are very curious Particulars There is the Life of famous M rc Antony de Dominis Arch-Bishop of Spalatro included in a Letter written from Rome The Author had already published it in the Third Part of his Brittanica Politica It is a very curious Piece wherein is seen how this Prelate imbraced the Protestant Religion and how being deluded by the Promises of Dom Diego Sarmianto de Acuna Ambassador of France in England and by that of the Court of Rome he returned into Italy where he unhappily ended his Days without obtaining any thing of what he hoped There also is a Letter of Pope Gregory XV. to the Prince of Wales who was since Charles I. Upon his Marriage with the Infanta of Spain and an Answer of this Prince to the Pope The Fifth Book contains the Reign of the same Prince where his Innocence may be seen and the unheard of Violence of his Subjects described without partiality and all the Proceedings which were made against him The last Volume is composed of Six Books The first contains the History of Cromwell's Usurpation more exact and sincere that it had been heretofore Hitherto have been but Satyrs or Panegyricks thereupon The Creatures of Cromwell have raised him up to the Clouds and his Enemies have omitted nothing that might defame him The Author pretends that he hath been the greatest Politician and the greatest Captain of his time and that he was much more able to Reign than several of those whom Providence hath plac'd upon the Throne by Inheritance But he sheweth on the other side That he was a Cheat and a Tyrant who after having dipped his hand in the Innocent Blood of his Master all his Life cheated the People by a specious Zeal for Religion The Second Book contains the History of Charles the II. until his Restauration In this Book are seen the Honours which were rendred to him in Holland his Magnificent Entry into London his Clemency to those who had bore Arms against him and his Justice towards the Murderers of his Father The same History is continued in the Third Book from the Year M. DC LXI unto the Year M. DC LXXX There is also the Life of the Duke of York until his Marriage with Chancellour Clarendon's Daughter the Quarrel which happened between the Ambassadours of France and Spain about Precedency The subtilty wherewith the Spanish Ambassador carried it the Marriage of the Princess Henrietta and that of the King the War of England with Holland and with France the Peace that was made afterwards with both the others which was followed with a secret Treaty betwixt England France appeared in M. DC Lxxii the Marriage of the Duke of York with the Princess of Modena the Calling Prorogation and dissolving different Parliaments In fine the Discovery which Oates and Bedlow made of a Conspiracy which made so great noise and whereof this Author appears not very much persuaded We find in the fourth Book the sequel of the same Troubles and the History of what passed in the Parliaments convocated in M. DC.LXXX at London and Oxford There is particularly in this Book one thing of very great importance which the Author relates with as much sincerity as if none was interessed therein Which are 1. The Endeavours the Parliament of England made to exclude the Duke of York from the Crown 2. The Reasons which were alledged for this 3. The manner wherewith the Creatures of this Prince defended his Rights The Author endeth this Book by the Description of Pensilvania without omitting either the Offers which are made to those who will go to inhabit it or the manner they may be established in it The fifth Book begins with the Encomium of the House of Savoy and tells us afterwards with a very great exactness the means which Madam c. made use of in M. DC LXXX and M.DC.LXXXII to obtain of his British Majesty that the Ambassadours of Savoy shou'd be received in London like those of Crowned Heads It is one of the finest places of the whole Work and they who love to read the particulars of a Negotiation cannot read a more curious one nor one better related than this The last contains the Affair of Count Koningsmarc with all its Circumstances which is a very good History and whence the manner may be Learned after what Strangers are judged in England Here it is that the Work endeth The Author promiseth us in his Preface another Volume where all will appear which hath happen'd in England till these latter Years The Style of this History as well as the other Works of Mr. Leti is easy and without Affectation contrary to the custom of most Italian Writers But what is most considerable is that he relateâ— Matters so nakedly and speaks so freely of the Interests of the greatest Princes of Europe that perhaps one day persons will not be easily persuaded that the Author had caused this Work to be printed during his Life and the life of those of whom he speaks if at the beginning the Year had not been marked wherein it was printed Mr. Leti hath since written a Book which treats of all that concerneth Embassies There may not only be seen the modern use of all Courts in this respect but the ancient also so that it will be a History of great concern The Author is not contented to speak of the Duties and Priviledges of all the Ministers which one Soveraign sends to another but of each according to the Degree of his Character he speaks largely also on the Origine of this Function and upon all the Principalities which are formed in the World He relates several Examples of Ambassadours who have committed gross Mistakes and gives Instructions how to manage worthily this Post according to the different Courts wherein they are oblig'd to reside Men will easily believe that a Work which treats of things of this nature and of so great a number of others is worthy of Publication An Examination of the Infallibility and Right which the Roman Church pretends to have in Judging Absolutely in Matters of Controversie 8 vo 1687. 255. WHilst the Romish Church makes use of all the Power of Soveraigns to re-unite to its Communion those who have quitted it Protestants oppose these progresses by coâ—ntaining their Cause with the soundest Reasons which they can think upon Though they differ amongst themselves about several Speculative Doctrines they perfectly agree upon Morality and the Worship which we owe to the Divinity they also in general are of one Mind in those Principles of Religion which they admit in respect to Holy Writ and have all an extream aversion for that Church which pretends to be a Judge in its own Cause and which without delay forceth those it calls Hereticks to a Worship which is against their Consciences Amongst the Protestant Societies there is none who hath declared it self more openly against Human Authority in matter of Religion and against the Constraining and Spirit of
