humane science mens actions and inventions Solon who was the wisest thought and the learnedst man of his age and whose times are just betwixt ours and Adams and whom we think not very far distant from us and who told as is credible to the Egyptian the History of many thousand years could he have been ignorant of the beginning of the world if it had been from Adam from whom to Solons time were not as yet passed three thousand years Would not he have confuted those tales and fables of the Egyptian with such a pregnant argument for telling him stories which transcended his record ten thousand years Beside shall we think those Egyptians chronicled for Wise men by St. Stephen himself to have been so unskilfull as not to know the beginning of the world which had been so lately or so much Sycophants as to relate those things for truths which they knew to be lies if they had either known or supected any thing concerning such a beginning What shall I say more of so many famous Philosophers excellent in learning who flock'd to those Priests that they might learn the Egyptian customs knowledg with such a general opinion of the Egyptian learning and prudence Do we think that those Philosophers were such blockheads that they would not have found themselves grosly gull'd and abus'd in Histories of so many thousand years ago if they had but smelled or had the least hint that the world was so lately made and only from the time of Adam To these adde what is reported of the Scythians alwayes reputed most antient as also that contention which continued long betwixt the Scythians and Egyptians As likewise that which is spoken of the antient descent of the Phaenicians The French imagin'd their own beginnings so obscure that they were said to be begotten by the Night or by Pluto which is the same For that reason they defin'd the space of any time not by the number of dayes but nights and observ'd the birth-dayes the beginnings of yeares and moneths ' so that the day followed alwayes the night which Caesar diligently observ'd of them The account likewise of the Americans concerning the original of the world runs backward a great many ages Scaliger thought the time from which the Chinensians reckon'd most prodigious According to which sayes he this year of Christ 1594. in which he wrote his Book De emendatione temporum is since the creation according to their account eight hundred eightscore thousand and seventy three And no doubt we should find a great many such accounts in the Southern parts if they were but known to us For in those thousands of ages there is a general Harmonie of those new found Nations with the Chaldaeans Egyptians Phoenicians and French CHAP. VIII The most antient creation of the World is prov'd from the progresse of Astronomy Theology and Magick of the Gentiles In this Chapter the fabrick of the Sphaere is handled IT is certain that those Sciences of the Chaldaeans that is to say Astronomy which observ'd the motion of the stars Astrology which observ'd their Periods and Magick which found out the harmony of things celestial with terrestrial flourish'd in the time of Abraham Yea Abraham made exceeding skilfull in all these arts by his own Nation is said to have taught them to the Egyptians when he sojourn'd amongst them Besides Moses is said to have been learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians Acts 7. But the Egyptians wisdom was the same with the Chaldaeans for it consisted chiefly in Astronomy Astrology and Magick It will be worth while here to consider whether or no it was profitable for the Chaldeans to gain that exact knowledge of those sciences which they had in the time of Abraham in that space which was betwixt the creation of Adam and Abraham and which Scaliger according to the Jewish Greeks reckoned to be a thousand nine hundred and eight years And whether or no the Egyptians could perfectly learn those sciences as they had them in Moses time in that thousand years space which is reckoned from Adam to Moses his writing of Exodus and which according to the former Authors is two thousand four hundred and fifty three years They which have the least knowledge in Astronomy not to speak of those that are perfectly skill'd in it could no otherwise have been found out but by knowledge of the earth For the first men by several experiments observ'd that the Inhabitants of the earth in diverse places did inhabite some cold some hot climates and according to their several dwellings that they had diversities in their nights days and seasons and that the shadows fell contrary to one as to the other Nor were these observations made slightly or by chance but by long and reiterated journeys by many and wise searchers of these truths Which after long and grounded experience when they found to be certain and indubitable from the earth turning towards heaven they enquir'd from the Sun the causes of all these vanities and changes of dayes and nights Summers and Winters They observ'd that the Sun went out and return'd to the Aequator as they call'd it being confin'd in his course by two circles on both sides call'd the Tropicks through a circle which they call'd the Zodiack which touches the two Tropicks but cuts though obliquely the Aequator And that those Countries which the Sun look'd upon betwixt the Tropicks his rayes were upon them directly but his beams more distant from the other the more distant they were from the Tropicks and nigher to the Poles of heaven Then were the five Zones found out and distinguished The Torrid Zone which was under the scorching Sun betwixt the Tropicks two temperate ones which being plac'd betwixt the Tropicks and the Poles enjoy'd a