and many other such things as were able to tyre one who would rehearse them These antient Priests esteemed Man to be best compos'd of all creatures and therefore that he was called the Microcosm as participating of the creation of all things And therefore that some by Saturn become sullen others by Jove are mirthful some are red-colour'd by Sol others Iascivious by Venus some are cheaters by Mercury some imperfect by Luna Nay that some bray like Asses â—ome like Dogs others like Swine others ravenous like Lions some like Doves others like Serpents according to the various dispositions similitudes and sympathies of participation which men have been said to have with all things created But likewise the Scripture hath taught us that Spirits have profess'd the pleasures of men have been given to men to some lying spirits to some sleeping spirits to others spirits of giddiness then that there are cozening seducing and lying spirits it appears because Christ warns his disciples that they should trust no spirit yea and rebuk'd them because they knew not by what spirit they were led And it is likewise witnessed in the Gospel that the mother-in-law of St. Peter was troubled with a feverish spirit Who will wonder then that men being left by God after their creation in their own power and turn'd over to so many Spirits Gods and Lords who set them a work did appoint and worship so many several sorts of Gods under so many divers shapes of things created if he consider the almost innumerable affinities and sympathies which men are found to have with these Spirits Gods and Lords as also with all things created in heaven and in earth God abborr'd those Spirits and Gods fallen off from the uprightness and perfection of their creation to their own changeable condition with such an abomination as the most upright and best must needs hate that which is evil and wicked Therefore you shall hear these Gods in Scripture call'd wicked Spirits wickednesses spirits of error evil spirits and very evil spirits as in that 9th Chapter of the Judges God sent a very evil spirit betwixt Sichem and Abimelech call'd likewise vain and lying spirits curses deceitfull Idols abominations uncleannesses pollutions whorings dung the sleep and the anger of the Lord as is that in Samuel 1. chap. 26. The sleep of the Lord had fallen upon Saul and his people The sleep of the Lord is the same in this place with the evil spirit from the Lord in the 16 Chapter of the same Book where you shall read that the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him Such also is that Sam. 2. Chap. 24. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel which the first Book of the Chronicles speaking of the same thing expresses in these words And Satan rose up against Israel where Satan is the same with the anger of the Lord or anger from the Lord. As also the holy Scriptures are clear witnesses that those Spirits Gods and Lords by the Law of their creation which is changeable and corruptible are mortal and that they are condemned to eternal death where wicked and perverse men are called The sons of Belial Sam. 1. Chap. 2. As also Nabal a perverse man is branded with that name in the same book Chap. 25. As also the same son of Belial is called The sonne of death Sam. 2. Chap. 12. And in the same Book Cha. 23. the flouds of death are called the flouds of Belial where David says in his Song The pangs of death compast me about the flouds of Belial made me afraid In which places Belial is not only called mortal but mortality it self for being Prince of all Spirits which were his ministers both mortal and condâ—mned to a death from whence there is no resurrection Who will not believe that those Spirits are destined to eternal death since God himself hath said that at that latter judgement of all corruptible things they shall be condemned and cast with the Reprobates into eternal fire CHAP. VIII Men being misled by evil spirits fell from their right estate wherein they were created into the wickedness of their own nature Being restor'd by the Spirit of Regeneratinn who only proceeds from God they know God whom flesh and blood knows not They obtain holiness which they could not have in their first creation and recompence their natural death with a supernatural immortality THe Apostle deduces the stain of all sins which overthrew men chiefly from this Chap. 1 Epist to the Romans because they had left God the Creator and had given themselves over to those Gods Lords and unclean Spirits Hence their minds were blinded and given over to their own lusts were set on fire with wicked and unlawful desires contrary to nature and so receiv'd in themselves the rewards of their sin and thence open'd such a wide door to wickedness and filthiness that at last they fell into all manner of sin And as they preferr'd their own lust to the knowledge of God so on the contrary he gave them up to a reprobate sense that being men they should doe things not beseeming men Hence they became evil wicked fornicators avaricious given to lewdness full of envy and blood brawlers deceitfull despightfull whisperers back-biters hatefull to God contumelious proud arrogant inventers of wickedness disobedient to Parents foolish madd without affection truth or compassion Truly men