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peculiar providence that was careful of their preferva
tion: For if we confider, the multitude of the Ifraelites
Ch which were numerous enough to promise themselves to
a difpoffefs other Nations of their habitations, and if we
confider, they had been used to eat Bread, and to be
clothed like other Men, we can never conceive, how
they could so long have subsisted in that vaft and bar
■ren Wilderness, if God in his Mercy had not fent
*them Bread from Heaven, and given them a hundred
other marks of his protexion,

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Lastly, the Ifraelites kept another Feast which they. call'd Pentecost, which is a commemoration of the Co1venant God made with them in Horeb on Monne Sinai.

It is manifestly false, that the Ifraelites got to that place within seven Days after they let out on their jour ney to it: For the word Pentecost informs us that that Event did not happen till fifty Days after their departure out of the Land of Ægypt.

By what has been said, 'tis evident enough, that the Institution of the Sabbath was not to celebrate the memory of the rest, which the Ifraelites found at Mount Sinai, but yet 'tis certain, the Sabbath was not instituted without some design or other: For as it has been already observ'd, there were fabbatical Days, Sabbatical Years and Sabbatical Weeks of Years; The fabbatical Years were of confiderable consequence, and in them for a Years time 'twas not lawful to Till the Lands: The fabbatical Weeks of Years were of a greater confequence, because then all Poffeffions dic return to the former owner, &c.

But this Lath may at first seem to us somewhat odd, and unusual, and repugnant to all designs of Polity, contrary to the public good of that Nation, to that of the Levites efpccially, and not very conformable to the Lam-givers intentions. It seems unusual, for who ever

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who ever heard of such a Law giver, that commande that the Lands should not be Tilled every seven Year? It seems repugnant to the designs of Peli for the People were not only deprived thereby the Fruits of the Earth for a whole Year togethe but in danger also of being set upon by their ene mies; and indeed Fofephus tells us, that the Sabba was the cause that the Jews were often worsted b their Enemies; and if in the Year following, tha Year of intermiffion, the Enemies had entered ther Countrey and ravaged it, it would have certainly caused an extream Famin among them, in consequenc of this Law: Neither were the Levites, in any better case then the rest at that time, because that they lost by it the Tithes of that Year: Laftly, it was to be fear'd least so long a rest should engage the Ifraelites into an habit of idleness, which might end in fuperftition, which is the ordinary product of idleness, and this seems to have been the greatest apprehenfion of Mofes, who did his utmost endeavours to keep the Ifraelites stedfast in the worship of one God, Maker of Heaven

and Earth.

The design therefore of this Institution is incomprehensible, unless we will stand to that Solution which the Scriptures, the Tradition of the Jews and all the Prophets unanimoufly give us of it, which is that God ordain'd the Sabbath for a perpetual and everlasting re membrance of that Day in which he rested, from producing all the Works we behold; certainly a great and most illustrious Event and most deserving of any, that Men should expose themselves to some inconveniences, to preserve a perpetual remembrance

of it.

Thus the Incredulous are solely pressed, and repu!fed on all fides, for if they refuse to own Moses for the Author of the Pentateuch; let them allow him the Book Book of Deuteronomy only, and 'tis all that we defire of them, for in it are contained such essential Matters of Fact as firmly enough establish'd the Divinity of the Jewish Religion, if they affert, that Hilkiah the high Prieft compiled the Book of Deuteronomy in the days of King Fofias, we can make it appear to them that it is effentially contained in the Writings of the more ancient Prophets, if they distrust the Writings of the Prophets, together with the whole Scripture in general, we will shew it them pictured out in the Tradition, Worship and Practice of the Jews: But if for all this their reason will still resist, we will consult that reason, in order to make it foon affent of its own accord to the Narration which the Scripture makes of those Events, and our conjectures will be found to agree perfectly well with the Sacred History.

What will the Incredulous then have to object, if joyning all those beams of light together, we make it appear, that those Matters of Fact are written in the Penteteuch, contained in the book of Deut. Implicitly supa pos'd in the Decalogue, celebrated in the Song of Moses, that they are the frequent occasion of David's giving of thanks, that they are supposed in the prayers made to God in Babylon, for the return of the People, that they are so often and so naturally described by the Prophets in their Writings; that they are that which the Jews have put their confidence in all ages, and which perswaded them to think themselves their Nation that was peculiarly blessed from Heaven, that they are imprinted in their Memory, derived down from Father to Son, pictured in their Worship and Practices, and besides all this so closely united and received into the Establishment of the Jewish Common wealth, that without the help of this light we must neceffarily loose our way and bewilder our selves in seeking an Explication of the progress of that Common wealth.

Now let the Reader take the pains but to search into this matter, and above all, let him unite in his mind all those various Circumstances together, as they really were and he will, find that there were never any Matters of Fact more certain than these; there is no kind of fcruple, but what will necessarily vanish away, so soon as he comes but to joyn all these considerations together, let the Incredulous then rack their fancys never so much, to raise Objections, or to form Systems: I dare undertake, by joining thus my Principles to over-throw at first dash, all their Speculations; for if those Matters of Fact were invented in Ifrael, how came they to be approved in Fudah? If that Copy of the Law, which was always kept in the Temple, happen'd to be corrupted, how could the like have been done to those other Copies that were dif persed among the People, or among the scattered Tribes ? If Hilkiah the Priest invented all those Matters of Fact, how could they be in Being in the Days of David? If the Law was counterfeited, how could the Ceremonies that were practised among the Fews justifie the Law, and how could the Law justifie those Ceremonies? If all those miraculous Matters of Fact were presently, and at one time invented, how were it poffible that unknown and unheard of Matters of Fact should have been made to pass for Matters of Fact, that were publicly known? If they were invented successively one after another, let them shew us the Progress of this Error; for we do not find, that the last Writers relate any other effential Matters of Fact concerning Mofes, but what is alfo to be seen in the most ancient Writers of all. If you suspect, that the Writings of the Prophet may have been Coumterfeited, together with the Law of Moses; what should then occafion the diversity of their Stile? Judab and Ifrael have had their seve Propbets. If you fufpect

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the fincerity of those Holy Writers, will you diftrust what the Prophets tell you only by the by, that, for Example, which is told you without any manner of Affectation in the Book of Pfalms, and in many other Places, wherein they could never have thought upon of dexterously inferting any Chimærical matters of Fact? If you fear least Solomon should have counterfeited the Law, do but observe how Jeroboam the Capital Enemy to Solomon's Race, and whose grand Concerns it was to prevent the People from going to Worship at Ferufalem; yet instead of convincing the People of that pretended Fiction, as his Interest demanded, does himself publicly acknowledge the Authority of this Law.

It cannot be doubted but that Mofes has left several Memorials and Monuments of it in those Ceremonies he practifed. The Tabernacle was in being in the Days of David and Solomon. There were Levites appointed by Moses to perform Divine Services. The Ark of God effecting both in their time, and afterwards, several Miracles that were noted in those Hymns, which were preserved down to us, as well as in the Jewish History, was to David and Solomon a great and illustrious Pledge of the Wonders God had wrought, by the hands of his Servant Mofes.

CHAP. XVI.

That Moses could never have any Design to Deceive the Ifraelites.

We have gone through the

E have gone through the difficultest part of

in proving, that the

Scriptures of the Fems, especially the Writings of Mofes

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