Page images
PDF
EPUB

kind and gracious Providence over him, till this his 125th year, which against all human views had continually bleffed him, and enriched him, and, in his elder age, had given him firft Ishmael by Hagar, and afterward promifed him Ifaac to " fpring from his own body now dead,† and from the deadness of Sarah's womb, when he was paft age, and when it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of woment and had actually performed that and every other promife, how improbable foever that performance had appeared, he had ever made to him, and this during fifty entire years together; fo that although at his first exit out of Chaldea or Mefopotamia he might have been tempted to "stagger at fuch a promife of God through unbeliefs," yet might he now after fifty years conftant experience, be juftlyftrong in faith, giving glory to God, as being fully perfuaded, that what God had promifed," the refurrection of Ifaac, he was both able and willing to perform.

11. That this affurance therefore, that God, if he permitted Ifaac to be flain, would infallibly raife him again from the dead, entirely alters the state of the cafe of Abraham's facrificing Ifaac to the true God, from that of all other human facrifices whatfoever offered to falfe ones, all thofe others being done without the leaft promife or profpect of fuch a refurrection; and this indeed takes away all pretence of injustice in the divine command, as well as of all inhumanity or cruelty in Abraham's obedience to it.

66

12. That upon the whole, this command to Abraham, and what followed upon it, looks fo very like an intention of God to typify or reprefent before hand in Ifaac, "a beloved," or "only begotten fon," what was to happen long afterwards to the great "Son and feed of Abraham," the Melliah, the beloved and "the only begotten of the Father, whofe days Abraham faw by faith before hand, and rejoiced to fee it," viz. that he, "by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God fhould be crucified, and flain," as a facrifice, and should "be raised again the third day," and this at Jerufalem alfo ; and that in the mean time, God would accept of the facrifices of rams, and the like animals at the fame city Jerufalem, that one cannot eafly avoid the application. This feems the reafon why Abraham was obliged to go to the land of Moriah, or Jerufalem, and why it is noted, that it was the third day** that he came to the place, which implies that the return back, after the fiaying of the facrifice, would naturally be "the third day" alfo; and why this facrifice was not Ishmael "the fon of the flesh" only, but Ifaac the fon by promife, the beloved fon of Abraham, and why Ifaac was ftyled the only fon, or only begotten fon of Abraham, though he had Ishmael befides; and why Ifaac himself was to bear the woodtt on which he was to be facrificed‡‡; and why the place was no other than the land of Moriah, or vision, i. e. most probably a place where the Shechinah or Meffiah had been feen, and God by him worshipped, even before the days of Abraham, and where lately lived, and perhaps now lived Milchifedeck, the grand type of the Melliah (who might then possibly be prefent at the facrifice) and why this facrifice was to be offered either on the mountain called afterwards diftinctly Moriah, where the temple food, and where all the Motaic facrifices were afterwards to be offered, as Jofephus|||| and the generality fuppofe, or perhaps, as others fuppofe, that where the Melliah himfelf was to be offered, its neighbor mount Calvary. This feems alfo the reason why the ram was fübftituted as a vicarious facri

Rom. iv. 19. -+ Heb. xi. 11.- - Gen. xvi i. tt. —— -5 Rem. iv. 20, 21. John viii. 56.--I Acts ii, 33.- ** Gen. xx. 2, 4.tt Heb. -‡‡ Gen. xxii, 6.——§§ John xix. 17. Antiq. B. 1. chap.

xi. 17
xiii. lect. 2.

fice instead of Ifaac. Thefe circumftances feem to me very peculiar and extraordinary, and to render the prefent hypothefis extremely probable. Nor perhaps did St. Clement mean any thing elfe, when in his forecited paffage, he fays, That" Ifaac was fully perfuaded of what he knew was to come," and therefore "cheerfully yielded himfelf up for a facrifice." Nor indeed does that name of this place, Jebovah Fireh, which continued till the days of Mofes, and fignified, God will fee, or rather, God will provide, feem to be given it by Abraham, on any other account, than that God would there, in the fulnefs of time, “provide himself a lamb [that *lamb of God which was to take away the fins of the world] for a burnt offering."

