paines to prooue the text vncorrupt against a gaine saying Papist For they haue summed vp all the letters in the Bible to shew that one haire of that sacred head is not perished Eight â—undred eight and fourty marginall â—otes are obserued and preserued for the more facility of the text The middle verse of euery booke noted the number of the verses in euery booke reckoned and as I said before not a vowell that misseth ordinary Grammar which is not marked So that if we had no other surety for the truth of the old Testament text these mens paines me thinks should be enough to stop the mouth of a daring Papist CAP. XIIII Of the marginall readings THat the margin should so often helpe the text as I may so say as in 848. places may seeme to taxe the text of so many errours But the learned can find a reason why it is so I hope I may satisfie my selfe without any hurt with this reason till mâ— learning will affoord mee a better Namely that when they tooke iâ— hand to reuiew the Bible after the captiuity as all hold Ezra did that they did it by more coppies then one which when they thus varied they would not forsake either because they were loath to add or diminish therefore they tooke euen their varying one in the text and the other in the margin Yet doe I not thinke it was done onely thus without some more speciall matter in some places for the writing of Nagnarah so often Nagnar does make mee thinke if I had nothing els to perswade me that these marginals are not only humane corrections CAP. XV. Ex Kimchio in Ionah 1. KImchi questioning why the book of Ionah should bee Canonicall c. giues one most comfortable reason which vpon reading I could not but muse on His words are obseruable and they are these It is questionable why this Prophecie is written among the holy Scriptures since it is all against Niniueh which was Heathennish and in it there is no remembrance or mention of Israel and among all the Prophets besides this there is not the like But we may expound it that it is written to be a checke to Israel for loe a strange People which were not of Israel was ready to repent and euen the first time that a Prophet reproued them they turned wholly from their euill But Israel whom the Prophets reproued early and late yet they returned not from their euill Againe this booke was written to shew the great miracle that the blessed God did with the Prophet who was three dayes and three nights in the belly of the fish and yet liued and the fish cast him vp againe Againe to teach vs that the blessed God sheweth mercy to the repentant of what nation soeuer and pardons them though they bee many Haec Kimchi Vpon whose last words I cannot but enter into these thoughts Could wee looke for a truth from a Iew or comfort from a Spaniard And yet here the Spanish Iew affoords vs both comfortable truth and true comfort God will pardon the Repentant there is a comfortable truth and hee will pardon them of what nation soeuer if they repent there is most true comfort When a Iew thus preaches repentance I cannot but hearken and helpe him a little out with his Sermon That as God is ready to forgiue the Repentant of what Nation soeuer so for what sinnes soeuer if they be truly repented Here I except the impardonable sinne the sinne against the Holy Ghost which what it is the Scripture conceales in close words partly because we should not despaire if wee fall our selues and partly because wee should not censure damnably of our brethren if they fall into a sinne that is nigh this so that not into it To maintaine the Iewes words and mine owne for pardon of Nations and of finnes I haue as large a field as all the Countries and all the sinnes of the world to looke ouer I will onely for Countries confine my selfe to Niniueh and for sinnes to Mary Magdalen Niniueh a heathen towne built by a wicked brood inhabited by a wicked crew yet repenting Niniueh is pardoned Mary Magdalen a manifold sinner a customary sinner a most deadly sinner yet repenting Mary Magdalen is forgiuen The Iew brings me into two christian meditations about Niniueh or into two wholesome Passions Feare and Hope God sees the sinnes of Niniueh then I know mine are not hid this breeds in me feare of punishment But God forgiues the sinnes of Niniueh then I hope mine are not vnpardonable this breeds hope of forgiuenesse Col debhaurau she amar lehareang libhne Adam saith the Rabbin bithnai im lo jashubhu All the euills that God threatens to men are threatned with this condition if they doe not repent As before the Iew spake comfort and truth so here hee linkes comfort and terrour God threatens euill there is terrour but it is with condition there is comfort Niniueh finds both in the story Fourty dayes and Niniueh shall be destroyed there is a threatned terrour But the Lord repented of the euill that hee spake to doe vnto them and did it not there is a comforting condition So that as Dauid does so will I hopefully and yet