meeker heat The two cold ones which from the Polar circles environing the Pole it self were always benumm'd with ice and cold There were imagined also two Colures one of the Solstices another of the Aequinoxes the two props of the Sphaere To these the Meridian was added which standing still when the rest moved might be assign'd to move and every motion might have his own Meridian The Sphaere being thus invented and fram'd and according to his position fitted to the Horizon they observed a three-fold Sphaere a direct an oblique and Parallel In the direct Sphaere they plac'd those that inhabited betwixt the Aequator In the Parallel those which were under both Poles In oblique those which liv'd in places betwixt the Aequator and either of the Poles To those that inhabited the direct Sphaere they observ'd that all the Stars did rise and set But to those that inhabited the oblique Sphaere some did rise and set others never did arise but remain'd perpetually under the Horizon that some did never set but were continually upon the brink of the Horizon That in the Parallel Sphaere none ever did arise or set but part of them were alwayes above the Horizon and part
that is the name thereof Here I imagine two things first because it is said that he might see what Adam would call them that he might see denotes that Adam made use of his reason in the proper and determinate Names which he gave to all the living creatures and fowls And hence I gather That Adam being now of ripe age was taught the natural history of all Creatures and Fowls As is known of Moses whom we read to have been by the care of Pharaohs daughter bred in all the wisdom of the Egyptians As also Rabbi Moses Ben-Maymon makes mention of the books of his Predecessors which make relation of Adam's Master whose name say they was Somboscer And although I give little credit to the Fables of the Rabbins yet there is nothing so fabulous but has a tast of an ancient truth Then it is written all which Adam called any living thing that is the name of it Hence I guess that at what time Adam did conceive the nature of all creatures and fowls he at the same time set them down in writing and made a book of all their names for how could it come to passe that every thing which Adam called any thing should be the name of it unlesse Adam at the same time when he nam'd them had then composed a Dictionary of them for the use of posterity least Adam himself should have forgotten all those living creatures and fowls which he was never afterwards to see For all Lands and Countries are not stored with all manner of Cattel and Fowls Adam call'd by their names all creatures and all Fowls and all Beasts of the earth But for Adam sayes Genesis was not found a helper like to himself It would be absurd to think that a helper was sought for Adam amongst the Beasts of the earth and the Fowls of heaven For what similitude or relation has a man with a four-footed Beast or a Bird But here you must observe that the Gentiles and those men of the first creation are here numbred amongst the rest of the living creatures as you shall finde them without distinction called with the rest of the beasts The People that treads the earth Isa 42. Yea that they were called Beasts by the Jews and so esteem'd as is prov'd before This then is the meaning of Genesis That Adam did not find a helper amongst the Females of those creatures that is the Gentiles For Adam such an excellent man who was Isch an excellent wife must be chosen who should be Ischa and not an ordinary and Gentile-woman Therefore a wife was fram'd for Adam But as a house does not arise from the bottom nor is perfected so soon as in one day to be inhabited so doe I believe that Eve was not made so perfect in that very day wherein she was taken out of the side of Adam that she was marriageable Besides Eve was a mystical figure of the Church of Christ for that same reason as we laid before Adam was a type of Christ Yea and that is most certain that the marriage of Adam and Eve was a Sacrament and mystery signifying that unanimous conjunction by which God adheres to his Church Again we understand that the Church the spouse of Christ was built thus Mat. 16. as we find Eve built in this Chapter of Genesis where God speaks to his Church in these words I multiplyed thee as the herb of the field Thou wast multiplyed and made great and thou enter'dst in and came to have womens attire Thy brests swell'd and thy hair sprouted and behold thy time a time of lovers I guesse that Eve the wife of Adam grew from her infancle to ripe age by little and little as a house grows as trees grow which are call'd the sprouts of the field from twigs to large branches so as we read in this place the Church did which was the Spouse of Christ The Lord brought Eve to Adam I guesse that Eve being now of age and ready for a man was brought to Adam at that same time when Adam was of ripe age about the three and thirtieth year of his age so as Adam may be thought to have sinned in the same year of his age as Christ dyed for the sinne of Adam Which things if they be so what difference was there betwixt the forming of Adam and building of Eve which are rehearsed in the second Chapter of Genesis and the creation of man whom God created male and female upon the sixth day of the creation which is made mention of Chapter 1. of the said Moses CHAP. IV. Cain a tiller of the ground Abel a shepherd and a keeper of sheep Cain having kill'd his brother Abel is afraid Flies the punishment of fratricide Flies like all guilty men to the East of Eden Marries a wife begets a son and in the same East of Eden builds a City Adam is said to have begotten sons and daughters