being misled by those Spirits being thrust forward by the violence of their own appetite according to the affection and sympathie which they have with those Spirits I say men oprest with the weight of their own sin and drownd in sticking clay might have despaird of any salvation nor ever have pluckt out their feet for thence if God had not helped them and stretched out his powerful hands from heaven to draw theÌ„ thence But God was not of that mind as most men are who rid an unhappy person from his present calamity and are never sollicitous afterwards to advance their condition God dealt better and more freely with men first he wash'd them drawn out of the puddle with his own living waters then advanc'd them being now clean and white by his own free merit and lastly from their foul wallowings receiv'd them into the glory of heaven and made them partakers of divine knowledge sanctity and immortality which is in his most happy vision And this he did by vertue and force of that Spirit which is of God and who is God himself by a second and new creation out of his own free will largeness of his bounty abundance of his love and meer grace which therefore is call'd the gift of God and his only free grace Therfore let all those who desire to know themselves here make a stand and endeavour to be free in their thanks to God Let them tast and see how sweet the Lord is Let them remember by how great mercies beyond their desert he has
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
Therefore the Election of the Jews must be brought back to Adam the first Father and the first head of the Jews And although the Jews are properly said to be the posterity of Judah Jacob's fourth Son yet taking the denomination largely we shall call those Jews likewise who were begotten even from Adam unto Judah Therefore God elected the Jews the Posterity of Adam and Abraham because he was joynd to their Fathers Adam and Abraham that is because he formed the Jews in Adam and blessed them in Abraham The promises of this mystical Election are found from Adam unto Moses both before and after the Flood repeated often and many wayes to the Fathers of the Jews but confirmed more peculiarly to the Jews in Moses by a Covenant as Deut. 7. Where Moses speaking to the people of the Jews sayes The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people to himself of all the Nations that are upon Earth God himself called that Nation his First-born Exod. 4. Israel my first-born as also the first fruits of the Harvest of the Lord Jeremiah Chap. 2. Both upon the same account by which all the first-born and first fruits belong to God by property of Election as also because the Jews first of all received the mystery grace of election In which sense I say is to be understood Ch. 49. The Lord from the wombe hath called me as also the Kingly Prophet Psalm 22. Thou art he that took me from the wombe thou art my hope from my mothers brests Vpon thee was I cast from my mothers wombe From the wombe of my mother thou art my God God called and chose Israel from the wombe of mystical Election that is to say the Jews were his first-born natural Children by mystical Election nor did he think that they were to be esteemed as the Gentiles who were not called from the wombe nor chosen nor esteemed as his natural Children but adopted into this mystical Election by a second Election and only esteemed the Sons of adoption Hence it is that the Apostle Romans 2. ascribes first Salvation honour and glory which is Election to the Jews first then to the Greeks who are the Gentiles for the Greek in that place is the finer Gentile That the Jews had the first Election not of their own desert but of the meer grace and mercy of God from hence is apparent because that mystical Election proceeded from that eternal Election by which the Jews were chosen from eternity that is by which they were chosen before they were born when they had done neither good nor harm Not for their works as Paul says but of the meer bounty of God who call'd and chose them This eternal Election Isaiah meant Chapt. 63. Thou sayes he Lord art our Father Abraham knew us not and Israel had no knowledge of us The Prophet means That God was the Father of the Jews when their Fathers were not born at which time Abraham knew not the Jews and Israel had no knowledge of them The Lord did chuse thee because he lov'd thee Abraham and Israel are here indifferently taken Deut. 7. Not for their righteousness he chose them To which adde that place of 9 Deut. He sav'd me because he lov'd me Psal 18. He hath made us and not we our selves sung David King of the Jews Psalm 100. If you look upon the matter whereof the Jews were created you will find nothing that shall make them appear worthy of the Election For they were made up of the same flesh and bloud as the Gentiles and were temper'd with the same clay of which other men were fram'd As is the clay in the hand of the Potter so art thou O house of Israel in the hand of the Lord. The Prophet alluded to that very clay of which Adam the first Father of the Jews was made That same common and impure clay which is observable This we are taught Gen. 3. In which God is said to have cast Adam out of the Paradise of pleasure which was most choice Land that he