But again this Author objects, that there are fome Places which are mention'd in that Book, under a different name from that which they had

in the Days of Moses; fuch as that Gen. 14. 14. in this Paffage, and Abraham parfued his Enemies unto Dan; a Name which was not given that City till very long after the Days of Mofes. But can any one allure us, that there was never another place called by the Name of Dan?

His Fourth Objection is, that the Hiftories which are contained in thofe Books, fometimes do much further extend, than the Life of Mofes. And this he goes about to prove, by Two feveral Examples, the one taken out of Exod. 16. 37. where it is faid, that the Children of Ifrael did eat Manna Forty Years, until they came to a Land inhabited, and to the Borders of the Land of Canaan. The other out of Genefis 36. 31. where it is faid, These are the Kings that reigned in the Land of Edom, before there reigned any King over the Chil dren of Ifrael.

We answer to the firft, that if Mofes himself caufed Manna to come down from Heaven, it is no very strange thing, that he should also forefee it would ceafe, fo foon as the Children of Ifrael fhould have poffeffed themselves of the promifed Land; fo that fince they were already come to the Borders of the Land of Canaan, when he was about compiling thefe Books, we ought not to wonder if he fo pofitively expreffes himself in this respect.

CHAP.

CHAP. IX.

Where we further answer the Objections raised against the Books of Moles.

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Will not be amifs likewife here to answer the Objections which a certain Learned Writer of these times makes against us, to whom we are willing to do all the Juftice he deferves, though he feems not well pleafed with us.

An Author, fays he, who with Mr. Huet, very improperly thought, that to prove the truth of the Jewish Religion, we must needs suppose that Mofes himfelf is the true Author of the Pentateuck, Such exactly as we have it at prefent amongst us us, borrows from Aben-Ezra his Answer to this Argument. He affirms, that the sense of that place, amounts to the fame with this. Now the Canaanite was at that time in the Land. He had already poffeffed himfelf of it when Abraham came into it, &c.

We anfwer, that this Author upon whom they father what they please, did not improperly think, nor did he think with Mr. Huet, nor laftly did he absolutely think, that to prove the truth of the Jewish Religion, 'twas neceffary to suppose that Mofes was the Author of the Pentateuck, fuch exactly as we have it at prefent amongst us. There is a vaft difference betwixt believing that Mofes was the Author of the Pentateuck, exactly as we have it at prefent, and believing that there is no proving the truth of the Jewish Religion, without fuppofing Mofes to be the true Author of the Pentateuck, as it is now received by us. The first Opinion indeed we did ever maintain,

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maintain, but the latter we never entertained, We acknowledge, that to establish the Jewish Religion, we thought it neceffary to fhew that the Writings of Mofes could not have been essentially corrupted, or that the Matters of Fact which they contain, were truly derived down to us; for those were our very Words. But we never imagined that an Addition of Three or Four Parentheses, or a few proper Names for the perfecter illuftration to those Books, or that fome Genealogies inferted in them by the fame Sacred Writers, who were infpired by the Holy Ghost to compile the rest of the Holy Scriptures, or if you will, that any greater Alterations which ftrike not at any Effentials of them, I fay, we never imagined that any of these things were fufficient to make us reasonably doubt of the truth of a Religion founded upon fo many Matters of Fact thus link'd to one another, preferved in fo many different Monuments, and which could not poffibly have been invented or fuppofed against all publick Evidence; and it is to be hoped that every just and equitable Reader of the Reflections we have made thereupon, will find in them fuch a clear Evidence as may very well pafs for a Demonstration.

After all, fince God himself was the Supream Magiftrate of the Hebrew Common-wealth, fo whatsoever was done in it by his Orders, ought neceffarily to be attributed to him: The Laws which the Ifraelites received, were his Laws; the Government of that Commonwealth, was his Government, and the Writings that were committed to them, were his Writings. The Books of Mofes are the Books of God, because they were written by his immediate Orders, God having exprefsly

exprefsly commanded Mofes to infert in the Book the History of the Amalekites, as also all other remarkable Events that happened to the People of the Jews. They were also written either by the direction of his Providence, or by the infpiration of his Holy Spirit: For he who had infufed his Spirit into thofe who were employed in making the Ornaments of the Temple, was not backward to impart it to the Prophets whom he raised up in an extraordinary manner, either to govern the People, or inftruct them in his Name, or to teach them his Laws; or lastly, to preferve amongst them the memory of fo many famous Events.

But the better to comprehend this truth, fuppofe for a while, that Mofes never compofed thofe Books which we afcribe to him, but that he imployed fome Body elfe to write them, and that he approved of them after they were written, and ordered them to be authentically received, as if he had wrote them himself; you will easily conceive, Firft, That these Books are of Moses's Compofing, rather than of his Secretaries, especially if you fuppofe that Mofes furnifhed the Records from which they were composed, corrected the Writings, and fo directed the Compiler, that he could infert no Falfhood into them. Secondly, You will as cafily conceive, that Moses might have added to them fome Parentheses or other, put fome known Names in the ftead of unknown ones, without diminishing by that the authority of those Writings. Thirdly, You will readily grant, 'tis not neceffary fo much as to know the name of the Perfon who compiled thofe Books under the authority, and by the order of Moses; or that if it be re

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quifite to know it, 'tis only in order to know the date of thofe Writings. Fourthly, you will easily imagine that Mofes might have imployed one or several Writers as he thought moft convenient to finish that History, and might have ordered the last to infert the Death of the for mer at the end of their Hiftory; and yet all this could never have been taken for any true and real alteration.

And now let us but substitute God in the stead of Mofes, as well as Mofes himself, together with all the Prophets after him in the ftead of thofe other Writers or Secretaries appointed by Mo fes's Orders to compofe that Sacred Hiftory, and the truth will appear in this Hypothefis. The Writings of the Jews, are the Writings of God; Mofes and the rest of the Prophets are but his Secretaries appointed to write by his Infpiration and Order. 'Tis not neceffary to know the Names of those Writers or Secretaries who wrote them; or if it be, 'tis only to know at what time they were written, or for the like Reasons, but not to impart them any Authority or Credit to be de rived from thofe fubaltern Authors. And fince those are the Writings of God, no Man of his own head can alter any thing in them, without a rafh and facrilegious Impiety: But God himfelf may alter in them what he pleafes; and thofe very Writers he hath enlightned with his holy Spirit for the continuation of that work have power to infert in them any new Parenthefes, Connexions or Genealogies, according to which the Holy Ghoft fhall make them think most expedient for the time they write in. However, We do not affirm, that this really has eever happened; but fuppofing it should fo happen,

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