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A73899 The auncient history of the Septuagint. VVritten in Greeke, by Aristeus 1900. yeares since. Of his voyage to Hierusalem, as ambassador from Ptolomeus Philadelphus, vnto Eleazer then pontiffe of the Iewes. Concerning the first translation of the Holy Bible, by the 72. interpreters. With many other remarkable circumstances. Newly done into English by I. Done; Letter of Aristeas. English. Done, John. 1633 (1633) STC 750.5; ESTC S122439 62,988 230

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moreouer that he enquireth for those Writings that teacheth to conserue Kingdomes and to correct the manners of men which to accomplish with such diligence as you doe GOD will giue prosperity to your designes in which hee will grant you an excellent glory farre aboue other Kings To the other What Persons ought one to inuite to Banquets ONe ought to call those which are couetous ●o learne and those who often thinke how the affaires of a Kingdome ought to passe and that know how to recount the liues of Princes for there is nothing more pleasant nor more delectable then such Company For they are those that are well instituted and instructed in the beauty of Know ledge and haue GOD in high reuerer●ce The which thing it seemes you doe accomplish well Great King as one may perceiue by that wherein GOD hath sent you prosperity and happinesse in all your affaires To the other Which is most profitable for the People eyther to choose ouer them a King from a priuate person or to obay a King that was Sonne to a King THe most profitable to the People is that which is most according with Nature For although that some Kings Sonnes bee sometimes rude to the People neuerthelesse those which from priuate persons come to bee lifted into such Sublimity and Greatnesse because they haue experienced Pouerty and endured calamities and laborious trauailes of priuate persons they are more curell then bloody Tyrants and command their Subiects by force and intollerable violence Wherefore the Ordinance receiued and accustomed and the common fashion of doing is much more sure and much better for Regiment that it come from the King by succession from Father to Sonne as it is with you Worthy and Great King for your Greatnesse and Excellency consisteth not so much in honours glory and great Domination as in Clemency and Benignity The which by a gift from God draweth and attracteth the hearts of all persons to loue you The King accepted this Answer with praise and turned himselfe towards the last saying What is most profitable to a Kingdome THat is to hold and contayne the People in peace and to giue order that Suites and Processes of Law should be incontinently and without delay adiudged definitiuely for such things are executed when the Prince hateth the wicked and sheweth fauour and loue to good and honest men and such as bee vertuous and that hee esteemes it a great thing to haue saued the Life of one of his Subiects as wee haue beene informed you doe Great King that haue in horrour Murderers disposing and tempering all by Iustice In which you adorne to eternity the greatnesse of your deeds God hauing inspired you with a Soule deliuered from all fowlnesse of Vice and illustrated the same with great Vertue AFter these Answers there arose a great noyse of Congratulations and Applauses with an excessiue ioyfull acclamation and the whole Hall was full of ioyfull rumour The King then commanding silence and taking his Cup inuited them all to drinke then addressing his Speech to the sayd Doctors pronounced these words in the presence of all the Assistants I repute this day my Maisters to be to mee very happy by your presences for your Answers haue brought to mee a most great profit and instruction for the Gouer●ment of my selfe and my Kingdome This purpose ended hee ordayned that to euery one of the Doctors should bee deliuered 3. Talents of Siluer and by and by gaue to euery one of them a Page to waite vpon them at their Table So with great contentment to euery one the Feast tooke end with great praise to the Kings Liberality who aboue all shewed● a countenance of receiuing the greatest satisfaction and most ioyfull content I Haue beene hitherto Philocrates thus prolixe in the recitall of the businesses which I haue done for the admiration I haue had of such men and of their Wisedome maruelling at the promptitude of their Answers and so pertinently answering to that which was proposed to them vppon the sudden shewing such Elegance in their Speech as if these Questions had beene long time in premedita●ion and that hee who had proposed them had thought of them long time before hee demaunded them and yet their Answers were to him found so accordant as if they had about them long before consulted together Wherefore it is no maruaile that they seeme admirable not to me only but to the Phylosophers also that were there present in the Company and to all them were present assuring you that such things are more harder to beleeue then one would imagine in which I will not wonder if the faith of the Readers be vanquished For my part what occasion haue I to adde dreames or falcities seeing that all which I haue Written is to be found in the Registers of the King where it is held the greatest crime of the World to finde falcenesse in the least thing of the World I assure you then that this Recitation is most veritable contayning the Discourse of all the things as they haue passed in veritie without mixture of any errour for to this ende that I might best know the truth I haue vsed this dilligence to take out the Registers publicke where wee may see recited the Bankets and feasts together with the