4 1 : We may pass the fame Judgment upon another Cir cumftance of the sacred History we read of in the 32. Chap. of Gen. v. 24. Wherein Mofes represents Facob to us as wrestling with God. The History is not very long, nor will it be amiss to insert it here at large. And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a Man with him, until the breaking of the Day, &c. And he said, Facob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Faceb, but Ifrael. For as a Prince hast thou Power with God and with Men, and haft prevailed. And Facob asked him, and faid, tell me, I pray thee, thy name: And he said, wherefore is it that thou doft ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Penuel. For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. And as he passed over Penuel, the Sun rose upon him, and be halted upon his thigh, &c. They who shall peruse the Writings of Mofes, will not doubtless, accuse him for having had too mean Ideas of the Grandeur and Power of God. They will never be able to perswade themselves, that it was the profess'd Opinion of Moses, that a mortal Man could fight against God, and overcome him. For that Historian represents God, as the maker of Heaven and Earth, and of all other Creatures; together with their Vertues, Powers and Qualities. He informs us, that Man was formed out of the mud of the Earth, and shaped out by God's own Hands, who in his Anger can as easily reduce him to Powder, as he at first breathed into him the breath of Life. What does this Historian mean therefore, when he says, That Facob had power with God and prevailed ? Is it poffible, it could ever enter into any Man's Thoughts, that enjoys his Eye-fight, that a grain of Sand should be able to put out the Sun, or that a Leaf driven by the Wind should overturn the structure of the World, or that a Worm should drink up the Sea? Mean while there is without comparison a far leffer difproportion betwixt the minutest and the greatest Creasures, than betwixt Man, and the Maker of the Universe, I mean, not according to our own Ideas, but according to those Ideas Moses has given us of him. Though Moses had doted, yet could he not have doted so much as to invent such an Occurrence as that, on purpose to shew (laying all typical or mysterious Explications aside) that Jacob in a proper and literal Sense was stronger than God. Moses therefore wrote all these things, I shall not fay, against his profess'd Doctrin only, but also against the great design of his Religion, which was to acquaint the Ifraelites, with the greatness of God Almighty, the abject Condition of Man, and the vast disproportion betwixt that Grearness and that abject Condition, and by that Knowledge to keep them within the bounds of their Duty. I could now willingly pass downwards to the confideration of the Prophets, that flourished after Moses. We should be forced to copy out their whole Writings, if we would truly relate all that they wrote against their own seeming Expressions, against those Opinions that were generally received, and against their own profess'd Opinions. This was for Example, an Opinion very deeply Ingraven in the Hearts of the Jews, that fsome certain Nations which had more grievously afflicted the People of God, or which were their declared Enemies, such as Affur, Ægypt, Edom, Moab, &c. were the peculiar Objects of the Malediction of Heaven, reserved to be some time or other overwhelmed by its most terrible Judgments. And this was more particularly a settled Opinion of the Prophets, who being inspired with the Holy Ghost, continually breathed out terrible Menaces against those deteftable Nations, and usually began their Propbefies after 1 after this manner; The Burden of Moab, the Burden of Babylon, the Burden of Ægypt, &c. Yet against that grand prejudicate Opinion, so deeply rooted in their Minds, even from their Youth, and strengthened by Education, confirmed by the terrible Comminations the Holy Ghost put in their Mouths against those Nations; for all this, I fay, they foretel their Salvation, they foresee that God would remove into the midst of them the Tabernacle of his Glory: They proclaim, how that God will raise unto himself an Altar in Ægypt, and that the Ægyptians shall know the Lord. And they speak not of it without excessive transports of Joy; and they presage, that the Jews shall have for Affociates in their Happiness and Election those very Nations which were thought to be most certainly reprobate, and which had been hitherto the most inveterate Enemies of Ifrael. But what shall I say of that mixture, of Lowliness and Greatness, of Shame and Glory, of Power and Weakness, of Sufferings and Triumphs, of Life and Death, whose mixture makes up one of the most remarkable Characters of the Messias, which they promise to us? We must enter into a particular Examination of all the Oracles of the Old Testament concerning the Messias, if we would find out how many things the Prophets have spoken against their own settled and professed Opinions, as well as the Prejudices of all other Men. We would fain know, what the Revelation of the Strength and Power of the Lord has to do with a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with Grief, and that Suffers Death? How the Prophets could ever think, that Christ should be cut off, but not for himself? What prejudicate Opinion leads them fo much to debase his Nativity, and yet to represent the Consequences of it so comfortable to us, and so glorious to himself? But because the method we have prescribed our selves, will not as yet allow us to fall upon those Confiderations, we will rest contented with what we have already said in that respect. That, as I suppose, being sufficient to defeat Spinofa's Objections, and to thew, that it furnishes us with an invincible Argument for the Truth of the Jewish Religion. pre CHAP. XX. Where we further Answer the objections raised by the Incredulous, against the Jewish Religion. NE of the most plausible Objections the Increis that, which is taken from the great diftance of time between us and the Matters of Fact mentioned in the various Histories of the Old Testament; a distance indeed which seems capable to render our belief somewhat doubtful and incertain. But this difficulty, methinks, may be easily folved, if we do but observe, 1st. That the Matters of Fact of the Old Testament, which are very remote with refpect to us, were very nigh, nay, very present, with respect to those that wrote them. 2dly, That those Matters of Fact, befides, that they were of such a Nature, as not easily to be fancied in any ones mind, unless they were true, at least the most part of them; and besides, that they were written by Authors of an unsuspected Sincerity and Simplicity, they were in graven in such Monuments that have preserved to us the Memory and affured Ideas of them, in spite of the 1 1 the Viciffitude of Time, and the Revolutions of Ages. The first of these Truths is unquestionable. For it is not to be denied, but that those Matters of Fact were written by such Historians as had either seen their Events, or heard them related by those who were Spectators of them. And this might seem sufficient to clear all doubts in this occafion. Because Men are of such a Temper as scarcely to trouble themselves so much as to publish those Lyes, which 'tis absolutely impoffible to make any Body believe, especially when they cannot do it without expofing themselves to the Contradiction or Malice of the Men of their Age: Neither can it be so much as imagned, that any Man should go about to impose upon other Mens Belief, Stories composed of Events notorioufly falfe. Now such is exactly the case of all these who made it their business to inform us of those miraculous Matters of Fact we are speaking of. There was never any Age but there were some Rebels among the Fears. For no fooner are they come out of the Land of Ægypt, but they would fain have return back to it again. Sometimes they murmur for want of Water, and by and by for scarcity of Bread. Now they make a golden Calf, and another time they worship the false Deities of Remphan, Moloch and Astaroth; sometimes they serve Baal; fometimes they erect Calves in Pan and Bethel to be adored; and almost continually exercise their Fury against the Prophets, who sometimes hid themselves, fometimes were caft into Prison, at other times were stoned, or sawn asunder. For one just and religious King, you shall find amongst them, you shall meet with many Impious and Sacrilegious Ones, whose greatest Ambition was to abolish the true Religion, and that either to shew fome compla cency |