kindl'd from heaven) yet order'd after another 18 manner, it ferv'd 'em no less for a guide in their marches, than at other times to drels their food, or to warm their bodies. The Priests and Levites follow'd immediately after the facred Fire among the Ifraelites; as the Mages, with the 365 young men, obferv'd the like rank among the Perfians. Thefe in both nations fung certain Hymns, proper to the occafion. Those of the Ifraelites I hall recite in their COMMONWEALTH. The Ark of JEHOVAH is indeed commanded to be carry'd on men's fhoulders; but the chariot of JUPITER was drawn by Horfes. As the image of the Sun fhin'd aloft on the top of the Royal tent among the Perfians: fo the Fire was lighted among the Ifraelites on the top of the Tabernacle. To be fhort, I'll fhow in the MOSAIC REPUBLIC many more conformities between the Jews and the Perfians, as others have done between them and the Egyptians: for, even before the captivity, the Jews did not onely fa crifice like the Perfians in the high places; but 2 Kings, they had alfo the confecrated horfes and chariots of the Sun, for which the Commentators give no tolerable reafon.

23. 11.

XII. NOT to make this Digreffion longer, I have already shown the neceffity of the guidance of the Starrs, or of the Compafs, or of Fire thro vaft defarts, as well as that fuch methods have been actually us'd. I have alfo ftated the cafe how this was done by the Ifraelites at their coming

18. And then came a fire out from before the LORD, and confum'd upon the altar the burnt-offring and the fat. Levit. 9. 24. See aljo 1 Kings 18. 38. 2 Chron. 7. 1, 2. 2 Mac. 2. 10, 11. Feruntque Magi (fi juftum eft credi) etiam Ignem, coe itus lapfum, apud fe fempiternis foculis cuftodiri. AMMIAN, MARCELLEN. lib. 13. cap. 6.

ου

out of Egypt, explain'd the terms of the queftion by parallel paffages, and prov'd that other nations did follow the felf-fame practife in all refpects. Now I fhall-allege my authorities out of Scripture, and then answer all the Objections that have been started to me, or that I have read on this fubject, if they are not fuch very trifles, as deferve to be thrown into the fabulous rubbish, of which I fhall give a small specimen in the haftieft manner I can. The first mention we find of the Pillar of Cloud and Fire is, when the Ifraelites, as we have faid, came to Etham in the edge Exod. 13. of the wilderness: and the words in Exodus on this 20,21, 22. occafion are, The LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a Cloud, and by night in a pillar of Fire, to give them light to go by day and night; he took not away the Pillar of the Cloud by day, nor the Pillar of Fire by night, from before the people. As for the LORD's going before them, we'll fhow in its due place, that it fignifies by his Minifters and Symbols; all the commands of MOSES, AARON, JOSHUA, and other prime officers being attributed to him, as fupreme Monarch of the Ifraelites but we'll prove in particular, that the phrase of the Angel of the LORD does not denote any miracle, with relation to the Pillar of Cloud and Fire, after we have briefly fettled the motions of the Cloud it felf. This is clearly done in the book of Numbers. On the day that the Ta- Num. bernacle was rear'd up, the Cloud cover'd the Taber '15—22. nacle, namely the Tent of the Teftimony; and at even there was upon the Tabernacle as it were the appearance of Fire, until the morning. So it was alway: the Cloud cover'd it by day, and the appearance of Fire by night. And when the Cloud was taken up from the Tabernacle, then after that the children of Ifrael journeyed; and in the place where the Cloud abode, there the children of Ifrael pitch'd

C 3

their

9.

their tents. At the commandment of the LORD the children of Ifrael journeyed, and at the com mandment of the LORD they pitched: as long as the Cloud abode upon the Tabernacle, they refted in the tents. And when the Cloud tarry'd long upon the Tabernacle many days, then the children of Ifrael kept the charge of the LORD, and journey'd not. And fa it was, when the Cloud was a few days upon the Tabernacle: according to the commandment of the LORD they abode in their tents, and according to the commandment of the LORD they journeyed. And fo it was when the Cloud abode from even unto the morning, and that the Cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed: whether it was by day or by night that the Cloud was taken up, they journeyed. Or whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the Cloud tarry'd upon the Tabernacle, remaining thereon, the Children of Ifrael abode in their tents, and journeyed not; but when it was taken up, they journeyed. The fame things almoft in the fame words are contain'd in the fortieth Exod. 40. chapter of Exodus: onely that wheras here in Numbers it is written that there was an appearance of fire all night, which, in the Hebrew idiom, is that fire appear'd; in Exodus it is directly faid, that Fire was on the Tabernacle by night, in the fight of all the boufe of Ifrael, thro all their journeys.

