No. 4.]

THE

FREE ENQUIRER.

SATURDAY.

Nov. 7, 1761.

THE few remarks made in our last paper, on some particular tenets attributed to Moses, to shew what notions he taught of the Deity, were necessary to be premised, as he whose life we are to enquire into, was the author of a new religion, said to be received immediately and supernaturally from God., Such pretensions were common to all ancient lawgivers, though none like Moses have brought God down from heaven, to deliver his laws personally in so wonderful a manner: and the fortunate circumstances which contributed to give it success, make him and his religion to be the more remarkable. We will at present assent to the common received opinion, and suppose the Pentateuch to be written by him, because if it was not, it was wrote by one of his followers, who must have been a great admirer of him, and a believer of his wonderful transactions; by one that endeavoured to advance his honour for the credit of his religion and nation. Though from a consideration of some particulars, we have good reason to believe, that the whole at least was not written by Moses; which reasons perhaps may be specified hereafter:* At present it is sufficient to

Dr. Hill tells us in his book of God and Nature, page 205. That Lord Bolingbroke questions whether the Pentateuch was really written by Moses? and says, it is not impossible these traditions were compiled after his time-And, page 431, He conjec

say, it is no wonder if common tradition is generally believed, true or false; for mankind in their minority put implicit faith in their predecessors and teachers. The authority our instructors have over us in the times of our ignorance and weakness of understanding, and the veneration we entertain for their opinions, oblige us to credit whatever they tell us, and many never concern themselves afterward to call the truth of tradition in question; thus error is handed down from generation to generation. This ought to be well considered; for the neglect of Free Enquiry, each for himself, is the cause of general ignorance: by which the passions of men are interwoven with their opinions, and blown up into a flame against each other, for differing in their

tures that the history of Moses was compiled from other traditions, that the writers of the Old Testament are so contrary to one another, and on the whole, so improbable, that they may all be comprehended under the name of fabulous relations. And, page 433, With what front can we reject the authenticity of books compiled and preserved by Egyptian priests, when we receive the Old Testament on the faith of Jewish Scribes, a most ignorant and lying race. -That the Scriptures of the Jews were lost more than once, and how they were recovered the last time, is at least unknown to us: whether they were recovered at all in a strict sense, may be, and has been questioned.-Page 488, he adds That there are in the Scriptures, things as unworthy of God, recorded of him, as of the Mahometans, or Pagans. Again, we cannot believe that the Jewish systems are the word of God, because we find in them repugnancies to the nature of God, absurdities and contradictions. And he adds, says Dr. Hill, that we cannot believe in Moses and his God, without disbelieving that God whom our reason demonstrates to exist. That reason convinces him that there is a powerful and wise God, but that in the Bible he does not find the supreme Being which Reason so demonstrates. The more he compares what Moses says of his God, the more he finds it repugnant to demonstration, and to obvious truth.That nothing can more resemble the modern rabbinical notions than the ancient Mosaical traditions, and that the same ignorance of nature, physical and moral, and the same irreverent conceptions of the supreme Being prevail in both.The answers Dr. Hill makes to these objections, are so weak and trifling, that to recite them, it would appear, as if done only to laugh at him.

notions. Hence arises, false judgment of men in their actions, censoriousness, condemnation, reviling, malignity, and persecution.

In reviewing the life of Moses, and his history of the Jews, we shall reject all accounts but the Jewish tradition; because that only is believed to be true by Christians. But in attending to this, we shall assume the liberty of freely enquiring into the probability of the facts, as they are represented, and of making such observations and reflections thereon, as naturally arise from their representations.

Israel, the common father of these people, had twelve sons, of whom came thirteen tribes; every one keeping the pedigree of his family, to preserve the knowledge of what tribe he belonged to. All these sons of Israel lived by keeping sheep, as their fathers had done: and because the younger, whose name was Joseph, told his father of their wicked. deeds; and the story of their sister Dinah and Shechem shews they were all of them capable of confederating together, and perpetrating any execrable villany and because Joseph (then probably uncorrupted) was beloved by their father, being the youngest, and the son of his most beloved wife; they therefore sold him for a slave to some Ishmaelite merchants trading to Egypt; and they to the Egyptians. There he was reduced to the meanest ebb of fortune; being cast into prison by his master, on the accusation of his mistress, for a crime of which it is not possible to know whether he or she was guilty, or both. The historian of Joseph's life, charges the crime on mistress Potiphar, as must be expected; but whether he was guilty or not, his master thought he had sufficient reason to be jealous of him, and therefore clapt him in prison. In that place, he obtained so much confidence of the keeper of the prison, that he made him his turnkey. Here he had leisure to form a deep scheme, how, by a political dream, to enable the king to engross all

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the wealth of Egypt. If he did not invent the dream for the king, it is certain he invented the interpretation; which so mightily pleased the king, that he raised Joseph from his prison, to the highest dignity in the kingdom: and thus, gave him power to put the scheme intended by the interpretation of his dream into practice. It is not altogether improbable that he was the author of the dream, as well as of the interpretation, because himself only could_interpret it to the satisfaction of the king. By this stratagem, he obtained great power and honour from the king, and in return he made him despotic master of all the wealth, cattle, and land of Egypt! so that the people, at last, having nothing left, sold themselves to their king for slaves, to prevent their being starved to death. If the story be true, which indeed is amazing, how came the people not to rise in rebellion, and seize the magazines of corn, instead of remaining content to receive just enough for subsistence, though not sufficient for seed? as it was thus he brought upon them that famine he had foretold. He bought the corn cheap, and sold it excessively dear; first, he got all their money, then all their cattle; afterward all their lands; and lastly, their very bodies! they agreed to labour for the king, and give him one fifth of the produce for ground rent; he being become land-owner of all Egypt, the land of the priests excepted and in concert with these, he deluded and enslaved the unhappy people. During the time of the famine, Joseph, not unmindful of his own family, not only supplied them with corn, but brought his father, his brethren, and all their descendants, and gave them a settlement in the most fruitful part of the whole country of Egypt; a donation not difficult for him to obtain for them, as the king would hardly refuse any request in favour of the family of so politic, so useful a minister.

When Joseph was dead, the coming in of a new

king and a new ministry proved unlucky to the new colony for they, jealous of the growing numbers of a people, so favourably distinguished from the rest of the nation, made them slaves in their turn. The imposition of hard labour on men, who had never been accustomed to any way of living but that of sheep-keeping, was esteemed great severity by so lazy a people. In this state, however, labour made them healthy, and they got children a-pace, because not only polygamy was lawful with them, but concubinage, and promiscuous whoring: all these modes being practised by their pious patriarch! and un-reformed children may reasonably be supposed to tread in their steps.

The Israelites, who are also called Hebrews, multiplying exceedingly, is said to be the cause that the king of Egypt, to suppress their increase, sent for the principal Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, and ordered them to kill all the males which were born to the Hebrew women, as soon as their mothers were delivered: an order which they did not obey, as it is not to be supposed they would, not being threatened with any punishment in failure of obedience. Can it then be supposed they would act so contrary to the natural love to their own people? and hazard their lives in obeying the king, when they run no threatened hazard in disobeying him? and the flimsy apology they made for themselves, when the king is said to have called them to an account for non-compliance, viz. that the Hebrew women had such quick labours that they were delivered before a midwife could come to them; gives this story an appearance rather of invention than truth.

It is indeed incredible; though it is said afterwards, that the King ordered all his people, to cast into the river every son that should be born to the Hebrews, but to save every daughter alive; but is it not likely this order should be better executed than