An Excellent DISCOURSE Proving the Divine Original and Authority OF The Five BOOKS OF MOSES Written Originally in French by Monsieur Du Bois de la Cour and Approved by six Doctors of the Sorbon To Which is added a SECOND PART OR AN EXAMINATION Of a considerable part of PERE SIMON 's Critical History of the Old Testament wherein all his Objections With the Weightiest of Spinosa's against Moses's being the Author of the first Five Books of the Bible are Answered and some difficult places of Holy Scripture are Explained By W. L. London Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chappel 1682. A PREFACE Opening the true Nature and Reasons of a saving-Saving-Faith § 1. THere is no Man that ever heard the Gospel and hath such a care of his everlasting State as beseemeth a reasonable Creature but must needs perceive of how great weight it is to be well assured of the truth of those supernatural Revelations delivered to us in the Sacred Scriptures Much may be known by the well studied Book of Nature But not enough to quiet the mind of Man by assured hopes of future Happiness and the way thereto And therefore almost all the Heathen and Infidel World have their Augures or Prophets on whom they depend as Conscious of the necessity of more than common natural Light Besides that it requireth greater helps and longer studies to understand the Book of Nature than the generallity of Mankind can use whereas God by his word hath made all necessary truth so plain that Children in a short time may grow wiser than the Philosophers § 2. No wonder then if it be the great work of the Prince of Darkness the Enemy of God and Man to deprive the World of the benefit of the Sacred Sacriptures which he doth First By keeping most of the Earth from knowing it for want of Teachers mostly kept out by the Persecution of Tyrants and Idolatrous Priests Secondly By keeping those that hear it from believing it Thirdly By keeping those that believe it from the right understanding of it Fourthly By keeping those that partly understand it from a serious considering what they understand Fifthly By keeping Men from a willing obedience to what they know and think of § 3. Among professed Christians it is the want of a sound Belief which is the great cause of all Ungodliness and Misery And no wonder For it is an high and excellent work to live on the joyful belief and hope of an unseen everlasting Life And in this dark State believing must conquer many difficulties which slothful Men will rather yield to than duely strive to overcome § 4. First We have contracted so inordinate a Love to this kind of life in Flesh that corrupt Nature is loth to think of any other because it would not part with this And when Men are convinced only of a necessity of looking forward beyond the Grave this changeth not their love but still an unwilling backward heart receiveth the notices of the Life to come but as unpleasant Physick which nothing but meer necessity will get down And how ill a Receiver an unwilling mind is experience telleth all the World Yea so backward and senseless is depraved Nature that even this necessity is seldom seriously considered till the Sentence of Death awaken the Soul and are Men then fit to begin so hard a study as must shew them the certainty of the Gospel and the Life to come and to get Faith when they must use it § 5. Secondly And I write it as necessitated and with Lamentation it is not all Mens Lot to have Teachers that shew them the right way even of founding their Belief and discerning the certainty of the Gospel and the Immortality of Souls If I should tell you how many Parishes that have Weekly Sermons in which Faith and Christianity and Heaven are mentioned have Teachers that cannot confute an Infidel or Sadducee or teach Men clearly how to be sure that their Faith and Hope are not meer Errour and that cannot tell which way well to prove the truth of their profest Religion some would be offended at it that are not offended at their own sad defect who are ignorant of so needful a part of the Catechisme which every Christian should be taught § 6. Sad numerous instances are too clear a clear a proof First It is become so great a controversie whether Faith have any Evidence or not and whether we can certainly prove the Gospel to be true or rather must merit the more by believing it without proof that the Papists are together by the Ears about it and those Protestants that handle it differ among themselves But the most keep their peace by not daring to decide it And how can those Teachers shew the people the ascertaining Evidence and Proof who hold that there is none to be shewn The objects of Faith are not evident to Sense not seen not tasted c. but the truth of the Revelation hath ascertaining proof And nothing is provable but by intelligible Evidence Secondly The whole Papal Church almost holds That the method of believing the Gospel is to believe it on the Authority of the Church's proposal or affirmation As if Men must believe that Christ hath a Church and that it is thus Authorized before they believe that he is the Christ and hath Authority himself or any Law that gives Authority A multitude of impossibles are here supposed before Man can be a true believer which I have fully manifested elsewhere Thirdly Some that see how unable the vulgar and unlearned are to manage a matter of such weight and difficulty and fearing least a tryal of their Faith against hard objections should but overturn it perswade the weak