Exposition of the Whole Bible

“: 739 xiv. 4. it may denoté all that prefervation, protection, profperity, and happinefs, inward and outward, which they that feared the Lord enjoyed thro’ Chrift, when the unbelieving ews were deftroyed; and which is further expreffed by what follows: and ye Jhall go forth; not out of the world, or out of their graves, as fome think; but either out of Feru/alem, as the chriftians ‘did a little before its deftruction, being warned fo to do * whereby they were preférved from that calamity; or it intends a going forth with liberty in the exercife of grace and duty, in the exercife of faith on Chrift, love to him, hope in him; repentance, humility, felf-denial, &c. and in a chearful obedience to his will, or elfe walking on in his ways, having health and ftrength, with great pleafure and comfort; and as Aben Ezra fays, by the light of this fun. And grow up as calves of the fail; fuch as are fat, being put up there for that purpofe; fee dmos vi. 4. 1 Sam. xxviii. 24. Bochart * has proved, from many paffages out of the Talmud‘, that the word which the T¢rgum here makes ufe of, and anfwers to that in the Hebrew text, which is rendred /tal/, fignifies a yoke or collar, with which oxen or heifers were. bound together, whilft they were threfhing or treading out of corn; fo that the calves or heifers here referred to, were fuch as were not put up in a ftall, bur were yoked together, and employed in treading out the corn; now as there was a law, that fuch fhould rot be muzzled, whilft they were thus employed, but might eat of the corn on the floor freely and plentifully, Deut. xxv. 4. thefe ufually grew fat, and fo were the choiceft and moft defirable, to which the allufion may be here, and in Jer. xlvi. 21. Amos vi. 4. and are a fit emblem of faints joined together in holy fellowfhip, walking together in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord; where they get {piritual food for their fouls, and are in thriving circumftances; where they meet with the corn of heaven, with that corn which makes the young men chearful, and that bread which nourifhes up to everlafting life. The apoftle alludes to the cuftom of oxen yoked together, either in plowing, or in treading out the corn, when he fays, fpeaking of church-fellowfhip and communion in the ordinances of the gofpel; be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers, 2 Cor. vi. 14. for this hinders fpiritual edification, as well as the promotion of the glory of God; but where they are equally yoked, and go hand in hand together in the work and ways of the Lord, they grow and flourifh; they are comfortable in their fouls, and lively in the exercife of grace; and they are the moft thriving chriftians, generally fpeaking, who are in church-communion, and moft conftantly attend the means of grace, and keep clofeft to the word and ordinances: for the metaphor here ufed, is defigned to exprefs a fpiritual increafe in all grace, and in the knowledge of Chrift, and a growing up into him in all things, thro’ the ufe of means, the word and ordinances; whereby faints become fat and flourifhing, being fed with the milk of the word, and the breafts of ordinances, and having fellowfhip with one another; and above all, this {piritual growth is owing to the dews of the grace of God, the fhining of the fun of righteouinefs, and the comfortable gales of the fouthwind of the Spirit of God, which caufe the {pices to flow out. The Septuagint verfion, and a that loofed from bonds as fuch creatures well fed do when at liberty; and may denote the fpiritual joy of the faints upon their being healed, or becaute of their fecure, fafe, and profperous eftate: and fo the word is explained in the Talmud *, they fhall delight themfelves in it; where the Rabdins interpret this and the preceding verfe of the natural fun in the firmament, which will be the hell ' in the world to come, and which will burn the wicked, and heal the righteous.

¥. 3. And ye fhall tread down the wicked, &c.] As grapes in the wine-prefs, as Chrift did before them, J/ Ixiii. 2, 3. and they by virtue of him; who makes them more than conquerors thro’ himfelf, over all their enemies, fpiritual and temporal: for they foall be afbes under the foles of your feet; this refers to the burning of them, y¥. 1. and may be literally underftood of their being burnt with the city and temple; when afterwards, as Grotius obferves, the city of Yeru/alem being in fome meafure rebuilt, and called #/ia, there was a chriftian church in it, governed by bifhops, who were converted Fews; and fo might be literally faid to trample upon the afhes of the wicked, who had perfecuted them in times paft, they being upon the very fpot where thefe men were deftroyed by fire: in the day that I fhall do this, faith the Lord of bofts; or in the day which I make™, that is, by the rifing of the fun of righteoufnefs, the gofpel-day. The Talmud * interprets this verfe of the bodies of the wicked in hell, which after twelve months will be confumed, and the wind will fcatter them under the foles of the feet of the righteous.

y. 4. Remember ye the law of Mofes my fervant, &c.] Who was faithful as fuch in the houfe of God, in delivering the law to the children of J/- vael, which was given him; and who are called upon to remember it, its precepts and its penalties, which they were apt to forget: and particularly this exhortation is given now, becaufe no other prophet after Malachi would be fent unto them, this is what they fhould have and ufe as their rule and dire€tory; and becaufe that Chrift, now prophefied af, would be the end of this law; and this, and the prophets, were to be until the days of Yobx the Baptit, fpoken of in the next verfe; and the rather, becaufe in this period of time, between Malachi and the coming of Chrift, the traditions of the elders were invented and obtained, which greatly fet afide the law, and made it of no effect: which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Ifrael; for tho’ the law came by Mo/es, and is therefore called his, yet God was the author and efficient caufe of it; Mofes was only a fervant and minifter; and this was given in Horeb, the fame with Sinai: thefe are names of one and the fame mountain, at leaft of the parts of it; one part of it was called Horeb, from its being a dry defert and defolate place; and the other Sinai, from its bufhes and brambles.. So Ferom ° fays, ‘* Horeb, the moun- ‘¢ tain of God, is in the land of Midian, by mount *< Sinai, above Arabia in the wildernefs, to which ‘* are joined the mountain and wildernefs of the ** Saracens, called Pharan; but to me it feems the “« fame mountain is called by two names, fome- that follow it, render it, ye /hall leap or Rip as calves;

“* times Sinai, and fometimes. Horeb;”" fee Exod, xxxi..18. and xxxii.a, 2. and xxxili. 6. Agree able to. which Fo/epbus? calls Horeb, where Mo/es fed his flock, and faw. the vifion of the burni bufh, mount Sinai; and fays, it was the higheft of the mountains in thofe parts, very convenient for pafture, and abounded with excellent herbage. Some fay *, the eaftern part of it was called Sinai, and the weftern part Horeb; it is very likely they joined together at the bottom of the mountain, and were the two tops of it. This being mentioned fhows, that the law ftrictly taken, and not the prophets, is here defigned, for no other was commanded, ordered, or delivered in Horeb; and that was for all the children of J/rael in fucceflive ages, until the coming of the Meffiah, and for them only, as to the miniftration of it by Mofes.

With the fiatutes and judgments; the laws ceremonial and judicial, which were given to Mo/es, at the fame time the law of the decalogue was, to be obferved by the children of J/rae/, and which were fhadows of things to come; namely, thofe of them that were of a ceremonial nature, and therefore to be remembred and attended to as leading to Chrift, and the things of the gofpel.

