י

Miracles prevented from declaring any thing about them diverfe from what Mofes had reprefented to be the Purpofe of God towards them (): If all these and other things of a like nature, that might be enumerated, were really and truely done, as Mofes has related, well might he call Heaven and Earth to witnefs for him (m); well might he observe, that no fuch things had ever been done for any Nation (2); and we who read them, cannot but conclude from them, that the Power of God did indeed miraculously interest it self in the appointing the Law and Polity of this People, and in conducting them to their Settlement in the promised Land.

1

II. That the Facts recorded by Mofes, were really done as he relates them, must be allowed by any one who confiders, that Mofes wrote his Books in the very Age in which the things he records were done, to be read by the very Perfons, who had feen and known the Facts to be true, which are recorded by him; that they might testify and tranfmit their Senfe of the Truth of them to their Pofterity. And this is a material Circumftance, in which the Reports we have of the heathen Miracles are greatly deficient: Clemens Alexandrinus relates, that Thrafybulus led his Company under the Guidance of a Pillar of Light in the Heavens (0); but Clemens Alexandrinus lived above fix hundred Years after the Time of this supposed

(1) Numb. xxiii, xxiv. iv. 33, 34.

(0) Stromat. 1. 1.

(m) Deut. xxx. 19.

(n)

Fact:

Fact: Upon what Authority he related it we are not told; but we find no fuch Prodigy recorded in the best Heathen Writers, who, had it been Fact, would furely have made mention of it. Xenophon (p), Diodorus Siculus (q), Cornelius Nepos (r), have related this Expedition of Thrafybulus; but none of them mention any fuch Miracle affiftant to him; fo that we have all reafon to think there was none fuch; but that Clemens Alexandrinus was impofed upon in the Account he received of it. And this is generally true of the Miracles reported in Heathen Hiftory: Subfequent Writers, after large Intervals of Time, tell us things faid to have been done, but without fufficient Vouchers to atteft the Facts related by them: Whereas Mofes wrote of the things in which himself had been the chief Agent, and required his Books to be repeatedly read, and confidered over and over (s) by the very Perfons who had feen and known the Truth of what he wrote, as clearly and fully as himself, in order to have the Facts recorded by him go down attefted to be true to the fucceeding Generations; fo that Mofes could not falfify the Facts related by him, unless the Generation he lived in concurred with him in a Design to impose upon their Defcendants in all these Matters; or were so over-reached and deceived by his fuperiour Skill and Management, as to

() Vid. Hiftor. Græc. 1. 2.

(a) Diodor. Hiftor. 1. (r) Cornel. Nep. in vit. Thrafybuli. (s) Deut. xxxi. 10.

-14.

be

be made believe that they had feen and lived in a most furprizing Scene of Things, which, all the time, were really not done in the manner they were taught to conceive and imagine. But,

III. If we confider the Nature and Manner of the Miracles, that bear Testimony to Mofes's Administration, it is impoffible to conceive the Ifraelites deceived in them: They could never have been led on and for fo long a time, in an imaginary Belief of fuch things as Mofes had recorded, if either the things were not done, or not done as he has related them. As to the Signs and Prodigies offered by the Heathen Writers to give a Sanction to the Foundations of their Kingdoms, we may generally fee, that the very Writers which report them, did not believe them (t), and that they were known Artifices of their great Legiflators, calculated only to have Weight upon their Populaces; but in no wife fupported against the Objections, that a thinking Perfon might easily find to offer to them. When Romulus died, the Roman Hiftorians tell us, that he was taken up into Heaven (u); but we do not find that they ever had fuch Proofs of his Affumption, as to prevent a Sufpicion of his being murdered, in the Age when his Death happened, or to caufe After-ages to give full Credit to what they attempted to have believed

(t) Vid. Liv. Hist. Præfat.

