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| Chapter XVIII
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Chapter
XVIII.
And challenging a comparison of book with book, I would
say, “Come now, good sir, take down the poems of Linus, and of
Musæus, and of Orpheus, and the writings of Pherecydes, and
carefully compare these with the laws of Moses—histories with
histories, and ethical discourses with laws and commandments—and
see which of the two are the
better fitted to change the character of the hearer on the very spot,
and which to harden3109
| 3109 ᾽Επιτρίψαι.
Other readings are ἐπιστρέψαι
and ἀποστρέψαι,
which convey the opposite meaning. | him in his
wickedness; and observe that your series of writers display little
concern for those readers who are to peruse them at once
unaided,3110
but have composed
their philosophy (as you term it) for those who are able to comprehend
its metaphorical and allegorical signification; whereas Moses, like a
distinguished orator who meditates some figure of Rhetoric, and who
carefully introduces in every part language of twofold meaning, has
done this in his five books: neither affording, in the portion
which relates to morals, any handle to his Jewish subjects for
committing evil; nor yet giving to the few individuals who were endowed
with greater wisdom, and who were capable of investigating his meaning,
a treatise devoid of material for speculation. But of your
learned poets the very writings would seem no longer to be preserved,
although they would have been carefully treasured up if the readers had
perceived any benefit (likely to be derived from them); whereas the
works of Moses have stirred up many, who were even aliens to the
manners of the Jews, to the belief that, as these writings testify, the
first who enacted these laws and delivered them to Moses, was the God
who was the Creator of the world. For it became the Creator of
the universe, after laying down laws for its government, to confer upon
His words a power which might subdue all men in every part of the
earth.3111
| 3111 [See Dr.
Waterland’s charge to the clergy, on “The Wisdom of the
Ancients borrowed from Divine Revelation,” Works, vol. v.
pp. 10, 24. S.] | And this I
maintain, having as yet entered into no investigation regarding Jesus,
but still demonstrating that Moses, who is far inferior to the Lord,
is, as the Discourse will show, greatly superior to your wise
poets and philosophers.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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