said also that Usher was a Bishop that he had made because that he had appointed him so without being sollicited to it by any person this Election was made in 1620. Returning into Ireland sometime after he was oblig'd to discourse some persons of Quality of the Roman Religion to administer to 'em the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy that they had refused to the Priest this discourse is inserted in his Life he remarks the form of this Oath is compos'd of two parts the one positive in which they acknowledge the King is Soveraign in all cases whatsoever and the other negative in which they declare they acknowledge no Jurisdiction or Authority of any strange Prince in the estates of the King he says afterwards in regard of the first part that the Scripture commands that we submit our selves to the Higher Powers and that we ought to acknowledge that the power the Kings have whatsoever it may be is Supream as they are Kings upon which he cites this verse of Martial Qui Rex est Regem maxime non habeat That one ought well to distinguish the power of the Keys from that of the Sword and the King of England does not exact an acknowledgment of the same power that is possess'd by the Bishops but nevertheless the Kings may interest themselves with Ecclesiastical Affairs in as much as it regards the body since according to the Church of Rome 't is the Magistrates duty to punish Hereticks For that which regards the second part of the Oath where it 's said that we shall not own any strange power as having any Iurisdiction Superiority Preheminence Ecclesiastical or Temporal in the Kingdom He says that if St. Peter were still alive he would willingly own that the King had this Authority in Ireland and that he us'd the same in regard of all the Apostles that the Apostleship was a personal dignity which the Apostles have not left hereditary to any but nevertheless suppose it was so he sees not why St. Peter should leave it to his successors rather than St. Iohn who outliv'd all the Apostles that there was no reason to believe that St. Peter shou'd leave the Apostolical Authority to the Bishops of Rome rather than to those of Antioch this last Church being founded before the first The King writ to Vsher to thank him for this Discourse which produced so good effect He afterwards went into England by the King's order to collect the Antiquities of the Churches of England Scotland and Ireland and publish'd two years after that his Book intituled De Primordiis Ecclesiarum Britannicarum 'T was in that time that the King made him Arch-Bishop of Armagh The Winter following he caused to be brought before him the Order for Toleration of the Roman Catholicks and the Lord Falkland then Deputy for the King in Ireland convocated and assembled the whole Nation to settle this Affair But the Bishops call'd by the Primate oppos'd it with much heat as may be seen by a Remonstrance sign'd by ten Bishops besides the Primate and which is in the 28th page They also spoke of raising some Forces by the Joynt consent both of Catholicks and Protestants to hinder any differences that might arise in the Kingdom the Protestants refus'd to consent thereto and wou'd not hearken to discourse the Primate thereupon in the Castle of Dublin altho' his reasonings were founded upon the principal Maxims of the Government of Ireland and maintain'd by Examples drawn from the Antient and Modern Histories of that Kingdom During the time our Primate stayed in Ireland after he had performed the Duties of his Charge which he acquitted with extraordinary care he employed the remaining part of his time to study the fruits whereof were to be seen in 1631. in the first Latin book which he ever published in Ireland 't is his History of Godescalch Monk of the Abby of Orbais who lived in the beginning of the 6th Age there was soon made a small abridgment of the History of Pelagianism which was then extreamly dispersed through Spain and England when he comes to the History of Godescalch he explains his Doctrine and shews by Flodoard and other Authors of that time that those sentiments whereof Hincmar Archbishop of Rhemes and Rabanus Archbishop of Maynce accused him and which were condemn'd by their Authority in two Councils were the same that St. Remigius Archbishop of Lyons and the Clergy of his Diocess defended openly many opinions and odious consequences according to Vsher were fathered upon Godescalch because that this Monk who maintained the opinions of St Augustine about Predestination and Grace did not at all understand ' em Ioannes Scotus Erygenus wrote a treatise against him in which are to be found the principal heads of Vsher but Florus Deacon of the Church of Lions answers it and censures him in the Name of all the Diocess Vsher gave an abridgment of this Censure as also of divers other treatises as that of St Remigius Pudentius Bishop of Troy Ratramus Monk of Corbi who writ against Scotus for his defence of Godescalch there had been two Councils which established the doctrine of this Monk and condemn'd that of Scotus 'T is true that Hincmar published a very large Book against these Councils which he dedicated to Charles le Chauve as Flodoard reports who shews briefly what it is that this Book treats of but that did not at all hinder St. Remigius and those of his