might till the ground of which he was made Ground not choice but common unclean of which Adam and all other men were made for common and not elect and unclean are the same Act. 10. and many other places of both Testaments And for the same cause for which Adam was made of common and impure clay God is said to have found Israel in a place of horror and wast wilderness Deuteronom 32. Ezekiel likewise bears witnesse that the Jews were born unclean as other men were born unclean Chapter 16. Where God speaks to the People of Israel his Spouse and the Jews in these words Thy root and thy linage was from the land of Canaan thy Father was an Amorrhite and thy Mother a Hittite And when thou wast born thy navel was not cut and thou wast not wash'd with water to salvation nor salted with salt nor wrapp'd up in clouts No eye spar'd thee to do any of these things for thee but thou wast thrown out upon the face of the earth in the affliction of thy soul in that day wherein thou wast born Passing by thee I saw thee trampled in thy bloud And a little after I spread my garment upon thee and cover'd thy shame And I swore to thee and enter'd into a Covenant with thee saith the Lord and thou wert made mine and I wash'd thee with water and clens'd thee from thy bloud and anointed thee with oyl By which famous Text it appears that the Jews sprung from the same root and were made of the same common earth as all the Gentiles were made of For the Amorrhites and the Hittites here are taken for any manner of Gentiles as likewise the Land of Canaan for a Land not yet chosen an earth common and unclean I say God meant that the Jews being born of a Father and Mother sprung from an unelected earth were likewise themselves born unelected that they were born unclean and defil'd with the bloud of their first creation naked and cast out but by the bounty of God passing by them and pitying them they were wash'd cloath'd and receiv'd into the Covenant of mystical Election By no better signification could the love of God to the Jews have been expressed or rather that holy love by which God in his mystical election was joyn'd to the Jews than by that mystical Marriage in which God is said to have spred his garment over his Spouse the people of Israel Nor is there any other more holy or near knot than that by which two Lovers in the cement of Matrimony make such a mixture of their souls that two become one Hence these sweet Dialogues of Lovers as it were equally match'd with which Solomon has besprinkled his book of Loves where God the Bridegroom lover-like speaks to his Bride the people of Israel And where Israel his Spouse likewise enflam'd with love speaks to God her Husband with reverence and love Hence
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
it is said in the book of the warrs of the Lord. As he did in the red sea so shall he do in the brooks of Arnon But that Book of the Wars of the Lord could not be cited by Moses in which there could be mention made of those things which were done at Arnon in the very place where Moses perform'd this exploit Truly I believe that Moses made a Diarie of all those wonderfull things which God did for the people of Israel under the conduct of Moses From which collections the books of the wars of the Lord might afterwards be taken Which for that cause was neither the Original nor the Original of the Original but indeed a Copy from a Copy That which we read in the third Chapter of Dentronomy does manifest that they are written long after Moses Jair the son of Manasses possessed all the Country of Argob and it is call'd after his name Basan Hanoch Jair to this day Moses could never have said to this day For Jair scarcely had possession of his own Villages at that time when Moses is brought in so speaking And hence it manifestly appears that the author intended to shew whence according to the most antient and first original that City was call'd Jair deriving the cause from Moses to his own time and therfore as was fit call'd it Jair from that antient Jair unto this day The like we read in the same Deuteronomy in the same Chapter Only Og King of Basan was remaining of the race of the Giants His iron bed is shown which is at Rabbath of the children of Ammon For what needed Moses to have said to the Jews that his bed was shown at Rabbath of the children of Ammon that they might learn the bignesse of the Giant Why I say needed he to send the Jews to another place to see the bed of the Giant who had seen him in his own Land and overcome him and measur'd him as he lay along in the fields of Basan It is a great deal more likely to think that this Writer to gain credit to what he wrote concerning the King and Giant Ogâ— of whom he made mention spake of his iron bed as a testimony of the wonderfull spoils of that terrible Giant which were not at that time to be seen at Basan where Og lay but in Rabbath of the children of Ammon the succession of ages having changed the place We read also in the 2. of Deuteronomy The Horraeans first dwelt in Seir whom the children of Esau driving out dwelt there as Israel did in the Land of his possession which the Lord gave him In these words it is said That the Idumeans who are the Sons of Esau inhabited Mount Seir driving out the Inhabitants of those Mountains