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yoifoezrittti f Jt'tt//i. c->c//'/t.
t/V^EW HIS TORY
P?
~JL
HOLY BIBLE,
r%
TO 771
t/ll
C^
'£>>
Becrinninp" of the World,
M/tabM/brnent o/'C/jry/fr/cr/i/ty.
IN ^IX VrOIiTTMBSA)
With. AniVer5 to majtat'the controverted Queitious,
Differ tations upon the molt remarkable PaHagres,
and a Connection of Profane Hiltory all alio jag.
To which are added, "Notes, explainiiio-diHicnlt lexis,
rectifying* Mil- tra dilations, mid reconcilrnp* Ceemuio"
Contradictions. C — r
TliuwholR illuftrated withpv opev Mats .
c -JSym^T&pci Alomar*. /ffiiwA<wj(^*^SL.*ynr.
E » INBFR GH.
Printed by Sands, MlJKKAY, and CoCHUAN,
rv.'For),.0
* Azttie** ^srteu/'oj Bookfeller in J^tYt/t <i //tor/-.
3fDCCLXIV.
TO
i
The Right Reverend Father in GOD,
EDMUND,
Lord Bifhop of LONDON,
AND
One of his Majesty's Moft Honourable Privy Council.
My Lord,
nr HAT a book of this fize, by a perfon of ■*• my obfeurity, fhould, in fo fhort a fpace of time, after fb large a number already print- ed off, come to its fecond impreftion, muft be imputed very much to the influence of your Lordfliip's name in the front, which is of weight fufficient to ftamp authority upon any thing, and to induce both clergy and Jaity to read what your Lordfhip has not dif- dained to approve.
A z There
iv DEDICATION.
There is fomething however, I hope, in the laudablenefs of my intention, which, in conjunction with your Lordfhip's influence, has been a means to conciliate the good opi- nion of the public, and to give the work a greater currency : for the defign of what I now prefent to your Lordfhip, is, fo to me- thodize, explain, and illuftrate the Historical Part of the Holy Bible, as to remove the difficulties in reading it, which fome have af- ferted, and others complained of, with an in- tent, I fear, to prejudice the world againft it. And were I under no previous obligations to your Lordship, the very nature of my fubjecl: would remit me to one, who has al- ways been a known encourager of works of this kind, and who has himfelf fo glorioufly maintained the truth and authority of thole facred records, and both the evidences and excellency of the Chriftian difpenfation.
Since it is our fate, my Lord, to live in an age wherein divine revelation is rejected, the fenfe of ancient prophecies perverted, the miracles of our BlefTed Saviour degraded, the myfteries of our holy religion ridiculed, its laws and conftitutions flighted, and its guides and minilters treated with defpite ; we ought to account it the peculiar blefling of Heaven, that in this great metropolis, we have one preflding over us, who is fo well qualified to withftand this inundation of impiety, who is both able and willing to vindicate the caufe
of
DEDICATION.
of God and religion, and, by his example and encouragement, to animate us in defence of it.
To you, my Lord, we owe a full confu- tation of infidelity in your Lordmip's mod excellent Pastoral Letters; to you we owe that wife fyftem of directions for our pri- vate conduct, and the honourable difcharge of our minifterial office, which, if duly obfer- ved, would make us unto God a fwect favour of Chrijl^ and a glorious clergy indeed ; to you we owe the knowledge of our ecclefiaflical laws and conftitutions, which your Lordfhip, with great care, and pains indefatigable, has digefled and explained ; to you we owe the defence of thofe immunities and privileges, and the prefervation of thofe rights and pof- fefhons, with which thofe laws and conftitu- tions have inverted us ; and, however other tongues may be iilent, my' gratitude, I hope, will always oblige me to declare, that to you I owe the prefent comfortable leifure I have for ftudy, and the generous encouragement your Lordfhip has always been pleafed to give to my weak, but well-intended labours.
Whatever then, my Lord, the per- verfenefs of this prefent generation may be, future ages mufl be told, what an exquifite judge and mafter of all ufeful learning, what a firm friend to men of merit, what a true patriot to your country, what a zealous de- ' fender of the Chriftian caufe, what a wife guide and governor of Chrift's church, what
a
vi DEDICATION.
a kind protector of his minifters, and ftrenuous alienor of their rights and privileges, you have all along been ; in how large a fphere your Lordfhip, thefe many years, has moved ; and with what luftre you have always adorned it.
That the great giver of every good and per- fect gift may long preferve your Lordihip, a public blefling to this church and nation, is the daily fervent prayer of,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's Moft humble, Obliged, and
Beenham in Berk/hire, April 7. 1 744.
Devoted fervant, Thomas Stackhouse.
THE
APPARATUS
TO THE
HISTORY
OF THE
OLD TESTAMENT.
BE f o R E we enter upon the hiftcry of the (a) Holy Bible, it may not be improper to inquire a little into the truth and authority, the perfection and excellency, the antiquity, ftyle, and other proper- ties of that part of it which we call the Old Tejlament, (for what we have to fay concerning the New muft be referved to another place), the number and nature of the books whereof it is compofed, and the feveral tranflations, and other incidental changes, which, fince the time of its
publi-
(a) The books which we look upon as the foundation of our holy religion, go under different names. They are ftyled facred and divine books, holy writ, zn&holy fcriptures, becaufe they were wrote by perfons divinely infpired, and do contain the commandments of God himfelf. Our Saviour calls them the fcriptures, by way of eminence ; becaufe no other book is com- parable to them Several of the ancients gave them the name of Pandcfi, and Bibliotheca Sanfla, as containing all the tracts which were wrote upon the fame divine fubjetSt. Of later ages the world Bible, (which comes from the Greek b£k!*, fignifying
books)
viii The APPARATUS,
publication, it has undergone. And this we are the ra- ther induced to do, bscaufe a bolder fpirit of infidelity than ufual, has, of late, gone out into the world ; teaching iome to look upon all religion as a mere trick, contrived by the arts of princes, and conferred by the intereft of priefts ; othei-s, to call in queftion the genuinenefs of fome particular books of fcripture, thereby to make way for the iiibverlion of the whole ; others, to difparage the whole, as a rude and unmethodical, a flat and infipid compofition, un- becoming the Spirit of God to dictate, or men of letters to read ; and others again, from the pretended fufficiency of natural religion, to deny the neceflity of any divine re- velation at all. A divine What we are to underftand by a divine revelation jevelation needs no great pains to difcover. (h) In the moil fimple what" and obvious fenfe of the word, revelation is the making that known, which was a fecret before ; and fo, when ap- plied to a religious ufe, " it is God's making known him- " felf, and his will to mankind, over and above what h^ " has made known by the light of nature or reafon." this purpofe we may obferve, that the objects of our know- ledge are of three kinds : Some; are difcernible by the li^it of nature without revelation; fuch is the knowledge or God from the effects of his power and wifdom, as (c) the apoftle argues : Others knowable, not at all by the light of nature, but by revelation only ; fuch is the falvation of
books) has univerfally prevailed. Bat how the word tej\ anient came to be applied to the holy fcriptures, is not fo eafy a matter to define ; only we may obferve, that the Septuagint's ufing the word Aiati-/.*), (which fignifies a tejlament), might probably in- duce the Latin interpreter to tranflate it by tejlament urn But then we mult remember, that this word muft not be ufed in its ordinary fenfe, as it means a man's lajl will, that is to be exe- cuted after his death ; but, in a more general fignification, to denote, a folemn declaration of the will of God towards men, containing his laws, his precepts, his promifes, and the cove- nant which It* has contracted with them. And foi this reafon it is likewife cailed by the Latins injlrumentumt i. e. an authentic deed, containing iolemn ordinances, or treaties, and compacts. The books which comprehend what God revealed to the Jews, are called the Old, and thofe which contain what he declared by Jems (Thrift, and his apoftles, are ftyled the New Tejtament. Du Pin's hift. of the Canon, &c
(b) Bilhop Williams's fermons at Boyle's le&ures. (c) Rom. i« ao.
mankind
or Preparatory Discourse. ix
mankind by the death of Jefus Chrift, (d) which (as the apoftle expreffes it) has, from the beginning, been hid in Cod : And others, difcoverable by the light of nature in- deed, but very imperfectly, and therefore ftand in need of a revelation to give them a farther proof and evidence ; and of this kind is that (e) life and immortality, which (die Jame apoftle tells us) our faviour brought to light by the gofpel. But now, be the revelation of what degree foever, whether partial or entire, whether a total diicovery of fome unknown truths, or only a fuller and clearer ma- nifeftation of them, it muft be fupernatural, and proceed from God.
That God can make a revelation of his will, either im- Thfe poffi- mediately to our minds and inward faculties, or mediately ^j^^ to our underftandings, by the intervention of our outward £„„ onc_ fenfes, can never be queftioned by any one who coniiders him as the author of his being, and therefore intimately ac- quainted with all the fprings and movements of his foul. (f) We find ourfelves capable of communicating our 'ioughts~to one another, either by means of a found of words, which ftrikes the ear, or by writing, or other fignatures of our intentions, which affect the eye ; and . hy cannot God make ufe of the like means to imprefs what idea he thinks fit on our minds, or to give fuch mo- tions to the brain, as may occafionally excite whatever thoughts he deiigns to produce in us ? or rather indeed, why may not he, without any intermediate or occafional caufe at all, enlighten the mind by a direct and naked view of fuch truths as he defires it fhouid know ? for (g) he that planted the ear, and he that formed the eye, fhall not he have accefs to them ? or fhall not he have power of communicating his thoughts, who teacheth man underflanding?
Since therefore it cannot be denied, but that it is pofiible The pro- for God to reveal his will to mankind, let us, in the next j^'J^j place, confider, which is moft probable, which moft agree- able to the notions we have of him, whether he fhould, or ihould not, make fuch a revelation. Now, if we may judge of this by the general fenfe of mankind, we fhall hard:y find any one, that believed the exiftence of a God, who did not believe likewife Ibme kind of commerce and communi- cation between God and men. (h) This was the foundation of all the religious rites and ceremonies, which every nation
(d) Eph iii. 9. (e) 2 Tim. i. 10. (/) Fiddes's body of divinity, vol. 1. (g) l-'fal. xciv. 9. (/>) Dr Sherlock's lcrraons.
Vol, I. B pretended
The APPARATUS,
pretended to receive from their gods : And, what gave birth to all their fuperltitious arts of divination, was the perfua- fion that their gods had a perpetual intercourfe with men, and, by fundry means, gave them intelligence of things to come.
And indeed it is hardly to be imagined, that God mould make reafonable creatures on purpofe to know him, and to be happy in the knowledge, and love, and admiration of him, and yet withdraw himfelf from them, without giving them any viiible tokens of his prefence, or communicating any farther knowledge of himfelf to them, than what they might perceive in the reflection of his works. A delire to be acquainted with the will of the Supreme Being leems to be fo connatural to the foul of man, that, in the more civilized parts of the world, we fcarcely know any people of note, who had not their Sibyls, fuch as they accounted the mouth of their gods; and, without all doubt, none were without an oracle, to which, upon all exigencies, they had recourfe, and to whofe injunctions they willingly fubmitted. And if fuch a deflre be implanted in us, the confideration of God's goodnefs will not fuffer us to doubt, but that he has made a proper provifion to anfwer this, as well as our other natural appetites. Whereupon we cannot but conclude, that the fame power and wifdom which made man a x-eafonable and inquiiitive being, and allowed him a world of wonders to employ his intellectual faculties in the contemplation of, has likewife' taken care to fatisfy that noble defire of knowing what the will of his maker is, and what relates to his own eternal welfare : And that is revelation.
Without this, indeed, the cafe is with him, as with one that is born blind, (/) who, whatever other evidence he may have of the being of a God, wants one, the moft convincing of all, i.e. the wonders of an almighty power,
and
(;) Our excellent Milton, in that epiibde upon light, wherein he bewails his own want of fight, very feelingly, has exprefTed this thought with a great deal of lendernefs and beauty : Thus widi the year
Seafons return, but not to me return
Day, or the fwcet approach of ev'n or morn,
Or fight of vernal bloom, or fummer's rofc,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine.
But eld id inftead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me, from the che<irfu: \v?.j s of men
or Preparatory Discourse. xi
and incomprehenfible wifdom, ccnfpicuous in the frame of nature, and the vifible parts of the creation. And, in like manner, whatever fenfe fuch men as have only rea-» fori for their guide, may attain of the mercy and good- nefs of God; whatever they may obferve, in the courfe of his providence, to confirm them in the belief of it ; what- ever hopes they may entertain of it from a general notion of the divine nature ; whatever defire they may have for it from the fenfe of their own mifery : yet they want that evidence of it, which alone can fatisfy and compofe their doubtful and diffracted minds ; and that is certainty, or, which is the fame, revelation ; by which, and nothing lefs, that certainty is to be attained.
The plain truth is, if there be no revelation, we are, The necef- as it were, -without God in the world; and, considering thefity oi:.hls nature of fome events, cannot afluredly fay, whether the m^ l divine providence interferes in the government of it, or fate and chance happen to all things (k). If there be no revelation, we are ftill in our fins, and have no fancfuaiy againlt the accufations of our enraged confciences, the fears of our guilty minds, or the juftice of an incenfed Deity. If there be no revelation, we have no hope, can have no comfort in our death, nor any aiTurance of im- mortality after it. In a word, if there be no revelation, we are in a perpetual maze, as if we were at fea, without ftar or compafs, and knew not what courfe to take to gain our harbour. And therefore the fame reafon which we have to believe that God is good and gracious in all his other difpenfations, we have to believe likewife, that, from the firll creation of the world, he always vouchfafed mankind fome revelation of his will, whereby to direct their conduct.
Adam, no doubt, was created, at firft, in the full per-t0 the £,ft fection of his reafon ; and yet, if we take a view of him man, in that flate, we fhall foon perceive, that he could not at- tain a competent knowledge of many things, without the afiiftance of divine revelation. (/) He felt indeed hjmfelf
ta
Cut off, and, for the book of knowledge fair,
Prefcntcd with an univerfal blank
Of nature's Works, to me expung'd and raz'd,
And wifdom at one entrance quite fhut out. Book 3.
(tf) Bifhop Williams's fermons at Boyle's lectures.
(/) Milton, whom I take to be a good commentator upon what happened to Adam in his flate of innocence, introduces him thus cxprcflinghimftlf :
B 2 My
xii The APPARATUS,
to be, but how he came to be, he knew not ; for he faw nothing about him, that could either be fuppofed to have given him that being, or could inform him how he came by it. He law he had a body, but what that body was originally made of, he could not poffibly tell ; for how could he fuppofe, that fuch warm, foft, and tender flefh, fuch firm- and well-compacted joints, fuch bright and radiant eyes, &c. were ever formed of cold, fhapelefs, and unadtive earth ? He felt his body move obfequious to his will, but what that inward principle was, which moved it, he was wholly ignorant ; nor could he poffibly, of him- felf, conceive, that there was an immaterial fpirit, of a diftincl nature and fubhftence, vitally united to it, and what gave the fpring to all its motions. He call his eyes up to the heavens, and there faw that glorious luminary, which gave light (as he perceived) to all about him ; but whether it was an intelligent being or not, or, when it came to decline and fet, whether it might not be inclofed in per- petual darknefs, he could not underftand. He found, to- wards the approach of night, an heavy ftupidnefs begin to feize him, and that he was forced to fubmit to its power; but he did not know, but that it was to be the extinction of his being, and that he was to clofe his eyes and conclude his life together. This we may very well fuppofe to have been the cafe of Adam, at his firft looking about him, im- mediately upon his creation. Tor though he had what we call reafon, in a fovereign degree ; yet even that reafon muft have been his torment for a while, when it made him inquifitive, but could give him no fatisfaction : And there-
i Myfelf I then perus'd, and limb by limb. Survey 'd, and fometimes went, and fume times ran With fubtle joints, as lively vigour led. Bat who I was, or where, or from what caufe Knew. not. To fpeak I try'd, and forthwith fpake: My tongue obey'd, and readily could name Whate'cr I law: " Thou Sun, faid I, fair light! " And thou, enlighten'd Earth, fo frefh and gay I *' Ye hills, and dales ! ye rivers, woods, and plains ! " And ye, that live, and move, fair creatures! tell,
" Tell (if ye faw) how came I thus, how here -
" Not of my felf — by fome great maker, then,
" In goodnefs and in pow'r pre eminent.
** Tell me how 1 may know him, how adore,
** From whom I have, that thus I move, and live, " And feci that I am happier than I know." Book 8.
fore
Or PREPARATORY DISCOURSE^ XlM
fore it is proper to believe, (the wifdom and goodnefs of God conftrain us to believe), that, in order to relieve him under this perplexity, God took care, either by the mi- niftry of his holy angels, or by fome immediate infpira- tion, and imprefiion, to inform him of every thing, that was neceffary for him to know, in the ftate wherein he had placed him.
He had placed him now in a beautiful garden, and given him great variety of fruits for «nis nourifhment and fup- port. But might not fome of thefe fruits be defigned for other purpofes than food ? or might they not have fome bad and pernicious qualities in them, how apparently fair foever, and inviting ? (m) Without making the experiment, it was impoffible for Adam to know what food was proper for his conftitution, which experiment (for ought he knew) might have proved fatal to him ; and therefore we find God giving him this direction: (n) Of every tree in the garden thou mayji freely eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and tvil, thou Jhalt not eat of it ; for in the day that thou eatejl thereof, thou Jhalt furely die.
He had placed him, naked and defencelefs, in the midft of favage creatures, all able and inclined to deltroy him, had they not been reftrained by fome invifible power ; and, in this condition, he muft have been miferabie beyond all imagination* and under perpetual apprehenlions, that the firft lion or tyger he met would certainly devour him : but, to eafe his mind in this particular, we tind God giving him ahurance to the contrary, and inverting him with this- authority: (o) Have dominion over thefflj of the fea, and o- ver the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth:
He had formed a woman, to be a confort and com- panion to him ; but how he mould know any thing of at future ftate of marriage, and \ the ties of conjugal affec- tion among his pofterity, (/>) (as his words plainly indicate) ; how he fhould have a perfect notion of father and mo- ther, before there was any fuch thing as fadier and mo- ther in the world ; fhould have clear ideas of the affec- tion and endearments arifmg from that relation, and yet, at the fame time, lhould perceive, that the affection and endearments ariftng from marriage, would fo far get the better of them, as to attach a man nearer to a ftranger, taken into his bofom, than to thofe very parents whofs (»/). Revelation examined. («) Gen. ii. 16. 17. (0) Ibid.
i. 26. (/>) Ibid. ii. 24. .
blood
xiv The APPARATUS,
blood ran in his veins ; is a problem which cannot bevre* folved without having recourfe to divine revelation ; and therefore we find our Saviour thus expounding it : (q) Have ye not read, that he who made them in the beginning, made them male and female ; and /aid, For this caufe Jhall a man leave father and mother, and Jhall cleave to his -wife, and they twain JJjall be one fefb ? So drat the words of Adam, upon this occaSion, were the declaration of God himSelf, and only pronounced by Adam, in confequence of an exr prefs revelation from God. And if a revelation, in theSe and fuch like inftances, was needful for the conduct of man in his Hate of integrity, much more was it neceilary in, a State of defection and general depravity, and his pc- Whether we believe, then, or not believe, the account -fterity. which Mofes gives of the devil's deceiving our firft parents in the form of a ferpent ; yet, unlefs we will deny the truth of all hiftory, we mult allow, that in procefs of time, (both before and after the flood), the corruption of mankind became uniyerfal ; and that their grand adver- sary had fo enlarged his empire, as even to outvie the God of heaven in the fplendor of his temples, the number of his votaries, and the pomp and Solemnity of his worfhip. (r) In this cafe, we do not. indeed fay, that man had any right to the divine afliftance : that he had forfeited by his apoftaSy ; and-where the neceflity is created by our own fault, there lies no obligation upon the creator to provide a remedy. But though God was under no obligation to do it, yet, confidering the miferable circumitances mankind were in after the fall, more efpecially through want of a re- velation, we may reafonably conclude, that the benignity of his nature would no lefs incline him to give them one, than if he had been obliged to it by a Special promife or cove- nant.
For how can we believe, that a being of infinite per- fection, when he faw mankind under the deception of fin, and the delufions of Satan, Should take no care to rectify their mistakes, and reform their manners ? (s) Can we Sup- poSe it confiftent with infinite truth, to Suffer all nations to be expoSed to the wicked defigns of Seducing and apoftate Spirits, without ever offering them any means to undeceive them ? Can we imagine, that a God of infinite majefty and power, who is a jealous God, and will not give his honour to another, Should allow the world to be guilty of . (a) Matrh. xix. 4. &c. (r) Bifhop Williams's fermons.
{s) Jenkins's rcafonablsnefs of the Christian religion, vol. 1.
idolatry ;
or Preparatory Discourse. xv
idolatry ; to make themfelves gods of wood and ftonc ; nay, to offer their- fons and daughters unto devils, with- out concerning himfeif to vindicate his own honour, by putting a ftop to fuch abominations ? We have no true no- tion of God, if we do not believe him to be infinite in knowledge, holinefs, mercy, and truth ; and yet we may as well believe there is no God at all, as imagine, that a God of infinite knowledge fhould take no notice of what is done here below ; that infinite holinefs fhoxild behold the whole world overfpread with wickednefs, and find no way to redrefs it ; and that fuperftition, and idolatry, and all the tyranny of,iin and Satan, for fo long a time, fhould enflave and torment the bodies and fouls of men, and there ihoukl be no compaflion in infinite mercy, nor any care ocer a deluded world in a God of truth. We may therefore juftly conclude, that lince a revelation, in the ffate of man's defection, was fo neceffary in itfelf, and fo agreeable to the known attributes of God, there is abun- dant reafon to be periuaded, that Gcdwas always inclinable to impart one to mankind, whenever their occalions requi- red it.
