Targums, and reading it folemnly on their Sabbaths in the Synagogues, as the true and genuine Interpretation of their Law. Thus he, * Before the Invention of the Art of Printing, when Copies of the Targum of the Prophets and Holy Writers were not to be found above one in a Country, or two at most in a whole Climate, because no one took Care of them; the Targum of Onkelos was to be had in great Plenty ; and that because we were obliged to read every Seventh Day a Parasha (or Chapter) twice, once in the Text, and once in the Targum. The Senfe of the Jews appears from hence, and their general Approbation of Onkelos, that they were very far from being Anthropomorphites, or fo flow of Heart, as to believe GOD had Hands, or any Members like thofe of a Humane Body.

I SHALL now therefore proceed to give a Proof of the Refurrection of the Dead, out of the Old Testament, from the Knowledge of this Allegorical Key. It is written in Ifai. xxvi. 19. Thy dead Men fhall rife, together with my dead Body fhall they arife: Awake and fing, ye that dwell in Duft: for thy Dew is as the Dew of Herbs, and the Earth shall caft

* קורס שנמצאה מלאכת הדפוס לא היו נמצאים תרגום נביאים וכתובים כי אים אחר במדינה ושנים באיקלים לכן לא היה מי שהשגיח בהם: אבל תרגום אונקלוס תמיר נבצרה לרוב: מה כפני שחייבים אנחנו לקרא בכל שבוע הפרשה שנים מקרא ואחד תרגום: .Eli Levit

out

out the Dead. A very fignal Proof this is of the Resurrection, and such as the Sadducees could not by any Art evade. Yet doth the great Force and Conclufiveness of this Text appear from the Ufe of the Term Dew, and Knowing the Allufion those Words make to a received Opinion of the Jews. It is poffible the fubtile Sadducee might find fome Sophistical Evasion for the former Part of the Verfe, even the exprefs Words; The Dead fhall arife: Awake and fing, ye that dwell in Duft: The Earth shall caft out the Dead; and interpret them as meaning only a fecular Felicity, a Rifing up from a Condition of Slavery and Mifery to a State of Happiness and Power. And this was in Fact the Manner in which the Sadducees did anfwer all Texts of this kind brought against them. But the Mentioning here of the Dew fhews undeniably, that the whole Text ought to be understood, and was spoken of the Refurrection of the Body.

THE Reason is, the Jews examining what fecond Causes, what Means might be instru mental in the Raifing of the Dead, what Apparatus the Almighty would ufe in effecting fo great a Miracle, had conceived it would be, or rather allegorically fhadow'd it out, by saying, GOD would rain down a Dew of a Plaftick Power, which should impregnate the Earth, and vivify the dead Bodies, or their Particles, however difperfed. Thus speaks

fpeaks Menaffe Ben Ifrael: " It was certainly "the Opinion of the Ancients, that the "Refurrection would be effected by the "means of a certain Dew rained from Hea

ven, of a Plastick Vertue, as it is written

in the Hierufalem Talmud and Jelcndi. Thus the Allufion made here by the Prophet to that popular Notion of the Dew, fhews plainly, he spoke of the Resurrection of the Body, because he affigns a Cause for the effecting what he mentioned, the Railing of the Dead, which was appropriated by them for effecting the Refurrection. For if any thing else had been meant by the Prophet, another Reafon must neceffarily have been given. † Yet was not this Opinion of a Dew strictly true, but taken only in a Figurative Sense; and the Dew only the best Allegorical Means that could be given for conceiving how the Refurrection would be

† But the Chaldee and the Syriack Tranflations, by a little diverfifying the Phrafe, tu: the Matter beyond all Doubt : And if the Hebrew Expreffion be fomething dubious, the above-mention'd Tranflations rendring it, But the Dew of Light is thy Dew, where, by Light, as very frequently in Scripture and Prophane Authors, is meant Life, it is beyond Controversy. Agreeable to this, we read, Pfal. xlix. ver. 14. And the Juft fhall have Dominion over them in the Morning, where by Morning is meant the Refurrection.

effected. The great Maimonides affures u§, by this, not the Natural Dew is to be understood; and in Chapt. 52. of Part the 1st. of his Moreh Nevochim, fays, "From these "Inftances you fee, how thofe Questions, "which have puzzled the greatest Philofo

phers, are delivered up and down in the

Medrafheoth; and after fuch a Manner, "that a wife Man, on the first View and "Confideration in the Beginning of his "Studies, would not believe them to be "true, but would rather ridicule them; be"cause if they be taken in a literal Senfe, "they seem at a vast Distance from Truth. "The Reafon is, the Rabbins speak Enig"matically, in Parables, concerning these "Points, that they might veil them from "the Eyes and Cavils of the Vulgar. Thus neceffary is the Knowledge of a popular Opinion, tho' ill-grounded, for understanding a Part of Scripture which ufeth the most explicite Terms, to the Jews, for declaring the most important Article of Religion.

ALL the other Texts of Holy Scripture, on which the Jews do found their Belief of the Resurrection, are collected by the learned Menaffe Ben Ifrael in his Treatise on that Subject, to which the learned Reader is referred. Most of them, especially thofe in the Prophets, are the fame as the Chriftians now use to prove it by: Some, but particularly thofe taken out of the Pentas teuch,

teuch, are peculiar to themselves, and feveral feem too much strained by the Rabbins, in order to make a more full Proof of the Refurrection, from the Law. At least they feem fo to us, as not being versed enough in their Notions, Customs, and Manners, and particularly in the Ufe of the allegorical Key of Scripture. I fhall therefore omit thofe Scripture Paffages, and give a few Instances of their Belief of it, from their Mifna, next to the divine Original Text, the most valued Book among them, and from their more celebrated Rabbins. In the most valued Part of their Misna Pirk Avoth, there is this distinct and explicite Declaration of a Refurrection, an Aphorifm of the famous R. Eleazar the Caparnaite, fo clear and express, none of the great Commentators, as Maimonides, Barteonora, or Fagins, could exprefs it more fully.

"Thus

fays Rabbi Eleazar the Caparnaite: They "who are born, fhall die; they who are "dead, fhall rife and be judged: They who "fhall be born, fhall know; they who are "born, fhall know; they who shall rise from "the Dead, fhall know, that He is GOD "the Maker and Creator, He it is who "fees all Things, He is the Judge, He is "the Witness, He is the Profecutor in the

ז כא רבי אלעזר אמר: הילודים למות והמתים להחית והחיים לדון לידע להודיע ולהוודע שהוא אר הוא ליוצר: e&

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