¥. 5. Behold, I will fend you Elijah the prophet, &c.] Not the Tibbite, as the Septuagint verfion wsongly inferts inftead of prophet; not Elijah in perfon, who lived in the times of 4bab; but Fohs. the Baptift, who was to come in the power and fpirit of Eijah, Luke i. 17. between whom there was a great likenefs in their temper and difpofition;

‘in their manner of cloathing, and auftere way of living; in their courage and integrity in reproving vice; and in their zeal and ufefulnefs in the caufe of God and true religion; and in their famous piety and holinefs of life; and in being both prophets; fee Matt. xi. 11. and xiv. 5. and that he is intended, is clear from Ma#t. xvii.10o—13. and Mark ix. 12, 13. It is anotion of the Jews, as Kimchi and.others, that the very Elijah, the fame that lived in the days of bab, thall come in perfon before the coming of their Meffiah they vainly expect, and often {peak of difficult things to be left till K/ias comes and folyes them; but for fuch a notion there is no foundation, either in this text or’ elfewhere. And as groundlefs is that of fome of the ancient chriftian fathers, and of the papifts, as

Lyra and others, that Elijah with Enoch will come before the day of judgment, and reftore the church of God ruined by antichrift, which they fuppofe is meant in the next claufe. Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; that is, before the coming of Chrift the Son of David, as the Jews * themfelves own; and which is to be under- {tood, not of the fecond coming of Chrift to judgment, tho’ that is fometimes called the great day, and will be dreadful to Chriftlefs finners; but of the firft coming of Chrift, reaching to the deftruction of Ferufalem: Fobn the Bapti/t, his forerunner, the Hijab here fpoken of, came proclaiming wrath and terror to impenitent finners; Chrift foretold and denounced ruin and deftruction to the Fewi/b nation, city and temple; and the time of Feru/alem’s deftruction was a dreadful day indeed, fuch a time of affliction as had not been from the crea-

' A notion they elfewhere frequently inculcate, and is dot intprobable; and which has been of late advanced and defended by a very learned man of our own country, Mr. Tobias tion, Matt, xxiv. 21. and the Talmud interprets * this of the forrows of the Meffiah, or which hall be in the days of the Meffiah. ie ¥. 6. And he fhall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, &c.] Or with the children, as Kimchi; and Ben Melech obferves, that by is put for ty, and fo in the next claufe: and the heart of the children to their fathers; or with their fathers; that is, both fathers and children: the meaning is, that Yobn the Baptift Miould be an inftrument of converting many of the ews, both fathers and’ children, and bringing them to the knowledge and faith of the true Meffiah; and reconcile them together who- were divided by the.fchools of - Hiz ell and Shammai, and by the fects of the Sadducees and Pharifees, and bring them to be of one. mind, judgment, and faith, and to have a hearty love to one another, and the Lord Chrift; fee Matt. iii. 5, 6. and the note on Luke i. 17. The Talmudifts * interpret this of compofing differences, and making

| 74° peace. Left I come and fmite the earth with a curfe; the land of Fudea; which becaufe the greater part of the inhabitants of it were not converted to the Lord, did riot believe in the Meffiah, but rejected him, notwithftanding the preaching and teftimony of Fohn the Baptift, and the miniftry arid miracles of Chrift, it was fmitten with a curfe, was made defolate, and deftroyed by the Roman emperors,

Vefpafian and Adrian, as inftruments doing what God here threatened he would do; for not the whole earth is intended, as the Targum and Abarbinel fauggeft; but only that land, and the people of it, are intended, to whom the law of Mo/es was given; and to whom Elias,.or Febn the Bapiift, was to be fent; and to whom he was fent, ane did come; and by whom he was rejeéted,” a alfo the Méffiah he pointed’ at; for which*‘lyat country was {mitten with’ a curfe, and remains under it to this day.

N Vol. I. on 7/ liii. 12. after Mark xv. 28. add, if <* and be bore the fin of many; every.one of their “* fins, even the fins of all thofe whofe iniquity was «© Jaid upon him, of the many chofen in him, and juftified by him; fee the note on ¥.11. where this ** is given as a reafon of their ‘juftification; and here repeated as if done, to fhew the certainty *< of it; to raife the attention to. it, as being. a ‘¢ matter of great importance; fee 1 Pet. ii. 24.”

In Vol. II. on Zepb. ii. 5. after:1 Kings i. 38, 44. add, ‘* tho’ a learned man *, who gives into << the opinion that thefe were royal guards, yet << thinks they were not f{trangers and idolaters, but profelytes to the Fewi/h religion at leaft; and « rather J/raelites, choice felected men, men of ftrength and valour, of military courage and fkill, picked out of the nation, to guard the king’s perfon; and who were called Cherethites and Pelethites, from the kind of fhields and targets they wore, called Cetra and Pelta: and it <¢ ig a notion feveral of the Fewi/h writers » have, that they were two families in J/rael; but. it

«* feems plain and evident, that a foréign nation is *¢ here meant, which lay on the fea-coaft, and be- ** longed to the Philiftines.

On Zepb. ii. 9. after even the breeding of nettles, add, ** or deft to nettles‘; or rather to thorns, as “* the Targum: and.fo the Vulgate Latin verfion “* renders it, the drinefs. of thorns, tho’ to,a-very ** poor fenfe. In general, the meaning of. the ‘¢ phrafe, is, that thofe countries fhould be very ** barren and defolate, like fuch places as are over- ‘* run with nettles, thorns, briers, and brambles; “< and thefe fo thick, that there is no paffing thro’ ‘* them without a man’s tearing his garments and «¢ his flefh: for Schultens *, from the ufe-of the ‘¢ word ° in -the Arabic language, fhews,:that the “¢ words ‘are to’ be rendered, a thicket of thorns “ which tear; and cut the feet of thofe that pais *¢ thro’ them, and even their whole body,.as well *¢ as their cloaths; and wherever thefe. grow. in ‘¢ fuch plenty, it is a plain fign of a barren land, “¢ as well as what follow:” aud falt-pits, &c.

© piss laceravit, laceratts

DissERTATION on the APOCRYPHAL W RITINGS.

the Holy Ghoft departed from J/rael, or prophecy ceafed; and that this is one of the five things wanting in the fecond temple, the Holy Ghoft, that is, prophecy ®; and that there was no prophet under that temple*; mean= ing after the building of it was finifhed, for they fuppofe it continued whilft the three above prophets lived; and they all agree that Malachi was the laft of the prophets; and whom 4ben Ezra ¢ calls, S)N'1) AND the end of the prophets, at whofe death prophecy ceafed: and if there were no fpirit of prophecy, nor any prophet after thofe times, until prophecy began to dawn in ohn the Baptift, Malachi prophefies of, then there could be no books written by the infpiration of the Spirit of God within that period. The eeremonial books of the Old Teftament, with the ‘ews *, are thefe, the five books of Mo/fes, which we call Genefis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; the prophets in this order, Fofbua and Fudges, Samuel and Kings, Feremiah and Ezekiel, Ifaiah and the twelve (whom we call the leffer prophets); the Hagiographa in this order, Ruth, Pfalms, Fob, Proverbs, Ecclefiaftes, the Song of Songs, Lamentations, Daniel, Efther, Ezra (which includes Nehemiah), and Chronicles. And with this account agrees ‘fo/ephus ', who fays, the Fews have only twenty-two books; five of which are the books of AZo/es; thirteen wrote by the prophets; and by making Fudges and Ruth one book, 1 and 2 Samuel another; 1 and 2 Kings one book, and alfo reckoning Ferémiab and Lamentations but one; and the twelve minor prophets but one, as they are in 4és vii. 42, Ezra and Nehemiah one, and 1 and 2 Chronicles one, they come to juft that number; and the other four, he fays, contain hymns to God, and precepts relating to the life of men, which are Pfalms, Proverbs, Ecclefiaftes, and the Song of Songs. “The catalogue of the books of the Old Teftament, which Alito * brought from the eaft in the fecond century, contains the fame books, excepting Nehemiah included in Ezra, and E/fher, which are not mentioned, and no other, or more. Agteeable to all which Origen ® relates, that the books of the Old Teftament, according to the Hebrew, are twenty-two’; twenty-one of which he reckons and accounts for in the manner as above, making no mention of the twelve lefler prophets, which make one book, ‘The fame number of books is obferved by Epiphanius ' in the fourth century, and reckoned canonical, and others not; and yet notwithftanding this, there are feveral books written, between the times of Malachi the laft of the prophets, and the times of the New Teftament, which are not only accounted canonical by the papifts, but are tranflated and bound,up in many bibles fet forth by prote/fants, and even in our own; tho’ much complained of by many great and good men, as having a tendency to lead the common people efpecially, to look upon them as of equal anthority with the infpired writings; particularly by that very learned countryman of ours, Mr,

