if that day he was made he had perfectly known all arts and sciences Therefore he understood them not Let us grant that the world was made with Adam it will not therefore follow that all sciences and arts were fram'd with Adam Truly in the beginning the prime causes and means of all sciences were in God but the seeds of them were only sowed in Adam which could not arise but by meditation reasoning with himself by cultivating and time Adam might attain all arts and sciences but not for that cause he attained to them that minute he was born Besides Adam could not understand any thing of things past or judge of things to come as a man though most perfect unlesse by knowledge or conjecture or rather by consideration of things present according to the common phrase that there can be nothing in the knowledge or intellect of the most perfect man which is not first his sense For Example then Adam could not subdivide the regions of heaven which is the knowledge of the Sphere but that he first must find out the regions of the earth unlesse he had first travel'd about the world and view'd it But such a thing could not be perform'd but by daily journeys meditation and comparing according to the Psalm One day â—elates to another and one night preaches knowledge to another In which place the day signifies the apprehension of things which is signified by the sight the most noble of the senses The night the recollection of those things apprehended by consultation and meditation But if Adam as a man yea in the integrity of his perfection or before sin which is the same thing could not but by little and little and succession of time gain all sciences arts and disciplines Certainly he must be far longer time in gaining them after his fall especially according to their supposition who think that his mine was darkned and dulld by ignorance of all things Besides according to them there is so short a time betwixt the framing of Adam and his sin that Adam could know nothing but what cost him travel enough yea the same travel and rate as all disciplines are sold for to sinful men Those which are scrupulously addicted to thâ— books of Moses use to referre the inventions oâ— all arts sciences and disciplines either to Adaem or his posterity because in Moses there is no man read of before Adam This they believe upon the same score as they believe that all antiquities both in natural and humane historie are rontained in holy Writ especially in Moses I intend not God forbid I should either diminish the authority of the Scriptures or doubt the truth of them I will tell you ingenuously what 's my opinion 〈◊〉 if I be mistaken let it be upon my self 〈…〉 and will still hold That there is as much in the Bible as God has granted us to know either of the Original of the World of Prophecies Divine mysteries or our salvation Those things which belong meerly to our Salvation consist but in a few things And in them the holy Spirit has bestow'd so much pains and clearnesse as belongs to humane capacity Those things which concern other things are set down more at large And concerning them I shall openly declare that which all know but most are loath to speak That so great things are written with so great carelessness and obscuritie that sometimes nothing can be more obscure nothing more intricate Seeking with my self what should be the reason of this I answered thus in reason to my self as any one would have done That God who would have himself known by men hid himself and would not be perfectly seen For that he professed concerning himself to the Jews That he would dwell in a cloud And therefore in the Old Testament open'd himself unto them not always under one name And in the Gospel hinder'd the Devils and the Spirits from divulging who he was Besides whatsoever he said was a Parable and by divers circumlocutions he delay'd his auditors But if God speaking face to face spoke intricately and aenigmatically it is not unlike that the Scriptures remitted to posterity should be more knottie and intricate Hence those unusual apparitions which we read to have been seen by holy Writers set down in unusual and strange ways of expression But howsoever who will make it good although all we have received be knotty and intricate that those are the Originals which we now have Certainly it cannot be denyed but the Books of Josuah Chronicles and Kings have been copied out and I shall make it appear The miracle of Joshua at whose command the Sun and Moon stood still is manifestly copied out For it is written in the 10th Chapter of that book And the Sun and Moon stood still till the people were avenged of their enemies Is it not written in the books of the just This miracle then is taken out of the books of the just that is out of the books of the Jews who were called just as I observ'd before I say taken out of another book whether it were the Original or no. And nothing more frequent in other books Behold they are written in the books of Nathan or in the books of Gad or in the books of the remembrances of the Kings of Israel and the Kings of Judah or in the words of Jehu the son of Hanani or in the words of Hosea the Prophet or in the Prophet Isay every one of them having their own History to which it had relation now lost Whatsoever is read in the Kings or Châ—onicles are gather'd out of the books of Nathan Gad Jehu Hosea Isay c. Whence they are taken and gather'd as is found by the confession of the authors who wrote them I know not by what author it is found out that the Pentateuch is Moses his own copy It is so reported but not believ'd by all These Reasons 〈…〉 believe that those Five Books are not the Originals but copied out by another Because Moses is there read to have died For how could Moses write after his death They say that Josuah added the death of Moses to Deuteronomic But who added the death of Josuah to that book which is so call'd and which being written by Josuah himself is reckon'd in Moses his Pentateuch Besides we read in the 1. Cha. of Deut. These are the words which Moses spake beyond Jordan Which if Moses had spoken he had said on this side Jordan For Moses had not pass'd Jordan nay he never pass'd it but he that writes Deuteronomy sayes beyond Jordan because it was in the holy Land and because that place in the plains of Moab where Moses last spoke to the Israelites was beyond Jordan And this beyond Jordan you shall find repeated often by the same Moses It being to him on this side Jordan There is also a passage cited out of a Book whose Title was The Warrs of the Lord. The words in Numbers are these Whence
