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
the rest Seventhly And these by overdoing would perswade us that every word in the Bible is as much Divine as the Decalogue or Lords Prayer and hath nothing in it of humane imperfection in stile or order but is all such as God himself would have written if he had made no use of Man Eighthly And some are so afraid of Popery and the name of Tradition and the Testimony of the Church that they disable their own Faith by rejecting the necessary use of Tradition and the Churches Testimony not being able justly to distinguish Ninthly And too many distinguish not Historical Evidence from the Churches pretended Authoritative determination Tenthly And some cannot tell what Historical Evidence is also Physical and what maketh it so as differing from Moral uncertain Testimony And if Teachers of the Foundation have all these gross defects and more is it any wonder if unstudied Lay-men are here puzled in the dark § 7. I am not now to write a Treatise to tell Men the true method of Preaching Faith I have done that elsewhere especially in The Reasons of Christian Religion The unreasonableness of Infidelity The Life of Faith and a small Book called The certainty of Christianity without Popery But I shall here give the unfurnished Reader a few necessary Distinctions and Conclusions § 8. Conclusion I. Divine Faith is a sort of knowledg with Trust to the credit of God revealing and therefore must have evidence 1. That it is the word of God that is proposed 2. And that God doth not lie or deceive us Conclus II. It is the matter signified which is the prime necessary object of our Faith and the words only as the vehicle or signs of the matter Conclus III. No one particular word in the Bible or the World is of absolute necessity to be known but another may serve that hath the same signification If any word were absolutely necessary to be known if it be English none could be saved but English-men if Greek or Hebrew none could be saved but Grecians or Hebricians c. Conclus IV. The Gospel is not those same words that Christ spake but a Translation of them It s supposed that he spake in the Language then used by the Jews which was a mixture of Chaldee and Syriack but the Gospel is written in Greek so that our Original thereof is but a Divine Translation of Christs words Conclus V. Christ promised and gave his Spirit to his Apostles and Evangelists to bring all things that he had taught them to their remembrance and to lead them into all truth and teach them what to say so far as to perform their Commission To Disciple the Nations Baptizing them in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things that he had Commanded them And thus far they were infallible Conclus VI. The words therefore of the several writers are so far Divine as to be the true and certain signifiers or expressions of so much of Christs Life and Doctrine as he saw needful for the use of Man to the end of the World to be made known Conclus VII But all the Gospel writers recite not the same matter just in the same words nor in the same Order nor in the same Stile And as all humane Language savoureth of humane imperfection and the faculties of Men are not all of one degree of strength and custome varyeth wise Mens Stile so the Apostles were but Men and the very Words Stile and Order of their writing had the effects of sinless humane imperfection and were not such as that God himself could not have done it better But it s all of God as suited to its proper use Conclus VIII The Gospel was God's word Preached by them before they wrote it Eight Years before St. Matthew wrote and about Sixty Seven or Sixty Eight Years before St. John wrote the Gospel And it is not to be imagined that in their Preaching they spake just all the same words which they wrote and no more Conclus IX All the Miracles that were then wrought were first to confirm the Gospel as Preached before the Books were written Conclus X. But God knowing that the Apostles must die and the Gospel must be infallibly delivered to the end of the World inspired them to write not only the Essentials but all that was necessary for the World to know in all Generations and leave it as the Sacred Record of his redeeming Work his Doctrine and his universal Law written infallibly by the Spirit of Jesus which he sent as his Agent for that work so that the same Miracles which confirmed their words are now equally a Seal of the Divine Authority of their writings Conclus XI All the words in the Gospel are not Essential to Christianity nor of equal necessity to be explicitely known the Doctrine of Baptism and the Lords Supper with the Decalogue and Lords Prayer contain all the Essentials of Christianity truly understood which Doctrine of Baptism the Church ever expounded in a few plain Articles called the Creed And they always took those Sacraments and that Creed with the Lords Prayer and the Decalogue expounded by Christ as the summaries of our Belief Desires and Practice to be the Gospel and Christian Religion The Ministry and Church Order instituted by the Spirit of Christ being an Integral part and these they diferenced from the Subsidiary and Ornamental parts of Scripture in point of Necessity and Evidence And they that believed these were saved whether it was before the rest was written or if they never heard or understood the rest Conclus XII And before Christ the Law of Moses must be greatly distinguished from the other Historical Books and Prophesies As the Law of this Land by which all men hold their Lands and Lives and must be governed greatly differ from daily verbal Mandates or written Commissions which the King may give to particular Persons so the Covenant of Grace and the Law of Moses much differ from the particular Messages of Prophets and the words of Priests about that Law or the deeds of men Universal and Common Laws are of Universal and Common Obligation and therefore all must be certain of their Authority But the Obedience and Salvation of the Land or World was not laid on e. g. the Prophets Message to Saul to Jeroboam to Hezekiah c. Therefore in these Cases the People are left sometimes to see whether Predictions come to pass and its harder for them to know who is a true Prophet the necessity being lesser Conclus XIII It is therefore greatly to be noted that 1. The Law of Nature needed no Miracles to Confirm it being legible in the Nature of Man and of all about him 2. The Law of Moses which that Nation was to be ruled by had so full evidence of Divine Authority that it was scarce possible for the Jews of that Age to doubt of it The ten Plagues of Egypt the opening of the
