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fome Paffages and Sections which now feem to be misplaced, may be hereby put into an Order, that may add a Clearness and Connection, which they may be fufpected to want in their prefent Situation: And if we collect and examine the several little Notes, Remarks and Observations, which, tho' now found in feveral Places of the Pentateuch (0), were undoubtedly not written by Mofes, but added by fome later Hand, a judicious Examiner will fee of thefe, 1. That they are not so many as they are haftily thought to be. 2. That they are all of them inconfiderable; none of them fo neceffary in the Places they are found in; but that, if they were omitted, the Text would be full, clear, and connected without them: In this manner we may make the utmost Allowance to the feveral Objections offered against the Books of Mofes, and have a clear Conviction, that there is no Weight in any of them. That the Pentateuch contains the Books of Mofes, has been conftantly believed and teftified by the Jews in all Ages: Spinoza himself confeffes, that Aben Ezra only, a very modern Writer, pretended to have Doubts of it, and that his Intimations are but dark and obfcure: Jofephus tells us, as a Truth never queftioned, that five of their facred Books were the Books of Mofes (p), and our Saviour explains to us in what Senfe they were Mofes's Books, they were he tells us, Mofes's Writings: Had ye believed Mofes, faid he, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me; but if ye believe not his Writings, how fhall ye believe my Words (q)? .If it were poffible to fhew, that the Books we now read for Mofes's, were not the Books alluded to by our Saviour, fomething might be offered up

(0) Vid. Clerici Differtat, de Scriptore Pentateuch. (p) Jofeph. contra Apion. lib. i. c. 8. (4) John v. 46, 47.

on

on this Subject: But whoever will attempt this, will find himself not able to propofe any thing, that can want a Refutation.

When Mofes had made an End of writing what he was to leave the Ifraelites, He commanded the Levites, faying, Take this Book of the Law, and put it in the Side of the Ark (r) of the Covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a Witness against thee (s): It is here queried, what the Book was which Mofes here gave the Levites; whether all his written Works in one Code or Volume, or whether it was the Words of this Law (t); fome one fingle Book, which he had just then finished, a Part only of his Writings. Spinoza is for this latter Opinion, this beft fuiting his Purpose, to infinuate that the Levites had charge only of a finall Part of what Mofes wrote, and confequently, that all, except what was committed to their Keeping, was foon loft (u): But I fhould think, 1. that the Words, Dibrei hattorah bazzaoth, do not perhaps fignify the Words of this Law (w) limited to a fingle Book or Part of Mofes's Writings: The Particle N zaoth is, I think, fometimes used as plural (x), and the Expreffion above is probably of this Import; when Mofes had made an end of writing the Words of the Law, even all thefe [Words or Things]: The Fact might be thus Mofes wrote his Books thus far, to this Place; and then gave the Levites the Charge of them. 2. The Words ufed by Mofes to the Levites are general: He delivered to them, not The Book of this Law; not any particular Part of his Writings, but this Book of the Law in ge

(r) See Prideaux Connect. B. 3. Part. 1. Account of the Ark. (s) Deut. xxxi. 26. (t) See ver. 24. (u) In Tract. Theolog. polit. ubi fup. (w) Deut. xxxi. 24. (x) See Judges xiii. 23. b 2 neral

neral (y); the Particle this was here used, because Mofes had the Book then in his Hand, which he delivered to them: Seper ba Torah (z),. or feper Torah (a), was the Name of the whole Code or Volume of the Sacred Writings, never once given by Mofes to any fingle Part of his Works, but impofed here as a general Title of the Book, that contained the Whole of them: The Law was that Part of the Code for an Introduction to, Illustration, Hiftory, or Confirmation of which, all the other Parts were written, and therefore the whole might well be called the Book of the Law, the Law being the principal and most important Part of the Code called by this Title. As Mofes gave the facred Volume which he left to the Ifraelites this general Title fo we find it used in all After-ages for the Title of this Book, even when not only the Works of Mofes, but alfo the Pfalms and the Prophets were contained in it. Joba wrote his Book in the Book of the Law (b) and yet in Jofiah's Time the Volume found in the Temple, which undoubtedly contained all that Joshua had written in it, as well as Mofes, was called by its general. Name, The Book of the Law, only: In our Saviour's Time the Books of Scripture were of three forts, as Jofephus afterwards reckoned them (c); namely, the Books of Mofes, the Prophets, and the Pfalms (d): And our Saviour, who thus diftinguishes them, when he intended to speak of the Particulars that made up the facred Code, yet in the general not only calls all the Books of Mofes, The Law (e); but cites the Book of Pfalms as Part of the Law (f), as the Jews alfa