inconvenient to joyn Strabo to Plato in his third Book of Geographie where he relates this of the Turdetans the Inhabitants of Spain These sayes he are held the most learned amongst all the Spaniards they use Grammar and have their monuments of Antiquitie written and Poems and Laws in Verse for six thousand years as they say The Turdetans then had their Laws long before the floud if in the days of Strabo they had then written six thousand years which they being themselves in that deluge untouch'd kept likewise untouch'd for the space of six thousand years continually and us'd and observ'd them Scaliger likewise thinks that the first Olympiad was celebrated in the year of the world 3074 and that the destruction of Troy was four hundred and eight years or thereabouts before the first Olympiad And Servius has observ'd upon that Verse of Virgils Th' old Cities sack'd reign'd in for many years Ancient sayes he or noble because it is said to have reigned two thousand eight hundred years The beginning then of the Kingdom of Troy must be before the beginning of the world and if Troy was rul'd in for two thousand and eight hundred years Phrygia as also Spain must be said to be freed from the floud of Noah Which you may also think of India which Father Liber first enter'd From him says Solinus in his 25 Chap. unto Alexander the great there are reckon'd six thousand four hundred and fifty years and three moneths over accounting it by the Kings who are said in his time a hundred and fifty three of them to have liv'd Salmasius the restorer of Pliny in Solinus and the disperser of his errours sets down this number in Pliny Besides the same Scaliger is author that Semiramis was before the destruction of Troy and places her in the first age after the Floud and sayes that Sanchoniato liv'd in her time and makes Iombal more antient than Sanchoniato and sayes that Sanchoniato receiv'd many things from Iombal out of Porphyrius And Eusebius relates that Sanchoniato met with some reserv'd pieces or volumes of the Ammonites which he took out of the Repositorie of the Church where they had lain But how can such stories agree with the time of Noahs floud To this add that neither Sanchoniato nor Iombal antienter than he are reckon'd amongst the sons of Noah And it must needs be that those volumes lay without the Ark and were preserv'd on which Sanchoniato lighted as Eusebius says Here to reckon those things which I set out before more at large That is an inconsistent time which is reckon'd from Adam to Abraham the Chaldaean or to Moses the Egyptian and it is unadviâ—edly set down to be sufficient to gain the knowledge of those arts which Abraham and Moses were exact in But certainly the time 'twixt Noahs floud and Abraham would be likewise a great deal more incompetent if according to the same inconsideratenesse it should be proportioned as sufficient for the attainment of the forementioned disciplines especially Astronomy Theology and Magick The which that they did flourish in the time of Abraham is evidently prov'd because Vr of the Chaldees is call'd by Eusebius Camarina and Camarina is the same with the City of the Chaldaeans And the Camarini were call'd Chaldaeans aswell as Astrologers and Magicians For the name of the Chaldaeans was a token of Nation and Art It is likewise written of the Camarinian Magicians that they raise Leviathan who is the Devil That there is a land and water Leviathan is certain or which is as much that there are land and water Devils â—rom whom Philippus Codurcus a learned man and â—ell skillâ—â— in the Hebrew imagined that those Spirits which we in our mother tongue call Luithons or Luthins have taken their derivation To think that these Theorems of Magick or spels hatefull to God were kept in the Ark that they might not be lost in the floud were a wickedness to believe But to say that the art was invented or repaired betwixt the floud and Abraham were impossible to prove as other things are CHAP. X. Of Eternity before Eternity Of Eternity from Eternity THose who think that the floud of Noah was over all Nations erre much in the ordering of all actions and dispensing of them since that time They are likewise very much deceiv'd in the ordering and dispensing of all actions since the beginning of the world who affirm that the world was made with Adam They have streightned the beginning and the ending in such narrow bounds that it cannot by any means fit to so small room which is read of the world created from eternity and which shall endure to eternity I need not say amongst Historians and Philophers who were Gentiâ—es but likewise amongst the Prophets and Apostles But indeed that little space of time to which they limit the things past and things to come those two eternities how well does it accord with that expression of the short garment in Isay Chapter 4â—28 A short garment sayes he cannot cover both It is written I confesse That God created the heaven and the earth in the beginning That I dare boldly affirm we know not that beginning