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felves, which you make fuch Brags of, allow it to the Heathen as well as you.

Cred. One can hardly think you Theifts are in earneft, No Revela when you object against the Scriptures and our Religion, tion to the that God has revealed himself to other Nations as well as Gentiles for their Reli us; I always take you to have a Mind only to be pleafant, gions, and to put a Banter upon us Chriftians, rather than to defend your own Tenets, which do not feem much to be furthered by it. And when Spinofa contends fo mightily for it, I fancy it must be only an humorfom Paradox of that odd Man, and not his fetled Opinion; or at leaft the Effect of a Pique he had conceived against the Jews, and fo was refolved to fet them upon the fame Foot with other Mortals. But that the reft of the World have no · Revelation for the diverfe Religions they profefs, will appear by confidering,

1. That most of the Religions in the World are ido- Becaufe latrous. Now it is impoffible to fuppofe, that God by idolatrous a Revelation fhould command Men to do that, which all wife Men would be afhamed to do; to fall down before Stocks and Stones, to worship the Sun and the Moon, fenfelefs inanimate Creatures, and to adore dead Men, and tyrannical Princes; or even Herbs or Beafts. Now though we fhould fuppofe, that God was in no Ways jealous of his Honour, and that it was indifferent to him whatfoever Thing we worshiped; yet as he is the God of Truth, 'tis impoffible he should command a falfe Worfhip, or inftruct People in paying Devotion to Things as Gods, which are only mean, and perhaps wicked Creatures. Now the far greatest Part of the unchriftian World are, and have been, fuch Idolaters, and therefore to make God to have revealed to them their Superftitions, is is to make God to reprefent himself fuch as it is impoffible for him to be; to be delighted in a Worship which is falfe and wicked, and to be himfelf the chief Author of the Impofture; which is fo horrid, as no Body will contend for.

2. Other unchriftian Nations that are not Idolaters (as Immoral. chicfly the Mahometans) profefs a Religion which allows

Immorality, the Founder whereof was rather poffeffed by the Devil, than infpired by God: A lewd debauched fanatical Wretch, that lived by Rapine and Murther, and fpent his Days in Whoredom, Adulteries, and Sodomies. Now his Religion allows its Followers to propagate it by the Blood of the Oppofers, and by all Manner of Cruelty and Barbarity against Men of other Perfuafions. It allows Concubinacy and Whoredom, and even Sodomy it felf; and the very Rewards it propofes in another World, are fuch infamous Lufts, as a good Man would be ashamMelchife- ed to think of in this. 3. As for your Inftances out of desk, Scripture, because you should not too much infult over us, as having wounded us with our own Weapons, will you be pleafed to accept this Answer to the first, That Melchifedeck is no Proof of a Revelation among the Gentiles, more than of that univerfal Revelation, which was given by Adam and Noah, to all Mankind; and upon which, as was fhewn before, what is generally called natural Religion is grounded upon. For though Melchifedeck was no Jew, as not defcending from Abraham; yet he was not properly a Gentile, efpecially fuch a one as is ufually understood by the Word, viz. one that has degenerated from the ancient and true Religion, into an idolatrous Superftition. For Melchifedeck was a true and orthodox Member of the ancient Noachical Church, and no Ways tinctured with the prevailing idolatrous Vice of thofe Ages, but in the midft of the mighty Defection to falfe Gods and Idols, was a Prieft of the most high God. So that 'tis a great Miftake to fay, That God had à Priesthood among the Gentiles, from the Inftance of Melchifedeck; becaufe, Ifay, Melchifedeck was no Gentile, but a conftant Perfeverer in God's Church, from which the Gentiles had even at that Time made a Defection; he kept up to the Noachical Precepts, which the Gentiles round him had neglected. But if in ftri& fpeaking you will have him a Gentile, becaufe he was not circumcifed, it does not from hence follow, that God had an inftituted Church among other Nations, diftinctly inftituted as the Jewith was. For the Scripture does not