from the birth of Seth to the death of Adam himself It is not written that he begat either sons or daughters from the death of Abel to the birth of Seth. WIthout doubt it is so That except the framing of Adam who was made of the dust of the earth and except the building of Eve which was taken out of the side of Adam it is probable in all other things that they grew and liu'd as other men who were created long before yea after the same manner as we know that Christ the Antitype of Adam conceiv'd after a more wonderfull manner did live and grow Which that by the History of Genesis it may be more clear let us go on After Adam had sinned he was afraid because he was naked And God made coats of skins for Adam and his wife and cloth'd them with the skins of cattel which had been kill'd With which it is probable men in those dayes did use to cloath themselves but who from thence will not guesse that there were in those dayes Curriers Shoo-makers and Skinners Adam knew his wise Eve and she conceived and bare Cain her first-born then Abel her younger son And Adam divided his substance among his children being men of age as men do who are under the verge of the Civil Law He gave his lands to till to Cain and his sheep to keep to Abel Therefore there was at that time a Meum and Tuum as there is and has been alwayes in all societies well ordered Cain had his Patrimony and his grounds to till Abel had his own goods his sheep to keep Such division being made betwixt them as uses to be made by all good Masters of Families Cain was a Husbandman Abel a keeper of sheep He that speaks of tilling presupposes a great mony other arts and he that speaks of a husbandman pre-supposes a great many other artificers But if there was no artificer in those dayes beside Cain certainly Cain was a very busy-body Therefore he digg'd Iron-Mines made Fornaces made his Hammers and his Anvile and
to the particular Lords of time and that these particular Lords who receiv'd it of their general distributed them likewise to their followers so that every star had its lordship of time in order That also those general Lords had special ones in their bosoms yearly monthly daily hourly in the accounting of which and placing them in order it cannot be set down how diligent the antient Astrologers have been especially in the giving and receiving of time which the stars substitute to another did borrow from one another They observ'd that stars did alter and change from good to evil and that one Lord of time did not confer good or evil but many and when good or bad at one time happen'd to one man these contrarieties could not have been foreseen from one Lord but many For as the aspects of the stars their courses circulations and meetings were mix'd so were mens actions and fortunes mix'd upon earth Several things besides were observ'd of this kind which are common with the Masters of this Science And a great many more things which by the antiquity and malice of time are bereft us and lost with the books of the Chaldaeans and Egyptians Of which if they were extant we would perhaps see what Psellus hath written of the Books of Teucer of Babylon Whosoever sayes he reads them shall find many things in them wonderful of the Celestial signs and Decans which arise with them which have influence on several actions and events I confesse that all these things and all matters of Nativity consisted of wandring and arbitrary principles but being various and so often reiterated for that very same reason were to be found out by observation and experiment And for that cause must needs have been a perfecting through a great many ages For which canse the antient tradition of them was in such repute amongst the antients that it had Patrons both Gods Heroes and men Mercurius Aesculapius Anubius Petosiris Necepson Orpheus and a great many more who have written Aphorisms concerning the determinations of the stars and who have thought that something which wee think idle stories and have added weight to this smoke Which things so often as I consider with my self I wonder no longer at so many Thousand years which Cicero sayes the Chaldaeans set down in trying of Children according to their Nativities Hence that scrupulous care amongst the ancient Casters of Nativities in finding out the partile Horoscope in distributing the lordships of time among the stars in searching out the Climactericals Most of which to this age unknown the singular and excellent Salmasius hath wonderfull exactly and learnedly laid open according to his hidden learning in all sciences in which he is excellent CHAP. XI Of the antiquity of the Divinity and Magick of the Gentiles THat the Divinitie of the Gentiles was an addition to that most ancient and first Astrologie none can deny For the first men strayed a great while upon earth before they turn'd towards heaven and gaind from the dimensions of the earth the dimensions of heaven Astronomers who succeeded them stray'd long in heaven in finding out the courses of the stars Astrologers who followed them look'd long down upon the earth to find out by diligent consideration what power the stars had upon earth The Divines who were the Disciples of the Astrologers turn'd their eyes back again upon heaven and when they saw those celestial fires as it were pierce our inferiour bodies with their rayes for which cause the Bible calls them the host of heaven they thought them to be Gods omnipotent to whom all things did give obedience and turn'd all things towards themselves and so gave them names either from the power they exercised upon earthly things or from some peculiar effect that they had in mens destinies They attributed to the