" But what occafion could there be for any divine re- An objec- " velation (t), when, by giving them the light of reafon, *"">• " (that per! ect and unerring guide), and implanting in them " the law of nature, God had made an ample and ftand- " kig proviiion, both for the inftru&ion of their minds, " and the direction of their lives? when, by a due at- '< tention to thefe, they might, at any time, be enabled " to perceive all that was neceffary for them to know, and *' to practife all that was required of them to do, without a- *' ny fupernatural intei-vention, which, in this cafe, feems " highly needlefs and fuperiiuous ? "
We readily grant, indeed, that the great principle of ac- Anfwered tion in human nature is reafon ; inlomuch that to judge by flu-wing according to its directions, is not the privilege of the philo- the .imPer" fopher only, but a thing efTential to our very beings, and as C(" l°* much infeparable from all perfons, as is the fenfe of their own exiftence. But then we are to confider how fmalL a portion of light any man's reafon has, that he can properly call its own. For, (u) as we derive our nature from our parents, fo that which we generally call natural knowledge, or the light of nature, is a knowledge and •
(t) Chriftianity as old as the creation, paflim.
(«) Law's Cafe of reafon j or, Natural religion fairly and fully (tated,
light,
xvi The APPARATUS,
light, that is made natural to us by the fame authority which makes a certain language, certain cufloms, and modes of behaviour, natural. Nothing, in this cafe, feems to be our own, but a bare capacity to be inftrucled, or a nature fitted for any impreffions ; as capable of vice as vir- tue ; and as liable to be made an Hottentot, by being born among Hottentots, as to be made aChriitian, by being born among Chriitians. So that our moral and religious know- ledge is not to be imputed to the internal light of our own reafon or nature, but to the happinefs of having been born >imong reafonable beings, who have made a fenfe of religion and morality as natural to our minds, as articulate language is to our tongues.
We allow, again, that there is a moral diftinction between good and evil, right and wrong, founded in the nature of things ; but then we affirm, that this is not from a philofo- phicai contemplation of the fknefs of the one, and the un- fitnefs of the other, that we prefer virtue to vice ; but from the inftruction of thofe who had the care of our education, and the formation of our judgments from our infancy. When we arrive at an age of more maturity, indeed, and happen to have a genius fitted for philofophical inquiries, we may then deduce proofs that will eftablifh our notions of fuch a moral diftinction ; but thefe, we rauft allow, are an after-knowledge, not common to men, but accidental confirmations of that fenfe of religion and morality, which, more or lefs, was fixed in us by the inft itution and authori- ty of thofe among whom we had the good fortune to live. Now, if this be the true ftate of xxafon, as it is originally in us ; if this be all the light that we have from our own nature, viz. a bare capacity of receiving good or bad im- preffions, right or wrong opinions and fentiments, according to the particular country we chance to be born in ; if we are nothing without the afiiftance of men ; nay, if we are fooliih and helplefs animals, till education and experience have revealed unto us the wifdom and knowledge of other men ; then are we but weakly qualified to alTert and maintain the abfolute perfection of human reafon, in oppofition to the neceffity and advantage of a divine revelation. But this is not all. and depra- It is not only the imperfection of our reafon, but its vity of hu-frequent depravity likewife that ought to abate our con* faa fidence in it; fince, upon farther examination, we fhall
find, that all the mutability of our tempers, the diforder of our paffions, and corruption of our hearts ; all the ex-;
travagancies
or Preparatory Discourse.
traragancies of the imagination, all the contradictions and abfurdities which are to be found in human life and human actions, are ftricHy ami properly the mutability, corruption, and abfurdities of human reafon. We, indeed, in the common forms of fpeech, talk of our reafon as a diftinut principle from our paffions, amotions, and humours ; but this is only a diftinction of language made at pleafure, and without any real diftinction in the things thcmillves. (x) The fame principle, which is the agent of all that is good in us, muff be equally the agent of ail that is evil ; for the action and power of reafon are as much required to make any thing vicious, as to make it virtuous : and if fo, reafon is certainly the worft as well as the beft faculty we have ; and not only the principle of virtue, but the certain caufe likewife of all that is bafe and ihameful in human life.
Brutes, we know, are incapable of imprudence and im- morality, becaufe none of their actions are actions of reafon ; and therefore, if our reafon be the only faculty which diitinguifhes us from brutes, it muft certainly fol- low, diat all the irregularities, whether of humour, paf- fion, or affection, which cannot be imputed to brutes, muft iblely be afcribed to the faculty whereby we are diftinguilhcd from them ; and, confequently, every thing that is vain, fhameral, falfe, or bafe, muff be the fble pro- duct of our reafon ; fince, if they proceeded from any- other principle, they could have no more vanity, faife- nefs, or bafenefs in them, than we have in our hunger ov thirft. And if the matter ftand thus with our reafon ; if all that is wife or abiurd, holy or profane, glorious or fhame- ful, in thought, word, or deed, is to be imputed to it ; then is it as grofs an abiurdity to talk of the absolute per- fection of human reafon, as of the unipotted holinefs of
(x) Ibid. St Paul, indeed, in his epiftle to t!;c Romans (Clu vii.) feeins to fpeak of two diftinct things, when he c -lis us of the law in his mind, and the Imv in his members ; but in this he might accommodate himfelf, in fome meafure, to the known forms of diction, and yet poffihly mean no more than one and the fame principle, conlidered in different views, or acting differently. "Without the will or choice, there can be neither virtue nor vice in any act we do j and yet it is a received maxim, ihzt voluntas fe- qi'jtur ultimitm intellcEUts prattici judicium \ and though that judi- cium does not always happen to be right, yet lviii it is the Ipring vnd caufe of our action^ be it right or wrong.
Vol. I. C h' ■
xvi l
xvm The APPARATUS,
human life, or the abfolute infallibility of human conjec- tures ; fince, upon examination, it is found to be a princi- ple of an ambiguous nature, productive of vice as well as virtue ; and capable of leading us into error, as well as difcovering truth, ranee 1q£°' ^ w^ b£ no disparagement, I hope, to the prefent age, the beft to fuppofe that the ancient philofophers had as great ftrength pKilofp- of reafon and judgment, as fincere a delire to find out p =rs, truth, and as great diligence in inquiring after it, as any of our modern unbelievers ; and yet, if we look into their writings, we lhall find that they were utterly ignorant in many great and important points of religion, and ftrangely inconliftent with themfelves in others.
They were ignorant of the true account of the crea- tion of the world, and the original of mankind; and there- fore (y) ibme of them held all things to-be eternal, while others (z) imputed them to chance; and thofe who al- lowed them a beginning, knew nothing. of the manner and gradations whereby they rofe up into, fo beautiful an order.
They were ignorant of the origin of evil; whereupon they devifed two contrary principles, in perpetual confiicT: with one another ; and though they were fenfible that hu- man nature was ftrangely corrupted, yet they acknowledged that its corruption was a difeale, whereof they knew not the caufe,. and could not find out the cure.
They were ignorant of any form of worfhip that might be acceptable to God, and of a proper way to appeafe bis diipleafure, when they were conlcious of their offences a- gainft him; and therefore we find Cicero, the greateft and beft philofopher th.xt Rome, or perhaps any other nation, ever produced, (<a) " allowing men to continue in the ido- " latry of their anceftors, and advifing them to conform " themfelves to the fuperftitious religion of their country, " in Ottering ftich facrifices to different gods, as were by " law eftablilhed."
They were ignoi'ant, at leaft they taught nothing of the exceeding love of God towards- us ; of his delire of our happinefs, and his readinefs to conduct us in the ways
(}■) Peripatetics. (2) Epicureans. (a) A patribus ac- ceptos deos placet coli ; De leg. /. 2. Item illud ex infiitntis. pontificum et arufpicum non rauiandurn eft, quibus holtiis imiro- landum culque cfeo. Bid.
«v
or Preparatory Discourse. xis
of virtue; and therefore (/») fomc of them made their fu- preme Jupiter a folitary kind of being, wholly taken up in the contemplation of his own perfections, and leaving the government (of all fublunary things at leaft) either to lbme inferior agents, or the guidance of a blind, unthinking chance.
They were ignorant, at leaft (c) they taught nothing of divine grace and affiftance towards our attainment of virtue, and perfeverance in it ; and therefore we find (d) others of them equalling themfelves to the gods, and ibme- times taking precedency; " becaufe we have difficulties, *' fay they, to encounter, which make the conqueft of vice, " and the improvements in virtue, more glorious in us, " than in the gods, who are good by the necefiky of their *l nature."
And as thefe great philofophers were utterly ignorant of fome, fo were they far from being clear and coniiflent with themfelves in other great articles of religion. They had but dark and confufed notions of the nature of God ; and therefore the renowned Socrates ingenuoufly confeffed, that all he knew of God was, that he knew nothing ; and, for this reafon, endeavoured to draw men off from divine and heavenly contemplations, (as being what he found too iiigh for human reafon to underftand),and to betake them- felves to the ftudy of civil life.
They had but dark and confufed notions of the fummum bonum, or faprcme felicity of man ; and therefore Cicero tells us, that there was fuch a diffention among them upon this head, that it was almoft impoilible to reckon up their different fentiments, even while himfelf is fetting down the notions of above twenty of, them, all equally extravagant and abfurd.
They had weak and uncertain notions of the immorta-. lity of the foul ; for, however they might perceive it to have a fpiritual exiftence, yet they could from thence deduce no argument, but that God might deftroy it, if he pkaied : and
(V) Epicureans. (c) Non quis, quod bonus vir eflet, gra- rias diis egit nnquam : Jovcm opihnum maximum ob cas res ap- pellant, non quod nos judos, temperatos, fapientes, efHciat, fed quod falvos, incolumes, opulentos, copiofos ; Cic- De nat. deo* ■nan, I. 3.
(J) Stoics. Eft aliquid, quo fapiens antccedat clcum ; ille, Baiura? bencficio, non ftio, fapiens eft ; Se/i. epi/l. 53.
C 2 therefore
xx The - A P P A R A T U S,
therefore (e) Cicero plainly declares that, " which of the two. fi opinions" (that the foul is mortal, or that it is immortal) • ' be true, God only knows :" Which, among other de- clarations of the like nature, might probably induce Seneca to fay, (j) " That immortality (however delirable in itfelf ) " was rather promifed, than proved by thefe great men."
They had weak and uncertain notions of a future ftate • for, though their poets had prettily fancied an elyiium and an hell ; yet all fober men looked upon thefe rather as well- contrived reftraints for the vulgar, than any matters of their own belief : and therefore Socrates is introduced, as faying, (g) "I hope there is a place, where I, and good men " Hull meet ; yet I cannot affirm it :" And (b) " I wifh," fays Cicero, " that yova could prove to me that our fouls " are immortal ;" fo that, after all, they wanted arguments to convince themfelves, and ended all their difquiiitions in a peradventure, and ;a Villi. But, what is more,
They had no notion at all of the refurreclion of the body ; for, though their poets made frequent mention of the ghofts of departed men appearing in a viiible form, and retaining in the fhades below their former fliapes ; yet by this (if they mean any thing) they mean no more, than that the foul, after this life, pafTes into another ftate, and is there invefted with a body, made up of light, aerial par- ticles, quite different from what it had before : but that the grofs matter, which they faw laid in the grave, and turn to corruption, or burnt into allies, or blown away in the air, mould ever be raifed, or collected again, and revivified ; of this the moft fpeculative among them had no conception, aud their Thus ignorant, or thus doubtful at leaft, were fome of'
* l*f-r W
nr.morainy ti,£ greatefl. names of antiquity of thefe prime and funda- cuineis: mental truths, which rauft be acknowledged the great bar- riers of virtue and religion : and therefore we need lefs wonder, that we land fo many of them abetting practices apparently flagitious ; (f) that we find feveral feels efteem- ing revenge, not only lawful, but commendable j and the deSre of popular applaule the greateft incentive to all kind of virtue : that we find fome of the greateft of them full of the praife of felf-murther, and fetting themfelves for the example of k to their followers : that we find Cato
(<?). Tufc Quart, lib. r. (/) Epift. tco. («) Plato in Phieti. $J Tufc* "Qn»ft. (/) ' Vid. Eifliop of London's fecund ■■' letter,
commending
or
Preparatory Discourse. xxi
commending fornication as a proper remedy againft adul- tery ; Plato, aliening the expediency of mens having their wives in common ; and Chryfippus, teaching the worft of inccft, that of fathers with their daughters, and pleading the lawfulnefs of unnatural luft : that we find, in iliort, whole fraternities degrading human nature into that of beafts ; the Cynics, laying afide all the natural refhaints of fhame and modefly, committing their lufts openly ; and the Stoics affirming, that no words or fpeech of any kind ought to be cenfured and avoided, as filthy and obfcene : fo true is the obfervation which Quintilian makes of the philofophers of his time, (k) '" That the moft notorious " vices were fcreened under that name ; and that they did " not labour to maintain the character of philofophers by " virtue and ftudy, but concealed very vicious lives under " an auftere look, and an habit different from the reft of " the world."
And if thefe men of fpeculation, and profound reafon- ers, were thus ignorant in their notions, and corrupt in their principles, what reafon have any of our modern con- temners of revelation to prefume, that, if they had lived in thofe days, they would have acquitted themfelves bet- ter ? What grounds to imagine, that they would have been wifer than Socrates, and Plato, and Cicero ? (/) Had their lot been among the vulgar, how are they fure, they fhould have been fo happy, or fo confiderate, as not to be involved in that idolatry and fuperftition, that wickednefs and im- morality, which then over-fpread the world ? Had they joined themfelves to the philofophers, what feci: would they have followed, (for they were all erroneous), or what book would they have made the adequate rule of their lives and converfations ? Or had they fet up for themfelves, how are they certain they fhould have been able to deduce the fe- veral branches of their duty, or to apply them to the feve- ral cafes of life, by argumentation, and dint of reafon ? 'Tis one thing to find out a rule at fk'ft, and another to perceive its agreement with reafon ; and the difficulty is not much (when once we know our duty) to begin iind deduce its obligation from reafon : but to begin and difcover our duty in all points, with all its true mo- tives, merely by the help of natural reafon, is like grop- ping for an unknown way in an obfeure twilight^ 'Tis
(4) Tnfh 1. t. prref. (/) Clarke's demonstration of natural and revealed rfli
no
xxii The APPARATUS,
The bed ofno improbable opinion, then, that the difcoveries, which their know- t]ie wjfeft of the heathen world made (even in points of tradition, morality) were not fo much owing to the ftrength of their own reafon, as to certain traditions which they might either receive from their anceftors, or gain by the conver- fation they might have with the Hebrews, to whom God had committed the oracles of his will by the hand of his fervant Mofes. For this is certain beyond all controverfy, that the moft eminent philofophers, iuch as Pythagoras, Plato, Democritus, and others, rinding a dearth of know- ledge at home, travelled for improvement into other parts ; and, as Egypt was accounted the chief feat of learning, there were few men of note, who went not thither to compleat their ftudies ; where, converting with the Jews, (who were there in great numbers), and having the oppor- tunity of conlulting the law of Mofes in die Ptolemean li- brary, they might from thence collect many remarkable doctrines, though (when they came to publifh them) they chofe to difguife, and blend them with their own notions and inventions. However this be, it is manifeft, that the philofophers, who have lived fince the publication of the gofpel, have, in their feveral fyftems, been much more clear and uniforai, both as to the meafures of human duty, and the motives requilite to tire performance of it, than they were before ; which clearnefs and uniformity are real- ly owing to the help of revelation, that has given us a far more perfect and exact knowledge of the nature and at- tributes of God, from whence many of our duties imme- diately flow; a greater certainty of future rewards and punifhments ; and a clearer conviction of the neceffity of fobriety, temperance, and other moral virtues, as prepa- ratory to our happinefs in the next life, by perfecting our nature in this.
This (as I take it) is the true ftate of human reafon jn its prefent ruinous and depraved condition : in its mi- nority, equally capable of bad, as well as good impreffions, and formed entirely by the examples we fee, and by the inftitution of thofe who have the charge of our education : m our maturity, the fouree of our paffions and defires, our humours and appetites, and the fole agent of all the evil, as well as all the good, we do : in the higheft pitch of its perfection, unable to fettle any certain rule of mo- rality, and beholden to tradition or revelation for the chief and beft difcoveries which it makes : in the breaft of the greateft philofopher, over-fpread with error, ignorant in
manv,
or Preparatory Discourse. xxiii
many, and doubtful in all the great principles and motives of religion, and thereupon enihared in divers hurtful lufts : and much more, in the breaft of the vulgar, funk into ignorance and ftupidity, and thereby lubmitted to the wiles* of the tempter, and (in) taken captive by him at his ivill. And is this the faculty of which we hear fuch loud boafts, and to which the ablblute perfection of immutability and infallibility are afcribed ? "Is this (//) the fundamental " law of the univerfe, that can tell us more than books " or mafters, more than the two tables of Mofes, or the " twelve tables of the Greeks, and of which all other laws ** are but copies and tranlcripts ?" Is this the only prin- ciple that is allowed us, to inform our minds in all religious truths, and direct our conduct in all our moral actings ? This the only pilot, to fteer our courfe through this tem- peftuous world, in the midft of fo many dangers, avoca- tions, and mares ; with fo many lufts within, and tem- ptations without, to carry us wrong ; fo many Syrens to air lure us, fo many rocks to dafh us, and fo many waves to fwallow us up quick ? Whether God, in this method, would have made a fuificient provision for man's falvation, we will not here difpute : but, to coniider human reafon (as it is in fact) modified by the various difabilities, paffions, and prejudices, which will ever prevail among the greateft. part of mankind ; and then coniider every man left, in this wild difconcerted ftate, without rule or guide, to fearch out truth and happinefs by his own collections ;. the detractions and perplexities, which muft needs enfue, would make every wife man wilh for fomething better: and if fo, what can we imagine more defirable, more ap- poiite to the wants of human nature in fuch a cafe, than that God lhould interpofe, and by an authoritative decla- ration of his will, (committed to perfons ordained to that office) inftrucl: the ignorant, and reduce thofe that were going aftray.
" But fuppofe that God, in compliance to mens wants, £n objeo* " fhould vouchfafe to give them a declaration of his will;tica. '* yet ftill the queftion is, Who are the perfons that are " appointed to convey it ? The pretence to revelation is fo " common, and the number of impoftures fo great ; the " difference between a divine impreffioh and a diabolical " illufton, natural enthuliafm and fupernatural infpiration,
(m) 2 Tim. i;. 26. (/;) lid. Chrimanity as old as the cre- ation^ p. 60. 61. ire.
xxiv The APPARATUS,
" is fo undiftinguifhable, and by us who live at fuch a di- " ftance of time, lb impoffible to be adjufted; that the fa " feft way is to fufpend our belief, until we have a fuffi- " cient conviction, that what is offered as a mefiage from " heaven, infallibly comes from God." Anfwered, The moft ufual ways wherein God of old was wont by. enu™e" to communicate his mind to mankind, were by virions, by different dreams, by voices, and by infpiration. The Jewilh doc- kinds of re- tors, who treat of the fubjecl, have many curious obfer-" vclation. vations concerning the difference of thefe feveral kinds of revelation ; but the moft plain and obvious diftinction feems
to be this That viiion was the reprefentation of fome
momentous thing to men, when they were awake, in opposition to dreams, which were reprefentations made to them when their external fenfes were afleep ; that voices were either God's calling to men from on high (o) (as he did to St. Paul) or his immediate converting with them (as he did with Mofes) (p) face to face, even as one man fpeaketh to his friend; and that infpiration was an inward excitement of the foul of man, by the operation of the Holy Ghoft, widiout any bodily perception or fen- fation.
Thefe are the feveral forts and degrees of revelation which have commonly been afcribed to God : and, what do we fee in any of them, that he cannot, when he pleafes, make ufe of, and that effectually ? Cannot he, by fome vifible appearance, convince men of his immediate prefence, beyond the poilibility of doubt ? Cannot he, either with, or without fuch vifible appearances, talk as familiarly to them, as one man converfes with another? Cannot he, who formecTxaur minds, and knows all the ways of accefs to them, clfaw fuch clear and bright fcenes, and pictures of things on our fancy and imagination, whether lleepin'g or waking, as fhall need no other proof of their divinity, but themfelves ; even as light h known by itfelf, and the firft principles of reafon by their own evidence ? In ihort, why cannot he fo clarify the understanding by a beam of light let in from above, as fhall be as evident a proof of its divine original, as it is that the light proceeds from the fun, K r , the fountain of it ?
perfons in- Whatever it may feem to us, who have not the fen- fpired fation or experience of fuch divine reprefentations as the plight jy8ge pr0phets had and therefore can no more defcribe them,
or their own r i
infpixations. •
(o) Actsix. 4. (/>) ExoJ. xxxiii. II.
than
or Preparatory Discourse. xxv
than the perfon who never had his eye-light, can conceive what light- and colours are; y<~:, as the blind man may be convinced, that there are fuch things as light, colour, fi- gure, and fight, by what he hears and obferves from thofe who are about him; lb we may be allured, that there was, in the prophetic fchemes, that powerful reprefentation, on the part of the divine agent, and that clearness of percep- tion on the part of the perfon infpired, as would abun- dantly make good thofe phrafes of vifion and (peaking, by which it is defcribed in fcripture ; infomuch that fuch a perfon, after fuch illumination, might as well queftion what he heard and faw by the natural organs of lenfe, as doubt of what was revealed to him by the impreffions made upon him through the agency of the divine Spirit.