only to believe and not to doubt but not to ask why nor to search for Reasons for their Faith least disputing the case and hearing objections which they cannot answer should make them Infidels or crack their Brains Fourthly Some tell them that it is only the inward witness of the Spirit in themselves that can assure them that the Scriptures are the word of God Not telling them well what that Testimony is nor how those that yet hear it not shall be convinced of unbelief Fifthly Some by overdoing tell us that the Scripture so shineth propria luce and conteineth its own evidence of Divinity so clearly that a Man that doth but read it though he found it by the high-way and never before heard of it may there see sufficient evidence that it is all of God Sixthly Some by greater overdoing distinguish not the Essentials of Religion from the Integrals or Accidents nor the words from the matter nor the Law and Gospel from the subordinate parts of the Bible in point of evidence and necessity and so would tempt Men to think that if any sentence in our Bibles translation or original be mistaken we can have no certainty of the truth of any of
Words must have their own Historical proof where there is some difference Conclus XIX Objective certainty must still be distinguished from Mental Active Subjective certainty 1. Every thing true is infallibly true so far as whoever believeth it to be true is not deceived 2. Every thing true hath not ascertaining evidence but some things have 3. Every thing that hath ascertaining evidence is not certainly known or believed by millions A multitude of inward and outward hinderances keep men from discerning such evidence as ascertaineth others and might ascertain them Prepared Souls have great advantage by capacity willingness diligence c. And experienced Christians on whom the Gospel hath made a sanctifying change have the witness in themselves which proveth it to be of God And this witness of the Spirit is a great and constant Seal on all that are sound believers but in a different degree Yet the unsanctified and unbelievers that are not negligently or maliciously blind may much discern the excellent effects of the Gospel on others though they feel it not in themselves Conclus XX. The Order of Believing as to the Acts is usually this Men usually though not always begin with a Belief of men and perhaps fallible men which giveth them but a probability that the Gospel is Gods word And from thence they pass to a Belief of it as Gods word which is partly Divine that is for Gods Veracity and Authority but not effectuall but is only the work of a common Grace not sanctifying and saving And thence they come to a saving Divine Faith but in a weak degree which is to grow stronger till it come to full assurance Conclus XXI For the understanding of all this it is very needful that the true nature and formal cause of Divine Faith be better and more distinctly opened than usually it is Faith in its ratio formalis must not be confounded with necessary previous Knowledge All this Syllogism goeth before it Whatsoever God saith is true This God saith Ergo this is true Or All the word of God is trne The Gospel or sacred Scripture is the word of God Ergo it is true Major Minor and conclusion are all but a Knowledge antecedent to Faith in its formal Act though I and others formerly have called the conclusion Faith Yea further whatever is evident truth is to be believed and trusted The Gospel is evident truth therefore it is to be believed or trusted This is yet but Faith's antecedent pisteuo credo fido all signifie to trust And trust is the formal Act of Faith But this trust is in all the three faculties of the Soul 1. The understanding having first discerned the credibility giveth over doubting in that degree and resteth in or trusteth the discerned truth 2. The Will doth with complacency trust to and rest in the said truth discerned with the goodness also discerned as sure and true 3. The eâ—ecutive imperate Power doth practically trust perform and venture commanded by the Will So that truly Divine Faith is an intellectual willing executive or practical trust I have oft explained it by such similitudes as these There is but one Physitian that can heal a sick man His Enemies defame him as a deceiver He saith believe or trust me and I will freely cure thee He that truly trusteth him now doth it Intellectually Consentingly and Practically and takes his Medicines A Forreign Prince tells a poor man or a Prisoner I will give thee a Lordship in the East-Indies if thou wilt trust me some say he is a deceiver Others say the Ship or Pilot or Seas are dangerous He that so far trusteth him now as to forsake his poor Country and goe to Sea and venture his all upon the trust shall have what is promised Conclus XXII Here therefore to confute the Errours of a multitude of Doctors and to quiet most Souls not otherwise to be justly quieted it is necessary to know these things 1. That the formal Act of Faith may be Divine and Saving when the foresaid antecedent knowledge or assent may have some mistakes and insufficient media 2. That Faith may be saving which reacheth not to a strong subjective certainty nor excludeth always all doubting even of the truth of the Gospel and the Life to come 3. Yea that no ones Faith is absolutely perfect 1. Most Persons begin with a humane belief of their Parents and the common estimation of the Country that Christ is the true Messiah and the Scripture is Gods certain word