last Objection of Atheists is answered 120 Chap. 22. The Consequences of what we have proved in our foregoing Observations upon the Book of Genesis 126 The Contents of the Chapters of the Second Part of the First Volume Chap. 1. THat it cannot reasonably be doubted but that Moses is the Author of Exodus and of the three other following Books Page 137 Chap. 2. That both the Character of Moses 's person and the nature of the things he relates has always made Men read his Books with attention 146 Chap. 3. That the truth of the Miracles related by Moses cannot reasonably be doubted of 153 Chap. 4. A Continuation of the proofs of the truth of the Miracles wrought by Moses 158 Chap. 5. That Moses 's Description of the manner of God's giving him his Laws is evidently true 164 Chap. 6. Some other proofs that confirm Moses 's Description of the manner how the Law was given and promulgated 169 Chap. 7. That there is no just Exception can be made against Moses 's History in what relates to the Oracles which he hath recorded in his Books 173 Chap. 8. That the Testimony of the Jews is a constant proof of the truth of the Oracles related by Moses 177 Chap. 9. That it appears by the nature of his Relations that Moses had the Messias in view when he wrote the Book of Genesis 180 Chap. 10. That the same perswasion appears throughout the whole Conduct of Moses until his Death 185 Chap. 11. That Balaam 's prophesie which Moses relates is a further Argument of the same perswasion in him 188 Chap. 12. That one may see also in Moses 's Law plain Footsteps of God's Design in distinguishing these from whom he would have the Messiah to be Born. 194 Chap. 13. That the manner of God's promulgating his Law amongst the Israelites did much conduce to the distinguishing them from all other Nations 200 Chap. 14. That God seems to have designed to keep up a Spirit of Jealousie in the very Bosom of the Jewish Nation 206 Chap. 15. That Circumcision was a means of distinguishing the Israelites from other Nations 212 Chap. 16. That the Law of Moses engaged the Jews to the study of their Genealogies that they might certainly know that of the Messiah 219 Chap. 17. A Solution of some Difficulties in these Genealogies 223 Chap. 18. That the manner whereby the Law of Moses fixed the people of Israel to the Land of Canaan was to keep them separated from other Nations 228 Chap. 19. 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 234 Chap. 20. That the Laws which Moses made coneerning the state of Virginity did principally relate also to the Messiah which holds also as to several other Laws 241 Chap. 21. That it was the design of God by all these Ceremonies and particularly by that Veneration which he inspired the Jews with for the Tabernacle to preserve the Idea's of the Messiah whom he had promised in their minds by distinguishing them from all other Nations 249 Chap. 22. That it appears by the Books of Moses that this whole Model which God had framed was to last but until the coming of the Messiah 256 To the Courteous Reader THE Errata's are so small that they will not disturb the sense any where and so few that we need not trouble the Reader with a Table of them And therefore hope he will take such inconsiderable pains upon himself and excuse the Author REFLEXIONS UPON THE BOOKS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE For the Establishing of the Truth OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION CHAPTER I. Concerning the Fundamentals of the Christian Religion WE are to consider three things in the Christian Religion the Matters of Fact it propounds to us for true the Promises it affords us and the Worship it commands The Matters of Fact it propounds to us as true are that God created the World that he formed the first Man from whom the rest of mankind have been propagated that a while after this Man was created he violated the Law God had given him and that whereas he deserved to have perished for this his disobedience God was pleased instead thereof to comfort him with the hopes of a Saviour which was to be born of the Seed of his Wife that God hath actually sent this Saviour into the World which comprehends the whole Oeconomy of Christ viz. His Birth Life Preaching Miracles Death Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven c. The Promises it vouchsafes are the forgiveness of our Sins the Resurrection of our Bodies and a state absolutely happy for ever in Heaven And lastly the Worship or Divine Service it prescribes consists in Obedience to the Law of God in Prayer for the pardon of our Sins and his Protection and in a grateful Acknowledgement of what we owe him for all his Benefits towards us The first of these three parts of the Christian Religion viz. The Truth of the Matters of Fact it relates may be said to be the foundation of the other two viz. The Promises and Commands It is impossible to be perswaded that God hath created this World in which we live and made Mankind of one and the same blood that after the Fall he promised to save Men and did actually redeem them in sending Jesus Christ who suffer'd Death and being rais'd the third day Ascended into Heaven c. I say it is impossible to look upon these Facts as true without being assured that God will accomplish the Promises he hath made to us And it is as evident that we cannot be convinc'd of the truth of these Matters without being sensible of a strong obligation laid upon us to perform all the Duties of the Christian Religion As soon as a Man reflects upon his being Gods Creature he finds himself naturally oblig'd to obey God universally according to his utmost ability but when he comes further to believe that God did not destroy the first Man for his disobedience but was graciously pleased to promise him a Saviour for himself and all his Posterity and when moreover he is assured that God hath really sent this Saviour in the way and manner the Gospel relates to us we cannot conceive but that he must find himself under the highest engagements imaginable of rendring to God a religious obedience and believing his Promises But there is yet another obligation whereby Man is bound to obey God to pray to him and to offer him all manner of Religious Worship God by redeeming him hath obtained a new claim to and right over him and a more indispensable obligation is laid upon Man to submit himself to God in all religious Concerns as being not only created but also redeemed by him Reason acknowledgeth that if the truth of these things be once admitted nothing can be more just and natural than those consequences which the Christians thence infer All the difficulty
longer preserve the Tradition of 2000 years as they had done till Moses's time God was of necessity obliged to make use of some other means to supply that defect He had already made use of several before amongst which was that which we find prescribed Deut. XXVII where he ordered the building of an Altar with rough stones whereupon the Names of the twelve Tribes and the whole Law were to be ingraved He afterwards follow'd other Methods and thus we see that Samuel following Moses and Joshuah's Example repeats before a Solemn Assembly of the people met at Gilgal for the Consecration of Saul the things that came to pass during the Government of Bedan or Sampson of Jepthah and his own But yet the best way was to fix this people to one Tabernacle wherein we see that besides the Monuments which preserved the Memory of the great Miracles that God had wrought at the Foundation of the Jewish Common-wealth as the Pot of Manna Aaron's Rod that blossom'd the Plates of the Altar that had been made out of the Censers of Corah Dathan and their Confederates One see 's that the Law and the Books of the Covenant were deposited there by God's order and the principal Transactions and Deliverances that were wrought by God in the behalf of that people were continually Celebrated with Hymns and other Tokens of publick Thankfulness It was no doubt upon this account that he caused the Book of the Law to be laid up there with many Ceremonies and Expiations and that he enjoyned it to be read publickly in the presence of the whole Congregation every seven years One see 's that he commanded that every Family should read this Book continually and that all should entertain their Wives and Children from their tenderest years with the design of the Law Night and Day in the Countrey and in the Town at all times and in all places One see 's that God engaged them to it not only by an express command but also by an indispensible necessity because he made it death for any Man to violate any of those Ceremonial Laws from a principle of obstinacy no pardon could be obtained for the Transgressions committed through ignorance before they were expiated by certain Sacrifices the Forms whereof were scrupulously prescribed in the Law and which could be violated upon no account whatever If one considers those things he may say that the Jews had scarce one moment free in their Lives so pressing was the necessity which lay upon them to consult the Law of God the regulations of which were so very exact and particular that there no actions publick or private could happen but what were regulated and determined by those Constitutions If a Beast was born the Owner was to examine whether it was the first-born or no whither it was clean or unclean and whither it was to be Redeemed with several other things of this nature If a Woman was big with Child there were many questions to be asked When she came to Lie-in several very different Ceremonies were practis'd according as the Child was a first-born or not The Law enjoyned various Purifications according as the Woman brought forth a Son or a Daughter God had prescribed a great number of Laws for all the Accidents of Life for Marriages for Successions for Funerals for Mourning for unforeseen Accidents as the Death of a Man that was kill'd without the design of his Murtherer for the several Crimes that might be committed in their several Pollutions and Sequestrations c. It seems that this