fhould commit fuch a blunder, as to pick out these words, As Ifrael did unto the Land of his poffeffion, which the Lord gave unto them meaning by this Poffeffion of the Land of Canaan, and thefe others) Before there reigned any King over the Children of Ifrael, to ascribe them falfly to a Man, who wrote long before the Ifraelites had driven their Enemies out of the Land of their poffeffion, or they had any thoughts of a King to rule over them?

But if Ezra had added thefe words, only by way of explanation, and had not intended to make them pass for the Words of Mofes, he would have taken fpecial care, not to make Parentheses of them, nor to infert them in the Text, nor by the help of particles, to joyn them to the words of Mofes. For in fine, they can never país for connexions, whereby Efra gives order and method to the difcourfe of Mofes, but they are Parentheses, which rather destroy the order and interrupt the coherence of his difcourfe: Now it argues madness for any one to think that Efra, or any one elfe, who had no manner of defign to make them pafs for the Words of Mofes; but added them only, that they fhould ferve as a Comment, ar Explanation to the fame, fhould nevertheless have inferted them in the Text, because it must have argued, that they were both willing, and unwilling, to make them. pafs for the words of that Lawgiver, and the most that can be gathered from thence, is, that the Notes might have infenfibly been tranfpofed from the Margent into the Text, by the fault of the Tranfcriber, which however could not hinder Mofes from being the Authour of thofe Writings, nor debar him from a juft Title to be reputed as fuch.

What can be faid more then in this Cafe? For, in fine, it feems as if these Parentheses were inserted fome way or other into the Text, and fome body

muft needs have done a thing that's own'd to have been done: We reply'd that there occurrs nothing in all thofe Places we have recited; that neceffarily engages us to own, they were inferted into the Books of Mofes.

For to begin with that of the 20 Chap. of Gen. who doubts but God might have restored to Sarah her former Beauty, though he was never fo much ftricken in Years, and cannot but acknowledge, that without any multiplication of miracles, God fent Milk into her Breafts, and restored a fresh and youth ful Complexion to her Face, by the very fame means; fince the lively Colour, we obferve in young Peaple, is nothing but an effect of the fuperabundance of Spirits, which diffufe themselves in their Faces so that we cannot chufe, but own, that God put a new vigour, and formed a new Spirit in the Body of Sarah, thereby to enable her to conceive faad.

The like must also be faid of Abraham, and we fhall no longer doubt it, if on the one fide, we con fider, that the chief reafon which hindred Sarah from giving credit to the promife, that was made her, was because Abraham, was old, and on the other hand, that above 40. Years after Ifaac's birth, Abraham had Chil dren by Keturah his fecond Wife, and lived 170. Years, which could not be without a miraculons and extraord dinary, Augmentation of Spirits and Strength.

As to that place of the 36 of Gen. there may be raised two feveral objections against it. For first the number of Kings, mention'd in it, feems too great for all of them to have reign'd between the time of Efau, and that of Mofes, and confequently, that Mofes was not the Authour of thefe words. But they are greatly deceived for the fucceffion of those Kings could not confift of above 200. or 205. Years at the most, and confequently they might all of them

have

have reigned in Edom before the days of Mofes, or they might have reigned in the fame time. 2. There is yet a greater difficulty in these words: Before there reigned any King over the Children of Ifrael. But why might not Mofes, who forefaw the Ifraelites fhould one day have Kings to rule them, and prescribed them Rules to govern by, ufe fuch an expreffion by anticipation? What difficulty occurs in all this, though we fhould take thefe words in the ftricteft Senfe? Would it have been abfurd for Mofes to have ufed this other Mode of speaking, which is altogether the fame. Thefe were the Leaders of the Ifraelites before they got poffeffion of the promised Land?

We might in general reply to what is faid concerning the Parentheses that interrupt the Difcourfe of Mofes, contained in the Book of Deuteronomy, that they were not inferted in the Difcourfe at the time when Mofes fpoke it. But that Mofes himself afterwards inferted them into his Difcourfe, when he wrote it; because these Parentheses are perfectly useful to give the People knowledge of the places, wherein thofe things he fpeaks of happened; as alfo of the Nations the Ifraelites had any thing to do with, which is one of those ends he vifibly aims at in all his Book of Deuteronomy, continually particularifing the Places and Nations concerning which he has occafion to men

himself in the third Chapter of Deuteronomy, in thefe words: And this Land which we poffeffed at that time, from Aroer which is by the River Arnon, and balf Mount Gilead, and the Cities thereof, gave I unto the Reubenites, and unto the Gadites. And the rest of Giliad, and all Bashan, being the Kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half Tribe of Manaffeth, &c. And unto the Reubenites, and unto the Gadites, I gave from Gilead even unto the River Arnon, half the Valley, and the Border, even unto the River Fabbok, which is the border of the Children of Ammon : The Plain alfo and Fordan, and the Coaft thereof, from Chinnereth even unto the Sea of the Plain, &c. And I commanded you at that time, faying, The Lord your God hath given you this Land to poffefs it, &c. After this manner fpeaks he of that Land which the Ifraelites had conquer'd in his days.

But I would fain know, wherein thefe two Expreffions differ from one another, The Land of his poffeffion which the Lord gave unto them; and, the Lord your God hath given you this Land to poffefs it.

Who doubts, but that if Mofes defigned by thefe laft words to denote that Land, which the Ifralites had conquered in his time, he might as well have done it by his first words, in which all the Difficulty of this Objection confifts.

CHAP.

CHA P. XIV.

The Third Monument of the Jewish Revelation: That the Substance and Effentials of the Law could never be wholly razed out of the Memory of the Ifraelites.

UT befides the Law, and the other written Books

Bur

of the Penteteuch, which we have just now vindicated from the falfe Criticisms of the Incredulous of thofe times, there is yet a third Book, viz. the Heart and Memory of the Ifraelites, in which those matters of Fast, that are the foundation of the Jewish Religion, muft needs have been engraven. For effect, no greater care could have been used than that which their Lawgiver took, to preferve the perpetual remembrance of those wonderful things which God had wrought in their behalf, and which are the Motives upon which the Precepts of the Law do wholly move. See here what is faid of them in the 31. Chap. of Deuteronomy, ver. 10, &c. And Mofes commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the folemnity of the year of Releafe, in the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Ifrael is come to appear before the Lord thy God, in the place which he shall chufe, thou shale read this Law before all Ifrael in all their bearing. Gather the People together, Men and Women, and Children, and thy ftranger which is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and obferve to do all the words of his Law: And that their Children which have not known any thing may bear and learn, to fear the Lord your God, as long as ye live in the

land.

There