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ther he thinks this could pass upon England? And whether, if I, or any other should insist upon it, we should not, instead of being believed, be sent to Bedlam?

Now let us compare this with the Stonehenge, as I may call it, or twelve great stones set up at Gilgal, which is told in the fourth chapter of Joshua. There it is said, verse 6, that the reason why they were set up was, that when their children, in after ages, should ask the meaning of it, it should be told them.

And the thing in memory of which they were set up, was such as could not possibly be imposed upon that nation, at that time when it was said to be done. It was as wonderful and miraculous as their passage through the Red Sea.

And withal, free from a very poor objection, which the Deists have advanced against the miracle of the Red Sea thinking to salve it by a spring-tide with the concurrence of a strong wind, happening at the same time; which left the sand so dry, as that the Israelites, being all foot, might pass through the oozy places and holes, which it must be supposed the sea left behind it: but that the Egyptians, being all horse and chariots, stuck in those holes and were entangled, so as that they could not march so fast as the Israelites: and that this was all the meaning of its being said, that God took off their (the Egyptians') chariot wheels, that they drove them heavily. So that they would make nothing extraordinary, at least nothing miraculous, in all this transaction.

This is advanced in LE CLERC's Dissertations upon Genesis, lately printed in Holland; and that part, with

i LE CLERC, whose writings on critical and theological subjects have made him famous in the learned world, was for many years a distinguished Professor in the Remonstrant (or Arminian) College at Amsterdam. The extreme laxity of his opinions on many points has caused him to be suspected, and not without some reason, of a tendency to Socinianism. The comment remarked on by LESLIE, however, was retracted, with several others of the author's obnoxious views respecting the Pentateuch, in a subsequent edition of his work.

The impossibility of accounting for the passage in the manner at first adopted by LE CLERC, and subsequently, though retracted by its author, borrowed by other writers, has been fully shown from the geographical circumstances, by all the best commentators on the history.

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others of a like tendency, endeavouring to resolve other miracles, as that of Sodom and Gomorrah, &c. into mere natural causes, are put into English by the well known T. BROWN, for the edification of the Deists in England.

k

But these gentlemen have forgot, that the Israelites had great herds of many thousand cattle with them; which would be apter to stray, and to fall into those holes and oozy places in the strand, than horses with riders, who might direct them.

But such precarious and silly suppositions are not worth the answering. If there had been no more in this passage through the Red Sea than that of a springtide, &c. it had been impossible for Moses to have made the Israelites believe that relation given of it in Exodus, with so many particulars, which themselves saw, to be

true.

And all those Scriptures which magnify this action, and appeal to it as a full demonstration of the miraculous power of GOD, must be reputed as romance or legend.

I say this, for the sake of some Christians, who think it no prejudice to the truth of the Holy Bible, but rather an advantage, as rendering it more easy to be believed, if they can solve whatever seems miraculous in it, by the power of second causes;1 and so to make all, as they speak,

k A man famed for his wit, profligacy, and irregularities. Possessed of good talents, and extensive learning, he made no better use of them than the production of a few fugitive pieces, under the names of Dialogues, Letters, Essays, &c. His sarcastic vein was indulged at the expense of every one, without distinction of friend or foe, but more particularly exercised on religion and religious things. It was his boast that "he knew the world too well to have the imputation of righteousness laid to his charge." Yet neither his wit nor his impudence could support him in the approach of death, but, having led the life of the scorner, he with vain remorse testified his desire to die the death of the righteous He died in 1704. His works, in 4 vols. were published in 1707. They abound in wit, but are destitute alike of decency and religious principle.

1 The tendency of this course has been abundantly manifested by the rise and progress of the self-styled Rational school of theologians in Germany. They began with lessening what they called the marvellous in the sacred writings-with allegorizing their narratives, and explaining away their facts-and they have ended in pure Deism, or the Spinozan form of Atheism. Religion is based upon miracles, as the test of its divine origination. Every attempt to lessen or soften these, is so

natural and easy. Wherein if they could prevail, the natural and easy result would be, not to believe one word in all those sacred oracles. For if things be not as they are told in any relation, that relation must be false. And if false in part, we cannot trust to it, either in whole or in part.

