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CONTENT S.

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PART I.

F Mr. Voltaire's injuries to Jofephus. page 1
SECT. I.

Of his faying in chapter twenty-fourth of his Philofophy of History, that the Jews called their city Hershalaïm, and that the Greeks altered it to Jerufalem, according to Jofephus.

SECT. II.

2

Of his faying in chapter twenty-fifth of the same, that Jofephus owns Minos received his laws from a god; where alfo Dr. Middleton's affertion, that he does not infist on any divine authority of Mofes, nay, that he had no inward conviction of it, is confidered.

SECT. III.

5

Of his lame and defective account of Jofephus's prediction to Vefpafian in chapter thirty-first. SECT. IV.

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Of his misrepresentations in chapter forty-fifth; where he affirms that Jofephus makes Daniel governor of three hundred and fixty provinces, and Zorobabel a Jewish flave, an intimate friend of the king of kings, and very imperfectly relates his account of Darius's queftion, and of the answers of his academy of wits.

SECT. V.

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Of his falfhoods in his detail of Jofephus's flory of Jaddua and Alexander, in chapter forty-fixth; to

gether with his unjust reflection on Rollin.

SECT. VI.

23

Of his assertion, that Josephus does not include the book of Job among the writings of the Hebrew canon, in chapter forty-seventh.

SECT. VII.

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Of his concluding, in chapter forty-ninth, that the Jews did not call Jacob, Hrael, nor themselves Ifraelites, till they were flaves in Chaldaea, from a paffage of Philo.-And of his faying, that Josephus owns the practice of circumcifion was learned from the Egyptians, agreeably to the teftimony of Herodotus.-That he ascribes their being unknown by the Greeks, to their omiffion to cultivate letters.---That he makes the tranflators of the law into Greek, tell fome ftories to Philadelphus, which he does not.---And of his wrong in

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Of his mifrepresentations of fcripture, for which he may plead the authority of the Vulgate version. 50 SEC. I. Of his faying in chapter thirty-fourth of the Philofophy of Hiftory, that the fecond temple is represented in the book of Efdras, to have had only three rows of rough ftone. SEC. II. Of his reprefenting in chapter fortieth of the fame, and in other pieces, that Mofes commandéd the Levites to kill twenty-three thoufand, on occafion of the golden calf.

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SEC. III. Of his making, in chapter forty-third, God direct Ezekiel to cover his bread with human excrement, and thereafter with the excrement of

oxen.

58

SEC. IV. Of his faying in the fame chapter, that the Lord threatens by Amos, that the cows of Samaria fhall be put into the caldron.

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SEC. V. Of his inference from certain pfalms, that the Jews were of a fanguinary difpofition; and of his mifquoting one paffage, and perverting another, in their Pfalter, to prove that they were a carnal people, in chapter forty-fourth. 66 SEC. VI. Of his affirming in his Treatife on Toleration, that Ezekiel fpeaks of pigmies, perfons not above a cubit high. SEC. VII. That the Vulgate translation favours these accounts, which Mr. Voltaire hath given, is no fufficient apology for his fairness and candour. 83 CHA P. II.

80

Of his misrepresentations of fcripture, for which he cannot plead the authority of any tranflation. 89 SEC. I. Of his faying that the Jews are reproached for copulation with he and fhe-goats in the defert, and forbidden the fame, in chapter fecond of his Philosophy of History.

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SEC. II. Of his making Jephtha and Jeremiah ac

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knowledge the divinity of Melcom and Chamos, in chapter fifth of his Philosophy of History, and in other works. SEC. III. Of his afferting there and elsewhere, that the Jews, for forty years in the defert, worshipped no other God than idol deities. SEC. IV. Of his faying also, in chapter fifth of the

105

was the prophet of another God,—that Jeremiah,

Ifaiah, &c. were ill-treated, because it was difficult

to distinguish between falfe and true pretenders

to the prophetic character,-that Hofea declares

the prophets fools,----that the prophets treated

one another as visionaries, there being no other

method to separate the true from the falfe, but

by waiting for the accomplishment of the pre-

dictions.
229

SEC. XVI. Of his ill-founded reflexion in the fame

chapter, that Elifha's reply to Benhadad's fervants

was equivocal, That he might recover, but that

he would die.'

237

SEC. XVII. Of his faying that 'little innocents' were

devoured at Bethel for words which they faid to

Elifha in laughing.'----That Ifaiah walked three

years quite naked in Jerufalem.----That Jeremiah

was only fourteen years old when he was em-

ployed as a prophet, and that he prophefied in

favour of Nebuchadnezzar.---And of a mistake in

his account of God's order to Hofea.
244

SEC. XVIII. Of his enumeration, in chapter forty-

seventh, of popular prejudices, to which the facred

writers conformed,---That the Scripture calls the

rainbow the ark of God,---That Mofes erected a

brazen ferpent, a God whofe look cured,----That

Christ fays, new wine fhould never be put into

old casks,---That Paul fays, the feed is not quick-

ened, except it die,----and that Chrift grants, the

Pharifees difpoffeffed devils.
253

SEC. XIX. Animadverfions on his forty-eighth chap-

ter, where he writes, that Satan appears in Job

mafter of the earth, fubordinate to God; and that

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