as we now have it in the Pentateuch? that under all Afflictions and Adverfities, they should impute their Sufferings to the violation of the Law; and that fo many should die, rather than depart from it?

Upon the Revolt of the Ten Tribes, Jeroboam would certainly have discover'd it, if he had but fufpected any fuch thing as an Imposture, or could but have hoped to make the People believe that the Laws of Mofes were not of Divine Institution, but of Humane Invention and Contrivance but he supposed the Truth of its Divine Original, whilft he tempted the People to the tranfgreffion of it; Behold thy Gods, O Ifrael, which brought thee up out of the land of Agypt, 1 Kings xii. 28. he fuppofes them brought out of the Land of Egypt, and brought out by a Divine Power; and endeavours to perfuade them, that the two Calves which he had set up in Dan and Bethel, were the Gods who delivered them, and by whofe Authority the Law was given them; and that therefore either of those Places was as proper to facrifice in, as ferufalem which however abfurd it were, yet he did not think fo abfurd, as to endeavour to make them believe that their Law it felf was no better than an Imposture: he had fome hopes to fucceed in this Project; and the Event fhews, he understood the Temper and Principles of the People he had to deal with; but the other was too grofs for him to attempt.

The true Prophets of Ifrael were ever as zealous for the Law of Mofes, as the Prophets of Judah, and the False Prophets of either Kingdom, never durft deny its Authority: these Falfe Prophets affronted and contradicted the Prophets of the Lord, but they ever owned the Law, and pretended to speak in the Name of that God who had deliver'd it to Mofes.

And this Division of the Ten Tribes made it impoffible afterwards for either the Kingdom of Ifrael, or of Judah, to make any Alterations in the Books of Mofes; because there was fo great emulation and en

mities

mities betwixt the two Kingdoms, that they could never have agreed to infert the fame Corruptions; and if either of them had attempted fuch a thing, it would foon have been discovered by the other; and therefore the agreement of the Samaritan with the Hebrew Pentateuch, is a plain argument that they are but different Copies of the fame Book, and that it is undoubtedly genuine. The Children of Ifrael, notwithstanding their great pronenefs to Idolatry, never caft off the Law of Mofes, as they would certainly have done, being fo often brought into bondage by their neighbour Nations, if they had not been well affured of the Authority of that Law which they tranfgrefs'd; but they were reduced to the Obedience of the Law, by the Oppreffions of Idolatrous Nations; they hoped for Deliverance upon their Repentance, according to the Promifes made in it, and could by no Temptations or Torments be perfuaded or forced to renounce it: But the long Captivity in Babylon wrought a perfect cure in the Jews, as to their inclination to Idolatry; which could never have been, unless by their own experience, in feeing the Prophecies fulfilled, and by other Arguments, they had been fully convinced of the Truth of their own Religion beyond all others.

If it had been of their own Invention, the People would have made their Law, in every refpect, more favourable to themselves; they would not have cloyed it with burthenfom Ceremonies,to diftinguish themfelves from the neighbour Nations, whofe Idolatries they were fo long prone to, and which these Ceremopies were defigned to restrain them from. They who were for a long time fo fond of the Idolatries of the Heathen, would never have invented Laws fo uneafie to themselves, and fo contrary and odious to other Nations; they would never have framed them themfelves, and then have pretended a Divine Revelation for thofe Laws which they were fo little pleased with.

