last Objection of Atheists is answered 120 Chap. 22. The Consequences of what we have proved in our foregoing Observations upon the Book of Genesis 126 The Contents of the Chapters of the Second Part of the First Volume Chap. 1. THat it cannot reasonably be doubted but that Moses is the Author of Exodus and of the three other following Books Page 137 Chap. 2. That both the Character of Moses 's person and the nature of the things he relates has always made Men read his Books with attention 146 Chap. 3. That the truth of the Miracles related by Moses cannot reasonably be doubted of 153 Chap. 4. A Continuation of the proofs of the truth of the Miracles wrought by Moses 158 Chap. 5. That Moses 's Description of the manner of God's giving him his Laws is evidently true 164 Chap. 6. Some other proofs that confirm Moses 's Description of the manner how the Law was given and promulgated 169 Chap. 7. That there is no just Exception can be made against Moses 's History in what relates to the Oracles which he hath recorded in his Books 173 Chap. 8. That the Testimony of the Jews is a constant proof of the truth of the Oracles related by Moses 177 Chap. 9. That it appears by the nature of his Relations that Moses had the Messias in view when he wrote the Book of Genesis 180 Chap. 10. That the same perswasion appears throughout the whole Conduct of Moses until his Death 185 Chap. 11. That Balaam 's prophesie which Moses relates is a further Argument of the same perswasion in him 188 Chap. 12. That one may see also in Moses 's Law plain Footsteps of God's Design in distinguishing these from whom he would have the Messiah to be Born. 194 Chap. 13. That the manner of God's promulgating his Law amongst the Israelites did much conduce to the distinguishing them from all other Nations 200 Chap. 14. That God seems to have designed to keep up a Spirit of Jealousie in the very Bosom of the Jewish Nation 206 Chap. 15. That Circumcision was a means of distinguishing the Israelites from other Nations 212 Chap. 16. That the Law of Moses engaged the Jews to the study of their Genealogies that they might certainly know that of the Messiah 219 Chap. 17. A Solution of some Difficulties in these Genealogies 223 Chap. 18. That the manner whereby the Law of Moses fixed the people of Israel to the Land of Canaan was to keep them separated from other Nations 228 Chap. 19. That the Law tied the people of Israel to the Land of Canaan and by several other means established the distinction betwixt Tribes and Families amongst them 234 Chap. 20. That the Laws which Moses made coneerning the state of Virginity did principally relate also to the Messiah which holds also as to several other Laws 241 Chap. 21. That it was the design of God by all these Ceremonies and particularly by that Veneration which he inspired the Jews with for the Tabernacle to preserve the Idea's of the Messiah whom he had promised in their minds by distinguishing them from all other Nations 249 Chap. 22. That it appears by the Books of Moses that this whole Model which God had framed was to last but until the coming of the Messiah 256 To the Courteous Reader THE Errata's are so small that they will not disturb the sense any where and so few that we need not trouble the Reader with a Table of them And therefore hope he will take such inconsiderable pains upon himself and excuse the Author REFLEXIONS UPON THE BOOKS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE For the Establishing of the Truth OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION CHAPTER I. Concerning the Fundamentals of the Christian Religion WE are to consider three things in the Christian Religion the Matters of Fact it propounds to us for true the Promises it affords us and the Worship it commands The Matters of Fact it propounds to us as true are that God created the World that he formed the first Man from whom the rest of mankind have been propagated that a while after this Man was created he violated the Law God had given him and that whereas he deserved to have perished for this his disobedience God was pleased instead thereof to comfort him with the hopes of a Saviour which was to be born of the Seed of his Wife that God hath actually sent this Saviour into the World which comprehends the whole Oeconomy of Christ viz. His Birth Life Preaching Miracles Death Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven c. The Promises it vouchsafes are the forgiveness of our Sins the Resurrection of our Bodies and a state absolutely happy for ever in Heaven And lastly the Worship or Divine Service it prescribes consists in Obedience to the Law of God in Prayer for the pardon of our Sins and his Protection and in a grateful Acknowledgement of what we owe him for all his Benefits towards us The first of these three parts of the Christian Religion viz. The Truth of the Matters of Fact it relates may be said to be the foundation of the other two viz. The Promises and Commands It is impossible to be perswaded that God hath created this World in which we live and made Mankind of one and the same blood that after the Fall he promised to save Men and did actually redeem them in sending Jesus Christ who suffer'd Death and being rais'd the third day Ascended into Heaven c. I say it is impossible to look upon these Facts as true without being assured that God will accomplish the Promises he hath made to us And it is as evident that we cannot be convinc'd of the truth of these Matters without being sensible of a strong obligation laid upon us to perform all the Duties of the Christian Religion As soon as a Man reflects upon his being Gods Creature he finds himself naturally oblig'd to obey God universally according to his utmost ability but when he comes further to believe that God did not destroy the first Man for his disobedience but was graciously pleased to promise him a Saviour for himself and all his Posterity and when moreover he is assured that God hath really sent this Saviour in the way and manner the Gospel relates to us we cannot conceive but that he must find himself under the highest engagements imaginable of rendring to God a religious obedience and believing his Promises But there is yet another obligation whereby Man is bound to obey God to pray to him and to offer him all manner of Religious Worship God by redeeming him hath obtained a new claim to and right over him and a more indispensable obligation is laid upon Man to submit himself to God in all religious Concerns as being not only created but also redeemed by him Reason acknowledgeth that if the truth of these things be once admitted nothing can be more just and natural than those consequences which the Christians thence infer All the difficulty
had promised from the beginning of the World and the only design of the New Testament is to prove that the Messiah is come according to the Prophets The first speaks concerning the Messiah as expected the latter as already come But we must proceed to a more particular view of this matter I say then first of all That the Christians have the same Object of their Faith which the Jews had this Jesus Christ himself declares where he saith This is life Eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Behold here the true Character of the Christian Religion as well as of the Jewish to believe one only God to own a Messiah and to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is he The Jews agree with us in the two former Articles tho' they dispute the last I say in the second place That the Laws of the Gospel which regulate Religion and the Conduct of particular persons in that Society are exactly the same with those of the old Testament Jesus Christ in his Sermon upon the Mount which contains an Abridgment of his Ethicks had no other end but to restore the true sense and meaning of those Laws God had given upon Mount Sinai and tho' in the matter of Divorces it seems opposite to that Law wherein God had before permitted them yet we may easily conceive that he began to abrogate those Orders and Dispensations which were only given to make the Messiah known whenever he should appear The prayer which Jesus Christ taught his Apostles is full of Notions which reigned among the Jews as several Expositors have manifested I shall content my self with alledging the instance of the petition for our daily Bread which has an evident regard to the Manna which God gave the Children of Israel in the Wilderness for Forty years We know also that the Sacraments of the Baptism and the Eucharist are originally Jewish Ceremonies which Jesus Christ hath applied with a very little variation to much more important Subjects Baptism was a washing which accompanied the Sacrifices and Circumcision of Proselytes lites And the washing practised under the Law of Moses signified that the Proselyte who was admitted to the same was resolved to renounce his former Courses and for the time to come to follow an opposite way of living according to the Rules prescribed him by the Ministers of Heaven after that they in the Name of God had assured him of the remission of his sins The Eucharist was an Appendix of the Feast of the Passover which preserved the Memory of the Sufferings of the Israelites in Egypt and the deliverance he afforded them in punishing of the Egyptians This Ceremony did perpetuate the Memory of that Deliverance till the coming of the Messiah Jesus Christ hath substituted to this figure an instance of the Curse of God against the Posterity of Cham the Idea of his Death by which he hath communicated his Blessing to all Nations of the Earth according to his promise And he hath made it a more full and exact Memorial of his Death which he would have us to consider as the death of the true Lamb which takes away the sins of the World. As the old Covenant was made in the Blood of a Lamb so Jesus Christ with regard to the New Testament or Covenant promised by Jeremiah Chap. XXXI ordains the celebrating the Memorial of the Blood he had spilt This is the New Testament in my Blood c. And lastly whereas the Law ordained the Commemoration of the Paschal Lamb but once a year Jesus Christ seems to appoint a much more frequent celebration of the Eucharist when he saith As oft as ye shall eat this Bread c. the reason of which without doubt is taken from the greatness of the benefit which his death confers upon us It is well worth our Observation That ordinarily the same Prophetical Idea's that are found in the Old Testament may be met with in the New. The Book of the Revelations contains abundance of particulars set down in the Prophecies of Zachariah and Ezechiel Jesus Christ himself pursues the Idea's of the Prophet Joel in the XXIV of Matthew when he sets forth the Destruction of Jerusalem and afterwards he describes the same according to the Notions which Daniel gives us thereof Daniel foretels in the VII Chapter of his Book the Destruction of the Roman Monarchy by the Christians whom he stiles the People of the most High. St. Paul follows the same Notion 1 Cor. VI. 2. where he supposeth it as a known thing The Saints saith he shall judge the World. And St. John in the XX of the Revelations verse 4. represents Satan bound and the Government put into the hands of Believers It is also very remarkable That the promises and threats of Jesus Christ are expressed in terms borrowed from the Old Testament These words of Jesus Christ He that hears my words and believes in him that sent me hath eternal life and shall not come into Judgment c. have not they a plain relation to Adam's unbelief and disobedience to the judgment he underwent and the punishment imposed on him Is it not from this Spirit which penetrates both that the New Testament so oft makes mention of a New Canaan a New Jerusalem a New Name c. and that Glory is represented to us sometimes under the Notion of Paradise sometimes of a Feast where Abraham who is called the Father of the Faithful sits at the upper end Eternal Damnation is represented to us under the Notion of the Valley of Hinnom of a Lake burning with Fire and Brimstone with regard to the Lake of Sodom and to the place where the filth of Jerusalem was wont to be burnt up and consumed 'T is upon this account that Believers are exhorted to remember Lot's Wife Luke IX 62. and XVII 32. and to depart from the midst of the wicked Hebr. XIII If we consider the Election of the Apostles and of the Seventy Disciples we shall find the reference they have to the Heads of the Twelve Tribes and to the Seventy Elders whom Moses chose to preserve the memory of the Seventy Souls Jacob brought with him into Egypt These passages Ye shall sit on Twelve Thrones and your Names are written in the Book of Life and the Number of 144000 being the product of 12 times 12 by allusion to the Twelve Tribes do all borrow their Light from those ancient Histories Throughout the New Testament we find nothing but a continual allusion to the state of the Jews all those Idea's of the Liberty of the Sons of God do allude to the Ceremony of their Jubilee The First born mentioned there and the Kingdom of Priests are not to be understood but by casting our eye on the Old Testament If Jesus Christ be called the chief Corner Stone if Peter be called a Stone or Rock Believers living Stones and the Apostles Foundations it is by way of allusion to
