Further, the title, in its natural and obvious meaning, attributes the book to him as its author. For who but he was fon of David, and at the same time king of Jerufalem, as he calls himself? chap. i. 1, 12. None of his fucceffors on the throne could be fo denominated, except in a loose and general fenfe, as David was his remote progenitor.-What although two words occur here (and they are no* more) which are not found in themselves, or in their root, any where else in the Hebrew books of the Bible, but only in the Chaldee part of Daniel's book, and in the Chaldee Targums or paraphrafes on fcripture? They might, notwithstanding, belong to the Hebrew language in its pure and unadulterated ftate. For how fmall a portion must we have of this, in a volume of no larger fize than the Bible, as any one will be fenfible, who will reflect that this must have been the cafe with the Greek or Latin languages, had we only pieces transmitted to us therein refpectively, of equal bulk and magnitude? Accordingly, it often happens that we meet with words in a book of the Bible, which are only once read through the

* For though four have been mentioned, two of them are not justly numbered of this fort, viz. D fir, rendered pot, chap. vii. 6. since it occurs, Exod. xvi. 3. and 'ON abionah, turned defire, chap. xii. 5. fince abah is often to be met with in the Hebrew Bible in the fignification of defiring, or being well affected toward an object. The two words which are rightly inftanced in are, first, pesher, the interpretation, Eccl. viii. 1. which is only read befides in Daniel ii. 4, 5. where the Chaldee part of that book begins, and is continued till the end of the vii. chapter. Compare alfo Targum on Gen. xl. 8. gumatz, a ditch, Eccl. x. 8. which

Judges vii. 19. and then

again appears no where in the Bible, but in Targum, Pfal. vii. 16. and Prov. xxii. 4, &c. and in Syriac New Testament, Luke vi. 39.

whole extent of it from beginning to end, fo that we must have recourse to the fifter-dialects, Arabic, Syriac, or Chaldee,for the discovery of their fignification; and yet no fufpicion hath been formed, on this account, against its being written in the age of the perfon, whose name it bears. Why then should such an inference be made here from this circumftance, as to place Ecclefiaftes below the Babylonish captivity?—Is it pretended, finally, that p Koheleth, the name which the speaker affumes here should be turned, the collector or heaper up of the various opinions of wife men about happiness, instead of, the preacher, as we have tranflated it after the Seventy and Vulgate? It is anfwered, though we were to prefer the fenfe of collector or gatherer, from the root P, kabal, to affemble, congregate, bring together, it might be very well accommodated to Solomon here, where his aim is to unite wandering fouls from the purfuit of vanities to the profecution of the fupreme good, and where he, as it were, calls a multitude together, to hear and learn from him the path to true felicity. It seems therefore an idle unfupported fancy, that Ecclefiaftes was the work of feveral perfons in Zorobabel's time.

As to any paffages again in this book, which seem to favour the gratification of irregular defires, and to remove the apprehenfions of a future retribution, is it not manifeft, that they should be explained fin

Thus when it is faid that a man hath no praeeminence above a beast,' chap. iii. 19. it may be understood to be spoken not abfolutely, or upon the whole, but in refpect of the breath or refpiration, which ceases alike in men and brutes at the moment of death. When it is faid again, That the day of death is better than the day of birth,'

a qualified and limited fenfe, if they contain the real fentiments of the writer; or if they cannot be thus explained without violence, that they should be regarded as expreffing the deteftable principles of Epicureans and fenfualifts, which he wished to overthrow and confute? For,otherwise,they would be most inconfiftent with the positions he advances, and the directions he gives, upon different occafions, through the treatise; as, to be more ready to hear or obey the counfels of virtue and piety, at attendance on the houfe of God, than to offer there the facrifice of fools, which all did who continued to allow themfelves in wicked living, however expensive or numerous their oblations, chap. v. 1. 2. to rejoice for God's acceptance and approbation of our works, ix. 7. to retrench fuperfluous expences for beneficence to the poor and diftreffed, xi. 1, 2. to moderate