Party to convocate another Council at Langres where they confirm'd the Doctrine established in the former Councils and condemn'd that new one of Scotus These Controversies were still agitated in the National Council of the Gauls where nothing was concluded altho' Barancus and others voted that Godescalch should be condemn'd there On the contrary Vsher maintains that in an Assembly which was in a small time after his Sentiments were approv'd of Nevertheless this wicked Godescalch was condemn'd by the Council of Maynce to perpetual Imprisonment where he was severely treated because he would never retract his Errours There are still two Confessions of his Faith by which one may see there are many things attributed to him which he never believ'd after having made a faithful report of the Sentiments of this Monk and those of his Adversaries Vsher concludes that it were better for men to be silent upon these matters than to scandalize the weak in proposing to 'em such Doctrines from which they may draw bad consequences There has been adds Mr. Parr and always will be different Opinions upon the great and abstruse Questions of Predestination and Free Will which nevertheless may be tolerated in the same Church provided those who maintain these divers Opinions have that Charity for one another which they ought to have That they condemn them not publickly That they abstain from mutual Calumnies and that they publish no Invectives against those who are not of the same Sentiments To return to the Life of our Prelate who altho' he
took all imaginable care that the Roman Religion should not make any progress in Ireland yet it stole in by the negligence of other Bishops insomuch that that Party which maintain'd it did sensibly increase and grow strong It was this that oblig'd King Charles the first to write a Letter to the Primate of Ireland which is to be found in page 38. wherein he authorizes him to write Letters of Exhortation to all the Bishops of Ireland that they shou'd discharge their duty better than they had done About the latter end of the year 1631. Vsher makes a Voyage into England where he publish'd a small English Treatise concerning the Antient Religion of Ireland and of the People which inhabited the North of Scotland and of England he shews in this Treatise how it was in respect to the Essential parts of the same Religion which at present is establish'd in England and which is very forreign to that of the Roman Catholicks The year following our Arch-Bishop return'd into Ireland and publish'd a Collection intituled Veterum Epistolarum Hibernicarum Sylloge whereof the first Pieces were written about the year 1590. and the last about 1180. there one may learn the Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Ireland In 1639. which was seven years after he publish'd his Book intituled Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates wherein he inserted the History of Pelagius and his Sentiments There are to be found the Antiquities of the most distant Churches of Great Britain since Christianity was Preached there that is to say since about 20 years after the death of Jesus Christ. In 1640. Vsher makes a Voyage into England with his Family with design to return very soon into Ireland but the Civil Wars hinder'd him insomuch that he cou'd never return to his Country again T is said that in the year following he brought the King to sign the death of the Earl of Strafford but as to this Dr. Parr speaks very much in his Justification he afterwards shews us after what manner he lost all that he had in Ireland except his Library which he brought into England Strangers very much envyed this great man that his Compatriots shou'd offer him divers Places of Retreat The Heads of the University of Leiden soon gave him a considerable Pension and offered him the Title of Honourable Professor if he wou'd come into Holland The Cardinal Richelieu sent him his Medal and also proffer'd to him a great Pension with the liberty of professing his Religion in France if he wou'd come thither Our Arch-Bishop thank'd him and sent him a Present of Irish Grey-Hounds and other Rarities of that Country Three years after he publish'd a small Treatise intituled A Geographical and Historical Research touching Asia Minor properly so call'd to wit Lydia whereof frequent mention is made in the New Testament and which the Ecclesiastical Writers and other Authors call'd Proconsulary Asia or the Diocess of Asia In this Treatise there is a Geographical Description of Asia Minor and of its different Provinces as that of Caria and Lydia under which the Romans comprehend Ionia and Aeolia Vsher shews there 1. That Asia whereof mention is made in the New Testament and the Seven Churches which St. Iohn spoke of in the Apocalypse were included in Lydia that every one of these Cities were the Chief of a small Province and because of this Division they were chosen to be the principal Seats of the Bishops of Asia 2. That the Roman Provinces had not always the same extension but were often contracted or enlarg'd for reasons of State thus the Empire was otherwise divided under Augustus than it was under Constantine under whom Proconsulary Asia had more narrow bounds than formerly 't is remarkable that under this last Emperor Proconsulary Asia which was govern'd by a Proconsul of the Diocess of Asia from whence the Governor was call'd Vicarius or Comes Asiae or Dioceseos Asianae but this division was afterwards chang'd under his Successors and whereas every Province had but one Metropolis to satisfie the ambition of some Bishops 't was permitted to two of 'em at the same time to take the Title of Metropolitan 3. That under Constantine Ephesus was the place where the Governors of Asia met to form a kind of Council which decided affairs of importance and 't was for this that Ephesus was then the only Metropolis of Proconsulary Asia that the Proconsul which was Governor never submitted to the Authority of the Praetorian Prefect and that there was something so like this in the