name of three Tribes Dan Nepthaly and Gad. And the fourth row was Chrysolite Beryll and Iaspes There was written vpon them the name of three Tribes Aser Ioseph and Beniamin Thus sayth an old auctour not vnknowen to the Eloquent Cyril nor despised of him Of Thargum Cant. Chap. 5. AN other Chaldy paraphrast vpon the Song of Songs though hee agreeth in no Chaldy name to the vndoubted Ebrew stones order yet hee applyeth the Patriarks to them iust as the former did seeing how so the Tribes armes told them what part of the land each one should haue and dignitie according Whose record keepeth vs from fastening folly vpoÌ„ Ezekiel by our blindnes and from moving the simple to despise the revelation Of Midras Rabba MIdras Rabba is a most curious work for the depth of the Ebrew tongue bringing witty fables to teach memory of sentences This Midras vpon Exod. 28. telleth of the Patriarks engrauement in the twelue stones iust as Thargum Ierusalemy doeth and is an auctour of high esteeme and drawing the consent of many So this auctour here may fight for Dan with his Leshem to keepe all stories togeather by right settling of one Patriark to his stone Of Maymonides in the holy Iewels R. Moses Ben Maimon often cited he most curiously handleth the same in two workes one not yet printed written vpon the mysteries of the twelue Iewels and to the former order An other printed and famous in tract of the holy implementes Him also R. Moses M. kozi citeth though he would haue bred a confusion to Moses Ezekiel and all the Bible he citeth him as mistrusting his owne iudgement Of R. Eleazar Wormatiensis MAymonides in Spain Egypt Arabia was knowen â—423 yeres agoe as was mentioned and Eleazar a Rabbin at Wormes about the same time He hath writteÌ„ vpon the Law and on Exod. 28. folowing the former order For Lâ—shem and Dan he handleth Gods providence Dans dulnes very sharply even to the letters LE SEM follow God and turned into Semel Idol Of Salomoh Iarchi SAlomoh Iarchi is elder then both them Hee liued in the time of the holy warre As Barbinel recordeth vpon Obadias Vpon Iud. 18. thus he writeth Laisha was the name of the city And in the book of Iosuah they called the name of it Leshem Because they found there a precious stone called Leshem it was set in the brest care of iudgement for the Tribe of Dan he knew that in trueth that should be their inheritance Thus writeth this old Rabbin whom Elias Mizraki and Chizkuni follow and vrge vpon others that would confound the Iewell of all holy story Of R. Isaak Karo ONE Rabbi Karo keepeth the same order and writeth brauely in applying the stones notation or nature to the story Specially in Achlemah I WILL KEEPF SAF how needfull it was for Gad to haue that precious promesse Of R. Bechaiah ONE R. Bechaiah writeth very many good things This one that all euer glorious in the Fathers came by Faith And convicteth Abraham of want of Faith that obiected Sara to daunger and of other great imperfections But that this Rabbi saith in his hart Who can goe vp to Heaven to bring Christ downe or who can goe to the deepe to bring Christ from the deepe of the earth as Ps 71. speaketh but that the incarnation and resurrection was incredible to him hee had soone learned our doctrine This Rabbin foloweth the Thalmud Thargumes two Maimony Eleazar Iarchi vpoÌ„ Iud. 18. and the true light of Scripture to be a frontyer against those late men that to vndermine the New Testament would not stick to coÌ„found all their glory Of the contrary with confutation THE Iewes of late haue put foorth vpon Moses a short paraphrast a forged work bearing the name of Ionathan the old most learned paraphrast who wrote vpon the Prophetes Of whom the Iewes saye that he wrote not vpon the Law He was no lesse ancient then the holy Apostles Yet the forged Ionathan mentioneth Constantinopole vpon Num. 24. This forged work breaketh the stones order and some of the malicious and willing to disgrace our Testament follow him The true Ionathan bare sway so great that no Thargum nor Thalmudist durst check him and whereas he translateth nyne stones Ezek. 28. onkelos vpon Exod. 28. followeth him in every one of them Against this Elymas I cited this troupe that troupes should trouble them and they be troubled vnto their end Of the Onyx ill set for Beryll in Exod. 28. by the Bishops Bible THE Lxx. naming Iosephs stone Beryll being allowed of the holy Ghost Apoc. 21. should not haue bene refused Yet our translation hath Onyx Though the enemies to the New Testament haue the Greek plain or by transposing of one letter The Chaldy of Iob. ch 28. hath Berylin Ionathan Ezek. 28 Byrela onkelos in Gen. 2. and Exod. 28. Byrela And Aben Ezra citeth the Syriaque comon auctority for Byrela And by transposition the Arabique hath Belyr in Sadaias in the Persian Arabique vpon both places and in an old Ebrew Arabique dictionary that I haue brough for me from Arabia Also a most learned commentary of Sal. S. of Melec Sat. recordeth Belyr to be the Arabique Thus the enemies favour S. Iohn But we haue not marked