did any way concern them We have a like instance if not stronger for our purpose in Esau and Jacob who were both born of the same Mother but Esau being the first-born we find the same Jealousie arising between them as before between Ishmael and Isaac Sarah seem'd somewhat cruel in casting out her adopted Son Ishmael and here we see that Rebecca preferred Jacob before Esau her First-born and assisted him in robbing his Elder Brother of the Blessing due to him of right But without question her design in all this was to entail this Blessing on her Family by making it fall on Jacob as being afraid and that not without cause that Esau by his Sins and his Marriage with the Canaanites had made himself uncapable thereof Now as this was the occasion of a great dispute between these two Patriarchs educated in the same Belief and Religion so it plainly shews us how strong a perswasion they had of the Creation and the Promise of the Messiah And besides it is further very remarkable First That Moses represents Esau as a prophane person for which