Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John | Page 2

God, and without a teaching Priest, and without Law: and in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries, and nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city, for God did vex them with all adversity_. But [4] when Shishak was dead, and Egypt fell into troubles, Judah had quiet ten years; and in that time Asa built fenced cities in Judah, and got up an army of 580000 men, with which, in the 15th year of his reign, he met and overcame Zerah the Ethiopian, who had conquered Egypt and Lybia, and Troglodytica, and came out with an army of 1000000 Lybians and Ethiopians, to recover the countries conquered by Sesac. And after this victory [5] Asa dethroned his mother for idolatry, and he renewed the Altar, and brought new vessels of gold and silver into the Temple; and he and the people entered into a new covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers, upon pain of death to those who worshiped other Gods; and his son Jehosaphat took away the high places, and in the third year of his reign sent some of his Princes, and of the Priests and Levites, to teach in the cities of _Judah_: and they had the book of the Law with them, and went about throughout all the cities of Judah, and taught the people. This is that book of the Law which was afterwards lost in the reign of Manasses, and found again in the reign of Josiah, and therefore it was written before the third year of Jehosaphat.
The same book of the Law was preserved and handed down to posterity by the Samaritans, and therefore was received by the ten Tribes before their captivity. For [6] when the ten Tribes were captivated, a Priest or the captivity was sent back to Bethel, by order of the King of Assyria, to instruct the new inhabitants of Samaria, in _the manner of the God of the land_; and the Samaritans had the Pentateuch from this Priest, as containing the law or manner of the God of the land, which he was to teach them. For [7] they persevered in the religion which he taught them, joining with it the worship of their own Gods; and by persevering in what they had been taught, they preserved this book of their Law in the original character of the Hebrews, while the two Tribes, after their return from Babylon, changed the character to that of the Chaldees, which they had learned at Babylon.
And since the Pentateuch was received as the book of the Law, both by the two Tribes and by the ten Tribes, it follows that they received it before they became divided into two Kingdoms. For after the division, they received not laws from one another, but continued at variance. Judah could not reclaim Israel from the sin of Jeroboam, and Israel could not bring Judah to it. The Pentateuch therefore was the book of the Law in the days of David and Solomon. The affairs of the Tabernacle and Temple were ordered by David and Solomon, according to the Law of this book; and David in the 78th Psalm, admonishing the people to give ear to the Law of God, means the Law of this book. For in describing how their forefathers kept it not, he quotes many historical things out of the books of Exodus and Numbers.
The race of the Kings of Edom, before there reigned any King over Israel, is set down in the book of [8] _Genesis_; and therefore that book was not written entirely in the form now extant, before the reign of Saul. The writer set down the race of those Kings till his own time, and therefore wrote before David conquered Edom. The Pentateuch is composed of the Law and the history of God's people together; and the history hath been collected from several books, such as were the history of the Creation composed by Moses, Gen. ii. 4. the book of the generations of Adam, _Gen._ v. i. and the book of the wars of the Lord, _Num._ xxi. 14. This book of wars contained what was done at the Red-sea, and in the journeying of Israel thro' the Wilderness, and therefore was begun by Moses. And Joshua might carry it on to the conquest of Canaan. For Joshua wrote some things in the book of the Law of God, _Josh._ xxiv. 26 and therefore might write his own wars in the book of wars, those being the principal wars of God. These were publick books, and therefore not written without the authority of Moses and Joshua. And Samuel had leisure in