Tribes, according to the different Defcent of their Kings. The chief Objection that can be rais'd against this Interpretation will be, that it difarms the Chriftians of an Oracle, own'd by the Jews themselves, whereby they have fuccefsfully prov'd against the latter, that the Mefhas was already come. But an Interpreter muft not always confider what the Jews will give him leave to fay, or what wou'd be ferviceable to his Cause, if it were true, but what is really confonant to the Truth it felf, no less than if there were no fuch People as the Jews now in the World, or if we had never had the leaft Difpute with them about the coming of the Meffias. Though the Jews were not mistaken in their Expectation of the Mehas, yet all those places in the Old Teftament, which out of their former immoderate, and now their prepofterous Defire of his coming, they have expounded concerning him, must not therefore be affirmed to relate to him, merely because the Jews think fo. That the Rabbins have forced feveral Paffages in the Bible to favour the Meffias, without any reafon on their fide, is fufficiently known to those that have either read them, or what the Chriftians have collected out of their Writings. Therefore as it was a true Tradition of the ancient Jews, that there fhould come at last a Deliverer to Ifrael, so any unprejudiced Perfon will own that they might sometimes commit Mistakes in expounding fome Text of the O. Teftament, which they supposed to relate to him, V.This

V. This we don't say with that prospect, as if we had the Vanity to imagine that this laft Interpretation of Jacob's Prophecy ought to take place of all other, whether already found out, or hereafter to be discover'd, as being the unquestionable meaning of this Paffage: but that after the Merits of all the other Opinions have been impartially confidered, it will more plainly appear either on which fide the Truth ftands,or where and by what Methods it is to be acquir'd, or laftly why it cannot be found out?

Differtation XII.

In which feveral Obfcure Texts in Genefis are explained and illuftrated.

A

ND God faid let there, ch. 1. 3.] The Hebrews commonly defcribe God working all things by his Word, to denote his transcendent Power over the whole Creation, and with what ease he does whatever he pleases. Thus the Pfalmift, Pfalm 33. 6. By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made, and all the Hoft of them by the Breath of his Mauth: Pfalm 148.. 5. He commanded, and they were created. And as he creates by his Commands, fo he deftroys after the fame manner. He shall fmite the Earth, fays Ifaiah, c. 11. 4. with the Rod of his

Mouth,

Mouth, and with the Breath of his Lips he shall flay the Wicked. If there is any Sublimity in thefe Expreffions, as we own there is, it is to be ascribed to the Genius of the Hebrew Language, and not to the Eloquence of Mofes, as Longinus, Teir imagined: for otherwife Mofes rather ufes an humble stile in his Historical Narrations, as Huetius has obferved, Prop. 4. c. 2. Dem, Evang.

And the Earth brought forth Grafs, ch.1.12.] This Verfe is a meer Repetition of the former, which after Mofes had faid and it was fo, was altogether unneceffary. But the Hebrew Wri ters are far from that Severity of the Atticks, who could not endure any Superfluities. Several things are redundant in the facred Volumes, and others defective, which wou'd not a little contribute to the Perfpicuity of the Sentence. However, this is not fo much to be attributed to their Writers, as to the Condition of their Language, which the most partial Patron of it muft acknowledge to be unpolifhed and uncultivated, though it fometimes affects, as has been obferved in the preceding Praragraph, according to the Genius of the other Oriental Languages, a pompous and magnificent way of Expreffion.

God blessed the feventh day and fanctified it, ch. 2. 3. As one contrary is beft illuftrated by another, it will not be mal à propos to enquire what is the meaning of Maledi cere diis, ie. to curfe a day; that so we may

under

understand what it is, benedicere dici, or to bless a day. Among the Hebrews that was faid to be a maledictus dies, or a curfed day, which the Greeks called άnopea's, and the Romans exfecrabiles, or unaufpicious, by reason of fome remarkable Destruction or Calamity which had happen'd on that day. Thus, Jeremiah 20.14. the Prophet to denote how wretched a Life he lived, Curfed be the day, fays he, wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my Mother bore me be bleffed: That is, let that day be reckoned ominous in all future Ages, for the Birth of an unfortunate Child. The Roman Senate out of a fervile Compliment to Nero, decreed that Agrippina's Birth-day fhould be reckon'd among the dies nefafti, as we find in Tacitus, Ann. 14. 12. Which Cuftom the Romans borrowed from the Græcians, and they from the Oriental People. Now on fuch a day they were forbidden to fhow any publick mirth, or rejoycing in memory of the unlucky Accident whatever it was, that happen'd on it. Hence fob curfing the day of his Nativity, wifhes, ch. 3. 7. that no joy be in it. And therefore to curfe a day, is all one as to pray that it may become execrable and ominous, and that all Demonftrations of Gladness may be intermitted upon it; to bless a day is to with that it may be esteemed fortunate, and celebrated with publick Rejoycings, and a blessed day is the fame with a happy, or a feftival day. From these Premises it follows, that when God is faid to have blefled the feventh

day,

day, we are to understand by that pallage, Deum voluiffe eum diem festem haberi, & hilariter tranfigi. However, we are not to infer from this place, that Mankind ever fince the Creation of Adam, obferv'd this day as a Feftival, because Mofes when he relates the Hiftory of the earliest times, frequently takes occafion to remind the Ifraelites of the Original of fome Rites which he instituted; and does not fpeak as Adam, or those that were before him would have done if they had tranfmitted their own Actions in writing, but fuits himself to the Language and Genius of his own times. See chap. 7:2.

To fee what he would call them, c. 2. 19.] Here the famous Axiom of the Rabbines takes place, Loquitur lex ut filij hominum, for God did not want the help of Adam to give names to the Beasts. Perhaps this was not done in the compass of one day, if as fome believe, Adam viewed all the feveral forts of Animals, neither is it credible that all the Greatures in the Universe, both wild and tame, and all the Fishes, were brought before Adam to receive their names. In all appearance thofe Beafts and Fowls that are peculiar to America, never came upon this Errand, neither will any one I believe, prefume that the Fifhes quitted their Element for this purpose. We have already obferved in our Differtation upon the Flood, that the word all is frequently applied to fignify fome certain kinds, but not omnia genera, and

there