interrogats also of the King and the Answers which were giuen him and all euen Word It was a Custome to Register what was propounded Answered in the Kings of Egypts presence for Word from whence I haue borrowed that I haue here Written For you know it is the custome to Register and Inroule all that is done and sayd euery day since the houre that the King began to giue Audience vnto the time the King went to bed without omitting any thing that hee did or was sayd to his Maiesty A thing and coursetruely very profitable and well instituted For-by● that meanes the Acts inregistred beeing read of the day preceedant if the King hath sayd or done any thing that there is want eyther in his saying or doing there is occasion and meanes of amendment Therefore after I had dilligently searched the day Booke of the King I haue Collected the same to you here by Writing as afore-sayd Knowing the great and good desire you haue to know all worthy and extraordinary occurrences The meanes holden by the 72. Doctors in their Interpreting or Translating the LAW THree dayes after these Feasts and Disputes Demetrius conducted all these Doctors towards the Sea into an Ile and entring vpon a Banke passed a Bridge which drew towards the North where was the place designed for this Assembly and where they should make their Conference for their Interpretation of the LAVV. It was a House of pleasant Scituation and in a Triumphant manner vpon the Bankes of the Sea very stately and minionly deoked and trimmed where aboue all commodities there was great silence for the tranquillity of the Spirit and repose of the vnderstanding Moreouer there was
of the Captaines of Great Alexander the third Monarch Lagus began his Reigne in the 271. yeare before the incarnation of our Lord Iesus Christ This Ptolomeus Philadelphus was endoctrined in the Science of good letters by Strabo the Peripateticke in which he became so excellent that he was esteemed one of the most accomplished Princes of his Time but that which was in him the most admirable was the Bounty Debonarity Sweetnesse and Gentlenesse of his Spirit accomodated with the manners and complexions of all worthy and deseruing persons By this meanes he entred so farre and before in the grace of all the World that euery one in his thought wisht he were King And his Father knowing his right of Succession was to be so and reioycing in his hopes of him made him to bee Crowned King and deuested himselfe of all Authority without reseruing any Power Right or Preheminence to himselfe onely a Superintendency ouer the Guard of the King his Sonne glorying to be Father of such a King For the admiration he had of his high Vertues kindled and gaue occasion betweene them both of a most kind contention in mutuall offices the Son yeelding to the Father and the Father to the Sonne in all and by all through instinct of Deuotion and Piety so they gaue liuely touches to one the other in all reduceable fitting offices which was cause that the People conceiued a great fidelity and amity towardes them so as it seemed euen the diuine prouidence prepared this noble spirit to introduce that great good amongst Humanes as to make them participants of the Lawes and Diuine illuminations wherewith God had fauoured the People of the Iewes aboue all the Nations of the world And it seemeth that euen then his Almightinesse made a preparatiue for the vocation of the Ethnicks and Gentiles by communication so of his holy Law whereof Ptolomy was the ordayned Minister to call the Seuenty Interpretors into Aegypt to Translate into the Greeke Language which then was the most traded and vulgar As the Latines now in Christendome through the whole Vniuerse So as I am amazed at some fanaticall spirits that hinders vs from the knowledge of God in not giuing his Word in the Language of the People wheresoeuer as is appertaining to euery one in regard of Saluation I would aske those men what language spake those Dames of Rome Paula Eustochina Melania Susanna Fabiola Demetria Furia Flauia Blesilla and others For the institution of whom Saint Hierome Translated many Bookes of Holy Scriptures out of strange tongues into Latine which was the naturall language of the sayd Ladies I would also know who was more wise or better inspired then Saint Hierome Further it seemes they eyther are or would seeme to be ignorant of the institution of the Emperour Iustinian who ordained that those who song in the Temples that they should sing high and so intelligible that all the people might vnderstand them But to returne to Ptolomy he vndertooke to erect a Lybrary in the Capitall City of his Realme Alexandria the Charge whereof hee gaue to Demetrius Phalerius Prince and an Athenian Philosopher who erected it so sumptuously that there was not the like in all the world and it lasted vntill the first Warre of the Romanes against the Alexandrians This King had to wife Arsinöe to whom hee caused a Statue to bee raysed in height 4. Cubits of one entire Stone call'd a Topace the which had beene giuen to Berince the Mother of Ptolomy by a Prince named Philemon 2. Of ARISTEVS the Author of this HISTORIE ARISTEVS the neere Kinsman and Friend of King Ptolomeus Philadelphus is named by a Praesal in Pentatauchum Mosi St. Hierome Ptolomei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Shield of the King or hee that definds the King with his Shield or ●earer of the Shield Royall which ●emes to me that he held some such ●ace about the King his Maister as wee call at this day the Great Esquier of the Kings body he was the principall Sollicitor for Liberty of the Iewes that then were held Slaues throughout all the Dominions of Ptolomy for hee made the first request for them