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are every where reprefented to be a juft foundation for chriftianity. And PAUL exprefly fays, that (u) the gospel which was kept fecret fince the world began, was now made manifeft by the fcriptures of the prophets (wherein that gofpel was fecretly contain'd) to all nations, by the means of the preachers of the gofpel, who gave the fecret or fpiritual fenfe of thofe fcriptures. Befides, the authors of those books, being convinc'd long before the publication of them, that the gospel was to be preach'd to the Gentiles as well as Jews, must be fuppos'd to design their books for the use of all men, for Gentiles as well as Jews. both whom therefore they reafon'd allegorically in those books; as particular (w) apostles alfo did in their fermons, therein recorded, with greater fuccefs on Gentiles than on Jews; and as PAUL did before FELIX, when he faid, he took his christianity from (x) the law and the prophets, as well as before AGRIPPA. It fhould therefore seem strange, that books written to all the world by men equally concern'd to convert Gentiles as well as Jews, and difcourfes made exprefly to Gentiles as well as to Jews,

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(u) Rom. 16. 25, 26,

(w) Acts 13. 15-48. & 26. 22, 23. & 10. 37-43. -(x) Ib. 24. 14. Ib. 26. v. 6. &7.22, 23.

fhould be defign'd to be pertinent only to Jews: much lefs to a very few Jews. For (y) from the time the Jews began to allegorize their facred books (which was long after the captivity) there was an oppofition made to that method; and the Sadducees in particular, who were a numerous fect, oppos'd for a confiderable time before and in our Saviour's time, the new explications, and profefs'd to follow the pure text of fcripture, or to interpret it according to the literal fenfe. And tho' the Pharifees, who made up the body of the Jews, (as well as the Effenes) ufed the allegorical method in the times of Jesus and the Apostles; yet (~) they in great measure quitted that method, when christianity prevail'd, which was built on that method; and argu'd, as is well known, against the New Teftament for allegorizing the law and the prophets. And there

has been for a long time, and is at this time as little use of allegory in those respects among them, as there seems to have been during the time the books of the Old Testa

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y) Simon. Hift. Crit. du Vieux Teft. p. 92, 97. (1) Allix's Judgment of the Jewish Church against the Uni tarians, c. 23. Simon. Ib. p. 371. lb. Hift. Crit. du Nov. Tel. p. 245. Mangey's Remarks on Toland's Na zarenus, p. 37. Spencer de Leg. Hebr. p. 185.

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ment were written, which (a) feem the most plain of all antient writings; and wherein there appears not the leaft trace of a typical or allegorical intention in the any other Jews of their times. (b) written by Jews against the

authors, or in All the books christian religion,

Le Clerc, Bib.

(a) Jenkin's Reaf. Vol. 2. P. 153. Univ. tom. 10. 234. Ib. Bib. Cho. tom. 27. p. 391, 392. Cuneus Rep. des Hebr. Vol. 1. p. 377 378, 395.

(b) Scripta Judæi in Limborchii Amica Collatione; & WAGENSELII Tela Ignea Satane, which is a collection of Jewish Books against Christianity, wherein Rabbi Ifaac's Munimen fidei makes the chief figure.

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Some of these are cited and anfwer'd by KIDDER in bis Second and Third Volumes of his Demonftration of the Meffias; and others are cited by BASNAGE in his Hiftoire de Juifs. But the most important feem to me to be three Spanish Manufcripts. la fe; which is a translation of the aforefaid Munimen fidei, publifh'd by WAGENSEIL. 2. Providentia Divina de Dios con Ifrael, by SAUL LEVI MORTERA. This MORTERA was the Mafter of the famous SPINOZA; and this Work of his is efteem'd by the the Jews to be the forewdest book they have against Christianity. They are forbid, under pain of excommunication, to lend it to any chri Stian, for fear of drawing a form upon themselves for producing fuch strong objeftions against the chriftian religion. Wherefore no Copies are to be procur'd of it but by the greatest accidents. 3. Prevenciones Divinas contra la vana Ydolatria de las gentes, by ISAAC OROBIO, who was that learned Jew, that had the famous Controverfy with LIMBORCH, Pon. cerning the truth of the chriftian religion mentioned above. He had been. Profeffor of Pbilofophy and Phyfick in the Universities of Alcala and Sevil, and was a great Mafter in School-Divinity after the mode of the Spanish

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ligion, (fome whereof are printed; and others go about Europe in manufcript) chiefly attack the N. Testament (c) for the allegorical interpretations of the Old Testament therein, and that with the greatest infolence and contempt imaginable on that account, and oppose to them a literal and fingle interpretation as the true fenfe of the Old Testament. And accordingly the (d) allegorical interpretations given by chriftian expofitors of the prophecies, are now the grand obftacle and fumblingblock in the way of the converfion of the Jews to chriftianity.

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2. Secondly, there will be no ground for this diftinction, if we confider how much allegory was in ufe among the pagans; being cultivated by many of the philofophers themselves as well as by theologers; by fome as the method of delivering doctrines; but by (e) most as the method of explaining G 21: away

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Univerfities. The hiftory he gave of himself, and especially of his fufferings in the Inquifition to Mr. LIMBORCH and LE CLERC, is extreamly curious. LIMBORCH Hift. Inquif. p.158, 159, 223. LE CLERC, Bib. Univ. tom. 7. p. 289, &c.

(c) Allix's Judgment of the Jewish Church against the Uni tarians, p. 423.

(d) Whiston's Lectures, p. 13. Mangey's Remarks on Toland's Nazarenus, p. 123.

(e) Cicero, De Nat. Deor. 152. & 3..

Le Clerc Bibl. Choif. tom. 7. p. 8o, &c. Spencer) de legibus Hebr. p. 9.

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away what, according to the letter, appear'd abfurd in the antient fables or hiftories of their gods.

Religion itself was deem'd a (f) mysterious thing among the Pagans, and not to be publickly and plainly declar'd. Where fore it was never fimply reprefented to the people, but was moft obfcurely deliver'd and vail'd under allegories, or parables, or Hierogliphicks; and efpecially among the (g) Egyptians, Chaldeans, and the oriental nations. Si quis noverit perplexè loqui, loquatur: Sin minus taceat; was a (b) maxim of the Jews, but equally thought right and true by the Pagans. They alle-goriz'd many things of nature, and particularly the heavenly bodies; whence came the faying, tota eft fabula cœlum. They allegoriz'd all their (1) antient fables and ftories, and pretended to difcover in them the fecrets of natural philofophy, medicine, politicks, and, in a word, all arts and fciThe works of HOMER in particular have furnish'd infinite materials for all forts of allegorical commentators to work upon; and

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(f) Spencer de legibus, p. 182, &c.

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(g) Simon Hift. Crit. des Commentateurs, p.) 4.1 (b) Robinson's Natural History of Cumberland, &c. pt. 2. Introd. P. 9. d. Feudigal

(i) Clerici Hist. Ecclef. p. 23, 24.

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