" But do not we fee enthulialtic perfons as confident o£?ow.^ . " their infpirations and vifions, and (according to their^^ tn_ " perfuafion) as much obliged to follow them as thofe that ihuiiaiin : '* are truly infpired ? How then lhall we find out the dif- " ference, and by what criterion lhall we judge ?" It is owned, indeed, that confidence in imaginary infpirations may be fometimes very great, but then the perception, and confequently the affurance ariling from thence, cannot be equal, or any ways comparable to what is produced by a real one. For, though God Almighty can fo communicate himfelf, as that the perfon infpired lhall know moft certain- ly that it is from him, and from him only, (in which cafe there is no abfolute neceffity for any farther evidence), yet, that nothing might be wanting to the full conviction of him who had the revelation, God was frequently pleafed to add ibme lign, or fupernatural proofs, in order to fatisfy the party of the truth of his divine million. Thus Gideon, when required to go upon a difficult enterprize, was cured of his fear, and confirmed in his mind \q) by the fire out cf the rock, -which confumed the flcjh and the cakes ; as Mofes, when fent to deliver the children of Ifrael from the Egyp- tian bondage, perceived that his commiffion was from God, upon feeing the bujb bum without confuming, (r) and the rod in his hand turned into a ferment : a courfe this, highly neceliary to give the meflenger full fatisfachon, spe- cially when the cafe is fuch as Mofes feems to put it, (s) They xvill not believe me, nor hearken to my voice ;for they will fay, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. How we
" But fuppofe a perfon never lb well fiitisfied in what may judge " he calls a revelation, and that (in his own opinion) h*2Jri»*C (?) JJ('ges Vli 20.' (r) Exod. iVi 3. (i) Ver. I« fpired ;
Vol. I. D " »
::xvi The APPARATU S,
'•' is as fure of it, as he is of his being and exiftence ; yet " what is all this to me, unlefs I am equally fatisfied that " he really had fuch a revelation; that his pretentions to a " million from heaven are true, and he far from being " an impoftor ; but how fhall I judge of this ?" Why, the Only way is, to coniider with ourfelves, what it is that we might expect from the perlbn who pretends to be a mef- fenger fent from God, and then obferve whether he anfwers viz. from that character. Now, as a revelation is a divine com- lus pcrf)n-mun;catjon an<j a j^^k 0£ divine favour, we may well
3.1 Cll3.r t CI"" -•
expecl:, that the perlbn who pretends to it fhould be a man of virtue, good fenfe, and known probity ; cool and confiderate enough, not to be impofed on himlelf, and too honeft and upright ever to think of impaling upon others : one who has no trick, no crafty defign, no lecular ends to ferve, no vanity or ambition to gratify ; who difclaims all worldly greatne'fs and emoluments, and intends nothing but the good of mankind, and the glory of God, who fent him : one, xfixb by his whole behaviour difcovers that he is in earneft, and really believes his own commifiion ; is, confequently, deterred by no threats, difcouraged by no oppoiition, but goes on with undaunted courage, ftill per- fiiting in the fame affertions, and ready to lay down his life in confirmation of what he fays. So far then as the credibility of a perfon is the proof of a revelation, and fo far as the wifdom, probity, and finccrity of a perfon is a proof o': his credibility, we have an evidence to reft upon, and a character, whereby we may try the truth of his re- velation, from the As tne revelation pretends to come from God, we may fubjedt- reafonably expect, that it fhould be confonant to the notions jnatter or we have of the divine attributes, and conducive to the happinefs and initruction of man ; that therein' we fliould find the moft lively characters of the divine perfections, juctice and power, fet forth in all their authority, to ad- minifter matter of terror to the wicked ; but fo tempered with mercy and kindnefs, as to raife the hopes, and attract the love, and eftablifh the comfort of the righteous : therein to find the' myfteries of the divine counfels un- folded, and the beauty and harmony of divine providence difplayed, as far as God's government of the world, and the condition of mankind in it will permit : therein to find the belt principles and precepts to inform and direct us in what we are to know and do, the belt arguments and motives for our encouragement, and the beft means and
expecl ients
Jition
or Preparatory Discourse. jxvil
expedients for the purifying and perfecting of our natures : therein, laftly, to find the chief fubjects of human in- quiry, and what is belt and moft neceffary foi> mankind to know, the creation of the world, the origin of evil, the fupervention of grace, the condition and certainty of a future ftate, and by what method God may be appeafed, forgivenefs obtained, and the heavy load upon human na- ture, arifing from the fenfe and confcioufnels of fin, re- moved. So far then as its fublimity and ufefulnefs are an indication of its divine original, we have another evidence to reft upon, and a farther character whereby we may try the truth of a revelation.
Once more, . we may expect, that a perfon coming and rhc mi- with fuch high pretentions, ihould give us fprrie proof of!a™ ?us a£ his delegation from heaven, either by predicting events ,~-lvcn t0 itl of a veiy uncertain contingency, or performing works of a° very fupernatural kind, in confirmation of it : and, fmce miracles and prophecies require a divine power, and are always looked upon as an authentic evidence of a divine coinmiffion, the man who does thefe, and docs them fair- ly, without fraud or coilulion, muft certainly be a pro- phet fent from God ; otherwife we muft be reduced to the neceffity of allowing, that God may fometimes employ his power for the confirmation of a falfehood, and fet the broad feal of heaven, as it were, tcra lie ; which is con- founding the notions we have of him, and inverting all his attributes.
Thefe then are the marks and tokens whereby we may judge of the truth of a revelation at any time : the credibility of the perfon who brings it; the excellency of the doctrine he teaches; and the divine atteftation which he produces. Where thefe are concurring, and with one mouth, as it were, giving in their evidence, we cannot but fay that it is the voice of God, and a revelation, which carries upon it the confpicuous ftamp of his authority. And now, to try the pretentions of thofe in the Old Teftament who claimed fuch commiflion from God by the foregoing marks and characters :
"hat there was really fuch a perfon as Mofes is atti fc- >, ^-„ ed by many of the (t) heathen writers, who fpeak of aal
as an extraordinary man, and the founder of t&e<Jewifh;c'ura'^cri laws and religion. That this Mofes pretended to have this yfifdom •
(.') Vid. Grct. Dc veritate, lib. i. where he enumerates fe- ral.
D :, religion
sxviii The APPARATUS,
religion from God, and whatever he wrote or delivered to the people, to receive from him by immediate revela- tion, is plain to any one who looks into his writings. But that his pretenlions in this refpedr. were real ; that he ac- tually received what he delivered from the mouth or in- fpiration of God, and was neither capable of being deceived himfelf, nor defirous to impofe on others ; this will appear from the evidence we have of his wifdom and veracity ; from the nature and tendency of his precepts and doc- trines ; and from the miraculous demonitrations he gave of his commiffion. In order to which it will be neceffary for us to look a little into the facred records : deliring, how- ever, that no more credit may be given to them (as yet) than what is ufually given to any other narrative of tole- rable repute, concerning the actions of perfons who lived in former ages.
Now, beiides the account of his flvange and miraculous preiervation, the fcriptures acquaint us, that he (u) was brought lip in Pharaoh's court, educated in all princely qua- lities, and/killed in all the learning of the Egyptians. What the (x) learning of the Egyptians was, we need not here relate : if we will believe Macrobius, who, ( y) in one place, makes Egypt the mother of all arts, and, (z) in another, the Egyptians the fathers of all philofophic fcien- ces, there was not a nation under the fun that could com- pare with them. How can we then imagine, that a perfon bred up in all the polite literature of Egypt, and converfant amongit the wifeft philofophers of Pharaoh's court, fhould not be able to pafs a judgment between an impofture and a truth, between a familiar converfe with God, and a de- ception of his fenfes ? Can we think that he, who had fuch opportunities of railing himfelf to the higheft pitch of ho- nour, fhould willingly forfake all his prefent pleafure and future advantages, had he not been fully perfuaded of the certain and undoubted truth of the matters which he re- corded ? Is it poffible, that a man of common fenfe and prudence mould ever venture himfelf upon an affair lb ha- zardous, and unlikely to fucceed, as that which he under- took, had it not been by the mitigation of that God who appeared to him, and promifed him the affiftance of his power, to enable him to accomplilh his deiign ? And what
(«) Heb. xi. 2 J. Actsvii. 22. (x) Vid. Stillingflcet's Orig. Sac. (7) Macrob. Saturn, lib. 2. cap. 15. (z) Som- Scip. lib. I. cap. 19.
tolerable
or Preparatory Discourse. xxix
tolerable ground can we have to imagine, that a perfon, who really believed the truth of what God had revealed to him, fhould dare to write otherwife than it was re- vealed ?
To extol himfelf, or aggrandize his nation, may be and difm^ thought a probable inducement : but fo far is he from mag- terefted- nifying himfelf, that he omits no opportunity of record- ing (a) his own failings and mifcarriages ; paffes over in filence his own (b) qualities and (c) achievements ; and opens the account of his miniftry with the relation of a fact, (d) (the murther of the Egyptian), which nothing but the prefumption of his being acted by a divine authority can juftify or excufe. Now, had it been any part of his aim to have raifed his reputation into a fuperftitious veneration among the Jews, or to have eflabliihed his family in any high degree of honour and authority, how eafily might he have done it ? It was but concealing what might feem to deprefs the one, and uiing the power he had to advance the other : but inftead of that, we find him very fecure and carelefs in both refpects ; relating his own faults without difguife or extenuation ; conferring (e) both the civil and ecclefiaftical power upon other families, and leaving his own in the meaneft fort of attendance upon the tabernacle. And fo far was he from aggrandizing his nation, that he fets forth the lels, as well as the greater enormities of their firft progenitors ; that he fpares not the ftock of his own family Levi, but records very punctually (f) his and Simeon's in- humanity to the Schechemites ; and, through the whole courfe of his hiftory, feems as- if he were defcribing (g) the obftinacy, and unbelief, and unthankfulnefs, and difobe- dience of a people towards a gracious God, rather than any way enhancing their reputation in the world. Hither- to it appears, that Mofes acted like an honeft and iincere man ; let us, in the next place, make fome inflection into the revelation he makes, both as an hiftorian and a law- giver.
(a) Exod. iv. 10. 13. Numb. ii. 10. n. Chap. 20. 12.
(6) Heb. xi. 25. Acfsvii. 22. (c) Jofcphus relates,
that Mofes, for fome years, was general to Pharaoh, and that he obtained a very iignal viitory over the Ethiopians.
(d) Exod. ii. 12. (e) Vid. Grot. De verir. and Shuck-
ford's conned, of the facred and profane hilt, lib. 12.
(/) Gen. xxxiv. (g) Deut. ix. 7. ire.
As
xxx The APPARATUS,
TTicfub- As an hiftorian then, what could he deliver to the world treats of asmore becoming the Majefty of God to impart, and the ne- an Ixiflori- cefiities of men to know, than the origin of the univerfe,. an- and the firft beginning of all things ; than the formation of
man, his ftate of innocence at firft-, his fall, and the con- fequential evils of it; his redemption, and the glorious hopes and expectances of the new covenant : than the propagation of mankind, their general defection, the univerfal deluge, the confuiion of tongues, and thereupon the plantation of families, and origin of kingdoms ; than the felection of one particular family (of which Chrift was to come in the flefh) from the reft of mankind, and the many wonderful works which God did to redeem them from bondage, and conduct them through the wildernefs, until he had fettled them in the promifed land, and given them laws and ordi- nances, whereby they were to live ? Wherein o- Thefe are ibme of the great iubjects which Mofes has ther hifto- treated of in the Pentateuch ; and it is no fmall confirmation
widihurT °^ t^ie^r trut^ anc* reality, that we rind the feme things related much in the fame manner by the moft ancient and beft authors. What Mofes fays of the origin of the world is (/;) recorded in the old hiftories of the Phoenicians and Egyptians. The formation of man according to the image of God, and his dominion over other creatures, is defcribed by Ovid, who had it from the Grecians. The hiftory of Adam and Eve, the tree of knowledge, and the tempting Terpen:, were found formerly among the Indians, as Maimo- nides tells us, and is (till among the Brachmans, and inhabi- tants of Siam, as later voyagers report. The hiftory of the deluge, of the ark, and of thofe who were faved therein, is recorded by Berofus, by Plutarch, andLucian; nay, Abyde- nus (as he is cited by Eufebius) makes mention of the veiy dove which was fent out to explore the waters. The building of the tower of Babel, and the giants attempting to reach the height of heaven, is the common tale of eveiy poet. The burning of Sodom is related by Diodorus, Strabo, and Tacitus. The account of Abraham, Ifaac, Jacob, and Jo- feph, in the fame manner as Mofes relates it, was found in many ancient hiftorians quoted by Eufebius, and is ftill extant in Juftin, from Trogus Pompeius ; and (to mention no more) the actions of Mofes himfelf, how he led the people of If- rael out of Egypt, received the two tables of the law from the hand of God, and inftituted fevcral rites and religious
(h) Vid. Grot. De veritate.
obfervances.
or Preparatory BispouRSE. xxxi
obfervances, are to be found in moff. of the fame authors, but more especially in the verfes which are afcribed to Or- pheus, and in hiftories which treat of one affairs of Egypt. a* a k*''
Thus confonant to the greatnefs and majefty of God, s'vcr' and the received opinions of the earlieft ages of the world, are the hiiloric facts which Mofes relates. And (to con- fider him in his legiflative capacity) what can be more a- greeable to the notions we have of God, than the prohi- bition of idolatry and poly.th.eiim, and the inftitution of his true religion and worlhip ; than the prohibition of perju- ry and vain fwearing, of theft, of murder, of adultery, of covetoufneis of all kinds ; and the injunction of the con- trary virtues, of juftice and mei*cy, of chaftity and cha- rity, together with all due reverence to parents, both in a natural and civil capacity ? What can be more becoming the character of a divine legiflator, than his often inculcating upon the people (as we find almoft in every page Mofes does) the many obligations they had to God, and the in- numerable favours they had received from him ; his frequent and pathetic exhortations to obedience, and living anfwer- ably to the lingular mercies conferred upon them ; his con- ftant reminding them of their former mifcarriages, their murmurings and rebellions againft heaven, and his com- panionate forewarning them of the judgment of God, and of the various plagues and punifhments which would cer- tainly be the confequence of their perfifting in their fins ? Nay, the very ceremonial precepts (which he enjoins to cfif- criminate them from other nations) are a fufficient indica- tion that he received them from God ; fince, had they been of his own invention, he would have confulted the people's eafe, and his own popularity more ; and (*) not impofed fO many laborious and expenfive ordinances, fo many fa- crifices, both flated and occalional, fo painful an inftitution, as that of circumcilion, and fuch annual and weekly cefTa- tions from labour, as were apparently againft the intereft of a nation, whofe great fubfiitence was upon pafturage and agriculture. Nor can we conceive how any people would have fubmitted to fuch arbitrary injunctions, but that they were fully fatisfied they came originally from God, and were only delivered to them by the hand of his fervant Mofes. And, for their farther convict ion of this, they had all the evidence that could be required, the prediction of events, which none but God could foreknow, and the de-
(*) Shuckfjrd's connection. Ibid.
tnonftration
xxxii The APPARATUS,
monftration of miracles, which none but God could per- form. His mira- -pov not to mfift at prefent (/) on the feveral prophe- cies (contained in the Pentateuch) which Moles himfelf fore- told, and accordingly came to pafs ; what can we account the whole method of his conducting the people of Ifrael out of Egypt, both in its progrefs, and in its execution, but one continued miracle ? Nothing but a feries of won- ders, furprizing in their nature, and dreadful in their ef- fects, could have prevailed with Pharaoh to let the people go ; and nothing but a divine power, which went out be- fore the people, could have given them a free pallage, and the Egyptians a total overthrow in the red fea. The wonderful fupport of fo great a multitude in a wafte and barren wildernefs, when neither their raiment decayed, nor their bread and water failed, and the victories they afterwards gained in their way to the promifed land, were both convictions of the Almighty's power, and a confir- mation of the truth of the Mofaic revelation ; fince it would be impious to fuppofe, that Providence would, in the light of the heathen, have favoured Ifrael with fuch won- derful fuccefTes, under the conduct of a leader who only pretended to act and make laws by an authority which he was not really inverted with. So that the whole turns ultimately upon the veracity of God. The conflant ap- prehenlions which both reafon and religion give us of him, forbid us to imagine, that he will employ his power to de- ceive his creatures ; and yet, if he mould permit the fame evidences to be produced for errors as for truth, this would be a way to put a deception upon them, as well as to. cancel his own credentials, and make miracles of no fignificance at all. A recapitu- Upon a review then of what has been faid in relation to iation of Mofes, viz. that he was a perfon of great wifdom and HicntrSU" integrity, unlikely to be impofed on himfelf, and unwilling to impofe upon others, and without any private defigns of popularity., or felf-exaltation in what he did ; that, as an hiftorian, he related facts necefTary for man to know, and becoming the nature and majefty of God to reveal ; as a legifiator, gave laws and ordinances, which had a manifeft ftamp of divine authority ; as a prophet, foretold fuch things, as none but God (who has all events under his intuition) could know ; and, as a worker of miracles, did (/') Vid. Exod. xxiv. Numb. xiv. Deut. xxviii. 53. com- pared wijh Jofephus, De bell. Jud. lib, vii.
fuch
or Preparatory Discourse. xxxili
fuch things as had all imaginable evidence of an almighty- power affifting him: it will neceflkrily follow, that, as hire as God is true, and cannot be an abettor of falfehood, what he did, was by the order and appointment ; what he deli- vered, was exprefsly the will ; and whit he wrote (for the books that go under his name we ftiall hereafter prove to be his) was infallibly the word of God.
That there was to be a fucceffion of prophets after the educa- Mofes, is very plain, not only from the ruies which God has tl0n ° c- (k) prefcribed for the trial of them, but from that exprefs promife likewife which Mofes made to the people : A prophet will the Lord thy God raife up to thee of thy bre- thren, like unto me, unto himjhalt thou hearken. For though the words, in their full and compleat fenfe, relate to Chrift, who is the great prophet of the church ; yet, whoever at- tends to the main fcope of them, will eafily perceive, that their immediate afpecf is towards an order of prophets who fhould fucceed Mofes, to inftruct the people in the fpiritual fenfe and true obligation of the law ; and to make fuch farther discoveries of the Almighty's will, as he, from time to time, fhould give them comrniffion and authority to do. And to this purpofe we may obferve, that the firft fchools of thefe prophets among the Jews, were in the cities of the Levites, which, fortheconve- niency of inftructing the people, were difperfed up and down in the feveral tribes ; that (/) the firft inftitution of thefe fchools feems to be about Samuel's time ; and that he very probably was ordained prehdent over one or more of them, and had the care and tuition of fuch as were to be trained up to the prophetic office.
In what paiticular manner they were there trained up, in order to obtain a previous difpoiition to prophecy, the fcrip- ture is not exprefs ; but this we may fuppofe, that they were put upon fuch ftudies and fpiritual exercifes as had a ten- dency to improve their understandings and natural abilities, to regulate their paffions and appetites, and to raife their affections to things fublime ; that they were employed in fearching out the hidden Ccnfe of the law, in contemplating the nature and attributes of God, in adoring him, and ce- lebrating his praifes. To which purpofe, becaufe there was a certain quality in it to allay the paffions and elate the heai t, they always made ufe of mufic, both vocal and in- ftrumental ; for lb the firft company of prophets (m) that
(k) Deut. xvili. 2t. 22. (/) Via. Stillingflcet's Otig Sac. and Lew- i's Orig. Hebr. lib. 2. c. 15. (;/;) Whcatly's School of the Prophets.
Vol. I. E ws
xxxiv The APPARATUS,
we read of are defcribed, (n) coming down from the high place, with a pfaltery, and a tabrct, and a pipe, and a harp , . a before them. grity • Out of thefe feminaries, or colleges of prophets, God
ufually made choice of perfons to be fent upon meiTages ; though he did not fo ftrictly tie himfelf up to this method, but called fometimes one from the court, as he did Ifaiah, and fometimes one from the herds, (as he did Amos), and bad them go, and.prophefy to the houfe of Ifrael. And whenever he made choice of any one, he always gave him fuch a full conviction, both of the reality of his own infpiration, and the importance of the menage he fent him upon, as made it impoffible for him to refift the impulfe ; for fo Ezekiel tells us of himfelf : (o) The Spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitternefs, and in the heat of ray fir it ; for the- hand of the Lord was ftrong upon me. And indeed, confidering that die prophets were men of fo- ber fenfe, and moft of them of very liberal education, we can hardly believe that they would have ventured upon fo hazardous an employ, where perfecution was fure to be their lot, had they not been urged to it by an immediate and irre- iiftible call from Heaven. The apoftle has given us a very dolorous defcription of the many calamities which their profeffion brought upon them : (p) They had trials of cruel mockings and jcourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and im- prifcnmenis : they were floned, were fawn af under, were tempted^ were Jlain with the fword, &c. Now, what men * in their fenfes would have expofed themfelves to all thefe perfecutions and fufferings, in the execution of an office, had they not been perfuaded of the truth of their vocation, and under an indiipenfable neceffity to purfue it, whatever penalties might ftand in dieir way ?
Nothing then can be more evident, than that the pro- phets (if we allow them to be men of common fenfe) were men of integrity likewife, and far from pretending to a commiffion which they had not ; fince (in acceffion to what has been faid) the doctrines they taught, the predictions they gave, and the miracles they did, loudly proclaimed them to be fent from God. the excel- For what can he more fuitable to the nature of Goda '"hJC df ^ian *hofe exprobations of fuperftition and idolatry, and %rine • thofe many exhortations to inward piety and real holinefs,
(») i Sam. x- 5. (0) Ezck. iii. 14. (/>) Hcb. xi. 36. 37.
fo
or Preparatory Discourse. xxxv
fo frequently, lb kindly occurring in the prophets ? {q) Wherewithal Jhall I come before the Lord, and bow my- felf before the moft high Cod? Shall I give my jirjl-born for my tranfgrefjion, the fruit of my body J or the fin of my foul? No. God requires nothing of thee, but todojvftly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly before him. What can be more agreeable to the divine mtvcj and goodnefs, than thofe earned calls and invocations to repentance ? (r) Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways j for why will ye die, 0 houfe of Ifrael! For, as I live, faith the Lord, I have no pleafure in the death of the wicked. What is more con- ducive to the honour and glory of God, than thofe rap- turous fongs of prail'e wherewith the Pioyal Pfalmift tunes his harp, and thofe tender ftrains of grief wherewith the mournful prophet wets his bed ? (s) Oh ! that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I mivht weep day and night for the flain of the daughter of my people. What difcovery can be of fuch importance, as that of the birth and high character of the Saviour o£ the world ? (t) Unto us a child is born, unto us a fan is given, and his name f/jall be called Wonderful Counfellor, the mighty God, the everlafting Father, the Prince of Peace : as that of his death and vicarious punifhment ? (u) He was opprejfed, and he was ajjiicled, yet he opened not his mouth ; he made his foul an offering for Sin, and for the tranfgrefjion of my people was he Jlricken : and laft'y, as that of the happy effect which his religion would produce ? when (x) the wolf fhould dwell with the lamb, and the leopard lie down with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion, and the failing together, and a little child fhou Id lead them ; as the evangelical prophet expreiles it in that beauti- ful allegory.
That the prophets fhould be able to foretel things fo their pre many ages before they came to pafs ; that he who wentPheciebi from Judah to denounce God's judgments againft the altar of Bethel, and againft (_>') Jeroboam, for letting it up, fhould make mention of the very name of Jollah (who was to be God's inftrument in executing them) three hundred and fix- ty one years before the event happened : that (z) Elijah fhould denounce all the puniihments which God would bring upon Ahab and his family for their great impie.y, fome years before the thing came to pais: that Ifaiah
(a) Micah vi. 6. (r) Ezek. xxxiii. ir. (s) Jcr. ix r. (/) "ifa. ix. 6. [a) Ch. liii. (x) Ch. xi. 6. (j) I Kingsxiii. 2. (i) Ch. xvii.