and obtained it And for this cause hee was sent Embassadour with Andrea Prince of the Gardes belonging to the King vnto Hierusalem to deale with the Great Pontiffe Eleazar who sent to the King Ptolomus sixe Doctors of euery Tribe to goe on with the Translation and Version of the holy Bookes of Moses Hee writ diligently his Voyage where hee shews openly how and by what course those 72. Interpreters behaued themselues in the say● Bookes b Iustin dialog cum Tryphone Irenaeus Lîb 3. Cap. 25. Clemon Alexandr lib. 1. strō Epiphanius de m●ns et Ponditbus Euseb preparat lib. 8. ca. 1. Some haue beene of Opinion that they Translated all the Bible but it is more likely to many th● c Hieron in questionibus Hebraicis in Cap. 5 Ezechielis et in Cap. 2 Michiae Iosephi praefat in Antiquit. et lib. 12. Antiquit. Cap. 13. Philo. de ●●●a Mosis 〈◊〉 2. they Translated but the fiue Bookes that is Genesis Exodus Leuiticus Numbers and Deuteronomy which they call the Pentaleucke which ● the Law of Moses for Aristeus speakes but of the Law of Moses and it is not likely that they touched the Bookes Historicall nor the Prophets for if it had beene so Aristeus would not thereof haue beene silent Moreouer that which they Translated was finished in the space of 72. dayes which is about two Moneths and a halfe and that 's a Time too small and therefore impossible to Translate all the Old Testament Neuerthelesse I am not ignorant that there was a Turning of other Bookes of the Bible that goe by the Name of the Seuenty two Interpreters But I am perswaded that they were not then done in Aegypt vnlesse that after they were returned to Hierusalem they Translated the rest of the Holy Bookes although both in that and other Opinions I submit mee to the deliberation of the Church from which I will not stray But howeuer this Translation was manifestly Miraculous which is sufficiently shewed by that our Lord Iesus Christ and his Apostles in Alegations of the Law vseth the Version of these Seuentie two Interpretors I haue spoken these few words of Aristeus to the end the Reader shall not thinke that this is that Aristeus Proconensis that could bee invisible when hee listed making folkes beleeue that hee could dye and rise againe when hee would of whom speakes Suidas Herodotus Pliny and Plutarch in the life of Romulus 3. Of ELEAZER the Great Pontiffe of the Iewes ELEAZER of whom Aristeus makes mention was brother of Simon surnamed the Iust Hee after the decease of his Brother Simon in the yeere of the raigne of Ptolomy Ptolomeus Laegus first of that Name 35. was made Chiefe of the Synagogue of the Iewes by reason that Onias Sonne of Simon his Brother was vncapable of
that all the Iewes that eyther before or since haue beene taken and led away in what fashion or manner soeuer shall be sent francke and free For the ransome wee haue ordayned that is to say twenty drachmes for euery head the which summe the men of Warre shall take vpon the distribution of the staple and munition of Victuals and the rest shall goe vpon the reuenew of the Table to the King or reserued For we are duely informed that those Iewes were constituted and brought away prisoners agaynst the Counsell of our deceased Father and agaynst all right and reason And that by the boldnesse and insolence of the Men of Warre they were Conducted into Aegypt and their Countrey wasted and desolated when it was sufficient to haue the men of Warre of the said Countrey at their deuotion and all the Prouince reduced into obedience Intending then to doe and render right to euery one Vniuersally and especially to those who receiue iniury vnder the iniust domination of another Moreouer to search diligently and particularly all things concerning right and equity and to preferre Piety and Religion aboue all things Our will and pleasure is that all Iewes whatsoeuer beeing bond and Slaues in this Realme in what part soeuer they be found be it in the Colonies or else where or be it in what soeuer manner they were brought into our Kingdome shall be deliuered enfranchised and set at Liberty for we are pleased it shal bee so done And to the ende that no person shall be interessed or receiue dammage wee commaund that three dayes after the publication of this present Edict euery one whom it doth concerne shall bring before vs their requests contayning the number of heads that euery one hath set at liberty For so it pleaseth vs to haue it for the profit of Vs and our Kingdome Declaring further that the goods of those who are not obedient to this our Edict that their shall be forfeit and Consiscate And we giue liberty to whosoeuer will to accuse and bring in their contumacy or contempt of our will and pleasure THIS Edict being written perfited and brought to the King to know if his pleasure were it should be Published in this manner or that hee would Correct and acknowledge it When hee perceiued that these Words viz. And those that before and since had bin led Prisoners were wanting hee inserted of his liberality and magnificence He then made presently the money to be doubled in the summe to his Treasurer and Officers of his Finances The which distribution was dispatched in the space of seauen dayes And there was defrayed well neere sixe hundred sixty thousand Talents for there were found a great multitude of Children with their mothers which were all set at liberty and for euery head of those was payed by the Commaundment of the King twenty Drachmes Which was accomplished by the King to his great liking and contentment And after all was done he commanded Demetrius by course of estate to deliuer him the denomberment of the Hebrew Volumes For these Kings haue in Custome to comprehend all things by Edicts and