Senfe in Prophefies be allow'd by us Chriftians, as to thofe Predictions, which were to be fulfill'd in our Saviour CHRIST, and if we own that we can no otherwife fhew their Completion, than by applying them fecondarily and typically to our Lord, after they had in their first and primary Intention been already plainly fulfill'd in the Times of the Old Testament, we lofe all the real Advantages of the ancient Prophefies, as to the Proofs of our common Chriftianity, and take a Method which exposes the Chriftian Religion to the Laughter of Infidels. In the Book before us, he calls the (b) allegorical Scheme weak and enthufiaftical, and one of the moft ill-grounded and pernicious Things that ever was admitted by Chriftians; and he speaks of it, as a great Reproach to the Gospel, and tending to harden the Jews in their Infidelity; tho' he confeffes, that taking the prefent Text of the Old Testament for genuine, it is impoffible to expound or apologize for the Apoftle's Application of the Prophefies they cite from the Old Teftament upon any other foundation; and he particuluarly calls the Hypothefes or allegorical Scheme discover'd and explain'd by SuRENHUSIUS abfurd and ridiculous. I fhall therefore confider, how Mr. WHISTON mends the Matter, and what Scheme of Things he would fet up in the Room of what he calls the abfurd, allegorical Scheme; which he owns to be founded on the present Text of the Old Testament. (a) Whiston's Essay, &c. p. 92. He He contends, that the (c) Apostles made their Quotations out of the Old Teftament rightly and truly, from the Septuagint, which was in their Times in vulgar Ufe and then (d) agreed with the Hebrew; and that as they made exact Quotations, fo they argued juftly and logically from the obvious and literal Senfe of the faid Quotations, as they then stood in the Old Teftament; but that fince their Times both the Hebrew and Septuagint Copies of the Old Testament have been fo greatly (e) corrupted, and so many apparent Disorders and Dislocations introduced therein, fo as to occafion many remarkable Differences, Inconfi ftencies, and Contradictions between the Old and New Teftament, in Respect to the Words and Sense of the Quotations made from the Old in the New Teftament; all which Corruptions of the Old Teftament and Differences and Inconfiftencies between the Old and New Teftament he accounts for in the following Manner. He fays, that the (f) Jews did, in the second Century, greatly corrupt and alter both the Hebrew and Septuagint Copies of the Old Testament, and efpecially with Respect to the Places cited in the New Teftament, out of Oppofition to Chriftianity, and with exprefs (g) Defign to make the Reasonings of the Apostles from the Old Testament inconclufive and ridiculous; that the Jews (f) 220. (c) Whifton's Effay, &c. p. 12, 16, 87, 176, 281, 328. did in the third Century give ORIGEN One of thefe corrupted Copies of the Septuagint, which ORIGEN, miftaking for genuine, put into his Hexapla, and thereby occafion'd the Christians to receive that corrupted Copy, inftead of the authentick Copy they had before among them; that in the latter End of the fourth Century, the Jews put into the Hands of Chriftians, who till that Time had been almost universally (b) ignorant of the Hebrew Tongue, a Copy of the Old Teftament in Hebrew corrupted like the Septuagint, which Copy they greedily received as a great Treasure from the Jews; and that therefore the difagreement between the Old and New Teftament, in Refpect both to the Exactness and Senfe of the faid Quotations, has no Place between the genuine Text (now not existing in any Copy) of the Old Teftament, but only between the prefent corrupted Text of the Old Teftament and the New Teftament. And therefore, in Order to juftify the Arguments and Reasonings of the Apostles, he proposes to restore the Text of the Old Testament as it ftood before the Days of ORIGEN, and as it ftood in the Days of JESUS and his Apostles. From which Text fo restored, he doubts not, but that it will appear, that the Apostles cited exactly, and argued juftly and logically, from the Old Teftament. The Method, by which he proposes to reftore us the true Text of the Old Testament, (b) Whifton's Eay. p. 224. er or a new and better Bible than That we have, is (not by the Means of any one intire Copy that has been loft, and is now found by him, but) by the Help of (i) the Samaritan Pentateuch; the Greek Pfalms, as attefted by the Roman Pfalter; the Antiquities of JOSEPHUS; the prefent Hebrew Text, the feveral Greek Editions and Manufcripts of the Septuagint Verfion, and the antient Translations made from it; the old Syriac Verfion, made from the Hebrew before the Copies of the Hebrew were fo corrupt as they now are; the Chaldee Paraphrafes; the Remains of the later Greek Verfons, particularly thofe of AQUILA, THEODOTION, and SYMMACHUS; the Works of PHILO; the Remains of the old Italick or Vulgate Verfion; the Apoftolick Conftitutions; the Fathers and Hereticks, who lived before, or not long after the Days of ORIGEN; the Hebrew Copies, that have never come into the Hands of the MASORITES, and the Greek Copies of the Septuagint Verfion, read in Churches in the first Ages of Christianity, or any Parts of them; and, above all, by the Help of Criticism, whereby he alters fome Paffages and changes the Places of others, which he supposes (k) diflocated. Upon this Scheme, which confifts of great Variety of Parts, I fhall make the following Obfervations; fome of which will, in my Opinion, fhow it to labour under as great (i) Whifton's Effay, &c. p. 329. and divers other Places. (k) Ib. p. 229. Difficulties Difficulties as Mr. WHISTON and others fuppofe the allegorical Scheme attended with, and hould lead them either back to the allegorical Scheme or to fome other Scheme, which may better account for all the feeming Differences, and Want of Connection between the Notions in the Old and New Teftament. II. That it is incredible, that the Old Testament fhould be fo corrupted as Mr. WHISTON afferts. T feems incredible, that ORIGEN (who was certainly a good Man and good Chriftian, as well as the most learned Apologist of all the Antients for Christianity) and other Christians of his Time; fhould be capable of having their (1) Vulgar Greek Bible, or Old Teftament (of which the Gentiles had Copies as well as the Chriftians) taken from them, or letting it drop into Oblivion and be loft, which inconteftably proved the Truth of Christianity by exactly recording the Paffages cited from thence in the New Testament by the Apostles, and by manifefting to all intelligent Readers, that the Apoftles cited, interpreted, and argued from, those Paffages juftly and truly; and fhould receive an Old Testament, (and That with the greatest Applause (1) Pezron Defenfe de l'Antiquité des Tems. p. 304. for |
