the Land of Canaan, &c. I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments. And that he that speaks in thefe laft terms, is the fame that made himfelf known to Mofes under the Name of Jehovah, and that is called the Angel of the Lord. 'Tis therefore that Angel that fays, I am the Lord thy God, &c. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me. What is it likely, or is it poffible, that a Creature, or a meer Angel, fhould prefume to give a Law to the People of Ifrael? That a meer Angel fhould afcribe to himself the deliverance of the Children of Ifrael out of the Land of Egypt? That any Creature fhould be fo bold as to fay, Thou shalt have no other Gods before me? And was it poffible, that Mofes hould write all these things againft his own Knowledge and Profeffed Doctrin? Truly it is fuch a thing as furprifes us, and feems to us altogether incomprehenfible.

Here therefore appears a very cffenfive, and a very unaccountable contradiction. We find, that Moses ac knowledges, but one God, who is bleffed for ever; that his Religion wholly confirms this his Doctrin: And yet he invefts an Angel with the Glory and Majesty of Go Thefe Difficulties have perplexed the Interpreters of all Ages; and would no lefs confound and non-plus us, did not the Myfteries of the Gospel ferve to enlighten us in this point, by revealing to us, that the Angel of the Great and Supream Council of the Deity, was partaker of the Divine Effence. Yet this kind of Contradiction (the most extravagant that ever was, if it were really true) is fo far good, that it puts the teftimony of the Hiftorian beyond all poffi bility of Sufpicion by certifying us, that he wrote against his own profeffed Doctrin, and his own proper Knowledge, the Holy Ghoft, or the Divine Wisdom infpiring him, to write thofe things that were altogether repugnant to his own private Sentiments, but yet were really true in themfelves,

We

We may pass the fame Judgment upon another Circumftance of the facred History we read of in the 32Chap. of Gen. v. 24. Wherein Mofes reprefents Facob to us as wrestling with God. The History is, not very long, nor will it be amifs to infert it here at large. And Facob was left alone, and there wrestled a Man with him, until the breaking of the Day, &c. And he faid, Facob. And he faid, Thy name fhall be called no more Facob, but Ifrael. For as a Prince haft thou Power with God and with Men, and haft prevailed. And Facob asked him, and said, tell me, I pray thee, thy name: And he faid, wherefore is it that thou doft ask after my name? And be bleffed him there. And Facob called the name of the place For I have feen God face to face, and my life is preferved. And as he passed over Penuel, the Sun rofe upon him, and be halted upon his thigh, &c.

Penuel.

They who fhall perufe the Writings of Mofes, will not doubtless, accufe him for having had too mean Ideas of the Grandeur and Power of God. They will never be able to perfwade themselves, that it was the profefs'd Opinion of Mofes, that a mortal Man could fight against God, and overcome him. For that Hiftorian 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 cut by God's own Hands, who in his Anger can as eafily reduce him to Powder, as he at first breathed into him the breath of Life. What does this Hiftorian mean therefore, when he fays, 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 fhould be able to put out the Sun, or that a Leaf driven by the Wind fhould overturn the ftruture of the World, or that a Worm fhould drink up the Sea Mean

J

while

while there is without comparison a far leffer difproportion betwixt the minutest and the greatest Creasures, than betwixt Man, and the Maker of the Univerfe, I mean, not according to our own Ideas, but according to thofe Ideas Mofes has given us of him. Though Mofes had doted, yet could he not have doted fo much as to invent fuch an Occurrence as that, on purpose to fhew (laying all typical or mysterious Explications afide) that Jacob in a proper and literal Sense was stronger than God. Mofes therefore wrote all these things, I fhall not fay, against his profefs'd Doctrin only, but also against the great defign of his Religion, which was to acquaint the Ifraelites, with the greatness of God Almighty, the abject Condition of Man, and the vast difproportion betwixt that Greatnefs and that abject Condition, and by that Knowledge to keep them within the bounds of their Duty.

I could now willingly pafs 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 feeming Expreffions, against thofe Opinions that were generally received, and against their own profefs'd Opinions. This was for Example, an Opinion very deeply Ingraven in the Hearts of the Jews, that fome certain Nations which had more grievously afflicted the People of God, or which were their declared Enemies, fuch as Affur, Egypt, Edom, Moab, &c. were the peculiar Objects of the Malediction of Heaven, reserved to be fome time or other overwhelmed by its moft terrible Judgments. And this was more particularly a fettled Opinion of the Prophets, who being infpired with the Holy Ghoft, continually breathed out terrible Menaces against thofe deteftable Nations, and usually began their Prophefies

after

after this manner; The Burden of Moab, the Burden of Babylon, the Burden of Ægypt, &c. Yet against that grand prejudicate Opinion, fo deeply rooted in their Minds, even from their Youth, and ftrengthened by Education, confirmed by the terrible Comminations the Holy Ghost put in their Mouths against thofe Nations; for all this, I fay, they foretel their Salvation, they foresee that God would remove into the midft of them the Tabernacle of his Glory: They proclaim, how that God will raife unto himself an Altar in Ægypt, and that the Ægyptians fhall know the Lord. And they speak not of it without exceffive transports of Joy; and they prefage, that the Jews fhall 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 moft inveterate Enemies of Ifrael.

But what fhall I fay of that mixture, of Lowliness and Greatnefs, 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 Meffias, which they promise to us? We must enter into a particular Examination of all the Oracles of the Old Testament concerning the Meffias, if we would find our how many things the Prophets have fpoken against their own. fettled and profeffed 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 Chrift fhould be cut off, but not for himself? What prejudicate Opinion leads them fo much to debafe his Nativity, and yet to reprefent the Confequences of it fo comfortable to us, and fo glorious to himself? But because the method we have

pre

N

prescribed our felves, will not as yet allow us to fall upon thofe Confiderations, we will reft contented with what we have already faid in that refpect. That, as I suppose, being fufficient to defeat Spinefa's Objecti ons, and to thew, that it furnishes us with an invincible Argument for the Truth of the Jewish Religion.

CHA P. XX.

Where we further Answer the Objections raised by the Incredulous, against the Jewish Religion.

NE of the most plaufible Objections the Incredulous alledge against us, is that, which is taken from the great diftance of time between us and the Matters of Fact mentioned in the various Hiftories of the Old Testament; a distance indeed which feems capable to render our belief fomewhat doubtful and in

certain.

But this difficulty, methinks, may be easily folved, if we do but obferve, 1ft. 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 thofe that wrote them. 2dly, That those Matters of Fact, befides, that they were of fuch 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 unfufpected Sincerity and Simplicity, they were ingraven in fuch Monuments that have preferved to us the Memory and affured Ideas of them, in fpite of

the