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give us a particular Account who this Melchifedeck was. The Jews will have him to be Shem, the eldest Son of Noah, because perhaps, they would allow no Body elfe to be greater than their Father Abraham, to blefs him: But though this does well enough agree with the Age of Shem, who lived till after Abraham's Time; yet it is not probable that Shem dwelt in the Land of Canaan, which was the Seat of Cham's Pofterity. But be he Shem, or any one elfe, and though he were a Worshiper of the true God, yet he was fo only upon the Principles of the old Revelation made to Noah, which was common to all the World with him: He had not any particular Revelations afforded him, as Mofes, to found a new Church upon; neither he nor his People had any fuch Favour vouchfafed them, as to have the Oracles of God committed to them, as the Jews had, Rom. iii. 2. He was a Prieft as he was the Élder of a Family in the old patriarchal Way, and not by any pofitive Inftitution among Gentiles; and fo bleffed Abraham who communicated with him in the divine Worship whilft he did officiate, as he might have done with Abraham in fuch an euchariftical, or any other Sacrifice. 4. As for that Text of Malachi, where it is faid, That God's Name fhall be great among the Gentiles; (though Spinofa tranflates, it is great among the Gentiles, when the Verb is wanting in the Hebrew, which is wrong, for the Book is Prophetick, and fpeaks of Futures, and therefore must be rendred shall be) this does by no Means fet the Gentiles at that Time on a Level with the Jews, but is a remarkable Prophecy of the Kingdom of the Meffias, when the Partition-Wall should be taken away, and God fhould have one Church made up both of Jews and Gentiles. 5. As to thofe Places of the Pfalmift, That God's tender Mercies are over all his Works; and that God is nigh unto all them that call upon It is the Defign of the Pfalmift, to fhew forth God's fuperlative Goodness in this Pfalm, and therefore among the reft of God's Attributes, he does praise him for his merciful Providence over his Creatures, His tender Mercies are over all his Works. And fo his being nigh unto all them that

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call проп him, does not in the leaft denote any particular divine Inftitution like the Jewish Revelation among the Heathen, but is only in general, an Affertion of God's univerfal Love to Mankind, and his Willingness to affist them, which no reasonable Man can deny. 6. As for your Inftance in Job, That he was a good Man and accep table to God; why, fo were all the good Patriarchs before the Law, or the Circumcifion; nay, though we should grant that God fpake by Revelation to this good Man, as it may appear from Chap. xxxviii. 1. yet it does not follow, that all the idolatrous Heathens afterwards received the fame Favour. For before the Law, and in other Nations, where the Law was not received, Morality, together with the eafy Noachical Precepts, were the Rule of their Duty; and therefore until they had forfeited this Communication of the divine Favour, by the Enormity of their Lives, and their Deviation from the true Worship, they had as good a Title to the Infpiration of God, whenever he fhould please to afford it them, as the Jews had after their Church was inftituted. 7. But as for what you allege, that Jonah was only an Ethnick Prophet, t think, by your Favour, that is a great Miftake. For Jonah was principally a Prophet to the Jews; and prophefied under Jeroboam the fecond; the King of Ifrael, as is plain from the 14th Chap. of the 2d Book of Kings, where it is faid, That Jeroboam restored the Coast of Ifrael, from the entring in of Hamath unto the Sea of the Plain, according unto the Word of the Lord God of Ifrael, which he Spake by the Hand of his fervant Jonah, the Son of Amittai, the Prophet, which was of Gath-hepher. Whether or no that Prophecy which is there referred to, were ever written or no, or whether it was only verbal, we cannot now determine, there being nothing like it in our Canon of Scripture; but it is from hence very evident, that Jonas was a Prophet originally to the Jews. That he was afterwards fent to the Gentiles, was a great Favour indeed to that Heathen City of Ninivel ; but then he had firft prophefied to the Ifraelites, and when they had profited little or nothing by it, he like

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Chrift and his Apoftles, turned to the Gentiles. 8. As for your Exceptions from Enoch, Noah, &c. they lived before the general Corruption by Idolatry, and therefore it is but reasonable to fuppofe, that they living up to the old true patriarchal Religion, might partake of the divine Revelation as well as the Jews. And the Prophet Ezechiel's Prophecy is wholly taken up in fhewing God's Judgments upon the Jews, and endeavouring to bring them to a true Senfe of their Sins; only a Chapter or two are interpofed to foretell God's Vengeance likewife upon their Enemies, whofe Wickednefs God's All-wife Providence had made Ufe of to be a Scourge for the Sins of his People. And fo for the Prophets Ifaiah and Jeremy, their bemoaning the Calamities of the Heathens of Jazer and Edom, is not a Prophecy on their Behalf, but only is a lively Hypotypofis, or poetical Description of the fad Miferies which those People should undergo, to hearten up the Jews in their Afflictions, when they should understand, that God would lay fuch heavy Burthens on their Enemies; and to fhew them, that they had no Reafon to forfake the true Religion, when they should fee that the Heathens underwent as fevere Judgments as they. 9. And fo again as to the Prophecy of Obadiah, whom you affert to have been a Prophet only to the Edomites, he was a Prophet only to the Ifraelites, and for •ought appears to the contrary, originally of Jewish Extraction; for I think little Credit is to be given to the Jewish Authors, who would make him an Edomitifh Profelyte. But that Obadiah was a Prophet to the Jews only, is evident by the whole Tenor of his short Prophecy, where firft are denounced God's fevere Judgments against the Edomites, the Enemies of the Jews, and his Vengeance for their Pride and Infolence, and afterwards the Jews Delivery from them, and Conqueft over them. But upon mount Sion fhall be Deliverance, and Jacob fhall poffefs their Poffeffions. And the House of Jacob shall be a Fire, and the House of Jofeph a Flame, and the House of Efan for Stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them, and there fall not be any of the House of Efan; for

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