Messiah by in which case the Apostles would have contented themselves to have hinted that Jesus Christ always past for the Son of David as they have done in several places of their Writings without giving us the whole Series of his Pedigree or else they were at that time distinctly known in which case it was the easiest thing in the world to have confuted them The 2d is That the differences which are found between the Genealogy of Jesus Christ set down by S. Matthew and that by S. Luke is so far from giving us an occasion to doubt of the Apostles faithfulness in this matter that indeed it is a new proof of their exactness in a matter of so great importance For it can scarcely be imagined but that in so long a Series of Ages there must have been some of the Ancestors of our Saviour in whom that Law took place which obliged the younger Brother to marry the Widow of his elder Brother deceased without Issue and so to raise up Seed to him which gave occasion to a Genealogy not natural but legal the Children bearing the name of the deceased elder Brother and possessing his Estate Now the Evangeliste have set down both these Genealogies exactly which is an invincible Argument of their care and fidelity The third is That it was so much the more necessary to make this remark in the Genealogy of the Messiah because as we have observed elsewhere it was with relation of the desire of giving Birth to the Messiah or of having Children which might live under his Empire that God at first permitted this kind of Incest with the Widow of a deceased Brother which otherwise was so severely prohibited by the Law. As to the low Estate to which the Family of David was then reduced it is visible that David and Solomon reigned with great glory but Rehoboam succeeding them Ten Tribes fell from him to Jeroboam in the Year of the World 3029. and the Posterity of Rehoboam was afterwards dethroned by Nebuchadnezzar who carried Zedechiah the King into Captivity in the Year 3416. After their return from Captivity they were entirely thrust from the Throne the Priests at first governing that Nation the Maccabees who were of the Family of Levi reigning in Judea from the return of the Captivity of Babylon until Herod the Edomite who was made Master of Judea by the favour of the Romans 2. The Family of David was at that time removed from their ancient Seat and was now sixed at Nazareth where Providence seems to have removed them from Bethlehem to take away that object of Herod's jealousie which would have offended him as we see it did when the Wise men acquainted him with the Birth of Jesus which obliged him to make a diligent enquiry after the place where the Messiah was to be born that Messiah whom he conceived to be a Prince who would rob him of the Soveraignty to which he was raised In the third place the Blessed Virgin was betrothed to a Carpenter Justin Martyr tells us that Jesus Christ made Ploughs See what the Heirs of the Kings of Judah were reduced to Fourthly When she came to Bethlehem she lodged in an Inn her Kindred being not in a condition to afford her better Accommodation It appears that the Divine Providence was very careful in executing this Design There were some Decays of the Family of David which the Blessed Virgin expresses in her Song She was descended from the younger Brothers of deposed Princes and reduced to private state she speaks of nothing but of lowness and meanness not only in a way of Humility but to demonstrate the fulfilling of the Prophecy concerning the Throne of Jesse But that this might appear more evidently and confirm'd by the Law as it was her Duty to present her Son in the Temple after the Seventh day with an Offering so she does not offer what is prescribed to the Rich and Wealthy but an Offering which is appropriated by God in the Law to poor people as appears Lev. XII One see 's by the Marriage Feast at Cana in Galilee that the Kindred of Jesus Christ were not very Rich their wanting of Wine on such an Occasion was no great Mark of Plenty One see 's also That Jesus Christ frequently represents himself as not having where to rest his Head On the Cross he recommends his Mother to one of his Disciples and was himself maintained by those who followed him CHAP. VIII That Jesus Christ was conceived by the Virgin Mary without any Operation of Man. AS this Article is one of the most important of our Religion so it is well worth our attentive consideration We may take notice here that according to the Observation of Justin Martyr Dial. cum Tryph p. 297. Isai 5. that the Fable of Perseus took its rise from the Prophecy of Isaiah However that Prophecy being very express according to the Translation of the LXX we are to consider how it was accomplished It will not be enough here to say That ordinarily extream Poverty is a sufficient bar against the suspicion of Adultery and therefore we desire the Reader only to call to mind the Observations set down in the Second Chapter of the second Part of these Reflexions on the Books of the Law of Moses For 1. Polygamy and Divorces were very frequent in the time of Jesus Christ as appears from several passages of the Gospel where God was pleased to give us Examples thereof 2. God was willing to give us Instances of his Severity against Adulteresses amongst which those were reckoned who suffered themselves to be defiled after they were betrothed We have an Example hereof in the Eighth Chapter of the Gospel according to S. John which I have illustrated in the Fourth Chapter of this Fourth Part. 3. It appears that the same Laws which engaged Parents to preserve the Virginity of their Daughters did continue and were still observed by the Jews as well as those other Laws which constituted the Body of their Religion When Jesus Christ upbraids the Jews for having changed the true sense of the Law yet he never reproaches them upon this account 4. The Relation set down in the Eighth Chapter of S. John makes it appear that the Waters of Jealousie still retained their virtue that which Jesus Christ writ on the Ground being probably nothing else but the Curses which the Law denounced against the Woman that should violate her Honour I have made it very evident in the Twentieth Chapter of my Second Part what was the use of those Laws concerning the Marks of Virginity to prevent any Doubts that might arise concerning the same It remains now to consider the several passages of the Evangelists and to see what proofs we can find there to confirm this Point That Mary was indeed a Virgin when she conceived Jesus Christ and how we may answer the Objections which the Enemies of Christianity make against this Truth The Evangelists tell us that this
REFLEXIONS Upon the BOOKS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE To Establish the TRUTH OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION In Two Volumes Volume I. LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXVIII IMPRIMATUR Liber cui Titulus est Reflections upon the Books of the Holy Scriptures c. in II. Vol. The 12th of January 1687 / 8. H. Maurice R mo in Christo P.D. Willielmo Archiep. Cant. Ã Sacris TO THE KING Great SIR THe gracious acceptance which your Majesty was pleased to allow the first Volume of my Reflexions upon the Holy Scriptures to establish the Truth of the Christian Religion encouraged and almost necessitated me to the further presumption of laying these two Volumes at this time at your Majesties Feet Your Majesty did me the honour to say That you were pleased to see Divines apply themselves to the clearing of Subjects so important And after this Judgment given by so great a Prince which is so evident a Demonstration of your Zeal for the Fundamental Truths of the Christian Religion it had been unpardonable in me not to have gone on with the Work and I had Reason then to Consecrate it wholly to your Majesty who I was assured would approve of my Intentions and for that Reason would pardon the Imperfections of the Performance As your Majesty continues still to give such illustrious Instances of your Clemency and Royal Protection to those of our Nation so I confess Sir I thought my self under an Obligation to lay hold upon this Opportunity of publishing what all those who find so sure a Protection in your Majesties Dominions feel and think as much as my self upon these new Testimonies of your Royal Bounty When your Majesty had taken us into your particular care and had granted us several Priviledges and so made us sharers in all the Advantages which those who live under your Government enjoy your Majesty did yet something more and inspired all your Subjects with the same compassion towards us with which your Royal Breast was already touched You saw our miseries and resolved to give us ease and this generous Design was executed and your Royal Clemency diffused in the hearts of all your Subjects The whole World Sir which has received upon all its Coasts some Remainders of our Shipwrack is fill'd with admiration of the unexampled effects of your Majesties Clemency There is no place so barbarous whither the renown of that mercy which has been so gloriously extended towards us has not been carried and the remembrance will be ever dear to the remotest Ages of Posterity We must Sir be wholly insensible if we had not all of us the highest sense of so great a Bounty and we should justly appear to the whole World to be unworthy of this your Majesties Paternal care if notwithstanding that low condition to which we are now reduced we should not prostrate our selves before your August Throne with the humblest demonstrations of Thankfulness When God show'rs down the greatest Blessings upon Mankind he requires this just Tribute which is also their greatest honour by opening to them an access unto the Throne of Glory And this sacred Pattern we crave leave to follow when we solemnly pay the like Tribute to your Majesty who can receive nothing from us again that can answer the greatness or the number of those Favours which have so very much exceeded all our desires I could wish Sir that this Work which I now present to your Majesty might be so haypy as to pass to Posterity with this Character of our acknowledgment and that it might stand as a faithful Record for ever to perpetuate the memory of that lively sense of your Bounty which is imprinted on all our hearts If this could be hoped for it must be wholly owing to your Majesties glorious Name which latest Ages will receive with Reverence But Sir tho' I dare not hope that these Reflexions can obtain that honour yet our Age at least may see that they bear these publick Marks of Gratitude for all your Majesties Royal Favours This Sir is my sole aim in the Dedication of this Work to your Majesty and may your Sacred Majesty be pleased to approve of these poor Testimonies of our Thankfulness in general and to look upon them as Instances of mine in particular and of that profound Respect with which I am London May the 7th 1688. Sir Your Majesties most dutiful and obedient Subject and Servant P. ALLIX THE PREFACE ONe may divide Men into two general Classes some are without any knowledge of a Diety or Sence of Religion Travellers tell us that in the West-Indies the Eastern parts of Tartary and some places of Africa such people are to be found I know this is a Fact which is disputed by others and Fabricius a Divine of the Palatinate pretends that he has solidly confuted it If this Fact should be thought doubtful yet it is known at least that some persons may be found here and there in the World who look upon the Existence of a Deity as upon a Fable and who ridicule all acts of Religious Worship whatsoever But one may also say that if he compare these with the rest of the World they make the least and worst part of Mankind tho many of them affect to live Morally well All the rest of the World make Profession that they own a God that is to say a most perfect Eternal and independent Being that he governs all things by his Providence that there is a difference between Good and Evil that Man doth well or ill in those Actions which depend on his Liberty From whence they equally conclude that Man was design'd for the Duties of Religion that Society without it would be pure Robbery And that as it is hard to conceive that Men should be wholly destroy'd by Death so it is directly contrary to the Sentiments of Conscience to deny all Rewards for Virtue or Punishments for Vice after this Life All the Diversities of Religion amongst Men are reducible to two kinds The first is of those who suppose that there is more than one God and this is the Belief of all Pagans in general The Second is of those that acknowledge one only God such are the Jews Christians and Mahometans Now as for the cure of different Diseases several Remedies are made use of so it is visible that to deliver Men of their various prejudices we must take very different Methods The ignorance of those Barbarous People in the Indies Tartary and Africa must be removed by teaching them the first Principles and making them apply the little sense they have left them of good and evil right and wrong to the fundamental Maxims of Religion Atheists must be convinced by Reflexions upon those Principles which they admit by shewing that the Truths which they reject are the natural Consequences of those Principles which they dare not dispute To convince the Heathen who suppose many Gods we must
