SEC. XXVI. Of his remark, under the fame article, upon Paul's exclamation before the council, Of the hope and refurrection of the dead I am cal- SEC. XXVII. Of his afferting in the fame place, from I Theff. iv, that the firft Chriftians made them- felves fure they should see the end of the world; and of his faying, that Luke actually foretells it as what should happen in his life-time. 365 SEC. XXVIII. Of his faying in the Ignorant Philo- Of his charge against Daniel's prophecies, as forged after the deftruction of the Perfian empire by the Greeks, in the fame Philofophy of History. 394 Of his calling, in the fame work, our book of Job an Of his reflections, in his Philofophical Dictionary, against the genuinenefs of Solomon's writings. 445 Of his infinuation that Matthew's Gospel was not written till after the taking of Jerufalem by Ti- tus, from the mention of Zacharias's death. 477 Concerning Mr. Voltaire's remarks upon the filence of cotemporary writers about the maffacre of the infants, the star, the miracles of Chrift, the dark- ERRAT A. Page 32. 1. 20. after these words, have done, add, and might fancy others have thought, among Page 65. 1. 22. for whofe arguments, &c. read. distance, as fome Page 180. 1. 6. from the foot, in note, for object, read subject, Page 422. 1. 13. from the foot, for many, read mercy. * T is not the intention of the following fheets, to, It is not the intention of the to detract from Mr. Voltaire's real excellence. He is indeed, I acknowledge, a most elegant, easy, and fpirited writer, who abounds in many juft and noble reflections, conducive to banifh ignorance, perfecution, and ferocity of manners out of the world, and to spread knowledge, liberty, and civilization among men. Accordingly, his works are read with great avidity, and holden in high efteem by all in the prefent age, who make any pretenfions to tafte and refinement. Nevertheless, amidst all these agreeable and ufeful qualities, he appears to me often chargeable with a difregard to truth and candour, upon fome interesting fübjects which he handles. In particular, I think, he frequently fhews a want of veracity and fairness, where he speaks of the Jewifh hiftorian Jofephus, whofe works, notwithstanding feveral things in them liable to exception, are of much service to us Christians. For, as they confirm the truth of the accounts of his nation contained in the Hebrew fcriptures, fo they acquaint us with the civil and religious ftate of Judea, at the time of our Saviour's appearance; they inform us, there was then a general expectation of a great perfon to arise among the Jews, built upon prophecies in their facred books, whence many affumed the character, promifing to bestow upon them those advantages, which they fondly wished to receive by him. And, which is a principal advantage we derive from them, they bear very large and copious teftimony to the fulfilment of Jesus's predic Thereafter, I will point out far more numerous wrongs he hath done the facred writers, by misquoting or misinterpreting their words; which may ferve to refcue them, together with fome perfons whofe characters they celebrate, from that unreasonable fcorn and difpleasure, which he intended by thefe arts to excite against them. Finally, I will confider and refute fome unjust reflections, or innuendos, which he hath thrown out against different canonical books, in order to preferve due honour and regard for them. And, furely, every impartial judge will agree, the more accurate in his researches, the more upright in his narratives, and the more candid in his conclufions Mr. Voltaire fhall be found, upon the whole, about other matters, the less excuse and apology muft remain for an oppofite conduct and behaviour, where he treats of things generally revered, yea of things in their nature and confequences fupremely important, fince,upon fuch fubjects,the greatest attention and candour ought in all reafon to have been manifeft and confpicuous. which were finished by him in the twenty-fixth year thereafter, being the thirteenth year of the reign of Domitian, and the fifty-fixth of his own life. And his later treatise, in two books, Concerning the Antiquity of the Jews against Apion, in the first of which he establishes the early rise of his nation, from the writings of the Phenicians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, and even of the Greeks themselves, and confutes the calumnies caft upon them by Manetho, Chaeremon, and others; and in the fecond he proceeds to disprove the flanderous charges of Apion himself, against them and their rites. This Apion was an Egyptian grammarian, and one of the commiffioners on the part of the Gentiles in Alexandria to Caligula the emperor, when the whole Jewish people living there fent an embaffy to Rome, to complain of the injuries they had received, but he was dead ere Jofephus wrote. |