I know there is a setled number of the stars in heaven there is a determinate number of the grains of sand in the Sea shore But I think to make up a sum of all those stars all those grains all those ages which have bin from the beginning is without the compasse of all Arithmetick and humane account In these numbers there is no number nor need we to comprehend the number of them It is enough that God doth know the number of the stars which he created The times are not hidden from the Almighty Moreover I find two several acceptions of eternity in the holy Scripture The first is by which God is call'd eternal before time and before all things created Another by which eternity is bounded by ages and the beginning of the creation These two â—gnifications of eternity are both together comprehended in that place of the Proverbs where Wisdom is brought in speaking after this manner God possess'd me from the beginning of his wayes before he made any thing Or according to others I had a rule from eternity from the head from the beginnings of the earth or from the creation of the world There appears here a two-fold beginning one before time and before the creation of the earth one from ages from the beginnings of the earth or since the creation of the world The first is distinguished from the second because in the first God is only said to have possessed wisdom in the second place to have ordain'd and install'd her to have a rule over all things created Both beginnings then are eternal but the first antientest The first beginning was eternal by its self eternal before eternity The second begining was eternal in regard of us since our understanstanding cannot reach its number St. Paul hath most clearly
things flow'd from that beginning which is the beginning of their knowledge and are content to remit that alone to posterity So Plato To this adde the length of time which changes and consumes all things from whole devoâ—ring jaws the Egyptians could not rescue themselves For they though they show'd abundance of ancient monuments both of their own and other Nations had notwithstanding lost the Annals of their King God Vulcan and of the Sun his son To these deluges fires and devouring times add that grosse ignorance which in several ages hath orerun the whole world more powerfull than fire than water than time it self which hath swallowed blotted out and defaced the memory of things past To this add the wickked dispositions of many men and the hatefull desires of Princes as that of Nabonassar the Chaldaean from whom to the death of Alexander there were four hundred twenty four years He caus'd the deeds of all Kings before him to be abolish'd that a new beginning of all affairs and Kings might begin its computation from himself whence the date of Nabonassar was deriv'd Alvarez a Samedo in his History of China relates That a certain King call'd Tein commanded by a Proclamation to burn all the Books of the Chinensians except physick-Physick-books and was so carefull in bringing an utter destruction for 40 years that he reigned that he utterly overthrew all learned men and all learning in his own age As that was likewise the ambition of vanquishing Princes which so much alter'd the computation of time when they chang'd the Epoche and would have the times nam'd by their names Hence those known Periods from the death of Alexander of Augustus from the fight of Actium and that which was call'd the Epoche of Dioclesian The antient Aegyptians renew'd the intervals of their years as often as they receiv'd new Lawes from new Kings and new Conquerours Which Scaliger in his Book De emendatione Temporum sayes they did very frequently We must needs imagine that all climates of the world have been diversly ruin'd but successively and by turns not all with one push or at one time That those men who were in their own land too numerous behov'd to make up their losses That by divers chances and fortunes mankind hath been toss'd hither and thither nor could not alwayes continue in the same stations Hence it is that no Land could ever boast it self of its Aboriginals that is to say of those men who were first created in it who in the first spring of the Creation came forth every where out of the earth And hence it is that I trust neither Aegyptian Scythian nor Aethiopians calling themselves Aboriginalls and the most antient of Nations The Christian Fathers who liv'd in the next age to Christ whom its fit we call the sons of light as they were not wiser than the sons of this world in their generations so were not they more diligent or provident than they in the enquiry of those generations They were wiâ—e in those things which belong'd to heaven and the second creation they neglected such things as were of the earth and the first creation And as they adhered to the reading of the holy Scriptures they very well rejected the fables of the pedigrees of the Gentiles who thought themselves Aboriginals But on the other side too negligently by their leave they rested upon Adam and thought him alone the first parent of all men because he is read the first in Moses The same negligence which possessed the first pursued the successive Doctors of the Church who knew no other men but such as were begotten by Adam Yea they pronounced them Hereticks that plac'd the Antipodes over against Adams posterity because they must then think them the posterity of some body else I would St. Augustine and Lactantius were now alive who scoff'd at the Antipodes Truly they would pity themselves if they should hear or see those things which are discover'd in the East and West Indies in this clear-sighted age as also a great many other Countries full of men to which it is certain none of Adams posterity ever arived CHAP. XIV They are deceiv'd who deduce the Originals of men from