But now, if after all, it be objected, that how peculiar and how typ ical foever the circumftances of Abraham and Ifaac might be in themfelves, of which the heathens about them could have little notion, yet fuch a divine command to Abraham for flaying his beloved fon Ifaac, muft however be of very ill example to the Gentile world, and that it probably did either firft occafion, or at leaft greatly encourage their wicked practices, in offering their children for facrifices to their idols, I answer by the next confideration:

13. That this objection is fo far from truth, that God's public and miraculous prohibition of the execution of this command to Abraham, (which command itself the Gentiles would not then at all be surprised at, because it was fo like to their own ufual practices) as well as God's fubftitution of a vicarious oblation, feems to have been the very occafion of the immediate abolition of thofe impious facrifices by Tethmofis, or Amafis, among the neighboring Egyptians, and of the fubftitution of more inoffenfive ones there inftead of them. Take the account of this abolition, which we shall prefently prove, was about the time of Abraham's offering up his fon Ifaac, as it is preferved by Porphyry; from Manetho. the famous Egyptian iftorian and chronologer, which is almoft cited from Porphyry by Eufebius and Theodorit: "Amafis,+ fays Porphyry, abolished the law for flaying of men in Heliopolis of Egypt as Manetho bears witnefs in his book of Antiquity and Piety. They were facriticed to Juno, and were examined, as were the pure calves, that were alfo fealed with them: They were facrificed three in a day. In whofe ftead Amafis commanded that men of wax, of the fame number, fhould be substituted."

Now I have lately, fhewn, that thefe Egyptians had Abraham in great veneration, and that all the wisdom of thofe Egyptians, in which Mofes was afterwards learned. was derived from no other than from Abraham. Now it appears evidently by the forecited paffage, that the firit abolition of thefe human facrifices, and the fubftitution of wax. en images in their ftead, and particularly at Heliopolis, in the north eaft part of Egypt. in the neighborhood of Beersheba in the fouth of Paleftine, where Abraham now lived, at the diflance of about an hundred and twenty miles only, was in the days, and by the order of Tethmofis or Amatis, who was the firft of the Egyptian Kings, after the expulfion of the hoenician fhepherds Now therefore we are to enquire when this Tethmolis or Amatis lived, and compare his time with the time of the facrifice of Ifaac. Now if we look in my chronological table. published AD 1721, we fhall find that the hundred and twentyfifth year of Abraham, or which is all one. the twentyfifth year of Ifaac, falls into A. M. 2573, or into the thirteenth year of Tethimolis or Amalis which is the very middle of his twenty five years reign; fo that this abolition of human facrifices in Egypt and fubftitution of others in their room. feems to have been occationed by the folemn probibition of fuch a facrifice in the cafe of Abraham, and by the follow

[blocks in formation]

ing fubftitution of a ram in its ftead: Which account of this matter not only takes away the groundless fufpicions of the moderns, but fhews the great feafonablenefs of the divine prohibition of the execution of this command to Abraham, as probably the direct occafion of putting a stop to the barbarity of the Egyptians in offering human facrifices, and that for many, if not for all generations afterward.

DISSERTATION III.

TACITUS'S Accounts of the Origin of the JEWISH NATION, and of the particulars of the last Jewish War, that the former was probably written in opposition to Josephus's ANTIQUITIES, and that the latter was for certain almost all directly taken from Josephus's History of the JEWISH WAR,

[ocr errors]