Ecclesiastical Government that the Bishop of Ephesus was not only Metropolitan of Consulary Asia but also the Primate and Head of the Diocess of Asia 4. That there was a great conformity between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Government in this that the Bishops of every Province were subject to their Metropolitans as the Magistrates of every City were to the Governors of the whole Provinces This was the time wherein Vsher published in Greek and Latin the Epistles of St. Ignatius with those of St. Barnabas and St. Polycarp seven years after he added his Appendix Ignatiana where he proves that all the Epistles of Ignatius are not suppositious and explains many ecclesiastick antiquities he published the same year his Syntagma de editione 70 Interpretum where he proposes a particular Sentiment which he had upon this version 't is this that It contained but the five Books of Moses and that it was lost in the burning of the Library of Ptolomaeus Philadelphus and that Doritheus a Heretick Jew made another version of the Pentateuch and also translated the rest of the Old Testament about 177 years before the birth of Jesus Christ under the Reign of Ptolomaeus Philometor and that the Greek Church preserves this last version instead of that which was made under the Reign of Ptolomeus Philadelphus he also treats in this same work of the different editions of this version which according to him are falsly styled the version of the 70 this Book was published a year after the death of our Prelate with another De Cainane altero or the second Canaan which is found in the version of the 70. and in St. Luke between Sala and Arphaxad This last work of Vsher was the Letter which he wrote to Mr. 〈…〉 the difference he had with Mr. a friend of the Archbishops we shaâ—â— speak of it hereafter Dr. Parr informs us that in the Civil Wars of England Vsher going from Cardisse to the Castle of St. Donates which belonged to Madam Stradling he was extreamly Ill treated by the Inhabitants of Glamorganshire in Wales they took his Books and Papers from him which he had much ado to regain and whereof he lost some which contained remarks upon the Vaudois and which shou'd have serv'd to carry on his Book de Ecclesiarum Christianarum Successione where there is wanting the History of more than 200. years viz from Gregory the 11th to Leo the 10th from the year 1371 to 1513 and
he durst not despise them he did believe it not necessary to make a party therein Our Author shews what pains St. Prosper and the Popes Xystus and Leo took to refute or to destroy Pelagianism and Semi-pelagianism It was in the same time that Vincent of Lerins made his Commonitory to wit three years after the Council of Ephesus He is suspected to be the Author of the objections that St. Prosper hath refuted under the Title of Objectiones Vincentianae this Commonitory was Printed lately in 12. at Cambridge with the Notes of Mr. Baluze and the Book of St. Augustine of Heresies Vsher in this same Chapter relates the Ravages that the Scotch and the Picts committed in England the arrival of the Saxons into this Island the manner how they became Masters on 't and the other events of that time Before that these disasters happened in England a Monk named Faustus retired from hence into the Narbonick Gaul where he became Abbot of Lerins and afterwards Bishop of Riez after Maximus whom he also succeeded in the Abbey of Lerins He assisted at a Council which was held at Rome towards the end of the year Cccclxii where it was concluded that every year there should be a Council held amongst the Gauls which should be convocated by the Archbishop of Arles There was assembled one in this City which ordered Faustus to express his Sentiments touching the matter of Grace and another at Lyons by the order of which he added something to what he had already writ because some new Errours had been discovered These Errours are those to which the Divines of Marseilles gave the Name of Predestinarian Heresie that some maintain to have been a real Heresie and others the opinions of St. Augustine We have no more of the Acts of these two Synods but the work of Faustus subsisteth yet It is intituled de Gratia libero arbitrio directed to Leontius Archbishop of Arles and very clearly containeth Semi-pelagianism Erasmus got it first printed at Basil in M.D.XXVIII and it hath been since inserted in the 8 th Tome of the Library of the Fathers Faustus sent the opinions of the second Council of Arles to a Predestinarian Priest named Lucidus to oblige him to retract his Errours and to subscribe this Doctrine of the Council His Letter to Lucidus is still to be â—ad and the answer of this Priest directed to the Bishops assembled at Arles where he declares that he condemns the Sentiments of those that believe that after the fall of the first man Free-will was entirely extinct That Jesus Christ died for all men that some are destined to death and others to life that from Adam to Jesus Christ no Pagan hath been saved by the first Grace of God to wit by the law of nature because they have lost the free Will in our first Father That the Patriarchs and Prophets and the greatest of Saints have remained in Paradice untill the time of Redemption This is almost a full Abridgment of the Book of Faustus Some learned men have maintained that Faustus had passed his Commission and that many of those that had assisted at the Councils of Arles and Lions had not subscribed his Book It is nevertheless difficult to believe that a Bishop that was very much esteem'd as Faustus was as it appears by the Letters of Sidonius Apollinaris Bishop of Clermont in Auvergne who makes his Elogy in several places and by Gennadus who praiseth this work it is I say difficult enough to conceive how he could have the boldness to attribute to a Council opinions which were so odious to the greatest part of 'em and to think the Members of this Council could not shew their Resentment thereof Neither do those who say that Faustus exceeded his Commission give any reason