to do nothing be it neuer so small a businesse without Writing aswell because of their Royall highnesse as also that beleefe may more certainly bee giuen thereto Therefore to the end you may as it were see all before your eyes I will here inserte the Tenour and Copy of the request made to the King by Demetrius and the Epistles which were sent for those that were franchis'd so as one may see the multitude and in what habite they were and in what Artes and Professions they were different and how they were Registred and inroled The Exemplary of Demetrius his request to the King was this The Request of Demetrius Phalerius to the King PTOLOMEVS PHILADELPHVS GReat Sir Since it hath pleased you to giue me Commaundment to search in all places for all manner of Bookes to fill serue and Decorate your Library I haue thought it good and necessary wee obtayne and get the Bookes of the Iewes Lawes and some other we are yet short and vnfurnisht of and because the sayd Bookes of the Iewes are Written in Hebrew Characters proper and best knowne to the Iewes onely and therfore not yet falne into your Royall hands Neuerthelesse that they may be gayned and ranked amongst your other Volumes partly for the Wisedome contayned in them partly for their Sublimity and Diuine hight of matter they contayne Of which Poets and Historians make often mention as very profitable to instruct to good mannets to institute and addresse the Republicke into the fairest shape of Gouernment by reason of the excellency of men therein mentioned to the Reuerence of matters therein intreated as a Scripsit librum de Iudaeis teste Suida Hecateus Abderita plainely testifieth These things seriously considered Great King it would doe properly well if it would please you to write to Ierusalem and to the great Pontiffe therein that he would send you sixe men of euery Tribe or Line and that they be such as are of good parts and Condition of venerable age best knowing and Vers'd in their owne Law that being all able Translators they may with iudgement choycely elect and choose that course of expression may be consonant and Harmoniously agreeing amongst themselues And this done great Sir I shall hope you will accomplish a course worthy of so excellent an intention and at last wel agreeing with your desires The King hauing read this request ordayned Letters should bee drawne and sent to Eleazer the High Priest about this businesse In the which was signified vnto him the deliuerāce of the Iewes from their Captiuity With the Letter he ordayned also to be made ready Cups Vessels and a Table of pure Gold with fifty Talents of Gold and seauenty of siluer for oblations there to be offered with many precious Iewels and stones of very great price Commanding the Gold-workers with all speede to finish these things and the money in Talents for the oblations to be raysed incontinently And because you shal at full vnderstand the Kings viuacity in this businesse I send you here the Coppy of the Letter the King Writ whereof the Tenour is as followeth King PTOLOMEVS PHILADELPHVS to ELEAZER Chiefe Pontiffe of the Iewes COnsidering the great Multitude of Iewes inhabiting within our Territories of whom some had beene led from Hierusalem in the times that the Persians had the Domination the others following our deceased most Honourable Lord and Father being adioyned with him whereof many were receiued into his pay and ranke as his Souldiers and men of Warre whereof the most faythfull and trusty were established in the most strong Forts as Garrisons by that meanes to bridle the insolences of the Aegyptians Wee since being come to the Crowne and hauing singular affection to exercise Liberality and Munificence towards all persons and in speciall vnto the Cittizens we haue franchised and set at Liberty more then a hundreth Thousand
for his Opinion citeth not onely Iosephus who in the twelfth Booke of his Antiquities and second Chapter speaking of this Story maketh no mention of any such Diuision and Seperation into seuerall Cels but euen this present Worke of Aristeus who in the one and twentieth Chapter of this Booke speaketh plainely that they mette and conferred euery day together till the Ninth houre To reconcile these seuerall Opinions it is to be noted that of all these Fathers some onely as Iustin Martyr Iraenens Clemens Alexandrinus and Epiphanius make expresse mention of the Cels the Rest speake onely of a Miraculous Consent and Agreement of theirs about the same thing as Tertullian Chrisostome and Saint Augustine For it is not necessary that what those Fathers spake of the Miraculous Consent of the Translators should be vnderstood of their separation into seuerall Cels For it is Miraculous enough for so many men assembled together in so short time to agree all in their Opinions without Disputes and Delayes which are ordinary in a Multitude where there is such diuersity of Iudgments So that the third Opinion is not onely S. Hieromes but may bee Tertullians Chrisostomes and Saint Augustines too and the most probable and most receiued questionlesse it is of all the three For Iustin Martyr the first broacher of those Cels it was not improbable for the Iewes to perswade him those Ruines a Apud Alexandriam vestigia Cellularum se vidisse narrat Iustinus in Oratione exhortatoria ad Gentes which hee saw were the Cels wherein the Translators were inclosed because in Religious mindes the Deuotion is commonly stronger then the Iudgement And for Epiphanius it is likely hee tooke vp that of the two and two to a Cell from Report and Relation and not from his owne Reading for none besides himselfe euer made mention of such a businesse Nor is it worth obiecting that At inquiūt Epiphanius