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
him to resist and stand out against it 6. But we are so much the more obliged diligently to apply our selves unto an accurat search for finding out of these Proofs by how much it hath not pleased God that they should consist in such gross and palpable Principles as might be discovered at first glance and might be seen equally by all men they are rather an heap of circumstances which all men do not put together or do not look upon them the same way but which are nevertheless sensibly evident unto the meanest capacities when their eyes are once opened and do produce when they are gathered up and put together a certainty if not more full at least more intimate and more natural than that which we have of speculative and abstractive demonstrations because the ways and means of attaining unto the assurance of those matters of Fact are more proportionable and sutable unto the humane understanding and there is no man but will find the Principles of them in himself 7. It is for this end to give a Specimen how those matters of Fact are to be considered whose certainty necessarily inferreth the certainty of our Religion that we shall choose to discourse of the particular matters of Fact in Moses his History and of the Truth of his Books which are the Foundation of the Jewish Religion as the Jewish is the Foundation of the Christian Religion according to Saint Paul 8. I think there is no need that I should first prove before I proceed any further That if really there hath been a Man affirming that he was sent from God and who not desiring to be believed upon his bare word or for some Actions not much above those which we know to be within the compass of humane power hath for proof of his mission wrought that astonishing multitude of Miracles which we find Recorded in the Pentateuch hath evidently shewed that he had power of life and death hath commanded the Elements and made the whole frame of Nature to bow at his word and obey his orders I say there is no need that I should prove he ought to be believed for I doubt not but that upon supposition that there hath been such a Man who hath really done such things to prove his mission from God all Men in the World will grant that this person deserves to be believed in all that he hath written of that God in whose name he hath wrought all those Miracles and that the Religion which he hath instituted ought to be received as true and Divine 9. The most obstinate Spirits of Men are as it were overwhelmed with the weight of those Miracles and find no other means to satisfie their byass to unbelief than to seek to find out some frivolous reasons on which to ground their doubts of the truth of those Miracles and of the Book that contains them 10. But if they have any remainder of honesty sincerity I defie them to go far or continue long in those doubts for they will find their doubts so born down and vanquished by the abundance of proofs which accompany this History that they will be forced either to acknowledg it to be true or else to fall in with the senseless stupidity of those persons who for fear of being powerfully perswaded to believe the things which Religion teacheth them resolvedly choose never to think on them at all 11. For by what suppositions will they pretend to shake the certainty of what is written in those Books and dispose their minde to believe that there was never any such thing Let them give as much liberty as they will unto their Fancy and let it furnish them with all the Chymerical suppositions that possibly it can yet they shall never be able to conclude any thing from thence which hath the least shadow of probability and which a Man of the least solid Judgment would not be ashamed to propound 12. Will they say there was never such a Man as Moses and that whatever hath been said of him are fables invented for delight But let them consider that the Jews and Christians are not the onely persons who have been known to speak and write of this Moses since we find there are even prophane Historians who make mention of him yet if they deny what is written of him in the Penteatuch and affirm all those things to be Fables then let them also deny all the Histories in the World and affirm them all to be fables since there is none of them of whose Truth we could be sure if it were allowed as any way rational to doubt whether there was ever a Man called Moses who brought the Jews out of Aegypt after a long captivity for all the Reasons by which Men judge of the Truth of other Histories are equally to be found in that of Moses For example no Man doubts but that Alexander and Cyrus have been because many Authors have written of them and it never came into any Mans mind deliberatly to doubt thereof and it is evident that neither hath any Man upon serious thoughts ever doubted whether Moses hath been this hath been constantly believed by a very numerous people and by all who have known and have conversed both with him and them and was never contradicted by any Body whosoever But moreover there is this difference that the Books of Moses have singular and peculiar proofs of their certain truth which are not to be met with in any other for there was never any Book preserved with so much care and affection as that Book which containeth his History and yet never had any