This is not a certain Proof But if Children or unlearned Persons do by such uncertain Arguments believe the Scripture to be Gods word and then tast a Divine goodness in the matter which maketh them most willingly believe it These Persons may by so weak a preparation Practically trust God and the Gospel as so far perceived to be his word even with a saving Faith An Armenian Greek Abassine c. believeth fide humana the Gospel to be true because their several Teachers tell them so And they perceive a goodness in it These on this fallible ground first taking it for the word of God knowing that God is true may yet savingly trust it as the word of God and that trust is a Divine Faith though the antecedent means was humane besides the savour of Truth and goodness in the Word it self 2. How few in the world have true Faith if none be true that reacheth not to full undoubting subjective certainty Certainty may be had Ascertaining truth and Evidence there is But it is not every unlearned person that discerneth it A man may trust his life in the hand of a Physitian though he be not undoubtingly certain he can cure him He may trust Life and Estate in a Vessel which he is not undoubtingly certain will bring him safe to Land Though an unlearned man is not so well acquainted with History as to know with what Evidence the Gospel hath been brought down to our Age nor so good a Logician as to bring an Argument for Christianity and the Scriptur which is not faulty Yet if he take it to be the word of God and though he cannot say I am undoubtingly certain of it yet can say I am undoubtingly certain there is nothing which is to be trusted in equality with it This or nothing must be my hope therefore on this I will venture or lay my life and soul and all my hope and will obey Christ and forsake all that stands against him For this hope I will live and in this hope I will die This will prove a saving Faith 3. Yea it is certain that there is nothing absolutely perfect in this World And therefore no ones faith or certainty is perfect even they that feel no actual doubting have yet but an Imperfect Faith else they would have more perfect obedience patience and joy The best have need to pray Lord increase our faith and Lord I believe help thou my unbeleif The weakness of all
our graces and duty comes from the weakness of our faith And it is not the best Logick which is ever accompanied with the strongest Trust Though Reason be an excellent and necessary ingredient some trust in Christ with victorious confidence who cannot dispute best for their Faith Conclus XXIII Though Peace and holy Joy be a most desirable effect of Faith and by which the strength of it may be much tryed yet it is not this but Practical consent to the Covenant of Grace or Christs terms of Salvation in which its saving sincerity consisteth Conclus XXIV By all this it appeareth how ambiguously the Question de Resolutione fidei is too oft disputed And how fallaciously a mans faith is said to be unsound if his reasons be some unsound and none cogent to prove an undoubted absolute certainty that the Scripture is Gods word and that Faith is not so resolved into the antecedent reasonings as necessarily to be unsound if some of them are so That God cannot lie is known by Nature That the Gospel is his word is known by its proper notifying evidence forenamed where many things concur That therefore the Gospel is true is known as a rational Conclusion But these are by believers apprehanded oft with imperfection faultyness and disorder But Practical Trust in God in Christ in the Gospel Promise is Constituted by its formal object which is Gods Fidelity or Veracity grounded in his Perfection and in the apprehended Truth of his promises And this effectual faith is saving I have Prefaced this much that the Reader may the easilyer understand and profit by the two following Treatises one written and the other translated by Mr. William Lorimer my greatly valued Friend well known by me to be a man of Learning and Judgment and exemplary faithfulness to God and Conscience and of a prudent and peaceable Conversation with men If the Reader bring not a disposition of enmity against the Truth or gross neglect of it but a mind that hath necessary manly preparation and a receptive willingness and resolution for an impartial diligent search I doubt not but in these two Discourses he will find enough though not to remove every difficulty in the Bible yet to save his Faith from all such assaults as would overthrow it and make it uneffectual to his Salvation And verily a man that hath well digested the matter of such Controversies will find that Pomponatius Vaninus Hobbes Spinosa c were Ignorant men that knew not their own Ignorance nor what they wrote against and that Simon saith little but what Commentators have often Answered and though he and others truly prove the doubtfulness of some Readings and somâ— Translations which may be of man he saith nothing to shake a well-grounded belief of Moses Law the Gospel of Christ and any thing necessary to Holiness or Salvation Richard Baxter April 7. 1682. ERRATA Preface pag. 6. lin 2. read have In the Epistle to the Reader page 4. lin 11. read will page 7. lin 11. read adiaphorous page 16. lin 7. read where l. 18. r. be l. 20. r. servant l. 22. r. and First part p. 17. l. 1. 