the Grand-children of Noah Grotius concerning the Original of the Nations in America confuted IT is the manner of all men who search out the Originals of Nations to derive them after the flood from the Grandchildren of Noah who were the Grandchildren of Adam And great men are so earnest in this whom I very much prise and have in continual respect for them that they cut out all their originals out of this block And either from some antient record or some old tradition or the similitude of some old and obsolete name or from any other conjecture Some they imagine that landed at such or such a place to have been the authors or fathers of such a Nation As if Italus who fled for example into Italy and gave a name to that Countrey had been the father and author of all the Italians and that Nation had had no Inhabitants before Italus As if the Francks should be thought the authors and first founders of all the French Nation and that there had been no Frenchmen before the Franks because the Franks seiz'd upon France and chang'd the name of the Province and of Gallia made it Francia Must needs Peru be thought to have had their Original from the Chinensians because a piece of a broken boat like those of the Chinensians was found on the banks of Peru Those who guesse so seem to me to be like that two-peny Doctor who told the sick man he had eaten an Asse because he saw the dorsers standing under the bed Hugo Grotius sets out a discourse of the Originals of the Nations of America whom he derives from the Norwegians who eight hundred years ago were carried to Island and went from thence to Greenland and so from Greenland through the Lands adjoyning he conjectur'd got to the South parts of America Laetius did confute the conjecture of Grotius Grotius vindicates himself from Laetius and those things which in him Laetius had confuted he by this absurdity resolv'd to restore But sayes he if the Americans are not Germans the Norwegians and Germans were with him all one now they shall be the Off-spring of no Nation which is as much as to believe with Aristotle that they were from eternity or born of the earth as is reported of the Spartans or of the Ocean according to Homer or that there were some men before Adam as one in France lately dream'd If such things sayes he be believ'd I see a great danger imminent to Religion Grotius had â—â—ittle before read a little discourse of the Prae-Adamices undigested and about to be revis'd which he under colour of friendship by an acquaintance had requir'd of me which I friendly did communicate to him not that he should abuse me Nor do I desire to make return or speak ill of the
which should be the glory of the earth The Lord would have his people encreased to a full and sufficient number of inhabitants which should be able to defend themselves from the beasts of Canaan and secure the people But if God had a double caution in this case for the comliness and security of the Land of Canaan alone although the Jews then abounded in number and were grown to be many hundred thousands What care shall we think God took in the Creation of the World for the comliness not onely of one Land but also of the Lands of the whole World lest they should be made desolate if he had created one man and one Woman from the beginning in the earth And if God would not expose many hundred thousand Jews to the beasts of one Land shall we think that he would expose one single man and woman to the heasts of all Lands Certainly if the beasts of the Land of Canaan had been so much multiplied against so many hundred thousand Jews that dwelt in 't much more should they have been multiplied against Adam and Eve being alone upon the whole earth CHAP. II. Adam was created apart from other men in that creation which is mentioned Gen. 2. Adam was thefirst and father of the Jews not of all men The framing of Adam was altogether different from the creation of the first men Eve could not be created the same day as Adam was made THe author of Genesis having absolâ—'d in the first Chapter the six dayes of the creation begins the second Chapter from the sanctification of the Sabbath which was the seventh day and rehearses what he had said in the first Chapter of the creation of the whole of which there was no more to be related But because the nation of the Jews was separate and set apart from all the Nations of the earth being elected by God That it might be to him a peculiar people of all the nations upon the earth which we prov'd our of the 7 of Deut Therefore the author of the Pentateuch who was himself a Jew whose end it was to write the original the deduction the Laws and Chronologie of his own Nation apart from the creation of the whole world and of all Nations begins the particular framing of the first Jew from whom that peculiar and choice Nation was deriv'd that is of them by whom salvation should be communicated to all Nations in Christ as to all Nations had come perdition from Adam And God fram'd Adam Gen. 2. Man that is Adam But because this Narration begins with and it is ordinarily received as a more special explanation of the creation of that man in his kind of whom Moses spake in the Ch. 1. Let us make man But they heed not that the particle and in the Hebrew is the introduction of a new matter not a continuation of that which was mention'd before such beginnings of Narrations you shall every where meet with in sacred authors yea books beginning with and as Ezechiâ—l And it came to pass in the thirtieth year And Jonas 〈◊〉 the word of the Lord came to Jonas Hence is it chiefly prefum'd that this framing of Adam was not that which is mentioned in the former Chapter of Gen. Because it is granted by all that â—haâ— first creation in the first Chapter which accoring to my supposition was the creation of the first men