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 â—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 reuererâ—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 Gouerâ—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 shewedâ— 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 premeditaâ—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-byâ— 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
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 Sonnâ—â— 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 thaâ— 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 â—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 Meâ—â— Virgil. 6. de Aeneid Virgill Eglog â—â— 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 thesâ— Poets flatterers of men turn'd all that spoken of the Person of Christ the promised Redeemer that then was expected falsely to apply theâ— by flattery to their Princes false-gods Virgil. Aâ—â—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 fallsâ— to bee in the 16. yeere of the Gouernment of Elon Iudge of the People of Iudgeâ— 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 vntoâ— 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 25â—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 strâ—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 â—iuinely constrayned to â—eaâ—e testimony maâ—ger their Calâ—mnies Lyeâ— 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 Syâ—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 Famiâ—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 dayâ— But I wil leaue this Discourse though diuersified from a spark of Truth that these Historians haue mixed with their owne deuices as prophaâ—â—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 Scofferâ— of GOD and his Holy Word dare be so bold to say and calumniate that MOSES and his haue suppressed and abolished all praeceâ—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