only that they cannot persuade themselves that there were so many Semi-Pelagians amongst the Gauls In our Author are the different Judgments that divers learned men have made of Faustus and the greatest part of 'em are not very favourable to him Baronius too speaketh ill enough of him So that it happeneth now to the Semi-Pelagians what did in times past to the Pelagians which is that those who believ'd their principal Tenets condemned them only because those who have been more considerable than themselves have formerly condemned them The Book of Faustus is not unknown it being carried to Constantinople where mens minds were divided concerning the Doctrine it contained Some maintained it was Orthodox and others Heretical as it appeareth by a Letter of Possessar an African Bishop who was then at Constantinople and who writ of it to Pope Hormisda in the year DXX to know his thoughts thereupon Persons of the first quality amongst which were Vitalianus and Iustinian who hath been since Emperour desired to be instructed what Sentiments the Church of Rome had of it Hormisda disapproved the Book of Faustus and sent them to consult these of St. Augustin of Predestination and Perseverance There was then at Constantinople a Monk named Iohn Maxence who writ an answer to the Letter of Hormisda where he compareth the opinions of St. Augustin and those of Faustus and desperately censures Possessar and those that maintained that the Book of Faustus was Orthodox It appears by that that Possessar was a Semi-Pelagian and consequently that the Councils of Africk had not been able as yet to submit all the Bishops of this Church to their Decisions The Vandals were become Masters of Africk during the heat of the Pelagian Controversies and as they were Arians they drove away a great number of Bishops that followed the decisions of the Council of Nice Thrasamond King of the Vandals had sent 60 of them into exile from the Province of Byzacene into Sardinia They were consulted from the East upon the Controversies of Grace rather to have a publick Declaration of their opinions than to draw instructions from them seeing those that did write to them had already taken party and condemned in their Letters not only the Pelagians but also the Books of Faustus Fulgentius Bishop of Esfagues answered in the name of the others and exposed the sentiments of St. Augustin in a Letter and in a particular Book directed to one Paul a Deacon The same Fulgentius made also other works upon this matter whereof several places may be seen in our Author He had composed seven Books against the two of Faustus of Grace and Free-Will but they are lost These African Bishops returned to their Churches in the year DXXIII which was that of the Death of Thrasamond as Victor of Tonneins informeth us in his Chronicle But Fulgenius had refuted Faustus before he had left Sardinia whence it followeth as well as from the Letter of Possessar that Binius hath not well related the third Council of Arles whose opinions Faustus had expounded in the year DXXIV. But this is not the only fault he hath committed he hath corrected or rather corrupted as he thought
Caballistical Writers expressly mentioning the very Names also of the Points Vowels and Accents in Buxtorf's Tiberias and De Punctorum Origine pag. 53 54 55 56 57 58 59. together with the Answer to the impertinent Cavils of Capellus as to the Antiquity and Integrity of the Books Zohar Bahir and the Pointed Copy of Hillel who objecteth It may be that they have forged Titles of Antiquity to advance the Price in the Sale of them Resp. And it may not be so But if it may be so that doth not prove it was so Nor doth Capellus produce any thing that renders the Antiquity of these Books so much as suspected for the Antiquity of these Books is universally owned by the Jews Those of them who write about these things plainly declare their Antiquity to be what we say it is 3. The Mishna about A. D. 150. takes notice of the Verses in Masecat Megilla cap. 3. and saith He that reads in the Law must not read less than three Verses nor more than one Verse in the Chaldee Paraphrase 4. The Ierusalem Talmud about A. D. 230. in Megilla cap. 4. on Neh. 8.8 And they read in the Book in the Law of God That is say they the Scripture distinctly that is with the Targum or Chaldee Paraphrase and gave the sence These say they are the Accents which they placed Samu taam they put the Accents to it and Some say these are the Pauses Others say these are the Beginnings of the Verses 5. The Babylon Talmud in Masecat Nedarim cap. 4. fol. 37. and in Masecat Megilla cap. 1. fol. 3. on Neh. 8.8 they say likewise And they read in the Book of the Law of God that is the Scripture distinctly that is with the Targum and gave the sence These are the Verses and cause them to understand the reading This is the Stops of the Accents And others say these were the Masora for they were forgotten and they then restored them And in Masecat Nedarim fol. 37. ibid. Rabbi Isaac saith The reading of the Scribes and Ittur Sopherim and Keri u lo Ketib and Ketib u lo Keri is a Constitution of Moses on Sinai First saith R. Isaac The reading of the Scribes as Erets Shamajim Mitsraim that is The Scribes taught the People how they had received from Moses to read these words and the like one way in one place and another way in another as sometimes Arets sometimes Erets c. For as R. Nissin saith Erets is changed by reason of Athnak into Arets and so of Shammajim Mitsraim c. And as R. Sal. Iarchi saith The Scribes taught them how they ought to read the Words without the Vowel-Letters being added in all places as Erets without writing Aleph between Resh and â—sade And so Shamajim without writing Aleph between Shin and Mem And all this say the Talmud is a Constitution of Moses from Sinai And as it is impossible that the Sounds of all the Punctation could be preserved without the Shapes of them were written to the Text So R. Azarias in Meor Enaim cap. 59. sheweth that what the Talmuds speak on Neh. 8.8 is all of it