men more sensible and strong Reasons taken from their own Interest to disprove the truth of a Book if they could have done it with any colour of probability than the Jews have had to disprove the truth of the Books of Moses since by so doing they should have at once freed themselves from the most uneasie Law that ever was from a Law I say that was most rigorous and grievous most dreadful and burdensome to the observers of it in so much that there appeareth no motive that could perswade them to submit unto and endure the whole burden of it but a firm perswasion of its infallible Truth and divine Authority 13. Unbelief then not being able to keep its ground upon this first Chymerical supposition it must pass unto and fix upon some other and the Infidel must say for example that it is true there was a man called Moses and this man was the head of a great Nation which he brought out of Aegypt but withall that he was a great Impostor who deceived that people by false Miracles and forged all the prodigious things which he mentions in his Books to the end he might the better bring them under Subjection to the Law he had devised and by that Law to himself in making them to esteem it as come from Heaven and to consider himself as the Interpreter of God's Will
body must have written those Books and accommodated them to the Ceremonies and Laws which were already in use adding thereunto those Miracles the more to engage the People unto the observance of that Law But all this is so far void of all probability that there was never any till now that durst in earnest assert it 37. How could it be said for example that the Pentateuch was written and published long after the Death of Moses and that it caused the Establishment of the Law and Worship of the Jewish Religion which it contains Then it must be said also that the Ark and Tabernacle which are the Foundations of that Religion were not made till long after Moses and till that Book had been published but this is a thing absolutely impossible for all the Jews firmly believed that their Ark and Tabernacle were made by Moses as that Book relates and it is not conceivable why or on what account they could have taken up such an opinion if they had made them both themselves after they had seen and recived that Book which is now supposed not to have appeared in the World till a long time after Moses it would be doubtless one of the prettiest things in the World and the most unparallel'd either that this Book having been compiled all at once and beforehand with that prodigious number of Ceremonies and Laws as already in use they should afterwards have been Instituted and setled or that being compiled by degrees and according as all those things were Instituted and Established it should always have had as they say a retractive effect or influence and have wrought backwards so as to cause each of those Institutions to be Ascribed unto Moses 38. Likewise how could this People who at their first Imbracing of this Law must at least have known that it was not true that it had been in use amongst them ever since Moses his time and that there had been a continued Succession of Priests ever since Aaron how I say could this People have been able to perswade themselves Universally to believe that what was prescribed by that Book had always been practised amongst them and that the Priests whom it Ordained had received their Ministry from Aaron by an uninterrupted Succession And finally how upon the same principle could all the other Tribes and Families have suffered the Tribe of Levy and Race of Aaron to appropriate unto themselves all the priviledges belonging to the Priesthood and to the Office of the High Priest 39. There is no less absurdity in the other Supposition to wit that the Law having been given by Moses by word of Mouth was preserved for a time among the Jews by means of Tradition only and that afterwards those who committed it to writing added thereunto all those Miracles For besides that even this would be a kind of Miracle and a thing very hard to conceive that that People should have received a Law so strict and severe as that was from a Man who had done nothing extraordinary for proving that he had it from God how could it be that Moses who doubtless had the use of writing should have omitted a thing so necessary and not have committed to writing a Law that contained so many Observations so many Ceremonies and so many Rules that it was necessary to have it always before ones Eyes for fear of failing in some or other point of duty prescribed by it 40. And indeed we learn also from the Book it self that Moses did not sail to commit it to writing Moses as it is said Deut. 31. 9 10 11 12 13. wrote this Law and delivered it unto the Priests the Sons of Levy and unto all the Elders of Israel and commanded that it should be read before all Israel in their hearing at the end of every Seventh Year in the Feast of Tabernacles And it is also said in I do not know how many places of that Book That God commanded Moses to write that which he revealed to him upon the Mount if the Jews then had received that Law from him only by word of Mouth how could they have ever received a Book which should have contained a Lie so gross evident and which should have carried in it an express order from God which their Law-giver had not obeyed 41. That very Order to read the Law every Seventh Year at the Feast of Tabernacles as having been given by Moses doth further clearly show that it could not have been changed nor corrupted for it would have been impossible for such corruptions not to have been discovered or that being discovered they should have been suffered by a People devoted to that Law and whose devout Subjection to it was grounded upon their believing it to be of God and written by Moses besides that those Miracles being most visible to the Eye scattered throughout the Books repeated in divers places of them and linked with the principal transactions therein Recorded there had