صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

fied Saviour under pain of total deftruction. But that yet they were not fo unhofpitable, but that they received with open arms all who were willing to worship one God the Creator of the Universe." Thus we fee how it came to pafs, (which was the main difficulty) that the places where he gives such a latitude of belief, are thofe very places where he most labours to prove the divinity of his religion.

But this folution clears up all difficulties, and fhews the hiftorian's great confiftency, as well as artful address, throughout the whole work. Jofephus profefses the most awful regard to the facred volumes; and yet, at the fame time, takes fuch liberties of going from their authority, that it provoked the honeft refentment of a late excellent writer to the following afperities: "Nec levis fit fufpicio illum Hebraice non fciviffe, cum multis indiciis linguæ ejus imperitiam prodat. Quivis certe, cui vel mica falis eft, fentiat illum Hiftorias Sacras pro arbitrio interpolaffe, demendo, addendo, immutando, ut Antiquitates fuas ad Lectorum Græcorum & Romanorum palatum accommodaret." But this license, though furely to be condemned, was however fomething more legitimate and fober than is generally supposed. - His deviations from fcripture being in those places only, where an exact adherence to it would have increased that general averfion to his nation, whofe effects were at that time fo much to be dreaded, either as exposing the perverse nature of the people, or the unfociable genius of their religion. To give an inftance or two of each :

1. The murmuring of the Ifraelites, for bread and flesh in the wilderness, is reprefented in fcripture, and juftly, as an act of horrid ingratitude towards God. Yet Jofephus makes Mofe own they had reafon for their complaints. And in the execrable behaviour of the men of Gibeah to the Levite and his wife, though fcripture exprefsly fays they attempted a more unnatural crime than adultery, yet the hiftorian paffes this over in filence, and makes all the perfonal outrage attempted, as well as committed, to be offered to the woman. The reader will now eafily account for what Mr. Whiston could not, his author's omiffion

The Jews fucceeded in their endeavours to diftinguish. Their cafe from the Christians. So that while the ftorm fell upon the latter, the other enjoyed a calm. As we may fully underftand by that paffage in St. Paul to the Galatians. As many as defire to make a fair fhew in the fich, they confirain you to be circumcifed, only left they should fuffer perfecution for the cross of Chrift. c. vi. 12. On which Limborch obfervés very juftly,-Qui non zelo pietatis, aut pro lege Mofis, moti id urgebant; fed tantum ut placerent Judæis; quia nempe videbant perfecutiones quotidie magis magifque Christianis a Gentibus inferri, Judæos autem ab illis effe immunes, hac ratione eas, tanquam ipfi effent Judæi, ftuduerunt declinare. Amic, collatio, p. 164.

of the ftory of the golden calf. For this was fo amazing a perverfity, at that juncture, that it must have made the very Pagans themfelves afhamed of their Jewish brethren in idolatry.

Again, we are told in Scripture, that when the Cutheans, or Samaritans, heard that the Jews, who were returned from captivity, were rebuilding the temple, they came and defired to be partners in the work, and joint worthipers of the God for whom it was erected; to which the Jews gave this round reply: You have nothing to do with us, to build an houfe unto our God, but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Ifrael, as king Cyrus the king of Perfia hath commanded us. And Nehemiah, on the fame occafion, gave them a ftill rougher anfwer: The God of Heaven he will profper us, therefore we his fervants will arife and build: but you have no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Ferufalem. This was a tender place: it was touching upon the very fore, in an exprefs declaration of the unfociableness complained of. The ftory therefore, we may be fure, was to be softened before the Gentiles were to be entrusted with it. Accordingly, Jofephus makes them fpeak in these obliging terms: That they could not poffibly admit them as partners in the work; for that the command to build the temple was directed to them firft by Cyrus, and now by Darius: that indeed they were at liberty to worship along with them: and that this was the only community, in religious matters, that they could enter into with them, and which they would do with as many of the rest of mankind, as were willing to come up to the temple to adore the God of heaven. The reafon the Scripture Jews give for the refufal of the offer to be joint partners with them in their work and worship is, that it was a temple built in the Land of Ifrael,