whole people from the time that they came to the use of their reason to the time of their Death was still continually obliged to keep up a Correspondence with the Priests and Levites whom God had for this purpose dispersed amongst all the Tribes of Israel and to consult the Law and the Testimony to be instructed in the manner of governing themselves But particularly they were to look upon the Temple and the Tabernacle as the Center of their whole Religion And how could they do this without carrying their Prospect at the same time to those great Promises of the Messiah of which the Israelites were Depositaries I say upon those Promises which raised up so many Jealousies betwixt their Forefathers and the Ancestors of those Neighbouring Nations with whom they had always some Controversie and were to be considered as glorious and honourable to the whole Nation CHAP. XXII That it appears by the Books of Moses that this whole Model which God had framed was to last but until the coming of the Messiah BUt if we find in Moses's Law a severe restriction in all that belongs to the execution of the Promise of the Messiah which shews that God intended to have that Nation distingnish'd from all others till the Blessed Seed was come if we find that he restrained that Promise to one Tribe one Town one Family one particular individual person in that Family that they might not be to seek in a confused Crowd of a whole people made up of several Millions of persons or in a whole Tribe or even in a City filled up with several Families If upon this account his Birth was restrained to one People one Tribe one little Town and one single Family which was setled there the Jews could not but observe that it was God's design to break all those Restrictions and to follow quite another Method when the Messiah was once come For in the First place the first Promise of the Messiah was express'd in very general Terms which mentioned a common benefit to all the Sons of Adam This Promise was made before God had rejected Cain's Posterity by preferring that of Seth it was made before the Restriction was made to Noah in Seth's Family and to Shem in Noah's Family Secondly God who by Circumcision had distinguished Abraham and his Posterity from the rest of the Family of Sem did expresly promise to Abraham that in his Seed all the Nations of the World should be blessed This Promise was made also before God had restrained the Promise to the person Isaac in prejudice of Ishmael and then afterwards to the person of Jacob in the prejudice of Esau Thirdly One see 's this same Truth yet more clearly explained out of Jacob's Oracle concerning Judah Gen. XLIX wherein Jacob expresly foretels that the Messiah should be the expectation of the Nations that is to say the Comfort the Glory the Hope and the Joy of all the Nations of the Universe As this was a Capital Truth so God proposed it by Balaam at the Israelites entring into Canaan that they might thus understand that all those distinctions which their separation living in Canaan from the rest of the World might keep up were not always to last But this particularly appears out of Moses's Law which allows of several sorts of Proselytes receiving some without tying them to the observance of all the Ceremonies in the Law which it would never have done
to whom he wrote had no need of having the following words quoted to them which tell us that God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it that is he Consecrated the same to his worship and service forasmuch as nothing was more publickly and universally known amongst them the Observation of the Sabbath being a thing generally received even before the giving of the Law. And indeed the Philo the Jew be of opinion that the practice of Solemnizing that day had suffer'd some interruption and that for this reason the Law of the Sabbath was given to Moses yet it is well known first of all Euseb praep Evang. l. 13. c. 12. that Aristobulus the Peripatetick in a Treatise dedicated by him to Ptolemy surnamed Philadelphus cites several Passages of Homer Hesiod and Linus Heathen Poets which mention the seventh day as a Festival and Solemn day because all things were finished in the same In the next place it is notorious that if some of the Fathers as Justin Martyr and Tertullian writing against the Jews have deny'd that the Patriarchs observed the seventh day they did so rather with regard to the rigor of that Law which forbad all manner of work on that day upon pain of Death which was superadded by God to the first Law of the Sabbath than to the Observation of the Sabbath as it was a day appointed to make a Solemn Commemoration of the Creation of the World. In a word we are to take notice that the difference which God makes between the Sabbath observ'd by the Patriarchs and that which he appointed to the Jews did consist in two things First in that God did impose an absolute necessity upon the Jews to abstain from all manner of work even to the very dressing of Meat necessary for the support of Life We find this distinction clearly express'd in the Law which God gave concerning the first and seventh day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread for he absolutely forbids all manner of work on these two days as much as on the Sabbath even the preparing of necessary food which he permits the five other days forbidding only Servil Laborious Works Secondly In that the working on that day by the Law is made punishable with death which was not so before which Innovation and new rigour of the Law established by God was authorized by the punishing of him who had gathered Sticks on the Sabbath day whereas we find that before the Law was given upon Mount Sinai God did not command those Jews to be punished with death who went forth the seventh day to gather Manna according to their ancient Custom of dressing their Meat on that day Let me add this further that tho the Apostles had abolished the rigour of the Law concerning the Sabbath introduced by Moses yet they themselves observed it which practise of theirs in all probability gave occasion to the Christians for almost four Centuries to keep the Sabbath as well as the first day of the Week Solemnizing both those days the one as a Commemoration of the Creation of the World and the other of the Resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ But what ever Judgment may be past on this last Remark it is very evident from Genesis and Exodus First that the Law of the Sabbath was observed before Moses Secondly that this Observation was by the first Patriarchs propagated among the Heathens also as well as the Idea of the Creation or as the practice of Sacrificing with the other parts of Religious Worship the Original whereof may be seen in the Book of Genesis as we shall make appear in our following Discourse After all this we must conclude against the Atheist that either Moses must imprudently have laid a Snare for himself in forging a matter of fact of which not only the Jews but all the World were able to convince him since there were none amongst them but must needs be Conscious whether they had observed the Sabbath in Commemoration of the Creation as he relates it or no or else that the Creation of the World being a matter of fact so generally known and the Memorial of it Solemnized every seventh day by all those who preceded him must needs be an uncontested and immoveable truth which I shall farther evince by those Observations which I shall raise from the dependance and connexion which the Matters related by Moses in Genesis have with the Creation and the Promise of the Messiah This is my business at present in performing of which I shall make it appear that nothing can be imagin'd more rational and coherent than the Relations of Moses in which the Atheists imagine that they discover so great Absurdities CHAP. VIII That Adam was convinced of his Creation by Reason and Authority THo' it might be thought more natural in these our Disquisitions about the History of Genesis to begin with those matters which happened near the time of Moses and from them to pass to those at a greater distance yet I have chosen rather to follow the Thread of Moses his Discourse hoping that this Method will afford more light to these our Reflexions At least it will spare me the trouble of frequent Repetitions which in the other way I should be necessarily oblig'd to I begin then with this That Adam was convinced of his Creation both by Reason and Authority The Creation of Adam being a thing of that nature that he must first be convinced of it himself before he could perswade his Posterity to entertain the belief of it it is worth our enquiry to know what ways he had to assure himself that he was indeed Created in that manner as Moses relates And forasmuch as the certainty of this Tradition depends upon the Authority of Adam whom Moses supposes to have been the first Deliverer of it It is plain that we must be assured that Adam could not deceive himself in this matter as it is evident enough that he would not deceive his Children when he took care to instruct them concerning it As to his own Existence he could not but be as strongly perswaded of it as we are of ours all the difficulty lying in the manner how he came to exist Now there were two ways by which Adam might inform himself of this viz. by Reason and the Testimony of Authority He could easily find out this Secret by a rational Reflexion Or he might also be perswaded of it by God himself who had Created him not to mention now any information which he might have from the Angels who were Witnesses of his Creation It appears that Adam whose Tradition Moses has recorded supposes that he had learnt of God himself the manner of his own Formation God speaks to Adam and Sanctifies the seventh day that is obliges Adam to keep the Memorial of his Creation he ties him by a Law to Commemorate his Creation fifty two times a Year and to render him continual thanks for the Being he had received But forasmuch as