Here are to be excepted mis-translations, and errors, either in copy or in press. But where there is no room for supposing of these; as where all copies do agree; there we must either receive all, or reject all. I mean in any book that pretends to be written from the mouth of GOD. For in other common histories, we may believe part, and reject part, as we see cause."

But to return. The passage of the Israelites over Jordan, in memory of which those stones at Gilgal were set up, is free from those little carpings before mentioned, that are made as to the passage through the Red Sea. For notice was given to the Israelites the day before, of this great miracle to be done, Josh. iii. 5. It was done at noon-day, before the whole nation. And when the waters of Jordan were divided, it was not at any low ebb, but at the time when that river overflowed all its banks, ver. 15. And it was done, not by winds, or in length of time, which winds must take to do it: but all on a sudden, as soon as the "feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped into the brim of the water; then the waters which came down from above, stood and rose up upon an heap, very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho. The priests stood in the midst of Jordan, till all the armies of Israel had passed over. And it came to pass, when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, were come up, out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the

much detracted from its foundation, No friends to revealed religion are ever made by such a course, and all is hazarded.

m By 'Copy' the author means the Manuscripts of the sacred writings.

"Because the testimony of their authors may be partial or intentionally deceptive; or their information may be defective or erroneous, But God knoweth all things,' and 'cannot lie. His 'word is truth',

priests' feet were lift up upon the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks as they did before. And the people came out of Jordan, on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. And those twelve stones which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? Then shall ye let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. For the LORD your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over; as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over, that all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty; that ye might fear the LORD your GOD for ever." Chap. iv. from ver. 18.

If the passage over the Red Sea had been only taking advantage of a spring tide, or the like, how would this teach all the people of the earth, that the hand of the LORD was mighty? How would a thing no more remarkable have been taken notice of through all the world? How would it have taught Israel to fear the LORD, when they must know, that notwithstanding all these big words, there was so little in it? How could they have believed, or received a book, as truth, which they knew` told the matter so far otherwise from what it was?

But, as I said, this passage over Jordan, which is here compared to that of the Red Sea, is free from all those cavils that are made as to that of the Red Sea, and is a further attestation to it, being said to be done in the same manner as was that of the Red Sea.

Now, to form our argument, let us suppose that there never was any such thing as that passage over Jordan. That these stones at Gilgal were set up upon some other occasion, in some after age. And then, that some designing man invented this book of Joshua, and said that it was wrote by Joshua at that time. And gave this stonage at Gilgal for a testimony of the truth of it. Would not every body say to him, we know the stonage at Gilgal, but we never heard before of this reason for it? Nor of this book of Joshua? Where has it been

all this while? And where, and how came you, after so many ages, to find it? Besides, this book tells us, that this passage over Jordan was ordained to be taught our children from age to age: and therefore, that they were always to be instructed in the meaning of that stonage at Gilgal as a memorial of it. But we were never taught it, when we were children; nor did ever teach our children any such thing. And it is not likely that could have been forgotten, while so remarkable a stonage did continue, which was set up for that and no other end!

And if, for the reasons before given, no such imposition could be put upon us as to the stonage in Salisbury Plain; how much less could it be as to the stonage at Gilgal!

And if, where we know not the reason of a bare naked monument, such a sham reason cannot be imposed, how much more is it impossible to impose upon us in actions and observances, which we celebrate in memory of particular events! How impossible to make us forget those events which we daily commemorate; and persuade us, that we had always kept such institutions in memory of what we never heard of before; that is, that we knew it, before we knew it!

And if we find it thus impossible for an imposition to be put upon us, even in some things which have not all the four marks before mentioned; how much more impossible is it, that any deceit should be in that thing where all the four marks do meet!

This has been showed in the first place, as to the matters of fact of Moses.

2. Therefore I come now, secondly, to show, that as in the matters of fact of Moses, so likewise all these four marks do meet in the matters of fact, which are recorded in the Gospel of our blessed SAVIOUR. And my work herein will be shorter, because all that is said before of Moses and his books, is every way as applicable to CHRIST and his Gospel. His works and his miracles are there said to be done publicly in the face of the world, as he argued to his accusers, "I spake openly to the world, and in secret have I said nothing," (John

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