And that the Jews again inhabited this Mount Seir and gain'd Mount Seir as a possession driving out and destroying those Idumaeans Yet it is most certain that the Idumaeans according to Moses himself were not thrown out in his time as it is in Deutronomy in the same Chapter And the Lord said to me saith Moses You shall pass through the confines of your brethren the sons of Esau who dwell in Seir and they shall be afraid of you Therefore take heed you move not against them for I will not give you of their Land one foot for I have given Mount Seir in possession to Esau Therefore Idumaea was not given to the Jews in the dayes of Moses but long time after as David Prophesies Psalm 108. Over Edom will I cast out my shooe that is I will extend my possession over Idumaea For possession is taken by setting down of the foot and the shoe in this place is the foot the thing containing for that which is contained And David made also good his prophecie 1 Chro. chap. 18. where we read that David consecrated silver and gold Which he had taken from 〈◊〉 Nations Edom Moab and Ammon And befides in the same place Abishai the son of Zervia smtoe Edom in the valley of salt eighteen thousand and put a Garrison in Edom that Edom might serve David Therefore in the time of Davâ—d and not of Moses Edom became a land of possession to Israel as God had promis'd as being a lot and part of the Holy Land And hence it is gather'd that these essayes of Deutronomie were written long after Davids time a great while after Moses I need not trouble the Reader much further to prove a thing in it self sufficiently evident that the five first books of the Bible were not written by Moses as is thought Nor need any one wonder after this when he reads many things confus'd and out of order obscure deficient many things omitted and misplaced when they shall consider with themselves that they are a heap of Copie confusedly taken Those things which we read concerning Lamech Gen. 4. are defective Because I have slain a man to my hurt and a young man to my grief For there is no mention made of that young man whom Lamech slew That History which is related in the fourth book of Moses concerning the circumcision of the son of Moses is desicient and is conjectur'd to be deficient because we see clearly what it should be The The 20 Chapter of Genesis of Abrahams sojourning with Abimelech King of Gerar is misplaced For it is not likely that the King would lust after Sarah who was an old woman and with whom it left off to be according to the manner of women and who was not capable of pleasure As also Genesis 26. the same is to be thought of Rebecca Nor must we think that the King was then in love with Rebecca Jacob and Esau being thâ—n of age That which we read in the 10 of Deuteronomy is misplac'd The Children of Israel remov'd their camp from Beeroth of the sons of Jacan where Aaron dyed And in the same place He separated the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of the Covenant Though long before the death of Aaron the Levites were seperated to look to the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant according to Gods command often iterated both in Leviticus and Numbers Yea whilst Aaron himself was alive yea still after that the Tabernacle was perfected the Levites carried the Ark as often as the Children of Israel remoâ—ed their Camp And if the Reader will take pains let him but run over this tenth Chapter of Deut. and he shall find the death of Aaron preposterously inserted in that Narration having nothing there to do and nothing beâ—onging to the buâ—nesse Yea he shall find it contrary to the computation of time whilst they were talking of the delivery of the Law of Sinai long before Aarons death You shall likewise find that passage in the 18 of Exodus misplaced And Jethro came the Father-in-law of Moses and his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped by Joâ—dan For how could Jethro come to Moses hiâ— son-in-law after the going
out of the Jews together with the wife of Moses and his sons Seeing Moses himself when he went away from Jethro his Father-in-law return'd into Egypt before he went out The which that he might doe he is said expresly To have taken his wife and his sons in the same Exodus and the 4. Chapter Whoever but slightly revises those Bookes shall observe more things of this kind and many things every where in them confus'd and obscure yea contradictory to one another as cold to hot dry to moist But you who think it enough to find out answers every where You take all that pains in vain unlesse you salve it by this observation And believe that these things were diversly written being taken out of several authors CHAP. II. God made himself obscurely known to men God in a cloud Of the Bible copied out There were Writers before Moses Genesis could not mention all He wrote not the history of the first men but the first Jews The Ark was not the first of ships The Vine planted by Noe was not the first vine How Melchizedech is to be understood without father mother or original WHy God would not fully manifest himself to men Why he spoke to them so intricately and obscurely Why commanded his word to be written so intricately and obscurely let wiser men inquire And why he suffered the primitive