34-38.

ver.

38.

XIII. TO be thus feen and understood by all, was the very end and purpose of exalting it there, as well among the Jews as the Perfians, and by ALEXANDER warring in Afia. To place it there likewife or to take it off, there needed no greater art than is us'd in beacons, as by a lamp, plac'd in a Cryftal Lantern, the fame end was ferv'd among the Perfians: for the circumstances neceffarily requir'd in managing this matter, are fo obvious to common understanding; that neither the fuel of the fire on

the

the pole over ALEXANDER's tent, nor the machine that contain'd it, are any more fpecify'd, than the fame things over the Tabernacle of the Ifraelites. But as it does not follow, that the lamp over the tent of DARIUS, nor the fire and smoke over ALEXANDER's tent did kindle or move of themselves, but are fuppos'd to have been manag'd by proper Officers: the fame fuppofition ought as naturally to be made concerning the fire over the tent of JEHOVAH, and wou'd as readily be fo conftru'd in the Old Teftament as in other hiftorians; were not men's minds prepoffefs'd with the notion of a miracle in this cafe from their infancy, or that they are ignorant of the Scripture-ftile and allufions. I grant it to be faid, when the fignals of the Cloud are explain'd, that at the commandment of the LORD Num 9 23. the Ifraelites refted in the tents, and at the commandment of the LORD they journey'd. But what does immediately follow? why this: they Ibid. kept the charge of the LORD at the commandment of the LORD by the band of MOSES; which irrefiftibly evinces, that what Moses order'd, as JEHOVAH's Deputy, prime Minifter, or General, is faid to be commanded by the LORD himself.

XIV. THE very firft March they made after the erecting of the Tabernacle, and the appointing of the fignals upon it; is thus related in the fame book of Numbers. And it came to pass on Num. 1o. the twentieth day of the fecond month, in the fecond 11, 12. year, that the Cloud was taken up from off the Tabernacle of the Teftimony: and the children of Ifrael took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai, and the Cloud refted in the Wilderness of Paran, or they incamp'd there. It is prefently faid, and they first took their journey, according to the com- Ver. 13. mandment of the LORD by the hand of MOSES:

a certan Sign that he commanded the Cloud as Generaliffimo, whoever had the immediate direction of it. Nor is it lefs manifeft, as we have been just faying, that the actions of Moses, JOSHUA, and other reprefentatives, are in thoufands of places attributed to GOD, the King of Ifrael, as in all ages has been the ftile, and yet continues to be, with regard to Monarchs and Soverains. But the Jews and Chriftians perpetually reading of the Fire or Cloud's going before and coming behind (wherof anon) of its refting on the top or before the door of the Tabernacle, they presently think it mov'd fo of it felf, merely becaufe the circumftances of managing it thus are are omitted, in that abridgement of the MOSAIC Hiftory we call the Pentateuch. Men of immenfe Learning, and moft of 'em Divines by profeffion, have undeniably prov'd it to be a real Abridgement (but infinitely valuable) of fome largerHiftory of the Ifraelites. Among these I know not whether I ought to reckon my once honoured Mafter TRIGLANDIUS, the worthy Father of the present no less worthy Profeffor at Leyden. He wrote a Differtation, I have unfortunately loft, concerning the Book of Jafher; which laft word he proves to be wrong punctu2 Sam. 1. ated with Vowels, and that the three confonants of it are an abbreviation of Ifrael: fo that inftead of reading the Book of Jafher or the Juft, as now univerfally done, he reads the Book of 19 Ifrael, wherin he has my fuffrage. Yet whether he holds the Pentateuch, the book of JoSHUA, and that of Judges, to be an abridgement of this principal Hiftory of Ifrael, I neither perfectly remember, nor confequently will

Jof. 10.

13.

8:

19. is a noted abbreviation of Ifrael in the writings of the Rabbins.

averr