been a necessity of making a new Book to take them in and not meerly to alter for that purpose an old Book which had been already received 42. The Infidel then must yet once more return to that pretended vain-glorious humor of the Jewish Nation and maintain that the Jews could easily suffer this falsification and that they were even glad that all those Miracles were added to their Law and that their Chronicles were filled with them 43. This might have some probability if the Question were only about a matter of Civil or Political concernment as for example The Romans could have been content that one should have told them that they were the Off-spring of Aeneas and it may be the French would be well enough pleased that one should derive their Original from the Trojans these are things which please some Mens Fancies and may pass without contradiction it being no Bodies interest to oppose them and they do not interfer with other things that have been established and stedfastly believed time out of mind and that are looked upon as the only considerable But as touching the Jews a People so devoted to their Religion so faithful Observers of the least Traditions and to whom lying was so severely forbidden this supposition is altogether without any appearance of truth 44. For I cannot believe that the Infidels boldness to deny any thing that makes against them dare adventure so far as to dispute all the Evidence we have of the Jews Zeal for their Religion since even yet to this day they have so great a veneration for that Law that though they have been dispersed above these Sixteen Hundred Years and see no accomplishment of what was promised to them notwithstanding they observe it still as far as they can with the same strictness as they did at first and wait continually for the fulfilling of those promises how improbable is it then that they should have suffered that which they looked upon as God's own word to be mixed and blended with
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
Author and an Universal Historical Tradition assures us that such a Man was indeed the Author of it we are bound to believe it and cannot rationally disbelieve it without a demonstration to the contrary Thus we know the Books of Plato Aristotle and Cicero to have been written by those Authors and this is so clear and certain a truth Vt de istorum librorum Authoritatibus dubitare dementis sit utque ridendus sit non refellendus qui de iis questionem movet That none but a Madman will doubt of the Authors of those Books and he is to be laughed at and not confuted who moves a Question concerning them as holy August writes contra Fanstum Manich. lib. 32. cap. 21. And as he says That he knew the writeings of the New Testament to be the writings of the Apostles by the same means that the Manichees knew the writeings of Manes to be the writings of Manes so I say That by what means we here in England know the late Critical History of the Old Testament to be the writing of Pere Simon a Priest of the Oratory by the like means we know the Pentateuch to be the writing of Moses and we ought not to disbelieve it having the Universal Testimony of Jews Christians Mahumetans and many Heathens to ground our Faith upon unless it be first clearly demonstrated to us that it implies a contradiction that Moses should have written it which I know that neither Pere Simon nor any Man else can do And the reasonableness of what I have now said will yet further appear if it be considered that our Lord Christ himself gives Testimony unto the writings of Moses in general John 5. 46 47. Moses wrote of me But if ye beleive not his writeings how shall ye beleive my words and both he and his Apostles frequently appeal unto them and quote passages out of them This is the truth to be believed and this is actually believed by the Christian Church Yet it is no matter of Faith that there are no various Lections in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament nay it is a matter evident to Sense that there are various Lections it is no matter of Faith that through the length and injury of time and Negligence of Transcribers and Printers there are no mistakes at all in the Originals of Holy Scripture on the contrary we acknowledg that there may possibly be some mistakes even in the Pentateuch through the length and injury of time and the negligence of Transcribers and Printers but those mistakes we believe do not at all hinder the Holy Scriptures from being a perfect Rule of Faith and Life in all things necessary to the Glorifying of God and Saving of our Souls Nor lastly is it matter of Faith That Moses wrote every Word and Sentence Chapter and Verse of the Pentateuch with his own hand It is sufficient that we believe he wrote it himself or by other persons whose help he used in the writing of it and when it was written he revised it and approved it and in this he was assisted by the Holy Spirit inspiring guiding and directing him And if there be any thing in the Pentateuch besides the mistakes of Transcribers and Printers that was written after Moses's time it was added upon good Reasons by Joshua or Ezra and the great Assembly who were Men of a Prophetical Spirit and inspired by God in what they did of that nature Now in the Second place let us see what is the opinion of Pere Simon and wherein he agrees with or differs from the common Faith of the Church in this matter And First He agrees with us in these following particulars 1. That the whole Scripture of the Old Testament and consequently the Pentateuch was of Divine Inspiration and that God was the primary Author thereof this is demonstratively proved from his own express words in his Preface pag. 4. But besides that this Principle of a Divine of Paris That the whole Scripture is not equally Divine and Canonical is dangerous it is directly opposite to the Doctrine of the New Testament which acknowledges every thing throughout the whole Scripture for Prophetical and to have been inspired