of the Tree in the midst of the Garden when he left the rest to their free use Not only for that he had given the Rainbow as a new sign of his Covenant with Mankind nor only because they had practis'd those Acts of Religion to which they had been Educated by their Parents and Ancestors before the Deluge But because the same may be inferred from that action which drew upon Cham his Father's Curse What is the meaning of Cham's deriding the Nakedness of his Father and of his Father's taking occasion from thence to Curse him so solemnly and that in the person of Canaan his First-born If it were only a piece of irreverence in the Father what reason had Noah to Curse the Son on that account Or was it as some have suppos'd that Canaan had given occasion first to his Fathers Irreverence by acquainting him with the disorder in which he had found his Grandfather Noah Without doubt there is something more than ordinary in this History Sure it is that the account given us of Cham represents him as a prophane person and deeply tinctured with the Maxims of Cain and his Posterity and seems to hint to us that he supposing the Promise of the Messiah either frustrated by the Death of Abel or altogether false he made his Father's Nakedness the subject of his Mockery who seem'd to be incapable of begetting any more Children and therefore incapable of contributing to the accomplishment of the Promise of the Messiah in hopes of which he accounted himself so happy that he had escaped the Deluge What means it also that Noah pronounceth so terrible a Curse against the Posterity of Cham by Canaan who were so far from giving an accomplishment to that Promise that they were in a manner wholly exterminated by Joshuah when God put the Posterity of Shem by Abraham in possession of the Land of Canaan It is very natural for us to conceive that Noah consider'd his Son Cham's deriding of him not only as contrary to the respect which was due to him as his Father but also as the effect of a horrid Impiety which attack'd God himself as making that Promise The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpent's Head a subject of Raillery This Reflexion upon the action of Cham and the Curse of Noah consequent to it does appear very natural if we consider that Noah could not but reflect upon the Name his Father had given him and the special favour shewed to him in being alone preserved of all the posterity of Adam and consequently the onely person in the World by whom this Promise was to be fulfill'd Herod lib. 1. Justin Hist lib. 1. Valer Max lib. 1. At least it can't be deny'd but that this Reflexion is as natural as it would have been just in reference to the Fact of cruel Astyages if when he had as he thought sufficiently cluded his Dream which presaged the glory of the Son of Mandane his Daughter he had found her indecently uncovered and had taken thence occasion deridingly to reflect with his other Children upon a Dream which seem'd to promise to the Son of Mandane the Throne of all Asia and threaten the ruine of his own 'T is a thing worth our noting that in the time of Ezra the Samaritans had so fresh a memory of Cham's sin Ezra IV. 14 which they supposed to be generally preserv'd amongst other Nations that in their Letter to King Artaxerxes against the Jews who rebuilt Jerusalem they declare they would not discover the King's Nakedness implying that they could not consent to the injury he might receive from the Jews in suffering Jerusalem to be rebuilt It is not needful to repeat those other Arguments which prove that the Children of Noah had reason to be and were actually as much convinced of the Creation and first Promise as their Ancestors were for seeing that these Arguments were the very same which their Fathers had to perswade themselves of the truth of these things we had better proceed to the Enquiry whether their Posterity that follow'd them had the same Perswasion they had which may easily be proved in making some Reflexions on the following Ages and upon those who descended from Noah and his Children CHAP. XIV That the Posterity of Noah 's Children were perswaded of the truth of the Creation and first Promise IF Noah saw Methusalem who had seen Adam and his Posterity before the Deluge Abraham saw Shem and his Children who were unquestionable Witnesses of what had passed before and since the Flood Noah dying 350 years after the Deluge it appears that his Death happened in the year of the World 2006 so that Noah died only two years before the Birth of Abraham he being born in the year 2008. Abraham lived 150 years with Shem who died in the year 2158 and 88 years with Arphaxad the Son of Shem who died in the year 2096 he lived 118 years with Selah Son of Arphaxad who died in the year 2126 and 179 years with Heber the Son of Selah who died in the year 2187. Isaac being born in the year 2108 might see Shem Selah and Heber who for some hundreds of years had conversed with Noah and his other Children I say we may suppose him to have conversed with those Patriarchs or at least with those who being their Contemporaries discoursed of Noah as a Man but of yesterday and from his Relation and his Children's were informed of the Creation of Adam his Fall the Promise of the Holy Seed the Death of Abel the Miracle of Paradise the Preaching of Noah the Deluge c. And who in obedience to the Law of God observed by their Ancestors did meet together fifty two times every year to Celebrate the Memorial of these Wonders and to teach them to their Posterity We may take notice of three things here which conduce much to the preservation of a distinct knowledge of these Matters The First is De Dea Syra p. 1060. That the Ark it self might be seen by all the World as a certain Monument of the Deluge and the saving of Noah and his Sons This Monument continued very many Ages after Abraham and was a means to preserve the Memory of the Deluge amongst the Pagans as Lucian to name no more acquaints us The Second is That it was as easie for any of Abraham's Contemporaries as for Abraham to deduce his Genealogy from Noah and his Children And this was the more easie because the first Division of the World amongst the three Sons of Noah was followed by another Partition amongst their Posterity in the year of the World 1758 a Division which gave them a just Title of possession to that part of the Earth where they were seated in defence of which it seems probable that the War of Chedorlaomer mention'd the XIII of Genesis was undertaken the Family of Cham having invaded the Land of Canaan which was part of the Inheritance of Shem as we shall
all write with publick allowance after every King's Decease might indeed be so about the latter times as it was practic'd in Egypt but that it is as absolutely false that the Chinese had ever in former times such Publick Historians and as it is false that the Egyptians had formerly any such although they were as confident to say they had in Alexander's time as the Chinese are now But this I think is sufficient for the clearing of that matter We must now answer the last Objection of Atheists against the Authority of the Book of Genesis CHAP. XXI Wherein the last Objection of Atheists is answered AS I intend to clear all the Difficulties which may arise about this important Matter in the Minds of those that shall peruse these Observations I think my self obliged to prevent and resolve the only plausible Objection I know remaining after all what I have said upon this Subject Perhaps some will be apt to reply here that they indeed confess Moses to be the Author of Genesis and that if that Book had really been Supposititious it could never have gone under his Name nor be received as his in after Ages But that yet all this does not prove sufficiently the truth of those Transactions recorded in that Book Because Moses may have forced upon the People of Israel the belief of them by those Laws that he enacted amongst them by which it was Death for any Man to dare to contest the truth of any thing he had written in his Books This I think is all that the most Contentious Atheists can think of to undermine the Authority of Moses's History But this Objection is easily answered for it consutes it self For First It supposes the truth of these great Miracles by which God establish'd Moses the Head and Captain of the People of Israel which Miracles are every whit as hard to believe as the several Accounts of other things which we read of in the Book of Genesis We find accordingly amongst the Heathens themselves many Monuments of those Miracles done by the Ministry of Moses when he brought the Israelites out of Egypt As I intend to shew in my Observations upon the other four Books of Moses Secondly They must at least suppose that Moses hath given a true account of several Passages in which he could not impose upon other Nations which did not acknowledge his Authority as for example all that relates to the building of the Ark the greatest piece of Architecture that was then in the World and to the raising of the Tower of Babel the greatest Building that ever was and part of which is yet extant for all these things were as so many Witnesses of the truth of those Transactions which he related Thirdly They must likewise suppose that he hath related several other Passages as exactly as he did those as for Example That of the Division of Tongues which is an Appendix of the History of the Tower of Babel that of the Destruction of Sodom the Original of the Neighbouring Nations of Canaan that of the Jews of the Moabites of the Ammonites of the Ishmaelites and Edomites for it is ridiculous to conceive that this Law-giver should ever hope to perswade other Nations to believe any false Stories about Matters so well and so generally known as those were amongst themselves Fourthly They must suppose further that he hath given a true account of the Original of the Israelites whose Head and Governor he was How great and absolute soever the Authority of Moses might be it is ridiculous to imagine that ever he would have derived the Original of the Israelites from any other than from their true Ancestors This