1. uncertain in so much ibid. l. 16. r. parity p. 28. l. 8. r. suppositions p. 35. l. 7. r. retro-active p. 43. l. 7. r. command ibid. l. 13. r. punishment p. 47. l. 2. for Table r. Fable p. 56. l. 14. r. proofs of Religion Second part p. 67. l. 5 6. r. Authoribus p. 80. l. 13. r. preserved p. 84. l. 24. r. floating p. 87. l. 7. r. afford p. 91. l. 7. r. sixth p. 96. l. 23. r. your p. 97. l. 10. r. named p. 104. l. 19. r. for p. 109. l. 16. r. unto p. 110. l. 4. r. may p. 132. l. 16. r. hundred p. 135. l. 8. r. sense p. 144. l. 7. 19. r. Be eber haijarden p. 150. l. 2. r. land p. 151. l. 15. r. mount p. 164. l. 7. r. say The Epistle to the READER Christian Reader IF thou weighest things in the Ballance of right Reason thou can'st not but see That Moses being the first Man by whose Ministry Almighty God thought fit to give a Body of Laws unto a whole Nation and to as many of the World besides as should join in communion with that Nation it was necessary God should enable him to make it evidently appear unto all rational Men that he was sent and authorized by God to give Laws unto that Nation and if thou read'st the Books of Moses and what thou wilt find in the following Discourse concerning him and them thou can'st not but likewise see that the infinitely Wise and Powerful God did in effect enable him evidently and certainly to prove his Mission and Commission to be from Heaven For through God's extraordinary assistance he gave the highest demonstrations of his being Authorized from above that can in reason be desired of any that speaks or writes unto Men in the name of God his works and writings hear the manifest signatures of God's Wisdom Power and Goodness his works were such as could never have been done without the assistance of an invisible Power far above any thing that falls under the perceptions of Sense and it is most evident to Reason That that invisible Power could be no other than the infinitely powerful wise and good God who made preserves and governs the World and all things therein For it could not possibly be any Evil Spirit First Because Moses in his contest with the Magicians of Aegypt did at the very first Encounter far out-do them and the Evil Spirit by whose assistance they wrought their wonders as evidently appears by Aaron's Rods swallowing up their Rods Exod. 7. 12. and by their not being able to remove the Frogs again from off the Land of Aegypt and therefore Pharaoh was forced to call for Moses and Aaron and desire them to intreat the Lord to take away the Frogs from him and his people Exod. 8. â—â—8 and at last he forced them to confess â—â—â—t they were overcome for when they â—â—â—ld not turn the Dust of Aegypt into Lice 〈◊〉 Moses and Aaron had done they then â—â—â—ved out and said unto Pharaoh This is the finger of God Exod. 8. 18 19. they â—onfessed that it was the power of God which â—nabled Moses and Aaron to turn the Dust into Lice and which hindered them from doing the like Secondly It could not possibly be any Evil Spirit because Moses's Miracles were wrought for the highest best and excellentest ends to wit for the glory of God and for the good of his People they were wrought to convince both Pharaoh and Israel That the Lord God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob who made and governs the World is the only true God who is above all to be Feared and Reverenced Adored and Worshipped Loved and Obeyed Pleased and Glorified and that Moses was his Authorized Messenger to be believed and obeyed for his sake in all that he said and commanded in his
and is and is to come of whom through whom and to whom are all things that we may be most happy in union with him and in the enjoyment of his Love and Favor for evermore I might here speak of that account which Moses gives of the Creation of the World and especially of Mankind of the Disobedience and Apostacy of Mankind and of the Miseries that came upon the World by reason thereof And of the restoring of Man to the favor of God again by the Mediation of the Messias who was promised and Prophesied of first under the name and notion of the Seed of the Woman that was to bruise the Serpents Head Gen. 3. 15. then of the Seed of Abraham by Isaac in which Seed all the Nations of the Earth were to be Blesied Gen. 22. 18. 26. 4. and afterwards of the Seed of Jacob by Judah and stiled SHILOH unto whom the gathering of the People was to be Gen. 28. 14. compared with Gen. 49. 10. Numb 24. 16 17 19. and lastly under the name and notion of a Prophet like nnto Moses and who by consequence was to be a Lawgiver and Mediator Deut. 18. 18 19. I might shew the Reader that Moses's Writings set forth God as placable and reconcileahle Gen. 3. 15. 4. 7. as pleased and reconciled Gen. 4. 4. 8. 20 21. and as pleased and reconciled by Faith Gen. 15. 6. I might demonstrate that the account which Moses gives of these things is highly agreeable to right reason and experience and that it is most comfortable and satisfactory to the mind of Man But all this cannot he done in the compass of a short Epistle The Reader may expect that I should at least say something in behalf of the Two following Discourses but if he do he will be disappointed for having said enough in commendation of the First Disconrse in the beginning of the Second I will say no more of either but leave both to speak for themselves Only I must advertise the Reader That the Translation varies from the Original in some Two or Three things and this is the reason of the variation I found that there were several palpable mistakes in the French Discourse and I am resolved through God's Grace to follow no Man in known mistakes therefore I mended them As where the Author says That the broad Plates for covering the Altar made of the Censers of Corah and his Company were Plates of Gold I say as the truth is that they were Plates of Brass Numb 16. 