By the help of tradition also they clear the text, Ex. xii. 40. where it is said, that the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. It would be a great mistake of these words, to think the meaning of them should be, that the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt four hundred and thirty years: for in the truth they dwelt there but half the time, as the Jews themselves reckon, and all learned men do agree to it. But the Jews understand by these words, that the sojourning of the children of Israel, all the while they dwelt in Egypt and in the land of Canaan, they and their fathers, was four hundred and thirty years. Thus all the rabbins do understand it, and thus it was anciently explained, by putting in words to this sense, in the Samaritan text, and in the Alexandrian LXX. That they were in the right, we see by the Apostle's reckoning the time to have been four hundred and thirty years, from the promise made to Abraham at his coming into Canaan, till the giving of the Law upon mount Sinai, which was but fifty days after their coming up out of Egypt. In like manner from tradition they filled up that place, Gen. iv. 8. where it is said, that Cain talked with Abel his brother, by adding the words which he spoke, "Let us go into the field." This insertion is not only in the Alexandrian LXX. but the Samaritans have it in their Bibles, and they had it there in St. Hierom's time. It is also extant in the Jerusalem Targum. Philo the Jew philoso-Lib. q. phizes on these words much after the same manner as the Targum doth.

4. It is certain that they have had very common among them the knowledge of the most illustrious prophecies of the Messias. This we may see in the answer of the Samaritan woman to our blessed Saviour, John iv. 25. where she saith, I know that when the Messias is come, he will tell us all things. For though it is no where plainly said so, yet the

C

det. p. 120,

124, 125.

Samaritans knew full well, that the Messias would explain all things, according to the traditional sense of that prophecy in Deut. xviii. 15, 18, 19. which hath been so constantly referred to the Messiah, that we find till this day in the Midrash upon Ecclesiast. ch. i. 9. that the last Redeemer shall be like the first, that is, Moses. And in consequence of this knowledge commonly received among the John xii. Jews, did they of Christ's time hold for certain, that the Messiah should remain for ever; which their posterity not knowing how to reconcile with their notion of the Messias, they fancied that the Messias should die after a long reign, and leave his crown to his children from generation to generation.

34.

Hence it was that the Sanhedrin answered Herod without delay, Matt. ii. 5, 6. that the Messiah should be born at Bethlehem, according to Micah's prophecy, though it is not plainly said so in the text of that prophecy, Micah v. 2. Hence also it was that John the Baptist, Matt. iii. 5, 6. found the people of the Jews so well disposed for repentance, that they might escape God's judgments threatened on the nation at the coming of the Messiah, according to Joel's prediction recited Acts ii. 16. and that other prophecy in Malachi iv. 5.

Hence it was that when John the Baptist sent his disciples to our Saviour to ask him, Whether he were the Messias or no; our Saviour gave them this answer, Matt. xi. 4. Go and tell John the things which you hear and see; the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them. This is commonly taken to be a quotation from Isaiah xxxv. 1. There some indeed of these characters do point out the Messiah; but our Saviour did not content himself with those, but added others that are not in that text, nor in any other, but such as no doubt the Jews had at that time in their common tradition.

This remark is of great moment to confound the boldness of some critics, as Grotius, who suppose that some places in the apocryphal books, which shew that they were exactly acquainted with the ideas of the prophets upon the Divinity and the glory of the Messias, such as we see in the Book of Wisdom, in Ecclesiasticus, and in Baruch, have been foisted in by the Christians in those books, when to the contrary they might have seen that the Jews have laid aside these books for that very reason, viz. because they were a strong proof that the Apostles did apply the prophecies of the Old Testament according to the sense of the synagogue before Jesus Christ.

It was from hence that our blessed Saviour in the same chapter, Matt. xi. shewed the multitude, that John the Baptist was the messenger promised by God in Malachi iii. 1. as he that should be the forerunner of the Messiah, and that should prepare his way by exhorting the people to repentance: and he proves that John the Baptist was so, by the great success of his preaching, in the conversion of those that seemed the most corrupt of the nation.