They

They would never have exposed themselves to the whole World, through all Ages, as a ftubborn and rebellious People, notwithstanding fo many and fo convincing Miracles fo long wrought amongst them. The Miracles which I have mention'd, were most of them Judgments upon the Ifraelites, for their Difobedience; and they would never have fet down these Miracles, but would rather have left them out, though they were true, as difgraceful to their Nation. For thus Jofephus has omitted fome things, to avoid the Scandal which, he was aware, would have been given to the Heathen, by a full and punctual Relation of the whole History of the Jews, as it is described in the Books of Mofes. And they could be as little ignorant as Jofephus, what would prove difgraceful to them, and what would make for their Honour and Renown; and when the design of these fuppofed Forgeries and Falfifications must have been to advance the Glory of the People of Ifrael, they would never have made fuch as these. No, if they had made any Alterations, it would have been, to strike out those numerous Paffages which are fo reproachful to their Nation, and to have inferted others, which might raise the Fame and Glory of Themselves, and of their Ancestors; and to have changed those Ceremonies that were fo burthenfom and fo fingular for those which would have been more eafie to themselves, and might have recommended them to the good opinion and esteem of the neighbour Nations. But when fo refractory a People became fo zealous for fuch a Law, fo uneafie at first, and fo diftaftful to them; it is an undeniable argument, that they had the greatest Affurance of its Divine Original, and that they would neither falfifie it themselves, nor fuffer others to falfifie it.

The People of Ifrael must be supposed to be unanimous to a Man, in the making thefe Laws, if they N

were

were of their own making; for if any one had diffented, he could not fail of Arguments to draw others after him. In making Laws, the Interests and Conveniences of the Law-makers are always the Motives for the enacting them; and befides the Publick Honour and Welfare of the Nation, which too often are lefs confidered, the particular Interest of every single Man would have made him concerned to put a stop to fuch Laws. No People can be fuppofed to confent to the making Laws, by which they are forbidden to fow their Land every Seventh Year, and are commanded to leave their Habitations, and go up to the capital City, from every part of their Country, thrice in a Year: no People could agree to enact fuch Laws of their own contrivance; because none could fubfift in the observation of them, without a Miracle. How can we conceive it poffible for any People to fubfift by fuch Laws, if they had been of their own making? or, that any Nation fhould agree in the enacting fuch Laws as muft provoke all their neighbour Nations to make War against them? nay, by which they actually declared an irreconcilable War against seven Nations at once? For one Nation to diftinguish themfelves, by their Laws and Conftitutions, from all other People; to lay the very Foundations of their Government in the difgrace and infamy of all their neighbour Nations; to report, that after fo many loathfom and grievous Plagues, Plagues, inflicted upon Pharaoh and his People, they came out of Egypt, and at laft, by the deftruction of him and his whole Army in the Red Sea, made their efcape; and that they forced their way through all the other Nations that withftood their paffage into Canaan, and vanquished and deftroyed them as they went; and then to proclaim a facred War against all the Nations whofe Land they were to poffefs, and many of whofe Pofterity were remaining to the Time of the Captivity; and were fometimes ftruck with Terror, at the Remembrance,

which was retained among them, of thefe Judgments, (1 Sam. iv. 8. vi. 6.) but might have been able to confute great part of what the Ifraelites affirmed of themfelves, if it had been falfe, and of a late invention : For any People, I fay, to invent fuch Accounts of Themfelves and their Ancestors, and then to make fuch Laws, and to have the one believed, and the other obeyed, is altogether incredible. When they had enraged all the neighbouring Nations to their deftruction, they obliged themselves, by their Laws, to leave all their Borders naked, thrice every year, and to give them an opportunity to destroy them; and no People could have lived half an Age, in fuch a condition, under fuch Laws, unless they had been protected by God himself, the Author of them.

It appears therefore, that as neither Mofes himself, nor any Party of Men either in his time, or after it, could either invent, or change and falfifie the Books which are under his Name; fo it is ftill more extravagant (if pòffible) to conceit, that the whole People of Ifrael fhould either in Mofes's time, or afterwards, be conscious to fuch an Impofture; and yet that no Man fhould ever difcover it, but it fhould to this day be concealed from all other Nations; and that neither at the time of the Division of the Ten Tribes, when Jeroboam was forced to fet up Altars in other Places, to keep the People from going up to Jerufalem to worship, nor upon any other occafion, this Secret, if that may be called fo, which must be known to fo many thoufands, fhould ever come to light. Befides that, they could never have invented thofe Laws, by unanimous confent amongst themselves, which they were fo hardly brought to obey; and if they had not been difobedient, they would never have pretended they were, and have invented Miracles to make it believed; and if they had been never fo forward in their obedience, they could not have lived in the obfervation of the Law, without a perpetual Miracle.