INCE Tacitus, the famous Roman hiftorian, who has written more

bout the chorography of Judea, and the laft jewish war under Ceftus, Vefpafian, and Titus, than any other old Roman hifiorian; and fince both Jofephus and Tacitus were in favor with the fame Roman Emperors, Vefpafian, Titus, and Domitian; and fince Tacitus was an eminent pleader and writer of history at Rome, during the time or not. long after our Jofephus had been there ftudying the Greek language, reading the Greek books, and writing his own works in the fame Greek language, which language was almoft univerfally known at Rome in that age; and fince therefore it is next to impoffible to fuppofe that Tacitus could be unacquainted with the writings of Jofephus, it cannot but be highly proper to compare their accounts of Judea, of the Jews, and Jewith affairs, together. Nor is it other than a very furprizing paradox to me, how it has been poffible for learned men, particularly for the feveral learned editors of Jofephus and Tacitus, to be fo very filent about this matter as they have hitherto been, efpecially when not only the correfpondence of the authors as to time and place, but the likenefs of the fubject matter and circumstances is fo very remarkable; nay indeed fince many of the particular facts belonged peculiarly to the region of Judea, and to the Jewish nation, and are fuch as could hardly be taken by a foreigner from any other author than from our Jofephus, this ftrange filence is almost unaccountable, if not inexcufable. The two only other writers whom we know of, when fuch Jewish affairs might be fuppofed to be taken by Tacitus, who never appears to be in Judea himself, are Juftus of Tiberias, a Jewish hiftorian, contemporary with Jofephus, and one Antonius Ju lianus once mentioned by Minutius Felix, in his Octavius. § 33, as having written on the fame fubject with Jofephus, and both already mentioned by me on another occafion, differ. 1. As to Julus of Tiberias, he could not be the hiftorian whence Tacitus took his Jewish affairs, becaufe as we have feen, in the place juft cited, the principal paflage in Tacitus of that nature, concerning Chrift, and his futterings under the Emperor Tiberius, and by his procurator Pontius Pilate, was not there, as we know from the teftimony of Photius, Cod. xxx. And as to Antonius Julianus, his very name fhews him to have been not a Jew, but a Roman. He is never mentioned by Jofephus, and fo probably knew no more of the country or affairs of Judea than Taci tus himself. He was. I fuppofe, rather an epitomizer of Jofephus,

and not fo early as Tacitus, than an original historian himself before him. Nor could fo exact a writer as Tacitus ever take up with fuch poor and almost unknown hiftorians as thefe were, while Jofephus's feven books of the Jewish War were then fo common; were in fuch great reputation at Rome; were attefted to, and recommended by Vefpafian and Titus, the Emperors. by King Agrippa, and King Árche laus, and Herod King of Chalcis; and he was there honored with a ftatue And thefe his books were repofited at the public library at Rome, as we know from Jofephus himfelf from Eufebius, and Jerome, while we never heard of any other history of the Jews that had then and there any fuch atteftations or recommendations. Some things indeed Tacitus might take from the Roman records of this war. I mean from the Commentaries of Vefpafian, which are mentioned by Jofephus himself, in his own Life, 65 vol. 2. and fome others from the relations of Roman people, where the affairs of Rome were concerned; as alfo other affairs might be remembered by old officers and foldiers that had been in the Jewish war. Accordingly I ftill fuppofe that Tacitus had fome part of his information thefe ways, and particularly where he a little differs from or makes additions to Jofephus: But then, as this will all reach no farther than three or four years during this war, fo will it, by no means, account for that abridgment of the geography of the country, an entire fèries of the principal facts of hif tory thereto relating, which are in Tacitus, from the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, 240 years before that war, with which Antiochus both Jofephus and Tacitus begin their diftinct hiftories of the Jews, preparatory to the hiftory of this laft war. Nor could Tacitus take the greatest parts of thofe earlier facts belonging to the Jewish nation from the days of Mofes, or to Chrift and the Chriftians in the days of Tiberius, from Roman authors; of which Jewish and Chriftian affairs thofe authors had ufually very little knowledge, and which the heathen generally did grossly pervert and fhamefully falfify; and this is fo true as to Tacitus's own accounts of the origin of the Jewish nation, that the reader may almost take it for a conftant rule, that when Tacitus contradicts Jofephus's Jewish Antiquities, he either tells direct falfehoods, or truths fo miferably disguised, as renders them little better than falfehoods, and hardly ever light upon any thing relating to them that is true and solid but when the fame is in thofe Antiquities at this day; of which matters more will be said in the notes on his hiftozy immediately following.