was compleated mone day the sixth and the last as is set down in the first Chapter But it is impossble that all those things which are set down in the second Chapter could have been transacted in that time which is receiv'd from morning to evening Therefore much lesse in the half of that sixth day in which God first oreated all creatnres then man Let us tell every minute in which God was pleased to declare that all his works were perform'd with time though he could have done them without time We shal find no such thing in the first creation of men nor the action of the creation of male and female interrupted as it is a long space betwixt the forming of Adam and Eve It is first said That God created Adam of the clay of the earth Where observe that God who in the first Chapter created man not simply of the earth but of that first matter of which he made the earth in this second Chapter fram'd Adam of the dust of the earth Observe that God I say who was in the first Chapter the Creator of man was in the second the framer of Adam For which cause God is also the framer of the Jews Isa 45. Thus says the Lord the holy One of Israel his maker The maker of Israel because the maker of Adam the first Father of Israel But of this enough already Secondly it is said That God breath'd upon the face of Adam the breath of life Thirdly He led him into Paradise Take good notice of these words of Genesis God had planted from the beginning a Paâ— adise of pleasure wherein to place man Understand by that beginning not of that time in which God made Adam but of that beginning long before which is spoken from the beginning of the first Chapter of Genesis In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth In which he likewise created men in their kind who from the beginning did inhabite that earth Certainly if this Adam had been he who was created in the beginning three dayes after the earth was created Genesis had not spoken of this Adam whom the Lord carryed into Paradise God had planted Paradise from the beginning Nay rather upon the third day he made Paradise for the third day dry land appeared and Paradise was planted and the sixth day man was created in his kind Fourthly it is written that God gave this Adam laws what he should eat what he should not eat what he should doe what he should shun Observe here narrowly no Law given to the men of the first creation which is related in the first Chapter of Genesis and no tree forbidden them And God said Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon earth and all trees which have in them their seed according to their kind that it may be to you for meat The tree of knowledge of good and evil was forbidden Adam the first man of the second creation which is mentioned in the second Chapter Thou mayest eat of every tree in the garden but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat For in the day that thou eatest of it thou shalt dye the death But those being divers ordinances argue different times Fifthly the Scripture stammeringly shews us That God had learn'd as it were by experience in a certain time passed That Adam being without a helper had neither till'd nor conveniently kept the Garden Therefore God said It is not convenient that man should be alone Let us make him a helper like unto himself Sixthly God
believe the number of years that the College of Chaldaeans affirm'd that they had spent in the consideration of the world sayes Diodorus For til the expedition of Alexander into Asia they reckon'd four hundred and seventy thousand years since the time they had begun to observe the stars Diodorusâ— thought it hard to be believ'd but not impossible as believing himself that the motion of the eternal circuit by an eternal Law was ordered by the constellations and the stars And that was it which made Cicero living at the same time with Diodorus write the same things of the Chaldaeans whom he calls Babylonians For they deceive us sayes he in saying that the Chaldaeans busied themselvs four hundred and seventy thousand years in calculating the nativities of all children for if they had so done they had not left off But we know no body that can inform us that such a thing is practised or ever was Cicero refutes not the account of years in that place which he did not think impossible otherwise by impossibility he had refuted it but the vanity of the Caldaeans predictions those careful trials and experiments given by tradition concerning the Nativities of Children all through the continuation of so many years which to Cicero seem'd improbable For why sayes he should the Chaldaeans have discontinued and not in his time likewise have calculated Nativities Besides that wonderful number of years which as Diodorus and Cicero relates the Chaldaeans bestowed either in the observation of the stars or in the raising of Schemes in Nativities is not different from those bundles of times and years which as I shewed before the Chaldaeans made use of in the computation of the inaugurating of their Kings For the number of those times was so great and return'd so far upon former ages that they numbred not those many sums of ages by years not by thousands of years but by several compactions of years The Egyptians contending in Astrologie with the Chaldaeans thought that the motions of all the stars and constellations and every particular one of them was ordained from eternity And the same Diodorus affirms that they had preserved in memorie the descriptions of those motions all through an incredible computation of years As it is likewise known that they kept the Histories of their Kings all along through incredible computations of time Having Gods for their Kings and Heroes and men Of whose most ancient Dynasties marvellous things are related by Herodotus and other Writers of the