about what was written and no part of it was spoken about what was kept by Oral Tradition As First The Book of the Law which they read that was Mikra the Scripture distinctly with Targum or the Chaldee Paraphrase which saith he was then written and so saith he were the Points and Accents and Masora which they there speak of was then written as well as the Scripture And the Chaldee Paraphrase was Written and not kept by Oral Tradition only as Elias fancieth a thing most absurd and impossible Capellus objects That R. Sal. Iarchi R. Azarias c. are Modern Rabbins But what saith Rabboth and the Ancient Writers Resp. They cannot expound the Talmud which was made long after they were dead but the Ancient Writers speak plain enough of the Points as Bahir Zohar c. And why may not the Talmuds speak of the Shapes of the Points There is not one place of Scripture saith Buxtorf in all the Talmud any otherwise read than our present Punctation reads it Which could not have been had not the Bible been then Pointed for the Sounds could not be kept without the Shapes as we have already shewed in the PROEMIVM and as themselves say the LXX and Chaldee differ from our Copy because they had no Points and we may as well say the Talmud universally agreeth with our Punctation because they had Points which they could not have done without And as to the LXX c. they differ from the Letters and Words as well as about the Points and therefore Capellus reckons their Copy differed from ours in Letters as well as Points But these things we may examine hereafter the Punctation is all we are now concerned about And hereby all those Objections of the silence of the ancient Caballistical Writings and of the Talmuds about the Points are obviated Vid. Pugio Fidei pag. 92. the former Edition And pag. 111. of the last Edition See also Buxtorf de Punct Orig. part 1. cap. 5 cap. 6. We shall only add the Instance of a Pointed Copy of R. Hillel which was before A. D. 500. as ancient as A. D. 340. 'T is said in Iuchasin fol. 132. col 1. ' In the year 956 or 984 there was a great Persecution in Lions and then they brought out from thence the twenty four Books called the Bible which R. Hillel wrote and by them they corrected all their Books and I have seen a Part of them that were sold in Africa and in my time they had been written nine hundred years And Kimchi saith in his Grammar That the Pentateuch of it was at Toletola in Spain in his time Object 'T is not said here 't was Pointed Resp. But 't is said Kimchi speaks of it in his Grammar And Kimchi speaking of it says it is Pointed as in Michlol fol. 93. col 1. he saith That R. Iacob the Son of Eleazer writeth That in the Book of Hillel which is in Toledolid the word Tideru 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Deut. 12.11 is found without a Dagesh lene in Daleth that is Daleth raphated So on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vedareshu in Psal. 109.10 he saith That the word Vedareshu is read with broad Kamets like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Veshameru and so we have received the reading of it And in the Book of Hillel which is kept at Toledolid the Masorites make this Note upon it viz. This is no where else found with Kaâ—uph Kamets and so Nagid writeth That he found it likewise in the Masora so written with Katuph Kamets So in his Book of Roots Sepher Sherashim on the Radix 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tesomet There Mem is with Segol contrary to Rule and is as if it were with Pathack And in the Book of Hillel which is in Toledolid it is with
Examples to prove what we have advanced of the Verses of the Hebrews not but that we might draw a great Number of them but the brevity in which we were bounded to be included hath hindered us to bring more The Reader then ought to be assured that if it was needfull we could have produced a far greater Number The second thing is that we have not chosen Psal. 150. because we thought we have gone through it better than in most of the others but simply because it is short and that one may in some wise conjecture what Tune it might have had LOu ez le Dieu des Dieux Que sa majes té soit be ni e Sa pu issance est in fi ni-e Peuples réve rez l'en tous lieux Chantres entonnez des Airs U nis sez u nis sez pardesaints concerts La Trompet te le Haut bo is la Muzet te Le Cornet l'Orgue le Bas son Et que la Flûte au doux son Leur réponde Qu'en ce beau jour Tout le monde tout le monde tout le monde chant à son tour tour N. De Rosier We have given this CL th Psalm in the French Version as we found it and have added this English Version which bearing the same quantity of Syllables is also applicable to the same Musical Composure And as the French took a little Liberty as may be seen from the former Translation of this Psalm just after the Hebrew so have we only instead of their repetition at the last we have made one Verse in a proportionable length That Holy God whose might is hurld Throughout this vast material World Praise him Oh Praise ye him each hour Extol his great his mighty Power Awake ye Harps ye Timbrels sing Eternal Praises to this King Let Trumpets raise Their Noblest Accents to his Praise Drums Organs Violins and Lutes Cymbals String'd Instruments and Flutes Shall all combine To Praise the Lord. Let all the Vniverse in this great Chorus join PRAISE YE THE LORD Seldeni Otia Theologica c. at Amsterdam in quatuor Libris THis Work is very Curious and very agreeable to those that don't care for the trouble of gathering dispers'd Materials together The Author who is very Learned and has read much spares them the trouble and gives them his Opinion as well as that of many others upon a great Number of Critical Questions in Divinity Thus I ought to call the Subject of this great Treatise For altho' he there explains some places of Divinity generally receiv'd he does it not after the way of the Schools he very ingeniously discourses upon sacred and prophane Antiquity Besides that the generality of the Examinations entirely