examine their Principles and confute them which is the easiest thing in the World the Wisest Men having formerly acknowledged as they also own to this very day that there is but one God. And indeed it seems that the greatest part of Philosophers did own a plurality of Gods only in compliance with the Opinions of the people which it was dangerous to contradict And as for the Jews forasmuch as they agree with the Christians and Mahometans about the Vnity of God we are only to prove to them the truth of that which is the very Essence of the Christian Religion in opposition to their prejudices One may prove this against the Jews without any trouble because they are agreed in most of those Principles which the Christian Religion supposes So likewise it is easily established against the Mahometans who grant the truth of Christian Religion in general but pretend that it ought to give place to Mahometanism as the Law ought to give place to the Gospel preach'd by Jesus Christ My design is not to prosecute every one of these ways in particular There are Books enough in the World which solidly prove the necessity of Religion against all sorts of Atheists as well those who are so through ignorance as those who profess themselves such from Love to Libertinism and to pass for Men of a mighty reach There are also several Famous Authors who have made it evident that Reason alone is sufficient to overthrow all Pagan Religions whatsoever I am resolved to follow a more compendious and sure Method that is to demonstrate the Truth of the Christian Religion considered by it self In short It is impossible considering the opposition there is between the Christian Religion and all other Religions in the World that the Christian Religion should be the true but that all others must be false in those Articles wherein they essentially differ from it And on the other hand one cannot explain those Arguments which clearly evince the truth of Christianity without convicting all other Religions of falsehood because they are destitute of those proofs which are peculiar to the Christian Religion I know very well that there are several ways which lead to the end which I propose Men that think much wish that a perfect Conformity of the Christian Religion with the Conscience of Man might be demonstrated from Reflexions on the Heart of Man and the Dictates of it which to them would be a convincing and demonstrative proof Others apply themselves to a speculative examination of the Doctrines and Proofs of the Christian Religion to shew their Conformity with the Notions of Reason I will not deny but that both these employ themselves usually in this sort of study and that Truth finds a considerable support from their Meditations But how useful soever they may be I have rather chosen to follow another course as thinking it of more advantage solidly to establish the Facts which the Christian Religion proposeth which appears to me to be more proper to perswade all sorts of Readers and better levell'd to the ordinary Capacity of those who newly enter upon the examination of this Truth And as the necessity of Revelation is generally owned by Heathens and by all other Nations of the World I thought it a thing altogether unnecessary to enter upon the examination of several abstracted Questions such as these Whether there be any natural knowledge of God whether Men are naturally inclined to be Religious and the like When I shall have firmly proved that God revealed himself that he prescribed a Service to the first Men who left the Rules of it to all their Posterity from whence all the Religion that ever was or is yet in the Heathen World was derived I shall have prevented many very unprofitable Disputes and which can only perplex the mind by their obscurity I have therefore confin'd my self to certain Considerations which do so establish the truth of the Books of the Old and New Testament as by their Vnion they firmly prove the truth of the Christian Religion I hope that it will not be thought needful for me to demonstrate that the Mahometan Religion ought not to abolish the Christian as the Christians pretend that the Christian Religion abrogated the Ceremonial part of the Jewish Worship As soon as an understanding Reader shall make some Reflexions upon the nature of the Arguments which demonstrate the Truth of the Christian Religion he may easily perceive that God never framed the Model of that Religion which the Mahometans would obtrude upon us THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS OF THE First Part of the First Volume Chap. 1. COncerning the Fundamentals of the Christian Religion Page 1 Chap. 2. That the Christian Religion is founded upon Proofs of Matter of Fact 5 Chap. 3. Some General Remarks in order to establish the Truth of Holy Scripture 8 Chap. 4. That the Testimony of Moses concerning the Creation of the World and the Promise of the Messiah is unquestionable 16 Chap. 5. That Moses is the Author of the Book of Genesis 23 Chap. 6. That the Book of Genesis could not be forged under the Name of Moses 27 Chap. 7. That it appears from Genesis that the Sabbath was constantly observed from the beginning of the World until Moses 34 Chap. 8. That Adam was convinced of his Creation by Reason and Authority 44 Chap. 9. That Adam was confirmed by his own Experience in the perswasion he had entertain'd concerning his Creation 49 Chap. 10. That the Children of Adam had reason to be convinc'd of the Creation 52 Chap. 11. That the Children of Adam were actually convinced of the Truth of the Creation and the Promise of the Messiah 54 Chap. 12. That Noah was fully perswaded of the Creation of the World and the Promise of the Messiah 61 Chap. 13. That the Children of Noah were convinced of the truth of these Matters 64 Chap. 14. That the Posterity of Noah 's Children were perswaded of the truth of the Creation and first Promise 67 Chap. 15. That we find the Family of Abraham and his Posterity till Jacob fully perswaded of those Truths 71 Chap. 16. That this very perswasion seems to have been kept up amongst the Posterity of Jacob until Moses 's time 81 Chap. 17. That the Tradition which gives us an Account of the perswasion which the Ancients had of the truth of the Creation of the World and of the Promise of the Messiah before Moses cannot be suspected 86 Chap. 18. An Explication of Moses 's way of Writing where it is shew'd that in writing the Book of Genesis he mentioned nothing but what was then generally known 89 Chap. 19. An Answer to an Objection which may be drawn from the Histories of the Egyptians and Chaldeans concerning the Antiquity of the World. 95 Chap. 20. An Answer to the Objection which may be drawn out of the History of China against the Mosaick Hypothesis concerning the newness of the World. 106 Chap. 21. Wherein the
therefore that occurs in this Matter consists in the proof of those Facts which the Christian Religion propounds to us that is to say in proving the Creation of the World the Fall of Man the Promise of a Redeemer his coming into the World his Miracles Death Resurrection Ascension into Heaven c. which are the Foundations of the Christian Religion And indeed these are the very matters of which Atheists and Libertines require a solid proof And it doth the more concern us to satisfie their demands forasmuch as the Jews who are scatter'd throughout the whole World do oppose our assertion that the Promise of sending the Messiah is already accomplish'd tho' they agree upon the matter with us in all other Articles Moreover the performing this Task may very much contribute to the Conversion of a great number of bad Christians whose sall and continuance in vices and licentiousness is to be ascrib'd to their being so weakly perswaded of the truth of these Fundamentals and that because they have never consider'd of them with sufficient attention CHAP. II. That the Christian Religion is founded upon Proofs of Mattter of Fact. FOrasmuch as in order to establish the truth of the Christian Religion we confine our selves at present to those proofs which make out the Matters of Fact it proposes omitting all other arguments which may evidence the truth of it tho' possibly no less convincing it is obvious that the proofs we are to produce in confirmation of them must be such as are proper to evince the truth of things long since past and done If we were treating of the Events of the time we live in it might be justly required that we should produce Eye-witnesses of them but forasmuch as the question here is concerning matters long since past it is natural for us to have recourse to History which furnisheth us with the relations of those who where Eye-witnesses of the same This being the only way left us to confirm our belief of things at so great a distance from us I am beholding to History only for the knowledg I have of a Cyrus an Alexander or a Caesar and yet having read the account they give me of them I find them matters I can no way rationally doubt of I acknowledg that the certainty we have of things long since past is much inferiour to that which we have of matters confirm'd to us by Eye-witnesses Nevertheless because it is evident that the Events of ancient Times cannot be confirm'd but by proofs of this nature it has never entred into the minds of any to account the existence of such men as Cyrus and Alexander for Fables upon the pretence that none now alive did ever see them or because there are scarce any traces left of those Empires of which they were the Founders Indeed the certainty we have of these things is such as nothing can be superadded to it for tho' it be founded on the Authority of Historians who liv'd many Ages ago yet withal we are to consider that the matters related do not only carry the Idea of probability and truth along with them but that they are the very ground and foundation of all the Histories of following Ages which cannot be questioned if we consider the connexion and dependance of the things related according to the light of Sense and the equity of Reason A Matter of Fact then is accounted certain when it is attested by those who were Eye-witnesses of it when recorded by an Historian who liv'd amongst those who had perfect knowledg of it when the Matter is not gainsaid or contradicted by any if we find it pen'd at a time when the things could not be related by any otherwise than indeed they were without exposing themselves to publick derision And last of all when the matter is found to be of that nature as none could be ignorant of it either because it was the interest of every one to be inform'd of it or because the thing was so publick that it could not be hid from any or lastly because of its natural connexion with all those other Events which necessarily depend on it To speak plain it is very unjust to demand either more proofs or such as are of another nature for the confirmation of the Truth of our Religion than are required to verisie any other matters of Fact. Why should not the Testimony of Noahs Children be sufficient to conclude there was such a man as Methusalem in case they assure us that they have seen him Or why should