Egyptian affairs Salmasius the learnedst both amongst those Greeks and Romans makes mention of a most antient Writer who sets down thirty Dynasties of Kings and writes that they endur'd three Myriads of years expounds those myriads to have been ten thousand thousand and three thousand years There are those in Egypt who say that the times of their King God Vulcan was worn out of memory whom they affirm to have reign'd infinite ages in Egypt And that the Sun the Son of Vulcan did possesse the Kingdom of Egypt six hundred thousand six hundred and seventy six years after his Father Salmasius the most acute inquirer of their affairs recounting the number in his Climacterical years Nor must we traduce the truth of Herodotus and other Writers of the Egyptian affairs because Diodorus has written That they embrac'd those wonderful relations for truths For those words of Diodorus have relation to something else than those almost infinite accounts of time For Diodorus in so doing should have turned those monstrous relations back upon himself who doubted not to relate those four hundred and seventy thousand years of the Chaldaeans which were also hard to be believ'd For it is indeed probable that Herodotus an excellent Writer and very acurate in most things and Diodorus himself an assertor of Historical truths spake nothing of those accounts but what they had heard either from Egyptian Priests out of their records and had acuratly examin'd and seen them in Egypt which for their own parts both Herodotus and Diodorus ingenuously confesse But Diodorus himself also relates this of the Egyptians nor thinks it any wonder in part 2. book 1. of his Library That the Egyptian Kings born in that Country rul'd Egypt above 4700 Yeares Whose times we shall find to have surpassed above threescore thousand years if we reckon that there is already a thousand two hundred years past since threescore of the Kings of France began to reign But to say that those thousands of years and myriads which I have mentioned are to be understood of Lunary years or of the the third part of the year as they say it was sometimes divided into the Spring Summer and Autumn were to make Objections to no purpose Since Diodorus himself says this of the Chaldaeans That they said that the Sun and Moon runs through the twelve signs of the Zodiack That the Sun ends his course in a year The Moon in a month As likewise Herodotus says this expresly of the Egyptians that he had learned of the Inhabitants of Heliopolis who were thought the most skilfull of all the Egyptians That the Egyptians were the first of all men that found out years and divided them into twelve months This division of years and months is meant in the first Chapter of Genesis where he speaks thus of the creation of the Sun and Moon Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven and let them divide the night and the day and let them be for signs and times and dayes and years For the dayes in this place are moneths which are divided into thirty days and years which are made up of twelve moneths The Sun being the greater Luminary had alotted to him the greatest parts of the year The Moon had alotted to it the lesse that is the dision of the moneths Therefore that division of years and moneths was alotted by creation and nature from God himself to the Sun and Moon nor was there ever any other account used among the Chaldaeans and Egyptians men most expert and skilfull in the knowledge of the stars But the Chaldaeans were so far from augmenting the numbers by breaking their years which they reckoned always by the Sun by dividing them into monethly and Lunary years that of those very Solar years they bound up their years into compacted numbers which they us'd for conveniency of reckoning and a farr shorter way of account Let them alone then who ever uses such trifling diminutions and divisions to make such handfuls and heaps of years which they neither know or ever could satisfie themselves in to this day However it comes to pass it will always appear that those myriads I spoke of will alwayes much exceed in the least computation that beginning of the creation which is alwayes set down in Adam CHAP. VII Of the Egyptian Kings who were men Plato in Timaeus concerning the warriers of the Atlantick Ilands is cited The sons of this age wiser than the sons of light Of the
Divines think that this darknesse was spred over the face of all the earth Because all the Evangelists agree with one consent that they were upon the whole earth Which notwithstanding the better Interpreters have translated upon all the Land of the Jews according to the Hebrews say they which for the earth mean Palestine Nor was the miracle without a mysterie for there had been a time when dark night covered all the Land of Egypt at the command of Moses but all the Israelites had light in their dwellings Now was the day come at the death of Christ when the light of the Gospel should appear to the Gentiles and all the Land of the Jews and the Jews themselves should be o'r-cast with the darknesse of incredulity Here let us speak of the Star which appear'd to the wise men on the Nativity of our Lord which it is common and ordinary to place in heaven amongst the rest of the Stars which that it never was nor ever could be is made appear thus All other men on the earth had seen it as well as the wise men Herod had seen it among the rest being troubled at this report whom this appearance did more especially concern But Herod neither saw it nor could see it for calling the wise men privately sayes the Evangelist he enquired of them what time the star did appear Therefore it is clear it was neither a Star in heaven nor visible to all as is commonly believ'd but that Star that fire did only shine to the wise men that by the guiding of it they might