tranfgreffions, they were punished by Diseases as miraculous. We have other Evidence (as I have before observed) that Mofes had no defign to delude the People of Ifrael, from the Meekness of his Difpofition, from his discovering his own Faults and Infirmities in his Writings, and from his not advancing his Family, but leaving his Pofterity in a private condition, and putting the Government into the hands of Joshua, one of the Tribe of Ephraim. But when all the People of Ifrael were Witneffes to fo many Miracles wrought by him, and particularly to fo ftrange a Judgment as the cleaving asunder of the Earth, and the Fire and Plague by which fo many thousands perifhed; we need not infift upon any other Proof to fhew that the Miraculous Power and Divine Authority by which Mofes acted and wrote, was as well attefted, and as fully known to the whole People of Ifrael, as it is poffible for any Matter of Fact to be known to any single Perfon. 2. Having fhewn, That the Matters of Fact and Miracles contained in the Books of Mofes, as they are related to have been done, were at firft fufficiently attested; and that, if we may credit that Relation, all the Miracles there mention'd were certainly wrought by him; fince they are of that nature, that the People of Ifrael could not be deceived in them I now proceed to fhew, That the Relations there fet down, are a true Account of thofe things, and fuch as we may depend upon. For if thefe Matters of Fact or Miracles are either feigned or falfified, this must be done either in Mofes's time, or afterwards; and if in his time, then either by Mofes and Aaron, with others who were concerned in carrying on the Defign, or by the whole People of Ifrael together. And if it were done after Mofes his death, then again it must be done either by fome particular Man, or by the contrivance of fome few or more together; or it must have been by by the joint Knowledge and Confent of the whole Nation. I will therefore prove, (1.) That the Miracles could not be feigned by Mofes and Aaron, and others concerned with them in carrying on fuch a Defign. (2.) The Miracles could not be feigned, nor the Books of Mofes invented or falfified by any particular Man, or by any Confederacy or Combination of Men, after the death of Mofes. (3.) The Miracles could not be feigned, nor the Books invented or falfified by the joint Confent of the whole Nation, either in Mofes's time, or after it. 1. Thefe Things could not be feigned by Mofes and Aaron, and others concerned with them in carrying on fuch a Design. It is plain, that they could never invent fuch an Account as that of their mira culous Escape out of Egypt, and their Travelling in the Wilderness, under the conduct and support of the fame miraculous Power, and then impofe it upon the People of Ifrael for Truth. For the People are fuppofed to be chiefly concerned in the whole Relation. Mofes appeals to their own fenfe and experience; The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even with us, who are all of us here alive this day, Deut. v. 3. And know you this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not feen the chaftifement of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his ftretched-out arm, and his miracles, and his acts which he did in the midst of Egypt, unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and unto all his land; and what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horfes, and to their chariots, how he made the water of the RedSea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the Lord hath deftroyed them unto this day; and what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came into this place; and what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the Jons of Eliab, the fon of Reuben; how the earth opened her mouth and fwallowed them up, and their houfholds, and their tents, and all their substance that was in their pofM feffion feffion in the midst of all Ifrael. But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord, which he did, Deut. xi. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Here is a Recapitulation of all the Miracles that had been wrought, with an Appeal to their Senfes for the Truth of them: And Moses would never have made fuch Appeals as thefe, if they could poffibly have difproved him; they could never be perfuaded that they came out of Egypt, after fo many Plagues inflicted upon the Egyptians, to procure their Deliverance, if there had been no fuch thing; or that they were fo long time in the Wildernefs, and that fo many and fo great Miracles were wrought in their fight, if they had never been done before them. Though Men may, perhaps, be perfuaded to believe, that their Ancestors, a long time ago, faw and heard things which they never faw nor heard, yet a whole Nation was never fuppofed to have been perfuaded out of their Senfes