39. And again where the Author says That Moses Condemned Thirty or Forty Thousand Men and commanded them all to be presently Executed I say that he did so by several Thousands which is true for the number of the Slain was about Three Thousand Exod. 32. 28. but our Learned Author was certainly mistaken for his reckoning neither agrees exactly with the Vulgar Translation nor yet with the Hebrew Verity Christian Reader I will detain thee no longer from the perusal of the Discourses themselves and that the use of them may he blessed to thee for thy Souls good is and shall be the earnest desire of Thy Seavant in all things wherein he may Serve our Lord Christ and his Church W. L. A DISCOURSE On the Proofs of the BOOKS of MOSES 1. THE Christian Religion doth freely acknowledge that the wit of Man cannot reach the the height of the Mysteries which it teacheth and that the humane understanding is too narrow and limited to discover the grounds of them in the Eternal springs of Truth where they would appear to us as clear as first and self evident Principles if our sight could reach so far Nevertheless it pretends not that we should believe them absolutely without proof and by a blind Instinct and God hath not given Man Reason and Understanding to render so great a present not onely useless but also hurtful to him by propounding unto him such objects of Faith only against which his Reasoning faculty should be in a continual mutiny and contradictory opposition That is the case of those Sects which are founded only upon Wild Fancies Groundless Conceits and Phanatical Visions and which are Established upon and Upheld by no other Principle than such an extravagant abuse of Reason as that was by which they were first hatcht Whereas the Christian Religion is such that how impenetrable soever be the depth of its mysteries yet none can doubt of their truth but by such another kind of extravagancy 2. For the business is not to examine the possibility of those mysteries nor to cure the wit of Man as touching all the difficulties which it finds to submit unto them men would be unreasonable to desire to comprehend them since they cannot comprehend themselves and yet doubt not of their own Existence It is sufficient that it may be demonstrated to them that all those so unconceivable Truths are linked not only with other Truths which they know but also with such Truths as of all others are most proportionat to their understanding and whereof they may be assured by the most evident and certain means 3. If men have a certain knowledg of any thing it is of matters of Fact of all things which they know there is not any wherein it is more difficult to impose upon them and concerning which there is less occasion of dispute and so when it shall be clearly shewed them that the Christian Religion is inseperably linked with matters of Fact whereof the Truth cannot be questioned by men of common honesty and integrity they must either submit unto the belief of all its Doctrines or else they must renounce sincerity and reason 4. For instance if there was such a Man as Moses and if he was the Author of the Books commonly attributed unto him then the Jewish Religion is true if the Jewish Religion be true then Jesus Christ is the Messias and if Jesus Christ be the Messias then all that he said and taught is to be believed and consequently the Trinity the Incarnation and all the other mysterious Doctrines of the Christian Religion are to be believed 5. It is by this Divine concatenation of Truths that God leads Men unto the true Faith and that they are enabled to show that there is nothing more rational than their submission unto the most incomprehensible mysteries so far are they from deserving to be charged with weakness and imprudence on that account and since the great Body of Christian Religion is composed of a very great number of different Parts which all tend to the same end and hath had a Being about six thousand years it cannot be but that it must consist of very many particular Truths all linked together as in one chain and that every Age must have given new proofs thereof and consequently that wheresoever a Man begins to what point soever he applies himself he will always meet with such an abundance of light that it will be impossible for
is not caring to know whether it be true or false as if it were a thing whereof the truth were unsearchable and indifferent or who shall dare desperately to run-counter unto such abundance of truth and light as that Sacred Book holds forth and without other help than that of his own Fancy and wretched Reason to Determine from the bottom of that dark Dungeon where Nature hath confined him that there is no Being in the whole Universe able to work so many Miracles and that they are but so many Fable and Visions 60. But the reason why some persons are not moved and affected with these proofs which are so sensible unto others is because their Interest and their Passions have so much command of them that they see other things but by halves This is the true Spring of all the Doubts that are moved against Religion because there is really nothing so contrary to their lusts as the manner of Life which it prescribes and so it is no ways difficult to conceive that Mens Lusts should oppose