There is, amongst many other things that Jofephus's copy appears to want, one omiffion of fo important a nature-the heinous fin of the golden calf.-What makes it stranger is this, that Jofephus's account is not only negative, by a bare omiffion, but pofitive, by affording an exact coherence without it, nay fuch a coherence as is plainly inconfient with it. And what ftill makes it more furprifig is, that Jofephus frequently profeffes, neither to add to, nor to take away from, the facred books." Differt. II. P. xlv. Some other liberties, which Jofephus took with Scripture, for the end above explained, made this learned writer conclude that the hiftorian had an earlier and more unco rust copy of the Old Teftament than any we now have: for that his accounts are more exact, confiftent, and agreeable with chronolory, with natural religion, and with one another. p. xxxv. Yet, after all, the fatal omiffion of the golden calf brings him to confefs, that Jofephus's copy appears to want many things which are in ours p. xlv. Thus forely diftreffed is this good man in the fupport of a wild and extravagant hypothesis; while every one elfe fees that all the omiffions and alterations (which sometimes make his copy good, fometimes bad) were defigned deviations from the facred volumes to conciliate the good will of his masters.

REV. Aug. 1765.

L

and

and to the honour of the God of Ifrael. The reafon Jofephus's Jews give for their refufal is obedience to the king of Perfia: elfe, as for community of worship, they were very ready to receive them.

And now was not that a wife* project which propofed reforming the Sacred Text by the writings of Jofephus?

But this explanation will enable us to conclude with certainty against that Spurious paffage concerning Chrift. I think I have already offered one demonftrative argument against it. And I fuppofe, the many marks of forgery are fo glaring, that most men would be willing to give it up, were Jofephus's filence on fo extraordinary an occafion but easy to be accounted for. Now we have fo far laid open his conduct as to fee, that the preaching up of Chrift was an affair he would ftudiously decline. His great point, as we obferved, was to reconcile the Gentiles to his countrymen. But the Pagan averfion was greatly increafed by the new fect of Chriftians, fprung, as was well known, from the country of Judea. It was therefore utterly deftructive of his purpofe to fhew, as he must have done, in giving them an account of Chrift, the clofe connection between the two religions. Of all dangerous fubjects, therefore, Jofephus would be careful to avoid this. So that (certain as I am of the writer's purpofe, and not ignorant of the liberty he took even with the facred records, when it ferved his ends, of adding and omitting. at pleasure) I fhould have been as much furprised to have found the Hiftory of Jefus in his works as others are to be told that it is not there. This too will equally well account for his omiffion of Herod's flaughter of the children at Bethlehem, which Scaliger fo much wondered at; which Collins fo much triumphed in; and for the fake of which, our Whitby feemed ready to give up the truth of the ftory.

Thus did this excellent writer, out of extreme love to his country, (the most pardonable however of all human frailties) make too free with truth and Scripture; though moft zealously attached to the religion of his forefathers: as thofe men generally are who love their country beft. And a Jew he strictly was, of a very different ftamp too, from that poor paltry mimic of the Greek fophifts, Philo. Of whom his mafter Plato would have faid, what Jofephus tells us Aristotle did fay, of one of his Jewish acquaintance, a Greek he was, and not in fpeech only, but in foul likewife.

I judged it of importance, to fet this matter in a true light: because many, I fuppofed, would think it a fair prejudice against the divinity of the Mofaic religion, had a perfon, fo eminent amongst his countrymen while the republic was yet exifting,

• Mr. Whiflon's.

and

and of fo learned an age; fo converfant in the Jewish records, and fo fkilled in the best Grecian literature; had fuch a one afforded only a political or philofophic faith to the facred volumes. But then it will follow on the other hand, that the fincere belief of one, fo circumftanced, will be as fair a prejudice in its fa

vour.

• Not that I am over fond of this kind of evidence, in matters where every one is obliged to judge for himself; and confe quently, where every one, on a due application to the fubject, is capable of judging. Much lefs would I lay great weight on the opinions of men out of their own profeffion, however eminent in any other. What is it to truth, for inftance, what a courtier judges of a church; a politician of confcience; or a geometer, grown gray in demonftration, of moral evidence ?'