HISTORY of the JEWS.

BOOK. V.. CHAP. II.

SINCE we are now going to relate the final period of this famous city [Jerufalem] it feems proper to give an account of its original.* The tradition is, that the Jews ran away from the Inland of Crete, and fettled themselves on the coaft of Libya, and this at the time when Saturn was driven out of his kingdom by the power of Jupiter: An argument for it is fetched from their name. The mountain Ida is famous in Crete; and the neighboring inhabitants are named Idai, which,.

Most of these stories are fo entirely groundlefs, and fo contradictory to one another, that they do not deferve a ferious confutation. It is ftrange Tacitus. could perfuade himself thus crudely to fet them down.

with a barbarous augment, becomes the name of Judæi [Jews.] Some fay they were a people that were very numerous in Egypt under the reign of Ifis, and that the Egyptians got free from that burden, by fending them into the adjoining countries, under their captains Hierofolymus and Judas. The greatest part say, they were thofe Ethiopians, whom fear and hatred obliged to change their habitations, in the reign of King Cepheus.* There are thole which report that they were Affyrians, who wanting lands, got together, and obtained part of Egypt, and foon afterward settled themselves in cities of their own, in the lands of the Hebrews, and the parts of Syria that lay nearest to them. Others pretend their origin to be more eminent, and that the Solymi, a people celebrated in Homer's poems, were the founders of this nation, and give this their own name Hierofolyma to the city which they built there.

CHAP. III.] Many authors agree, that when once an infectious dif temper was arifen in Egypt, and made mens' bodies impure, Bocchoris their King went to the oracle of [Jupiter] Hammon, and begged he would grant him fome relief against this evil, and that he was enjoined to purge his nation of them, and to banish this kind of men into other countries as hateful to the gods. That when he had fought for, and gotten them all together, they were left in a vast defart; that hereupon the reft devoted themselves to weeping and inactivity; but one of thofe exiles, Mofes by name, advised them to look for no affistance from any of the gods, or from any of mankind fince they had been abandoned by both, but bade them believe in him, as in a celestial leader, by whofe help they had already gotten clear of their prefent miferies. They agreed to it; and though they were unacquainted with every thing they began their journey at random: But nothing tired them fo much as the want of water; and now they laid themselves down on the ground to a great extent, as just ready to perish, when an herd of wild alles came from feeding, and went to a rock overshadowed by a grove of trees. Mofes followed them, as conjecturing that there was [thereabouts] fome graffy foil, and fo he opened large fources of water for them That was an eafe to them; and when they had journeyed continually** fix entire days, on the feventh day they drove out the inhabitants, and obtained thofe lands wherein their city and temple were dedicated.

CHAP. IV.] As for Mofes, in order to fecure the nation firmly to himself, he ordained new rites, and fuch as were contrary to thofe of other men. All things are with them profane which with us are fa

One would wonder how Tacitus, or, any heathens, could fuppofe the African Ethiopians under Cepheus, who are known to be Blacks, could be the parents of the Jews, who are known to be Whites.

+ This account comes Beareft the truth, and this Tacitus might have from Jofephus, only disguised by himself.

This Tacitus might have out of Josephus, Antiq. B. VII. chap iii, sect 2, vol I.

Strange doctrine to Jofephus! who truly obferves on this occafion, that the gods are angry not at bodily imperfections but at wicked practices, Apion, B. I. fect. 28. vol. III.

This believing in Mofes as in a celeftial leader, feems a blind confefsion of Tacitus that Mofes profeffed to have his laws from God.

This looks alfo like a plain confeffion of Tacitus's that Mofes brought the Jews water out of a rock in great plenty, which he might have from Joicphus, Antiq. B. III, chap. i. fett. 7.

**Strange indeed! that 600,000 men fhould travel above 200 miles, over the deserts of Arabia, in fix days, and conquer Judea the seventh.

« PreviousContinue »