wherefore I thought I ought to lay down some Principles whereby we might ascribe every thing in the whole Scriptures to Prophets or Persons inspired by God even to the alterations themselves those only excepted which had happened through length of time or negligence of Transcribers And Book 1. Chap. 1. Pag. 3. I have divided this work into Three Books the First of which Treats at large of the Authors of the Bible which I have called Prophets with Josephus contra App. and most of the Fathers because they were in effect directed by the Spirit of God and that St. Peter calls the whole Scripture Prophecies During the Hebrew Common-wealth there were from time to time among them these sorts of Persons inspired by God were it to write Divine and Prophetick Books as the same Josephus has remarked or as Eusebius says to distinguish betwixt those that were truly Prophetick and others that were not And Pag. 4. They the publick Writers had the liberty in collecting the Acts which were in their Registeries to add diminish and change according as they thought fit and the Books as Eusebius says which were declared Sacred were reviewed by Persons inspired by God who Judged whether they were truly Prophetick or Divine And Pag. 21. I know it is expresly forbidden in Deuteronomy either to add or diminish any thing from the Word of God But we may Answer with the Author of the Book Intituled Cozri that this prohibition relates only to private Persons and not to those whom God had expresly commanded to interpret his Will God promised to the Prophets and to the Judges of the Sanhedrim who succeeded Moses the same Grace and the same Spirit of Prophecy as those had who lived in his time and therefore they have held the same Power not only of Interpreting the Law but also of making new Ordinances which were afterwards writ and placed in the Registeries of the Republick And Pag. 22. The Church has not the Right of making Books Canonical and Divine as the Prophets had in the Old Testament but only to declare them Canonical In fine Book 1. Chap. 1. Pag. 1. None can doubt but that the truths contained in the Holy Scripture are infallible and of Divine Authority since they proceed immediately from God who in this has only made use of the Ministery of Men to be his Interpreters So there is no Person either Jew or Christian who does not acknowledg that the Scripture being the pure Word of God is at the same time the first principle and foundation of Religion Here is clear and full proof from his own express words of his agreement with us in the first particular before mentioned Secondly He agrees with us in this That though Men having been the Depositories of these Sacred
time we will speak of each of them by it self and First For Hebron We find it frequently in the Pentateuch as in Gen. 13. 18. 23. 2 19. 35. 27. 37. 14. Num. 13. 22. It was a City in the Land of Canaan it is probable it might be first called Mamre Gen. 13. 18. and afterwards Arba or Kirjatharba and Hebron When this City began first to be called Hebron is uncertain but it seems to have been called by that name long before Moses for it is said Gen. 37. 14. that Jacob sent his Son Joseph out of the Vale of Hebron and Numb 13. 22. we read that the Spies which Moses sent to search out the Land of Canaan ascended by the South and came unto Hebron where the Children of Anak dwelt and that Hebron was built Seven Years before Zoan in Aegypt Here Hebron is spoken of as a City very ancient and that was ordinarily called by that name Afterwards Joshua gave it unto Caleb the Son of Jephunneh for an Inheritance and he drove the Anakims out of it and took possession of it as we read in Josh 14. 13 14. 15. 13 14. But it is no where said that Caleb changed the name of it and first called it Hebron I confess it is written that the name of Hebron before was Kirjatharba Josh 14. 15. Jud. 1. 10. but the meaning of those words is that it was called Kirjath-arba before Caleb drove out the Anakims and took possession of it but this doth not prove that it was not also called Hebron before and in the time of Moses It is was certainly called Kirjath-arba by the Canaanites before Caleb took it from them but at the same time it might be called Hebron by the Israelites I thus clearly show that it might be so it was a City scituate on the side of a Hill as appears from Josh 14. 12 13 14. Caleb said unto Joshua give me this Mountain Joshua granted him his Request and gave him Hebron To me it seems probable that the Hill was first called Hebron and so it was Kirjatharba upon Hebron for certain the Countrey under the Hill was called the Valley of Hebron and as is already observed it was so called in Jacob's time Gen. 37. 14. It may be the Hill was first called Hebron from Ephron the Hittite of whom Abraham bought the Cave of Machphelah for a Burying-place Gen. 23. 16 17 18 19. this Cave seems to have been in the Hill and the Field to have been at the foot of the Hill before the Mouth of the Cave now by an easie change of letters of a like sound it is come to be called Hebron by the Posterity of Abraham because their Father Abraham bought it of Ephron or which comes to the same thing Abraham's Posterity called it Hebron from Habar because Abraham and his Posterity did as it were enter into civil Society with the Hittites when he bought of Ephron that part of the Hill with the Field and Trees at the Foot of it for himself and his Posterity It was almost natural for Abraham's Posterity to call it Hebron on these accounts that so the very name of it might be a lasting memorial of their right to it but the Anakims who afterwards took possession of it without right when the Israelites were in Aegypt did not like that it should be called at all by that name of Hebron and therefore called it Kirjath-arba only from Arba the Father of Anak Josh 15. 