appears the more necessary in that we see by the accounts he gives of things and Pedigrees in Genesis that he wrote that Book especially from the History of Abraham on to the end of it only to shew the Rights and just Pretensions of the Israelites upon the Land of Canaan Fifthly They must yet further acknowledge whither they will or not the truth of the accounts he gives concerning the Original of the Pretensions and Divisions which were kept up amongst the Twelve Tribes of Israel now these Pretensions having no other ground than the Oracles which are related in his History they sufficiently prove the Authority of those Oracles against all the Pretensions and Objections of the Atheists What violence soever they may pretend that Moses might use to force an Implicit Belief of his History and blind Obedience to his Laws yet no Man of common Sense and Reason can ever think that he would have fill'd the Accounts he gives of things of that nature with Lies or that if he had done it he could ever have expected that his false Accounts of them should ever have been credited by the Neighbouring Nations or even by his own Subjects But without urging here several other Absurdities which plainly shew that there is no distinction to be found betwixt the Accounts of things which Moses recites as publickly known and those which he relates of his own Head and private knowledge there being as I have already shew'd betwixt all those several Accounts such a natural Coherence and necessary Concatenation that they cannot be divided from one another without destroying the whole frame of his History I say that it is impossible that the Law by which he makes it death for any one to contest the truth of his Narration should make the sincerity of it suspected I do not urge here that there is an evident Absurdity to suppose that Moses would ever have related together all those Transactions as the grounds of Religion if they had been absolutely unknown in the World before him Neither do I mention here that suppose Moses had been so imprudent as to attempt such an undertaking yet there is no reason to believe that a whole Nation and that a very numerous one would have long persevered in a Profession forced upon them by meer Violence and Tyranny Nor do I think it necessary to observe here that the People of Israel were neither so patient nor so easily perswaded by Moses nor yet so submissive to him as these Objectors do imagine That is plain and apparent enough from all their Seditions and Conspiracies against him Nor do I judge it necessary to observe here what is plain enough of it self viz. that Moses had no Successor any ways concern'd to countenance and defend these pretended Fictions and Fables of his History Joshua his immediate Successor was of another Tribe and so were all the succeeding Governors of Israel until the Maccabees came But what I think deserves best to be observed here is that after Moses and Joshua's Decease the People of Israel was brought under the Subjection of the Canaanites and consequently freed from the Terror of that Law of Moses's making by which it was Death for any one to contest the Authority of his Laws â—nd the truth of all his Writings there is but a
those Songs that were so much in fashion amongst those of his Nation he might easily satisfie his Curiosity by reading Moses's History If any Jew desired to know what sort of Exhortations they were which the Founder both of their Religion and Common-wealth had formerly made to their Fore-fathers Moses relates a great many of them in his Books If any Jew had a mind to receive instruction about the Original and cause of those Temporal Blessings he enjoyed in the Land of Canaan which God had possess'd his Nation of after the Expulsion of those People that had been the Inhabitants of it for many Ages Moses gives as good account of all that as can be desired If any Jew had a mind to know the Original of the several Calamities that befel his Nation on several occasions Moses acquainted them both with the Cause and Remedy of all their Afflictions Lastly If the Jews desired to be informed of the future condition of their Common-wealth in after Ages Moses foretells it in so particular and clear a manner that they might look upon his Prophesies not as certain Prophesies only but as a plain History of future Events begun and traced out before their Accomplishment All this is so much the more considerable to oblige us to read the Books of Moses with care that we may justly observe three things in his person which as they raise him above all common Authors so they cannot but strengthen the belief and increase the Esteem and Veneration which we ought to have for his History The first is That whereas all Men are careful to conceal their own Infirmities and whatever is dishonourable to their Familles Moses on the contrary seems to have affected to record all the things that could blemish the memory of his Ancestors and derogate to his own Reputation He blemishes Jacob's memory by his relating how he preferr'd Joseph the Son of his Beloved Wife to Reuben his Eldest whom he unjustly deprived of his Birthright in favour of the other which injustice is expresly forbidden by one of Moses's Laws Thus he lays an eternal blot and reproach upon the memory of Levi the Head of his own Family when he mentions his Cruelty and Violence against the Sichemites and the dispersion of his Posterity amongst the other Tribes of Israel Nay what is more he vilifies his own Birth by forbidding any Marriage betwixt an Aunt and her Nephew seeing he relates that he himself was born of Jocabed both Aunt and Wife to his Father Amram he describes his own Incredulity with all the Ingenuity imaginable when he represents the several Miracles which God wrought by him he seems to speak of himself only to lay open his own failings and sins such a sincerity and Impartiality we know confirms and increases mightily the Authority of any Author The Second thing is That Moses not regarding the advantage and honour of his own Family left the Government of Israel to Joshuah one of the Tribe of Ephraim and so reduced his own Children and their Posterity to the low condition of the rest of the Levites who were of an inferiour Rank to that of Priests for we do not see that they ever after renew'd the pretensions which they might otherwise have had to succeed Moses now such neglect of his Family shews that Moses's Principles were raised much above the ordinary pitch of the generality of Law givers who were absolute and supream over their People The Third thing observable here is that Moses had no share in the Conquest of the Land of Canaan it all was subdued after his Death Nay it was that Conquest that fixed and setled the Common-wealth of Israel which was before unsetled and as it were ambulatory in the Desart Now how could such a singular design as Moses describes in his Law be put in execution by any other than by him that formed it It was Joshua that made this Conquest of the Land of Canaan and possest the Jews of it now to be sure if that People had not been then fully perswaded of the Divine Authority of Moses's Law they would never have failed after so great an alteration to make use of their Power and Liberty in throwing off the troublesom yoak of his Laws nor yet would Joshua and all his Successors in the Government ever have maintain'd the Authority of those Laws if they had not lookt upon Moses not only as an extraordinary Man but also as one particularly Commissionated by God to make that Body of Laws for the regulating of his People We read in those Books of Moses's dying in the Mountains of Moab now that being supposed how is it possible that if the People of Israel had not been fully convinced that God himself gave their Law to Moses with all the Circumstances mentioned by him they would have continued to keep up such a ridiculous and ill grounded Conceit If he had really by his Tyrannical Authority forced the Israelites into a compliance to his Laws during his Life why did they not assoon as he was dead with the fear of his Authority shake off the yoak of his Laws and all respect for his memory One thing we may remark as very surprizing in the Relation of that Legislator's Death which is that his Body was not found after his Death For we do not see that that People which otherwise kept up and carried about with so much care the Bones of Joseph and his Brethren in order to Bury and Deposite them in the Sepulchres of their Ancestors for both Joseph and his Brethren were interred in Judaea did ever build a Tomb to their Law-giver or so much as pretend to shew his Sepulchre Josephus was of Opinion that Moses wrote himself the account of his own Death for fear the Jews should ever imagine and so give out that God had taken him up into Heaven I see I confess no solidity in that Conjecture of his but yet it may give us occasion to make a Reflection hereupon I think more natural and easie which is that God had a mind as Joshua intimates it to confirm the many Characters of Divinity that appeared in the Law of Moses by taking away from before the eyes of the Jews his Corps which they would certainly if they had not been so prevented have kept with more care than those of all their Patriarchs and Kings The Description of the manner of Moses's Death shews evidently that he was not only in great esteem during his Life but that even his Death did much conduce to the increase of it and to make Men look upon him as one gloriously raised up above the common condition of Men and in a manner not obnoxious to the Infirmities and Miseries incident to human nature But after these general Reflexions I must come to those that are more particular CHAP. III. That the truth of the Miracles related by Moses cannot reasonably be doubted of WHoever will examine with attention the four last Books of