5. It is as certain, that they had by tradition sundry explications of the Scripture grounded upon allegories. Philo affirms this positively, [lib. de Therapeutis, p. 691.] St. Paul gives us several examples of it. We have one in Heb. iv. 9. where St. Paul thus argues from the words of David in Psalm xcv. 11. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. His argument depends upon the Jewish exposition of the six days of the creation, as foreshewing that the age of the world should be six thousand years; and understands the sabbath, or rest, of the times after; founding their exposition on the words of the xcth Psalm, Ã thousand years in thy sight are as but one day: that is to be seen in R. Abraham bar Hiya Hannashi Megillat ha Megillat Saar. 2. in Ramban upon Gen. ii. 2. in Abarbanel

See Manasseh Ben Is. Creat. Problem xi. thing we have in the

Miphaloth Eloh. lib. i. c. 4. Concil. q. 30. in Genes. et de Another example of this same St. Paul, Galat. iv. 24. drawn from Sarah and Hagar, as being types of the two covenants. Philo the Jew [de Cherub. p. 83.] found a mystery there before St. Paul, as we see in a book of his that was much more ancient than that epistle.

A third example may be found in the same St. Paul, who uses it, Rom. v. 14. and 1 Cor. xv. 47. in comparing the first Adam with Jesus Christ, whom he calls the second Adam. The Jews have the same idea of the Messias, as of the second Adam, who shall raise all his followers from the sepulchre, as we see in Pirke Eliezer, chap. 32.

This method of explaining the Scriptures ought to be carefully considered, because it gives us to understand the reasons why the Jews have looked upon the Song of Songs as a part of canonical Scripture, and have referred it to the Messias, as we see they do in their Targum, in Cant. i. 8. iv. 5. vii. 14. viii. 1, 4. The same reflection may be made on their acknowledging of the divine authority of the Book of Ruth, wherein their Targum mentions the Messias, chap. iii. 15. And the like may be said of Ecclesiastes, certain texts of which, as chap. i. 18. and viii. 25. they refer to the Messias, which otherwise seem not to have much relation to him.

In truth, one cannot well deny that the Jews had this common knowledge of great truths of their religion, and a traditional exposition of great prophecies, from their ancestors, to clear their ideas thereof, if he considers attentively these following remarks.

First, that since their return from the Babylonian captivity, they were never guilty of idolatry: except, for a little while, in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, when some wicked men apostatized, and brought a force upon others, by which many were driven to

idolatry. But some chose rather to die than to yield to it, 1 Mac. i. 62, 63. ii. 29, 30, 37, 38. Which is an argument, that the rebukes of the Prophets had made great impression on their minds, and raised a great concern in them for their religion, and for the study of the Scripture, which contained the precepts of it. But it was impossible that in reading the writings of the Prophets, and hearing them explained by their Doctors, they should give no attention to the great promises of the Messias, whose coming was spoken of by some of the Prophets, as being very near at hand. See Dan. ix. Hag. ii. Mal. iii.

The second is, that their zeal for the Scriptures, and their religion, was really much quickened by the cruel persecution which they suffered from Antiochus Epiphanes; whose tyrannical fury did particularly extend to the holy Scriptures, 1 Mac. i. 56, 57. and to whatever else did contribute to the maintenance of their religion.

The third is, that it appears from history, that there were more writers of their nation since the captivity, than we read of at any time before: so saith Josephus, lib. i. contr. Apion. Especially since they came under the power of the Ptolemies and the Seleucidæ, who, being princes of a Greek original, were great lovers of learning, and did much for the improving of good letters.

The fourth is, that learned men among the Jews, applying themselves to this business, did write, either at Jerusalem, at Babylon, or at Alexandria, several extracts of ancient books of morality for the instruction of their people. Such were the Books of Baruch and Esdras, which seem to have been written in Chaldee; and those of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus, which were written in Greek.

The fifth is, that the great business of the Jews in their synagogues, and in their schools, hath been ever since to understand the Books of the Prophets, and to explain them in a language intelligible