13. If any should now say that this only shews how the Hill with the Cave and Field which Abraham bought for a Burying-place came to be called Hebron but this is nothing to the City which was distinct from the Hill Cave and Field I Answer First The City it self was Built on the side of the Hill Secondly It is probable that in process of time the City was so far enlarged as to take in Abraham's Field with the Cave and that part of the Hill in which the Cave was and this might give occasion unto the Israelites to call the City it self by the name of Hebron From all which it appears probable that it was called Hebron by the Israelites at the same time that it was called Kirjath-arba by the Canaanites and that it was called by that name among the People of God in the time of Moses but after the Canaanites were driven out and Caleb was possessed of it it lost the name Kirjath-arba and retained only the name Hebron But against this it is Objected out of Jerome that this City had its name from Hebron the Son of Caleb of whom we read in 1 Chron. 2. 42. 43. I Answer First Masius in his Commentary on Joshua Pag. 247. on the 15th Verse of the 14th Chapter declares that he did not see any strength in this Argument to prove that Kirjath-arba was not called Hebron in the time of Moses or that it was first so called from Hebron the Son of Caleb but the truth is Masius himself seems to have been very much mistaken in Judging of the sense of these words the Father of Hebron in 1 Chron. 2. 42. for he seems plainly to take Hebron there for the City and that Father of Hebron signifies Governor or Lord of Hebron whereas it is evident that Hebron there is a Man's name for in the next Verse this Hebron is said to have had Four Sons we must acknowledg then that one of the Posterity of Caleb was called Hebron But then Secondly I Answer that it is not clear that this Caleb the Father of Hebron was the same Man with the Caleb that first took Kirjath-arba from the Anakims for Caleb that first took Kirjath-arba from the Anakims was the Son of Jephunneh Josh 14. 6. 1 Chron. 4. 15. But it is expresly written of Caleb said to be the Father of Hebron that he was the Son of Hezron 1 Chron. 2. 9 18 19 42. but Hezron went into Aegypt with Jacob Gen. 46. 12. therefore his Son Caleb must have lived long before Moses and could not be the same with Caleb the Son of Jephunneh who was but Forty Years Old when Moses sent him to espy out the Land of Canaan Josh 14. 7. Yet Thirdly Granting that Caleb the Son of Jephunneh and Caleb the Son of Hezron were one and the same Man and that he is called the Son of Hezron only in a large sense because he was of the Posterity of Hezron as Masius Pag. 243. thinks that Hezron was but his Grandfather or Great Grandfather c. I say this being granted it will not follow that Kirjath-arba was first called Hebron from Hebron the Son of Caleb on the contrary Hebron the Son of Caleb might take his name from the City Hebron the Inheritance of his Father the like seems to have happened unto Gilead the Son of Machir 1 Chron. 2. 21. he seems to have received his name from Mount Gilead the place of his Fathers Inheritance Deut. 3. 15. for
certain it is that he did not first give it its name because Jacob had done that long before as appears from Gen. 31. 47 48 54. Masius has one Objection which I must Answer Kirjath-arba says he is an old name of that City therefore Hebron is a new name I Answer This is but a weak conjecture for it might have two old names one amongst the Canaanites and the other amongst the Israelites as it seems Bethel had of which Bethel it is said Judg. 1. 23. the name of it before was Luz and yet it is probable that the Israelites called that City by the name of Bethel long before the House of Joseph took it from the Canaanites Some part of the Countrey very near it was most certainly called Bethel from Jacob's time and it is not unlikely that the City it self from that time forwards began to be called sometimes Bethel by Jacob's Posterity even Jacob himself seems to make Luz to be all one with Bethel because Bethel strictly so called was near Luz Gen. 48. 3. says Jacob God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the Land of Canaan and Blessed me but in Chap. 35. Vers 1 3. the same City is called Bethel and was so called at that time both by God speaking unto Jacob and by Jacob speaking unto his Family says God unto him arise go up to Bethel and dwell there and says he to his Family let us arise and go up to Bethel which they did and so came to Luz that is Bethel Vers 6. And Jacob there in Luz Built an Altar and called the place of the Altar El-Bethel Vers 7. From all which it seems very evident that the same City was in Jacob's time called by two names Bethel and Luz its publick name by which the Canaanites called it and by which it was generally known to the World was Luz but its private name by which God and his People called it was Bethel the like may be said without any absurdity at all of Kirjath-arba and Hebron Secondly For the name Dan as to what he Objects that it was not in Beeing in the time of Moses and yet it is found in the Pentateuch Gen. 14. 14. Deut. 34. 1. I Answer First It is freely confessed that the City Leshem or Laish was not called by the name of Dan in the time of Moses It was a long time after Moses before the Danites took Laish and changed its name from Laish to Dan after the name of Dan their Father as appears from Josh 19. 47. Jud. 18. 29. But that therefore there was no other place called by the name of Dan in the time of Moses I deny the consequence the Brook or Valley of Eshcol was first called Eshcol in the time of Moses because of the Cluster of Grapes which the Children of Israel cut down from thence when the Spies searched out the Land Numb 13. 24. And yet in Abraham's time Mamre the Amorite had a Brother whose name was Eshcol Gen. 14. 