probable that a Prince especially of his Temper would have submitted to such a Confinement and meekly resign'd his Crown to his Son if that punishment inflicted upon him had not fully convinced him of the Divinity of that Law which he had transgressed and violated by his Temerity and Presumption The Third Reflexion is that the greatest part of those Laws being intended by God to inspire his people with an Irreconcileable Aversion against all those Nations amongst whom they were going to settle they were so framed as not only to be opposite to the Laws and Customs of Egypt from whence they came but also to those received amongst the Hivites Amorites and other Nations of whose Countries they were going to possess themselves Thus we find in the XVIII of Leviticus Laws against all Incestuous Marriages which without doubt were ordinary amongst the Canaanites and Egyptians who therein follow'd the Examples of the Ancient Patriarchs who Married within those forbidden Degrees there we find also the Sacrifices to Moloch forbidden the practice whereof those Nations in all likelihood defended by the Example of Abraham's Sacrifice Now it cannot reasonably be thought that a whole Nation would of a suddain receive such Laws as deprived them of a Liberty and Freedom they had always hitherto enjoyed and condemn of their own accord those Sacrifices that had the fairest pretence of Religion imaginable and to use many Ceremonies contrary to those received amongst them if they had not had a strong and extraordinary Motive for so doing There is another thing besides that challenges our Consideration viz. the exact Description which God gave to Moses of the Tabernacle of the several parts of the Ceremonial Worship which was to be performed in that Sacred place and of the manner how this Tabernacle with all its Appurtenances Utensils and Ornaments was finished For as this Tabernacle was then the Centre of the whole Jewish Religion as the Temple was afterwards by succeeding to it so it was a solemn proof of the Divinity of Moses's Laws and of the Worship that was performed there Is it conceivable that a whole Nation should contribute to the building of it should see it Consecrated and taken to pieces and set together again every day and should read all the particulars relating to its Construction and not discern whether there was any truth and reality in all that was told them concerning the Religion which their Governour fixed in that place wherein he pretended many Revelations were made CHAP. VI. Some other Proofs that confirm Moses 's Description of the manner how the Law was given and Promulgated BUt if it is so easie to establish the Divinity of the Law of Moses by shewing the truth of the Matter of Fact according to the manner of God's Promulgation as Moses relates it we may further collect the truth of it by joyning these following Reflexions to those already made in the foregoing Chapters Certainly if Moses had been the first Founder of a Kingdom and had been succeeded in it by his own Children and Posterity for many Generations one after another we might perhaps have had some ground to suspect that his Successors consulting their own Interest and Honour would have been very glad to perswade their Subjects that the first Founder of their Kingdom had some Communication with God and that it was from him he received the Laws and Constitutions which he gave them concerning Civil and Religious Matters But it is observable that Moses was so far from investing his own Children with the Supream Authority after himself that he Translated it into another Tribe and Constituted Joshuah of the Tribe of Ephraim for his Successor in the Government as for his Posterity he took little care of it but reduced it to a Rank inferiour to that of Aaron's Family which he preferr'd to the most honourable Functions of the Priesthood leaving to his own the meanest and most inconsiderable Employments all which shews evidently that none of those who came after Moses were moved by any private Interest of their own to defend the Truth and Authority of his Laws and Writings but only by the certain knowledge they had that they were all Divine Neither ought we to omit to consider here the manner how Moses decides beforehand such Questions and determines such Controversies as could not be raised but after the Conquest of Canaan which was made by his Successor only after his Death And how those Laws were constantly observed in all the succeeding Generations of that people and submitted unto by the very Judges and Kings themselves tho there be nothing more common than for a Conqueror such as Joshua was to admit of no other Fundamental Laws in that State he is the Founder of than those which he is the Author of nothing is more usual than for Statesmen to affect the exposing the Conduct of their Predecessors especially when the form of Government is altered and from Democratical or Aristocratical is changed into Monarchical as it happened amongst the Israelites How then could Moses's Laws still keep up their Authority in all Changes and Revolutions How comes it to pass that in all the Successions of Judges and Kings there was never any of them attempted to suspend or annul Moses's Laws much less to enact and give any others contrary to them Again how came it to pass that in all the Divisions and Factions that Nation fell into there was never any Jew endeavour'd with any success to undeceive the rest of his own people so as to make them shake off the troublesom Yoke of Moses's Laws No doubt only because the generality of that Nation never disputed the Divine Origin and Authority of them It were an easie thing to demonstrate by the whole Series of the Jewish History that all those Laws which in Moses's Writings are inlay'd one within another and represented as occasion'd by several Transactions related there have all been equally received of the Jews and have all been put together in a Body by themselves before Moses's Death as it may be proved out of the XXXI of Deuteronomy It appears that those Laws were publick and in great esteem amongst that People to whom God gave them upon whom he laid an indispensable Obligation to read them every day and to consult them upon every emergent business It appears that they were known equally of all degrees of Men Sexes and Ages which were all obliged to pay Obedience to them upon pain of Death It appears that those Laws were not only publickly kept in the Tabernacle but also privately read in every Family We see that a whole Tribe viz. the Tribe of Levi was appointed by God to explain them and in order to that they were dispersed throughout the whole Land of Canaan and exempted from the Cares and Troubles that necessarily attend Husbandry by the plentiful Provision of Tithes and Offerings that was allotted to them We see that God obliged all Jews to read and meditate
to have designed to keep up a Spirit of Jealousie in the very Bosom of the Jewish Nation WE have seen in general that God by giving his Law to the Israelites intended to discriminate them from all other Nations of the World and in particular from those Nations which had shewed themselves to be jealous of that distinction I mean from the Moabites the Ammonites the Ismaelites and the Edomites as I shall hereafter shew I have likewise observed that God by his Conduct and his Oracles did also excite a Spirit of Jealousie amongst the several pretenders to the Promise I come now to shew that God hath follow'd the same design in his Law and that he hath made use of that Jealousie as of another means to make that People which he had separated from all other Nations keep up always amongst themselves a lively Notion and Expectation of the Messiah Perhaps the Reader may think that these Reflections may interrupt the Series of the Observations I have undertaken to make upon Moses's Law But besides that I shall resume them presently so one may easily discern that these two Remarks concerning the Spirit of Distinction and the Spirit of Jealousie kept up in the Bosom of this people ought to be well considered by those that desire to know the Genius of God's Laws and the original Causes of all the Transactions related by Moses and by the other sacred Authors who acted in pursuance of that Design which appears in those Laws which Moses gave to the People of Israel I begin with two general Reflexions which I think are very useful in the explication of God's Conduct upon this Occasion Two things as I have already observed have conduced to keep up that Jealousie whereof Moses has given so many instances in the Book of Genesis The first is The Preference which God hath commonly given to the younger Brothers before the elder The second is The choice which God hath made of such particular persons as appeared absolutely unworthy of God's choice So that here one see 's a continual Series in the Jewish History written by Moses and by the Prophets who made the same Observations upon that Model which Moses had given them First of all The Tribe of Judah is preferred before all the other Tribes of Israel and particularly before the Tribe of Reuben which afterwards occasioned the Insurrection of some Reubenites in their Sedition against Moses wherein Corah Dathan and Abiram perished Just as God's preferring Abel offended Cain and as Joseph's Brethren conspired together to put him to death because of his Dreams which foretold his greatness and their fall Secondly One see 's that Phares Judah's youngest Son is preferred not only before all the other Children of Judah but even before Zerah the eldest of the Twins which Judah had by Thamar just as Jacob was preferred before his Brother Esau tho' they were Twins and Esau born the first of the two One see 's afterwards That God having chosen Jesse of all the Posterity of Phares David the youngest of all his Sons was preferred before his Brethren when God was pleased to translate the Kingdom to the Tribe of Judah and to the Family of Jesse Just as we saw before that in the Election of the first King whom the Israelites desired to be set over them that he was chosen by Lot by an extraordinary effect of Providence out of the Tribe of Benjamin tho' the youngest of all Jacob's Children Thus one see 's that Solomon the youngest of David's Children was preferred