Hugh Broughton, who obferves *, that ‘* placing the trifling Apocrypha betwixt both Teftaments, is an infinite injury «* to the high and holy bible; and ‘fews.think, that our New Teftament fhould be no better than the fables which ‘* we join to it, feeing commonly men join like to like; alfo they think we have no more judgment for the Old Te- «« ftament, than for the fables that go upon it.” Very remarkable are the words of the very judicious’ and learned Dr. Lightfoot |, ‘¢ Tertullian, he fays, calls the prophet Malachi the bound or fkirt of Fudaifin and Chriftianity, a ftake s¢ that tells, that there promifing ends, and performing begins; that prophefying concludes, and fulfilling takes place; ‘s there is not a fpan between thefe two plots of holy ground, the Old and New Teftament, for they touch each «¢ other. What do the papifts then, when they put and chop in the Apocrypha for canonical feripture, between AZa- ‘s Jachi and Matthew, law and gofpel? What do they but make a wall between the feraphim, that they cannot hear «* each other’s cry? What do they but make a ftop between the cherubim, that they cannot touch each other’s wing? ‘*s What do they but make a ditch between thofe grounds, that they cannot reach each other’s coafts? What do ‘* they but remove the land-mark of the fcriptures? and f are guilty of, curfed be he that removes his neighbour's mark, s¢ Deut. xxvii. 17. And what do they but divorce the marriage of the Teftaments? and fo are guilty of the breach “¢ of, that which God hath foined together, let no man put afunder,’” "The books referred to, and which as they ftand

in fome copies of our bibles, are, the 1 and 2 of E/dras, Tobit, Fudith, additions to the book of E/ffher, the wifdom of Solomon, Ecclefiafticus, Baruch, and the epiftle of ‘feremy; the fong of the'three children, the hiftory of Su/ainas and of Bel and the Dragon; the prayer of Manafeh, and 1 and 2 of the Adaccabees. Thefe books did not obtain ‘for the moft part much until the gth and roth centuries, and were in the 16th century eftablifhed by the council of Trent, They are called Apocrypha, from the Greek word amoxpunlw to bide, becaufe they were not ‘received into the canon of the fcriptures, and were not allowed to be publickly read in the churches, but lay hid in the chefts, clofets, and libraries of men, where they were privately read; and where indeed they fhould have been’kept, and not expofed f to public view, at leaft not in the manner they are, that is, bound up with our bibles; but fhould be feparate, and — read as other human writings are, with care and caution. So the ews, when they would pronounce 2 beok not ca~

[: is frequently faid by the Fews *, that after the death of the latter prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, nonical, or,condemn it.as apocryphal, ufe much the fame language: it is faid ™, that once they had fome doubt about Proverbs and Ecclefiaftes, becaufe fome things at firft fight feemed contradiftory, and they had a mind 399: to hides treafure up, and, keep them, out of fight, or to make them apocryphal; but better confidering the paflages, and be-. ing, fatisfied with the fenfe. of them, they did not hide or lay them up. I thall make fome few remarks, upon thé aboye books, as they are placed in our bibles. __

The firft in order are the 1ft, and 2d of E/dras, or as fometimes, called, the 3d and 4th, the true Ezra and Nebemiah being accounted the 1ft and.ad; thefe are both reckoned by Ferom® among the apocryphal writings, and. not to be found among the ‘fews, and only to be regarded by fuch as delight in dreams; nor was there ever any Hebrew copy of either of them. Of the firft of thefe Badwel, a commentator of the apocryphal books, fays, that neither an Hebrew nox a. Greek copy of it were ever feen; but tho’ there is not any reafon to believe it ever was wrote in Hebrew, yet Greek copies of it have been: unius tranflated it out of Greek; and it is both in Greek and Syriac in Walton’s Polyglot bible. It begins with ‘Fo/iah’s keeping the paflover in the 18th year of his reign, atid reaches to the 7th of Artaxerxes;, from whom E/dras had a commiffion to go up to Feru/alem, and look after the affairs of it. Excepting the idle ftory of the opinion of the three young men, one of which is faid to be Zorobabel, concerning what was ftrongeft, wine, women, aking, or truth, which feems to be taken. by the author out of Fofephus °, the whole is a collection and extracts out of the books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, and in which the writer does not always agree with them; and makes many miftakes, as when he makes Zorobabel to be a young mam‘in the times of Darius; and ‘foachim to, be the fon of Zarobabel, ch. v. 5. whereas he was the fon of Fefbua, Neh. xii. 10. and calls Darius king of Afyria, whereas that monarchy was then at an end, and Darius was king of the Per/fians; and makes fome things to be done in the times of Darius, which were done in the times of Cyrus?.; fee ch. iv. 48, 57, 58. compared with Ezra i. 32. andiii.1. As for the 2d of E/dras, fometimes called the 4th, it never appeared in Hebrew or Greek, only in Latin, and is full of fables, dreams, and vifions; and is fo bad, that it was oppofed im the council of Trent, and could not be carried for authentic there; tho’ fome things are borrowed out of it by the Latin church, and ufed in its office. Mr, Gregory 1 makes mention of an Arabic manufeript of it, which he fays gives it better credit.and reputation. The writer of it feems to have been a Yewi/h Rabbi, by his making mention of Uriel the: archangel, or Ferémiel, as in fome copies, ch. v. 36. one of the four angels, which, according to the Fews', ftand round the throne of the divine majefty; and by the fable of Enoch, in fome copies Behemoth, and. Leviathan, the one. ordained for a part of the world wherein are a thoufand hills, and the other for another feventh part of it moift, ch. vi. 49, 52. and in like manner the ews fpeak of Behemoth lying on a thoufand hills, on which it feeds *; and of the Leviathan and his mate, created at the beginning; and of the latter being killed and falted, and referved for the feaft of the. righteous in the days of the Meffiah t: and by his fuggefting that the fcriptures were entirely loft, ch. iv, 23. and xiv. 21. which feems calculated to fupport that notion, that Ezra was divinely infpired, to write over. again all the books.of the Old Teftament «; and from abundance of paflages in this book, it appears that the author had read the New Teftament, and. particularly the book of the Revelation, whofe ftile in fome places he imitates,.and manifeftly refers to. various, parts of thofe writings; as when he fpeaks of the figns of the times, and of the third trumpet, and of many other things: fo that he feems to have lived in the fecond century, and perhaps was a Few. become chriftian, in name at Jeaft. Both thefe books are rejected by the Fezws ¥.

The book of Tobit ftands next; whether it was originally wrote in Hebrew is a queftion; there are two Hebrew copies of. it publifhed, one by Aunjter, and another by Fagius: the fermer had his from Ofwald Schreckenfuchfius, as he himfelf fays;, and that of Fagius was what was publifhed by the ews at Con/tantinople; and which Mr. Gregory * takes to. be the undoubted text of Tobit: and Ca/falio tranflated his out of an Hebrew copy 3 but there are fo many Gracifis jn it, as Fabricius ¥ obferves, as well as in thofe’of AMZunfter and Fagius, that they feem to be'tranflated out, of the Greek language;, wherefore the Greek copy is preferred by ‘funius, from which he made his tranflation. “ferom’s tranflation of this book was out of a copy in the Chaldee language *, in which perhaps it was firft written. by fome Few after the Bebylanifh captivity: for tho’ Tobit is reprefented ‘as carried captive by Salmanefer, who. is called Enemeffar; and mention is made of Sennacherib, and of Sarchedon, by whom Efarhadden feems to be meant; and his fon Tobias is made to live to the deftruction of Nineveh by Nebuchadnezzar and Affuerus, which he is faid tochearsof before his death; yet this hiftory feems to have been written many years after, as might be concluded by its: original being Chaldee, no books being written in that language before the Babylonifb captivity;' and from ‘the mame of an angel in it, the names of which were brought from Babylon, as the Jews fay *, as Michael, Raphael, Gabriels and efpecially it muft be, if. ferom’s verfion is right, according to which in ch. xiv. 7: itis faid, the boufe- of wud which in it (T/rael) is burnt, foall be built again, tho’ indeed, in other verfions, it is delivered’as‘a prophecy: fo which may be added that R. Gedaliah fays *, there are fome that fay, that this affair of Tobit was after the deftruction of the firft temple, inthe days of the captivity of Babylon; and if fo, it catinot be a true hiftory, but a {purious botinia In.ch.' xiv. 10. mention is made of Aman, who lived in the times of E/ther, fome ages after this ftory; nor is it likely that two men, father and fon, fhould live to fuch an age as thefe did, the one 158, and the other 127 yéats. 2 And certain it is, it could never be written by divine infpiration, for no lie is of the truth; whereas a moft pres a is told bythe angel, who. affirmed himfelf to be Azarias, the fon of Ananias the Great, ch. v. 12. and: sine appears by the fabulous ftories told in it, of Sarab’s feyen hufbands being killed by an evil fpirit' one after another, as foon as married to her, ch. ii, 8. and of the-evil fpirit being driven away by the finell and fmoke of the heart and Jiver of a fifh, being laid on the. afhes or embers of perfumes; and of his being botlid? by the angel in the i ae side *