13. just so though Laish was not called Dan till after Moses yet some other place might be called Dan in the time both of Abraham and Moses Jerome Swidas and Philostorgius were of opinion that a Spring-head of Jordan was called Dan and the Hebrew Doctors think that the River Jordan was so called because it springs out of Dan and if we may believe the Learned Hofman in his Lexicon universale Pag. 526. there was another Dan yet distinct from Laish-Dan and it was an Hill in the Tribe of Ephraim on the Rode from Samaria to Sichem if there were then several Dans it may probably be supposed that even in Abraham's time there might be some place called by the name of Dan if not the Hill Dan on the Rode from Samaria to Sichem at least the Fountain Dan springing out of Mount Libanus I Answer Secondly Moses in the Spirit of Prophecy might call Laish Dan by an Historical Prolepsis as foreseeing that it would lose the name of Laish and be called and known only by the name of Dan in after Ages He might be moved to do this that his writings might then be the better understood by the People when the name of Laish should be forgotten by the Vulgar and that City should only be known by the name of Dan. I Answer Thirdly Suppose we should grant with the Learned Masius that some Prophet after Moses did substitute the word Dan in the place of Laish and the same may be said of Hebron for to help the People the better to understand and remember those passages of Holy Scripture where it occurs it will not follow from hence that Moses cannot be the Author of the Pentateuch as we say one Swallow doth not make the Spring so one or two little alterations of a word and that by the same Holy Spirit of Truth by which Moses wrote doth not hinder Moses from being justly accounted the Author of the Pentateuch the changing of a word or two by God's Spirit for the benefit of God's People in after Ages is no sufficient reason to change the name of the Book and to denominate it anew from the person by whom it pleased God to make such a change But though I write thus yet I shall not easily grant that de facto there has been such an alteration made in the names before mentioned until it be first clearly and certainly proved which no Man that I know hath yet done I am sure P. Simon hath not done it Thirdly He Objects Gen. 36. 31. It is probable says P. Simon that Moses could not have writ these words And these are the Kings that Reigned in the Land of Edom before there Reigned any King over the Children of Israel this manner of speaking supposes the Establishment of Kings amongst the Hebrews Answer 1. This manner of speaking only supposes that Kingly Government was to be Established amongst the Children of Israel according to the express promise of God unto Jacob at Bethel Gen. 35. 11 12. and this Moses knew very well by the Spirit of Prophecy as appears from Deut. 17. 14 15 18 19 20. and therefore he might well suppose it as a thing that should certainly come to pass but it not being yet come to pass Moses here declares that Esau was before hand with Jacob as to this matter for whilst Jacob's Posterity was in Servitude under a Rod of Iron in Aegypt Esau his Posterity flourished under a Kingly Government in the Land of Edom. Answer 2. This may signifie no more but that the Persons there mentioned did Reign Kings in the Land of Edom before the time of Moses that the Children of Israel were first formed into an Holy Kingdom and Common-wealth according to Exod. 19. 5 6. and Moses was set over them as their Head and King under God according to Deut. 33. 5. where it is said that Moses was King in Jeshurun Thus it is evident that there is no weight at all in this Objection Fourthly
for many This is my Body which is given or broken for you because his Blood was not shed nor his Body broken till the Day after and yet it is most certain that he did speak those words when he instituted the Holy Sacrament the Night before his Death But then you will ask why did our Lord speak so why did he say This is my Blood which is shed this is my Body which is broken when neither was the one shed nor the other broken I Answer He did so because it was an ordinary way of speaking amongst the Jews to express themselves in the Preterit or Present Tense when they were talking or writing of a thing that was shortly and certainly to come to pass and therefore the Vulgar Interpeter attending more to the sense than to the bare words of our Lord renders them Hic est sanguis meus qui pro multis effundetur hoc est corpus meum quod pro vobis tradetur this is my Blood which shall be shed and my Body which shall be given after the same manner may we understand the words of Moses as Israel did i. e. as Israel shall shortly and certainly do to the Land of his Possession besides there was this good reason why Moses should use the Preterit Tense because the thing he was writing of was partly past already Israel had already destroyed the Inhabitants of Two Kingdoms and taken actual possession of the Land and it was partly to be within a short time Israel was shortly to do so by all the other Inhabitants of the Land of his possession which God had given him Moses then having reason to write as he did Spinosa had no reason to cavil at the manner of his expression Fifteenthly He Objects Deut. 3. 14. and from these words Jair called them after his own name Bashan-havoth-jair unto this Day infers that this must have been written long after Moses Answer Some think that these words VNTO THIS DAY have been after Moses put in the Margin and in process of time have crept into the Text or else that Ezdras hath inserted them into the Text. But there is no necessity of Answering thus for First Moses wrote the Book of Deuteronomy some Months after Jair had taken the Countrey of Argob and called it after his own name Bashan-havoth-jair therefore Moses himself might very well say that the Countrey of Argob was called after the name of Jair unto this Day that is from the time of Jair his taking of it and calling it Bashan-havoth-jair unto the Day of Moses writing that part of the Book of Deuteronomy for there was nothing but truth in his so saying Secondly Moses wrote the Book of Deuteronomy not only for the present Generation but also for the Generations to come according to that of the Psalmist Psal 102. 