at once: and Mofes could not attempt to make fo many Men believe what they must all have known to have been false, as well as himself, if it had been fo; but he would have laid the Scene at a greater diftance of time, and not have brought thofe in as chiefly concerned in the whole bufinefs, who were then alive and prefent to convince him of falfhood: And therefore, if the Particulars fet down in the Pentateuch be falfe, and as ancient as Mofes his time, they must be invented with the knowledge, and received by the confent of the whole Nation. For Mofes and Aaron could never fo far delude fo many thousands, as to make them believe fuch variety of Matter of Fact, in fo many and fo wonderful Inftances fet forth, and with fuch notorious Circumstances, and appeal to the Senfes of those whom they deceived, whether they had not feen and perceived, and had the experience of what had been done for fo many years, if it had been all but Fiction. 2. The Miracles could not be feigned, nor the Books Books of Mofes invented or falfified by any particular Man, or by any confederacy or combination of Men, after the death of Mofes. If the Miracles were feigned after the death of Mofes, either the Laws muft likewife be invented or altered after his death, and the Miracles inferted to procure them Authority or the Laws remained as they had been deliver'd by him, and the Miracles only were added. For the Books of Mofes may be confidered either as containing the Laws delivered by him, or as relating the Miracles by which thefe Laws were ratified and established; in each of which rea fpects, there could be no Forgery or Falfification. For, 1. The Laws themfelves could not be invented, nor altered or falfified: because the whole Jewish State and Policy was founded upon them, and could not fubfift without them; and therefore they must be as ancient as the Jewish Government, which is confefs'd on all hands to have been firft erected by Mofes. For not only their Religious Worship, but their Civil Rights and Interefts, depended entirely upon the Laws of Mofes; their Publick Proceedings, and their Private Dealings one with another, were all to be regulated and governed by thefe Laws and when any Laws are brought into conftant use and pra &tice in any Nation, it is ridiculous to imagine that they can be altered and falfified, and a new Syftem of Laws introduced instead of them, without the knowledge of the People governed by them, or any remembrances of it left amongst them. No material Alterations can be made in Laws which are of conti nual ufe, and which concern every Man's Interest, but they must be taken notice of and discovered by fuch as fhall find themselves aggrieved by fuch Alterations. But this was lefs practicable amongst the Jews, than amongst any other People. 1. Because the Diftinction of their Tribes, and the Genealogies which were kept of every Family, made them have a more feparate and diftinct Intereft in M 2 every every Tribe, and a more exact Account of Times and perfect Knowledge of Things in every Family; and therefore they were not fo capable of being impofed upon in things of this nature, as the People of other Nations might be, where Marriages and Inheritances are promifcuous, and no occafion is given for the like emulation and watchfulness over one another, and where no fuch Remembrances and Notices of the Tranfactions of Affairs are to be confulted by any one of every private Family: In the wilderness of Sinai, on the first day of the fecond month, in the fecond year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, Mofes and Aaron affembled all the congregation together, and they declared their pedigrees after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of their names, from twenty years old and upward, by their poll, Numb. i. 1, 18. and this was done again in the Plains of Moab, at the end of Forty Years, chap. xxvi. And thefe Genealogies were preferved, not only during the Captivity, Ezra vii. and down to the Reign of Herod, but even to the time of Jofephus, who (in his First Book against Apion) fays, That they had the Genealogies of their Priests then ftill extant for Two thousand Years; and in the Account of his own Life, he transcribes his Pedigree from the Publick Regifters. By which means it came to pafs, that every Tribe had a kind of separate Intereft; which was the ocçafion of Korah's Sedition against Mofes. And every Man amongst their Tribes might certainly hereby know how many Generations he was removed from those who first took poffeffion of the Land of Promife; and might find the Names of his Ancestors regiftred, who were in the Wilderness with Mofes, or came with Joshua over Jordan: And this must make the memory of their Ancestors more dear and familiar to them; and it must make them have a greater regard for any thing they had left behind them, especially for |