E 3 fhculd
xxxvi The APPARATUS,
Should prophefy of Cyrus by name, (a) two hundred and ten years before the accomplishment of his prophecy ; (b) fore- tell his rebuilding of the temple, and deScribe his conqueSts, in fuch full and expreffive terms, that the hiStory of Cyrus by Xenophon has hardly done it better : and (to mention but one prophet more) that Daniel mould fpeak of the pro- fanation of the temple and Sanctuary by Antiochus Epipha- nes, declare the manner of his death, and delineate the very temper and countenance of the man, (c) four hun- dred and eighty years before the accomplishment : this, and much more that might be mentioned, can be aScribed to nothing elfe but the inSpiration of God, which made the fame Strong impreSfion upon the minds of the prophets, and guided their tongues to the fame words and expreSIions, as if the things had been actually prefented before their eyes, their mi- The prophets indeed did not work many miracles, be- lacks. caufe there was not that occafion for them. The law of MoSes, which they were Sent to inforce, not invalidate, had been Sufficiently confirmed by miracles before ; and, as they were a Standing order of men, which the people were well accuftomed to, the people were inclinable enough to believe them, without a divine attestation. However, when they were employed upcn great and important meffages to per- fons who either believed not the God of ISrael, or had re- volted from his fervice, God was never wanting to accom- pany them with a power of working miracles, to be the credentials of their commiffion. Thus, vnpon the defection of the ten tribes, and when calves were fet up in Dan and Bethel, in opposition to the worlhip at Jerufalem, the prophet, who was fent to denounce God's anger againSt Such procedure, was enabled, by a word's fpeaking, (d) to rend the altar, and both to wither, and rejlore again Jero- boam's hand. In the famous controverSy between the prieSts of Baal and Elijah, the prophet was empowered (e) to call fire down from heaven, which con fumed his facrif.ces, and gained him the victory over his adversaries ; and, to con- vince Naaman the Syrian of the true God's being in ISrael, Eliiha was directed (f) to cure him of his leproSy, by the Simple preScription of dipping himSelf in the river Jor- dan. Upon thefe, and the like occasions, when the ho- nour of God, or the truth of the prophet, Seemed to be called in question, a power of working miracles was com-
(a) Fid. Jofeph. Antiq. 1. 2. cap. t. (b) Ifa. xliv. 26. (<;) Jofeph. Antiq. lib. 12. cap. n. (d) 1 Kings, xiii. 4. 5. 6. \e) Ch. xviii. (/) 2 Kings, v.
municatcd
or Preparatory Discourse. xxxvii
municated to him, as an evident demonftration of God's abetting his caufe, and attefting the truth -of what he pre- tended to reveal.
Putting all this together then, viz. that the prophets A recapitu- were men offobrietv and good education, but void of aUlat,onot'Jlc craft and diflimulation ; that they expofed themfelves to infinite hazards and difficulties in the execution of their office ; that they taught doctrines confonant to the divine attributes, and made difcoveries of the greateft importance ; foretold events which none but God could know; and performed works which none but God could do ; gave all imaginable evidence of the truth of their commiffion, and fealed it very often with the teftimony of their own blood : it will certainly follow, that we have all the reafon we can delire (all indeed that the nature of the thing will bear) to believe, that they were mefTengers fent from "God to fupply the intermediate fpace between JVIofes and Chrift ; and confequently, that the revelation of God's will in the Old Teftament (fo far as they are concerned in declaring it) is indubitably true.
" But, be the character of Mofes and the prophets (as An objec- U mefTengers fent from God to impart his will to mankind) non- " never fo well eftablifhed ; yet what is that to us who " live in times fo diftant and remote from them, and have " only the tradition of men uninfpired, and the teftimony *' of a fet of books, (faid indeed to be dictated by the Holy '* Ghoft, but how truly we cannot tell), for the foundation " of our faith ? Had we lived indeed in the days of Mofes " and the prophets, when revelation was attended by figns f* and mighty wonders, the teftimony of many glorious mi- " racks, and the completion of many remarkable prophe- " cies, we fhould have then been inexcuf able, had we re- " mained incredulous amidft thefe inftances of divine power : " but fince, in our prefent circumftances, we are reduced to " the bare letter of the fcriptures, which, for ought we know, " may be fpurious and corrupt ; or, if genuine, feem to have " fmall fignatures of a divine fpirit in their composition; " which, almoft in every paflage, are loaded with abflirdi- '* ties and contradictions, with myfteries and riddles, and " obfcure pafTages; and, where they chance to be intelli- " giblc, are fo trifling in their narrations, io illogical in " their reafonings, fo confufed in their method, f o inf ^id " in their ftyle, fo tedious in their repetitions, fo ambiguous " in their various readings, and, in the whole, fo barren of " any real entertainment to an ingenious reader, that,
" inftead
xxxviii The APPARATUS,
" inftead of poring in thefe mufty and perplexed records, (and " which perhaps too may not be fo ancient as is pretended) we " think it the eaficr and later way to attend to the fentiments " of our minds, and thofe plain and immutable laws which " God has written upon the flefhly tables of our hearts." Theftateof We allow indeed, that there is a great deal of difference ^e^,_e" between thofe who were contemporaries with Mofes and eontempo- t^ie prophets, and us, who are at fome thoufand years di- raries with ftance. The completion of a prediction gave fancfion to the Pr°- the prophet's pretentions, and miracles carried with them thofe' of a c^ear and prefent conviction ; they entered quick, and after-ages, gained afTent without any argumentation : whereas our faith now is founded on human teftimony, and the evi- dences of our religion comprifed in no very large volume. But then, we are to conilder, that we give credit to the contents of other books upon no better grounds ; that upon this very account we firmly believe, that Alexander, about two thoufand years ago, conquered a great part of the world ; and that there was fuch a perfon as Julius Caefar, who, upwards of feventeen hundred years ago, con- quered France, and came into England : and yet the au- thority of the (acred records has been more ftridtly ex- amined into, and found to be better attefted than that of any human composition. The contemporaries with infpired men were convinced by fenfe and ocular demonftration ; but in this we have the advantage of them, that, having lived to fee the whole fcheme of revelation compleated, and at once placed in our view, we can compare one part with the other, and thence obferve how the myftery of man's redemption gradually advances ; what harmony there is be- tween the Old and the New Teftament ; and how the many prophecies in the one receive their accompiifhment in the other ; which cannot but give great comfort and fatisfac- tion to an inquifitive mind.
It is not to be doubted then, but that we, of after-ages, upon •whom the ends cf the world are come, have fufficient grounds for our faith to reft upon, if we can but fatisfy ourfelves — that the perfons by whom God made revelations of his will at jundry times, and in diver fe manner s , were directed by him to record them in certain books — — That, in writing thefe books, they were affifted by the infpiration of his infallible fpirit — That, according to the beft computations, they were wrote by the very fame perfons to whom they are afcribed r That, at a proper period of time, they were com- piled into one body by fucii as were authorifed and enabled _^.- fo
or Preparatory Discourse. xxxix
fo to do : 'That from them they have defcended to us
true and genuine, without any conllderable lofs or altera- tion : That the books now extant, and received by the
Chriftian church, are the very fame which were thus writ- ten by infpiration, and compiled by authority : And
that they are not liable to the foregoing objections, but de- ferve a better character, and better ufage, than fome in this age are pleafed to give them.
(g) It is the opinion of fome learned men, that writing The ob- was an art coseval with mankind, and the invention of A-Jf*0'? J1""
. • iwcrecl bv
dam himfelf. Jofephus indeed informs us, that it was in fliewjntr ufe before the flood ; and from thence fome have conjee- that revc- tured, that the hiftory of the creation, and the reft of thebtl0ns book of Genefis, were (for the fubftance of them) deliver- cordcd -m ed down to Mofes in verfe (which was the moft ancient way books, of writing) and that, from them, he compiled his book. This however can hardly be a probable conjecture, becaufe it is fcarce conceivable how men could have loft the fenfe of religion fo totally as we find they did, had there been any Handing records of it at that time. The more probable o- pinion is, that it was the long-experienced infufficiency of oral tradition (the only way of conveyance then in ufe) that gave occafion to the general corruption ; while fome for- got, and others perverted, the doctrines delivered to them by their anceftors, and, in compliance to their lufts, brought themfelves, by degrees, firffc to believe a lie, and then to propagate it, having no written rule of truth to con- front the error.
It can hardly be doubted, but that God vouchfafed fre-Why God quent revelations to the patriarchs before the law, and app°inted fufficiently inftructed them in his will ; nor can we que- ftion but that thefe holy men ufed their beft endeavours to propagate the doctrine they received, and to reform the manners of thofe at leaft who depended on them : And (what was a great advantage to them in this reipect) both their lives were fo very long, and the principles of their religion fo extremely few, that two perfons might have conveyed them down from Adam to Abraham. For Me- thufalah lived above three hundred years, while Adam was yet alive : Sem was almoft an hundred when Methufalah died ; and when Sem died, Abraham was above an hun- dred, according to the Hebrew computation. Here is a great period of time filled up by two or three perfons ; and
(g) Jenkins's Reafonablenefs> and Stillingfket's Orig. Sacr.
yet,
xl The APPARATUS,
yet, in this time, the tradition of thofe few things where- in religion was then comprehended, was fo totally corrupt- ed, that idolatry was generally practifed, and God was obliged to make a new and immediate revelation to the pa- triarch Abraham.
(h) The promulgation of the law on mount Sinai, was one of the moft amazing things that ever happened : and, as the circumftances of the whole folemnity were very furprifing, the commandments then delivei-ed but few, the people all of one language, feparate from the reft of mankind, and obliged to a conftant commerce among themfelves ; fo there feems to be in this cafe all imagi- nable advantages in favour of tradition : and yet, not- withftanding thefe, God would not truft his precepts to this uncertain way of conveyance, but (/) himfelf, with his own finger, twice wrote them upon two tables of (lone. The historical tranfactions of the Jews, the many ftrange deliverances Heaven vouchfafed them, and particularly their iignal victory over the Amalekites, God command- ed Moles not to relate to pofterity by word of mouth only, but to write them for a memorial in a book (k) : nay, the very ceremonial part of the law, though not intend- ed to be of perpetual obligation, was not referred to this traditionary method, but, according to divine appoint- ment, committed to writing, and repolited with the priefts : and therefore we have lefs reafon to wonder, that, in things which were to come to pafs in future ages, (luch its the predictions of the prophets were), and whereon the fate of nations, as well as divine veracity, did depend, we always find God giving injunctions of this kind,' (/) to write their infpirations before the people in a table, and to vote them in a book, that they might be for thi time, to come, for ever and ever. That thefe That the books which were fucceflively wrote in this books were manner, were wrote by the order and afliftance of God's divlne^r/ hlefled Spirit, no one can doubt, who either attends to the jpiration. high fentiments which the Jews of old entertained of them, or to the teftimony whereby both Chrift and his apoftles have given a full fanction to them. The law of Mofes was to the Jews accounted the law of God himfelf, and the Pentateuch elteemed the foundation of their reli- gion. The familiar converfe he had with God, the won-
(h) Burnet on the Articles. (/) ExoJ. xxxi. 18. (k) Chap. xyii. 14. (/) Ik. xxx. 8.
ders
or Preparatory Discourse. xli
ders and miracles that he wrought, and the divine wif- dom and gift of prophecy which refided in him, put it beyond all difpute, that the books which he left behind him were penned by the infpiration of the Spirit of God, whereof he was full. The other canonical books which, in procefs of time, were collected into a body, the Jews always held in the like veneration ; infomuch, that (as Jo- fephus tells us) they were accuftomed from their infancy to call them the dotlrines of God, and were ready, at any time, to lay down their lives in vindication of them : nor is it any bad argument to us Chriftians, that we find our bleiTed Lord quoting thefe books under the title of The Scriptures, and acquainting us with the common diftri- bution of them, in his days, into the law, the prophets, and the pfalms ; becaufe the book of pfalms was placed in the front of that collection, which was ufually ftyled the Hagiographa. It is upon the evidence of thefe books that he proves hirnfelf to be the Meffias ; it is by them that he confutes the Jews ; and to them that he appeals both, in the proof of his own doctrine, and in all his difputations with them : and therefore we need not wonder that we find both the apoflle of the Gentiles afTuring us, that (m) , all fcripture is given by the infpiration of God, and the apoftle of the Jews aiTerting the fame thing, viz. that (n) no pro- phecy of the fcripture is of private interpretation ,• for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God fpake as they were moved by the Holy Ghofl. Upon the whole therefore we muft conclude, (o) either that Mofes and the other writers of the Old Teflament were infpired, or that they were confummate cheats ; and that not only Chrift and his apoftles by remitting us to them, and citing their writings as divine, did connive at the cheat, but that God hirnfelf likewife, by giving them the power of miracles and prophecy, did countenance the impofture ; and by inverting them with the characters of his authority, and all outward marks of his approbation, inevitably lead us into error ; which is moft impious to think, and moft blafphemous to fay.
Confidering then that the divine intention in having and for the fcriptures wrote, was to make them the ftandard of "hat rea~ faith and rule of life in all future ages of the church, there was a flrong reafdn why God fhould take care that
(?;;) 2 Tim. iiu 16. («) 2 Pet. i. 20. 21. («) Vid, Calmct's Differ, vol. I.
Vol. I. F the
xlii The APPARATUS,
the books which he defigned to be the fole guide of man- kind in matters of religion, and which he forefaw all po- fterity would appeal to as the great touchftone of truth, fhould not be liable to any errors ; but that his Holy Spirit fhould fo guide the hand of his penmen, (as it were), and af- fift them in their compofitions with fuch an infallible ve- racity, as might be of fufficient authority to filence all dif- ferences whenever they fhould arife. And accordingly we may obferve, that, in all ages, both Jews and Chriftians have appealed to thefe books as to oracles, in order to de- cide all controverfies in religion ; that, in every general council, the Holy Bible was always placed on high as the directory and unerring compafs whereby to fleer in their debates ; and that, at the opening of fuch afTemblies, each member was wont to declare himfeif much in the fame fenfe with (p) the article of* our church; " That the " Holy Scripture containeth all things necefTary to falva- -' tion; fo that whatfoever is not read therein, nor may •' be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man " that it fhould be believed as an article of the faith, or be " thought requifite or necefTary to falvation." How far in- It is needlefs, and almoft impoffible for us to define pre- cilely how far the Spirit of God was engaged in the com- pofition of the Holy Scriptures. It feems more confonant however to the manner of the divine operations, which do not ufually put any force upon human nature, but leave it in a great meafure to the exercife of its faculties, to fuppofe, that the authors of them were fomething more than mere amanuenfes to the Holy Ghoft. The great diverfity" of ftyle and diction which may be obferved in feveral books, and fometimes the expreffing one and the fame thing in different terms by different authors, is al- moft a fure indication, that they themfelves had fome fhare in the compofition, and that the Holy Ghoft was not the fole author of every word and exprefHon : for if this had been the cafe, the ftyle of each book had been alike and uniform ; at leaft there had not been that apparent differ- ence in it which we now fee, and which (taking in the holy penmen for a fhare in the compofition) may not un- fitly be afcribed to natural caufes. If the Holy Ghoft had dictated every word, I fay, why fhould Ifaiali, who was bred in a court, be more florid and magnificent in his ex- preffion than Amos, who had his education among the herds ? It is a more eafy fuppofition therefore of die two,
(/>) Article VI.
< that
or Preparatory Discourse. xliii
that God fhould fuggeft the matter of his revelation firft to their minds, and then leave them to weigh it in their thoughts, (as they did other truths), and lb put it into fuch a form of words, as their own minds, or the tenor of their education, naturally inclined to.
The writings of the holy penmen are of different kinds : fome of them ai-e hiftorical, fome preceptive, fome argumentative, fome doctrinal, fome poetical, and fome prophetical ; in all which the meafiire of the divine affiftance feemed to vary in proportion to the nature of the fubject whereof they treated. If they wrote hifto- rically of matters of fact, which either they themfelves knew, or had received from credible witneffes, there was no reafon that the fubftance of their hiftory fhould be re- vealed again : all that feems requifite is, that the Holy Ghoft fhould fo far infpect them, as to prevent any error in the relation. Jf they delivered any moral precepts, or argued from any revealed truths, he then allowed them to -employ their reafoning faculties as far as their arguments were fuitable and iblid ; and at the fame time cleared their underftanding, and hindered them from writing any thing impertinent. If then- compofitions were of the poetic kind, he left them to follow the eftablilhed rules of that art, and to fcan out the metre by themfelves ; and all that he did, in this cafe, was to quicken their invention, and refine their fancy : But if they were to indite things of an higher nature, and fuch as were above their faculties ; if they were either to predict fome remarkable event, or declare fome divine truth that was never revealed before ; it feems reafonable to believe, that the whole of thefe was im- mediately infpired into their minds by the Holy Ghoft ; be- caufe they could be the remit neither of their underftand- ing nor memory ; and confequently could come into their minds no other way but by immediate infpirationr
From the whole, then, it is reafonable to think, that the meafures of divine inipiration varied according to the na- ture of the fubject, or the exigences of the penmen who recorded it : that, in the main, they purfued their own method and manner of exprcffion ; but on fome import- ant occafions had the words dictated to them : that in fome fubjects they had their memory refrefhed ; in others, their underftanding enlightened ; in others, their fancies elevated ; in all, their wills directed to the difcovery and declaration of the truth : and even in the leaft matter xhey wrote, were never fo far left to their own diicretion,
F 2 as
xliv The APPARATUS,
as not to have the Holy Spirit presiding over them, and keeping them from expreiling any thing contrary to the divine mind, or the dignity of the facred fubject.
b? oT-'r N°W the books oi: the °ld Teftament> which, by the and audio-' divine will and infpiration, were in this manner written, rity of the were by the Jews of old ufually divided into three feveral books. claffes, whereof the firft comprehended the five books of Mofes ; the fecond, all the prophets ; and the third, thofe writings which they called Chetubim, the Greeks Hagiogra- fha ; or books that were written by holy men, but not with fuch fullnefs of fpirit as to be ranked among the prophets. In this divifion they reckoned five books in the firft clafs ; eight in the fecond ; and nine in the third ; in all two and twenty ; according to the number of the letters of their al- phabet, and as fully comprehending all that was neceffary to be known and believed, as the number of their letters did all that was requiiite to be faid or written ; for in this method it is that they range them.
rGenefis.
The books of Mofes. J f xod"s- 1 Leviticus.
Numbers.
L Deuteronomy.
Four books of the f j^ and ( kuth. former^prophets. V^*^ I>anT(r)2. (.Kings i. and (r) 2.
°T -. - I Teremiah, and his (s) Lamentations,
later prophets. <j kekiel.
L (/) The books of the 1 2 leffer prophets. "King David's Pfalms. King Solomon's Proverbs. His Ecclefiaftes. His Song of Songs, hoi v writers. <( The book of Job. ' IX. The book of Daniel.
The book of Ezra, and (?/) Nehemiah.
The book of Either.
The book of (x) Chronicles 1. and 2.
(q) Which was put as an appendix to the Judges, (r) Counted ihem but one book, (j) Counted but one book- (/) Which were all put in one. («) The Jews reckoned them both together for one. (x) And thefe two went with them for one book.
Which
v 1
And the reft of the
or Preparatory Discourse. xlv
Which two books of Chronicles, containing the fum of all their former hiftories, and reaching from the crea- tion of the world to the Jews return from Babylon, are a perfect epitome of the Old Teftament ; and therefore not improperly placed, as if they concluded and clofed up their whole Bible.
The book of Cenefis, which is an introduction to the reftGeneils. of the Pentateuch, (and contains the hiftory of about 2369 years, from the beginning of the world to the death of the patriarch Jofeph) is fo called, becaufe it treats of the crea- tion of the world, the beginning and generation of man, and all other creatures (y).
That of Exodus, which relates the tyranny of Pharaoh, Exodus. and the bondage of the Ifraelites under him (and contains an hiftory of near 145 years) is fo called, becaufe it com- prehends the hiftory of the departure of the Ifraelites out of Egypt, under the conduct of Mofes (z).
That of Leviticus, (which contains about one month's Leviticus: time) has its name, becaufe it gives an account of the Jewifh fervice and worfhip, of the offices of the Levites, and the whole Levitical order (a).
That of Numbers, (which contains the hiftory of fome- Numbers. what more than 38 years), and relates feveral remarkable incidents in the Ifraelites paftage through the wildernefs, has its denomination from Mofes's numbering the tribes of the people (b), according to God's order and appoint- ment (c).
That of Deuteronomy, which fignifies a fecond law, Deuterono- (and takes up about the fpace of fix weeks) is afummary111^ * repetition of the laws, both moral, civil, and cere- monial,
(y) The Hebrews call it Berefth, inprinciplo, m the begin' n'tngj becaufe in their language it begins with that word. (2) The Hebrews call it veele Schetnoth, becaufe it begins with thefe words, now thefe are the names, &c. (a) The Jews term it Vaicra, becaufe in Hebrew it begins with this word, which lignifies, and he called, (b) For now that they were paf- fing through the wildernefs, wherein they were in danger of meeting with many enemies, it was highly convenient to take an account of their forces, and to put themfelves in a poflure of defence; Lewis, Antiq Hcb. 1. 8. (c) The Jews term k Vacdabbtry and he /pake, becaufe in Hebrew it begins with thofe words.
* This feems to be of abfolute ufe, becaufe the Ifraelites, who had heard them before, died in the wildernefs; and as there
was
xlvi The APPARATUS,
monial, which Mofes had given the Ifraelites in the for- mer books ; together with feveral kind admonitions and earneft exhortations to better obedience for the time to come, from the confideration of the many divine favours already received, and the promifes that were in rever- sion (d).