Egypt, whither he fled, ch. viii. 2, 3. and of the cure of Tobit’s blindnefs with the gall of the | whatever may be faid for the latter, fince the gall of the fith Callionymus, which this is fuppofed = be, a Pliny *, is ‘good againft the whitenels of the eyes, and to remove fuperfluous flefh from them, tho’ fcarcely in fuch inftantaneous manner as here; yet it can never be thought that fpirits, which are incorporeal, can be sffalh ‘ith fmell and fmoke of any thing. It feems eye a Fewifh fable; and there is a great deal of reafon to thi the whole was: wrote by a Fewi/h Rabbi, mention being made of the angel Raphael, one of the four angels, which, ace” cording to the Fews, furrounded the throne of God, as before obferved of Uriel; and here faid to be one of the ‘ara angels which prefent the prayers of the faints to him, ch. xii. 15. So E/xai the heretick, who was originally a Few,

{peaks of the angels of prayer * 5 and with the ‘fews there is mention made of an angel, whofe name was eres who was appointed over the prayers of the righteous °; and the name of the evil fpirit 4/modeus, ch. iii, 8, 17. known by the: ‘Fezwi/h Rabbins, and is fo called from “t¥9%"°5- which fignifies to deftroy, the fame with Apollyon, a ms ftroying angel: the Fews fay he was:the king of devils; and that Naamah, the fifter of Tubal-Cain, was his mother, of whom many demons were born, as Elias Levita ® fays; ae himfelf is of opinion, that he is the op Samael, the angel of death, the ‘ews often {peak of: this 4/mo is faid to be the evil fpirit that drove Sclmon from his throne, when he grew proud and haughty *» The book feems to be written, to recommend mercy, charity, a. alms:deeds, which are highly extolled in Rabbinical writings: alms and beneficence are anfwerable, they ay, whole law; and fo great is the efficacy of sii that it caufes the redemption to draw nigh ¥; and delivers from we;

judgment of hell’; and entitles to eternal life ™: yet this book is not reckoned authentic by them; they fay this is one of the books the chriftians add to their fatigitiitds: and is received by them, but not by us".: The hiftory:of Fzdith follows upon the former. “This book does not appear to havejbeen written originally i in 1 ee brew, nor is it received by the Fews ©, Origen exprefsly fays °, P, the ‘fews have it not in the Hebrew tongue; tho’ Munfter {eems not to doubt of a Hebrew copy of it in his time at Con/tantinople; which yet might be no other’ than a tranflation. That which Ferom tranflated from, was in Chaldee?; 3 and very probably it might be written in that language originally, and perhaps by fome Few, fond of fuperftitious rites and ceremonies; fee ch. viii. 6. who feigned this ftory for the honour of his nation, tho’ in a very foolifh and fomantic manner, and it feems after -the Babylonifh captivity; for it {peaks of the Fews as having been led captive into a land not theirs, and of the temple of their God being caft to the ground, and their cities taken by the enemies; and of their being now returned, and come up from.

the places where they were feattered; ‘and of their being newly returned from the captivity, and yet fo long as that. the temple was rebuilt, and its veffels and altar fanétified, which are frequently mentioned in it; fee ch. iy, 3. and v.18, 19.’and ix. 1. and xvi. 20. all which is utterly inconfiftent ‘with this affair being tranfaéted; either in the twelfth, or in the feventeenth or eighteenth year of Nebuchadnexzar,’ where another contradi@ion may be obferved, which was- before the deftruGtion of Ferufalem, and’ captivity of the Fews; and the Fewi/h chronologer * places this hiftory, according to fome, in the reign of Cambyfes, who is fuppofed'to be called Nebuchadnezzar, that being faid to be a common name to the kings of Babylon, as Pharaoh to the kings of Egypt: but that does not appe r by any ine: flance; and if it was common to the kings of Babylon, yet not furely to a king of Perfia, for fuch Camby/fes was; and’ befides, he did not reign fo long as this king did 5 for according to Ptolemy’s canon, he reigned but eight years in all.

It is very improbable that there ever was fuch ah affair tranfaéted as is here recorded, for excepting the name of Ne-~ buchadnezzar, there is no other to be met with elfewhere, in facred or profane hiftory, that can be thought to ‘refer to thofe times.. The name-of the woman, Fudith, nor her ftory, are to be met with in WOG ofephus; nor fuch a place as Bethulia in the land'of Z/rael; nor any mention of Foacim an high-prieft, neither in the fcriptures, nor in Fe ofe~ phus’s catalogue of them under the. firft temple; nor of Achior the Ammonite; nor of Arphaxad king of ‘the Medes, who is faid to build Ecbatana, which, according to Herodotus *, was built by Dejoces; and therefore Dr, Prideaux ® conjectures he is meant by 4rphaxad, as Saofduchinus by Nebuchadnezzar; nor any fuch perfon as Halofernes, Nebu= chadnezzar’s general: wherefore Grotius takes it to be a parabolical fition, and that by Fudith is meant “Fudea; by Bethulia, the temple; bythe {word from thence, the prayers of the faints; by Nebuchadnezzar, the devil; and by his kingdom of Affjria, the devil’s kingdom, pride; by Holofernes, his inftrument and ‘agent in perfecution, Antiochus

Epiphanes, who made himfelf mafter of Fudea; and ‘foacim or Eliakim fignify, that God would arife and help her,.

and cut him off: and Mr, Hugh Broughton“, long before him, feems to take it in fuch a light, who fays, << the Fews *¢ commonwealth is properly Fudith, and a clofe warning framed, that ‘Fudith, the Fews ftate, calling for vengeance “* by great Alexander, will cut off the head of Holofernes, the Perfian ftate.” However, it is plain enough, that be jt a real hiftory,. it could not be penned by infpiration; for this woman Fudith declares to Holofernes, fhe would tell him -no ‘lie;,-which yet fhe did; and fays they were things told and declared to her, the contrary to which fhe knew; nay, fhe prays that God would fimite by the deceit of her lips the prince with the fervant, ch. ix. 10. and xi, 5, 19:

fhe ufes very impure and indecent language in {peaking of the rape of Dinab, and commends and praifes the fa@ of

Simeon, which was condemhed. by the Lord, ch. ix, 2. fee Gen. xxxiv.30. and xlix: 5, 6. mention is made of tie fons of the Titans, and of the high giants, referring to heathenifh romances, which is not agreeable to an infpired:. writer, ch. xvi. 7. nor is it probable that fuch a town as Bethulia is reprefented to be, fhould ftand out againft fuch ~ a numerous army, or that that fhould flee upon the death of a fingle perfon; and many more improbabilities might — be obferyed in this account, particularly in the enterprize of Judith, and her fuccefs. The hiftory is clofed |