Aristeus legit et ●itat Bell. lib. ● de verb● Dei. ch 6. Sess At. Epiphanius that vtters this Opinion cites this Aristeus our Author whereby some would conclude that this Aristeus our Author hath eyther beene corrupted since the time of Epiphanius and that the mention of those Cels haue beene expunged Or that before Epiphanius his time the true Booke of Aristeus was neuer extant but in it it was for if they pitch vpon the first and say that Aristeus Cum Aristeus E●non multo post losephus nihil tute retulerint Hieron in Prae●a● in Pent. was intire and whole in Epiphanius his time but corrupted since they are refilled out of Iosephus and Eusebius that wrote before Epiphanius that haue many things Verbatim out of Aristeus but not a sillable of those Cels. But I leaue the businesse to the Iudgement of the Reader assuring that St. Hierome esteemed Aristeus worthy of beleefe for hee hath writ these words in the Preface of the Pentateuck of Moses his Booke viz. Et nescio quis primus Author Sept●uaginta Cellulas c. i. d. I know● not who was the first that by his Dreame hath built in Alexandria 72. Cels the which were seperate and that they writ iust the same sillables for being that nether Aristeus the great Esquire of Ptolomy nor Iosephus that was long time after make any mention but say the Interpreters were assembled together in a Hall and there conferred together and Prophesied not for it is one thing to bee a Prophet and another to bee an Interpreter For in the one the spirit fore-tels things to come in the other the copious abundance of the tongue and the Knowledge translates that hee vnderstands hitherto Saint Hierome But be this difference as it it will to please Miracle-louers it greatly matters not for ceraine it is that all Graue Testimonies and Authors which haue toueht herea● say there was such a Ptolomeus Philadelphus such a Library For as Philo the Iewe sayth Iesus the Sonne of Sirach one inserted into the Geneology of Christ Prince and Captain of the Children of Israel in the time of P●olomeus Philadelphus King of Aegypt came to Alexandria a City of Aegypt where he gathered out of that flourishing Library his Booke of Ecclesiasticus as Bees from diuers Flowers gather sweete Honey And Strabo sayth speaking of the Beauty of the City Alexandria that Ptolomeus Philadelphus was so great a louer of Learning that he erected a Library containing 400000. Books the Fame whereof being published through the World many people of diuers Nations resorted thither to see it And how Eleazer High priest of the Iewes at the request of P●olomeus sent 72. Interpreters to Transl●te the Bible out of Hebrew into Greeke which was as Iosephus obserueth in An Abstract of the whole History out of o●ephus the third yeere of his Raigne before Christ 260. in recompence of which courtesie hee sent to bee dedicated in the Temple of Hierusalem a Table of Gold richly adorned with Carbuncles Smaragdes and other precious Stones Two stately Cups and Thirty Bowles of pure Gold as it appeareth in Iosephus Lib. Antiq. 12. The Academy continued there till after Christs time as you may reade Acts 6 But the Library was consumed 47. yeeres before Christ and the City greatly defaced For Iulius Caesar at that time making Warre vppon Pompey the yonger who continued with his Sister Cleopatra in this City caused the Kings Nauy to bee set on fire and the Library standing neere to it the flame tooke hold of it and burnt it downe to the ground with all that was in it and so was the end of that their Sacred Volume by this Disaster VVhereof this History which I haue done into English for your ease shewes its first passage into that place and consumption But this Story of ARISTEVS hath ouer-dured those flames Which I thus commend to your Christian View desiring pardon in that I haue no● done so well as I would but I haue followed my Author as neere as I could A short Discourse of the Antiquity and Dignity of the Sacred Bookes and Excellency of their inspired Writer the Prophet MOSES By the English Translator AS the true GOD is the Ancient of Dayes and Times so it pleased Him that His perpetuall HISTORIE contayned in Holy Scriptures should excell in Antiquity of time all other Histories and Writings of the World that can be found the Writings of the Pagans and Nations being all vnder these and long after and that only of MOSES the subiect of this former History contaynes the account of yeares iustly from the Creation and beginning of the World euen vnto the comming of the promised Redeemer A reckoning I say so iust and certayne that there is no such to be found For to come to the Time wherein the Prophet of GOD MOSES the first Writer of Holy Writ began to Write manifestly vnder the Lord of Heauen and Earth wee may gather and without preiudice of all that then could be done as by a passage amongst many other
places wee read of in the 17. Chapter of the Booke of Exodus where it is sayd GOD Commaunded him to Write and that in the same yeare the people of Israel issued out of Aegypt which was from the Creation of the World 2513. vpon which wee may aduertise our selues that the yeares are Calculated according to Verity of the sayd Scriptures by the Faithfull Seruants of GOD which haue happily trauayled therein And therefore wee neede not rest vppon the calculation of Histories Annalls and humane Chronicles or other Writers that haue not intirely followed Holy Scriptures who are discordant amongst themselues and many times directly opposite to one anothers times Therefore if we dilligently search all Antiquities and Writings of men of all Nations that haue any appearance of certayne time wherein those Writings were made and after conferre those times with