how the New Testament is the best auctour for the Ebrew tongue and haue refused to follow God and obscured the Symphonie of Moses Ezekiel Iohn and made all three to speak as sounding brasse no distinction of matter The learned translaters will amend this Why the Lxx. set Smaragd for Shobam Exod. 28.10 where Beryll is in v. 20. AS the Greek Philo doeth apply Aharons attyre to deep significations so did the former and the later Now Ioseph stood in glory 600. yeres in Egypt his house bare sway and Iesus or Iosuah was King after King Moses dyed and conquered the land and Ephraim and Manasse of one Patriark made two Tribes And 350. yeres the Ark was in Syloh Besides Debora Gedeon Abimelec Iephthe Abdon defended the People and halfe Manasses ioyned with Ruben and Gad and found glory in Sauls time over Hagarenes Thus Iosephs Beryll might well beare all names on Aharons shoulders as he like Atlas bare all the peise on his shoulders For this Israel saw a plain reason why the ShohaÌ„ of Ioseph still should beare sway And Ephraims kingdoms fall told that Iudah should fall and Heathen come in their rowme as HeatheÌ„ only in Iobs time stack to God But HeatheÌ„ could not see a reason of this For their weaknesse the Lxx giue Levies shoulders his own stone Chrysostome in Photius thought Moyses truth did so whence Patriarches Popes will be Shoham which stone is the Kings Of an open betraying of our Lord and redeemer and befooling the rock of salvation THE Pascha was to be kild not in private townes wheÌ„ altars were free as in Samuels time but where God settled his name as in Ierusalems Temple And there the Lambe could
must needes be at that time and so Daniel would vnderstand him that from that yeare all the world might date their writinges thus Dated 490. yeares afore the kingdome of Messias Cyri primo Dated 460. Darij Artax 20 when Aggei prophecieth Dated 442. vicesimo Artax before Messias kingdome when Ierusalem was walled And as Men on a iourney knowen know stil how fewer miles they haue to their Inne or rest so all the world yere by yere since the Angell taught Daniel might know how neare they were to the opening of the kingdome of heaven by our Lord his most holy soule going through the veile of his flesh into heaven by Saint Paule into Paradise by the Gospell into Hades by the Greeke but in Hades to the Gardens of the godly and not Tartarus to make reconciliation for vs having found Eternall redemption Such limites are fitt markes for a Chronicle The first yeare of Cyrus Empire who had revenged Babel that oppressed Gods children 70. yeares that yeare which saw an Angell tell Daniel of an Eternall kingdome in hope of which 49697. leaue Babel for Ierusalem sure to be still in affliction and a Proclamation of the God that made the heavens over six score nations and a willing subsidie from so many for them that goe to Ierusalem in this hope Such noble stories should be the mark of a Chronicle for Christ chayned from Adam 3470. yeares thither and thence seaven times the captivities length that is 490. yeares vntill the King of glory doth open freedom for all when the sun darkened three houres when the earth trembleth when the stones burst when the curtine of the Temple rent as a Draper would part a peece of cloth when the dead arose when our Lord forty dayes was seene of the faithfull to send his spirit and a fiery law to teach all nations Such noble markes should the Angel Gabriels Chronicle haue and not obscure dennes of Cacus to bring errours in numbre as the leaues of a forest And yet let vs more consider the vanity taken by the Games of Olympia renued every fift yeare having full foure yeares to an Olympiade That by a fuller discourse such wicked toyes might be banished for ever and made a lothsomenes to all men of iudgement Olympiades miracles for Thales the wise man THales Milesius was well knowen that he liued in Solons times Croesus King of Lydia whom Cyrus cōquered and yet Croesus was of King Iosias times as Greekes cōferred will convict This Thales is said by some to be borne in the thirty fift Olympiade and to florish in the seaventh that is about 120. yeres afore he was born And this stuffe is goodly to obscure the time of Salvation shining in Daniel more then doth the sunne in his greatest brightnes Mast. Liuely hath drawne Olympiades into our Ecclesiasticall authoritie to make vs a skoff to all Iewes of the world that wee looke by them how to vnderstand an Angel of light sent by the grace of God to teach all the simple world into whose lippes if grace were not powred to be vnderstood as soone as he spake heathen would say Daniel sawe no Angel And M. Lively neuer heard of any Iew that more regarded Olympiades thē we regard Lucianes true stories And if he had read such Grecians as marke them how they iarre he would haue helde them as weake as Cobwebbes which a fly would breake Of Cyrus and Cambyses to what Olympiad M. Lively might apply them Suidas in the name Anacreon the Poët sayth he liued in the dayes of Polycrates the tyrant of Samos in the fiftie