: Te ow e, *: v _ ~s on the Apocriphal Writings. — 745 ferving, that J/rae/ had no trouble from their enemies all her days herice forward, and a long time aftet Ker death 5 which peace mutt have lafted 80 years at leaft, which was what the ‘fews never enjoyed fince they werd d nation, as Dr. Prideaux obferves; for adds he, allowing her td have been 45 years old at her killing of Holofernes, there mutt be 60 years after to the time of her Heath; (for thé lived to be 105), and a Jong time after in the text carinot imply lefs than 20 years; and if the was but 25, which is an age thuch more reafondble to fuppofe to captivate with her beauty; as well as better agrees with her beirig called wasdioxn xadn, a fair damfel; or beautiful young woman, cli. xii. 13, this time of profperity muft have lafted 100 years, arid will not agree with any tine either before of after the captivity: to which may be added orie obfervation more, that in Ferom’s verfion, which is thought to be the beft, it is faid, that ‘* the feftival of this viftory was received by the Hebrews into the number of their holy days, and was ob- “© ferved by them frdm that time to the prefent day 5” which laft claufe betrays the writer of the hiftory to have lived a confiderable time after the fa&t: now no fuch feftival is to be found in the Ferwifh calendar, as the learned Selden ¥ obferves; not in the Pale/tine calendar of Ben Simeon; nor in the canons of computation of R: Nahaffon; nor in the Hebrew calendar publifhed by Munffer; or in that of Scaliger, Petavini, and Genebrard. The appointment of this feftival, to commemorate the deliverance wrought, is by R. Azarias * faid to be by Fefoua, the father of Joacim, after the captivity, whom he makes to be the writer of this hiftory; but what he fays is took out of Pfetida-Philo ’, publifhed by Annius the lying monk of Viterbo, whom he has copied word fot word: Some Fewi/h writers * {peak indeed of this affair of Judith and Holoférnes, as commemorated on the asth of Cifleu, the day obferved for the dedication of the temple and altar, in the times of the AZaccabees, with which this can have no connexion: and after all it feemg another Judith is meant, a daughter of one of the Maccabees, that cut off the head of Wicanor a ftory equally fabus lous as this. In fhort, it is furprizing that this woman fudith fhould be aalled; by the writer of this hiftory, a uy woman, and one that feared the Lord, when fhe was guilty of notorious lying; of aéting the part of a baud 3 of profane fwearing, {wearing by the life of Nebuchadnezzar and his power; of murder, afl, 2f fpeaking in praile of it». The additions to the book of E/ther contain fix or feven chapters, not to be found in any Hebrew copies; the au+ thor of which, Ca/met ‘takes to be Ly/imachus, mentioned in ch. xi rt who becaufe in the true Efher thention is made of fome letters of Aha/uerus or Artaxerxes, this writer has given us copies of them, as well as of the prayers of Mordecai and Efther, and of the dream of the former; in all which there are pee marks of forgery an ftipidity: There aré many things in them direétly contrary to the ‘book of Efther. The v— of thefe additions makes the affair of the euruchs, intending to take away the king’s life, to be in the fecond year of his reign, ch. xi, 2. and xii, r. a as the true hiftory begins with the third year of his reigh, when Pe aii was his queen; and it was after his rw. a E/ther that that affair happened, even in the feventh year of his reign, ch. i. 3. and ii. 16, 21. he reprefents fy i C fervitor in the king’s court before, and as being ordefed upon his difcovery of the eunuchs to ferve Fae fill, and that he was rewarded for what he did, ch. xis 3. and xii. 5. whereas, in meme Efther; te is exprefsly ‘d there was nothing done for him fome time after, ch. vi. 3. he aiiaked Haman to be intenfed againit Mordecais a f thofe two eunuchs, ch. xii. 6. whereas the only reafon given in the book of E/ther is, becaufe he would becaule © "pit ch. iii. 5. ke fpeaks of Haman as in great honour with the king, at the time that the eunuchs were paar ge Motdecki, ch. xii. 6. but according to the true Z/fher, it was after thefe things that Haman was proi 4. chili, 1. he makes the king to call him a Macedonian, when he was an Agagite or an Amalekite; and foolifhly moted, ch. } ‘ he had a defign to tranflate the kingdom of the Perfians to the Macedonians, a people fearce known to to fagneta; that time, and from whom they had nothing to fear; and of which change there was not the leaft fhew the P te i ES ris 11, and as foolifhly to order the feveral heathen nations fubject to him; to keep the feaft et probe a x: i did, yell 22. to which the two lots, one for the people of God; and another for all the Genof Purim, ast mg * * ro. and as ftupid’is. it to make the king fpeak a lariguage he underftood not, calling the bile, Fegan en of the moft high and moft mighty living God, ch. x. 16. as well as to make E/ther ufe unbe- WT oe a UMlide her hufband lion, and his bed the bed of the uncircumcifed, which fhe abhorred, ch. xiv. Oates He ohh the author tells a lie himfelf, or makes the queen to tell one, that the king looked very fiercely Sek 5: ON 3 h caufed her to turn’pale and faint, and yet that fhe faw him as an angel of the Lord, and his couna moe; x race, ch. xv. 7) 13, 14 The dream of Mordecai and his prayer, and that of E/ther, are in P/eudotenance fu 3 7 alibi Ben Gorion *, with fome variation; but whether this writer took them fromi him, or he from Poe ae certain. Of thefe additions, as well as of the preceding hiftory of Fudith, the Fewifh chronolobey on fe are added by the chriftians to their fcriptures, and received by them, but not by us.: ger ° lays, k of Wifdem is not only in our verfion called the wifdom of Solomon, but in the Greek, Syriacy and Arabic Secfesn eit author of it would be thought to be Solomon, ch. ix. 7, 8. and yet it is plain he was not; and he rat a who he will, can never be an infpired writer, that is guilty of fuch a fraud, and takes to himfelf a falfe therefore be * Laie! bites if this book really belongs to this prince, how comes it that the Fews never admitted ae a? hk comes it ai0E to be found in the Hebrew? that no one has ever feen it in that language? that why ana othing of it, and that the ftile fhews no tokens of the pretended original? he obferves, we find yee a Sasi i it which are hardly to be avoided by thofe who tranflate a book from the Hebrew that none of thofe He a apy at had read Plato and the Greek poets, and even borrows expreffions peculiar to them, os age? i a. of Fabel fubnet or Lethe, the kingdom of Pluto, or Hades, 8c. ch. i, 14, and vii. 13, and xix, < ee eae - evident to have been written long after the times of Solomon; for the author {peaks of the peo- 20.

ple of God being then held in fubjection by their enemies, ch. xv, 14. which was not true of them in Belem’ s time: there are many ezes which feem to be taken from, or refer to, the prophets //aiah, Ezekiel, and. even Malachi -; the laft of them, as ch. ix. 13. and xi. 22. from //- xl, 13, 15. ch. v.17, 18. from J//. lix, 16. ch. i. 13, from Ex. ¥ 4 4 xviii. 32 ch. v. 6. from Ada/. iv. 2. nay, what he fays of the righteous, that calls himfelf the child of the Lord, and was made to reprove our thoughts, &c. ch, ii. 12—19. when compared with many paflages in the New Teftament, it feems pretty plain that he intended Jefus Chrift, as Grotius thinks; fo that the author appears to have been a chriftian, and this to be the work of a fraudulent one, unbecoming his character; fee alfo ch. vii. 26, compared with Heb. i. 3. Col. i. 15. and there are many things in it falfe and foolifh, and contrary to found doétrine and chriftian charity; as when he condemns the marriage-bed as finful, and reprefents baftards as having no hope of falvation left them, ch. iii. 13, 18. he {peaks meanly of the divine Logos or wifdom of God, calling him a vapour and {tream, ch. vii. 25, and countenances the notion of Plato and Origen, of fouls paffing into bodies according to their merits; for I, fays he, being good, came into a body undefiled, ch. viii. 20. he makes the murder of Abel to be the caufe of the flood, whereas the fcripture affigns another reafon of it, ch. x. 3, 4. he fays the Egyptians were tormented with. their in. abominations or idols, ch. xii. 23, 24. whereas, tho’ they worfhipped dogs, cats, crocodiles, &c. yet not frogs, locufts, and lice, with which they were plagued: and the original of idolatry he makes to be a mournful father making an image for his little child, and honouring it as. a God, ch. xiv. 1 5. and he fays many things concerning the Exgyptians and their plagues, which favour of ‘fewi/h fables, in ch. xvii. and xviii. and xix, and particularly the Rabbinical notion of the manna agreeing to every palate‘, as in ch. xvi, 20; 21. wherefore, upon the whole, it is pretty ftrange that fo very learned a man as Mr. Gregory & fhould fay, that ‘* the wi/dom of Salomon is a book worthy enough “© of that name, and comparing with any that was ever written by the hand of man:” and he is alfo miftaken in faying, ‘* that this book was written in Chaldee is certain, for R. Mofes bar Nachman quoteth it fo out of ch, vii. 5, Se ‘* and ver. 17. in the preface to his comment on the Pentateuch;’’ whereas the fenfe of that Rabbi, as Hhttinger ® obferves, was not that that Chaldee copy was an original and authentic one, but that the book was tranflated into the Chaldee or Syriac language: and fo R, Azarias ‘ reprefents it as a tranflation; and what is quoted from it by that Rabbi, agrees with the Syriac verfion of it. The book is rejected by the Fezws * as not canonical. It. is thought bid x have been wrote by Phils the Few, as it feems from the di&tion and matter of it!,:

The book of Ecclefiafticus which follows, is a much more valuable work than the former, and Renee’ a AS refemblance to the works of Solomon, efpecially his Proverbs, than that does, yet not of divine infpiration. — “The tranflator and publifher of it was fe/us the fon of Sirach, whofe grandfather Fe/us, by reading the fcriptures and other good books, attained to a confiderable fhare of knowledge; and he not only collected the grave and thort fentences of wife men that went before him, but added fome of his own; which work being - -almoft perfected, fell into the hands of his fon Sirach, when he died; and which he left to his fon ‘Fe/us; and being written in Hebrew, with great labour and diligence he tranflated it into another tongue (the Greeé), and defires the reader’s candour’ and, pardon, wherein he might feem to come fhort of the fenfe of fome words he laboured.to interpret; all which 1 fhews it was not written by divine infpiration, nor was it pretended to be.: and there are fome things in it contrary | to found dotrine 5 for following the: Greek verfion of Prov. viii. 22. he {peaks of the divine’ Logos or wifdom as created by God,. ch. xxiv. 9, and he makes honouring. parents, and giving alms, to be an atonement for fins, ch. iii. 3 30. and he.fays other things contrary to charity, as when he difluades from helping finners, and giving to the ungodly, ch. xiis 4, 5.-he abfurdly fays that Samuel prophefied after his death, and fhewed the king his end, ch, xlvi: 20. _and he fuggetts that Elias the Ti/hbite is ordered to pacify the wrath of the Lord, and to turn the father to the fon; tak? ing’ the words in Mal..iv.'5, 6. to belong to. him, when, they are fpoken of ‘fobn the Bapti 5 ike xlviii.. 10. This writer favours, as has been obferved ™, the rian herefy, necromancy or confulting. the dead, and the error of the. Fews, who fanfy that. as will come in perfon before the Meffiah. It is a queftion with learned men, whether the fon of Sirach, the publifher of this book, is the fame.with Ben Sira, often fpoken of in Fewifh writings: their, names agree. very, well; and, many of the fayings of Ben Sirg are in the. book of Eaclefiafticus.", which are to be found i in the Talmud, and other ‘Fewi/b writings, at leaft very near the fame 3, but the accounts of their age, in which they lived, differ: Ben Sira, fome fay °, was-the {on or a nephew of “feremiah; whereas the grandfather of Sirach muft live after Simeon the high-prieft, the fon of \Onias, whom he commends, ch.1], and his grandfon lived, in the times of Euergetes } of Egypt 5 not the firft of that name, who fucceeded Ptolemy Philadelphus, but,the fecond, that followed Philometor 5 and here the author of Fuchajfin? places him; and it was inthe thirty-eighth year, not of that king’s s reign, that b he was in Egypt, for neither of the kings of that name reigned fo long, according to Ptolemy’ s canon, but « of his own age, when-and where he tranflated and finifhed this book: wherefore as this, account carries Ben Sira too high f for the fon of Sirachs fo he is brought down too low by Solomon Virga4,.who. places him, after the times of thee ot Augufluss however, it is judged:/by many writers, both ‘fewib and chriftian, that one and the fame perfon is - 4 from whence fome'would form an argument, in favour. of this’ book’.being, canonical, becaufe, Ben Sira is, by “Fews placed among the Hagiographa, as it feems:from.a paflage in the Lalmud*;, it is faid: in the laviog: «‘every fowl reforts to its kind, and the fons of men to what is like to them:”. upon which the Lorephoth there is no fuch fcripture;»but perhaps it is in the book of ‘Bem! Sira 2 and 'there.is fomething likeit in Ecclef 16. and xxvii. 9. every beaft loveth his like, and every man loveth' bis neighbour; uponiwhich Mr. Gregory afk Ben Sira reckoned for canonical too?. no, he was not} nor:is»any fuch thing implied in the above obfervat on the Apoeryphal W ritings. G4 the contrary, fince it is exprefsly afitaned j it was not fcripture: and the word Cetubim or Hagiographay i is a word of an ambiguous meaning, fometimes to be taken in a ftriét fenfe. for writings infpired by the Holy Ghoft; and at other times more largely, as to take in other writings of men of fome note, and frequently read: and that his Writings were not reckoned canonical is certain, or otherwife they would never have been forbidden to be read; as-they exprefsly are, for it is faid, it is forbidden to read the books of Ben Sira; and they are all of them called foreign or profane books, of which Ecclefia/licus is reckoned one”; and is particularly faid by Manaffeh ben I/rael * to be apocryphal: and R. Zacutus ¥ relates, that Ben Sira compofed two books, which are joined with the twenty-four by the Romans or Latins; that is, by them only, not by the ews: and R. David Ganz * reckoning the feveral apocryphal books in their order, and this among the reft, fays, they are received by them (the chriftians), but not by us.

The book of Baruch is a mere romance; both ‘ferom * and Epiphanius.» fay, it never was reckoned among the Hebrew books, or efteemed by theYews; who obferve ‘, it is indeed received by the chriftians, meaning the papifts, but not by us: they will not allow Baruch to be a prophet; and fometimes reprefent him as grieved and difturbed, that feeing he was fo longa difciple and an amanuenfis of the prophet Feremiah, the Spirit of prophecy fhould never fall upon him 4, The writer of this book pretends, that Baruch was in Babylon when he wrote it; but it does not appear from any authentic records, that he ever was there. The ews indeed, to keep up the chain of their fucs ceffors, by whom the oral law was handed down, fay, that both he and ‘feremiah were there; and died there ©; that he received from Feremias, and Ezra from him} but it is not evident that either of them were there. It is further fuggefted, as if it was written im the fifth year of ‘feconiah’s captivity; and various things are related, which are improbable, abfurd, and inconfiftent; as that the words of this book were read to Feconiah by the. river Sud near Babydon, of which river no mention is made by any other writer; and very unlikely it is that feconiah fhould be prefent at the reading of it, when he was a prifoner at Babylon, and continued fo for the fpace of thirty-feven years, until he was releafed by Evil-Aerodach coming to the throne. Nor was there, at the time of the reading of this book, an high-prieft at Feru/alem of the name of Foachim, to whom money collected was fent; the name of the then high-prieft was Seraiah, who was afterwards carried captive with Zedekiah: nor does there appeat to be any reafon for making fuch a collection, and fending it to Ferufalem; or that the captives in Babylon were in a capacity of doing it, any more then they in Ferufalem ftood in need of it: and very abfurdly it is fuggefted, that at the fame time the veflels of the temple, which had been carried away, and which Zedekiah had made, were returned; whereas we no where read of any veffels he did make, nor. is there any reafon to. believe he ever made any; and if he did, they could not be carried away until he himfelf was, which was not till fome years after this: and the whole feems, as if it was purpofely calculated to verify the prophecies of the falfe prophets, ‘Yer. xxvii. 16. and xxviii. 3. The ‘Fews are direéted to pray for Nebuchadnezzar, and his fon Balthafar; whereas Balthafar, or Belhazzar, was not his immediate {On and fucceflor, and it is very probable was not now born, for there were thirty-two years to come of Féconiah’s imprifonmients from whence he was loofed when Evil-A@erodach came to the throne; and according to Ptolemy’s.canon he reigned two years, and after him Neriglifjar four years, and then Bel/hazzar fucceeded.. And after all; why is not Zuil-Aderedach, the immediate fon and fucceffor, rather recommended? Some indeed take the fifth year, in which this book is pretended to be written, to, be the fifth after the deftruction of Ferufalem, the burning of the city, and the carrying Zedekiah and, the people Captives 5; and indeed there are various things that agree with this; and all that is faid from ch. i. “14. to the end of the book, fuppofes it, but. then, this will very little, if at all, leffen the number of the miftakes and blunders in it,.but will rather increale them; for if the city.was now deftroyed and burnt, what folly was it to colleét money, and fend it thither to buy facrifices with, to offer on the altar, when there were neither city, temple, nor altar ftanding; not to take notice of the phrafe of making or preparing manna, which. if intended, muft be monftroufly abfurd; but perhaps the. A/inchah or meat-offering is meant. After all, the, writer manifeftly betrays himfelf, and makes it clearly appear that he wrote after the 70 years captivity were ended, fince in ch. i. 155 &c. he borrows many expreffions from the prophet Daniel, which he delivered at this time; unlefs any one can ima-. gine, that that holy prophet borrowed his language from fuch an abfurd writer as.this. The epiftle of feremy, with which the book concludes, is neither written in his ftile, nor in the ftile of the fcriptures 3 and exprefles generations | by decads, or the term of ten years, no where ufed in the facred writings, nor in any other writer.