a thing which doth directly fight against them and can never be established but by their Extirpation and Ruine 61. And indeed this may well be so on the account of the contrariety that is between Religion and Mens Lusts since we see the like even in natural things and if sometimes the meer imagination of a thing which Men do not at all like though it be impossible the thing should ever come to pass makes them Act as if they really doubted it would come to pass even when they cannot really doubt how much more may the necessary forsaking of all that is dear and near to Men in the World be apt to blind them and to make them doubt of Religion unto the belief of which the Heart and Will must contribute no less than the Reason and Understanding 62. To give an instance there is a well known Person of great Wit and of great Judgment but so much afraid of Death that being one Day asked if he would not lay his Life that there is such a City as Rome thought the gain were small to be got by the wager he freely answered That he would not now certainly such a doubt as that there may not be such a City as Rome never came into his thoughts before and if the proposal had been made to him upon any other terms than the laying down of this Life it had not been possible for him to have made the least hesitation at the matter but as soon as the Idea of Death presented it self to his mind it wholy took up his thoughts all the Evidences he had to prove it impossible for Rome not to be vanished and came to nothing and if there did not arise in his mind a formal doubt that all which hath been said for the existence of Rome may be false at least there came something into his head or rather into his heart which made him Act as if he had indeed doubted of Romes existence 63. I know very well no Man will confess that addictedness to Pleasures or love of Life can thus far blind him and that every one pretends his doubts are very sincere and that the aversion he hath from believing the things of Religion proceeds only from his Reason and Understanding neither is it good to press Men upon this point since we cannot make them to see that in their our own hearts which they see not there of themselves for the motions of the Heart or Will are not like the motions of the Head or Undestanding These of the Head arise either by degrees and a Series of ratiocinations or else by a certain quick and clear light which makes us take up our Resolutions and fall to Action and it is not possible that this should be unknown to us and that we should not feel it But now as for that which we do by the Byass of the Heart it is far otherwise for there it is certain Springs hidden in us and Born with us which prompt us to this or that without proceeding in a discursive way of Reasoning and almost without our knowledg and hence it comes to pass that except we reflect frequently and attentively upon the motions of the Heart and timely accustom our selves so to do it is almost impossible not to be deceived in Judging of them for the Heart if one may so say doth so mix it self with the Reason or rather doth so much master it that it becomes the principle of all the Actions yet so as it is scarcely perceived to have any influence upon them 64. But let such doubting Persons at least acknowledg that they do not do all that is in their power to get a clear Resolution of their Doubts which must needs be from some defect in the Will they will easily grant this if they have the least measure of sincerity since they cannot deny but that the whole Life-time of Man should be employed in the search of so important a truth as that of Religion is whereas they have scarcely thought upon it a few Minutes and of all things in the World it may be the truth of Religion is that on which they have made least reflection 65. When Men are brought unto 〈◊〉 sincere willingness to apply themselves unto the serious consideration of the proofs Religion it will not be difficult yet further to set forth unto them the Evidences of it taking the way which we have here chalked out for besides the proofs taken from matters of Fact whereof we have given an Essay or Specimen in this Discourse there is yet a very great number of proofs that depend upon sensible perception and which appear to us in great abundance when we read the Scriptures with attention and it is even these last sort that deserve chiefly to be minded because they have this advantage that in perswading us to believe the truth they move us also to love it without which all is unprofitable It is true there are but few Persons duely qualified with the dispositions necessary to their being feelingly moved and affected by them that is to say with a certain Spiritual Gust of Truth and an uprightness of Heart which are rarely to be met with But we must at least endeavor to help others unto these dispositions and to awaken and stir up in them that Spiritual sense which shall be revived in them sooner or latter if ever they believe in a saving manner The End of the First Part. THE SECOND PART Containing An EXAMINATION Of a considerable part of Pere Simon 's Critical History of the OLD TESTAMENT WHEREIN All his Arguments with the weightiest of Spinosa's against Moses's being the Author of the first Five Books of the Bible are fully and clearly answered and several difficult places of Holy Scripture are explained By W. L. Sed quemadmodum apud eos qui semel providentiam probè receperunt non minuitur aut perit fides providentiae ob