In the fame fection, (viz. Sect. 4th, Book 5th) we find fome additions in regard to the doctrine of an extraordinary providence. After endeavouring to prove that this extraordinary providence is reprefented in Scripture as adminiftered over the ftate in general, and over private men in particular, his Lordship replies to the following objection, viz. that the early facred writers themselves frequently speak of the inequality of providence to particulars; and in fuch a manner as men living under a common providence are accustomed to fpeak.

He tells us, that when the facred writers fpeak of the inequalities of providence, and the unfit diftribution of things, they often mean that ftate of it amongst their Pagan neighbours, and not in Judea as particularly in the book of Pfalms and Ecclefiaftes. He farther tells us, that we fometimes find men complaining of inequalities in events, which were indeed the effects of a most equal providence: fuch as the punishment of pofterity for the crimes of their forefathers; and of fubjects for their kings. Of the first, the prophet Ezekiel gives us an inftance in the people's cafe what mean ye, that you use this proverb concerning the land of Ifrael, faying, the fathers have eaten four grapes, and the children's teeth are fet on edge?-Of the fecond, David gives it in his own; not duly attending to the juftice of this proceeding, where he fays, But these sheep, what have they done? 2 Sam. xxiv. 17. And that he was fometimes too hafty in judg ing of these matters appears from his own confeffion:-Behold, thefe are the ungodly, who profper in the world, they increase in riches.-When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; until I went into the fanctuary of God; then underfood I their end. Surely thou didst fet them in flippery places: thou caftedft them down into deftruction.-So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee. Pfalm lxxiii. 12-22. That is, fays his Lordship, I understood not the courfe of thy juftice, till I had confidered the way in which an equal providence muft neceffarily be adminiftered

L 2

[ocr errors]

niftered under a theocracy, and the confequences of such an ad miniftration." This is certainly, a very ingenious interpretation, and what few commentators would have thought of; whether it is a juft and natural one, let thofe who have leifure for it, inquire. Many readers will, undoubtedly, think it far-fetched and unnatural; but they ought to confider, that a commentator scarcely deferves the name, who cannot make his author speak what language he pleases. But to proceed.

His Lordfhip goes on to tell us, that even admitting the reality of an equal providence to particulars in the Hebrew ftate, the adminiftration of it must have been attended with fuch circumtances as fometimes to occafion those observations of inequality.

For, 1. It appears, he fays, from the reafon of the thing, that this adminiftration did not begin to be exerted in particular cafes till the civil laws of the republic had failed of their efficacy. Thus where any crime, as for inftance difobedience to parents, was public, it became the object of the civil tribunal, and is accordingly ordered to be punished by the judge. But when private and fecret, then it became the object of divine vengeance f. Now the confequence of this was, that when the Jaws were remifly or corruptly adminiftered, good and ill would fometimes happen unequally to men. For we are not to fuppofe that providence, in this cafe, generally, interfered till the corrupt adminiftration itself, when ripe for vengeance, had been firft punished. 2. In this extraordinary administration, one part of the wicked was fometimes fuffered as a fcourge to the other. 3. The extraordinary providence to the ftate might fometimes clafh with that to particulars, as in the plague for numbering the people. 4. Sometimes the extraordinary providence was fufpended for a feafon to bring on a national repentance: But at the fame time this fufpenfion was publicly denounced 1. a very fevere punishment it was, as leaving a flate which had .not the fanction of a future ftate of rewards and punishments in a very difconfolate condition. And this was what occafioned the complaints of the impatient Jews, after they had been fo long accustomed to an extraordinary administration .

[ocr errors]

And

But the general and full folution of the difficulty is this, The common caule of thefe complaints arofe from the gradual withdrawing the extraordinary providence. Under the Judges it was perfectly equal. And during that period of the theocracy, it is remarkable that we hear of no complaints. When the people had rebelliously demanded a king, and their folly was fo far

* Exod. xxi. 15, and 17.

XXX. 17.

DEUT. xxvii. 16. and PROV. ISALAH . 5. Chap. lix. ver. 2. Chap Ixiv. Is. v. 19. JEREM. xvii. 15. Amos, v. 18. Zeph. i. 12. MALAC. i. 17. · complied

ver. 7.

« السابقةمتابعة »