before his Brothers and that the same Solomon built the Temple of God in the Tribe of Benjamin tho' he himself was of the Tribe of Judah We shall afterwards see That the Messiah was descended from David by Nathan Son to one of David's younger Children and by Resah Zorobabel's youngest Son from whom the Blessed Virgin drew her Original The second Remark is about the care God hath taken by his choice of some particular persons to accomplish the promise to furnish those with pretences and objections who might be interessed to oppose the Restrictions which God had made in favour of their equals for as they served to keep up a Jealousie amongst all the pretenders to the Promise so they also served to preserve a distinct knowledge of it and to make them inquire more diligently after it In short as we see that the Ismaelites might upbraid Sarah both with her frequent Rapes and with her Cruelty to Agar and Ismael As the Edomites might upbraid Jacob's Posterity with Rebecca's supplanting their Father Esau and cheating him of his Blessing so likewise we may observe that God not only chose Thamar to have the Messiah descend from her but also would have her Incest with her Father in-Law recorded What might all the other Tribes of Israel say were there then no honest Women in Israel that the Messiah's Ancestors must descend from those that were born of an Incestuous Commerce What probability is there that God should choose the Tribe of Judah Had not all the other Children of Judah a fairer pretension to this priviledge than Phares could have And might not their Posterity revive against the Posterity of Phares that severe Law against Bastard Children which we read of Deut. XXIII God chose in the like manner Ruth the Moabitess and had her History written and his choice recorded as if he had intended to prepare an excuse for those of the Israelites who afterwards would refuse to submit to David What probability is there might they say that God would have the Messiah to be born of a Moabitess seeing it was by his order that Moses caused all those Israelites to be put to death who after the pronunciation of Balaam's Prophesie held any commerce with the Daughters of Moab Was there any likelihood that such a thing could be possible especially seeing there was a Law which God would have to be inserted in Deuteronomy which excludeth the Moabites from the possibility of ever being admitted into the people of God. But at least was not this choice of Ruth the Moabitess a fair cause of Jealousie to all the other Families of Judah God caused the Adultery of Bathsheba the Mother of Solomon to be carefully recorded as it were on purpose to excuse the Rebellion of those who afterwards sided with Jeroboam against Rehoboam and his Authority Is it probable might these Rebels say that God would have chosen that Bloody Cruel Man David that Adulterer that he and Bathshebah should beget the Messiah together Had Jesse no other Children besides David And if David must needs have been the Man why should Solomon born of Bathshebah be preferred before all his Brothers There are three things considerable in this Matter The First is That God having given to Joshuah the conduct of the Israelites after he had formerly raised Joseph so much above his Brethren by his advancement in Egypt and given to his Tribe two portions of the Land of Canaan
In short the Law which obliged the Jews to assist at the Celebration of those Feasts required the appearance of all the Males of Twenty years of age and upwards so very rigorously that there was no Dispensation for all without exception were then obliged to appear So that even during the Dispersions of their Nation the Jews who lived out of Judea assisted always at the Celebration of those three Feasts with great care This was a visible way of keeping the Tribes of Israel distinct by giving each of them a separate portion in the Land of Canaan and by fixing them inseparably to it as the whole Nation was in like manner distinguished by its being placed in a Countrey entirely by it self We see accordingly that God hath observed that Method by giving a Law which injoyns the Division of the Land of Canaan to be made into as many Portions as there were Tribes only excepting the Tribe of Levi because the Levites as being the publick Ministers of their Religion were dispersed amongst the other Tribes that they might more conveniently attend to the Instruction of the people I shall not here take notice of the Miracle which was evident in that Division which was an exact accomplishment of the Oracle which Jacob and Moses uttered a little before their Deaths But I shall observe First That as the design of God was to divide that people into Tribes that the Tribe of Judah from which the Messiah was to be born might be the better distinguish'd and known so he would for the same reason allot the Cave of Machpelah the Sepulchre of the Patriarchs to the share of the Tribe of Judah as also Ephratah the place where Rachel was Buried which was afterwards call'd Bethlehem the Town where David had his Birth and which was foretold told by the Prophet Micha under the Name of Ephratah as the place where the Messiah should be born in the fulness of time We must besides take notice of two particular Regulations by which God fixed his people in the Land of Canaan and preserved a distinct Idea of this first division of that Countrey The First is the Law of Jubilee The Second is the Law of Lineal Retreats In short by the Law of the Jubilee which returned every fifty years and by which every one that could justifie his Pedigree was reinstated in the possessions of his Ancestors God obliged that people to keep up a distinct-knowledge of the first division made under Joshua Joshua XIV c. and which is described in that Book which contains his History much more effectually than if he had made a Law for that very purpose So that tho the Field of Ephratah had been never so often alienated yet it always returned to the Tribe of Judah and so afterwards into David's Family because it was at first the Lot of his Ancestors This Law of Jubilee preserved a distinct knowledge of the several Tribes and Families and it also kept up a distinct Idea of their Genealogies which must be preserved entire of necessity that they might maintain their right to the inheritance of their Ancestors It would be to no purpose to object against this Observation that it was impossible to know certainly which Tribe and much less which Family every Estate did belong to because one see 's that the first Proselytes who went out with the Israelites shared the Land of Canaan together with them for one see 's on the contrary First That God would not allow any of the Moabites and Ammonites to become Proselytes before the tenth Generation And Secondly That he debarred the Edomites from being admitted to make profession of Judaism before the third Generation which excluded them for ever from any possessions in the Land of Canaan And Thirdly one ought to observe the difference betwixt an Egyptian Proselyte and a Native Jew The Quality of a Proselyte gave permission to an Egyptian to live amongst the Jews and to profess their Religion but it gave him no right to possess any of their Land. And then besides that Massa Biccour c. 1. S. 4 those Egyptian Proselites had a particular way of praying by themselves different from that of the Jews as the Jews still testifie They could not possess any Estate in Land amongst them This is so true Numb XXVII that it was once round necessary to make a particular regulation for the Daughters of Zelophehad that they might have their division which was granted only under certain Conditions because the Land was not to be divided but amongst the Males of the people of Israel But this is very considerable that by this Law of the Jubilee God fixed the Jews to the Land of Canaan by giving the Children a power to look upon themselves not only as the presumptive Heirs of their Parents but to consider their Parents only as Usu-fructuary's since all their Possessions in Land were so Entailed that the Children or right Heirs of any Man could not miss of the Reversion because whatever alienation was made it could last but for a time to the year of Jubilee which restored all the alienated possessions absolutely and entirely to the right Heirs Now that this Law was always lookt upon as a fundamental Law amongst the Jews Leviticus XXV 23. 1 Kings XXI appears clearly from the words in Leviticus and from the History of Naboth which holy Man rather chose to die than to comply with the injust desire of Ahab who would have forced Naboth to sell his Estate absolutely notwithstanding God's express prohibition The exemplary vengeance which God took upon Naboth's Murder and the relation of it recorded in Scripture is a further confirmation of this same truth If a King of Israel durst not at first infringe that Law if it was not violated by any other than Jesabel who was a Forreign Princess If the Transgression of that Law was punish'd in such an exemplary manner who can doubt but that it was particularly observed in the Tribe of Judah as a Fundamental Law by which God tied up his People inseparably to this very Countrey One needs only make some few Reflexions upon those words which God makes use of Ezek. XLVI to agree to what I say if those Reflexions which I have made already upon Naboth's Murther be also added to them One may observe upon the same Subject that tho God had several times subjected the Jews to a Foreign power yet he never suffered the whole Nation to be all carried away out of Canaan at one time nor yet to continue in Captivity for the time of two whole Jubilees they were but seventy years in Babylon which was the furthest place that they were ever carried into From whence we may naturally conclude that their Genealogies could not be confounded in so short a time because many that were at the Consecration of the second Temple had seen the first nor could the distinct knowledge of the several divisions of their Estates be obliterated
