SECTION XX.

Of his afferting in the fame chapter, that some have imagined Enoch left a written hiftory of fallen angels,―That the false Enoch is cited by St. Jude, -and that the book of Enoch and Genefis agree perfectly in the copulations of the fons of God with the daughters of men, and in the race of giants their iffue.

6

TO proceed with our detection of falfhood, Mr. Voltaire in the fame * chapter having quoted a paffage from the epistle of Jude thus, ' And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day. 'Wo unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain; and Enoch alfo, the feventh from Adam, ⚫ prophefied of these saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his faints;' he adds, 'It has • been imagined by fome, that Enoch left a written * history of the fallen angels.'

But who are those fome, who have expreffed fuch a fancy about Enoch, and what arguments have they offered to perfuade us of it? Indeed Jude produces Enoch's words at fo great a distance from the account he gives of the punishment of rebellious angels, that I fhould wonder much if any have pretended to build this conceit, that Enoch wrote a history of the lapfe of angels before the formation of man, upon his epiftle. For, though the relation of the

Page 233.

vengeance executed upon thefe difobedient fpirits, and the mention of this antediluvian patriarch's prophecy are by our author quoted from it, as standing in moft close and intimate connection, there do really intervene between them seven verfes, in which the apoftle represents the deftruction of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire from heaven, describes the evil practices of fome corrupt Chriftians, in defpifing dominion and speaking evil of dignities, reproves them by Michael's temperance of fpeech, when he contended with the devil about the body of Mofes, and to omit other things, denounces a wo unto them, for their resemblance unto Cain, Balaam, and Core. When therefore he fays at laft, And Enoch alfo, the feventh from Adam, prophefied of thefe,' it is manifeft from the coherence, that the perfons against whom he affirms him to have prophefied, cannot be fallen angels, but must be licentious profeffors of the gofpel; nor can it create any difficulty, that the apostle fays Enoch prophefied against them, fince his words, though spoken at first concerning the ruin of the ungodly world by the flood, are applicable to the punishment which will be inflicted upon fuch wicked Chriftians, at the final appearance of our Lord; and it is agreeable to the ftile of the facred writers upon other occafions to ufe fuch phrafeology, where a prophet's words may be accommodated to an event, though it was not intended by him at the time of pronouncing them. So little reafon is there for building an opinion, that Enoch left a written hiftory of the fallen angels, upon any thing which Jude hath faid concerning him in his letter.

A little after, he takes it for granted That the falfe Enoch is cited by St. Jude;' but I fee no reason to allow, that Jude quoted the prophecy from that book which is called The Revelation of Enoch, though some antient Christians thought so, and made it a reason for rejecting the authority of this epistle, as the book appeared an idle romance. Is it pleaded, though the book appear evidently spurious, both because it is too exprefs about many Chriftian principles. and facts for Enoch's age, and because it contains a variety of fhameful and ridiculous trifles, unworthy to have proceeded from him, Jude might have quoted it, aware that in this point of the prophecy it contained a true relation, without giving any fanction or authority to the whole, just as the apostle Paul cites fome fentences from Aratus and Epimenides heathen poets, without approving the entire pieces from which they are brought? Be it fo; but then there is no other evidence that this book under Enoch's name was extant in the days of the apoftles, and it is certain that Jude's expreffion here will never prove it; for he might have used it, though the oracle was neither committed to writing by Enoch himself, nor recorded in a book by any other perfon, but only conveyed down by oral tradition, as the names of the two magicians Jannes and Jambres are fuppofed to have been, when Paul mentions them in his fecond epiftle to Timothy. At the fame time it is not unlikely, that the apoftle took them from

*See Sherlock's firft Differtation after his Difcourfe on the Ufe and Intent of Prophecy, p. 189. Lardner's Credib. vol. 10. p. 133, 138. and Fabricii Codex Pfeudepigraph. Vet. et Novi Testamenti

tom. 2.

fome Jewish book filled with ftories about Enoch, but foon after+loft, which might give rife to fome Chriftian's forgery of that book under Enoch's name, that was known to Irenaeus, Origen, and others who were their contemporaries, and may be seen, fo far as it hath been preferved, by confulting Fabricius.

In a note again, upon his conceffion

that the

falfe Enoch cited by St. Jude, is acknowledged to

be forged by a Jew;' Mr. Voltaire obferves, This book of Enoch must nevertheless be of some antiquity, for we find it frequently quoted in the tef'tament of the twelve patriarchs, another Jewish book, corrected by a Chriftian of the first century,

+ The fame account may be given concerning the paffage of Michael's quarrel with the devil about the body of Mofes, which we read in Jude's epistle; concerning which Mr. Voltaire fays, 'It is only in ' an apocryphal book, intitled, The Analysis of Mofes, quoted by Origen in the third book of his Principii,' Phil. of Hift. page 237. he fhould have faid, the Analepfis or Anabafis of Mofes, which is mentioned by Origen in his treatife ПTepi apxar, or De Principiis,' 3. 2. and by others after him. Origen there, according to Ruffinus's tranflation, fays, 'I own, the apostle Jude quotes this book,' ' De quo, in ⚫ afcenfione Mofis cujus libelli meminit in epiftola fua Judas apoftolus, 'Michael archangelus, &c.' But the apoftle might in like manner have it from fome Jewish book, or fome tradition about things which happened to Mofes. At the fame time we can fay little about the age of this Analepfis or Anabafis, because we have scarce any fragment of it befides. Dr. Lardner however is of opinion, that Jude refers in this paffage about Michael, to the vifion in Zechar. iii 1, 3. and might call the Jewish people the body of Mofes, as St. Paul calls Christians the body of Chrift. See his Supplement to his Credibility, vol. 3. page 340, &c. where he also animadverts upon the bishop of London's opinion, that some paffages in Jude's epiftle and Peter's fecond letter are taken from fome Hebrew writers.

Sed vide Vitam Mosis Rabbinicam

a

doctissimo gaulmino vulgat

and this teftament of the twelve patriarchs is even quoted by St. Paul in his first epistle to the Theffalonians, if repeating the page word for word can be called quoting it. In the fixth chapter of the 'patriarch Reuben we find " The fcholar of God at length fell upon them," which St. Paul fays ver'batim.

But how inconclufive any quotation herein, for evincing that the book under Enoch's name had a being in Jude's time, though with this view the remark feems to be made!-Moft learned men are of opinion, that this piece, the Teftaments of the twelve patriarchs, which is just a collection of their dying words, confifting partly of predictions of future events, and partly of rules of holinefs, is a work of the fecond century, as Dodwell, Lardner*, and others. If therefore their hypothefis be true, the quotation of Enoch's book herein, comes much too late for proving its existence during the life of an apostle, But let it be fuppofed, according to our author after Grabe, that it was written by fome Jew before our Saviour's time, and afterwards interpolated in fome places by a Chriftian of the firft century, foolishly zealous to verify, by fome clear paffages, fome things faid in the New Teftament, which were not found in the antient books generally received by the Jews "as canonical, still it will not establish the being of Enoch's book fo early; for fuch references to Enoch's book, for any thing he can tell, may not be among the genuine and original paffages of the book, but among those which are allowed to have been foifted in to serve some turn: as this adulteration or corrup

See his Credib. part 2. vol. 2. P. 741.