the things recited and inregistred by the Holy Prophet MOSES and the time wherein he Writ them we shall see manifestly the Excellency and Antiquity that he is herein aboue all men For the Fables and disguisments of prophane Poets Greekes and Latins which all came long time after MOSES Amongst them I say we shal see no other but manifest Dreames Lyes and amongst other things noteable some corruptions of the Sacred Scriptures long before Written of which they hauing heard some inckling and receiued it as from hand to hand or drawne it from his Writings or heard it recounted by the Father to the Sonne and they from their Auncestors which were the Children and Successours of the three Sonnes of Noe who was the second Father of humane kinde and restorer of the Nations of all the World all issuing from his Posterity after the vniuersall Flood His three Sonn●● as Holy Scripture hath acquainted vs with were Sem Cham and Iaphet of whom are descended all the Earth And this before spoken is easily and sufficiently discouered in the Writings of the sayd Pagans by the proper names of the sayd Children of Noe and of their Successors which of long time before these writings and prophane Histories had beene named by MOSES For the Pagans testifie tha● the people had made of these Auncient Father Idolls and gods As of Iaphet Iapetus they drew Iauan Ianus and Ion and because they were names held in the Hebrew Letters or value of them they accommodated them to their tongues and letters and to make them more easie and glib in their accustomed pronounciation came neere but with alteration And if we will goe more high and weigh the old Times of the first Age which preceeded the Flood as wee haue it from that onely History of MOSES in the Holy Bible we shall easily perceiue that the Pagan Poets and Writers haue receiued euen the Auncient names and mingled them amongst their Fables and Dreames and drawne them from the Holy Scriptures And so it shall appeare plainly that their falce god Vulcan is not very hard to vnmaske that he was a mortall man and one of the Sonnes of the other Lamech the prime Bigamist and corrupter of Marriage who descended of that accursed Race of Caine And this appeares by the faculty of this Vulcan which was a Smith or forger of Armour And MOSES declares him so and by his name too for hee is by him called Thu-vulcain and euery one any thing skil'd in the Hebrew knowes that if they leaue the first letter which is seruile and put to forme the name according to the manner of the Hebrewes it will appeare meere Vulcain for their letter ב B. hauing not a pricke in him is pronounced as our v consonant And for the name of Vulcains wife by MOSES cald Nehama which signifieth faire in their language or as speakes the Latins Venusta It is a playne course to discouer vayne beauty or their so much celebrated vnchast and wanton Venus A goodly Race and fayre family of that accursed murtherer Caine. And here may we see some of the proper gods and Idols of the poore Pagans amongst that Anthil of such other ill stolne names vnhandsomely fetch'd from the Holy Scriptures with and by the subtilty of the Diuell to the end that a wicked troope of execrable ●yants violent oppressors of men Theeues and Adulterous desperates shaken off and damned by the VVord of GOD. Of whom the first Apostate and lyer Sathan made his counterfeit gods and Idols the old Serpent expert and knowing in all malice that there was no better way for him to muffle and blind humane iudgement from the knowledge of the true GOD at first ingrauen in the Soules of men but by this counterfeite deuice with Posterity But to passe further in our begunne purpose touching the fabulous writings of the Pagan Poets wee shall finde that their Discourse in the best we can of it is but corruptions of the Truth in the Holy Scriptures of GOD or things therein reuealed turn'd by them into dreames and prophane Narrations As we may see in that they writ of the Creation of the world and gouernment of the same of the Diuine vertue that Ouid. 1. de Me●● Virgil. 6. de Aeneid Virgill Eglog ●● 5. sustaines and interiourly nourisheth all things of the consumation of Heauen and Earth with fire at the last day and also of the restoration of the World and of all things in such good order for all so many confusions proceeding from sinne All which things they might obtaine and by some darke meanes draw from the Bookes of Holy Scripture and sacred Prophets Translated out of Hebrew into other Languages or vnderstand some thing by meanes of the dispersion Iosephus antiq of the People of Israel spread through all the Prouinces of the Romane Empire and through all the Quarters of the World For the Iewes had for the most part leaue in all places to hold their Synagogues and to haue publicke Lectures of Act. 18. 20 their Law and Prophets When thes● Poets flatterers of men turn'd all that spoken of the Person of Christ the promised Redeemer that then was expected falsely to apply the● by flattery to their Princes false-gods Virgil. A●●erd and Idols But let vs leaue all those Iuglers and Lyers that durst bee so prophanely bold to corrupt the pure Verity of Gods Word and speake wee of the Gentiles Writings how long they came after Moses and Writ since he and that euen they haue giuen Testimony to him and his Diuine Writings which may at least suffice to convince all Contradictors that Moses was in Nature and before them all Wee vnderstanding that his reckoning is a perpetuall following all the yeeres since the Creation of the World euen vnto his time as it is easie to gather by his Bookes and his account of the yeeres and liues of the first Fathers from Adam vnto the Patriarke Abraham and after from his Successors as from Father to Sonne to wit Isaacke Iacob Leui Caath Amram and then Aaron and Moses himselfe Children of the sayd Amram And that hee