world its God or genius whom before I did shew at large to have been the Prince of the inferiour Gods and a spirit of the first creation They call'd him Pan and gave to him a whistle of seven reeds at the sound of which all the rest of the Satires and Pans did dance signifying that that universal spirit and God did move and moderate all the rest by the harmony and consent of the seven Plants Afterwards they assign'd to particular places towns peoples houses their own Genius All which because they are tedious and known to most I passe But likewise because most men did referr the beginnings and causes of things not only to stars but to supercelestial intelligences and to the author of the world many things were spoken of gods and their degrees which contentions Mercury of Egypt to compose call'd by them Trismegistus and esteem'd a God perform'd a wonderfull thing as Firmicus relates Mercury of Egypt says he wrote twenty thousand volumes of divers substances and beginnings of degrees of celestial powers which were diversly related In which the Astrologie and Divinity of the Egyptians was explained Which arts he had taught Aesculapius and Anubius The which that it may be confirm'd by good authority Iamblichus relates this of those bookes in his Mercurials Mercury says he made twenty thousand books as Meneteus says yea thirty thousand threescore thousand five hundred and twenty five books He wrote a hundred books of the Empyrean Gods as many of the ethereal a thousand of the selestial Hence we may guesse how exceeding antient the Theologie of the Gentiles was both by the Antiquitie of Mercury himself as also from the first authors of the Theologie of the Gentiles who long before Mercury could not agree concerning their own Gods Hence it is also manifest that the Theologie of the Gentils flow'd frō the knowledg of the stars because whatsoever fables the Gentils did invent concerning their own Gods were understood of the influences of the Planets their aspects and conjunctions Therefore they feign'd that Saturn was harsh and cruel because the appearance of that star in heaven was malignant and hurtfull That Jove was given to love because his star was bountifull and exhilarated mens hearts That Mars being fierce and bloodie was mollified by the intervening of Venus That their conjunction was hinder'd by the Sun And the rest which in relating I should be troublesom Besides the Theologie of the Gentiles begot their Magick and those which were the Priests of their Gods were also their Magicians The Antients thorght there were hidden vertues in all things terrestrial either by a divine ray or a vertue so disposing them or infus'd by intelligences by ways of mediate or impress'd in them in the creation by primitive copies That likewise all things terrestrial were in heaven in a celestial and pure form in the intelligences more simply and intellectually in the primitive copies purely and in manner of Idea's And that all things by divine attraction and symbolical love were reciprocable and by mutual breathings fed one upon another That things celestial and supercelestial by their influxions did draw things
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
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
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
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
terrestrial towards them That things terrestrial likewise by their appetites drew down things celestial to them And for this reason that there was no growing thing in the earth but had its proper star by whose spirit it possesseth both life and strength and those faculties with which it was indued Not to speak of stones metals precious stones trees beasts and men to whom they likewise appointed their own stars Therefore with such efficacious things they were thought to work wonders preparing them according to the Moon Star or the Aspect For as the vertue operative from things occult produced things manifest so these Magicians by the help of things manifest seem'd to produce hidden effects by the influxion of stars and things natural sympathizing with the celestial And imagin'd that the celestial influxions mix'd with the power of things natural produc'd effects admirable here on earth though the causes of them were in heaven Hence it is that they relate that the shapes of stars and gods have by enchantments been call'd down and the Gods themselves forc'd by their charms by sacrifice consecrations incense invocations and imprecatious Those forms of gods and stars they call'd persons and presences such as the Decans were For Decan according to the Chaldee and Persian as the same Salmasius relates was a presence or appearance These presences or appearances somtimes were prosperous somâ—times unfortunate The direful shapes and Gods that ruin'd Troy Present themselves In sacrificing they appear'd either hostile or friendly For the depulsion of hostile appearances the Purple tyre of the head was appointed amongst the Romans as Trojan Helenus ordain'd A Eneas Aeneid 3. With purple vail thy sight and head attire Least at the sacrifice and holy fire Some direfull interrupting shape thou see Which after must a solemn custom be To thee thy friends and thy posterity From those inchantments all witchcrafts and Philtres took their beginnings by which men were either bewitched to love or hatred or made well or ill To this adde the impressions either of good or bad virtues in those Images which they call Talismanical by characters adjuration lights sounds numbers words and names For they thought that Nature express'd hidden effects in like shapes as it were by sympathie and that the Gods express'd