This is the fcope of the Pentateuch, or five books of Mofes : and that he, and none but he, was the writer of them, we have all the aflurance that innumerable paffages, in the Holy Scriptures, the joint authority of Chrift and his apoftles, the univerfal confent of all ages, and (e) the con- curring teftimony of the moft ancient Heathen authors, can give us. Only it muft be obferved, that fome part of the lafl chapter of Deuteronomy, wherein mention is made of the death of Moles, mult have been added by fome other writer, either by Jofhua, his immediate fucceflbr, or (as others would have it) by Ezra, the great reftorer of the Jewifh canon.
jofhua. The book of Jrflma (which contains the hiftory of 1 7
years) is fo called, not fo much upon the account of its author, as of its fubject-matter ; fince it contains the hi- ftory of the wars, and other affairs which happened un- der die adminiftration of that great captain : but iince the author of the book of Ecclefiafticus gives him this character, (/) that he was the fuccejjbr of Mofes in prophecies, i. e. the next infpired writer of fcripture after Mofes, we have no reafon to oppofe the judgment of the Jewifh church, which (§) generally afcribed it to him.
rudecs r^^ie book of Judges, which relates the ftate of the
Jewifh people in the land of Canaan, in the time of the
was now another generation of men fprung up, it was highly requifire to have thefe laws promulged afrdh, which Mofes does in this book, and here and there interfperfes both explications and additions ; Lewis, ibid. (d) The Jews call it Elk haddeburim, hac funt verba, thefe are the words, becanfe the Hebrew text begins in this manner. (e) Vid. Grot, de Verir. lib 1. feci 16. Du Pin's Canon, vol. 1. and Le Clerk's Pro- legom. De fcriptore Pentateuchi. (f) Ecclef. xlvi. 1.
(S) The Talmudifts indeed make him the author of the book ; but fome of the ancients, and many modern writers, deny it : and accordingly we find Theodoret affirming, that this volume was collected a long time after Jofhua's death ; and that it was no more than an abftracl of an ancient commentary, called The book ofjuji men, whereof we find mention made in the tenth chapter of the faid book of Jofhua ; Lewis's Antiq. Hebr. lib. 8.
judges,
or Preparatory Discourse. xlvii
judges, from Jofhua's death until Eli, (i. e. about 300 years) is very ancient, as appears from a paflage in a pfalrn of David, (h) When thou wenteft forth before the people, when thou marchedjl through the wildernefs, the earth fhook, the heavens alfo dropped at the pre fence of God; which words are an exact imitation of thefe in (;') Judges ; Lord, when thou wenteji out of Sen, when thou marchedjl out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, the heavens dropped, the clouds al- fo dropped water : and, that it was wrote by Samuel, as well as the book of Ruth, (which is an appendix to it), the doc- tors of the Talmud agree, though others attribute it to He- zekiah, and many to Ezra.
The two books of Samuel, which are public hiftories of The books the tranfactions under the two laft judges, Samuel and Eli,of Samue ■ and under the two firft kings, Saul and David, (com- priling the compais of 100 years), have likewife evident marks of their antiquity : and, though it be not abfolutely certain who their author was, yet the generality of the Jews do, with great probability, aflert, that the four and twenty firft chapters were written by Sairmel himfelf, and, the reft by the prophets Nathan and Gad ; which alTertion they found on this paflage in the Chronicles, (k) Now the atls of David the King, firft and laft, behold they are written in the book of Samuel the feer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the feer.
The books of Kings (I), and the Chronicles, (for I take Kings, aft d them in the order wherein they now ftand in oiir Bibles), Chronicles, which, taking in fome part of the foregoing books, con- tain the hiftory of the Jewifh monarchy down to the cap- tivity of Babylon, (a fpace of above 500 years), were com- piled out of ancient records, which records were wrote by men of a prophetic fpirit ; and all that Ezra (or whoever their compiler was) added of his own, was only fome ge- nealogical obfervations at the beginning of the Chronicles, and fome other palfages of fmall moment, relating to the times after the captivity.
(h) Pfal lxviii 7. 8. (/) Judges v. 4. (k) t Chron. xxix. 29. (/) Thrush it be a matter of great uncertainty, whether the hook of the Kings or of the Chronicles were firft wrirten, yet it is evident, that this of the Chronicles is more full and comprehenfive than that of the Kin^s: and from thence thefr bonks ure call d Paralipomena, Remains, Supplements, and Additions, by the Greek interpeters ; becaufethey contain fome palfages or circumfhnces diat were omitted in the other hiftorieaj writers; Lewis, ibid.
The
xlviii The APPARATUS,
Ezra. The book of Ezra, which is a continuation of the Chronicles, and comprifes the hiftory of the Jews from the time that Cyrus made the decree for their return, un- til the 20th year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, (which was about ioo years), was all compofed by him, except the fix nrft chapters, which contain an account of the firft re- turn of the Jews upon the decree of Cyrus ; whereas Ezra did not return until the time of Artaxerxes. It is of his fecond return therefore that he writes the account, and, adding it to the other, (which he found ready compofed to his hand), he made it a complete hiftory of the Jewiih restoration. Nehemiah. Nehemiah, who was the fon of Hilkiah, of the tribe of Levi, was advanced in Babylon to be cup-bearer or page to King Artaxerxes ; and from him he obtained leave to return to Judea for 1 2 years, in order to rebuild the city of Jerufalem. He continues the hiftory of Ezra from the 20th year of Artaxerxes to the reign of Darius Nothus, (about 40 years in all), and is, (m) by the writer of the book of Maccabees, attefted to be the author of that work. Efther. The hiftory of EJlher, a Jewifh captive virgin, who, for her tranfcendent beauty, was advanced to the throne of Per- fia, and, by her intereft with her royal hufband (?i) Ahame- rus, (who fome will have to be the fame with the above- mentioned Artaxerxes, and others with Darius Hyftafpes), procured to her countrymen a wonderful deliverance from Hainan's intended maflacre, by fome is fuppofed to have been written by Ezra, and by others by Mordecai. But the more probable opinion of the Talmudifts is', that the great fynagogue (to perpetuate the memory of that remarkable event, and to account for the original of the feaft of Purim) ordered this book to be compofed, and afterwards approved, and admitted into the facred canon. j0|j - Who the author of the book of Job was, is indeed uncer- tain : It is very probable however, that he was a perfon of great antiquity, and one who lived before the promulga- tion of the Jewifh law ; becaufe there are no traces of that to be found in the whole compafs of the book : and therefore the moft general opinion is, that it was written by Mofes, during his abode in Egypt, or in his flight into the land of Midian, with an intent te encourage the Jews
(m) 2 Mac. ii. 13. («) Vid. Prideaux\ Connect, parti, book 4.
under
or Preparatory Discourse. xlix
under the feverities of the Egyptian bondage. Though ibme will rather have it, that the materials or" this book were drawn up firft by Job himfelf, or fome of his friends, the interlocutors ; and afterwards coming into the hands of Mofes, and thence into the poileffion of Solomon, were by him turned f into Hebrew verfe, ?n the manner we now find them,
Some of the ancient fathers were of opinion, that the rfalms. whole book of Pfalms was written by David only ; but in this they muft be miftaken ; becaufe the titles of feveral pfalms tell us, that they were compbfed by Mofes. The Hebrew doctors do generally agree, that the 02d pfalm was made by Adam. Solomon, no doubt, was the author of the 49th pfalm, which is much of the fame ftrain with his other nuptial fong which is called the Canticles ; and it is no improbable conjecture, that the 88th and 89th pfalms were indited in the time of the Egyptian bondage ; the former condoling the people's diftrefs, and the latter prophefying their deliverance. However this be, it is cer- tain, that David (who had an excellent gift of poetry and pfalmody) was the compofer of much the greater part of them ; and therefore his name was thought proper to give title to the whole collection, which was undoubtedly made by Ezra.
That the book of Proverbs, Ecclefmfies, and Cant]- ™£ p* ®- cles, were written by King Solomon is the general opi- nion of the Jewifh doctors, who pretend to tell vis, that he wrote the Canticles in his youth, his Proverbs in his manhood, and his Ecclcfiajles at the latter end of his life. There are, however, but 25 chapters in the begin- ning of the firft, which are reputed the original collec-
■f St Jerome, in his preface to the book of Job, informs us, that, for the moft part, it is in heroic verfe ; that, from the beginning of the book to the third chapter, it is profe ;• but, from the words, Let the day perijh wherein I was born, chap. iii. 3. to ihefe, Where fire I abhor myfelf, and repent in dvjl and ajhesf chap. xiii. 6. all is hexameter verfe, confiding or daclyls and fpondees, like the Greek verfes of Homer, or the Latin of Vir- gil. And Marianus Victorius, in his note upon this paifage of St Jerome, tells us, that he has examined this book of Job, and finds St Jerome's obfetvations to be true ; Shuckford's Connection, vol. 2. chap. 9.
Vol.1, O lio:»
Canticles;
fr
The APPARATUS,
tion of Solomon, the reft were compiled by other hands j only the laic chapter (which bears the name of Lemuel) is fuppofed to have been written by him under a borrowed name, and feems to be made np ox fome wife inftruclions which his mother Bathiheba had taught him when he was a child.
'The Song of Songs, (as it is called), though it may relate to Solomon's marriage with the daughter of the King of E- gypt, and is fo far hiftorical ; yet the pious, in all ages, have ever efteerned it an allegorical dialogue between Chriit and Ecdeiia- his church. And, though fome pailages in Ecclefajies feem to exprefs an Epicurean notion of providence : yet it is to be remembered, that the author (in an academic way) difputes indeed on both fides, but, in the conclufion, determines for that which is right, viz. (o) To fear Cod and keep his com- mandments, which is the whole duty of man ; for God, fays he, Will bring every work to judgment, and every fecrct thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. The Pro- That the books both ©r the greater and leffer Prophets (for we have no need to coniider them feparately) have been always thought to belong to the perfons whofe names and inferiptions they bear, we have the univerfal confent of the Jewilh church, feveral plain paffages from Jofephus, and a very remarkable teftimony in the book of Eccleiiafti- cus to convince us, where, after many praifes beftowed up- on Ezekiel, and other prophets and worthies of Ifrael, there are thefe words : (/>) And, of the twelve prophets let the memorial be blcjjed ; let their bones fburijjp again out of their place ; for they comforted Jacob, and delivered them by a cer- tain hope. The canon Thus it appears, that the books of the Old Teftament of the Oidwere either the work of the men whofe names they bear ; or compiled at *ei"ft the comppfiyons of perfons aflifted by the Holy bv Ezra. Ghoft : and how they came to be collected into a body ; and, by perfonswho were duly qualified for the work, reviled, and publifhcd in one volume, in the manner we now have them, is the next point of inquiry we are to puriue.
It muft be acknowledged indeed that we cannot give an exa<£t accpunt of the fettlement of the canon of the Old Te- i lament, becaiile we have no authors extant who profefied- ly treat of this affair ; but, if we may believe the concurring teftimony of ancient writers, both Jewifh and Chriltinn, (who might probably have their opinions from lome au-
!5- r4* (/) Ecclef, iv. 10.
thorities
or Preparatory Discourse. li
thorities that are now loft), we muft allow, that Ezra, up- on his return from the captivity of Babylon, undertook the work; and, after he had finifhed it, had i ■ . d by the
gr and Sanhedrim, and publiihed by authority. Only we muft obferve, (g) that the two books of Chronicles, and thole of Nehemiah, Efther, and Malachi, were very probably af- terwards added by Simon the Juft ; and that it was not till his time that the jewiih canon of the Holy Scriptures was fully completed.
That this canon began to be compiled foon after the re- turn from the captivity, is pretty plain from the above-cited pallage in Ecclefiairicus, which makes mention of the twelve minor prophets, and is an argument that they wei'e then col- lected, and digeiled into one volume : and if we believe (r) that the LXX interpreters translated all the Old Tefl;amentj (which is an opinion that many learned men do maintain), then it is evident, that the canon muft have been fettled be- fore the time that their verfion was made, which was done under Ptolomy Philadelphus, and not improbably at the beginning of his reign. The truth is, both the Jewiih hi- ftory ends, and the fpirit oi' prophecy ceafed, much about this time : Nehemiah was the laft hiftorian, and Malachi the laft prophet, both contemporaries with Ezra, and both • aflifting to him in publishing this new edition of the Scrip- tures ; and therefore, it is reafonable to fuppofe, after the race of fuch writers were extinct, and all vijion and prophecy fealed up among the Jews, that this was a proper period for collecting the feveral copies, and adjufling the catalogue of their facred books.
But Ezra did more than this : (s) He not only collected "\Vhat he all the books whereof the Holy Scriptures did coniift, and&dtomake difpofed them in their proper order, btit, by comparing the y„s ,:.L\!L.1011 feveral copies together, he corrected all the errors which had crept into them through the negligence or miftakes cjf tranferibers. He changed the old names of feveral places that were grown obfolete, and, inftead of them, ini'erted fuch new dnes as the people were better acquainted with. He filled up the chafms of hiftory, and added, in feveral places, throughout the books of this edition, what appeared to him to be neceftary for the illuftratidn, connection, ar,d completion otr the whole. And, L;".iy, he wrote every
(q) «A"i<L rriileaux's Connection, part r. 1. $. (r) Vid\
Walton's Prolog 9. in Bib. Polyg. (;) Vid. Prideaux's Con- nection; prt 1. lib. 5,
G 2 book
Hi The APPARATUS,
book in the Chaldee chara&er, which fince the time of the? captivity, the people underftood much better than the old Hebrew. But whether, upon this review, he added the vowel points, as they now are in our Hebrew Bibles, is a queftion a little too prolix and intricate for us to engage in at prefent. Thofe who have a mind to have their curiofity in this refpecT: latisfied, may fee the arguments on both fides fairly ffcated in the learned (t) Connection, we have had fo frequent occafion to quote.
What we have to obferve farther is, that, in the feve- ral corrections, additions, and alterations, which Ezra made, he did not proceed according to his own humour and caprice, but was directed by the lame Spirit which at firft ^Hilled the writers of thefe facred volumes. For befides that himfelf was a (it) prophet, or (as he is ftyled) (x) a ready fcribc in the law of Mofes, we can hardly fup- pofe, but that in an affair of fuch confequence, he would not only ufe the bell fkill he had himfelf, but con- fult likewife with Haggai, Zechary, and Malachi, (the laft of whom muft needs have been alive in his time, and pof- fibly the other two), and do nothing without their advice % becaufe, in matters of much lefs moment (viz. where fome who pretended to the priefthood could not prove their pe- digree) we find him fo very cautious, that he would deter- mine nothing himfelf, but left the matter undecided, until a prieji JJjould arife who (y) had Urim and Thummim, whereby he might confult the divine will upon all occa- sions. &n\ that Thus was the canon of the Old Teftament fettled, in th- fame or about the times of Ezra : and, that it continued in "UI™be!' of the fame manner or order until the publication of the defended g°fpe^ (befides the authority of feveral Chriftian wri- tous. ters), we have this remarkable teftimony from (z) Jofe- phus. " We have only two and twenty books," fays her " which comprehend the hiftory of all ages, and merit " our belief : five belong to Moles, which cqntain what 1/ relates to the origin of man, and the tradition of the
(/) Part i. lib. 5. p. 497. (u) The Jews look upon Ez-
ra as another Mods ; they call him the fecond founder of the law, and hold his perfon in lb great efleem and veneration, that it is a common faying among their writers, If the law had not been gi- ven by Mofts, Ezra was worthy to have been the publilher of it ; Lewis, anliq. Heb. lib. 8. (x) Ezra vii. 6. (y) Chap.
">i. 62. 63. (z) Centra Apion*
** feveral
or Preparatory Discourse. liii
" feveral fucceffions and generations, down to his death,
«« From the death of Moles to the reign of Artaxerxes,
" (who was king of Periia after Xerxes), the prophets *' who fucceeded him have, in their books, written what " happened in their time. The other books contain hymns " to the praife of God, and precepts for the conduct of " human life. What happened fince the time of Arta- " xerxes down to our days, has likewife been recorded by " the writers thereof; but they have not met with the like " credit, becaufe there has not been any certain fuccefiion *' of prophets during that time. And from hence, fays he, " it is manifeft, what refpecl and eftimation has been paid " to the books which complete our canon; fince, in fo long " a tracl: of time, no man has ventured either to add any " thing to them, or diminim or alter any thing in them ; " fince the Jews from their infancy are accuftomed to call " them divine injiitntions, to believe them ftedfaftly, and, " upon occafion, to lay down their lives in defence of " them."
That the fame number of authentic books has been Apocryphal tranfmitted to us, we may plainly perceive, if we will but books re- turn to the feveral catalogues which the fathers, in their Jei" e ' writings, have left us of them, which the council of Lao- dicea enumerates, and fundry general councils afterwards confirm. And though, in procefs of time, feveral apo- ciyphai books (as containing matters of Jewifh hiftory, and many moral precepts) were, by degrees, admitted into the fervice of the church, and publicly read for the in- ftru£tion of the people ; yet it would be no hard matter to ihew, that fomeof the beft and moft learned writers of their times always denied their canonical authority. " The church " indeed allowed them to be read, (as St Jerome tells us) ; but " fhe did not receive them into the canon of fcripture :" and in like manner our church declares concerning them, ihat fhe " doth read them for example of life, and inftruc' " tion of manners; but does not apply them to eftablifh any " dodtrine." So that, though fome of thefe be confefledly fpurious, and accordingly have been rejected by the wifdom of the church ; yet this can be made no argument againft fuch as have been univerlally received, and handed down by unanimous, conftant tradition.
" But thouirh we have been careful to receive no An 0bjec- " more books than what are ftrictly canonical, yethowtlGn- " fhall we llitisfy ourfelves that we have received them ail ? " In feveral parts of fcripture we find books referred to,
" fuch
liv The APPARATUS,
" fuch as the book of the covenant, the book of the u<afs of " the Lord, the book of Ajher, the book oftheaus of Solomon, " &c. none of which are now extant ; and therefore, " as we fuppofe them loft, we cannot bnt infer that our " prefent canon of fcripture is very lame and imperfect." Anf.-vered, What has given credit to this objection is the common by iiie\vmgnol:jon ^t tjie ^Q0^-s here fUppofed to be loft were of the ca- vo^umes °^ fome iize, and all indited by the Spirit of nonical God; whereas we may obferve, lit, That the word Sepher, books are which we render book, figniiies properly a bare rchearfal of any thing, or any kind of writing, be it ever lb fmall ; and that the cuftom of the Jews was to call every little memorandum by that name : for what we tranilate a bill of divorcement, is, (a) in the original, a book of divorce- ment ; and the fiiort account of our Saviour's genealogy is (b) the book of the generation of Jefus Chrijl. 2dly, That feveral of thefe tracts, which are not now extant, were written, not by peribns pretending to any fupernatural af- iiftance, but by luch (c) as were ftyled recorders, or writers cf chronicles, (as it is in the margin), an office of great ho- nour and truft, but of a different kind from that of prophets-. 3dly, That iuppofing they were indited by fuch as were pro- perly prophets, yet they were not written by divine inspira- tion; " for prophets (as (d) St. Auftin obferves) did not at " times write under the guidance and direction of the Holy " Ghoft. In the fundamentals of religion, indeed, they were " divinely affifted ; but in other matters they only wrote as " faithful hiftorians." And, 4thly,Thatmoft of thefe pieces (e) are ftill remaining in the fcriptures, though they go un- der other appellations ; and that fuch as are net to be found there, were never defigned for religious inftruclion, nor are they eflential to man's falvation. And now to apply thefe obfervations to the books we imagine to be loft.
The book of the covenant, which is mentioned in Exod. ,xxiv. 7. and thought to be milung, is not any diftinct book _ from the body of the Jewifh laws. For whoever im- partially examines that paffage in Exodus, will find, that the book referred to is nothing elfe but a collection of fuch injunctions and exhortations as are exprelsly laid down in the four preceding chapters.
(a) Deut. xxiv. r. (l>) Mat. i 1. (c) 2 Sam.
viii. 16. 2 Kings, xviii. 18. 2 Chron. xxix. 8. (d) De
civit. Dei, lib. 18. cap. 58. (e) Vid. Edward's
Perfection of the Holy Scripture j and Jenkins's Reafbnalknefs of the ChriiUau Religion, vol. 2.
The
or Preparatory Discourse. Iv
The book of the wars of the Lord, cited in Numb. xx. 14. and fuppofed to be wanting, is (in the opinion (/') of a very able judge) that very record, which, upon the de- feat of the A'ualekites, God commanded Moles to make, as a memorial of it, and to rehearfe it in the ears ofjojhua. So that it feems to be no more than a fliort account of that victory, together with fome proper directions for Jofhua's private ufe and conduct in the manage- ment of the fubfequent war, but not at ,all dictated by divine inspiration ; and confecmently no (g) canonical fcrip- ture.
The book of Jafijer, mentioned in Join. x. 13. is fup- poied by fome to be the fame with the book of Judges, becaufe we find mention therein of the fun's Jl a noting fill : but the conjecture of the Jewifh hiftorian (h) feems to be better founded, viz. that it was compofed of certain records, (kept in a fafe place at that time, and afterwards removed into the temple), which gave an account of what happened to the Jews from year to year, and particularly of the funs funding fill ; and (as it is in 2 Sam. i. 18. ) directions for the ufe of the bow, i. e. for fetting up of archery, and maintaining military exercifes. So that this was not the work of an infpired perfon, but of fome com- mon hiltoriographer, who wrote the annals of his own time, and might therefore deferve the name of Jajh'er, The LTi right ; becaufe what he wrote was generally deemed a true and authentic account of all the events and occurren- ces which then happened.