The Song of the three children in the” furnace, was neither in the Hebrew, nor in the Syriac languages, according, to Theodoret, in his time, who wrote upon it; though there are fince. tranflations of it into the Syriac and Arabic tongues: great part of it is taken out of the 148th pfalm, or done i in imitation of it and another part of it is entirely, deprecatory, and quite difagreeable to fuch a deliverance wrought;; and. the account given of the flame ftreaming: above'the furnace forty and nine cubits, feems fabulous and romantic; and of. the angel’s fmiting the flame of, fire out of the oven, and making a moift whiftling wind in it, is not, only of the fameycaft, but cal to Dan; iii. 2 5 where the three men are faid to walk in the midft of it. ot;.

The hiftory of Su/anna is a mere fable, _ and is rejected by the wes 3 it is one ‘of the books of hick they bak is they are received by the Nazarenes, but not by us: and that it was not written originally i in Hebrew, -but in Greek, is abundantly manifeft from the allufion, i in the punifhment. pronounced upon the elders, to the maftick and holm-, trees, in the Greek language, under which — ‘they faid they found Sufanna and the young man together. The whole is full of improbabilities and untruths; as that at the beginning of the captivity, as it muft be, fince Daniel was a youth; that Foacim, the hufband of Sufanna, fhould fo {don become a rich man, have a large houfe and garden, andbe reforted to by the captive 53 or that there fhould be fo foon, or even at all, judges alowed to the Fews in paki! to take ET pies affairs, and efpecially of life and death; and that Daniel, who as foon as he was carried captive to Babylon; and who was Selected with others, and brought up in the king’s court, fhould be at liberty; and have leifure td converfe with the Few, and fhould be admitted, Berne fo young, to fit down with the elders of Ifracl, and be allowed to examine and judge of this affair: nor wits ftoty itfelf likely, that Sufanna fhould.

_ go into the garden to wath at noon-day, and yet be unprovided with mater! ates that fhe eee fend both her maids o* away to fetch her oil and wafh-balls; and be left alone; and una ince fhe intended to wath; that the garden was pees thoroughly fearched fitft; to fee if any’ perfon was fecretly lurking in it, arid care taken that all the doots and avenues to it were fhuts as it is plain they were not; nor is it probable that thefe elders would have made fuch ah attempt whilft her maidens were gone for the above things, when they might expect they would return before they could accomplifh their defign, and fo be detected; with many other things, which might be obferved in the account: add to which, that the writer makes mention of a paflage of {cripture, no where to be found in it, y. 5. and diftinguifhes between the daughters of Tfrael, and of ‘fudah, over the former of which thefe elders are faid to have prevailed, and to have kept company with, ¥. 57. whereas thofe had been carried captive by Sa/manefer a hundred years before, or more; and the latter he calls Sufanna, and yet makes Daniel to call her a daughter of //rael too, y 48. and upon the whole, Africanus © might well fufpe& this hiftory to be fpurious and fictitious,?

The ftory of Bel and the Dragon is as great a romance as ever was wrote, full of the moft ridiculous, abfurd and monftrous things that could be thought of. It is not credible that Be/, which was an idol of the Babylonians, fhould be worfhipped by Cyrus the Perfian; and if he did worfhip it, it can never be thought he fhould be fo grofly ftupid as to imagine, that an image made of brafs and clay could really eat and drink, which was never fuppofed of any idol-ftatue by the groffeft of heathen idolaters: befides, Bel, ahd the reft of the Babylonian images, were deftroyed and broken to pieces by Cyrus when Babylon’ was taken, as was foretold; //; xlvi. 1. Fer. 1, 2. and li. 44. nor is the manner, in which the fraud of Bel’s eating fuch large provifions every day was detected, plaufible; namely, by ordering the king’s fervants to ftrew afhes throughout the temple, whereby the prints of the feotfteps of the priefts, and

‘their families were difcovered, who came in by a privy door and eat the provifions; for as this was done by the king’s fervants, it is much fome of them had not difcovered it to the priefts; and befides, as the priefts knew what Daniel was about, to make difcovery of their intrigues, upon the firft fight of the afhes they might have concluded at once for what purpofe they were ftrowed, and after they had took away the provifions, might, and doubtlefs would, have fpread new afhes over their footfteps, and fo have difappointed Daniel in his views. And though Daniel may be fuppofed to take a more effeGtual way to deftroy the dragon, yet not as to fhew any thing extraordinary and fupernatural; but it is beyond all belief that the Babylonians, who were juft fubdued by Cyrus, and they and all they had put into the hands of the Perfians, fhould come and menace the king, and have fuch power over him as to oblige him to deliver Daniel into their hands, The ftory of the lion’s den, and of his being caft into it, and the circumftances attending, are monftroufly fabulous and incredible, as that two bodies of men, as Calmet * himfelf underftands it, who. credits the ftory in y. 31. or two flaves, as in the margin, fhould be caft every day into the den to be devoured by the lions: it is not likely there fhould be fo many condemned to death every day for capital crimes they were guilty of; or that fuch cruelty fhould be exercifed continually in the reign of fuch a prince as Cyrus; nor is if true that Daniel was caft into the den of lions in his reign, but in the reign of Darius, Dan. vi. and upon another account 3 and a moft fabulous and falfe ftory is told of an angel taking the prophet Habacuc by the hair of the head, and carrying him from Fudea to Babylon with a bowl of bread and pottage to feed Daniel in the den; whereas Habacue lived, before the captivity, and prophefied of the Chaldeans by name coming againit Ferufalem to deftroy it, Hab, in 6. this the frabs afcribe to Feremiah*: nor is it likely that the king fhould be feven days before he went to the den %s to bewail Daniel, whofe favourite he was. It is aftonifhing that fuch an idle, romantic ftory fhould be added to the _ fcriptures, or bound up with them, or be admitted to be read in public congregations by any that call themfelyes chriftians, to the ftumbling of Turks and Fews; the latter obferve * that thefe ftories are written in a book called Bel, and it is received by them (the chriftians) but not by us. Indeed Fo/ephus Ben Gorion' tells the like ftory, and fo do the Rabbins™, who fay that Nebuchadnezzar had a dragon, which Daniel by his leave deftroyed, by putting nails into his ftraw he eat, which tore his entrails, to which they apply Fer. li. 44.

The prayer of Manafzh never appeared in the Hebrew language, and though there is fome devotion in it, yet there is no reafon to believe it is the compofition of Manaffeh king of Ifrael; but becaufe when he was in chains in Babylon, it is faid he repented and humbled himfelf before God and prayed, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 12, 13. fome officious perfon has compofed a prayer for him; and it feems to have been framed by one of a pharifaical fpirit, fince he {peaks of juft perfons, as Abraham, Ifaac, and Facob, as without fin, and who ftood in no need of repentance, and. for whom that is not appointed, fee Luke xv. 7. ' ‘ ae

Next follow the books of the Maccabees, firft. and fecond, fo called from Maccabeus the furname of Judas, the. third fon of Matthias, a prieft of Modin, whofe exploits, and thofe of his father and brethren, are recorded in them.