not the testimony of Methusalem be of credit enough to prove there was such a Man as Adam if he avers that he saw him and convers'd with him Do'nt we every day give credit to the account which old men give us of their Predecessors especially when we find that what they relate hath an exact reference and connexion with those things we are Eye-witnesses of But it is an easie thing to make it appear that the proofs which evidence the Truth of the matters which our Religion proposeth are infinitely more strong and convincing All the circumstances we can imagine proper to evince the Truth of any Relation do concur to place the matters recorded in Holy Scripture beyond the Reach of doubt or uncertainty We account the single Testimony of an Historian a sufficient proof that there was once a very famous Temple at Delphos or Ephesus notwithstanding that all the Monuments remaining at this day to confirm his relation be very doubtful and defective Whereas I shall make it appear that an entire Nation yea many Nations do attest the truth of those Matters which the Christian Religion proposes and that all the Actions Discourses and whole Series of Events thereto relating do furnish us with an infinite number of characters which invincibly signalize the Truth of the Holy Scrïptures CHAP. III. Some General Remarks in order to establish the Truth of Holy Scripture FOrasmuch as I have undertaken to prove the truth of the Matters of Fact contain'd in our Religion from the testimony of the Pen-men of the Old and New Testament it will be proper in order to the executing of my design to begin with a general proof of the Truth of the said Books which will not be difficult if one makes the following remarks The First is That it appears from the Five Books of Moses that he wrote the History of the Creation of the World and of the Promise of the Messiah of the Deluge the Rise and Pedigree of the several Nations of the World of the Division of Tongues and in particular the History of the Family of Abraham until the entring of the Children of Israel into Palestina 2552 years after the Creation of the World. The Second is That the following Books viz. of Joshua Judges Ruth the four Books of Kings of Chronicles with the Books of Ezrah and Nehemiah are a Continuation of the said History from the entring of the Jews into Palestina until their
prescrib'd to them in the other Books of Moses but the occasion and ground of them all is no where to be found but in Genesis to which all these Laws have a natural Relation The Second is That the Book of Genesis taking for granted that the Posterity of Abraham as well as his Ancestors had always observ'd the Sabbath and Circumcision and the Books of Moses ordering the same to be constantly read in every Family to which the Sabbath day was more peculiarly appropriated and the whole to be read over every seventh year as we know the Jews practice was according to the Law of Moses the first of which Injunctions they practice still in all places and have left off the other only because they cannot do it now they are out of their own Land I say supposing all this it is absolutely impossible that any other than Moses could have made this Book to be received The forgery at the beginning would have been palpable even to Children themselves As for Example let us suppose that Solomon had form'd a design of deceiving the People in publishing the Book of Genesis for a Book of Moses Is it possible he should so far impose on his People as to make them to receive the said Book all at once as that which had been constantly read in their Families every seventh day and year and that for 600 years before his time and therefore as a Book that had been so long in all their Families tho' indeed it was never heard of by them before that time If an Impostor can create a Belief in others that he hath some secret Communication with the Deity those who are thus perswaded by him will easily submit themselves to his Laws but it is absolutely impossible that a whole People should all at once forget whatsoever they have learn'd or heard of their Parents and Fore-Fathers and instead thereof admit of Tales forged at pleasure Some Nations have been so ridiculous to derive themselves from a Fabulous Original but they never fell into such Mistakes about those things which were at no great distance from the time in which they lived Besides we know that these Fabulous Originals never made so lively an impression upon the Minds of a whole Nations especially the Learned amongst them as generally to be believed but we rather find that they have endeavoured to reconcile them to truth by shewing something else was hinted thereby as we may see by the Explication the Heathens themselves have given us of all their Fables and utterly rejected those which they could not reconcile to good sense But in this case we find a whole Nation to this very day maintaining all the Matters of Fact related in Genesis and in particular that of the Creation as of Matters whose Memorial they have constantly celebrated every seventh day since the time they first happened Lastly It cannot be deny'd but that this Book was constantly used to be read amongst the Jews especially on the Sabbath day and that under the Name of Moses For instance since the time of Jesus Christ or since that of David Neither can it be denied but this constant reading was observ'd by virtue of a Law contain'd in the said Book Now if this Law has always been in this Book from the first appearing of it which cannot be question'd how was it possible to forge and foist in this Book under the Name of Moses the Founder of the Jewish Government I say this Book which besides all this contains such extraordinary Matters and is the very Foundation of all their Religion I will not repeat here what I mention'd in the third Chapter to make the Vanity of those Men appear who imagine the Book of Genesis and the four that follow it might have been forged by others under Moses his Name Yet I think I ought before I proceed further to remove a seeming difficulty which is often alledg'd by this sort of People For say they it cannot be that these Books were ever read with that care and constancy we speak of because a time can be pointed at wherein the said Book was wholly unknown in the Kingdom of Judah and indeed the History plainly informs us that the Book of the Law was found again in the Reign of Josias from whence they infer that if it were then unknown it might as well be forged But indeed they may conclude from hence that which willingly we allow them that there was a time wherein Ungodliness did prevail and Idolatry was publickly establish'd in the Kingdom of Judah it self yet can they not from this instance draw any other Consequence which might support their pretensions They must needs acknowledge first that the Books of Moses were not only amongst the three Tribes but also amongst the ten since the time of their Revolt under Rehoboam that they who were carried by Salmanassar into the Land of Assyria had the said Books amongst them as well as those of the ten Tribes who were left in their own Countrey Thus we see that when the King of Assyria sent some of the Priests of Samaria to instruct the Colony which he had setled in their Countrey in the Law of God it is not said that those Priests went to borrow the Law of Moses from them of Judah nor that the said Laws was altogether unknown in that Countrey but only that they had formerly violated the Law of God in serving strange Gods as they still did but that withal they kept the Law of God which to this day is yet found among their Posterity Secondly It is evident that tho the wickedness and violence of Manasseh caused a great change in Matters of Religion yet not so great but that his Subjects notwithstanding had still the Books of Moses amongst them the Blood which he shed in Jerusalem was an evident sign that there were some Godly men left amongst them who continued true to their Religion and observed the Laws of God. Besides if we consider his Repentance we must conclude that towards the end of his Reign he did in some degree re-establish the purity of that Religion he had before prophaned a main part of which was the expounding and reading of the Books of Moses according to those Laws before mention'd In the third place it is visible that the reason why Hilkiah having found the Book of the Law in the Temple as they were cleansing and repairing it sent the same to Josiah was not because there was no other such Book left in Judah but because the said Book being written by the hand of Moses himself there seem'd to be something very extraordinary in the finding of it at that very time when they were endeavouring a Reformation and it was this Circumstance which did in a more particular manner excite the Zeal of this good Prince And indeed if we suppose that Josiah had never before seen the Book of the Law how could he have apply'd himself to the reforming of his
how his Body had been formed of the Earth was I confess a thing difficult to be conceiv'd but the production of an Infant like to himself by the way of Generation which he afterwards was assured of by experience was sufficient to confirm his mind in the belief of the Divine Revelation The way of Generation being at least as much if not more difficult to comprehend as the manner of his Creation We have great reason to suppose that as it was Adam's Duty that so he did really make those Reflexions I have attributed to him if we consider that God gave him a Law proportion'd to the state in which he was Created For this Law supposes that Adam own'd himself God's Subject that he consider'd God as his great Benefactor that he hop'd for Rewards from him and fear'd to be punish'd by him And Lastly If I should grant that these Reflexions did not at first make so deep an impression in his heart yet at least it cannot be deny'd but that after his Fall he was in a manner necessitated to meditate on these truths God appeared to him in a visible manner God passed Sentence upon him his Wife and the Serpent God condemn'd the Serpent and afforded his Grace to Man God made him a Promise proportion'd to the evil into which he was fallen The Woman had deceiv'd her Husband which did naturally tend to disunite them but God uniting himself again with Adam made the effect of his Promise to depend upon Adam's re-union with his Wife having assured him that the Offspring of his Wife should be his Redeemer God threatned the Woman with extream Pains in Child-bearing he drave them out of the Garden of Eden and placed a Flame of Fire to guard the entrance there All this without doubt would never suffer Adam slightly to pass over Matters of so great importance as his Creation and the manner of his being formed out of the Earth Things being thus stated it is easie to judge whether we have supposed Adam too Subtil and Contemplative by attributing the foresaid Reflexions to him CHAP. X. That the Children of Adam had reason to be convinc'd of the Creation IT is apparent that as soon as the Children of Adam were arrived to years of understanding they were in a condition to make Reflexions on the manner of their production according to the information receiv'd of their Parents They were able to compare the twofold Original of Man the one in which the Body was immediately taken from the Earth the other in which it was produc'd by Generation and were able to judge if either of them were improbable and in particular whether the formation of their Parents with other Matters consequent and depending on it could be sufficiently proved and confirm'd For it was easie for them to judge that their Parents of whose tenderness and care they had so great experience could not have had the least design to deceive them in what they had deliver'd to them concerning the Creation They had also leisure enough during the long Lives they enjoy'd to examine the Solidity of those Reasons which perswaded their Parents of the truth of their Creation For instance they could easily inform themselves whether there were any more Men and Women than their Father and Mother that had been before them whether they were produced from the Earth or by a fortuitous concourse of Atoms whether there were any other Language besides that which they spake Whether there were any Ruins of Buildings or other remains which signified that Arts had been formerly Cultivated And in a word whether there were any reason to perswade them that the World had not its beginning at the time which their Parents assigned for it Neither were they only in a condition to judge of the truth of