Once more, the feveral books of Solomon, mentioned in 1 Kings, iv. 32. 33. were no part of canonical fcrip- Uire. His three thoufand proverbs were perhaps only ipoken, not written down. tUsfongs, which were a thou- Jand and five, and whereof we have but one, were' very likely his juvenile compoiitions ; and his univcrfal hifiory
• (_/) Dr Lightfoot's Chronology of the times of the Old Tcfla- ment. (g) Others are of opinion, that the book here
under confideration is no other than the book of Judges, which may properly enough be called the bock of the wars if the Lord ; becaufe it recounts the warlike enterprises which thole brave men, who were ftirred by God in an extraordinary manner, were fo famous for, (or to exprcfs the remarkablenefs of the thing), The pan of the Lord may fignify as much as the grcar, wonderful, and renowned wars fought by the valiant Hebrews; I'is's Antiq. Heb. lib. 8. " (b) Jofeph'/Amicj lib. 5.
c a, 2.
if
hi The APPARATUS,
of vegetables, and that of animals of all kinds, as pro- perly belonged to philofophy. It was not necefTary for eve- ry one to be acquainted with them : and though the lofs of them (coniidering the matchlefs meafure of wiidom where- with God had endowed their author) is certainly very great; yet it is a lofs which none but the bufy fearchers into na- ture have caufe to bewail : nor have they fo much caufe either, if the conjectures of fome learned men fhould prove true, viz. that thefe books of plants and animals were extant in the days of Alexander the Great ; or that being perufed and underftood by Ariftotle and Theophraffus, by the help of an interpreter, they were tranflated into their writings in the manner we now find them, and, in pro- cefs of time, gained them great honour and renown. Up- on the whole therefore we may conclude, that. if any books feem to be wanting in our prefent catalogue, they are either fuch as lie fecret and unobferved under other denomina- tions, or fuch as had never the title of being canonical ; as contained no points eflential to man's falvation ; and fuch, confequently, as we may live fafely ignorant of here, and {hall never be refponfibie for hereafter. £n objec- " But fuppofe we have the whole number of our books, tion. a yet we are ft\\\ at a j0fs for j-j^e true fenfe of them ; becaufe,
" fince the time of their firfl recording, they have been fo " chopped and changed by the management ofthofe who had " the cuftody of them ; fo foifted with errors, and loaded " with various readings, that they render the text purely " precarious, and make every wife man doubtful and fufpici- " ous, whether any thing of certainty can be gathered from a " book where the fenfe and phrafeology is fo very uncertain." Anfwred, We readily grant indeed, that there is a great variety by fhev.-ing0f different readings occurring in the books of the Old theo^a'^"Teftament; but, as in a multitude of copies this, is a thing of various unavoidable, fo is it one of the moll effectual means, readings, at this diftance of time from all originals, to help us to the true fenfe and meaning of the text. For, put the cafe, that we had but one copy of the Bible by us, yet me- thinks, it would be a defirable thing to have another ; for (i) another, to join with the firfl, would give us more authority, as well as fecurity. Now chufe that fecond where you will, there ihall be numberlefs variations from the firfl, and yet half or more of the faults ftill remain in them both. A third therefore, and a fourth, and fo on, are defirable, that, by a joint and mutual help, all the faults may be mended : and yet the more copies you call (/) Phileku. Lipf. Anfwer to a Difcourfe of Free-thinking. •
to
or Preparatory Discourse. lvii
to your afliftance, the more do the various readings mul- tiply upon you ; becatife every copy has its particular flips, though in a principal paflage or two it may do lingular lev- vice. Were the originals indeed ftill in being, they would fuperfede the ufe of all other copies ; but lince that is im- poffible from the nature of things, fince time and cald- mities muff confume all, the fublidiary help muft be from the various tranferipts conveyed down to us, when com- pared and examined together : and no one can be ignorant, how much a collation of this kind tends both to illuftrate the fenfe of any particular palfage, and to ftrengthen the authority of the whole.
Coniidering then, that before the ufe of printing, more manufcripts were made of the Holy Bible than of any Heathen author whatever ; and that theie manufcripts have been examined with more care, and collated with more exadlnefs, and the various readings fst down even to the molt minute difference ; we are not to wonder if, with all this fcrupulous fearch and inquiry, the variations are lb many. The editors of profane authors do not ufe to trou- ble their readers with an ufelefs lift of every little flip committed by a lazy or ignorant fcribe. What is thought commendable in an edition of the fcriptures, and has the name of fairnefs and fidelity, would be deemed trifling and impertinent in them : but if the like fcrupulouihcfs were obferved in regiftring the fmalleft changes in pro- fane, as is allowed, nay required in facred authors, the number of their variations would rife at leaft to a full equality.
We ought to account it therefore a lingular inftance of God's good providence, coniidering the great antiquity of many books of tlie fcriptures, beyond that of any other books in the world ; the multitude of copies that have been taken in all ages and nations ; the difficulty to avoid mii- takes in tranferibing books in a language which has fo many of its letter3, and of its words too, fo like one another ; the defect of the Hebrew vowels, and the late invention (as rnoft are now agreed) of the points ; the change of the Sa- maritan, or ancient Hebrew for the prefen: Hebrew, or Chaldee character ; the captivity of the whole nation of the Jews for feventy years ; and the mixtures and changes which, during that time, were brought into their lan- guage : coniidering, I fay, that all the accidents which have ever happened to create .errors and miftakes in any book, have concurred to occallon them in the Old Teftu- Vol. I. H ment.
lviii The APPARATUS
ment, we ought to efteem it a particular inftance of God's providence, that the different readings are fewer, and make much lefs alteration in the fenfe, than thofe of any book of the fame bignefs, and of any note, or antiquity, if all the copies mould be as carefully examined, and every little va- riation as punctually fet down, as thofe of the Holy Scrip- tures have been. And much more are we to blefs the di- vine providence, that whatever differences are to be found in the feveral copies of the Bible, they do not in the leaft prejudife the fundamental points of religion, nor weaken the authority of thefe facred records. For this is the judg- ment of one (k) who had ftudied the fubject much, and was fufficiently verfed in fcripture criticifm, viz. " That the " things relating either to faith or practice, are plainly " contained in all copies whatever. Difference there is " indeed in leffer things, as in matters of chronology, " which depend upon the alteration, or omifRon, or ad- " dition of a letter ; or in the names of men, or of cities, " or countries ; but the principal doctrines of religion are " fo difperfed throughout the fcriptures, that they can re- " ceive no damage or alteration, unlefs the whole mould " be changed, or very grofsly corrupted." And that For befides this providential care, (which we may well the text fuppofe to go along with the writings of fo divine a charac- ai^ "^ver ter), we find God making all proper and prudent provifion corrupted. £°r their prefervation, by inferting a particular and ftrict prohibition in the law itfelf, (/) That no one fljoidd prefume . to 'add unto, or dimini/b ought from it ; by enjoining the peo- ple to make it their conftant ftudy, (m) to bind it, as it were, for a fign upon their hands, and as frontlets between their eyes, and to write it upon the gates and pojis of their houfes ; and by requiring them to read it diligently, both in private to their families, and after a more folemn manner in their public congregations. All which could not but make them competent judges of the law of Mofes, and enable them to defcry any change or material corrup- . tion which fhould at any time attempt to infinuate it- felf.
To fecure the other infpired writings, a continued fuc-
ceilion of prophets was of great fervice : and it feems next
to impoflible for any dangerous alteration to have been
■ made, without detection and cenfure, fo long as that order
of men, whofe office and zeal led them to correct any error
(i) Lud. Cappel. Crit, Sac. lib. 6. cap. 2. (/.) Dcut. iv. 2. [tn) Chap. vi. 8. 9.
in
or Preparatory Discourse. lix
in faith, as well as corruption in practice, was m bein?. Nor can we fuppofe it probable, that any perfon would at- tempt fuch alterations, where the copies were in fo many hands, and fo openly read and confulted, that there was fcarce any private perfon who might not have known (if any fuch thing had happened) when and wherein they had been corrupted.
Nay, fo far were the Jews from fuffering corruptions to creep into the Holy Scriptures, that (n) if but one -word happened to be altered in any copy, it was to be laid allde as utterly ufelefs ; unlefs it was fometimes given to a very poor man to read to his family, upon condition, that he brought it not with him to the fynagogue, nor made any o- ther ufe of it. The religioits factions among the Jews were many times very violent ; but we no where find any party acculing the other of corrupting, or falilfying fcrip- ture ; nor does our Saviour himfelf, who fo frequently re- proves the Scribes and Pharifees for their traditions, and falfe glofTes, ever once charge them with adulterating the text itfelf ; which he certainly would not have failed to do, had they been culpable in that refpecl. On the contrary, both he and the apoftles appeal to it as true and authen- tic, and borrow their proofs from it, in confirmation of the Chriftian faith and doctrine. To conclude this ar- gument then,
That from the time of Ezra, to the coming of our Saviour Chrift, the Jews did not corrupt the text of the facred writings, is plain from his not charging diem with any fuch practice ; which doubtlefs he would have done, (as well as reprove their falfe comments upon them), had they been equally guilty of both : and that, fince the beginning of Chriflianity, neither they, nor any other feci: whatever, could pofRbly make any falfifications, and either add or diminifh any thing material, without an immediate detec- tion, is manifefh from the multitude of true and authentic copies, which were every where difperfed as far as Chri- ftianity prevailed, and from that jealous and vigilant eye, which each party had upon the other : lb that we may rea- fonably fuppofe, that all the little errors which may be re- marked in them, proceeded not from any ill defign, but merely from the ignorance or inattention of their tran- fcribers. And indeed, (o) coniidering the many ages thro' which the books have paired, we have much more reafon m (>/) Vkl. Jenkir.b's Rcaibnablencfs, vol 2. (c) Bifliop Eurnct on the Articles.
II 2 wonder,
Ix. The APPARATUS,
wonder, that they are brought down to us fo entire, and fo manifestly genuine, in all their main and fundamental points, than that we Ihould fee ibme inftances of human frailty in thole who copied and preferved them. An abjec- li But be the books ever fo genuine, and their tradi- tion. « tion ever fo certain, yet we cannot fuppofe them wrote *' by perfons divinely infpired, fo long as we fee in them " certain characters inconfiftent with fuch a fuppofition. " Surely the pureft language, the moft perfect ltyle, the " greateft clcarnefs, the moft exact method, the foundeft ; r - ..foiling, the moft apparent confiftency, and, in a ' word, all the excellencies of good writing, might be ex- " peeled in a piece compofed or dictated by the Spirit of " God ; but books wherein we find the reverfe of all this3 " it is idle, if not impious, to afcribe to the Deity." Anfwj-cd ^- ®ne great niiitake which the generality of readers byfuewingrun into, is, to judge of the compofition of the fcripture, that tranf- ijot from its original, but from its tranflations : for, (p. d*f»adre£ b-^es tnar- *n ancient writings, -(fuch as the Bible is) there are alluvions to many rites and cuftoms that are now laid le ; and, for this reafon, nuaft needs feem flat or imper- tinent ; which, when they were in ufe, had a great deal of fpirit and propriety in them ; and befides that the Hebrew, in particular, is a language of a peculiar caft, both in the contexture of its words, and the cadence of its periods, and contains certain expreffions, whofe ernphalis can no more.be tranflated into another language, than the water of a diamond can be painted, without detracting from the original : befides all this, I fay, the tranflators themfelves, fometimes by running into miftakes, and at all times by adhering too religloufly to the letter of the text, have con- tributed not a little to make the ftyle of the facred writings; appear lefs advantageous. For, whereas other tranflators have taken a liberty to accommodate the beauties of the language whereinto they tranflate, to the idiotifms of that wherein their author wrote ; thefe have thought themfelves. reftrained from uling fuch freedom in a divine compofition; and have therefore left feveral Hebraic, and other foreign phrafes in their verfion, which feem a little uncouth, and give the reader (who can look no farther) a very odd no- tion of the original : though it is certainly maiiifeft, that the moft elegant piece of oratory that ever was framed, if we render it literally, and not give it the true genius of the (/>) Vid. Boyle of tfee.fhvle ipf the Scripture; and Nicholl's Con-
language
or Preparatory Discourse. lxi
language whereunto we are admitting it, will lofe all its beauty, and appear with the fame difadvantage.
II. Another miftake that we run into is, when we That do- confine eloquence to any nation, and account that the quencc is only proof of it, which is accommodated to the prefent""1^ '" tafte. We indeed, in thefe European countries, whofeCOuntry; languages, in a great meafure, are derived from Greek and Latin, make them the patterns for our imitation, and ac- count them the ftandard of perfection : but there is no reafon why the eaftern nations, whofe languages have no affinity with them, fhould do the fame ; much lefs is it rea- ibnable to expect it in writers who lived long before thefe Greek or Latin authors (we fo much admire) were born. It is fufficient for them that they wrote according to the fafhionable, and efteemed eloquence of their own times : but that the Holy Ghoft fhould infpire them with certain fch ernes of fpeech, adapted to the modern tafte, and iuch as were utterly unknown in the countries where they lived, is a thing that can never enter into any fober man's con- fideration. The truth is, fince Mofes was bred up in all the refined learning and wifdom of the Egyptians ; fince So- lomon was excellent in all kind of knowledge, and in a manner idolized by the Eaftern world ; and fince Daniel's promifing youth was improved by the learning of the Chal- dean fages ; we have all the reafon imaginable to believe, that they wrote according to the perfection of ftyle, which was then in ufe ; that though their eloquence differs from ours, yet it is excellent in its kind ; and that, if we have other notions of it, it is only becaufe we are unacquainted with thofe bold allegories, and figurative ways of difcourfe ; thofe dark fentences, furprifing brevities, and inconnected tranfitions, wherein the nature of their true iublime did confift.
III. Another miftake we run into is, when we flip- nor necef- pofe that the critical rules of eloquence are any ways ne-^'T madl" cefTary in divine compofitions. The defign of God, i" polition. recording his laws, was to inform our underitandings, to cure our paflions, and rectify our wills ; and if this end be but attained, it is no great matter in what form of dic- tion the' prefcription be given. We never expect that a phyfician's receipt fhould be wrote in a Ciceronian ftyle : and if a lawyer has made us a firm conveyance of an eftate, Ave never inquire what elegancies there are in the writing.
When therefore, God intends to do for us for greater
things than thefe ; when he is delivering the terms of our
falvation,
Ixii The APPARATUS,
falvation, and prefcribing the rules of our duty; why fhould we expert that he fhould infift on the niceties of ftyle and expreffion, and not rather account it a diminu- tion of his authority, to be elaborate in trifles, when he has the momentous iflues of another life to command our at- tention, and affect our paffions ? In fome of the greateft works of nature, God has not confined himfelf to any fuch order and exactnefs. (q) The ftars, we fee, are not caft into regular figures ; lakes and rivers are not bounded by ftraight lines ; nor are hills and mountains exact cones or pyramids. When a mighty prince declares his will by laws and edicts to his fubjects, is he (do we think) careful at all about a pure ftyle, or elegant composition ? Is not the phrafe thought proper enough, if it conveys as much as was intended ? And would not the fine Strains of fome modern critics be thought pedantic and affected on fuch occafions ? Why then fhould we expect in the oracles of God an ex- actnefs, that would be (r) unbecoming, and beneath the dignity of an earthly monarch, and which bears no pro- portion or refemblancc to the magnificent works Of the creation ? . A ftrict obfei vation of the rules of grammar and rhetoric, in elegant expreflions, harmonious periods, and technical definitions and partitions, may gratify indeed fome readers ; but then it muft be granted, that thefe things have the air of human contrivance in them ; whereas in the fimple, unaffected, artlefs, unequal, bold, figurative ftyle of the Holy Scriptures, there is a character Angularly great and majeftic, and what looks more like divine infpi- ration, than any other form of compofition. The ftyle Thefe obfervations being premifed, if we fhould now of fcripture confider the nature of eloquence in general, as it is defined inrhudKve, by (j) Ariftotle, to be a faculty of pcrfuafion, which Cicero ^n(r a ec" makes to confift in three things, iiiftruSling, delighting, and moving our readers or hearers mind, we fhall find, that the Holy Scriptures have a fair claim to thefe feveral pro- perties.
For where can we meet with fuch a plain reprefenta- tion of things, in point of hiftory, and fuch cogent ar- guments, in point of precept, as this one volume furnifhes
(q) Vid The Minute Philofophcr, dialogue 4.
(r) Cujufcunqne orationem videris ifollicitam et polirim, fcito animum quoque non minus cSc pulillis occupatum : magnus * re- miflius loquitur, et fecurius ; quascunque dicit plus habcnt fidu- ciae quam curse; Sen. cy\(i. 115.
(s) Rhet. 1. 1. c. 2.
US
or Preparatory Discourse. lxiii
ns with ? Where is there an hiftory written more limply and naturally, and at the fame time more nobly and loftily, than that of the creation of the world ? Where are the great leffons of morality taught with fuch force and perfpecuity (except in the fermons of Chrift, and the wri- tings of the apoftles) as in the book of Deuteronomy ? Where is the whole compafs of devotion, in the feveral forms of confeffion, petition, fupplication, thankfgiving, vows, and praifes, fo punctually taught us, as in the book of Pfalms ? Where are the rules of wifdom and prudence lo convincingly laid down, as in the Proverbs of Solomon, and the choice fentences of his Ecclefiaftes ? Where is vice and impiety of all kinds more juftly difplayed, and more fully confuted, than in the threats and admonitions of the prophets ? And what do the little warmths, which may be raifed in the fancy by an artificial compofure and ve- hemence of ftyle, Signify, in companion of thofe ftrong impulfes and movements which the Holy Scriptures make upon good mens fouls, when they reprefent the frightful juftice of an angry God to Stubborn offenders, and the bowels of his compafTion, and unfpeakable kindnefs, to all ' true penitents and faithful fervants ?
The Holy Scripture indeed has none of thofe flaShy or- naments of fpeech, wherewith human compositions fo plen- tifully abound ; but then it has a Sufficient Stock of real and peculiar beauties to recommend it. To give one instance for all out of the hiStory of Jofeph and his family : the whole relation indeed is extremely natural ; but the man- ner of his difcovering himfelf to his brethren is inimitable, (t)
And Jofeph could no longer refrain himfelf — but, lifting
■up his voice with tears, faid - . ■ / am Jofeph Doth
my father yet live? And his brethren could not an fiver
him ; for they ivere troubled at his prefence. And Jofeph faid to his brethren, Come near me, I pray you : and they came
near, and he faid, I am Jofeph ->< your brother whom
ye fold into Egypt. Nothing certainly can be a more livelv defcription of Jofeph's tender refpecl: for his father, and love for his brethren : And, in like manner, when his brethren returned, and told their father in what fplendor and glory his fon Jofeph lived, it is faid, that (u) Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not ; but when he Jaw the waggons which Jofeph had fent for him, the fpirit of Jacob, their father, revived: and Ifrael faid, It is enough-' • Jofeph my fon is yet alive • ■•> I will go ■ and fee himt (/) Gcn.xlv. i. ire. (u) Ver. 26. ire.
before
Ixiv The APPARATUS,
before I die. Here is fuch a contraft of different pafilom. of utter defpondency, dawning hope, confirmed faith, tri- umphant joy, and paternal affecfion, as no orator in the world could exprefs more movingly, in a more eafy man- ner, or fhorter compafs of words, yigurative ^ay niore, had I leifure to gratify the curious, I might and lofty eafily fhew, that thofe very figures and fchemes of fpeech, fometimes. which are f0 much admired in profane authors, as their great beauties and ornaments, are no where more confpi- cuous than in the facred.
One figure, for inftance, efteemed very florid among the matters of art, is, when all the members of a period begin with the fame word. The figure is called ana- phora ; and yet (if I miftake not) the 1 5th pfalm affords us a very beautiful pafTage of this kind. Lord, zvhofhall abide in thy tabernacle ? Who jhall dwell in thy holy hill ? He that ivalketh uprightly ; he that backbiteth not with his tongue ; he that maketh much of them that fear the Lord; he that fweareth to his hurt, and changeth not ; he that putteth not out his money to ufury, nor taketh re- ward againjl the innocent. He that does thefe things fhall - never be moved.
The ancient orators took a great deal of pride in ran- ging finely their antitheta. Cicero is full of this, and ufes it many times to a degree of affectation ; and yet I can- not find any place wherein he has furpaffed that paffage of the prophet. (x) He that killeth an ox, is as if he flew a man ; he that facrijiceth a lamb, as if he cut off a \ dog's necks he that offer eth an oblation, as if he offered f wines blood. But above all other figures, that, where- on poets and orators love chiefly to dwell, is the hypo- typofis, or lively defcription ; and yet we fhall hardly find, in the beft claflic authors, any thing comparable, in this regard, to the Egyptians deftruction in the R.ed Sea, related (y) in the long of Mofes and Miriam ; to the de- fcription of the Leviathan (z) in Job ; to the defcent of God, and a ftorm at fea (a) in the Pialmift ; to the in- trigues of an adulterous woman (b) in the Proverbs ; to the pride of the Jewifh ladies (c) in Ifaiah ; and to the plague of locuits (d) in Joel ; which is x-eprefented like the ravaging of a country, and {forming a city by an army : A jire devoureth before them, and behind them a deflate
(x) Ifa. Ixvi. -?. (y) Exod. xv. (z) Cb. xli. {a) Pfal. xviii. 1 7. (*) Ch. vii. (0 Ch. iv. (d) Ch. i.
wiLLmefs,
or Preparatory Discourse. Ixv
iviidernefs, and nothing Jball efcape them. Before their
face people Jhall be pained; all faces fhall gather blacknefs. They fhall run like mighty men; they fhall climb the "wall like men of war ; they fhall march every one in his way, and they
fhall not break their ranks. They fhall run to and fro in
the city ; they fball run upon the wall ; they Jhall climb up up- on the houfes ; they jhall enter into the windows as a thief.
The defcription is more remarkable, becaufe the analogy is carried quite throughout without draining, and the whole proceffes of a conquering army in the manner of their march, their deftroying the proviilon, and burning the country, in their {baling the walls, breaking into houies, and running about the vanquished city, are fully delineated and fet before our eyes.
From thefe few examples (for it would be endlefs to at all time* proceed in inftances of this kind) it appears, that the HcIyPr0Per* Bible is far from being defective in point of eloquence ; and (what is a peculiar commendation of it) its ftyle is full of a grateful variety ; ibmetimes majeitic, as becomes that high and holy one who inhabiteth eternity ; ibmetimes fo low, as to anfvver the other part of his character, who dwelleth with- him that is of an humble fpirit ; and, at all times fo proper, and adapted fb well to the feveral iubjects it treats of, that (e) whoever conliders it attentively will perceive, in the narrative parts of it, a ffrain fo fimple and unaffected ; ia the prophetic and devotional, fomething fo animated and fublime ; and in the doctrinal and preceptive, fuch an air of dignity and authority, as feems to fpeak its original di- vine.