had expresse charge to Write for the very last the yeere since the creation of the World 2513. and of his life the 80. yeere and hath continued his Holy Stories euen to the yeere of his Death and of the world 2553. Now since that time GOD hath alwayes so prouided for the aduancement of his Glory and the edification of his Church that the perpetuall History of her and the certaine account of the yeeres of the World hath beene continued and still put in Writing by his Prophets As it is to bee seene in the Holy Bookes that treate and contayne the Gouernment of Ioshua and the Iudges then to Samuel and the Kings of the People vnto the transmigration into Babylon and of other Gouernors which haue succeeded them after their returne from thence And finally the Prophet Daniel hath declared the rest of the time that is The 490. yeeres since the sayd Deliuerance of the Iewes and returne from Babylon by the meanes of Cyrus Daniel 9. King of Persia euen to the Death and Resurrection of Christ the Redeemer promised to the holy Fathers which is our Lord Iesus the eternall Sonne of God true God and true Man who appeared liuing after his Luk 24. 1 Cor. 15. Death and Resurrection to more then fiue hundred faithfull Witnesses at one time besides his other manifestations and mounted visibly into Heauen in the yeere of the World 3961. Now if wee will search all the Histories of all the Nations of the World of whom the Writings are ariued to our Age the most Ancient time of which they make mention shal be of their Antique destruction of Troy by the Greekes The History whereof hath beene written by Dictis of the I le of Creet which is the best Testimony they haue for the present and since by Homer and many others And from this Destruction Diodorus Siculus renowned amongst the Historians began his Bookes now the same according with the common Iudgement and Calculation of knowing men comes onely to be about 358. yeeres before the building of Rome the same time then falls● to bee in the 16. yeere of the Gouernment of Elon Iudge of the People of Iudge● 12 Israel mentioned in the Booke of Iudges And the same was 316 yeeres before the first Olympiade the reckoning of the Annalls of the Greekes So then the sayd Destruction of Troy falls to be onely vnder the yeere of the World 2838. when therefore wee shall giue consent that their Writings the most certaine whose Narrations wee may best giue credit vnto● Yet the Prophet Moses shal be found much more Auncient then all the Writers of the World what Nation soeuer though they are in great number and of whom wee see yet the Old Bookes in these last times in their proper Tongues And that hee hath put his hand to the Pen and began to Write his Diuine Reuelations of the Creation and Conduct of the World euen to his time and his sacred History and Prophesies touching the Church of GOD shall at least bee 325 yeeres before all other Writers of whom there is any mention or newes in the World that is to say in the yeere of the World 25●3 Whereupon wee note euen to this Present against all those prophane mockers that haue disgorged that enormious blasphemy amongst others that the World is eternall and of it selfe which if it were so as they dreame and that it had no such beginning as is written by Moses they might finde then by all and in all Languages many Histories of infinite times and many Chronicles of many Ages and of old times that haue praeceded Moses in the account of yeeres But wee see that there is no such and that the Holy Bible is found euen in the middle amongst all sorts of enemies that str●ue to destroy loose abollish burne and extermine from the World the Bookes of it and for all thereto they had so long time yet neuerthelesse they neuer could nor euer shall For wee see the sayd Bible yet in his proper Writing and Language and of all others of what Nation soeuer the most celebrated and renowned And if they could finde any History which had beene written before Moses was borne into the World yet shall it contayne their time and composition with more yeeres and ages as wee can gather from the Holy Scriptures euen to this present yeere 1633. since the Natiuity of Christ The which account of times past from the Creation vnto this present yeere shall come to amount to 5563 yeeres but such Histories neyther can bee found nor euer were But for Moses and his faithfull Writings euen prophane Authors and Histories of the Gentiles themselues haue beene euen as it were ●iuinely constrayned to ●ea●e testimony ma●ger their Cal●mnies Lye● Dreames and Disguisings through and by the Invincible force of Truth And so they haue serued for Certificates to all Nations of the venerable and well knowne Antiquity of him and his Holy Writs For some of them haue noted and writ thus as a thing notorious of their times to witt That is the East Trogus Iustinus parts and of Sy●ia it selfe there had beene an Abraham an Israel and euen a Ioseph who say they was a Sonne of the sayd Israel sold by his brethren and led into Aegypt Then how hee was receiued into the Court and held very dearely with the King to whom hee foretold the grieuous and great famine so as without the diuine Counsell by him giuen whereupon the admonished King gathered vp and made reseruation of Corne before the time of the sayd Fami●e Aegypt had perished And finally how his Successor Moses and all his People issued out of Aegypt came to Mount Syna how they consecrated the Seuenth day for their Sabbaoth or Resting day● But I wil leaue this Discourse though diuersified from a spark of Truth