these things but their Senses were able to convince them of it As for instance by seeing the first Trees the production of others from them and the different degrees of their growth But besides all this they could experience most of these things in their own Persons they could know whether God had assigned to Man the Fruit of Trees and Grain for their Food as Moses has recorded only by examining their own Mouths which were formed to chew Fruits and not to tear the raw flesh of Animals which requires sharper and stronger Sets of Teeth than those they found themselves provided with the eating of flesh not being introduced till after the Deluge Thus after the Act of Generation they saw their Children Born as it was represented to them that they themselves had been formed They had also before their eyes sensible signs of the truth of the Matters related to them As for instance the continual Miracle of a Flame of Fire which kept them from entring into Paradise was a certain Argument of the first sin of which they had not been Eye-witnesses The Pains of a Woman in Child-bearing did the more confirm the truth of the Divine Sentence because it was not obvious for them to apprehend such Consequences from an act which was pleasing to their Sensual Appetites And Lastly Forasmuch as they kept a Solemn day to Celebrate the Memory of the World's Nativity on which seventh day their Parents repeated to them no less than two and fifty times a Year the same thing informing them of the manner of their Formation 't is impossible to suppose that they should let these things pass without making any Reflexion on the truth of them and the rather because we cannot rationally conceive that they should have been serious in any Duties of Religion without having first examin'd the truth of the Creation and of the Promise of a Redeemer which are the true Grounds of all Religious Acts whatsoever CHAP. XI That the Children of Adam were actually convinced of the Truth of the Creation and the Promise of the Messiah I Suppose it is sufficiently evident that the immediate Posterity of Adam could easily be assured of the manner how their Parents had been produc'd from whom they deriv'd their Beings They could likewise be fully satisfied about the truth of their sin and the Promise God had made them That one of their Posterity should destroy the Enemy of Mankind My business therefore next is to shew that they were actually assured of the truth of these Matters this will appear if we consider two things The first is that as these Matters were the chief Objects of their Meditation because of their extraordinary importance so it is evident that they acted as Persons fully satisfied of the truth of them The other is That as they had been instructed in these Truths by their Parents so they deliver'd the same to their Posterity to whom they transmitted the belief of these Matters as of things altogether unquestionable I say then that they acted as those who were fully assured of the truth of these Matters which appears throughout the whole course of their Lives not only when they did
little more than forty years interval betwixt the Conquest of Canaan by Joshua and the Bondage of the Israelites under the Neighbouring Nations Had it not been a fit time then to cast off the Yoak of Moses's Laws and to publish the pretended Lies and Impostures of his History Was not the Comparison which the Israelites could easily make betwixt the Mosaick Writings and the Tradition generally received in the Countrey of their Captivity a natural and ready means to undeceive them Yet notwithstanding all this we see that they obstinately entertain the belief of the several Transactions recorded by Moses and stand firmly to all their Pretensions Nay we see them have recourse to the Remedy of Repentance which Moses prescribed them to use in those sad Misfortunes which he foretold should befal them and out of which he promis'd at the same time that God would miraculously deliver them which indeed was done accordingly even fourteen times within less than four hundred years as is manifest from the Book of Judges Can there then be a more pregnant Argument that if Moses made it Death by one of his Sanctions for any of the Israelites to contest the truth either of his Writings or of his Oracles and Miracles it was not to force the belief of them without examination but rather only to prevent the corruption of that People and their mingling and confounding themselves with the Heathens which God intended to hinder on purpose because he would have the Messiah to be born according to his Promise out of that Nation which to effect he thought fit in his infinâ—â—e Wisdom to employ the rigour of some Capital Laws to keep that people unmixt and distinguish'd from all other Nations of the World till the Messiah was born CHAP. XXII The Consequences of what we have proved in our foregoing Observations upon the Book of Genesis THese several Observations which I have made upon the Book of Genesis are all I think very natural and easie and if I am not mistaken sufficient to prove solidly the truth of Moses's Account of the Creation of the World and of the Promise of the Messiah which is the foundation of the Christian Religion The Conclusion that I draw out of the Premises is That First I assert that Moses that famous Hebrew who was design'd to be the Heir of Pharaoh's Daughter is the true and sole Author of the Book of Genesis Secondly I maintain that this being once granted he could not according to his way of Writing record those important Transactions he relates otherwise than they really came to pass Thirdly I maintain that tho he had not been an Eye Witness of the Creation of the World yet he hath made the Description of it according to such an Authentick Tradition as cannot be reasonably doubted of because it was then the Universal Tradition not only of the Moabites of the Ammonites of the Ishmaelites and of the Edomites who were all of Sem's Posterity and amongst whom he had been travelling for forty years together but also of the Egyptians of his own People and in a word of all Men then living in the World. Fourthly I maintain that he never was found fault with nor contradicted till true Reason and Sence if I may say so was lost and banish'd from amongst Mankind till the Egyptians for example they who used before to look upon the Greeks as meer Children and Ideots were fallen into so great a Stupidity and Deprivation of Sence as to believe and maintain that Men were first born in Egypt because forsooth Frogs did naturally as they thought breed out of their Muddy Fenns and Marshes Fifthly I maintain that for many Ages after Moses no body did ever publickly declare for the Eternity of the World nor yet for its Fortuitous Production These Opinions are meer Absurdities and Chimeras brought forth into the World by the Chaldeans and Greeks only about Alexander's time or perhaps an hundred years before him i. e. about eleven or twelve hundred years after Moses's Decease Sixthly I maintain that seeing there is no particular time to be found wherein the reading of the Law was interrupted and discontinued for any considerable time amongst the Jews seeing it continues still to this very hour amongst them every Sabbath day in the several places of the World wherein they are dispersed and seeing besides that it is certain that this Law which enjoyns the Observation of the Sabbath in remembrance of the Creation could never be imposed upon them without their perceiving and declaring presently the Novelty and Supposition of that Account and consequently of the Book wherein it is related Seeing all this is certain I do positively maintain that the truth of the Creation can never be better proved than it is by the Book of Genesis because in it Moses hath followed the Tradition of all the Ages that preceded him and only recorded in Writing what was then generally known of all Men in the World and that in a time when every Man was able to run his own Pedigree up to Adam Lastly I maintain that as the certainty of the Creation cannot reasonably be doubted of without rejecting at the same time all those Proofs from Facts which I have brought to strengthen my Assertion So there is all the reason in the World to entertain the belief of it as of a matter of Fact which is indisputable As being Related by the most Ancient Historian Confirmed by the most Ancient Tradition Believed by the most Ancient People of the World who did not only believe it but also had always had according to God's Command the Memory of it Celebrated amongst them and their Ancestors in all their Generations fifty two times in a Year from the very beginning of the World. REFLEXIONS Upon the Four Last BOOKS OF MOSES To Establish the TRUTH OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION PREFACE WHen I began at first these Reflexions upon the Book of Genesis I design'd only to demonstrate the certainty of the Creation of the first Man and so to shew by Arguments from matters of Fact that neither the Creation of the World nor yet the Promise of the Messiah which God made to Man after his sin can reasonably be disputed or doubted of I design'd after that to establish the truth of Christ's Resurrection by such another undeniable Argument viz. by shewing that the Apostles were Eye Witnesses of it and instituted a solemn Day in every Week to celebrate and perpetuate the Memory of it amongst Men from their time down to the end of the World. And this I thought was sufficient to demonstrate the truth of the Christian Religion For as the Jews by the continual Celebration of the Sabbath every Week could easily run back to the Creation of the World which was the occasion of the Institution of the Sabbath so the Christians may by the Weekly Observation of the Lord's day prove Christ's Resurrection which occasioned the Institution of the Lord's day If we consider the
thing in it self there is no less Absurdity to dispute our Saviour's Resurrection than the Creation of the first Man. Now if this Argument holds as there can be no easier so neither can there be a stronger proof of the truth of the Christian Religion for provided we be once well assured of the certainty of Christ's Resurrection we must acknowledge him to be the true Messiah and consequently embrace his Religion But it seems in the heat of Meditation I was insensibly carried further in my Observations upon the Promise of the Messiah than I thought at first to be Therefore instead of passing now as I proposed in the beginning to the proof of Christ's Resurrection which is a solid and compendious way of demonstrating the truth of his Religion I find my self engaged according to my present Method to continue to make the like Reflexions upon the other Books of Holy Scripture that I may yet more fully demonstrate that Jesus Christ is the true Messiah whom God promised to Man immediately after his sin And this I intend to shew so plainly as will make it evident that God hath really accomplished his first designs and exactly performed all his Promises relating to the Messiah according to the first Idea's he gave of his coming to the Ancient Patriarchs First Then I design to trace up the Method that God was pleased to use to make the Messiah known without mistake when ever he should come into the World. Secondly I will make some Reflexions upon the several Notions he gave of him long before in his Oracles to Characterize his Person his Offices his Actions his Sufferings his Glory c. Last of all I will shew that we have all this whole Project and Design exactly accomplished in the History of the Gospel as it was written by Christ's Disciples Now as this Method which God hath particularly chosen to make the Messiah known appears also in the other Books of Moses So I think it will not be amiss for me particularly to view and examine these Books that I may have occasion to illustrate several things in them which deserve a particular attention especially when they are considered together and as it were at one view For the Prophecies being thus consider'd together in their Connexion and Progress do more plainly evidence God's Design and may better convince or confound the Jews Therefore I intend accordingly to consider those Oracles with attention and to join them together that so they may in their Conjunction cast forth the brighter Beams of Light to the Conviction of all Infidels who may happen to peruse this Book For I am perswaded that after the perusal of my Observations in it an ordinary attention in the reading of the Gospel will be sufficient to convince any Man that Jesus Christ is the