(u) Liv. Lib. 1. c. 16. Dionyf. Halic. Antiq. Rom. 1. 2. c. 56. Plutarch. in Ro

mul.

about

about it (x). In like manner; when he was created King, we are told that a divine Approbation, discovering it felf by an aufpicious Lightning, attended his Inauguration (y), and that it was an Institution appointed to be for ever obferved among the Romans, that no Perfon fhould be admitted to command the People, unless the Gods by fuch Sign from Heaven fhould confirm the Election (z): But Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus is, I think, the only Writer that reports the Roman Magiftracies Ito have had the Countenance of such a Confirmation, and he confeffes their Elections in I his Time to have fallen a great deal short of = it (a); for he tells us, that at their Elections za publick Augur was to declare the expected Lightning to have happen'd, whether any Appearance of it had been seen or no (b); Plutarch feems to have thought all that was offered about thefe (bb) Lightnings to have been fabulous: And if we confider, how uncertain it is whether Dionyfius had any good Vouchers to support what he writes to have been the

(*) Fuiffe eredo tum quoque aliquos, qui difcerptum Regem Patrum manibus taciti arguerent: Manavit enim hæc quoque fed perobfcura Fama. Liv. ubi fup. Dionyf. Halicar. & Plutarch. in Romul. in loc. fupra citat. (y) Dionyf. Halicar. Lib. z.

C. 5.

(*) Halicar. Lib. 2. c. 6. (α) Πέπαυται δ' ἐν τοῖς καθ ̓ ἡμᾶς χρόνοις πλίω οἷον εἰκών τις αυτής λείπεται, τῆς ἱσίας ταύτης ἕνεκα γινομένη Id. Ibid. (6) Τῶν ἢ παρόντων τινὲς ὀρνιθοσκόπων μισθὸν ἐκ Το δημοσία φερόμενοι, ας ραπίω αυλοῖς μίωύειν φασὶν ἐκ τ εἰ εἰσερῶν τω & γενομένην Id. Ibid. (66) Τάιλα μὲν ἐν τὰ μυθώδη και γελοία των 7 τότε ἀνθρώπων ἐπιδείκνυ διάθεσιν πρὸς τὸ θεῖον, ὡς ὁ ἐθισμὸς αὐτοῖς ἐνεποίησεν. Plut. in Numa p. 70.

Facts

Facts of thofe Times (c), we shall have just Reason to imagine, that the moft early Elections of the Roman Magiftrates had no more a divine Sanction, than the more Modern, and that what Dionyfius relates about them, was one of those Fictions, by which the Heathens endeavoured to give a Luftre to their ancient Inftitutions (d). In like manner, when Numa was to form the Religion of the Romans, he affected a rural and retired Life, was much alone, and pretended to have many Converfations with a Deity, who inftructed him in his Inftitutions (e); but it is obvious to remark, that he gave his People no other Evidence of his having been affifted by a divine Prefence, than the Teftimony of his own faying it (ƒ): And in this Way we may obferve of the Cretan Minos, of the Lycurgus of the Lacedemonians, of the Arimafpian Zathrauftes, and of the Getan Zamolxis, compared with Mofes by Diodorus (g); they were all faid to have the Will of their Gods revealed to them; but there is fo little Appearance of Proof of what is thus faid, that Plutarch's Obfervation cannot

(c) Vid. Liv. Hift. Lib. 6. c. 1. (d) Datur hæc Venia Antiquitati, ut mifcendo humana divinis, Primordia urbium auguftiora faciat. Liv. Præf. ad Hift.l.! (e) Vid. Plutarch. in Numa p. 61, 62. Omnium primùm rem ad multitudinem imperitam, & illis feculis efficaciffimam, deorum metum injiciendum ratus eft: Qui quum defcendere ad animos fine aliquo Commento Miraculi non poffet, fimulat fibi cum Deâ Egeriâ congreffus nocturnos effe, ejus fe monitu, quæ acceptiffima Diis effent facra inftituere. Liv. Hift. 1. 1. c. 19. (f) Vid. Plut. Liv. Dionyf. Halicarn. ubi fup. (g) Didor. Sic. Hift,

L. I. p. 59.

に

but