Gleanings of antiquities / By John Beaumont, Gent.

  • Beaumont, John, -1731.
Date:
1724
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Gleanings of antiquities / By John Beaumont, Gent. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ceafing of the Oracles among the Jews, David recei¬ ved many Anfwers from the Mercy-Seat. But as Sir John Marfham tells us, at the beginning of the four¬ teenth Age, where he fpeaks of Solomon’s Temple, he V'as the laft that received any Anfwer from the Lord. For tho’ Solomon made an Oracle to place there the Ark of Covenant, and made in the Oracle two Che¬ rubinis, yet neither Solomon, nor any of his Succeflors, nor of the High Priefts, are read to have confulted that Oracle, much lefs to have received any Anfwer from it. So that the Ark, from that time forward, may be laid as well to have been filent, as to have relied, tho’ the Rabbins, and thofe that followed them, contended that this Oracle firft ceas’d in the Babylonian Captivity. Again, as for the Oracle of Urim and Thummim, which was the moll antient Ora¬ cle among the Jews, Jofephus tells us, that ceas’d two hundred Years before his Time; and w'e know the Prophets among the Jews ceas’d in Malachi, who was about 400 Years before Chrift. Now, if the Oracle from the Mercy-Seat ceas’d about 1000 Years befoie Chrift, and the Prophets among the Jews about 400 Years, and the Oracle of Urim and ‘Thum¬ mim 200 Years before the time of Jofephus; 1 know not why the Fathers, and other Chriftian Authors, fhould make fuch a ftir about the ceafing of the Oiacies 01 the Gentiles, about the time of the Coming of Chiift; lot the Wonder feems to be, how they came to hold lo long, they being grown into fuch Con¬ tempt, mat in all Probability they would have ceas’d, tho’ Chriftianity had not been eftablilhed ; and many of them were ceas’d before Chrift’s Coming, as fome of them ceas d about his Lime, and many of them held long after Chrift. And we find that Julian, being urg d by the Chriftians concerning the ceafing of the Oracles of the Gentiles, he anfwer’d, that the Spirit of Prophecy was ceas’d alfo among the Jews; and ' oat the Chriftians themlelves had no Oracles to con— fult.