true Messiah which is all I intend to prove as the Conclusion of this Treatise Now as the examination of the Patriarchs Religion according to the account Moses hath given us of it in his Book of Genesis hath taken up the first part of it so I design to examine in this second part the Israelites Religion and to follow in my search the account which Moses gives of it in his other four Books And as to effect this it is very important to establish beforehand the Authority of those four Books so I intend to shew first of all that Moses is the true Author of them and that they have Intrinsick Characters of undeniable certainty Then Secondly It will be natural for me to shew that Moses in the writing of them had the Promise of the Messiah in view as particularly promised of God to the Patriarchs of his own Nation and as being consequently the principal if not the sole Object of their hope Thirdly I intend to shew that if we seriously examine Moses's Laws we shall find in them such a Method observed as is both very agreeable to the manifestation of God s design in Genesis and very worthy of his Wisdom especially if we consider what he was pleased to reveal unto us of his Intentions by the Prophets who followed Moses REFLEXIONS Upon the Four Last BOOKS OF MOSES To Establish the Truth OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION CHAPTER I. That it cannot reasonably be doubted but that Moses is the Author of Exodus and of the three other following Books THis is a Truth which may be grounded upon several solid Arguments I might observe That Moses hath always been acknowledged by the very Heathens themselves not only to be the most Ancient Historian but also the most Ancient Legislator in the World. I might likewise observe That there is a particular connexion betwixt the Book of Genesis and the other Books of Moses as well in regard of the general Design of their Author as of the Matters treated of in them For Example We see that the greatest part of the Laws and Transactions which we find written and recorded there derive their Original from those Transactions and Passages that we read of in Genesis Thus we may plainly discern that the pretension of the Israelites upon the Land of Canaan was grounded upon the Promise that God made to Abraham to give it to his Posterity in the fourth Generation Thus we may see That the Amalekites could have no other reason to make War against the Israelites than the old Alliance that was formerly made betwixt Amalek and the Canaanites which without doubt engaged his Posterity to be the first Opposers of the establishment of the Israelites in the Land of Canaan Thus we see that the Seditions of the Israelites against Moses under Corah Dathan and Abiram did proceed from the Order of the Birth of the Children of Israel as it is set down in Genesis because the eldest thinking themselves wrong'd of their Birthright thought they might justly Rebel against Moses in order to recover it But I haste to things more material than these And first it is here observable That those Books were not only religiously kept in every Family of Israel but that they were also once solemnly deposited in the Tabernacle as a publick Record and that by Moses himself a little before his death that they might be a Testimony against that People as we read it Deuteronomy XXXI 26. Secondly It cannot be denied that Moses did straightly charge both Joshuah and the Heads of the People to read them frequently and carefully for it is expresly said so Joshua 1.8 Nay we see about 500 years after the holy Man David who had made during his life Psal I. the supream felicity of a man to consist in the reading the Law of God day and night We see I say that holy Man give in his Death-bed the same Charge to Solomon I Kings Thirdly Moreover it is certain that there were many Laws and Sanctions contained in those Books which are the Foundation of the History of succeeding Times And this is the reason why we read nothing in the Book of
if it had been absolutely necessary to be a Jew before they have a share in the benefits of the Promise Secondly It supposes that God was to remove that People out of Canaan into remote Countreys and to disperse them as it were into the uttermost parts of the World which was done by Divine Providence only to publish the Promise of the Messiah to establish the Belief in the Prophets and so to facilitate the calling of the Gentiles to the Faith. Thirdly He declares expresly as St. Paul observes that he was to call his people that which was not his people that he might by that means provoke the people of Israel to Jealousie This Notion of Jealousie mentioned by St. Paul deserves to be taken notice of with very great care if we reflect upon the Spirit of Jealousie which reigned amongst the Israelites and their Neighbours I shall take notice in another place of the great number of Oracles of David upon the same Subject altho he otherwise insults upon the Moabites and Edomites upon all occasions and shews as much Aversion and Jealousie against those Nations as was possible for one that lived in a continual War with those people I shall also make some Reflexions upon Solomon's Marriage with the Princesses of Tyre of Sidon and of Egypt that is to say with the Posterity of Ham which was united to that of Judah to take a part with them in the Blessing from whence it came to pass that the Song that was written upon that Marriage was preserved as a piece divinely inspired and ought to be considered as a happy presage of the calling of the Gentiles to the Communion of the Messiah One may also joyn here the manner of Solomon's giving to Hiram's Subjects who had helped him in the building of the Temple the Countrey of Chabul which was inclosed within Judea altho those people were of the Canaanites Posterity upon whom Noah had particularly pronounced Gen. IX Cursed be Canaan One may also see that as God had permitted his people to be Transported into Chaldea and Babylon and had raised up there Prophets amongst them on purpose to acquaint the World with the glorious hopes of the Jews so he caused the Books of Scripture to be Translated into Greek about 300 years before our Saviour's Birth not only to prevent all suspicion of falshood in the minds of the Gentiles if they were produced of a suddain after the Birth of the Messiah but also to instruct the Heathens by little and little of the Right which all Nations had as well as the Jews to that Promise that they might take their share in it whenever they should be invited to it by God and especially to take away the Scandal which was to follow upon God's destroying the Form of that Commonwealth by the Romans according to Daniels Prediction All these things no doubt engaged the Jews who read the Books of Moses to make particular Remarks upon them But they ought to have observed three things especially The First was That altho God had at first chosen their whole Nation yet he was pleased to disperse afterwards almost ten parts of thirteen which plainly shew'd that this choice which he had made was only an Oeconomical choice and for a particular design The Second is That altho he was very severe and punctual in exacting obedience to the Ceremonial Service yet he had fixed the most part of their observances to certain places to certain times and to certain persons It was easie to judge that when God bounded them in this manner it was only for an Oeconomical Service prescribed only upon a particular prospect which was one day to have an end The Third is That experience convinced them that altho God seemed to have fixed his Service to the Temple yet he suffered the Chaldeans to destroy the first and did not restore to the second the first Marks of his presence when it was rebuilt by the order of Cyrus From whence it was natural to conclude that such a glory as retired by little and little from that place which God had chosen was only design'd to be there for a time till God should extend his Service by calling all the World to his Religion and so making the whole Universe his Temple as we see it done in our days by the calling of the Gentiles to the Religion of our Saviour FINIS REFLEXIONS Upon the BOOKS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE To Establish the TRUTH OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION Volume II. LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXVIII THE PREFACE IN my Reflexions upon the Book of Genesis I have shewed the means God made use of to imprint the Idea's of the Creation of the World and the Promise of the Messiah during that long Tract of 2500 years before the Children of Israel departed out of Egypt and before the History of it was penn'd by Moses They that consider that God at first prescribed the Law of the Sabbath to fix the belief of the Creation of the World and that this Law hath been constantly observed since the beginning of the World until Moses and is still to this day observed amongst the Jews easily apprehend that this Fact of the Creation could not be more incontestably proved or more firmly grounded In like manner an attentive Reflexion upon the Oracles which I have mention'd and which alone at first were the foundation and hope of the Religion of the Patriarchs and were afterwards recorded in the Book of Genesis is sufficient to perswade any one that it was impossible but the memory of the Promise of the Messiah should be deeply engraven in the minds of the Israelites tho' we should suppose that the Spirit of Jealousie which God had raised amongst the several Pretenders to the execution of that great Promise did not much contribute to preserve the remembrance of it as I have shown very carefully that it was very useful for that purpose I have in my Reflexions afterwards proved upon the four last Books of Moses that God prosecuted the same design in the Laws which he gave to the People of Israel as well as in the peculiar Forms and Regulations of their Government and Religion the great design of which Rules was only that the Messiah at his appearance in the World might be unquestionably known Whoever shall read the Reflexions which I have made upon this matter will easily perceive that the long Life of the Patriarchs was of great efficacy to make so fresh and lively an impression of those illustrious Facts the Creation of the World and the Promise of the Messiah that there was no need of very frequent Oracles to confirm the same as indeed we find that in the space of 2553 years only five or six principal Oracles were given which have a particular Relation to the Messiah as I shall shew afterwards Now this Reflexion being once supposed as the Life of Man was afterwards
instituted during the Captivity We must blind our selves of purpose to conceive that any Impostor could forge Books which have so exact a Relation and such certain Characteristicks to fix them to the time in which every Author lived and to the Circumstances wherein he wrote We must of necessity grant That before such an Impostor could bring about such a Design he must have made himself Master of the whole Prophane History to fix so exactly the History of the Jewish Nation and of those Oracles which have been given in Circumstances which are unintelligible without the help of Prophane Histories of different Nations I come now to Facts which cannot be contested It is sufficient that those Facts be acknowledged as true to establish in general the Truth of those Books whereof we teach I. It cannot be denied that the Jews preserve these Oracles to this day with great fidelity II. It cannot be denied that they are in the hands of Christians who preserve them as well as the Jews since they have been separated from them that is for almost Seventeen Ages III. It cannot be denied that these Prophecies have been exactly read by the Jews because of those Oracles upon which they believe to this day that the whole happiness of their Nation is founded IV. It cannot be denied that the Jews have read these Books exactly to refute the Disciples of Jesus Christ who have pretended from the first Age of their appearing that Jesus Christ is the Messiah mark'd out by these Oracles In short whereas the Christians pretend to prove by the accomplishment of the ancient Oracles that Jesus Christ was the Messiah It is known that the Jews endeavour to this day to wrest the sense of these Oracles and to shew that there are many things which are not literally accomplished and which by consequence cannot be apply'd to Jesus Christ V. It cannot be deny'd that most of the Controversies of the Jews with the Christians only regard the Application of the