18. This shall be written for the Generations to come and consequently knew that these words unto this Day would be further verified in after Ages Therefore he might purposely use these words unto this Day as intending thereby to signifie unto the Israelites in their several Generations that the Countrey of Argob was called after the name of Jair Bashan-havoth-jair from Jairs first taking of it unto their time there being then no falsity nor absurdity in the words unto this Day as here used Moses himself might very well be the Author of them nay they are so significant with respect to future Generations as I have shewed that Moses his Wisdom appears in choosing to express himself in such words as were actually true when he first spoke and wrote them and yet were to be further verified in all succeeding Generations so long as the Hebrew-Commonwealth stood so much for Answer unto Spinosa his Two Objections I have now gone through all that P. Simon hath written to prove that Moses could not be the Author of the Pentateuch I have examined all his Arguments and Answered every one of them there is not one good Argument amongst them all not one that can prove his position That Moses cannot be the Author of the Books attributed to him and verily many of them are I think such pitiful trifling things that a reasonable Man and Christian should be ashamed of them The reason why I meddle with no more of his Critical History than what concerns the Pentateuch is First Because this was defigned to accompany the precedent Discourse concerning the proofs of the Books of Moses and therefore I thought fit to deal with P. Simon only upon that point wherein he seemed to contradict what the Author of the excellent Discourse affirms and proves that so his Objections being all Answered that Discourse may remain firm and unshaken and in its full strength and that Infidels may not pretend that P. Simon has confuted it which is so far from being true that the vain succesless attempt of so great a Man as P. Simon is accounted to prove that Moses could not be the Author of the Pentateuch is an Argument that the thing is not practicable it cannot be done for if it could P. Simon is counted as able and to me seems to have been as willing to have done it as any other Man Secondly Because if the Divine Truth and Authority of Moses and his Law and of Christ and his Gospel be well secured our Christian Religion is secured in its main strength and fundamental grounds against Atheists and Infidels As for the rest of P. Simon 's Book I doubt not but some Men of greater Abilities for such a work than I will in due time thoroughly examine it and separate the Chaff from the Wheat allowing him his due praise where he hath done well and chastising him where he hath done evil you may guess by this that it will not be so difficult to do it as some may apprehend In the mean time if his vain Cavils at several expressions here and there in the Holy Scriptures should be a tentation unto any to think meanly of the Scriptures themselves I desire such if they can to read some part of Origens Philocalia Chap. 1. Pag. 4 5. in Spencers Edition at Cambridge 1658. and to consider that as Origen says Every one of the Works of God do not equally but some more and some less declare and shew forth the Glory of God in his Beeing and Providence after the same manner all the parts of God's written Word do not equally but some more clearly and some more obscurely evidence themselves to be of God And as there are some dark occurrences in Providence that tempt weak and sinful Men to doubt of God's Beeing and Providence just so there are some dark and difficult passages in Holy Scripture that tempt Men to doubt of the Divine Verity and Authority of of the Scriptures and yet as none but Fools Psal 14. 1. will disbelieve the Beeing and Providence of God because there are some things in his Nature and Providence which they cannot comprehend so no Wise Man will disbelieve the Holy Scriptures because there are here and there some passages in them which he cannot understand Lo they have rejected the word of the Lord and what Wisdom is in them says the Prophet Jeremiah Jer. 8. 9. Indeed there can be no true Wisdom in them who reject the Word of the Lord for his Word believed and practised is our Wisdom and our Understanding and makes us a wise and understanding People Deut. 4. 5 6 The Testimony of the Lord is sure making Wise the Simple Psal 19. 7. If ever then we would be truly Wise let us against all Tentations to the contrary esteem highly of and adhere stedfastly unto the Holy Scriptures of Truth for it is they that are able to make us wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 3. 15. If what I have here written do contribute any thing towards the helping of Christian Readers to keep up in their Souls a due esteem of and reverend regard unto the Holy Scriptures and towards the strengthning of them against Tentations to unbelief I have obtained my end and desire them to let me have the help and benefit of their Prayers but let him have all the Praise who is the Father of Lights and the God of all Grace unto whom be Glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all Ages World without End Amen FINIS a Exod. 5. 1 2 3. 7. 1 2 3 4 5. 3. 14 15 16 17 18. 4. from 1 to 9. 6. from 1 to 8. Deut. 4. 9 to 24. b Exod. 20. 3 4 5 6 7 c. ibid. v. 20 22 23. 23. 13. Deut. 4. 5 6 7 8 9 10. 7. 1 2 3 4 5 6. 12. 29 30 31 32. 18. 9 10 11 12 13 14. Deut. 4. 32 to 41. Exod. 20. 24 latter part of the Verse Deut. 4. 7. c Exod. 20. 17. Lev. 19. 17 18. d Exod. 21. 13. Deut. 19. e Levit. 25. 23 c. f Exod. 21. 1 2 c. Deut. 15. 12 to 19. 24. 14 15. g Deut. 15. 6 to 12. Exod. 22 25 26 27. h Exod. 22. 21. Levit. 19. 33. 34. i Exod. 22. 22 23 24. k Exod. 20. 12. 22. 28. Deut. 17. 11. l Deut. 1. 16 17. 17. 16 17 18 19 20. 25. 1.
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-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