We allow indeed, that method is an excellent art, Method, a highly conducive to the clearnefs and perfpicuity of dif-mcclr,n "'" courfe ; but then we affirm, that it is an art of modern in- vention in comparifon to the times when the facrcd pen- men wrote, and incompatible with the manner of writing which was then in vogue. "We indeed in Europe, who, in this matter, have taken our examples from Greece, can hardly read any thing with pieamre that is not digefted into order, and forted under proper heads ; but the ea- frern nations, who were ufed to a free way of difcourie, and never cramped their notions by methodical limitations, would have deipifed a composition of this kind as much as we do a fchool-boy's theme, with all the formalities of its exordiums, ratios, and cenfirmatios. And, if this
(<?) The Minute Philofopher, dial, a. Vol. T. T was
lxvi The APPARATUS
was no precedent for other nations, much lefs can we think, that God Almighty's methods ought to be confined to hu- man laws, which, being designed for the narrownefs of our conceptions, might be improper and injurious to his, whofe thoughts are as jar above ours, as the heavens are higher than the earth. and not fo The truth is, (f) infpiration is, in fome meafure, the pi r in language of another world, and carries in it the reafoning compofi- °^ fpfritSj which, without controverfy, is vaStly different tions, from ours. We indeed, to make things lie plain be- fore our underftandings, are forced to fort them out into diftinct partitions, and coniider them by little and little, that fo at laft, by gradual advances, we may come to a to- lerable conception of them ; but this is no argument for us to think that pure fpirits do reafon after this manner. Their underftandings are quick and intuitive : they fee the whole compafs of rational inferences at once ; and have no need of thofe little methodical distinctions which often- times help the imperfection of our intellects. Now, though we do not aflert, that the language of the Holy Scriptures is an exact copy of the reafoning of the fpiritual world ; yet, Since they came by the infpiration of the Holy Ghofi, it is but reasonable to expect that they mould preferve fome finall relifh of it ; as books tranflated into anodier tongue always retain fome marks of their originals. And hence it comes to pafs, that though the Holy Ghoft does vouchfafe to fpeak in the language of men, yet, in his divine com- positions, there are fome traces to be found of that bold and unlimited ratiocination which is peculiar to the hea- venly inhabitants, whofe noble and flaming thoughts are never clogged with the cold and jejune laws of human me- thod. To which purpofe we may obferve, that, even a- mong the Heathens, whenever their authors reprefent a perfon infpired, a Sibyl, a Caffandra, or a Tirelias, they never introduce him making a fet formal fpeech, but al- ways faying fomething noble and fublime, which difdains all 'ordinary artificial fetters. And, if the greateft mafters of polite writing thought it proper to neglect all rules and reftraints in competitions of pretended infpiration, why Should that be accounted culpable in the Holy Scriptures which is held fo exquisite in Sophocles, or any other lofty tragedian ?
(f) Nichols's conference with a TheiSl, vol. i.
But
or Preparatory Discourse. Jxvii
But after all, the Holy Scriptures (as far as can be ex- though, in pected) are not destitute of method. They are not indeed™^ ca- wrote upon the plan of forne Greek and Latin compositions ; ^i \K but they are delivered in fuch a manner as is eafy to be un- obfervc it ; derftood, not unpleafant to read, and, to thofe who are accuftomed to oriental compofitions, exceedingly beautiful. For, where can we find a more methodical hiitory than that of Mofes, beginning at the firlf creation of all things, and the formation of human kind ; proceeding in the ac- count of their increafe, depravation, and almoft total de- ftruction by an univerfal deluge ; after their fecond increafe, relating their relapfe into idolatry, and thereupon God's electing a peculiar people to ferve him according to his own appointment ; and fo recording the firft original and va- rious adventures of their progenitors ; the afflictions and wanderings of that chofen nation, and the polity which they fhould obferve when once they were fettled in the promifed land ? Nothing can be more clear and regular than this. And as for the other hiftorians who wrote the tranfactions of the Jewifh nation from the conqueft of Canaan to the Babylonifh captivity, they are fo exact in ob- ferving the order and feries of time, and in felting down the length of each prince's reign, that they afford a better foundation for hiftorical truth, as well as chronological certainty, than is to be found in the beft Heathen writers of this kind.
It cannot be expected indeed, that pfalms and hymns wrote upon fundry occafions, or fuch proverbs and wife axioms as took their rife from different obfervations, and were noted down the inftant they were conceived, fhould have any connection or mutual dependence. Prophecies too were to be ioofe, and unconfined to rule, as being the language of a fpirit, which will admit of no reftraint ; but, as for the doctrinal and argumentative parts of the fcripture, they are digefted in fuch a manner as to make them plain and intelligible : and though the partitions and tranfitions of them are not fo formally diftinct as in fome other books ; yet are they perceivable enough to an attentive reader, and will receive great illuitration from the analytical works of fome expofitors.
It mult not be diffembled however, that the Hebrew And why- tongue (wherein a great part of the Bible was written) hasQ°™c many words, confuting of the fame fyllables, and yet of very different Significations ; and that it is defective in Seve- ral moods and teiifes which our modern languages have :
I 2 lb
lxviii The APPARATUS,
fo that, if the tranflator has miftaken the fignification of the word, he fpoils the connexion ; or, if he has not given the verb the right mood and tenfe, (which, in a great mea- iure, he is obliged to guefs at), there will be a plain incohe- rence in the fenfe. Nor muft it be forgot, that the prefent divifion of the fcripture into chapters and verfes (though of excellent ufe to the memory) has fometimes feparated things which mould have bsen united, and fometimes united mat- ters that lhould have been feparated ; and this difturbs the fenfe, and makes it look wild and incoherent to fuch as are not qualified to obferve its propriety and connection in the original. The caufes Thefe are fome of the caufes of the feeming irregu- of fome larky, and the like may be faid of the great obfcurity
©bicunty . ~ J ~ .
In the which lome have complained of in the Holy Scriptures ;
fcripmres; viz. that, where it is not occafioned by the fubject-matter, which fometimes contains myffceries above all human com- prehenfion, and fometimes alludes to cufloms and tranfac- tions Avhich length of time has concealed from our know- ledge, it ttfually happens, when the lignification of words is ambiguous and uncertain in the original ; when there cccur fome particular idioms of the Hebrew tongue not fo familiar to us ; when the conftruction is intricate, and the words make different fenfes, according as they are differ- ently joined together ; when the ftyle itfelf is obfcure by reafon of metaphors and allegories, which are ufual in the poetical books ; when the writer paffes from one fubject to another fomewhat abruptly, which frequently happens in the prophetical ; or when he makes tranfpofitions in the order of narration, as is fometimes perceiveable in the hi- ftorical. But, thefe cafes excepted, (which, with a little ftudy and application of our own, as- well as attention to thofe who undertake the expofition of thefe difficulties, may eafily be remedied), that the Holy Scriptures are, in all points neceffary to falvation, and, to all perfons of competent underftanding, fufficiently plain and intelligible, the very defign of God's having them wrote, is a fufficient demonflration. For, as the defign of all writing is to con- vey our thoughts intelligibly to others, fo would it be a great reflection upon the divine wifdom, if a book written by God's direction, and for the inftruction of mankind, fhould fall fhort of that end, which even human compofi- tions feldom fail of.
particular- We cannot deny indeed but that there is a great ob-
iy "V the . ic ur ity generally fbread over the writings of the prophets ; Pr0?« ets • km
or Preparatory Discourse. lxix
but then we affirm, that fuch obfcuvity is neceffary for wife purpofes and providential reafons. For, as the crea- tor of the world governs it with wifdom, and (where the free will of man is concerned) with great condefcenlion ; had the Holy Spirit revealed to the prophets future events fo diftinctly, as that they might have expreifed the moft minute circumftance of time, place, perfons, <bc. in pro- per terms ; had the predictions, I fay, been fo plain and apparent, that every body, at firft light, might fee the whole contrivance, and look through all the fcenes of action, they could never have- been accomplilhed, without offering violence (by fome miraculous interpolition) to mens vo+ luntary determinations. Had God, for inftance, foretold our Saviour's crucifixion, with all its particular circum- ftances, the manner how, the time when, the place where, and the perfons by whom, it was to be effected ; it is hardly fuppofable, that the chief priefts, and fo many principal men among the Jews, would have had an hand in it, with- out being perfectly carried on to it by an over-ruling power, againft their own inclinations ; which (befides its contra- riety to the principles of human nature) muft needs make God the author of Jin. But fince the prophecies con- cerning the Meffias and his fufferings were delivered with fuch a mixture of obfcurity, as never fully to be under- ffcood till after their accompliihment, they gave room for the Jews malice to concur with God's providence in bring- ing this matter to pafs : and fo (as St. Paul tells us) (g) becaitfe they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets, they fulfilled them in condemning him. So neceffary it was, that all prophecies of future events fhould be couched un- der dark and enigmatical phrafes, left, by being too plainly foretold, they might poffibly chance to deftroy themfelves, and defeat their own intention.
We acknowledge ftill farther, that, befides the predic- And the ci-
tions of the prophets, there are feveral points contained Pediency ot
r . r . r /-i i c fome my-
m lcripture quite remote from the common apprehenfionfterjes> '
of mankind, and, in many refpects, hard to be underftood.
But then we muft obferve withal, that, as thefe obfeure
paffages are very few in comparifon of the plain texts,
and no more hinder us from underftanding the plain,
than the fpots in the fun debar us from the light of it ;
fb are they far from reflecting dishonour upon the dif-
penfation itfelf. If we confider ferioufly with ourfelves, we
(g) Actsxiii. 27.
cannot
Ixx The APPARATUS,
cannot but fay, that it is more reafonable to fuppofe (h), that a revelation from God (hould contain fomethiag dif- ferent in kind, and more excellent in degree, than what lay open to the common fenfe of men, or could be difco- vered even by the moft fagacious philofophers. The coun- cils of princes, we know, lie often beyond the ken of their lubjecls, who can only perceive fo much as is revealed by thole who lit at the helm, and are often unqualified to judge of the ufefulnefs and tendency even of that, till in due time the fcheme unfolds, and is accounted for by fucceeding events. This makes the councils of princes re- vered, and preferves the dignity of the cabinet. And in like manner, why may not we fuppofe, that, (i) as eaii- nefs of accefs is many times known to lay a man open to contempt ; fo, to protect his revelation from rude en- croachments, by impreffing an awe and reverential fear upon our minds, God has thought proper to furround it (as it were) with a facred and majeftic obfeurity, and, in fome parts of it, to exhibit fuch exalted truths as tranfeend the reach of human wifdom ; thereby to humble the pride and haughtinefs of our reafon ; and thereby to engage us in a clofer and more diligent fearch into fuch fubjects as will every moment furnilh us with new matter to enter- tain the buiieft contemplation, to the utmoft period of hu- man life. Reafons for Thefe are fome reafons for the obfeurity, and the like contradic- may De ^a^ f°r tne feeniing contradictions (efpecially in tions in matters of chronology) which are faid to occur in the fa- fenpture, cre(j writings. For if we coniider the different cuftoms and ways of fpeaking which were in ufe in former days, but now are obfolete ; and yet we might happily reconcile fome repugnant expreffions, if we were but acquainted with thofe ufages, to which in all probability they allude : if we coniider the narrow compafs of the Hebrew tongue, wherein one word has fometimes a great many ligniiica- tions ; and yet we might make feveral contradictory paiiages agree, if we knew but how to give the fame word one iignification in the firft paffage, and another in the fecond : and more efpecially, if we coniider that chronology is a part of learning of all others the moft difficult to be ad- jufted; that the leaft alteration of a word or letter may make an exceeding great difference ; that the Jewiih years do not exactly quadrate with thofe of other nations, either - (h) Fid. Minute Philofopher, dialogue 6. (/) South's
fermofis.
as
or Preparatory Discourse. lxxi
as to their length, or their beginning ; and that the fuper- numerary months of kings reigns do often puzzle the general computation ; we cannot much wonder, that in the midft of fo many difficulties, there mould be found fome ieeming repugnancies in the fenfe of fome texts, as well as in the accounts of time. But when we confider farther, that by mewing the different acceptation of the words and expreffions in thefe feemingly interfering places ; by fet- tling the chronological accounts, and comparing them with other parts of fcripture which have an analogy with them ; and by ufing, in fhort, thofe feveral . rules of interpretation and criticifrn which are wont to be employed in the ex- plication of all Other authors, all thefe incongruities are iufficiently cleared up by learned men ; we fhall be induced to think, that they are fo far from invalidating the autho- rity of the Holy Scriptures, that they do, in a great mea- lure, confirm it. Pt>r if the fcriptures had been written by a cabal of men defigning to impofe upon the world, undoubtedly thefe men would have ufed all circumfpe£tion and caution, that no fign of contradiction fhould have ap- peared in their writings, becaufe nothing is fo exacl: as a ftudied cheat ; whereas it is no imall argument of the ve- racity of thefe writers, that they agree with one another in all material points, and only neglecl an exadtnefs in fome little punctilios, wherein nothing but a confederacy could have made them uniform.
But after all, we talk of contradictions, and other ab-thouSh ne furdities ; of digreffions, repetitions, falfe reafonings, ^"LkJ^L' pertinent, and fometimes ridiculous relations in fcripture, quired into, which, upon better examination, will be found reconciie- able to good fenfe, and in fome refpect prove its very perfection and ornament. We may think it a little ftrange, for inftance, that Cain, upon the murder of his brother, fhould be introduced, as laying, (A) every one that jindcth rne jkall flay me ; and prefently after, as (/) going into the land of Nod, and there building him a city ; whereas, ac- cording to the common notion, there were but (befides himfelf) three perfons, his father, mother, and his wife, upon the face of the whole earth : but now, if the word Kol, which we render every one, may as well be tranflated every thing, every creature (m), every wild beaft of the
(k) Gen. iv. 14. (/) Ver 17. (;//) He was afraid (fays Jofephus) left, while he wandered up and down in the eanli (which was part of his punifhment) he fhould fall smong fome I bcafts, and be ilain by them ; Ant'tq. lib. \. cap. 3.
field,
lxxii The APPARATUS,
field, (the man's confcience foreboding that God might poffibly let looie the brute-creation upon him), and if, up- on a moderate computation, the other defcendents of A- dam (for Mofes takes notice only of the two lines of Cain and Seth) might be numerous enough to flock whole countries with inhabitants, (as fome have calculated even to a demonftration) where will the abfurdity be then ? Digreffions It may look perhaps like a carelefs ramble of thought, infcnpture.to fee a prophet, (for it is only in the prophetical works that this happens), after he has begun a plain and methodi- cal difcourfe upon an incidental word or expreffion, break out all at once into a long digreffion, which feems not fo fuitable to his main purpole ; but if we attend to the matter of that digreffion, we fhall generally find it a prediction of the glad tidings of the Goipel, the moll im- portant fubject that infpired authors can employ their thoughts upon, and what the Holy«Ghoft took every oc- cafion to mggeft to their minds. Nor can we be ignorant, that in the belt Heathen writers who pretended to infpi- ration (as mofl of their poets did) thefe very digreffions (which were ftyled epifodes) were thought their greateft beauties ; and that in fome of their loftiefl compolitions, (fuch as thofe of Pindar and of Horace, («) where he imi- tates Pindar), thefe wild excurlions were held elTential to the poem, the only indications of the divine enthuliafm, and fome of the daring flights of a bold afpiring mufe, which defpifed all rules, and difdained to be controlled. Repetitions The repetitions in fcripture we perhaps may take of- ^vhenc^lcK:e-^ence at' anc^ tn^n^ tnem more frequent in the Bible than cafioned. in any other book. But when it is confidered that the fe- veral traces of the Bible were written by different perfons, and at different times, it can be no more fault or blemifh in it, that its different writers mould fometimes happen to fay the fame things, than that the fame hiftory fhould be written by Appian and Curtius, or the fame arguments made ufe of by Ariftotle and Cicero.
This is a cafe, without a combination, unavoidable. But * when we confider withal, that the things which are faid to be fo often repeated, are generally fuch as relate to moral duties, which can never be fufnciently enforced, and that in inculcating thefe the facred writers have ufed all the variety that can be expected ; in fome places ex- horting men to goodnefs, from the reward; in others,
(«) Fid. Carm. 1. 3. ode 3. where the digreffion begins, Jine 18. * Bo/Ie of the ftyle of the fcripuires.
from
or Preparatory Discourse. l\xiii
from the beauty of virtue ; in fome exhibiting the danger, in fome the turpitude, and in others the folly of iln ; here commending fobriety from its temporal, and there from its eternal recompence ; here rcprefenting pride as conieinpti- ble to men, and there as hateful to God ; and every where diverfifying their arguments, to make them work upon the love, the hope, or the fear of their readers, from the confideration of the goodnefs, the promifes, or the juftice of God : when we obferve the prophets denouncing judg- ments, fometimes againft the people, fometimes againft the priefts, and at other times againft the kings ; fome re- prehending them for their pride, fome for their idolatry, and others for their profanation of the Sabbath ; one bring- ing them the joyful news of areftoration from their cap- tivity, and another of their redemption by the Meffias ; one weeping over the Old Jerufalem, and another ravifhed with the thoughts of the New : when we confider, I fay, this wonderful variety of frefh matter in the facred writers, both moral and prophetical, we cannot but adore the good- nefs of God, in giving us line upon line, and precept upon precept ; in condefcending fo gracioufly to our infirmities. that in almoft every page of his Holy Word he has fupplicd us with frelh motives and exhortations to thofe great and momentous duties we are fo apt to tranfgrefs ; and muff- needs be very grofsly prejudifed, if we can fuppofe, that the writings either of Seneca, (who ufually feeds his reader with nothing but whipt cream, or a very little fenfc frothed out into a multitude of words), or even of the divine Pla- to himfelf, (who, ftripped of his unintelligible rant, makes but a poor figure in point of folid fenfe), any way comparable to the Holy Bible, wherein God feems to have provided for our entertainment, as well as our edification ; and to have overfpread it with a pleallng diverfity of funjecls and arguments, in the fame manner that he has adorned the creation with a curious variety of plants and animals.
It muft not be diffembled indeed, that, what with mif-™^' iwir<.
rendering the connective particles, which have many d:f-',- •loiua~ r r •,- i 11 / x .,- , . ionine vin»
rerent lignihcations, and now and then (o) milplacmg aujcatcu;
parenthefis in the Hebrew tongue, the thread of the dif- courfe comes often to be interrupted ; and thole who over- look the figurative, and fometimes abrupt way of arguing jifual among the caftern nations, (where the reader is often left to make the deduction for himfelf), will meet with feme perplexities : but where either this is not the cafe, (o) Parenthefes were not originally in the Hebrew tongue.
"K or
lxxiv The APPARATUS,
or where thefe difficulties are furmounted, a man of a competent underftanding may iee the force and tendency oi- any fcripture-ai*gtiiiiehtJ as clearly as if it were drawn np in mood and figure. The art of logic is a novel ra- tion, compared with the date of the authors we are now fpeaking of: and therefore they are not blameable for not being perfect; in all the niceties of the Greek fchools ; elpecially confidering, that if even they had been mafters of this art, fince they were to addrefs themfelves to popu- lar auditories, prudence would have directed them to make ufe of popular arguments, (as we find they did), which, in ir.ch a cdic, the greateft Heathen orators have always em- ployed, and thence found, that they carried their point with better fuccefs than in the molt irrefragable fyllogifms.
(*) The Heathen moralifts, we find, urge virtue from the rational topics of conveniency and inconveniency, by difplaying the amiablenefs and advantages of good, and deformity and mifchiefs of evil : and are not the argu- ments which Moles ufes to engage the Jews to a compli- ance with the laws which God enjoined them, drawn from the obligation they owed him for his creating them ; from his delivering them from bondage, and making them his cholen people; from the profperity which their obe- dience would procure, and the certain calamities which their difobedience would bring upon them ; are not the arguments which the prophets ufe, when they denounce inch terrible judgments againft them, and tax them with tuch vile ingratitude, fuch ftupid idolatry, and fuch other awakening motives to repentance • are not thefe argu- ments, I fay, as powerful to perfuade a nation to abandon their fins, and adhere to the fervice of God, as the moft pompous harrangues concerning the wretchednefs of vice, and the beatitudes of philofophic virtue ? (q) efpecialiy, confidering, that what thefe fcriptural writers have left us -.shacked with the authority of Almighty God, which iriftead ofa thoufand arguments and reafonings. '?, " .1 mention but one obie&ion more, and that is, the im- me reuit'ons occurring m the hiuorical, ulbufhefs of fome actions mentioned in the s of Scripture : but before we pafs that tire, we f > well to coniider, whether the facred
■ b!y have fome farther profpect in re- cording tl -s, than we, at this diftance of time,
(/•) Voting's Scrnfcns.' (a) Edwards on the Excellency of in
axe
Or Preparatory Discourse. Ixxv
are aware of. The book of Ruth, the hillory of Ifaac and Rebecca, of Jofeph and his brethren, fee. (which fome are pleafed to call little fimple family -Jtories) deferve a better name, even though they were no more than fhort memoirs of the Jewifh hiftory, giving us an account of the lives of fome confiderable perfonages of that nation : but when we confider the whole fcheme of God's providential dif- penlation, in fending the Meffias into the world, and the method which he was pleafed to take in preparing the way for it, by feparating one man's family (from whofe loins the deligned Saviour of the world was to defcend) from his idolatrous relations and countrymen, and making - his offspring the ftandard of true religious worfhip for many ages ; it is but reafonable to fuppofe, that fome par- ticular account fhould be given of the origin of this ex- traordinary family, by which all the world has received fuch a wonderful benefit, and all the kingdoms of the eai ih have been ble(fed in the birth of Jefus Chrift. And when we confider farther, that many things relatingf o Abraham and Sarah, the facrifice of Ifaac, and the captivity and exaltation of Jofeph, isc. are fo particularly related, be- caufe God deligned that thefe occurrences lhould be types and fhadows of fome things remarkable under the gofpel, viz. of the incarnation, paflion, refurrection, and afcen- fion of our Lord and Saviour ; we cannot but perceive that, if the hiftorian had omitted the relation of thefe ancient facts, Chriftianity had wanted fome confiderable evidences of its truth, and the wife fcheme of God's providence, in the falvation of the world, had not been fo amply difplayed.
