CONTENTS. F Mr. Voltaire's injuries to Josephus. Page 1 Of his saying in chapter twenty-fourth of his Phi- losophy of History, tliat the Jews called their city Hershalaïm, and that the Greeks altered it to Je- rusalem, according to Josephus. Of his faying in chapter twenty-fifth of the same, that Josephus owns Minos received his laws from he does not insist on any divine authority of Mo- that he had no inward conviction of it, Of his lame and defective account of Josephus's pre- diction to Vespasian in chapter thirty-firft. Of his misrepresentations in chapter forty-fifth; where he affirms that Josephus makes Daniel go- vernor of three hundred and fixty provinces, and Zorobabel a Jewish llave, an intimate friend of the king of kings, and very imperfectly relates his ac- count of Darius's question, and of the answers of Of his falfhoods in his detail of Jofephus's story of Jaddua and Alexander, in chapter forty-sixth; to- gether with his unjust reflection on Rollin. of his assertion, that Josephus does not include the book of Job among the writings of the Hebrew canon, in chapter forty-seventh. Of his concluding, in chapter forty-ninth, that the Jews did not call Jacob; Hrael, nor themselves Ifraelites, till they were flaves in Chaldaea, froni a passage of Philo.—And of his saying, that Jose- phus owns the practice of circumcision was learn- ed from the Egyptians, agreeably to the testimo- ny of Herodotus.—That he ascribes their being unknown by the Greeks, to their omission to cul- tivate letters.---That he makes the translators of the law into Greek, tell some stories to Philadel- Of Mr. Voltaire's misrepresentations of the sacred Of his misrepresentations of scripture, for which he may plead the authority of the Vulgate version. 50 Sec. I. Of his saying in chapter thirty-fourth of the Philosophy of History, that the second temple is represented in the book of Efdras, to have had only three rows of rough stone. Sec. II. Of his representing in chapter fortieth of the fame, and in other pieces, that Moses command- $ec. Ill. Of his making, in chapter forty-third, God direct Ezekiel to cover his bread with human excrement, and thereafter with the excrement of oxen. 58 Sec. IV. Of his saying in the fame chapter, that the Lord threatens by Amos, that the cows of Samaria shall be put into the caldron. 64 Sec. V. Of his inference from certain psalms, that the Jews were of a sanguinary disposition ; and of his misquoting one paffage, and perverting another, in their Pfalter, to prove that they were a carnal people, in chapter forty-fourth. 66 Sec. VI. Of his affirming in his Treatise on Tolera tion, that Ezekiel speaks of pigmies, persons not above a cubit high. 80 Sec. VII. That the Vulgate translation favours these accounts, which Mr. Voltaire hath given, is no fufficient apology for his fairness and candour. 83 CH A P. II. Of his misrepresentations of scripture, for which he cannot plead the authority of any translation. 89 Sec. I, Of his saying that the Jews are reproached for copulation with he and The-goats in the defert, and forbidden the fame, in chapter fecond of his Philosophy of History: 99 Sec. II. Of his making Jephtha and Jeremiah ac knowledge the divinity of Melcom and Chamos, in chapter fifth of his Philosophy of History, and in other works, Sec. III. Of his afferting there and elsewhere, that the Jews, for forty years in the desert, worshipped no other God than idol deities. 105 Sec. IV. Of his saying also, in chaper fifth of the 98 229 was the prophet of another God,—that jeremiah, Isaiah, &c. were ill-treated, because it was difficult to distinguish between false and true pretenders to the prophetic character,—that Hofea declares the prophets fools ----that the prophets treated one another as visionaries, there being no other method to separate the true from the false, but by waiting for the accomplishment of the pre dictions. Sec. XVI. Of his ill-founded reflexion in the same chapter, that Elisha's reply to Benhadad's servants was equivocal, “ That he might recover, but that « he would die.' 237 Sec. XVII. Of his saying that little innocents' were devoured at Bethel for words which they said to Elisha in “ laughing '----That lfaiah walked three years quite naked in Jerusalem.---- That Jeremiah was only fourteen years old when he was employed as a prophet, and that he prophesied in favour of Nebuchadnezzar.---And of a mistake in his account of God's order to Hofea. 244 Sec. XVIII. Of his enumeration, in chapter forty seventh, of popular prejudices, to which the facred writers conformed, ---That the Scripture calls the rainbow the ark of God ---That Moses erected a brazen serpent, a God whose look cured ----That Christ says, new wine should never be put into old casks,---That Paul says, the feed is not quickened, except it die ----and that Christ grants, the Pharisees difpoffefsed devils. 253 Sec. XIX. Animadversions on his forty-eighth chap ter, where he writes, that Satan appears in Job mafter of the earth, subordinate to God; and that Satan is a Chaldaean word, and the Arimanius of the Persians. 260 Sec. XX. Of his asserting in the same chapter, that some have imagined Enoch left a written history of fallen angels ---That the false Enoch is cited by St. Jude ---and that the book of Enoch and Genesis agree perfectly in the copulations of the fons of God with the daughters of men, and in the race of giants their issue. 266 Sec. XXI. Of his saying in the forty-ninth chapter of the fame work, that the Jews, according to their own confeffion, were not circumcised till the time of Joshua; upon which occasion also, the assertion by this writer and others, that the Jews borrowed circumcision from the Egyptians, is examined. 277 Sec. XXII. Of his assertion in his Philosophical Dic tionary, that it was customary among the patri archs to use an obscene rite in making a promise:32 5 Sec. XXIII. Of his misrepresentation of Paul and Peter's conduct at Antioch, in the same work. 327 Sec. XXIV. Of his false relation there of Peter's behaviour to Ananias and his wife, and his censures thereof, together with the observation he afcribes to Erasmus, that the head of the Christian religion began his apostleship by denying Jefus Christ. 332 Sec. XXV. Of his account, in the same piece, un der the article Resurrection, of James's advice to Paul about observing all the ceremonies in the temple, that he might persuade every person he still continued to conform to the law, and of the effect of it. 342 |