Text of the Prophetical Authors The Christians explain them in a Mystical Sense the Jews maintain that they ought to be explained Literally VI. It cannot be deny'd that about 300 years before the Birth of our Saviour the Prophetical Books were translated and put into the Hands of the Egyptians having been carried to and translated at Alexandria by a publick Order of the whole Nation for the satisfaction of a King of Egypt The History of that Version which put those Sacred Books into the Hands of the Greeks and the Jews who dwelt in Egypt is the most famous thing in the World and which made those Books perfectly known Here we have now these Books in Hebrew and in Greek that is to say in the Primitive Language of the Jews and the Vulgar Language of the Empire which Alexander founded It is known that from that time the Christians took care to make great numbers of Translations into all the Vulgar Tongues after the preaching of the Gospel and that they preserved those ancient Books as the first Elements of their Religion Now it will be sufficient to acknowledge those Truths to consider That those Oracles were true which foretold things which happened almost four Ages after their Prediction Thus for Instance the Destruction of Jerusalem the Overthrow of the Jewish State the calling of the Gentiles to the Service of the God of Israel the Destruction of the Syrian and Egyptian Monarchies are all contained in the Books of Daniel Haggai Zachariah and Malachi Now there is not more difficulty to conceive that such Authors as Isaiah Amos Joel should have foretold the same thing Eight or Nine hundred years before than there is to believe that they were foretold by those who liv'd but little above Four Ages before they actually came to pass There is therefore no difficulty in conceiving that these ancient Oracles were proposed as we see them and in those times to which we find them fixed But we ought to go further into this matter and to establish the same thing by the consideration of the things themselves I confess that we might have a suspicion of those Oracles which are not related upon the Faith of a publick Volume As for Instance those of Elijah Elisha and Uriah the Son of Shemaiah who seem never to have published any thing But here we are to observe 1. That usually the Authors who publish the Oracles are not the same with those who tell us of their accomplishment 2. That the Oracles of which we now speak were upon Subjects perfectly known and upon very illustrious Exigencies What more illustrious than the Destruction of Ahab's Family foretold by Elijah What more extraordinary than the manner of Jezebel's Death foretold by the same Prophet In short we ought to take notice I. That these Oracles were written for the most part in compleat Volumes We have Sixteen Prophets sufficiently distinguish'd by their proper Volumes II. Each of these Authors has a very different Character from the rest so that some as Daniel for instance write in a peculiar Language one part of his Book being in Chaldee III. Every one has some relation to the rest So those who liv'd together often treat of the same things So Isaiah for instance Joel Amos Hosea But they had separate Idea's and particular Oracles and a turn which perfectly distinguishes them one from another IV. One needs only read their Works to find that they wrote in different places Amos was of Juda and went to prohecy in Israel that appears plainly Ezechiel and Daniel prophesied in Chaldea that 's seen by reading their Works V. There is a natural dependance between the Books of Moses and those of the Prophets in general For the Prophets were continually reproaching the Kings and People with the Crimes which they committed against the Law of God proposed by Moses VI. There is a natural dependance between the Writings of the former and of the latter Prophets Dan. IX 2. So Jeremiah is quoted by Daniel as foretelling the time when the Desolations of Jerusalem were to have an end this he proposes not as if he had learnt it by a Revelation but as a thing which he had found out by an attentive examination of the Prophecy of Jeremiah VII There is an exact Connexion of these Oracles with the History of the time which is often interwoven with the Prophecies One see 's it in the Books of Isaiah Jeremiah and Daniel the other Historical Books not being altogether so particular as these Prophetical Books are VIII In short one see 's that these Books are interwoven with Oracles concerning ancient Events and People which have now no Existence so thaâ— that hinders us from suspecting any Forgery I shall not repeat here the common Arguments which establish the Credit of these Books I brought in most of them when I established the Authority of the Books of Moses I shall only make some Reflexions here to establish the same Truth CHAP. VI. That the
IV. That we ought to pay a much greater deference to the Opinion of the ancient Jews than of those who have been sowred by their Miseries and Disputes to such a degree that they have lost that principle of Equity which keeps Men from denying the most evident Truths and which have been the most universally acknowledged by a whole Nation that was not prepossessed with so great a degree of Obstinacy But we ought to observe besides That this seeming Confusion of those Oracles which relate to the Messiah with other Subjects treated of by the Prophets arose from several Causes I. From the Prophet's often joyning the Idea's of the principal Promise the sending of the Messiah with the promise of those means which were absolutely necessary for the accomplishment of that promise as the preservation of the Jews for instance So the Captivity of the Israelites in Egypt and their departure from thence with their settling in the Land of Canaan which he had promised them before were foretold as necessary means in the order of Providence to the Execution of the great Design of God. For so the Babylonish Captivity and their Deliverance there from which are both foretold are foretold as steps towards the execution of the promise of sending the Messiah And so likewise when they foretold the Persecutions by Antiochus and the other Neighbouring Nations they also foretell the deliverance which God would grant to the Jews and their re-establishment until the Birth of the Messiah which was the accomplishment of that great Promise II. This seeming Confusion arose from the writing of these Books piece by piece which afterwards were put into this order without having always a regard to the time in which they were writ and without taking notice of all the occasions which engaged the Prophets to write And thus we see the Prophecies which relate to the Messiah joyned to several other Transactions and to several other Predictions whose connexion is not always so very evident III. It arises from the writing of the Prophecies each by themselves so that all those of the same Prophet were put together as they came out making only a new Chapter in the Work whereas they ought to be considered rather with relation to the Matter than to the Order in which they lye in the Book as we have it at the present For the Prophets often borrow their Light from what they themselves had said some time before or from what some other Prophet had foretold which ought to be observed particularly of those who lived about the same time But besides those Rules which I proposed in the beginning of this Chapter and besides those Observations of the joyning the Oracles which relate to the Messiah with other Subjects I must add two Rules more which may be useful in determining the sense of great numbers of Oracles which are expressed in figurative terms The first is That it is natural to conceive that when the Prophets were to speak of the Messiah and when they were intent upon the Description of his Kingdom they should make use of Expressions which seem'd to foretell a sort of overturning of nature which should happen at that time But then these Expressions ought to be understood in a figurative sense in the same Spiritual sense in which the Christians understood them as the famous Maimonides allows in that passage of Isaiah Lib. de Regibus cap. XII where the Wolf and the Lamb are said to feed together Secondly Since the Messiah is described as one who should unite in his own Person the Glory of the Divinity and the meanness of the Human Nature together we ought to understand those Oracles in such a manner that what is great in those Prophetical Descriptions should not contradict the more contemptible part when we consider the Messiah as cloathed with all the meannesses of the Human Nature These Idea's which are often joyned in one and the same Oracles ought to be exactly applyed to the different consideration which the Prophets had of the Messiah or to those various States through which they themselves assures us that the Messiah was to pass An intelligent Reader will easily judge that I might have added a third Rule to the two former which is That when a person who has all the Characters of a Prophet applys an old Oracle to any Subject one cannot reasonably dispute his application This the Christians assure us was done by the Apostles in a very great number of Oracles But because this supposes a Prophetick Character in the Apostles before it has been established by solid proofs I shall wave the proposal of it at present After these general Remarks I shall gather together those Oracles in the Old Testament which relate to the Messiah I might here follow the order of the Matters by bringing under each Article those Oracles which relate to it which would give a great Light to the Subject as Eusebius has rightly observed and as he has practised himself in his Books de Demonstratione Evangelicâ However I rather chose to follow the Order of Time in which these Oracles were uttered which did not seem improper to explain those Truths which are contained in those Oracles In short this is of great importance I. Because it is very natural to consider the Series of God's design and the connexion which may be found in those Idea's which are made use of to express it II. Because of the necessity of the encrease of the Light in the Revelations proportionably as the time drew near so that it is of use to observe how the Divine Wisdom follow'd this natural Order in making the later Oracles clearer than the former and in hinting by little and little a greater number of Circumstances by which it was necessary to explain them III. Because this serves to give us a very strong proof That God intended to furnish us from the Scriptures themselves with that which should fix us in a Belief of this Capital Truth in our Religion In short when the Truth of each of the Books in the Old Testament is once approved and their Age set down it appears that several Prophets did agree wonderfully without any concert in the explication of the same Truths at several Times and in several Places and Circumstances which hinder men for the most part from agreeing in the most common Matters which are the Subjects of their Reflexions I have already considered that the Wisdom of God follow'd Rules very conformable to the Condition and Inclinations of the Patriarchs when it spoke of the Messiah We may see the same Conduct in the following times So since God had promised Children to Adam in Abel's stead one may see that he also promised David a Son who should set upon his Throne He explains almost all the Circumstances of his Coming his Humiliation his Exaltation the Oppositions he should meet with the Victories he should obtain and his Offices Prophetical Priestly and Royal. One see
