Brachmans like the Levites muft go into the inward Parts of the Temple. They are defiled by a dead Body, and have Cakes before their Idols like the fhew Bread; and the Brachmans like the Jewish High-Priests must marry Virgins. And the Inhabitants of the Country of* Tangath redeem their First-born with a Ram. Now when the Jewish and the Indian Rites are fo very like, why might not I affert, that Mofes had them from India, as well as you from Egypt? Nay, even the barbarous Tartars have many Things not unlike the Jews *. They celebrate the New-Moons with Songs and Compotati→ ons; they bewail their Dead thirty Days, they breed no Hogs, and punish Adultery with Death. And fo as to the new World, the Children of the People of Mexico and Fucatan are circumcifed; and the Mexicans keep in a perpetual Fire. The Charibeans celebrate the NewMcon with the Sound of a Trumpet, and abftain from Swine's Flesh. Thofe of Mechoacana are defiled by dead Bodies; and thofe of Peru, and new Spain, marry their Brother's Wives. And in Nicaragua, Women after Child-birth are unclean. Befides, the Attick and Roman Laws and Rites are in many Things, as like the Jewish as the Egyptian. The Attick Laws eftablifh, that no Einanpes or Heirefs fhould marry out of her own Tribe; their fais, or Cakes anfwer to the fhew Bread; and the Law of Solon, that Women in Grief fhould not tear their Cheeks is not unlike that of Mofes, Lev. xix. 28. Their Priests were to marry Virgins and Citizens; and no Lamb was to be a Sacrifice lefs than a Year old. And we may fay the fame of the Romans. Their Sacrifices bore a great Correfpondence with the Jewish, the burning the Holocaufta, their Mola Salfa, Luftrations, &c. Their Nadipedales feem very like the Eaftern Devotion of pulling off the Shoes. Their Puerpera, abftaining forty Days from the Temple, the Frondea Cafe in the Feafts of Anna Perenna, and the Neptu

Vid. Thevenot. Huet. Dem. Prop. 4. Cap. 6. † Vid. Conring. Thef. Rerump. Plut. Sol.

nalia, fo like the Feaft of Tabernacles; the unhallowing of a Prieft that touched a dead Body, or who affociated with his Wife before Sacrifice; all look as like the Jewish Laws, as any Custom in Ægypt. From all which I conclude, that fince fo many Nations, in fo different Parts of the World, have the fame Rites with the Jews, either by Chance or Tradition, or it may be by the Mimickry of the Devil; I am fure it is very great Boldness to say, that all these came to the Jews from the Ægyptians.

Phil. Well, Credentius, you have made a fine learned Harangue upon the Matter, if we Infidels were to be convinced by that. But I have a notable Objection which lies both against Mofes and all the Sons of the Prophets. And that is, they appear to be like the reft of the Jews, miferable ignorant People, and after all. their mighty Pretences to the Knowledge of the divine Nature, are fcandaloufly ignorant concerning it. They every where feem to be grofs Anthropomorphites, reprefenting God as having Eyes, and Hands, and Feet. Adam, to whom God made his firft Revelation, knew nothing of God's Omniprefence, or Omniscience, but pretended to hide himself from him, and to make a fimple Excufe to him. And Mofes, who relates the Story, brings in God like a Man walking in the Garden. The fame Mofes was fo filly as to fancy God vifible, and to defire to fee him, Exod. xxxiii. And fome of the Prophets endow God with human Paffions, and make him to repent, to be forry, and to be glad. But above all the Contrivance of the Prophet Jonah is the wifeft, who thought to run away to Tarfish out of God Almighty's Reach, as if God had no Power out of the Country of Judea. Now who can expect Revelation to come from thofe Heads, which were not furnished with the common Notions of Natural Religion?

Cred. You do a great Injury to the holy Scriptures, and to the Memory of the holy Men, recorded there, to conceive fuch an extravagant Opinion of them; efpecially when it is taught there, that God is a Spirit, that.

he beholds all Things, is prefent every where, that he is Jews far not a Man, and the like. And therefore you ought in from being all Candour to fuppofe, that thefe Expreffions which atAnthropomorphites. tribute Hands, Eyes, &c. to God, are only to be taken metaphorically, and are fpoke only 'Avogaπoradas, after the manner as Men fpeak. And to this the Jewish Writers, who are fuppofed to understand their own Language beft, do unanimously agree. This Maimonides fpends feveral Chapters in his first Book of his More Nevochim to prove. So the Targum, when the Scripture feems to impute any corporeal Action to the Deity, interprets it in a Way more agreeable to the divine Nature. As Gen. xxviii. And behold the Lord stood above it. Onkelos Paraphrafes, The Glory of the Lord food afore it. So Gen. xxxi. 49. The Lord watch between me and thee. The Targum fays, The Word of the Lord watch between me and thee. And this is the conftant Ufe of that Interpreter, fays Maimonides More Nev. Lib. 1. Cap. 46. And a Jewith Rabbin writes, that when they meet with any Expreffion or Metaphor, concerning the Deity, of this Nature, they are used to interpofe Cabiacol, If I may fo fpeak, Vid. Buxtorf. Lexicon Talm. Rad. . Now the true Reason why the Scripture does exprefs the Attributes of God by bodily Actions and Properties, is not, that thofe Writers thought God of a bodily Shape, but by the Reason of the Narrownefs of the Hebrew Tongue, they wanted abftracted Terms to express them by. And when thefe corporeal Terms were applied to God, the People of that Nation knew as well what was meant by them, as the Schools do by all their Quiddities. Thus the Eye of God, is the fame as the Providence of God. So Jer. xxxix. 12. Caft thine Eye upon him, (i. c.) take Care of him. And 2 Chr. xvi. 9. The Eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole Earth, (i. e.) God takes Care of all People in it. So the Heart of God was as well understood by the Jews,

