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 should 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 thofe ends he vifibly aims at in all his Book of Deuteronomy, continually particularifing the Places and Nations concerning which he has occafion to men

tion.

II,

We might more particularly reply to the objection concerning the Parenthesis in these werds, in the 10, and 22. Verses of the fecond Chapter of this Book, As Ifrael did unto the Land of his poffeffion, which the Lord gave unto them; that it must be understood only concerning the Land which the Ifraelites had already poffeffed themselves of beyond the River Fordan, in the days of Mofes. But if you require a more exact Comment upon those words, read but what he fays

himfelf

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 half 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 these last words to denote that Land, which the Ifralites had conquered in his time, he might as well have done it by his firft words, in which all the Difficulty of this Objection confifts.

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

BUT

of the Penteteuch, which we have just now vindicated from the falfe Criticisms of the Incredulous of those times, there is yet a third Book, viz. the Heart and Memory of the Ifraelites, in which those matters of Fact, that are the foundation of the Jewish Religion, must 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, 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 shalt 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

in

Therefore fall ye lay up thefe my words Chap. 11. 18. in your heart, and in your foul, fays he in the 11. Chap. of the fame Book, and bind them for a fign upon your band, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your Children, speaking when thou fitteft into thine bouse, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou lieft down, and when thou rifeft up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates; only take heed to thy felf, fays he in the fourth Chapter. And keep thy Soul diligently, leaft thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and leaft they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life; but teach thou thy Sons, and thy Sons Sons.

Laftly, You have this fame Commandment repeated over again in the fixth Chapter, in these words, And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy Children, and fhalt talk of them when thou fittest in thine house, and when thou walkeft by the way, and when thou lieft down, and when thou risest up, &c.

It appears by all thefe Examples what wonderful and extraordinary care Mofes took before hand to fix the Law in the Memory of the Ifraelites. Perhaps fome may think that it was not Mofes that took all this care. But if they look upon it as uncertain, we are as willing, for Arguments fake, to grant their fuppofition, because 'twill ferve us for a Principle to confute them from.

For fuppofing, that it was any other but Mofes that wrote in the Book of Deuteronomy all the words we have juft now quoted, and intermixed with them many Chimerical Matters of Fact, how were it poffible he should not fee that he fought against himself with his own Weapons? What could he have the Confidence to forbid adding to a Law which he himself did add to? What pretence could he have to require thus of them, fo ftrictly, that they should re

member

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7

member the Contents of that Book, fince the forget ting them was an infallible expedient to make way for the Fictitious Tales he was then coining to pass for certain Truths? To what purpose was it to pre tend that Mofes ordered the reading of the Law every feven years, fince if it had been practifed, his coun terfeit Laws would certainly be accounted for Innovations? But I vainly loofe time in opposing that which can never be defended.

Hence therefore 'tis very natural to think, that the words we just now mentioned could not have been added to the Law of Mofes, and that it could enter into no Mens Thoughts to offer to foift in fuch counterfeit places, as would certainly have betrayed their own fpurious Original, and have given the People occafion to object: But yet our Fathers never taught us these things, neither were we ever reminded of them, at any folemn feventh years Repetition.

But if Mofes were the unquestionable Author of those words, we may eafily perceive, that befides the natural Inclination the Ifraelites had to Zeal for their Law, and their continual Difcourfing and Me ditation on the Contents of it, they were ftill fur ther obliged to it, by the exprefs and reiterated Commands of their admired reverend Lawgiver, in obedience to whose Prescriptions they were obliged to have their Law written upon their Garments, to intermix it with their Difcourfe, and generally with all their Concerns, and to make it the chief Subject of their Converfation, both in City and Country.

That being thus fuppofed, 'tis not conceivable, how the Law could be at all changed, or corrupted. 'Tis true, that the Kings of Ifrael and of Judah, after they had impiously Apoftatifed to the abominable Superftitions of their Neighbours, might in fome refpects have alter'd the public Worship of the Jews.

But

when