Facts is joyned with an account of the weakness whereinto they all fell They relate their own flight and forsaking their Master with S. Peter's denying of him whilst they set down the courage of those women and that entire love which they shewed to the person of Jesus The second is That the account of the Accomplishment of these ancient Oracles is interwoven with the Accomplishment of those which were uttered by Jesus Christ which alone are sufficient to make good his claim The third is That our Saviour did never on any occasion more openly stand to his pretension of being the Messiah than when he applyed to himself those Oracles which by their publick consent were referred to the Messiah which the Jews at that time more obstinately contested than ever The fourth is That there never was a more exact description of all Circumstances which might assure us of the truth of any Relation than that which the Evangelists have given us of the death of Jesus Christ in which we find the places the time the persons their discourses and other things of that nature set down with extream care The fifth is That as this Fact with all its Circumstances is the most exactly described of any thing that ever was so it was a matter concerning which it was scarce possible to impose upon any one All was done in the face of the whole Nation who were met together at their most solemn Festival All was done in the presence of the Soveraign Heathen Magistrate of the Council of the Jews of Herod and of those who followed him to Jerusalem The sixth is That we find an account of some Miracles interwoven with this Relation of the Evangelists concerning the death of Christ and those Miracles as publick and as little subject to suspicion as the death it self of Jesus Christ if we take the pains to examine them They who come to take Jesus fall down backward to the ground Jesus Christ restores the ear of the High Priest's Servant which was cut off there was darkness over all the Land from Nine a Clock in the Morning till Noon the vail of the Temple is rent These are miraculous actions and such as the Jews might easily have refuted wheresoever they had been proposed if the truth of them had not been beyond all question From all these Remarks it evidently follows That it is impossible to dispute the Application which the Apostles make of these Oracles which are so particular to the person of Jesus Christ as the true Messiah We find every part of their Relation exactly answering to the Prophesies how then can any one doubt of their being fulfilled in him especially seeing it is evident by so many other proofs that he was indeed the Messiah and that God has been pleased so many other ways to confirm the same truth CHAP. XIII That Jesus Christ was raised again the third day according to the Prophets and afterwards ascended into Heaven HAving shewed in the foregoing Chapter that Jesus Christ was crucified under Pontius Pilate for maintaining that he was the promised Messiah I am now to shew that according to the Prophecies set down in my third part he rose again the third day and afterwards ascended into Heaven As these two Facts are the most important of all that are contained in the Gospel because if they be denied all the Divine Worship given to Jesus Christ by the Apostles and a great number of Jews and Gentiles who received him for their Master in matters of Religion is absolutely unlawful so we ought solidly to prove that they are indisputably true Of which we shall be fully convinced by making some Observations upon the Relation which the Evangelists give us concerning them and we shall easily find therein all the Characters of Truth There is no necessity of observing that a Resurrection from the dead is a Fact which can hardly be believed and that tho the Jews did not all of them look upon it as an impossible thing yet there were Sadduces amongst them whose Doctrine was publickly taught It is certain that tho the Disciples had seen Jesus Christ raising three persons from the dead and amongst others Lazarus a little before his death yet we find that they were not thereby more disposed to believe that Christ was to rise from the dead In short tho the Evangelists tells us that Jesus Christ himself had foretold that he was to rise again the third day which was a thing so commonly known that the Priests to elude the Prophesie desired of Pilate that a Guard might be set on Jesus his Grave yet they expresly tell us that the Disciples none excepted were in such a Consternation at the death of Jesus Christ that they had entirely lost the hopes of seeing the accomplishment of that Prophesie Some pious Women who had accompanied him to the Cross and were desirous to shew some Marks of their Veneration after his death came indeed to his Sepulchre but with Spices to embalm his dead Body so far were they from expecting to find him risen from the dead Tho these Holy Women were convinced of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ by the Apparition of an Angel by the Discourse of our Saviour himself and by the repetition of his order that they should go to Galilee where they should see him yet the Relation which they give of these things is accounted fabulous so that two only of all the Apostles had the curiosity to go to the Grave and inform themselves Here is a great unbelief amongst the Apostles which was to be cured This was a condition wholly inconsistent if we suppose them Impostors and that they intended to impose upon the World. A Second thing we may observe is That as the Incredulity of our Saviour's own Disciples was extraordinary so we cannot imagine any more efficacious means than were employed to overcome this their doubtfulness If one joyns the Relations of the Evangelists together one may find several degrees of evidence in those proofs which confirm the truth of the Resurrection of our Saviour The First is the manner of their being informed of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ Angels at first declare his Resurrection to some Women Jesus Christ afterwards appears to Mary Magdalen all alone afterwards he appears only to two of his Disciples then to St. Peter afterwards he appears to seven of them at once then to all his Disciples except Thomas and soon after to the eleven Thomas being one of them After all this he appears to a greater number of his Followers till at last having been several times seen of them all he appears to them all assembled together and is taken up into Heaven in their sight It is evident that as they were informed of this truth one after another so they were more obliged to examine the Fact more attentively when Jesus Christ appeared to them The second degree has relation to those Marks and Characters by which they were assured
become Christians 'T is also of great importance to observe further as I have already done that the Books of the New Testament were penn'd before the overthrow of the Commonwealth of the Jews There are only some of the works of S. John which were writ after the Destruction of Jerusalem I have before observed that the Divine Providence order'd it so that all the Jews for five and thirty years together repairing thrice a year to Jerusalem at their three solemn Festivals might have greater opportunities to inform themselves of the truth of the Facts contained in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles To this Remark I shall now add two weighty Considerations The one is That the Christians for some years submitted themselves to the Ceremonial Law and repaired with the Jews to Jerusalem and by this means were engaged to examine the Facts contained in the Gospel The other is That after the Council of Jerusalem they were dispensed with as to that Custom as well as the observing of all the other parts of the Ceremonial Law which set the Christians in a greater opposition to the Jews and so encreased the necessity of examining very scrupulously on both sides whatsoever was for or against them in those matters of Religion This Observation leads us naturally to another That it is absolutely impossible that an imposture of this nature should not be discovered when there ariseth a Difference between those who may be looked upon as the Authors of the Forgery and those who after them endeavoured to gain credit to it Now if we find that one Disciple of Jesus Christ betrays him without accusing him of the least Crime or Imposture if we have seen the Christians at first united in the same Assemblies with the Jews and that there were several Contests and Disputes between the Apostles and those first Christians yet without calling those Facts which are continued in the Gospel in question by either side S. Paul takes notice of the Contests which happened betwixt him and S. Peter S. Luke relates the heats between S. Paul and Barnabas upon very slight occasions he sets down also the Dispute which arose about the distribution of Alms to the Greek and Jewish Widows One see 's that there arose a Dispute amongst the Apostles themselves about the Calling of the Gentiles to the Gospel one see 's afterwards the obstinacy of some of the Jews of the Sect of the Pharisees who maintained the absolute necessity of submitting to Circumcision and S. Paul's opposition set down in his Epistle to the Galatians We need no more to make it evident that there could be no concert nor collusion between them to deceive or impose upon those to whom they preached the Gospel Let us go a little further a Dispute happens about a Capital Point of Christian Religion about the Resurrection insomuch that S. Paul thinks himself obliged to write concerning it to the Corinthians so that there was a necessity of examining the truth of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ again Now we find that S. Paul to confirm this Doctrine in general chiefly makes use of the instance of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ which he proves by Arguments taken from the Fact it self that is by witnesses whom he produceth Whereupon I make this considerable Reflexion That in comparing this Dispute of S. Paul with the Writings of the Evangelists it clearly appears that they did not alledge all the proofs they might have done None of them relates in particular the number of those who saw Jesus Christ in Galilee upon the holy Mountain but S. Paul who had examined the faithfulness of their Relations and knew the witnesses specifies the number and observes that many of them were yet alive if perhaps any of them were already dead I shall add only two Considerations more which prove that it was even impossible for the Apostles to impose upon the World on this occasion The first is taken from their State and Condition They are no great Lords whose Power might terrifie any one from examining their Writings or whose Reputation could not have been called in question without danger On the contrary they were men of mean condition employ'd in base Professions often cast into Prisons and from time to time oblig'd to appear before Magistrates for the same Doctrine and the same Facts which they published to the World. Let us consider then whether it were an easie matter for S. Paul for instance I say for this S. Paul a maker of Tents this S. Paul without Reputation without Riches this S. Paul who was seized at Jerusalem after divers Persecutions this S. Paul who was sent a Prisoner to Rome and imprisoned there under the power of the Roman Magistrate and who at last lost his life by Nero's order to make those blindly believe all he said who were at liberty to examine whether all that Luke related as happening to him at Jerusalem at Maltha at Philippi at Athens were indeed true or only a framed Story The second thing we ought to observe is That not only the Books of the Apostles were publickly read every Lord's day by a constant Law of which we have most authentick witnesses in the Writings of the Apostles themselves and in other ancient Books which are still extant but also that they were all of them written not in Hebrew which at that time was a dead Tongue nor in Syriack a Language spoken in a very few places but in Greek which at that time was the Language commonly received throughout all the Roman Empire and besides was the Language into which the Divine Providence had caused the Old Testament to be translated about three Ages before that men might compare the ancient Oracles and their accomplishment together CHAP. XX. That the whole Model of the Religion and Commonwealth of the Jews is at this day so entirely destroyed that the Messiah could no more be known WHat I have before set down to establish the truth of those Facts which serve for a Foundation to the Christian Religion is certainly sufficient to answer the design which I formed in writing these Reflexions upon the Books of the Holy Scripture and I believe I may with justice conclude That as nothing is more uncontestable than the truth of those Books and of the Facts in them related so there is nothing more certain than the Truth and Divinity of the Christian Religion So that now I have only two things to do with which I conceive it will be necessary to conclude these Reflexions The one is to shew the absolute impossibility of conceiving any other accomplishment of the ancient Oracles than what is set down in the Gospel The other is that concerning the Divisions amongst Christians which are a scandal to the Jews and especially concerning the difficulty of the Mysteries which the Gospel proposes which are as so many stumbling Blocks to them which hinder them from discerning those Characters of Truth in the Gospel which by