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tting out
his hand to sustain the Ark,) called the place Perez-Uzzah, the Writer
saith, it is called so "to this day": the time therefore of the writing
of that Book, must be long after the time of the fact; that is, long
after the time of David.
The Books Of The Kings, And The Chronicles
As for the two Books of the Kings, and the two books of the Chronicles,
besides the places which mention such monuments, as the Writer saith,
remained till his own days; such as are 1 Kings 9.13. 9.21. 10. 12.
12.19. 2 Kings 2.22. 8.22. 10.27. 14.7. 16.6. 17.23. 17.34. 17.41. 1
Chron. 4.41. 5.26. It is argument sufficient they were written after the
captivity in Babylon, that the History of them is continued till that
time. For the Facts Registred are alwaies more ancient than such Books
as make mention of, and quote the Register; as these Books doe in divers
places, referring the Reader to the Chronicles of the Kings of Juda,
to the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel, to the Books of the Prophet
Samuel, or the Prophet Nathan, of the Prophet Ahijah; to the Vision of
Jehdo, to the Books of the Prophet Serveiah, and of the Prophet Addo.
Ezra And Nehemiah
The Books of Esdras and Nehemiah were written certainly after their
return from captivity; because their return, the re-edification of
the walls and houses of Jerusalem, the renovation of the Covenant, and
ordination of their policy are therein contained.
Esther
The History of Queen Esther is of the time of the Captivity; and
therefore the Writer must have been of the same time, or after it.
Job
The Book of Job hath no mark in it of the time wherein it was written:
and though it appear sufficiently (Exekiel 14.14, and James 5.11.)
that he was no fained person; yet the Book it self seemeth not to be
a History, but a Treatise concerning a question in ancient time much
disputed, "why wicked men have often prospered in this world, and good
men have been afflicted;" and it is the most probably, because from the
beginning, to the third verse of the third chapter, where the complaint
of Job beginneth, the Hebrew is (as St. Jerome testifies) in prose; and
from thence to the sixt verse of the last chapter in Hexameter Verses;
and the rest of that chapter again in prose. So that the dispute is all
in verse; and the prose is added, but as a Preface in the beginning, and
an Epilogue in the end. But Verse is no usuall stile of such, as either
are themselves in
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