fearefully sing of mercy and judgement First mercy then iudgement Mercy vpon my repentance lest I bee cast downe and Iudgement vpon my sinnes lest I be lifted vp Mercy in Iudgement and Iudgement in mercy Is there any one that desperatly reiects Niniuehs exhibited mercy let him feare Niniuehs threatned iudgment or is there any that trembles at Niniuehs threatned Iudgement let him comfort himselfe by Niniuehs obtaining mercy But in the mouth of two witnesses let the mercy bee confirmed Let mee take Mary Magdalen with Niniueh and as I see in it the forgiuenesse of a multitude of sinners so I may see in her of a multitude of sinnes Those many sinners pardoned as one man those many sinnes made as none at all Saint Bernard speaking of her washing of Christs feet saies shee came thither a sinner but shee went thence a Saint She came thither an Aethiope and a leopard but shee went thence with changed skin and cancelled spots But how was this done She fell at the feet of Christ and with sighs from her heart she vomited the sinnes from her soule Prosternere tu anima mea as saith the same Bernard And cast thou thy selfe downe oh my soule before the feet of Christ wipe them with thine haires wash them with thy teares which teares washing his feet may also purge thy soule Wash his feet and wash thy selfe with Mary Magdalen till hee say to thee as hee did to Marie Magdalen thy sinnes are forgiuen CAP. XVI Of sacrifice SAcrifice is within a little as old as sinne and sinne not much younger then the world Adam on the day of his creation as is most probable sinneth and sacrificeth and on the next day after meditates on that wherunto his sacrifice aimeth
of Sancuniathou that wrote the Phaenician history in the same tongue but more of the language he saith not But to the matter That letters were so long in vse before the giuing of the Law I am induced to beleeue vpon these reasons First Iosephus is of this mind that letters were before the flood And the Scripture cites Enochs prophecie which whether it were written by him or not is vncertaine yet if there were any such thing those many places which we find of it in Tertullian Clemens and others do argue that so much could not punctually bee kept by word of mouth A second reason to mooue mee to thinke of letters before the giuing of the Law is to thinke of Iosephs accounts in Egypt which seeme almost impossible without writing Thirdly But omitting that I cannot see how all arts and sciences in the world should then flourish as considering their infancy they did without the groundworke of all learning letters Fourthly Againe for the Iewes vpon the writing of the law to be put to spelling as they that had neuer seene letters before and not to be able to reade it had beene a law vpon the law adding to the hardnesse of it Fiftly Nor can I thinke that when Moses saith blot me out of thy book that hee taketh the Metaphor from his owne bookes which it is probable he had not yet written but from other bookes which were then abounding in the world Sixtly the Egyptian Chronicles of so many thousand yeares in Diodorus and Laertius I know are ridiculous yet their carefulnesse of keeping Records I haue euer beleeued The Greekes were boyes to them as it is in Plato and Moses was scholler to them or their learning Act. 7. Now I cannot thinke that this their exceeding humane learning was kept onely in their braines and none in writing Nor do I think that if it were written that it was decyphered onely in their obscure Hieroglyphicks but that some of it came to ordinary writing of familiar letters CAP. XXX Of the Hebrew tongue WHo so will goe about to commend the Hebrew tongue may iustly receiue the censure that he of Rome did who had made a long booke in the praise of Hercules This labour is in vaine for neuer any one dispraised Hercules Other commendations this tongue needeth none then what it hath of its selfe namely for Sanctitie it was the tongue of God and for Antiquitie it was the tongue of Adam God the first founder and Adam the first speaker of it In this tong were laid vp the mysteries of the old Testament It begun with the world and the Church and continued increased in glory till the captiuitie in Babel which was a Babel to this tongue and brought to confusion this language which at the first confusion had escaped without ruine At their returne it was in some kinde repaired but farre from former perfection The holy Scriptures veiwed by Ezra a scribe fit for the kingdome of heauen in whose treasure were things new and old In the Maccabean times all went to ruine language and lawes and all lost and since that time to this day the pure Hebrew hath lost her familiaritie being onely knowne by schollers or at least not without teaching Our Sauiours times spake the Syrian Kepha Golgotha Talitha and other words do witnesse In aftertimes the vnwearied Masorites arose helpers to preserue the Bible Hebrew intire and Grammarians helpers to