the truth of Ideas by manifest Images As also the antient Priests of several things composing one thing liken'd it to that one thing which is above many things The separation of which composition would weaken every one of the materials but the mixtion of them by exemplary force restore the Idea They relate that the Decans in those Talismanical figures were used to be painted one with an ax another with a dart another with a head of a man or woman with rayes about it and that the images of them were graven upon the stones of rings for charms And that they thought there was a great deal of force in those Talismans if they had consecrations graven in them in the Chaldee or Egyptian tongue those being the tongues of antient Nations What shall I speak of those Magical words breath'd upon things enchanted which fitted them for the susception of any vertue the Magician pleased besides the ordinary custom and that being spoke backward would cause unusual effects Is it not ordinary that by the force of Magick it has thundred without the knowledge of Jupiter rivers turn'd back the Seas staid the Sun stopt the Moon clear'd the stars pull'd down the jaws of Vipers broken and the heads of Asps by charms split in pieces What shall I speak of the River of Hell turn'd back Ghosts call'd up mens shapes chang'd the course of nature interrupted and the whole world astonished Besides there were several ways of Prognostication by Astrological and Magical inventions by Physiognomic by Metoposcopic by Chiromancie Geomancie Hydromancie Aeromancie Pyromancie by sacrifice thunder lightning by dreams by apparitions after long waking by surie and madnesse after watching in all which things there were predictions of future things It is not my desire that all these things which I have declar'd should be believ'd But that it may appear that the least part of Magick and Divination had its arts found out by manifold observation and long experience and those not frivolous and vain but of such weight and moment that they were next to miracles Such as were to turn rods into Serpents to change the waters of the river into bloud and to bring up Frogs Which were not meerly the cosenage of the Devil but the mighty and wonderful power of Magick Which Magick St. Stephen in the 7th of the Acts calls Wisdom and which Moses was chiefly skill'd in according to the Hebrew Writers themselves and not only in that but all the wâ—sdom of the Egyptians as sayes the holy Martyr in that place in Astronomy Astrology and the Sphare whence Magick had its original But if the Egyptians were so skilfull in Magick according to the Scripture as also the Chaldaeans who in this did contend with them How skillful must we think them in Astrology Astronomy and the Sphaere Yea if they were skillful in many things of Magick in this age unknown Why should not we think they knew many things in Astrology Astronomy and the Sphere which we know not And if they knew more in those disciplines Why should not wee think that they bestowed more time in the learning of them To these let there be added many other Arts and Sciences depending and adherent to these which whosoever knows must be thought to have learn'd the other And let us seriously consider whether or no which we undertook to demonstrate the Chaldaeans and Egyptians could learn all those Sciences which is betwixt Adam and Abraham the Chaldaean or Moses the Egyptian Certainly if we doe this freely and with clear intentions there is none but will think this time exceeding narrow to have found out the most trivial experiments of Sciences not to speak of the highest such as were Astronomy Astrologie and Magick curiously observ'd weigh'd and demonstrated The Fourth Book of this SYSTEME OF DIVINITY CHAP. I. Adam though fram'd perfect could not that hour he was made understand the Sphere Astronomy and A strology But in progress of time might gain the knowledge of them Of holy Writ Many things copied not original TO salve these doubts a miracle steps out of the Engine They that say the world was created with Adam say That Adam the first hour he was made had all sciences arts and disciplines perfectly which afterwards without any trouble or experiment nor no long processe of time he taught his posterity Let those famous persons pardon me if I tell them that they doe not seriously consider what they say Adam as we said before being made perfect had in him all perfections belonging to a man but notwithstanding gain'd nothing by that perfection which might exceed that perfection and his own humanity But Adam had exceeded the perfection of all humanitie
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
deriv'd to his own time We know certainly That the Phoenicians had the use of Letters long before Moses and that the Phoenicians spake the same language as the Hebrews did A clear proof of which Samuel Petit hath given us in his Miscellanea and the famous Bouchard in his Phaleg But if the Phoenicians learn'd to speak from the Hebrews Why should not we think they learn'd likewise to write from them Therefore the Hebrews wrote before Moses But what should the Hebrews rather write than their own historie and what hinders us to believe that Moses receiv'd the Jewish Chronicle from them which he wâ—ot Truly I think that Moses whose end it was to write chiefly his own History and the History of the times wherin he liv'd wrote very briefly all the things which were before his own time especially such things as concern'd the first creation And those which were the gatherers of Copies touch'd a great deal more briefly the heads of the Jews and the universal creation And hence I think it has come to passe that the