Copies to perish of a great many things which Writers received from God himself and permitted the more obscure and difficult to arive to our age But let God be to me as much hid as he will It is nothing to me Why God did it since I know he did it I cannot pierce that cloud with my eyes wherein God dwells but know certainly that God dwells in a cloud And in the cloud I worship him I am not able by that clearnesse which I have if any such there be to enlighten those obscure things in the Scriptures which we read daily to order all those things which are consus'd and undigested to recall those things which have been slipt to restore things that are wanting or reconcile things that are contrary nor to have full knowledge of the beginning of the world by reading of them nor distinguish the order of the holy Scripture nor perfectly understand the Prophets nor perfectly know the efficacie of mysteries Whatsoever else in the holy Scriptures is omitted or defective or is contrary I know notwithstanding that the holy Spirit of God is in them For either I believe that the originals of them were dictated to holy authors or taken out and copied from the Originals And as in a cloud thicken'd by a tempest the rays of the Sun which dart through it witnesse that the Sun is there so also in those obscure and hidden clouds of the extracted Copiâ— the fiery beams of the holy Spirit which runs all along through them bewrayes that God whom those clouds hide I know likewise that in Gods corn-fields burs and thorns grow up that tares grow up amongst his seed that weeds and barren stalks arise in his harvest I know that in the Lords harvest there is a great deal of chaff mix'd with the wheat I know that the building of Christ is raised with gold silver wood stone hay and seed confusedly intermix'd And I know also that such things are built up with confus'd with and grow up with the Scriptures Yea you will say it is easie to discern the cockle from the wheat the chaff from the grain the gold from the silver the hay from the stubble But what wit so clear can we have who can distinguish the primitive copy from the second copy A copy I say so near to the original that according to your own confession he shall mock your skill in the several similitudes of phrases And yet truly it is not very hard to distinguish the true copy from the other where the author confesses out of what books he took it The difficulty is to know what are the words of the Copier and which are the real words of the Original And to speak the very truth it is impossible to know all these things Many things indeed there are that if one take good heed you shall find which are the Original which the Copy And if a hound who hunts after a wild beast where he sees most steps in the dust according to his exquisite sent discerns them and runs the track of the beast which he pursues Why also may not our reason using its own weights and measures especially being assisted by God discern things humane from divine And if Isaac the Father distinguish'd the voyce of Jacob from the hands of Esau Why may not our minds also enlightened by God distinguish the voice of God from the hands of men That force I have not nor weaknesse rather to call it to presume my self inspir'd from heaven in understanding expounding and distinguishing them So much I say that I have that divine spark of fire reason in me as another man may have and the same Spirit of Christ which informs every Christian and without which no man can be a follower of Christ Foâ— if any one have not the Spirit of Christ he is not Christs Rom. 8. Trusting in the help of that holy Spirit and mov'd by that instinct which is rather a touch of God than a knowledge I dare guesse at some things in the Bible for all men cannot perform all things And these indeed I think I have successfully found out for I have ventur'd upon nothing which I have not weigh'd in the scale of Reason and Faith That the same fate which swept away abundance of prophane authors hath likewise consum'd most of the Original copies of the Bible I am very certainly perswaded I do not doubt but Moses set down very accurately the Jews going out of Egypt God's Law deliver'd in Sinai the Ceremonies prescrib'd in that Law as also the History of Four hundred years in which the Jews wander'd in the desert as also that memorable mysterie of Deuteronomy I also believe that the incomparable Prophet according to his high knowledge of the Jewish affairs wrote the Chronicle of the Jews from the first original of them and from Adam the first author of that people till his own times as also the original of all things before Adam And that he learn'd those things and the antient monuments of the Jews and the first creation out of antient Writers and by Gods instruction For although we know no Writer more antient than Moses yet who dares deny that their are Writers more antient Yea it appears clearly that there were Writers before him because he has written the Historie of his own Nation before and after the Floud for two thousand and five hundred years Which according to the nature of things and their tenor and order which is also to be observ'd without all inconâ—enience it is thought either from bookes in his owne time extant or from ancient traditions