preserue the Idiome aliue but for restoring it to the old familiaritie neither of them could preuaile For the Iewes haue at this day no abiding citie no Common wealth no proper tongue but speake as the countries wherein they liue This whereof they were once most nice is gone and this groat they haue lost As the man in Seneca that through sicknes lost his memorie and forgot his own name so they for their sin haue lost their language and forgot their own tongue Their Cain-like wandring after the murther of their brother according to the flesh Christ Iesus hath lost them this precious marke of Gods fauour and branded them with a worse marke Cauterio conspirationis antiquae as saith Saint Bernard in another case Before the confusion of tongues all the world spake their tongue and no other but since the confusion of the Iewes they speake the language of all the world and not their owne And that it is not with them so onely of late but hath been long Theodoret beareth witnesse in these words Other nations saith he haue their children speaking quickly in their owne mother tongue Howbeit there are no children of the Hebrewes who naturally spake the Hebrew tongue but the language of the countrie where they are borne Afterward when they grow vp they are taught the letters and learne to read the holy Scripture in the Hebrew tongue Thus Theod. in quaest on Gen 59.60 About this their training vp of their children and growth of men in their owne tongue and learning a Rabbin hath this saying in Pirke Auoth Perek 1. Ben He He saith At fiue yeares old for the Scripture at ten for Mishneh at thirteene for the Commandements at fifteene for the Talmud At eighteene for Mariage at twentie for Seruice at thirtie for Strength at fortie for Vnderstanding at fiftie for Counsell at sixtie for Old age at seuentie for Gray haires at eightie for Profoundnesse at nintie for Meditation at one hundred he is as dead and past and gone out of the world The Iewes looke for a pompous kingdome when Messias the Sonne of Dauid shall come whom they watch for euerie moment till he come as it is in the 12. Article of their Creed in their common prayer booke Hee shall restore them as they hope a temporall kingdome and of that minde till they were better taught were the Apostles Acts 1.6 and then their tongue shall reuiue againe as they surmise But the diuine Apocaliptick writing after Ierusalem was ruined might teach them what the second Ierusalem must be not on earth but from heauen Apoc. 21 2. But to returne to their tongue The characters we now haue the Hebrew tongue in Scaliger thinkes are but of a latter hatch and not the same that the Iewes vsed from Moses till the destruction of the temple For that they vsed the Phaenician or Cananaean character which now is called the Samaritan How truely I referre to the Readers iudgement The character wee now haue is either a set or a running letter the first the Bible is ordinarily Printed in in the latter the most of the Rabbins The whole tongue is contained in the Bible and no one booke else in the world containes in it a whole language And this shewes that the Scripture speakes to all sorts of people since it speakes of all sorts of things This language is as God said the Iewes should bee if they would keepe his Law A lender to all and a borrower of none All tongues are in debt to this and this to none The
cals his armie and there was another companie of Angels which he cals the Armie of God These are the two Armies that gaue name to Mahanaim two armies one heauenly and the other earthly and from this I take it Salomon compares the Church to the companie of Mahanaim for so the Church consisteth of two Armies one heauenly like these Angels which is the Church triumphant and the other trauailing on earth like Iacobs armie which is the Church militant CAP. XLIIII The booke of Psalmes THe Psalmes are diuided into fiue bookes according to the fiue bookes of Moses and if they bee so diuided there be seuentie bookes in the Bible the vnskilfull may finde where any one of these fiue bookes end by looking where a Psalme ends with Amen there also ends the booke As at Psal. 41.72.89.106 and from thence to the end These may euen in their verie beginnings be harmonized to the books of the Law Genesis The first booke of Moses telleth how happinesse was lost euen by Adams walking in wicked counsel of the Serpent and the woman Psal. 1. The first booke of Psalmes tels how happines may be regained if a man do not walke in wicked counsell as of the serpent woman the diuell and the flesh This allusion of the first booke Arnobius makes Exodus The second book of Moses tels of groaning affliction in Egypt Leuiti The third booke of Moses is of giuing the law Numbers The fourth booke of Moses is about numbring Deutero The last booke of Moses is a rehearsall of all Psal. 42. The second booke of Psalmes begins in groaning affliction Psal. 42 43. Psal. 73. The third booke of