they passed for Holy Men because they designed to imitate what as they were told had happened to Noah by his Son Ham which introduced the Custom amongst the Assyrians of Castrating themselves that they might be Priests Thirdly Deut. XXII God commanded that any Virgin which was Betrothed to a Husband and was corrupted in her Father's House or that was Ravished without calling for help should be punished with Death so that all the Virgins were indispensably engaged for fear of losing both Life and Honour together to preserve their Virginity with all possible care But here is a fourth Law concerning this matter whereby God obliged the Parents of all contracted Virgins to take a more than ordinary care of them when he commands Deut. XXII 21. That a Virgin for whom the Tokens of Virginity were not found should be brought out to the door of her Father's House and there be stoned to death by the Men of the City for so her Parents were by that means made partakers of the punishment of her Crime and their negligence was severely punish'd by such a shameful Execution as dishonoured their whole Family Fifthly God submitted Women to the Examination of their Husbands to whom they were Married Nay one would think that he intended to raise the Jealousie of Husbands when he gives them leave to bring their Wives to a publick Tryal and to punish them with Death when they did not preserve the Tokens of their Virginity It was for that reason that he commanded that the Parents or near Relations of the young Married Women thus complained of Deut. XXII should produce upon all such occasions the Tokens of the Virginity of those Daughters which they disposed in Marriage which was usually done with many Solemn Circumstances and Formalities And here are three things which deserve to be attentively considered The First is the Custom that was amongst the Jews for Parents never to let their Virgin Daughters go out of their Houses which Custom made them be called Concealed in opposition to those that went abroad that is that were Prostitutes The Second is another Custom which the just desire of preserving the Virginity of their Daughters against all Accidents had introduced amongst that People which was that all their Virgins did wear a sort of Fetters which are called in the Talmud Cevalim which are discribed by the famous Moses the Son of Maimon in this manner Cevalim sunt compedes in forma periscelidis Ad Massec Sabbath c. 6. J 4. inter quos interposuerunt catenulas illis compedibus ornabant se Virgines ut non incederent passu magno ne contigeret ipsis damnum in Virginitate sua This Description may be thought to be one of the foolish phancies of the modern Jews if we did not meet with proofs of the practice of that Custom in more ancient times In short one see 's in the third of Isaiah that Chains are reckon'd up amongst other Ornaments of the Daughters of Israel which God threatneth to take away from them when he would force them to go Captives into Babylon The Third is an ancient Tradition mentioned in the Pirke Eliezer in the XVI Chapter Solent Israelitae digito educere Virginitatem ne incidant in dubitationem vel suspicionem juxta illud Sumat Pater Mater puellae c. In a word it seems that for fear least these Tokens of Virginity should be thought to be obscure and ambiguous by their Husbands that God has provided for the securing of the Virginity of their young Women before Marriage by a Miracle the experience whereof was ordinary and common amongst so jealous a people Numb V. Joseph l. 3. Antiq. p. 95. I mean the Waters of Jealousie which all Women whose Carriage was suspected by their Husbands were obliged to drink by which God did either miraculously justifie them or else he began to inflict a punishment upon them which was so much the more dreadful and exemplary as it proceeded from the hand of God himself This Miracle lasted to the destruction of the second Temple as the Jews themselves tells us in that Title of their Talmud Sota c. 9. which concerns Women suspected of Adultery However as God works no Miracles without great reasons so he here made a Law the observance whereof was very rigorous which was that he would not suffer any Women to be Married when there was the least probability that they had their Courses but that they should be separated at that time as unclean The Reason of this Law was because it was then almost impossible but that the lewd Women might have imposed upon their Husbands in the Marks of their Virginity which at that time are very uncertain not to say that as a politick Law-giver he might prescribe the observation of this Law least the Common-wealth of the Jews should have been overstocked with weak and sickly people Lastly one see 's that God himself has fastned a Blot upon Leprous persons Isidor Pelus l. 5. Ep. 117. Joseph Antiq l. 3 p. 94. because they were supposed to have been Conceived when their Mothers had their Courses And hereupon was that Law of God founded which debarred Lepers for ever from the Right of coming into the Congregations of his people One ought to make the same Observation upon those that were unlawfully begotten for they were deprived of the Right of entring into the Congregation and how innocent soever they were as to the lewdness of those who gave them their Lives yet they were thus with them made partakers of the punishment of their sin If one considers all these several Laws attentively one shall find on the one hand that several of them were of very little moment except we suppose that God intended to secure the state of Virginity by them beyond all danger And on the other hand one shall find that some of them are very severe about things which do not seem to deserve so terrible a rigour But if we consider them according to God's design as he hath afterwards particularly explained it They will appear I am confident to be all very worthy of the Wisdom of such a Law-giver One needs only reflect upon that method of God that I have now explained to see that nothing can be conceived to be better managed than this Model according to the design which God himself had drawn One may make the same Observations and examine the same stroaks of the Wisdom of God in several other precautions which he made use of to make the Messiah be perfectly distinguish'd according to the several Characters under which he was to be proposed afterwards by the Ministry of the Prophets One sees that the Messiah being to be born of a Virgin was to be a first-born and for that reason we find many Laws which distinguish in general the priviledges of the first-born So it appears by the XVIII of Deuteronomy that the Messiah was to be a Prophet and therefore God afterwards
the manner in which the Twelve Princes or Heads of the Tribes did contribute towards the building of the Temple and to the manner of the building of it If the Children of Zebedee are called Boanerges 't is with reference to the second of Haggai Yet once and I will shake the Heavens and the Earth That the Heathens are described as a people afar off and what is spoken concerning the Wall of Partition hath a visible respect to the Gentiles being prohibited to enter into the holy place of the Temple If I would instance in all the mystical Relations of the one Volume to the other I might say that there appears a singular conformity between them even in those things which seem most opposite Moses the first and great Minister of the Law had a stammering speech Zachary the Father of S. John the Baptist was struck dumb when he was to pronounce the solemn Blessing to the people where as Jesus Christ on the contrary has this character given of him that never man spake like him God said at the beginning Encrease and multiply he repeats the same to Noah in order to the propagation of Mankind and replenishing the Earth Jesus Christ saith Go and teach all Nations and the Word is constantly represented to us as the Seed of the Regeneration and Paptism as the Laver or washing whereby we acquire a new Birth We see Noah receiving the Dove into the Ark with an Olive Branch as a sign of the peace of Heaven and Jesus Christ receives a like Token Fire falls down from Heaven on the Sacrifice of Abel Noah Moses David Solomon and Elijah as a Token that God accepted their Offerings and God sends the same Mark of his Favour on the day of Pentecost to declare that the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ was most acceptable to him God had forbid the High Priest to rend his Clothes on any occasion whatsoever that rending of Garments involving a Mystery as appears from the History of Jeroboam and yet we see that the High Priest rent his Cloaths at the Condemnation of our Saviour and thereby violated for ever the Authority of his Priesthood whereas on the contrary we find the Garments of our Lord and Saviour were left whole and entire to signifie to us the Eternity of his Priesthood We see that the Ear of Malchus the High Priest's Servant was cut off by S. Peter and that Jesus Christ restored it again to shew that the Synagogue had lost the true Faith and Jesus Christ alone was able to restore it We see the holy place in the Temple opened at the Death of Christ by the rending of the Vail which signified that the Ceremonial Law was then to lose its force and authority But the Observations already made are sufficient to make out what I intend without having recourse to these Mysteries and I believe no man can make such Reflexions without being perswaded that so great a conformity of Idea's must necessarily imply a perfect unity of design now it is impossible to suppose that this unity of design should be so constantly observed by different Authors who lived at such a distance of times places and interests without being convinced of a perpetual Divine guidance I acknowledge that in the New Testament there may be found some Decisions which seem wholly opposite to those of the Old For instance We find there a total abrogation of the Ceremonial Law but forasmuch as all those Observations had no other use but to distinguish the Jews from all other Nations of the Earth