There is more difficulty indeed, in accounting for fome nor ridicii' paffages in die behaviour of the prophets, in whom any in- !ous ; difcretion may be held more inexcusable ; becaufe they are all along fuppofed to be guided by the Holy Ghoft ; and in thofe very actions which are thought liable to cenfure, had the immediate orders and injuncTrtons of God : nnd yet, when we re£d of Ifaiah's (r) ivalk'nig naked, and barefoot three years ; of Jeremiah's taking a long journey, only (j-) to carry a linen girdle, and hide it in the hole of the reck of the river Euphrates ; of Ezekiel's (t) taking his houfehold- Ji.'dJ-, and digging a hole through the wall of the city, to carry it out ; and of Holla's (//) going, and taking unto him aivifc of whoredoms, and children of whoredoms, &c. when
(r) Ifa. xx. 3. (s) Jer. xiii. 4. (/) Ez.ek, xu. 7. (u) Hof. i. 2. K 2 we
Ixxvi The APPARATUS,
we read thefe extravagant actions, I fay, if we were to un- derstand them in a literal CenCc, we Should be apt to ac- count the doers of them distracted, rather than infpired ; and under fome temptation to think, that, by putting them upon fuch unaccountable offices, God was minded to make his Servants ridiculous. The Scripture, however, has taken care to inform us, that (x) the fpirits of the prophets are jubjctl to the prophets, i. e. (y) they are not hurried on by a mad enthufiafm, but are always left in a compofure of mind, fit to comport themfelves, and to fpeak to the people, as the ministers of a rational and all-wife God.
Now there are three ways whereby learned men have undertaken to account for thefe feemingly {trance and whim- ileal actions of the prophets, (z) Some fuppofe, that what, in thefe and feveral other places is told, was really and literally performed : others, that it was tranfacted in vifion ; and others again, that it is all no more than a parable,, dictated by God to the prophet, and by the prophet recited to the people. However, to make thefe and fuch like ac- tions of the feveral prophets, all of a piece and uniform, we are to obferve, that whereas fome of them are only paraboli- cal, and others impolfible to be tranfacted in reality, (for though Jeremiah, for inftance, might take too long jour- nies to Euphrates, about the affair of a girdle, without demur- ring to the authority of him who fent him ; yet we can hardly think that he really fent bonds and yokes to the feveral princes that are mentioned, ch. xxvii. ver. 2. 3. much lefs that he took the wine cup from the hand of God, and made the kings of all nations, as is related, ch. xxv. ver. 1 5. &c. drink thereof) ; whereas, I fay, the nature of the thing would not permit thefe and the like actions to be performed in reality, we have abundant reafon to fuppofe, that they were performed in an imaginary {enfc only, i. c. that thele actions of the prophets were, by a divine impulfe, repre- fented to them (a) in a dream or trance, which left in their minds a lively idea, and occaiioned their publishing to the people, not only the representations themfelves, but
(x) Vid. Lowth on Infpiration. (j) 1 Cor.xiv 32. (z) Wa- terland's Scripture vindication, part 7.
(a) That thefe actions of the prophets were not real, but merely imaginary, and fuch as wrre reprefented upon the Stage of their fancies, when in a dream or a trance, muit be plain to eve- ry one who ■ccnfiders the circurritanccs of them. Smith's Select dtfcouries;
what
or Preparatory Discourse. lxxvii
what they were likewife defigned to typify, with more force and energy. And accordingly we may obferve, that even in the Chriftian church, when the fpirit of prophecy came to revive, thefe kind of emblematical reprefentations were likewife introduced, as is evident, not only from Agabus's taking St Paul's girdle, (b) and binding his own hands and feet, to fignify what fhould befal the owner thereof, as loon as he came to Jerulalem, but more particularly from St Peter's vifion (c) of the Jheet let down from heaven, wherein were all manner of four-footed beajls of the earth, and wild beajls, and creeping things, and fowls of the air : Which vilion we find him, in his vindication (d) foon after, recounting to the Jews with all boldnefs, and explaining likewife the fymbolical intent of it, viz. his com- miffion, and delegation to preach to thefe Gentiles, in or- der to their converfion.
Thus we have taken a furvey of the fcriptures of the but, taken Old Teftament ; found out their authors, and the nature a11 to2e"
. . i tner, very
and degree of their infpiration ; inquired into the number beautiful and order of their books, and by whofe care and fuperin- and excel- tendency they were all digefted into one code ; traced downlent' their defcent, even to our own times, without any lois or confiderable alteration ; and (what we chiefly intended) endeavoured to fatisfy the moft popular objections that are ufually made againlt them. And indeed the objections a- gainft them would be far from being lb many, if we had a little more ikill and knowledge in them ; but the misfor- tune is, we live at a great diftance from the apoftolic age, and much more from the lateft times of the infpired writers of the Old Teftament, and fo muft needs be under fome difficulties, from our unacquaintance with the ftyle and way of writing, as well as the manners and cuftoms of thofe ages. There will, of neceffity, therefore, be fome ipots and dark places in them, as there are in the fun, not for want of light and elegance originally in them, (anymore than for want of light in the fun), but by reafon of fome deficiency in ourfelves, who are at a diftance, and under fuch circumftances as intercept our fight, and hinder us from making true and exact obfervations. But if we could ftand (as we are to judge of pictures) in the fame light in which they were drawn, and had lived in the fame ages in which thefe books were written, we fhould be able to make a much truer judgment, and penetrate much farther into the meaning of them, than we now can do. And even in (b) Atfs acxi.ii. (f) £cls x, It. (,/) ch. xi. 5-
our
Ixxviii
The APPARATUS,
our prefent fituation, if we would make any tolerable judg- ment of them, we muft not confider them feparately, but as they all together make up a compleat fyftem of religion : and therefore, (to conclude this argument in the words of a pious vindicator of the ftyle of the Holy Scriptures), (e) I conceive, fays he, that, as in a lovely face, though the eye, the nofe, the lips, and the other parts, fingly looked on, may beget delight, and deferve praife ; yet the whole face muft necefTarily lofe much, by not being all feen together : fo, though the feveral portions of Scripture do, irrelatively, and in themfelves, fufficiently evidence their heavenly extraction, yet he who fhall at- tentively furvey that whole book of canonical writings, which we now call the Bible, and mall judicioufly, in their fyftem, compare and confer them together, may difcern, upon the whole matter, fo admirable a con- texture and difpolition, as may manifeft that book to be the work of the fame wifdom, which fo accurately compofed the book of nature, and fo divinelv contrived this vaft fabric of the world." And therefore to pro- ceed to other confiderations. The Bible One commendation of that part of the Bible which the beft and is called the Old "Tejl anient, is, that it is the beft, as well as
™oft ??: moil ancient hiftory in the world, The Egyptians of old, cient hiuo- .
rv in the we r^ad, contended with the Babylonians and Chaldeans, world. Thefor the glory of antiquity ; and as the Babylonians divide pretenfions ^g fl-ate 0f mankind into three governments, viz. the firft gyptians * under gods, which (according to them) contains ten gene- rations, the fecond under demi-gods, or heroes, and the third under kings or men ; and during the courle of thefe three ftates, they reckon up above 30,000 years ; fo Ma- netho, the Egyptian hiftorian, to difplay the antiquity of his nation, and throw the balance on their fide, divides, in like manner, his chronological account into the fame forms of government of gods, demi-gods, and kings ; and from the pretended pillars of Hermes, (whence he compiled his hiftory), makes the whole amount to upwards of ^5, 525 years. There is good reafon, however, why we fhould defpife fuch monftrous accounts as have only bare words for their foundation,, and are plainly contrary to all obfer- vations on the progrefs of mankind, the improvement of husbandry, and the advancement of arts and fciences.
We acknowledge indeed, that the moft ancient way of preferving any monuments of learning, in thoie elder times,' (e) Mr Boyle, p. 74.
and
and Chal deans.
or Preparatory Discourse. lxxix
•and efpecially among the Egyptians, was by infci iptions on pillars ; but befides the difficulties of conceiving how pil- lars of any kind fhould be able to withftand the violence of the deluge, without being defaced, belides, that no other hiftorian, who has wrote of the affairs of Egypt, has once made mention of thefe pillars, and that Dicdcrus (who li- ved iince the time of Manetho) never once quotes him as an author of any credit ; there is, in truth, very little in his dynafties, belides names and numbers, except it be now and then a ftory of the Nile's overflowing with honey, of the moon's growing bigger, of a fpeaking lamb, and feven kings who fucceflively reigned as many days, one king only a day ; and fuch other ftrange and romantic accounts, as are enough to invalidate the authority of any writer.
The Chmefe at prefent are very ambitious to be thought Of the Chi- an ancient people, and would make us believe, that theyllcfe- can reckon up fucceffions of kings and their reigns, for feveral thoufand years before the beginning of the world affigned by Mofes ; but befides that, (/) the character which writers (who have lived among them) do generally give that nation, viz. That they are men of a trifling and credulous curioiity, addicted to fearch after the philofcpher's ftone, and a medicine to make them immortal ; and whatever advantage their fituation and political maxims have given them, are far from being fo learned, or fo accurate in point of any fcience, as the Europeans : It is plain, from all ac- counts, that their antiquities reach no higher than the times of Fohi ; for Fohi was their firft king, and his age coin- cides with that of Noah : So that upon the whole, we have good reafon to queftion the authenticnefs of thofe annals which relate fuch fabulous things, as the fun's not fetting for ten days, and the clouds raining gold for three days together. But of what antiquity focvev their firft writers might be, it is certain, that fince the time of Hoan-ti, their Xlth emperor, who, about 200 years before Chrift, ordered (upon pain of death) all the monuments of anti- quity, whether hiftorical or philofophical, to be c'cflroyed ; there is little or no credit to be given to the books which they produce : and though they make mighty boafts of the date and perfection of fuch volumes as they pretend efcapeel the common wreck; yet if we may credit the tefti- jnony of periods who made it their particular bulinels
(f) Vid. he Cpmptc's memoirs, and Bjanchini's h'il. umverf.
(when
ted
lxxx The APPARATUS.
(when among them) to inquire, they have not any one copy, in an intelligible character, above 2000 years old. And Gre- The Grecians of old were ib very great pretenders to cians refu- antiquity, that they {"corned to have any father or '" founder of their nation aftigned them ; and therefore they affected to be called Aborigines, et Genuini Terrce, the eldeft fons of the earth, if not coeval with it : and yet if we look into the date of their hiftorians, we mail find, that none of them exceeded the times of Cyrus and Cambyfes (g), a- bout 550 ears before Chrift ; that feveral of their ancient writers have left nothing behind them, but barely their names ; and that even from thofe whofe works have de- fcended to us, we have no account of any hiftorical facts, older than the Perfian war. Herodotus (who wrote a lit- tle more than 400 years before Chrift) is called by Cicero the Father of hiftory, as being the eldeft Greek hiftorian that we have extant ; and yet when he pretends to relate the origin of any nation, or tranfactions of any confider- able diftance, he is forced to interfperfe many fabulous re- ports which himfelf feems not to believe ; and for this rea- fon, fome imagine it a point of modefty and ingenuity in him, that he calls the books of his hiftory by the names of the Mufes, on purpofe to let his readers know, that they were not to look for mere hiftory in them, but a mixture of fuch relations, as (though not ftrictly true) would ne- verthelefs pleafe and entertain them. However this be, it is certain, that Thucydides, in the very entrance of his hifto- ry, not only confeffes, but largely afferts the impoffibility of giving any competent account of the times which pre- ceded the Peloponnefian war ; and therefore we find Plu- tarch, who ventured no farther back than the times of (k) Thefeus, (a little before the miniftry of Samuel), juftly obferving, that, " as hiftorians, in their geographical de- " fcriptions of countries, croud into the fartheft parts of " their maps, thofe places which they know nothing of, " with fome fuch remarks as thefe on the margin; all " beyond is nothing but dry defarts, impajfable mountains, " frozen feas, and the like : So I may well fay of the *' facts of hiftory, that are farther off than the times of " Thefeus ; all beyond is nothing but monftroits, and tragical " fitlions. There the poets, and there the inventors of " fables dwell : nor is there any thing to be expected
{g) Vid. Stillingflcet's Orig. Sac. chap. 4. (/>) Vid. the life 01 Thefeus,
" worth v
or Preparatory Discourse. lxxxi
" worthy of credit, or what carries the leaft appearance c£ " certainty."
But now, whoever reads the Bible with care and im- partiality, in the hiftorical part of it, will find nothing fa- bulous or romantic ; no computations of an immoderate fize ; no excurlions into ages infinite and innumerable ; no fucceflions of monarchs, heroes, and demi-gods, for thou- fands of thoufand generations. On the contrary, he will perceive, (;") that Mofes, who was above a thoufand years, older than any hiftorian we know of, (and upon that ac- count deferves the greater credit), has fixed the beginning of time at a proper period, about 2433 years before his own birth ; has given us a fair and authentic hiftory of the origin and formation of the world, of the creation and introduction of the parents of all mankind, of the peo- pling the earth with inhabitants, and of the firft inftitution. of civil government ; that he has given us the earlieft ac- count, not only of all ufeful callings and employments, fuch as gardening, hulbandry, pafturage of cattle, ©r. but of all the politer arts and fciences, fuch as poetry and mulic, hiftory, geography, phyfic, anatomy, and philofophy of all kinds. In a word, he will perceive, that the facred Bible is not only a record of all the moft ancient learning, but a magazine of all learning whatever ; and confequent- ly, that he who defires to appear in the capacity of a f cho- lar, either as a critic, a chronologer, an hiftorian, an o- rator, a difputant, a lawyer, a ftatefman, a pleader, or :i preacher, muft not be unacquainted with this inexhauftible fund.
Another commendation of this moft excellent book, The Bible is, that the language in which a grc.it part of it is written, wrotc ,n was the firft and original language in the world; but then • " ,am the queftion is, Which is the original ? The writers who language. have handled this iubject, have produced the fevcral claims of the Hebrew, the Chaldean, the Syrian, and the Arabian : but as the arguments for the Syrian and Arabian are but few and trilling, the chief competition fecms to he between, the Hebrew and Chaldean.
Now it is natural to fuppofe, that a primitive language ihould be plain and eafy ; fhould confift of fimple and iitt- compounded founds ; of as few parts of ipeech, and as few terminations in thofe parts as poffible. (/■) Moods and
(i) Edwards on the perfection of the Scriptures. (.(•) Sknck- fqrd*s connection of facred and profane hiftory, vol. 1. lib. 2. Vol. I. L tenfes,
kxxii The APPARATUS,
tenfes, numbers, and perfons in verbs, and the different cafes in nouns, we may well imagine were the improve- ments of art and ftudy, and not any firft efTay or origi- nal production ; and in this refpect we cannot but con- ceive, that vhe Hebrew tongue (I mean as it ftands in our Bible, and not as the Rabbins have enlarged it) bids fair for the precedency. Its radical words (which are (/) not ma- ny) confift generally of three letters, or two fyllables at the moft. Its nouns are not declined by different cafes, nor are its numbers diftinguifhed by different terminations (as the Latin or Greek are), but by (m) the addition of a ihort fyllable in the dual and plural, which at the fame time denominates the gender. The gender is likewife included in the verb, which prevents the neceffity of having many pronouns ; and by varying its conjugations, (which are fel- doin irregular), it has the lefs ufe for auxiliary verbs. Add to this, that the Hebrews ufe feldom any vowels in writing ; have no compound nouns or verbs ; few prepofitions, few adjectives, no comparatives or fuperlatives ; no great number of conjugations ; but two moods, two tenfes ; no gerunds, no lupines ; and of particles of all kinds far from many ; and then we can hardly conceive a language more ilmple and eafy, more Ihort and expreffive than theirs. The pre-» Upon this account fome of late have imagined, that the tenets of Chinefe might poffibly be the firft original language of man- theChmeie kjncl : for befides that Noah very probably fettled in thefe dee parts, its words are, even now, very rew, not above twelve
hundred ; its nouns are but three hundred and twenty-fix, and all its words confeffedly monofyllables ; fo that what- ever the original of this tongue was, it feems very likely to have been the firft that was planted in the country : for though it is natural to think, that mankind might begin to form fingle founds at firft, and afterwards come to enlarge their fpeech by doubling and redoubling them ; yet it is not to be imagined, that if men had firft known the copiouf- nefs of exprefiion arifing from words of more fyllables than one, they would ever have reduced their language to its primitive monofyllables. But fince we have not a fufficient knowledge of this language to make a competent judgment of it, we mull wave its pretentions for the prefent.
The Chaldee, it muft be owned, has a great many marks of this original fimplicity in it : but then, what give the
(/) About five hundred- (*») Im is added to the plural in nouns mafculine ; and oth in fuch as are feminine.
'Hebrew
or Preparatory Discourse. lxxxiii
Hebrew a farther claim to priority, are certain proper names of perfons mentioned before the flood, fiich as (n) Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Seth, &c. ; of ancient coun- tries, fuch as (o) Lydia, Afiyria, <bc. ; of ancient Heathen Gods, fuch as (p) Saturn, Jupitur, Belus, Vulcan, ' <bc. ; of feveral kinds of animals, and mufical inftruments ; and in fhort of mountains, rivers, cities, and places, which derive their etymology, or right fignification, from this tongue only ; as Bochart, with an immenfe deal of oriental learning, has abundantly proved.
There are other learned men however, who being will- The He- ing to compromife the matter between the two languages, brew and (the Hebrew and Chaldee) are apt to fancy, (q) that if rj^f^ _ any one would be at the pains to examine them ltrictly, riginally and to take from each what may reafonably be fuppofed to the fame, be improvements made fince their original, he will lind the Chaldee and Hebrew tongues to have been at firfr. the fame. However that be, it is certain, that thofe who maintain the perpetuity of the fame tongue from Adam to Mofes, do al- fert, that before the confulion of Babel, there was but one univerfal language among all the nations upon the earth ; that this very language (even after the confulion) was con- tinued in its purity, in the family of Seth and Heber, from whom it had its name, and from whom Abraham, the fa- ther of the faithful, defcended ; that Abraham, notwith- standing his intercourfe with other nations, ftill preferved this primitive tongue ; and his defcendents, notwithstand- ing their fojourning in the land of Egypt, were under no temptation to corrupt it, becaufe they lived feparately and by themfelves in the land of Gofhen, until the miniftry of Mofes. And if this be a true defcent of the tongue, then we are fure, that the Pentateuch, and other books of the Old Teftament, were all wrote (except fome portions after the Babylonifh captivity) in the fame facred primaeval lan- guage, which God himfelf fpake, which he taught our firft parents, and wherein all the patriarchs, and worthies of old among his chofen people, were known to converfe.
(») Thus the word Adam comes from the Hebrew Adamah, which fignifies earth ; Eve, or Cheva, from Chiah, life ; Cain from Canah, to fojfefs ; Abel fignifies vanity ; and Seth from Skath to fubjlitute. {() Thus Lydia from Lud ; Affyr'w
from Affur. (/>) Thus Saturn from Satar, to hid one'jfef; Jupiter from Jehova ; Belus from Baal ; and Vulcan from Tu- tal-Cain. (q) Vid. Shuckford's connection, voj. i. lib. 2.
L 2 la
lxxxiv - The APPARATUS,
In a word, (r) the concifenefs, fimplicity, energy, and fertility of the Hebrew tongue ; the relation it has to the more ancient oriental languages, which feem to derive their origin from it ; the etymology of the names whereby the $rft ol- mankind were called, and the names of animals, which are aliiignhicant in the Hebrew tongue, and defcribe- the nature and property of thefe very animals ; characters not to be found in any other language, and yet all meeting together in this, do rail"; a prejudice very much in favour of its primacy ; and this certainly is no lmall commendation of the Bible, that it comprifes the compafs of a language which is the molt ancient, and (as fome think) the moft excellent in the world, and no where elfe to be found. If any critics or grammarians could fay the like concerning the Greek or Latin tongue, viz. that there is a certain book wherein either of thefe, in its nrft purity, is wholly contain- ed, they would be very lavilh in their encomiums of it, and the preiation of it to ail other volumes whatever would not want a proper difplay. i?e »eat And indeed, whatever the merry fcoffers of this age, fiic, \n to or the graver lovers of fin and lingularity may think, it is the Bible, certain, that in former days men of all orders and degrees, of the highefc flation in life, as well as capacity in know- ledge, of polite parts, as well as folid judgments, and con- verfant in ail human, as well as divine literature, have all along held the Scriptures in lingular veneration ; have em- ployed their wit and eloquence in letting forth their praife; and not only thought their pens, but poetry itfelf, en- nobled by the dignity of fuch a fubjecT:. by perfom David, in his time, was a confidei-able prince, a mighty pf the high- Warrior, and fubduer of the nations that were round him ; u r "n "' and yet his living in a military way made him no defpiler of the Scriptures: for obferve what a beautiful panegyric lie has given us barely of that part which we call the Pen- tateuch : (s) The law of the Lord is an undejiled lavj, converting the foul ; the teftimony of the Lord is fitre, and \givcth ivifdom unto the fmple ; the ftatutes of the Lord are right, and rejoice the heart ; the commandment of the Lord is pure, and giveth light unto the eyes ; the judgments / ihe Lord are true, and righteous altogether : moj-e to be def red are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; iter alfo than the honey and the honey comb. Moreo-
(r) Calmer's dictionary. (s) Pfal. xix. 7. &c,
ver.
or Preparatory Discourse. lxxxv
ver, by them is thy fervant taught, and in keeping of them there is great reward,
Ptolomy Philadelphus was one of the greateft monarchs in his age : he had large armies, line fleets, vail maga- zines of warlike {lores, and (what was peculiar in his cha- racter) he was a perfon of extenfive learning himfelf, a and the generous encourager of all liberal fcicnces, and lb great a8reat?ft collector of books, that in one library at Alexandria heandwif had four hundred thouiand volumes ; and yet, as if he could not be at eafe, nor think his collection compleat, without the Bible (t), he fent for an authentic copy from Jerusalem, and for a number of learned men to make a tranllation of it in the Greek tongue, for which he plentifully rewarded them : which puts me in mind of Mr Selden, one of the greateft fcholavs and antiquaries of his age, and who, in like manner, made valt amaflments of books and manu- scripts from all parts of the world, (a library perhaps not to be equalled, on all accounts, in the univerfe), as he was holding a ferious conference with ArchbilhopUiher, a little before he died, he profefled to him, that (u) notivithftand- ing he had pojej/ed himfelf of fuch a vaji treafure of books and manufcripts on all ancient fubj 'eels, yet he could reft his foul on none but the Scriptures.
St. Paul was doubtlefs a good fcholar, as well as a good Chriftian, and his knowledge in polite literature is diftin- guifhable by the feveral citations which he makes of the an- cient Heathen poets : and yet he is not afhamed to give us this character of the Bible : (x) All fcripturc is given by the infpiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for re- proof, for corretlion, for injiruciwn in right eoufnefs, that the rnan of God may be perfeel, thoroughly furnified unto all good works. Which calls to my remembrance what (y) another great man of our nation, in a letter to one of his Ions, de- clares ; " I have been acquainted fomewhat (fays he) with '* men