respect certain Persons or matters of Fact which the Scripture speaks of or of certain things which are different from common receiv'd Notions in Divinity As to what regards the Sentiments of the Author we ought to acknowledge this on his behalf that he proposes them with much modesty and makes use of that honest liberty which Men of Learning may safely do He is very exact in citing those that he borrows any thing from and desires the Reader not to take this exactness as an Ostentation of his Learning which certainly is a better way than barely to cite such Authors as are serviceable to him He divides his Work into four Parts which in all contain forty one Dissertations in each of which many different Subjects are Treated on as happens in Persons who know much or who wou'd divert the Reader with variety of Objects We shou'd almost make a Book it self if we shou'd speak to every one of the Dissertations It shall suffice to give the Analysis of the first where it is examined who was the first Writer and a Judgment may be made of the rest by this Piece The first thing this Author does is to relate the Dispute formerly rais'd amongst the Doctors concerning the Prophecy of Enoch which the Apostle St. Iude makes mention of Some said this Patriarch's Prophecy was committed to Writing others maintain the contrary many Fathers and especially St. Augustin was of the first Opinion they often spoke of the Book of Enoch Some have made no difficulty to hold it as Canonical and wou'd prove by it that the Angels begat the Giants by the Commerce they had with Women There are some which say the Prophecy of Enoch contained four thousand and eighty two Lines and that it spoke of all that shou'd happen to the Posterity of the Patriarchs of the Crimes and Chastisements of the Iews of the Death that they shou'd make the Messiah suffer of their being dispersed through all the World and of the second Coming of Jesus Christ to judge Mankind They also pretended they found many Mathematical Opinions and that Noah had taken a great deal of Care to secure this Work in the Ark. After that the Author relates also many more ridiculous Fancies some have said that the Angel Raziel Tutor to Adam gave him a Book containing all Sciences and that after he was put out of the Garden of Eden he had it again suffering him to touch it at his humble Entreaties Others say that Adam did not receive this Book 'till after he had sinned then having besought God Almighty to grant him some small Consolation in the unhappy State he had reduced himself to they say that three days after he had thus begg'd of God the Angel Raziel brought him a Book which discovered to him all the Secrets of Nature the Power how to Command both good and bad Angels and the four parts of the Earth of Interpreting Dreams and Prodigies and foretelling whatsoever was to happen in the time to come They say also that this Book pass'd from Father to Son 'till it fell into the Hands of Solomon and that it gave to this learned Prince the Virtue of Building the Temple by means of the Worm Zamir without making use of any Instrument of Iron Mr. Selden afterwards speaks of those two Celebrated Pillars that some say the Successors of Seth built to engrave upon them the Discoveries that they made in the Sciences He also speaks of the suppositious Books of Enoch and Noah that Postulus forg'd in the last Age of the Book that Philo makes mention of as Abraham's which was Translated from Hebrew into Latin by Ritangelius of the Book that is entituled The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs and the Fable of the Rabbini who said God writ his Law two thousand Years before the Creation of the World He might have added to all these Fabulous Works the Testament of Iacob the Ladder of Iacob which was a Book very much esteem'd amongst certain Hereticks call'd Ebionites the Books of Enoch upon the Elements and some other Philosophical Subjects those of Noah upon the Mathematicks and Sacred Ceremonies those that they attributed to Abraham teaching Philosophy in the Valley of Mamre to those he lead against the five
objected against him during his Life as has been sufficiently proved by the Apologies writ in his Defence Epiphanius was the first that ever spoke of it So that it is not altogether without reason Baronius hath conjectured that this Passage may have been added to St. Epiphanius Dr. Cave believes likewise that Epiphanius hath said enough on this occasion to make an Intelligent Reader apprehend that he ought not to give too easie a Faith to all that he hath related He saith he hath spoken many strange things of Origen which he himself did not believe to be true and that he thought good nevertheless to insert them among his Writings Besides those who have read but little of what he hath done saith our Author know how much his Faith was upheld by popular Reports and having testified so much Zeal and Anger against Origen he took care to omit nothing that might sully or lessen his Fame In fine the Relation we have had of Origen's Mutilation and the Noise that it made in the World would not permit his Enemies to offer him that Choice before mentioned 'T was in the 233 d Year of our Lord that Origen quitted Alexandria and retired into Palestine St. Epiphanius to confirm his Accusation saith That Origen being at Ierusalem and desired to preach he stood up and read these words of Psalm 50.16 And God said unto the Sinner why speakest thou of my Righteousness and takest my Covenant into thy Mouth That with great Sorrow he spoke these words and then shut up the Book and sat down covered with Shame and fell into a violent Passion of Tears That there might be nothing wanting to compleat his History he hath made a Recantation under Origen's Name where he confesses his Sin and testifies a lively Repentance for it but the Misfortune is that the Style of this piece does not agree with that of the Author whose name is affixed to it Origen having set up a School at Cesarea drew many Men thither to him and among others Gregory