Psalmes tels in the beginning how good God is for giuing this law This allusion Rab. Tanch makes very neere Ps. 90. The fourth booke begins with numbring of the best Arithmetick numbring Gods mercie Psal. 90.1 and our owne dayes ver 12. Psa. 107. So is the last booke of the Psalmes from Psa. 107. to the end In the Iewes diuision of the Scripture this peece of the Psalmes and the bookes of the like nature are set last not because they be of least dignitie but because they be of least dependance with other bookes as some of them being no storie at all and some stories and bookes of lesser bulke and so set in a fourme by themselues The old Testament books the Iewes acrostically doe write thus in three letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 euerie letter standing for a word and euerie word for a part of the Bible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Aorajetha or Torah the law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Nebhijm the Prophets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Cethubhim or bookes of holy writ this diuiâ—ion is so old that our Sauiour himselfe vseth it in the last of Luke and ver 44. All things written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and the Psalmes By the Psalmes meaning that part of Cethubhim in which the Psalmes are set first CAP. XLV Of the Creation TWo waies we come to the knowledge of God by his workes and by his word By his works we come to know there is a God and by his word wee come to know what God is His workes teach vs to spell his word teacheth vs to read The first are as it were his backe parts by which we behold him a farre off The latter shewes him to vs face to face The world is as a booke consisting of three leaues and euerie leafe printed with many letters and euery letter a lecture The leaues heauen the aire and earth with the water The letters in heauen euery Angel Star and Planet In the aire euery meteor and foule In the earth and waters euerie man beast plant fish and minerall all these set together spell to vs that there is a God and the Apostle saith no lesse though in lesse space Rom. 1 20. For the inuisible things of him that is his eternall power and Godhead are seene by the creation of the world being considered in his workes And so Dauid Psal. 19.1 It is not for nothing that God hath set the Cabinet of the vniuerse open but it is because he hath giuen vs eyes to behold his treasure Neither is it for nothing that he hath giuen vs eyes to behold his treasure but because he hath giuen vs hearts to admire vpon our beholding If wee marke not the workes of God we are like stones that haue no eyes wherewith to behold If wee wonder not at the workes of God when wee marke them we are like beasts that haue no hearts wherewith to admire And if wee praise not God for his workes when we admire them we are like deuils that haue no tongues wherewith to giue thankes Remarkeable is the storie of the poore old man whom a Bishop found most bitterly weeping ouer an vgly toad being asked the reason of his teares his answer was I weepe because that whereas God might haue made mee as vgly and filthy a creature as this toad and hath not I haue yet neuer in all my life beene thankefull to him for it If the works of the creation would but lead vs to this one lecture our labour of obseruing them were well bestowed How much more when they lead vs farre further CAP. XLVI The time and manner of the Creation MOSES in the first verse of the Bible refutes three heathen opinions namely theirs that thought the world was eternall for he saith in the beginning c. Secondly theirs that thought there was no God for he saith Elohim created Thirdly theirs that thought there were many gods for he saith Elohim he created heauen and earth The first word in the beginning may draw our mindes and thoughts to the last thing the latter end and this thought must draw our affections from too much loue of the world for it must haue an end as it had a beginning I will not stand to comment vpon the word Bereshith in the beginning for then I know not when to come to an end To treat how the diuerse expositors labour about the beginning of the world is a world of labour How the Ierus Targ. translates it In wisdome and is followed by Rabbi Tanchum and many Iewes How Targ. Ionath vseth an Arabian word Min Awwala a primo Onkelos in primis or in principio Iarchi in principio creationis creauit How Basil the great Saint Ambrose and hundreds others do interpret this is a worke endlesse to examine Satisfied am I with this that the world and all things had their beginning from God that in the beginning created heauen and earth Some of the Iewes do inuert the word Bereshith and make it Betisri that is in the moneth Tisri was the world created This month is about our September and that the world was created in this moneth to let other reasons alone this satisfies me that the feast of Tabernacles which was