Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	ancient_a	church_n	true_a	3,382	5	4.7270	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61565	A letter to a deist, in answer to several objections against the truth and authority of the scriptures	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1677 (1677)	Wing S5600; ESTC R21879	39,694	152

but to my apprehension very plain and easie if we attend to the main scope and design of them which was to acquaint Abraham how long it would be before the prophecy were accomplished and what the condition of his Seed should be the mean time viz. That they should have no Land which they should call their own by Inheritance all that time but they should be exposed to great hardships yea even to Servitude but that Nation whom they should serve should at last suffer for their ill usage of them and they should come out of that Captivity with great substance and all this to be done in the fourth Generation of the Amorites when their Iniquities should be arrived at the full height All which particulars were so remarkably accomplished at such a distance of time and under such improbable circumstances that that this very prophecy were enough to convince an unprejudiced mind that it came from Divine Inspiration For where do we meet with any thing like this in the Histories of other Nations viz. A Prophecy to be accomplished 400 Years after and the very manner foretold which no humane conjecture could reach to since the manner of deliverance of the People of Israel out of their Captivity in Egypt was to all humane appearance so impossible a thing especially at such a time when the Spirits of the People were sunk and broken by so long a slavery And not only the manner foretold but the accomplishment happened to a day according to Exodus 12. 41. And it came to pass at the end of the 430 Years even the selfe-same day it came to pass that all the Hosts of the Lord went out from the Land of Egypt But against this you object That the sojourning is spoken of the Children of Israel in Egypt for 430 Years which cannot hold good any ways since to make it up the times of Abraham Isaac and Jacob must be taken in who could not be called the Children of Israel Answ. For the 430 Years I grant that according to St. Paul they did commence from the Covenant made to Abraham Gal. 3. 17. and that the 400 Years began from Isaac's being owned for the Promised Seed between which time the 30 Years were passed and all appearance of difficulty is avoided if we admit the reading of the best Copies of the LXX which is in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now the sojourning of the Children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt and Canaan they and their Fathers was 430 Years This is the reading of our Alexandrian Copy and the Complutensian and that of Aldus and of Eusebius in his Chronicon and of St. Hierome in his Translation of it and of the Church in St. Augustins time and afterwards and lest any should reject this as a late Interpolation or gloss received into the Text besides these Testimonies of the Antiquity of it we find the very same in the Samaritan Copy which the Enemies of it do allow to be as ancient as our Saviours time And that which very much confirms the Truth of this reading is that the Jews themselves follow the sense of it who are the most eager contenders for the Authority of the Hebrew Copy who all agree that the beginning of the Computation of the 430 Years is to be taken before the Children of Israels going into Egypt and Menasseh Ben Israel contends with many others that the 430 Years did begin from the Promise made to Abraham and the 400 from the time of Isaac to which their most ancient Books of Chronology do agree and to the same purpose speak both Philo Judaeus and Josephus who although in one place he seems to make the Israelites affliction in Egypt to have been 400 Years yet when he speaks more particularly of it he makes the time of their abode in Egypt to have been only 215 and the 430 to begin from Abrahams entrance into Canaan The Targum of Jonathan begins the 430 from the Vision of Abraham and the 400 from the Birth of Isaac all which I mention to let you see that the Jews themselves do in sense concur with the Samaritan and Greek Copy and therefore we have more reason to suspect something left out in the present Hebrew than any thing added in those Copies But doth not this take off from the Authority of the Scripture Not at all For the only Question is about the True Reading And having the consent of the Samaritan Alexandrian and other Copies of the LXX and of the Ancient Church and of the Jews themselves as to the sense of it we have reason to look on this as the truer Reading Which is making no addition to the scripture either as to Persons or Places but only producing the more Authentick Copy much less is this Adding or Changing as we please for if we did this without so much Authority as we have for it you might as easily reject it as we produce it 3. After all this I do not see the mighty force of your Reason to charge the Scripture with Contradiction supposing the 400 Years were to be spent in the servitude of the Children of Israel in Egypt I confess when I found the Scripture so boldly so frequently charged with no less than Contradiction I expected something like Demonstration in the Case especially in this place which you chose to put in the Front of all but I do not find any thing like such a proof of a Contradiction supposing we should allow the 400 Years to be spent in Egypt Yes say you Coath was 5 Years Old when he came down into Egypt and When he had lived there 65 Years he begat Amram and Amram being 70 Years Old begat Moses to which Moses his 80 Years being added we have only 215 Years But since the Scripture doth not assign the particular Age of any of these when they begat their Children I see no impossibility or repugnancy in the supposition that 400 Years should pass from Levi's going into Egypt to the Eightieth of Moses any more than from Salmons entrance into Canaan to the time of David for no more are reckoned in scripture than Boaz the Son of Salmon by Raab and Obed and Jesse So that by the same way this latter may be explained the former may be so too If it be said That either they begat their Children at a great Age or that the scripture in Genealogies doth not set down all the intermediate Parents but only the most eminent as Caleb is called the Son of Esron 1 Chron. 2. 9 18. although there was at least one between them the very same Answer will serve to clear this part of the Chronology of Scripture from any appearance of Contradiction These things you might have found more largely deduced and fully handled by those Learned Persons who have undertaken to clear the Chronology of Scripture Who were men of more Judgment than from any difficulty of this nature to call in question the Truth and