two Olympiade But others place him in the twenty fift Olympiade vnder Cyrus and Cambyses So by Suidas Cyrus Cambyses reigne togeather And by Olympiades an hundreth yeares sooner then M. Liuely would and almost an hundreth yeares before Nebuchadnezar if Ezechiel prophecieth in Olympiad 48. as Clemens of Alexandria writeth he did And so the Ebrew professour may see to what passe his Musae Olympiades bring Ebrew writers if his penne were regarded The recordes of his Eclipses are lesse regarded of Iewes and Grekes and of Arabians cited by Christmannus vpon Alfragan which euen from great Alexander whence Greekes better agree make lesse yeares by much then Ptolemies recorders of Eclipses And they from Nabonassar Mardocempad Nabopollasar Cambyses Darius the first compared with King Ezekias calling back of the sun Esthers time can haue no possibility of agreement or likelyhood Galen vpon Hippocrates sayth well that the most part of the bookes in Alexandria Librarie were forged And Laertius telleth of forging many thousand yeres with pretense of marking eclipses odde monethes and dayes Chrysostome the learned regarded them not Maximus Monachus bringeth other reckonings Epiphanius other and Clemens of Alexandria infinite varieties and yet no care of those calculations and expressely telleth there was no Chronique observation in record before Eratosthenes vnder the Ptolemeis times cōpiled one ROME also is brought in Chronicle who before great Alexander had no writers And Onuphrius Panvinius wondereth at varieties when by whom Rome should be built Also ARCHONTES or Maiors of Athenes are brought to fight with an Angel Three writers wrote of thē Demetrius Stesichorus Apollodorus the third auctour was late and of Chroniclers that would seeme exact folowed But their names many together running vpon a letter shew that from some Alphabet table they wee fetched and very vnlearnedly For many extant in Demosthenes Aeschines and Lysias oratours speaking of their owne times are not in Apollodorus And beyond the times of Xerx there is no table of them extant As Athenes saw not to what purpose they should keep any record of times And Apollodorus hath about 40. where the life of Euripides the Tragique will confute him That shal be shewed in few wordes Of Euripides thus writeth Suidas in Euripides Euripides c. was borne the very same day that Greekes turned the Persians vnto flight c. he lived seaventie five yeares This writeth Suidas in the terme EVRIPIDES And in the terme Timotheus thus Timotheus the Lyrique was in the dayes of Euripides the Tragique when Philip Macedon reigned So it is a sure demonstration that Xerxes flight Philip Macedones reigne are not sundred aboue 75. yeares So M. Liuely is convicted to bring about 40. Mayors of Athenes for Euripides life time more then his dayes saw there It is great pity that our Archepiscopall authoritie should check the Date for salvation to all the world with such Acherontean bables where even Greekes fight for scripture Of the distance from Xerxes flight to the taking of Athens by Lysander to be 65. yeares and thence but ten to Philip Macedon WHen the Athenians dealt most manfully against the Persianes they had the superioritie of Grecia commēded vnto them That they helde till Lacedemon vnwalled their towne after 27. yeares warre That space of rule is in Lysias in Epitaph and in Isocrates Panygyrico 65. yeares And both they being
He hath his body like Tharsis as partaker of sorow with Daniels people till ANNE of ASER should be in mind the daughter of Phanuel And see that Christ tooke a body to passe the aerumnosum vitae salum euen to the death of the Crosse SHOHAM is by notation in which they shal be Adam the Prophet which saw in spirit all that should com might so name it as seeing that they The twelue starres of the world then should be graueÌ„ in it Beryl Lxx. Exo. 28.20 and Apo. 21. The Lxx. translate this stone six wayes least the foolish Heathen should skoff how Ioseph bare them all By variety they hinder theÌ„ for searching the case Thus it is in them Prasimus Sardius Soom Onyx And Smaragdus Ex. 28.10 where it beareth the twelue names and Beryllus where it beareth Ioseph alone Ioseph for his cariage might heare that which Albinovanus writeth of kingly Mecoenas Vincit vulgares vincit Beryllus arenas And well be holden a Citizen of Eden or Paradise first for his owne case next for holding all the house in life faith euen that his dead bones and his brethrens buried togeather at Sichem whence they sold him should keepe them in expectation of Christ heauenly brother-hood For this he is grauen in the Heavenly clear Beryll and his brethren are engrauen in two of the same in memory that he to his death held them in expectation of God in Christ reconciling the world vnto himselfe And made them all to be of Eden as Ezekiel telleth IASPEH Onyx Lxx. Apo. 21. Iaspis bare Beniamins name The colours of it be many but the operation one in open triall of all ages that a woman in hard trauell having two Iaspers tide to her legges shall