creation of the world is ended in one in the first Chapter of Genesis and that afterward the framing of Adam and building of Eve are a little more particularly set down and that after all that time which was betwixt Cam and Noah is run over in the 4. and 5. Chap. Let any reasonable man judge whether or no in those 4 and 5 Chapters which are very short and full of Genealogies all could be comprehended which was acted or invented upon the face of the earth for a thousand six hundred yeares and more And whether in any reason we can deny such things as without violation of Mysteries of Faith by natural and right demonstrations can be made appear only for this cause because these two short Chapters make no mention of them Thus I seriously considering and diligently weighing all those things which I at large have spoken concerning those most antient times both out of prophane and sacred history as also which I shall speak hereafter of that Eternal age since which the world is said to have been framed by the Prophets and Apostles I doubted not to recall the creation of the first men to the beginnings of things long before Adams time Nor does it trouble me that Genesis makes â—o mention of those men Yea I thought it enough that it had not expreâ—ly denyed such men Yet although Genesis have so briefly nothing more brief gone over the originals of things yet we may gather from the same book that the creation of the first men was far different which is hinted at in the first Chapter from the fashioning of Adam the first father of the Jews which is more largely set down in the second Chapter They argue ordinarily We hear no men named before Adam in Genesis Therefore there were none before Adam And yet we deny that that there was no men before Adam because there are none nam'd in Genes's For it is well known that all things are nor â—et down in Genesis nor that all things must be denyed which Genesis mentions not whose intention it was not to write the History of the first men but of the first Jews only On the same account they affirm that the Ark of Noah was the first of all ships because we read of never another in Genesis As if Adam who according to their supposition was taught all arts at his making should have been ignorant of Navigation the most excellent of all arts and most necessarie for the societie of men They also tell us the same story of Noahs planâ—ing the first Vine because Moses tells us of no Vine planted before it as if the earth when it it was created in the youth of the world had not brought forth any Vines the giver of mirth and restorer of youth Adam being an excellent Husbandman should have neglected the planting of Vines the sweetest part of agriculture and abandon'd wine which according to the Scripture glads God and man But they talk of a Man-monster not of a man who think that Melchisedech was really without Father or Mother or without Original neither having any beginning of dayes nor end of life only for that reason because Moses in no place makes mention either of the Parents birth or death of Melchisedech They doe not mind that which Iohn Cameron a most learned and acute Divine has observ'd That these things were by Moses mystically pass'd over and mystically observ'd by Moses to shew that the Priesthood of Melchisedech was eternal according to the Priesthood of Christ not temporal like the Legal and Mosaical Priesthood which beginning from Fathers begat sonnes in the same order and taking its rise from Moses ended in Christ But Melchisedech's Priesthood neither came from the Fathers of it which were Priests nor was deriv'd upon the Sons which were Priests but such a one it was as had no known beginning and was like to have no known ending Reason and Faith perswade us to understand these things so least the mysterie of silence should pervert the order of nature according to which Melchisedech who had both Father and Mother might naturally beget children and naturally have an original and an end But say they Genesis does not set these things down so Nay these things are not against Genesis these agree with Faith and Reason And these things show that Genesis wrote mysteries not monstrous things Therefore these things are so because so to be understood And with like negligence they believe that there was no men before Adam because there is none before him read of in Moses Nor is it taken notice of that the design of Moses in setting down Adam was not to mention the first of mankinde but the Father of the Jews whose peculiar Historie he wrote and not the History of all Nations Truly the beginning of the Jews in Moses and in Josephus both is with Adam After that Moses has told us the beginning of men and of the Gentiles in the first Chapter with the beginning of the world and has set down the Gentiles different in stock and original from the Jews The Gentiles I say the births of divine creation from the beginning and the Jews the sons of divine architecture in Adam CHAP. III. Men erre as often as they understand any thing more generally which ought to be more particularly taken The darkness at the death of our Saviour was over the whole Land of the Jews not over all the world The Star which appear'd to the Wise men was a stream of light in the ayr not a star in heaven THere is great errour in reading the Scripture many times when that is taken more more generally which ought to be particularly understood as that of Adam whom Moses made first Father of the Jews and whom we hyberbolically call the first Father of all men That which is believ'd of the darknesse in the death of our Saviour is of the same strain For the
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