arrive at Bethlehem and which those wise men did follow as a torch that they might worship the King of the Jews nor did it appear to Herod nor any of the rest Such was that fierie army sent to the help of Elisha from heaven whom the Prophet saw and yet his Servant that stood by him could not see such another miracle though different in the species of it for one man did not see those fires innumerable which Elisha saw The three wise men saw one Star which a great many men could not see It appears out of the Gospel it self that that Star was not fix'd in heaven from these words Behold a star went before them and stood above the place where the child was But if that Star had bin in heaven how could it stand above the place where the child was or how could the wise men draw a perpendicular line from the point of that Star upon the house The wiâ—e men might have discern'd to what Countrey that region of the heaven where in that Star was did answer But to know that small place that manger in which the child lay could not be done by seeing by any count or wit of man Therefore it is certain that Star or that light or fire as I may call it as it is written in the 8. of the Apocalyps It fell from heaven burning like a lamp I say it is certain that lamp from heaven which lighted the Magi was sent from heaven for their particular use after which the Magi should walk and which standing still above the place where the Child lay they should likewise stand still and adore that Jesus Christ whom they sought for Such was that cloud like a white one in the day-time and fierie in the night which no man will say was an apparition in the whole Hemisphaere for it was particularly over the Jews camp and particularly covered the holy Tabernacle They marched according to the particular motion of that cloud and stood still when it stood still as we must likewise believe the wise men did with their Star As also if that Star had been fix'd in heaven it had gon before others also who journeyed from the East to the West which is not written yea only that it went before the Magi. It would likewise have run according to the account and course of other Stars which are about the Tropick from the East to the West But who could have followed it with like swiftnesse Lastly if this Star had been placed in sight all famous Historians would have spoken of it who wrote the memorable things of their own times and ages which none did Therefore it is sufficiently prov'd that most thought not the wisest Interpreters erre who think that that Star appear'd to all men in heaven which appear'd indeed to the wise men onely onely to three men as is written They erre I say because they understand that generally of a Star which ought to be particularly understood of a light or a burning flame CHAP. IV. In the miracle of Ezechiahs sicknesse the Sunne went not back in heaven but in the Dyal of Achaz THat which I shall speak of the miracle which God did in curing Ezechiah being sick is lesse common of greater concernment as it is in the Kings Book 2. Chap. 2. The Prophet Esay being to give Ezechiah a sign that he should be whole and go into the Temple of the Lord calls upon the Lord. And God brought back the shadow by those lines that it had gone down in the Dyal of Achaz back ten degrees Which is written in Esay ch 3â— in these words Behold I will make the shadow of the lines by which it is gone down in the Dyal of Achaz to return in the Sun And the Sun returned ten lines by the degrees that it had gone down In this miracle it is received as current that the Sun went back in the heaven For the miracle which was only in the Dyal of Achaz is put in the Sun and the heaven and because the shadow is brought back in the Dyal the Sun must needs go back in Heaven nor could God make a miracle in the Dyal of Achaz but with a violent motion he must turn the whole heaven and disturb the most general frame This is to fool one with that fine sport as if one would cause remove the chimney and the fire from him that he might not be burnt rather let him goe back himself and let the fire stand still lest the house be undermined by the removing of the chimney Let the miracle be plac'd in the Dyal as is the meaning of the Scripture and then the miracle will be in its own place Nature will stand in its own frame and mens intellects will not be fool'd with vain jugglings For good God what a mistake is this that has befool'd a great many wise men that they believed that the Sun had gone back If the Sun went back either he went back in the Zodiack or that degree of the Ecliptick standing still which he was running that day the primum mobile came backward and with the primum mobile all the rest of the Sphaeres amongst which the Sun was likewise turn'd back If we say that he went back only in the Zodiack and a tenth part of the Zodiack according to the proportion he is said to have gone back in the Dyal of Achaz the Sun must
some altogether different they have wrested to some the likelihood of the names of some people now remaining or some ancient Nation by meer force and have brought all those Nations from the Sons of Noah by conceited conjectures See other fancies they say it is written in the tenth Chapter of Genesis of the Sons of Japhet From them the Isles of the Gentiles were divided according to their Countries every one according to their tongue and families in their Nations Those Isles some expound such as are scattered all the Sea over both Aegean and Mediterranean and those which the Ocean invirons Britain Ireland the Hebrides the Western Isles of Scotland Shetland and all the rest of the Islands known or unknown They will have the Sons of Noah to have been so numerous in the days of the posterity of Japhet that the whole continent of the earth not being able to contain its