so farr as art helps haue spedy travell That of old Dioscorides noted and in Francfurth of late it was notably manifested 1602. the Mother of Beniamin because she was somwhat idolish in her Fathers Theraphim died as soon as twelue starres arose to Iacob The tribe for their mothers calamitie might look to dye first in trauels of state and for the mothers idolatry as Iosephs wife left such a spice as 600 yeres after overthrew Israel For that Beniamin hath the Iaspis in allegory and the Temple in history built in his Tribe half Ierusalem and Mardochai and the Emperesse Atossa the Mother of the great Artax who built the Temple and caused his Nobles to help Iudah wherefore Ezra calleth them valiant Worthies and God maketh them to tame the Graecians proud for Xerxes flight not knowing that the hinderance of the Temple not the force of Grecia caused all those Calamites Such is Paul that trauelled of the Galathians and Heathen Theraphim to haue Christ formed in them and in body wonderfully and hath half Ierusalems N. Testament vnder his shâ—bet or Pen. And he only telleth of his Tribe of all the Apostles that we may know how worthily wheÌ„ Ioseph who took Rubens dignity and civilly was right heyre by the first bethrothed when Ioseph lost his dignity Beniamin was to hold the first place Of Ezekiel AND Ezekiel sheweth that thus the stones were to beare the tribes names chap. 28. when he telleth the late Kings of Tyrus in what dignitie old Chiram of David and Salomons time was In the Garden of Eden or policy of Israel in the holy mountaine of God or Ierusalem among the fiery stones David and Salomon Chiram was a Cherub an uncted protector all precious stones covered him The Sardius of Ruben the eldest the Topaz of Symeon the second the Sardonyx of Sabulon his borderer the Chrysolite of Aser his borderer the Beryl of Ioseph as a King of old the Iaspis of Beniamin in whose Tribe the TeÌ„ple was built to which he performed Ceder trees the Saphir of Isachar his neighbour and the Chalcedon of Juda his confederate in the Kings and the Smaragd of Levi in whose office as a proselyte he sacrificed Thus doeth Ezekiel reiect DAN and Nepthaly of whom cometh Chiram the workman mentioned 1. King 7.2 Chro. 2. and 4. A Tyryan by dwelling of DAN by his mother of Nepthali by his Father which Father is described to excell in all worke in mettalles tymbre and tincture that the son may be the better esteemed for such a teacher And the son Chiram is commended by testimonie of experience his workmanship to old King Chiram And the sonne after his workes ended hath the testimony of working according to his Fathers skill Now when a poore dweller of Tyrus had all glory that Dan with Nepthali could affoord the Prophete might not obiect vnto a King consort with hand-maides tribes excluding Isachar vtterly Zabulon from his place to exclude Aser a borderer vpon Tyrus And thus our learned ware not the brestcare of iudgement with Vrim and Thummin when thus the stones of the sanctuary are confounded which dum stones tell what lott each tribe should haue whose stories fall still in the same tenour as the holy Ezekiel and the sonne of thunder doe make the dum stones to thunder it out though we be deaf as the dwellers at Nilus Catadupa or downfall who by too much noise loose the sence of hearing Of further warrant for this ordering of the stones AS Chiram the artificer is commended by his teacher so all dealers in divinitie should make good their cause by auncient who should haue skill in that kind wherof they entreate Now in this argument one doubt resolueth all Whether Isachar whom his brother Zabulon must immediately folow cometh afore the hand-maids sonnes being his elder that all Leahs sonnes come togeather or Isachar must come after them to haue the Amethyst and Zabulon the Chrysolite Which in dead is Asers That should our Bishops Bibles inferre Against whom this heape of witnesses I call togeather First the testimony of Philo touched aboue and now the wordes of the Babylonian Thalmud in Sota fol. 36. Rabbi Annas the sonne of Gamehel sayth The twelue stones were ordered not as the Patriarkes be ordered in the book of Numbers but as they be in Ex. 1. The sonnes of Leah togeather in the first stone and in the second stone according to their birth and age This note of the Thalmud endeth this controversie And the commentary there is to the same sense for such as know not the Babylonian tongue Of Thargum Ierusalemy AN old traÌ„slatioÌ„ of Moses hard pointes in the toung that the Iewes vsed in the Apostles time called TharguÌ„ Ierusalemy thus settleth fully the stones order to the Patriarkes engravement in them In the first row was Sardius Topaz Smaragd in theÌ„ was writen plainly the name of the three Tribes Ruben Symeon Levi. And the second row was Cadcedona Saphir Sardonyx There was written vpon them plainly the name of three Tribes Iudah Isachar Zabulon And this endeth the strife against our Bishops And the third row was Hyacinth Chrysoprase and Amethyst There was written vpon them plainly the