Learned men differ much in the derivation of this name; J/dore Pelufiota * fays, in the Per/ic language it fignifies lord; Drufius * derives it from 5 to extinguifh, and interprets it an extinguifher; he being an inftrument of extinguifhing the enemies of the people of God, and of the civil wars among them. Hattinger? thinks it may be formed. from the Arabic word S35 to proftrate or caft to the ground, as he did great numbers of his enemies 3 but to omit many others which may be feen in Calmet, and other writers, the more common opinion is that ur le 74D) are'the initial letters of the words in the Hebrew text of Exod. xv. 11. who is like unto thee, O Lord, mong the gods, which "were on his enfign, ftandard, or banner. The name is peculiar to Judas, though it is given to all his. + brethren, fee 1 Maccab, ii. 4, 66. and iii. 1, and becaufe of the valiant things done by them, recorded in thefe ia 4 - 2 oy; -* God ‘e 5. } y _ on the Apoeryp al Writings. FA9: _. books, they have this general title. ‘Thefe writings, however ufeful in hiftory, are not received by the ‘fetus * into _ the canon ee f{criptures; and they are particularly excepted out of them by Orizen * in the catalogue he has givens who fpeal them as extra-books, and fays they were infcribed Sarbeth Sarbaneel, which I fhould chufe to render the prince of the houfe or family, the prince of the children of God; which feems to have a fpecial refpect to Fudas Mac> Us, by which it fhould feem that thefe books were in alte language. Of the fir/ of thefe“Ferom * fays, that he found it in the Hebrew; but it muft fince be loft, for it is not now et in that Tanguage, as we know of. This

_ book is, for the moft part, a good and ufeful hiftory, and in many things agrees with ‘Fo/ephus; it contains'a hiftory.

of forty years from the reign OO ia Epiphanes, to the death of Simon the high-prieft, about a hundred and thirty years before Chrift. It co Pot be wrote by infpiration, fince the writer of it himfelf obferyes in feveral places, that there was no prophet in thofe times, ch. iv. 46. and ix. 27. and xiv. 41.. nor is it without its miftakes, to which all human hiftories are fubje&; as when he fays that Alexander the great parted his kingdom among his. honour-. able fervants while he was yet alive, ch, lye. Indeed, fome years after his death, when there had been many wars % and confli@s among his captains, it_was divided between four of them, according to the prophecy of Danie?, ch.:

viii. 8, 22. but not by his direCtion, and ‘much lef in his life-time. When he was on his dying bed, he was afked..

to whom he left the kingdom, his anfwer was to him that fhould appear to be beft"; and Philip 4rideus, a baltardbrother of Alexander, reigned féven years, and after him another Alexander, the fon of Alexander the great by Roxane, reigned twelve years according to Ptolemy’s canon; and according to the fame canon Alexander himfelf reigned but » eight years, whereas the writer of this book of the Maccabees fays he reigned twelve years, arid then died, y. 7. nor is it true what he relates, ¥. 8, g- that every one of his fervants bare rule in his place, and all of them put crowns upon their heads; which was only true of fome of them, after a courfe of years... Equally falfe is what is re~ lated of Antiochus the great, that he was taken alive by the Romans, and that India, Media, Lydia, and the goodlieft countries they took from him, they gave to king Eumenes, ch. vilie6, 7, 8. whereas Antiochus after his defeat at the famous battle at Adagnefia firft fled to Sardis, and then to Apamea, and not being able to pay the fums the Romans obliged him to pay, went and plundered the temple of Fupiter Belus at Elymais of its vaft treafure, when the populace rofe upon him, and, murdered him: the Romans indeed gave to Eumenes king of Pergamus, who behaved well at the above battle, all the countries.on this fide mount Zaurus which had belonged to Autischus; but not India and Media, which were neither of them in the hands of the Romans to give, of wete ever in the pofleflion of Eumenes, Other miltakes are made concerning the number of the members of the Reman fenate, as that they were three hundred and twenty, when they were but three hundred 3 and that they fat in the council. daily, whereas their aflembling was fometimes intermitted, efpecially on court-days; and of the government of the city of Rome by one'perfon,' whereas they had yearly two confuls,y. 15, 16. and in calling Alexarder the fori of Antiochus Epiphanes, ch. x. 1. with out giving the leaft hint of his being otherwife s when he was a pretender, whofe name was Balas, 4 young man of low life, whom the kings of Egypt, Afia, and Cappadocia, fet up again{t Demetrizs king of Syria, and called him Alexander, and gave out that he was the fon of Antiochus; and yet ‘Fo/ephus * makes the fame miftake: and likewife when he fpeaks of a Darius as king of the Lacedemonians, in the times of Onias thé high-prieft, ch. xii, 7. where~ as they never had any king of that name, nor any of the name of Areus, or Oniaresy as fome would have it; in thofé times, If any are defirous.of feeing thefe feveral things more largely and learnedly treated of, they may confult a learned countryman ‘of our own, feferred to in the margin 7, ~ Albericus Gentilis * has attempted to explain and defend the above things, tho’ with little fuccefs. But it is not fo much to be wondered.at, that a Few, as the writer of this book may be fuppofed to be, fhould be unacquainted with Grecian and Roman affairs nas is to beheped he has wrote more ac_ curately on the Fewifh affairs of thofe times,’ for which the hiftory ‘déferves fomie refpea. “Inch: i. 54. he has made a wrong application of the’ abomination of défolation in Dan. xi. 31. as appears from Matt. xxiv. ig. but this being before the.accomplifhment, sheed not feem ftrange; it fhews the book however could not be wrote by infpiration..

The fecond book of the Maccabees is much inferior to the firft; it is prefaced ae fomé letters of the Fews in Ferufalem, to their brethren in Egypt, in which are fome things falfe and fabulous: mention is made of Fudas Macecabeus being alive in the 188th year, z. e, of the era of the Seleucide, ch. i. 10. when he died in the 1 52d year; fee 1 Maccab. ix. 3, 18. a falfhood:is-told of Antiochus being killed in the temple of Nanea or Diana in Perfia, and of the priefts there deftroying his captain, and thofe with him, y. 13—16. which is contrary to the prophecy of him in Dan, viii. 25. that he fhould be broken without hands, or not be deftroyed by the hand of any man; and to the account that is given of his death at Babylon, by the author of 1 Maccab. vi. 8—16. nay, contrary to the account that is given in this book itfelf, ch. ix. 16, 28. Another falfhood is told of Nehemiah building the temple and altar, ¥< 18. whereas thefe were built long before his time, by whom only the walls of the city were rebuilt; and a fabulous ftory is related of the fire of the altar being hid ina pit, and found in the times of Nehemiah, y. 19, 20, &c. whereas this fire is oF of the things the ‘Jews unanimoufly fay was wanting in the fecond temple; fee ch, x. 13, and another of Feremiah’s hiding the tabernacle, ark, and altar of incenfes in a hollow cave, ch. ii. 5, 6, &c, and which ”

he is falfely faid to prophefy of: and the hiftory following is faid to be an abridgment of ‘fafon a Cyrenean; and fuch tion, ¥. 23, &c. it contains a hiftory of about fifteen years, from the time that Heliodorus was {ent with a commiflion by Seleucus, to fetch him the treafures of the temple at Ferufalem, to the victory obtained by fudas Maccabzus over an account is given of it, and of the abridging this work, as is a clear proof it was far from being a work of infpira-.

oF 5°, % Nicanor, about 160 years before Chrift. It abounds with accounts of apparitions, dreams, and things mary ellaug, as swell as there are things falfe and erroneous in it; as for inftance, mention is made of Per/epolis as in being gy ch. ix. 2. when i, had been utterly deftroyed by Alexander above a hundred years before: thetrue place was Elymais, as in x Maccab, vie zy. and the author is guilty of a miftake, in making ‘Fudas Maccabéus to build the altar, and offer facrifice, after two years profanation of it, ch, x. 3. when it was after three y together; and from ‘Fofephus®: and moft ftupidly does h s, as appears from 1 Maccab. i. 54. and iv. 52. compa ake Fudas Maccabeus to colle& a {um of money, and fen it to Ferufalem to offer a fin-offering, and make reconciliation for the dead, and pray for them, that they might be delivered from fin, ch. xii. 43, 44, 45. and the hiftory is clofed in a manner ve ee of, and very unbecoming, an infpired writer; and clearly fhews that’ the writer himfelf did not believe he under divine infpiration. There is a third book in fome verfions,. tho’ not in ours, which bears the name me the Maccabees; but has no relation to Fudas Maccabeus, nor his brethren, nor to the perfecution of Antiochus Epiphanes; but to what. was done in the reign of Philopator king of Egypt, ty years before the hiftory of the two former books begins; and is only fo called, becaufe it treats of things done and fuffered in thofe times, with like zeal for the law of God; and Fo/ephus’s hiftory of the martyrs that fuffered under Antiochus, is domediereg called the, fourth ¢; Sg but neither of thefe are e. seal a os