and by this means to make the Messiah known to the Jews amongst whom he was to be born so it is obvious to conceive that all those Ceremonies were of course to be abolished after that the Messiah was come into the World and that if we consider things in this view we shall find no contradiction at all between Moses who established these Ceremonies and the Apostles who abolished them But before we come to confirm these Grounds we must make it appear that the Idea's of the Messiah continued very fresh in the minds of the Jews and this shall be the subject of the following Chapter CHAP. II. That the Idea's of the Messiah continued very fresh in the Minds of the Jews at the time of the Coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ IT would be an easie matter for me here to shew that the Idea's of the Messiah were lively in the Minds of the Jews before the coming of Jesus Christ This appears from the Fable which the Rabbies told Origen concerning Zedechiah and Ahiab whom the King of Babylon burnt for perswading the Jewish women that they were the persons that were to conceive the Messiah But I intend to make use of proofs of a different nature Now to prove that the Notion of the Messiah was very fresh in the minds of the Jews we need only take notice that the promise of God concerning him was the first the most important and repeated with the greatest assiduity in the Books of the Prophets and consequently it employed them the most God having for this reason obliged them to read the Books of Moses every Sabbath to sing the Psalms of David and to examine the Writings of the Prophets where the promise of the Messiah was a thousand times repeated We may add a great deal of light to this Observation if we consider that the Circumstances of the Jews at that time engaged them to give more diligent heed to what the Prophets had declared and by weighing several Matters of Fact set down in the Gospel to shew the Universal effect of the lively impression of this Notion of the Messiah on the minds of the Jews Without doubt the Estate of the Jews at that time being equally opprest by the power of the Romans and that of Herod could not but put them upon a careful examining of the promises which God had so often vouchsafed them concerning the Messiah and the rather because God had often represented to them the Kingdom of the Messiah as a Temporal Kingdom which was to deliver them from the power of their Enemies This appears very evident in the Gospel on several occasions We find that the people of Jerusalem and Herod were troubled at the News of the Birth of Jesus as that which would probably cause great Troubles and Desolations before the Kingdom of the Messiah could subdue the Romans as well as Herod One see 's that the Multitudes would have taken Christ and proclaimed him their King and submitted themselves to him as the true Messiah One see 's that Christ's own Disciples both before and after his Death talked agreeably to these popular Idea's What else can we make of that passage of the Mother of James and John when she begs for them the chief places in his Kingdom When the Apostles dispute which of them should be the greatest was it not an effect of the same cause Did not the Apostles when they went to Emaus
preferr'd before others used by him without any solid Reason that therefore we must reject the deposition of so many Witnesses who unanimously attest it Since Jesus Christ had raised three persons to life again which then lived in Judea since Jerusalem had continued fourty years after the death of Christ since sixty solemn Feasts were celebrated in that time where all the Jews had an occasion to examine the truth of these Facts and the truth or falsity of the Accusation charged upon the Apostles by the Council of the Jews and that multitudes of Jews and Gentiles were converted at the preaching of the Apostles who reduced all to this Question of the Fact of the Resurrection of our Saviour is not this an invincible proof against all the Accusations and Suspicions of the Synagogue Forasmuch as the Witnesses who maintain the Resurrection of Christ are the very same that attest his Ascension into Heaven and that they assert it with the same proofs and the same zeal the Reflexions here set down may serve for that also and the rather because I am next to consider the sending of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost which is an undeniable proof both of the Resurrection of Christ and his Ascension and that these very Gifts of the Holy Spirit enabled the Jews to write preach and publish throughout all the World the truths of that Christianity which we now profess CHAP. XIV That Jesus Christ sent to his Apostles and to the Primitive Christians the miraculous Gifts of his Holy Spirit as he had promised in the Ancient Prophecies I Have shewn that the Prophecies of the Old Testament speak very plainly of this sending of the Spirit as a Preliminary to the Calling of the Gentiles which was the great design of God. The Prophet Joel speaks of it as such and makes this wonder to precede the destruction of Jerusalem as S. Peter observes in the second of the Acts. Isaiah speaks very particularly of it as such in the eleventh Chapter of his Prophecy where he sufficiently intimates that the Spirit of Prophecy should from thence forward so rest upon Jesus Christ that it would not be found any longer among the Jews whose City and Temple should be destroyed At present my business is to shew that this thing has been exactly fulfilled according to the design which God had laid down in the Prophets To be convinc'd of this we need only make some Reflexions upon the Relation which S. Luke gives us of it in the Acts. He tells us therefore that fifty days only after the death of Jesus Christ the Apostles having continued at Jerusalem and being assembled there they received the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost that is the power of speaking all sorts of Languages to make them fit to preach the Gospel to all Nations and to explain the most sublime Mysteries of our Saviour's Religion Every thing is considerable in this Relation of S. Luke 1. That he relates this Fact as happening fifty days only after the Jewish Passover when Christ was crucified the whole Nation of the Jews having been witnesses of his death 2. That he relates it as happening in the same City where Jesus Christ was condemned that the same Multitude who after fifty days were again assembled there at this Feast might be Witnesses of this miraculous Event In short it plainly appears that this new Law from Mount Sion was solemnly promulg'd in the presence of all the Jews who were assembled from all parts of the World as the old Law was when all the People assisted at the foot of Mount Sinai 3. That these Gifts were granted to all the Disciples of our Saviour Gifts which till that time had been wholly unheard of and whereof some part only had been granted to some Prophets and to some Priests and of which none had been made partakers since the time of Malachi God having so ordered it that the desires of the Jews might be the more inflamed for the Messiah's coming as also that upon his coming he might the more easily be discerned 4. That this was a Fact openly known amongst the Jews and differently interpreted by them some saying They they were full of new Wine 5. That the Apostles asserted by the mouth of S. Peter that this was an Accomplishment of the ancient Oracles as well as of the Promises of Jesus Christ 6. That they declared that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ his Ascension into Heaven and this miraculous Donative had been foretold by David and Joel 'T is certainly therefore very natural to make these following Reflexions upon the Relation of so considerable an Event The first will confirm the truth of this miraculous Fact if we consider that it is absurd to suppose that S. Luke a wise man should be so rash as to relate a matter of this nature if he had not been fully convinc'd of it and if it had not been an easie thing to have convinc'd his Readers thereof also nothing more being required for their conviction but the presence of one of those first Christians and to make a trial of this supernatural vertue bestowed on them for which there were frequent occasions 2. We must observe that this Relation of S. Luke is as it were the foundation which he lays down to make his Book of the Acts to appear just and reasonable and to justifie the Apostles conduct in preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles not only contrary to the opinion of the Jews who looked upon them as wholly excluded from the Priviledges of the Covenant but also contrary to the seeming Maxim of Jesus Christ who acted only as the Minister of Circumcision and contrary to the pretensions of many Christians who after the Mission of the Holy Ghost took it very ill that S. Peter had preached to the Gentiles 3. S. Luke supposes that this Fact came to pass in such a manner that it was followed by Consequences as illustrious as they were incredible Twelve poor Fishermen undertook to go and preach to all the World that their Master who fifty days before was crucified at Jerusalem at the prosecution of the whole Synagogue and by order of one of the Magistrates of the Roman Empire was not only living not only ascended into Heaven but that he also had given them the power of speaking all sorts of Languages of curing all Diseases and even of raising the Dead 4. They go yet further they boldly maintain that Jesus Christ had given them a priviledge of communicating the same power to all those who would believe that he was the promised Messiah and this without any other mystery but the bare laying on of their hands after they had received them by Baptism into the Profession of Christianity Nothing could have been more easie than to convince them of the contrary unless they had confirmed the truth of their Assertion by the miraculous Consequences of that first Miracle The Fact was publickly acknowledged Simon Magus is convinced thereof and