vii. 1. which I fuppofe Mr. Voltaire paraphrafes,' It is better never 'to have been born, than to exist;' it may be understood to fignify, that the time of a man's death, who hath spent this life well, or by virtuous actions acquired a good reputation to himself, which in the former clause of the verfe is preferred to the most precious and fragrant perfume, is productive of more good to him, than the season of his nativity into this life, where all are fubject to many woes and forrows. Once more, when he bids eat, drink, and be merry or chearful, chap. viii. 15. and live joyfully with the wife whom thou loveft, for that is a man's portion in this life, ix. 9. he may be explained to advise no more than that persons should enjoy the fortunes which God bestows upon them by chearful focial repafts, instead of giving into parfimonious abstinence from the use of them, though still not fo as to disable them from works of mercy and charity, which himself enjoins, iii. 12. xi. 12. and that they should folace themselves in the company of their own wives, instead of seeking the pleasures of whoredom and adultery, 1. 15-21.

our indulgence to carnal defires, by the confideration of a future judgment, which judgment he afferts over and over, xi. 9. iii. 16, 17. &c. and to despise worldly pleasures as vain and unfatisfactory, ii. 2. vii. 2. Yea, otherwise, they will be quite fubversive of the corollary which he deduces from the whole of his premises here, and which he leaves with his readers as his finishing leffon, which he aimed above all things to inculcate, Let us hear the conclufion ⚫ of the whole matter, Fear God, and keep his com

mandments; for this is the whole of man,' the whole of his duty and felicity. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.' And is fuch a method of interpretation fhewing any greater favour to a writer, than common candour dictates, from a regard to his avowed fcope and intention? If the paffages favour ftrongly of libertinism, when viewed in another light, this is fo far from being an argument against the conftruction we put upon them, as Mr. Voltaire would make it, that it becomes a stronger proof and demonftration they ought to be fo explained, in proportion as So

*If we meet with any paffage in Plato, Ariftotle, Tully, Seneca, or any of the Gentile philofophers, which at first view appears to be repugnant to the declared principles of the author in other places, or to his evident intention in writing the piece where it occurs, we try to find out a convenient or commodious fenfe of the paffage in question, by which he may appear confiftent with himself, and cautious of defeating the end he had in view. And should not we follow the fame rule of interpretation here which is fo loudly prescribed by a careful and unprejudiced confideration and comparison of the whole treatise, instead of explaining this or that part in the way most abfurd and nonfenfical, and palpably subversive of the writer's grand and ultimate aim?

lomon appears animated by a serious and religious defign in the compofition of the book. Suitably, we are told, though + fome of the wife or learned men among the Jews were once difpofed to reject this book from the canon of Scripture, because its words deftroyed one another; in particular because it was faid, 'Rejoice O young man in thy youth, let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, ' and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the fight ' of thine eyes,' chap. xi. 9. which they thought clafhed with Numb. xv. 39. 'Remember all the 'commandments of the Lord and do them, and that ye feek not after your own heart, and your own C eyes, after which ye ufe to go a-whoring;' They, notwithstanding, retained it as a part of canonical Scripture, because the beginning and conclufion of the book were the words of the law, and because the writer added in the particular paffage which was mentioned as creating offence, But know thou, ' that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.'

There is then no reason to cenfure the book of Ecclefiaftes, as the production of a later age than Solomon's, and as in its contents unworthy of him; -Nor, by confequence, as this is the only work afcribed to him which remained to be vindicated, is there any ground to deny that he is really author of the works fathered on him.

As to what follows in Mr. Voltaire, But though these books were written by a Jew, what is that ' to us? The Christian religion is indeed founded

† See Tract Shabbath, fol. 30. and Midrash Coheleth, fol. 114. and Michaelis ad Hagiographa,-and Waehner ubi fupra, fect. 1.30