את ספר התורה הזה (9)

(x) 2 Kings xxii. 8, (a) Jofhua xxiv. 26. 2 Chron. xxxiv, 14 (6) Joshua xxiv. 26. (c) Jofeph. contra Apion. lib. 1. c. 8. Luke xxiv. 44.

(e) Ibid. (f) John xv. 25.

(d)

did in his Age (ff), and St. Paul afterwards cited Ifaiah in like manner (g): Mofes, at delivering his Writings, called the whole Tome, The Book of the Law, and this continued to be the general Title of the whole Volume of the facred Books in all Ages, whatever particular Books were annexed to or contained in it. As to the Book of the Wars of the Lord, we have no Reafon to think any fuch Book was written by Mofes It is indeed cited in a Book of Mofes (k); but fo is the Book of Jafher in that of Jofbua (1), and yet the Book of Jafher was a Compofure more modern and of far lefs Authority than the Book of Fofbua: The Reader may fee what is offer ed concerning the Citation of the Book of Jafher in Joshua (m), and will find it reafonable perhaps to account for the Citation in Numbers of the Book of the Wars of the Lord in like manner: In what is above offered the Reader will fee the greatest Liberty taken by me in the Suppofitions I have made concerning the original Divifions or Titles of the Books of Mofes, and the Dislocations or Tranfpofitions that may be conceived now to be in fome Chapters or Paragraphs of them: I was willing to allow, for the fake of Argument, the utmost that could with any Shew of Reason be pretended; being fure, that after all, nothing could be concluded to prove Mofes not to have written what we afcribe to him; but I must not leave this Topic without obferving, that I cannot fay, that Mofes did actually divide his Writings into Books in the manner above fuppofed, or that the Chapters, which we may imagine not to be now found in their proper Places, were Originally otherwise difpofed by Mofes than we now

14.

(f) John xii. 34. (g) 1 Cor. xiv. 21. (k) Numbers xxi. (Joshua x. 13. (m) See B. xii. P. 502.

find them: Of all the Books written by Mofes, the Book of Genefis only could be composed by him in the Opportunity of a great Leifure (n): He must have lived in the Hurry of a Variety of Engagements in the Management of a moft reftlefs People, all the time he was writing his Accounts of them, and confequently, what is contained in what we now call the Books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, might be at first minuted down, and put together, as Works generally are, which are compofed and finished in fuch Circumstances: The historical Parts were registered as the Occurrences arose that were the Matter of them. The Laws given were recorded when, and as it pleased God to direct Mofes to write them; fometimes immediately at their being given, at other times not until Occafions arole, that demanded a Recollection of them: Some things were repeated, added to, or explained, as Circumftances required, and Mofes had no time to go over and methodize anew what he had wrote in this manner, but put the whole together and gave it to the Levites, ftill adding a few Matters that were to be recorded after his ordering the Levites the Charge of his Books; namely, what we find from the 24th Verfe of the xxxift Chapter of Deuteronomy to the End of the xxxiiid Chapter, as Joshua afterwards added to what was left by Mofes, the Occurrences of the Times that fucceeded. In chis manner, perhaps, we may fully account for all that can feem in any wife to intimate to us, that we have not now the Books of Mofes in the Order and Form in which he left them; and this Account of his Books feems to me most likely

(2) See Vol. II. B 9.

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