6z Oz all' Law difproved e Talmud, confining in Expofitions,Comments, and Difputes upon the whole Mifhne, ex- cepting the laft part about Purifications.Anhundred years or thereabouts after that,Rabb Afé,compofed the BabylonianTalmud,or Gemara; thirty two years they fay he fpent in this work, yet leaving it unfinifhed; feventy one years after, it was compleated by his Difciples. And the whole work of both theft Talmuds may be referred unto five heads: For fidi, they expound the Text of theMifbnx ; 2. Decide 2,12e)tions of right and fad ; 3. Report the Difputations, Traditions and Conftitutious of the Doctors that !Ned between them and the Writing of the Mifhme ; 4. Give Allegorical monftrouss Ex- pofitions ofthe Scripture, which they call Midrafboth 5 and 5. Report Stories of the like nature. . t1. This at length is their Orall Law grown into ; and in the learning and pradifing of thefe things confifts thewhole Religion and Worfhip of the Jews s there being not the molt abfurd laying of any of their Doctors in. thofè huge heaps of folly and va- nity, that they do not eguall unto, nay that they are not ready to prefers before the Written Word; that pert and only Guide of their Churchwhiled Gad was plcaled with it. In the duff of this confufion here they dwell, loving this dar¿neßmore than light,-be- caufè their deeds are evil. Having for many generations entertained a prejudicaie itna- gination, that theft traditional Figments, amongst which their crafty Matters have in- fested many filthy and blafpbemous Fables againft our Lord Chrift, and his Gofp,l, are ofDivine Authority, and having utterly loft the fpiritual fénJe of the written Ward, they are by it fealed up in blindnefs and obduratenefs, and (hall be -fo, until' the vail be taken away, when the appointed time of their deliverancefhall come. A brief dilcoveiy of the falfenefs of this fancyof their awnLaw, which is the foundation of all that huge buildingof Lyes and Vanities that their Talmudr are compofèd of, !hall put anend to this Difcourfe. 1a. 1. The very Story of the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai, Efficiently dicovers the folly of this imagination: This Orall Law the jaws are ready on. all ,oeealions to prefer before that which is written : and do openly profefs that without it, the other is ofno ufe unto them. I defire then to know, whence it is that all the circiun- ftances of the giving and teaching of the left neceffary are fo exadtly .recorded, but not one word is fpoken of this Orali Law, either of Gods revealing of it to Allis, or of Mghs teaching of it to 7ofhua or any others ; Strange! that fo múcla fhould be recor- ded of every circumftance of the lets principal, lifliefiLaw, and not one word of either firbftance or circumftance of that which is, if thefe men may be believed, the very life and foul of the other. Maimonider inJadChazaks tells us, there is mentionmade of it inExod. 24.12. I will give ye , faith the Lord 7Ì am n-or9 a Lam and Command- ment ; 'son faithhe, is the Written Law 71Ya, the Orall i when the next words are r =nÌ17'7 +non nmx, which I havewritten that thou mayefl teach them; the Written Law being on feveral accounts expreffed by both thole terms, and no other. How know they that any fuch Law wasgiven to Moyer as they pretend ? What Teftimony Witnefs or Record of ir, was had or made at the time of its giving; or in manyge- nerations, for two thoufand years afterwards. 2. Did their Fore-fàthers at any time before the Captivity tr.enfgrefl this OraliLaw, 13' or did theynot? If they fay they did not, but kept it, and obfirved it diligently, we may edify fee of what importance it is that the molt arid Obfeevation of it, would not preferve them from all manner of wickednefs, and what an hedge it is to the WrittenLaw, when notwithflanding the obedience yielded unto it, that was ut- terlydefpifed and neglected ; if they Rail fay thatLaw alfo was broken by them ; I defire to knowwhence it comesto pals, that whereas God by his Prophets doth re- prove them for all theirother fins, and in particular for contempt of his Written Law, the Statutes,Ordinances and Infiitutions of it, he no where Once mentioneth this their greater guilt ofdefpifing the Oral! Law, but there. is as univerfall a fiance concerning its tranfgreffron, as there is of its giving and inflitution. Can we have any greater evidence of its being fidirio:.s than this ; that whereas it is pretended that it is the' main Rule of their Obedience to God, God did never reprove them for the tratìfgref- lion ofit, though whiledhe owned them as his Church and People, he futlèred none of their fns to pats by unreproved, efpecially not any of that importance, which this is by them pretended tobe of. 3. Mfrs was commanded to write the whole Law that hé receivedfrom God, and did fo accordingly; Exod. 24. 3, 4. Chap. 34.28. Dent, 31. 9, 24. Where was this Oral!
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