that these Historians haue mixed with their owne deuices as propha●●e and in which they were poorely Aduertised and deceiued by the subtilty of Sathan as we may well know by conferring their VVriting with the Holy Bible And bee it that these Scoffer● of GOD and his Holy Word dare be so bold to say and calumniate that MOSES and his haue suppressed and abolished all praece●ent Histories making their Writings to be before all others thereby to Authorize them the better but wee will leaue those their calumnies to the iudgement of any of sound sense and vnderstanding If that could be or can haue any place or shaddow of beliefe amongst men of sound iudgement or reasonable Discourse for if they wil put into mature consideration the small meanes and contemptible quality in the world of these poore Israelites but Shepheards and breeders of Cattle and which is worse people exposed to the oppressions and hard seruitude vnder their puissant Enemies and euill disposed Neighbours Then who shall make comparison of them with great Kings and people of the Earth Babilonians Aegytians Syrians Romans and other Potentates who with all their Authority
their Edicts Forces and Armies yet had neuer power to abollish the Holy Bookes written simply by our poore Shepheards when they could not conserue their Royall Lybraries fauoured of all the World Truely this may well put to the blush these wiselings that shew themselues fooles in so speaking and discoursing without Discourse and will iudge of things without inquiry Now for the Integrity of MOSES for vs Christians wee are sufficiently cleared and satisfied by the Authority Praise of Moses of the Holy Spirit of GOD. Who hath giuen excellent Testimony by all the Scriptures both in the old and New Testament of his Originall and Linage beeing descended from the latter Leuy Nephew of the Holy Patriarch Abraham Also of his miraculous conseruation and Deliuerance from Death and Waters from whence he was drawne foorth and then had that name of MOSES in their language Then his royall education and breeding his Loue to his afflicted people and his Magnanimity to despise humane greatnesse in preferring the iust cause and sufferance of CHRIST the Redeemer then look'd for before all the Regall estate and great Treasure of Aegypt Moreouer his sufferance long and bitter for the defence of right and equity and for the deliuerance of the poore afflicted His Diuine calling to the Charge and Gouernement of his People his Patience Gentlenesse and Perseuerance with such faithfulnesse in the difficult execution of this weighty charge and the singular gift of Prophecy and of his Diuine miracles so strange and supernaturall that they haue beene admired and celebrated of all the whole World But there is one poynt aboue all● very remarkeable and which is more then sufficient to ouercome humane Reason and to shewe the Integrity of MOSES which is that if hee had would hee might easily and according to the manner of men occupied the Monarchy and Domination for his Children and their posterity vppon all the people of Israel And with the same the two fertile Kingdomes reduc'd vnder his hand and Conquered beyond Iordane Neuerthelesse he left his Sonne Gersom and Eliezer and their posterity priuate men and of most simple estate● amongst the other Leuites And the same Children remayning subiect to the Sacrificers successors of A●ron and to the Magistrate and Gouernors of Israel More that he hath himselfe written and Inregistred his owne proper faults and yet more notable those of his House as of his Brother Sister and Nephews and the redoubtable iudgements of GOD's chastisements and punishments of them all Of which things all his People were witnesses in number more then sixe hundred thousand Persons And if they could haue contraried him for any fals●ity eyther for the present or times to come If hee had beene I say such as they could haue found any bracke in his actions or in his Writings or falsenesse in eyther his Person or any of his in his Life and his miracles in his Writings or end But in the contrary all the Hebrewes and Iewes which haue beene since that time and are now neere 3000. yeares since and that are dispersed through all the VVorld who are in so great a number that if they were revnited into a body of People and into a State their multitude should be innumerable and might astonish the most greatest Nation of the whole Vniuerse All those I say haue all receiued from their Auncient Fathers from their Kings and Princes and their Sacrificators and Auncestors from Father to Sonne and from hand to hand and with an admirable consent euen in the middle of so many confusions and dissipations haue kept and yet keepe alwayes in their Bibles the Holy VVritings of MOSES in their proper Letters and Hebrew Tongue as Bookes most True and Veritable Sacred and Diuine And such so Knowne and Acknowledged in all Nations with the excellent Testimony Authority and Holinesse of them that CHRIST himselfe hath spoken of them and the Prophets and Apostles also in their Writings and Allegations I and the most Auncient Pagans and Strangers cannot with sound sense but acknowledge them And so Reader although I haue beene as I formerly sayd something prolixe yet the Excellency of the Subiect forc'd and bound me to be so teadious herein to shew as an illustrious Addition the worthines of the Bookes and Diuine Writings as their Antiquity Dignity as also the Excellency of their Humane VVriter from the Dictate of the Most Highest And being the matter whereof wee haue formerly Entreated I held it not impertinent though I haue dealt too weakely in so worthy a Businesse but referre the rest and it to your charitable Censure FINIS