dwellers they spread themselves into all the Islands far and near And the Colonies being thronged one upon another they divided the land and dwelt in their own Countries as it is here written which whether or no it could come to passe in the third generation of the posterity of Iaphet let any wise man be judge There are those who by all the earth understand all the earth beyond Palestine and will have Europe in that sense particularly call'd one Island according to Hebrew authors if they conjecture that the Sons of Japhet did sail to Europe and divided those vast tracts of land which that the most famous quarter of the earth contains within the third generation of the sons of Iaphet which observe for here is the third only in the lines ascending to the sons of Iaphet Yea if they conjecture that those sons of the third generation of Iaphet did not only assign themselves Europe because Europe is call'd one Island by the Hebrews and because it is here written That the Islands of the Gentiles were divided in their Countries by the sons of Japhet according to their tongues and families how uncertain a faith do they build upon such weak conjectures especially upon the Hebrew speech which is so much famouus in its signification and so strange that it speaks almost nothing but Figures But if there be any faith in conjectures I rather believe that those Islands of the Nations were divided by the sons of Iaphet according to their tongues and families in their Nations were the Nations of the holy land which the Sons of Iaphet divided according to their tongues and families in their Nations Because the same things are there understood of the sons of Iaphet which are said afterwards of the Sons of Cham These are the sons of Cham in their kinreds tongues and generations their lands and people For it is to be thought that the sons of Iaphet setled themselves in the Countries of the holy land as the sons of Cham did For if the Sons of Cham being reprobates had their lot in the holy land which was the land of the Lord why should not we believe that the Sons of Iaphet had likewise their portion in the same land of the Lord whose father the Lord had lov'd and chosen Truly we have shew'd you that the lots of the sons of Shem and Cham fell in that land why then should only the sons of Iaphet of all the posterity of Noah be dis-inherited from the holy land which was their own or by what title could they have been call'd by their brethren being dis-inherited of that land Take serious notice of these words concerning the Sons of Iaphet By these were the Islands of the Gentiles divided according to their nations For I could easily believe that Islands and Countries are here the same And the Countries inhabited by every one of these Nations are called Islands because hedg'd in by neighbouring Nations as they call those Islands of houses which are hedg'd in by lanes round about why may we not as well say Islands of the Gentiles if we say Islands of houses its properly enough used Eusebius in his Chronicle is a great motive to perswade me that the flood of Noah was particular to the Iews where about the time of Abrahams birth he speaks thus In the three and fortieth year of which Ninus reign Abraham was born amongst the Hebrews It was there the sixteeenth power over the Egyptians which they call a dynasty At which time the Thebeans rul'd who govern'd the Egyptians in the year 190. According to the Greek Jews it was not three hundred years from the floud of Noe to the birth of Abraham How then could it come to passe that the most famous Empire of the Assyrians in the space of three hundred years could be setled and established in the space of forty three years I say the Empire of Ninus whole Original is of such an antient date that it runs back not only to fabulous but unknown times Justine rehearses those that are more antient than Ninus in his first Book Vexor who rul'd Egypt and Tanaus who rul'd Scythia by which means that Government of the Theban Kings over Egypt might be setled which at that time had been strengthned a hundred and ninety years But which is more to be wonder'd at is it credible that within three hundred years so short a time fifteen Dynasties could passe over the sixteenth be begun if we call to mind that the Kings of France have yet but three Dynasties now in the space of about two thousand two hundred years It s likewise known out of the History of Genesis which favours Eusebius very much That Abraham went to Egypt in the Dynastie of the Pharaohs which flourish'd also in the time of Joseph Abrahams great Grandchild and which flourisht four hundred years after Joseph in the time of Moses in whose times the New Pharaoh knew not Joseph whom the old one knew so well which Dynastie of Pharaohs comparable to that of the Caesars for its continuance was also famous in the dayes of Solomon For Solomon was joyn'd in affinitie to Pharaoh King of Egypt Kings 1. Chap. 3. Besides the deluge of Ogyges makes it clear that there have been particular deluges which deluge drowned all Boeotia as also that Deucalions floud which swallowed up all Thessaly and many more particular ones which Plato relates that he had heard from the Egyptian Priest in Timaeus The Chinensians boast also of their deluge The Americans of theirs Both of them according to their accompt far distant from the Floud of Noah and why should we not grant to Palestine their particular deluge Yea the Egyptians the neighbours of the Jews deny that ever Egypt was damnified by any floud They say that Nilus waters and makes fruitfull every year their Land but never overwhelm'd it iâ— a general deluge which by very strong arguments and most approv'd records taken out of their Histories the forementioned Egyptian Priest did make clear in the forementioned Timaeus It will not be