*

Author Halic. Ol. c. 1. quoted by Hottinger in his Differtat. Theolog. Philolog.

as

as well ex

as if it had in moré fcholaftick Language been called his Decree, or his Will. David was a Man after God's own Heart, that is, lived as he would have him, or according to his Will, or Laws. By the Mouth of God they eafily understood his revealed Will, by the Hand of God's Power. By God his arifing, his Vengeance; by his biding himself, his Dereliction, or with-holding his Grace and Providence, Vid. Maim. More Nev. Lib. 1. Adriani Ifagog. Lit. Sac. Ed. per David Hocfchelium. Nor is there any Reafon to blame the facred Writers for thefe metaphorical Ways of expreffing the Nature of God, because they are beft adapted to give the People an understanding of them, and to animate their Affections towards God; whilft dry fcholaftical and abstracted Terms Hebrew would lie flat upon their Minds, and ferve only to amufe Language and confound them. And after all, the most precife preffer the and philofophick Way of speaking concerning the Deity Nature of muft needs be very improper and altogether metaphori God, as the cal. For Languages were not compofed to speak of the fcholaftical. Deity, but for Men to maintain an Intercourse with one another; and therefore unlefs we would contrive a perfect Set of new Words, we cannot fpeak at all of God if we should not use our old Terms in a tralatitious Senfe. And thus the words Providence and Mercy, &c. if we refpect their original Ufe, and do not take them in a metaphorical Senfe, are altogether as abfurd, when applied to the Deity, as the Eye, or Hand, or Heart of God, in the groffeft Sense: For how improper is it, literally fpeaking, to fay, God looks before him like Men when they act cautioufly, or that God has that earning of Bowels which pitiful Men have over a compaffionate Object? And truly if we should perfectly contrive new Words to fpeak of thefe tranfcendent Truths, they are fo far above the Reach of our Understandings, and we are acquainted fo little with them, that even then there would be a World of Improprieties in our Speech concerning them. Therefore, I think, that we may fit down very well contented with the Jewish Forms of Speech concerning the Nature of God; and that we have rather

X 4

rather great Reason to blefs his Goodness in ordering it to be explained in fuch a Way as is intelligible to the meaneft People, who would have been but amufed and diftracted at the abftrufe Niceties and Explications which philofophick and fcholaftick Brains would have made concerning it. This I take to be a very proper Expli cation of those human Parts and Affections which are in many Places of Scripture attributed to God.

But as concerning fome natural Actions which are ap¬ plied to him, as his walking, coming, going, wrestling, c. this is to be attributed to the Angel which did reprefent the Deity in thofe Appearances. And I doubt not but it was fuch a vicarious Angel which appeared frequently before the Fall to Adam and Eve in Paradife. And that it was the Voice, or Sound of him whom they beard walking in the Garden in the Cool of the Day. That is, they heard that Wind or Voice which used to go before the representing Angel which they were fufficiently acquainted with. For with this Circumftance the divine Appearance used to be attended. As the Lord anfiered Job out of the Whirlwind, Job xxxviii. And 1 Kings xix. And behold, the Lord paffed by, and a great and ftrong Wind rent the Mountains; and after that, an Earthquake, and a Fire, and a ftill fmall Voice. Now the guilty Couple understanding by these Preludes, the coming of the vicarious Angel, hid themselves for Fear. Nor did they pretend to make fimple Excufes to God Almighty out of Ignorance of his Omniscience, as you falfely imagine. For they are fo far from that, that they unhappy Creatures plainly confefs the Fact upon the firft Charge, in all the naked Circumftances of it. The Woman whom thou gavest me, to be with me, gave me of the Tree, and I did eat. The Serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. There is nothing in these Words which implies any Thing like fuch abfurd Excuses. Only fome fanciful Expofitors will make Adam here to shift off the Crime upon his Wife, which God had given him, and to caft a fevere Reflexion upon God's Ordinance of Wedlock, which they fay he here flily infinuates to be

the