Thaumaturgus and Athenodorus his Brother who were afterwards Bishops in that See Firmilian Bishop of Cesarea in Cappadocia a Person celebrated for his Virtue and Learning was also one of Origen's Admirers The 235 th Year Maximinus of Thrace succeeded Alexander Severus and with the utmost Severity treated the Christians who had some Rest in the time of his Predecessor This occasioned Origen to write his Book entitled An Exhortation to a Martyr which he dedicated to Ambrose and to the chief Presbyter of Cesarea who had then signaliz'd themselves by a Couragious Confession of the Christian Faith Origen at this time resided with a Lady of Quality called Iuliana who furnish'd him with Books and particularly with the Version of Symmachus and his other Works in favour of the Ebionites 'T was then that Origen took pains to collect the different Translations of the Old Testament which were publish'd before his time Whereof he made some Famous Editions entitled Tetraples Hectaples and Octaples which Dr. Cave explains in order as is his general Custom according to the Idea's of St. Epiphanius One may see in the second Tome of the Universal Bibliotheque Page 407. the Disposition of this Work according to the thought of Mr. de Valois and Mr. Vossius to the end that we may compare what these Gentlemen say thereof with the common Sentiment that Dr. Cave has follow'd after Father Petau Here is in short the common Order and Method of Origen's Works The Tetraples were four Columns which contain'd the Versions of Aquilas Symmachus the Septuagint and of Theodotion in the Hexaples there were more than two Colums where the Hebrew Text was in Judaick Characters and the same Text collateral to it in Greek Characters In the Octoples might also be seen after the six Colums whereof we are a coming to speak the fifth and sixth Edition which were found not long since one at Iericho the other at Nicopolis near to Actium It is evident saith Dr. Cave by what St. Jerom tells us thereof these two last Versions were not compleat but contain'd only some Books of the Old Testament and particularly the Prophets tho' we cannot determine whether it may be concluded from thence that the Hexaples and Octaples were only one Work under different Titles according to those parts to which the fifth and sixth Edition were added Besides this there was a seventh Edition but it contained only the Book of the Psalms and by consequence made no change in the name of the Work The Reader will more easily comprehend the Method of this Collection by a Copy which is here added to it and drawn from an Ancient Manuscript of the lesser Prophets out of the Bibliotheque of the Barbarines 'T is the first Verse of the eleventh Chapter of Hosea When Israel was a Child I loved him and called my Son out of Egypt To render this Work Fruitful Origen Remarks on the Version of the Septuagint that it contain'd either more or less than the Hebrew Text when there was something more he noted it thus †and when there was any thing Deficient he thus distinguished it * and if confirm'd by many Versions he added a Note which he call'd Lemniscus and when two only agreed he affix'd a Hypolemniscus This Work which was a Labour almost impossible to accomplish was begun at Cesarea and perfected at Tyre Nevertheless it seems that Origen made a second Voyage to Athens where he writ his Commentaries on Ezekiel and the Song of Songs He pass'd through Nicomedia where he met with his Friend Ambrose who was retired thither with his Family He there composed his Answer to Iulius Africanus touching the History of Susanna who had Fruitlesly endeavour'd to maintain it as a Truth Returning into the last he recover'd Beryl Bishop of Botsra in Arabia as Eusebius calls him from a new Opinion apparently destructive to the True Faith which he soon renounced that he might be better instructed and thank'd Origen for having disabused him Beryl believed that Iesus Christ before his Incarnation did not so exist that he had a distinct Essence which was only proper to him and that he had not a Divinity peculiarly his own but only that of his Father dwelling in him Origen did not apprehend this Opinion at first but after divers Conferences with Beryl and indeed it is difficult to understand what he meant according to the words of Eusebius when he comes to cite and translate him word for word from the Greek Dr. Cave thus expresseth it in English That our Lord before his Incarnation had no proper Substance nor personal Deity but only a derivative Divinity from his Father Mr. de Valois hath translated this Passage of Eusebius into Latin after this manner Servatorem antequam inter homines versaretur non substitisse in propriae personae differentia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nec propriam sed paternam duntaxat divinitatem in se residentem habere In
Latin we might justly apply to him the words of Cato Utican on the Subject of Posthumius Albinus who being a Roman would nevertheless write in Greek and yet excused the badness of his Stile saying He did not well understand the Greek Tongue He had rather says this grave Senator beg Pardon for his Fault than not to commit it He has also Expressions so proper to the Greek Tongue that they could not have slipt from an Author that had writ in Latin had he been never so little versed in the Tongue for Example this Author translates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Qui sunt ciro◠Ptolomaeum instead of saying barely Ptolomaeus or Ptolomaei Discipuli he also makes an Adjective of the proper Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he translates Clarus Mr. Dodwell goes much further and maintains that this Latin Version is so far from being the Original or made by St. Irenaeus as some have believed that it appeared not until a long time after the Death of this Father since Tertullian quotes this Work always in other terms though he writ thirty Years after The first that produced formal Testimonies was St. Augustin in his Books against Iulian. What is most strange is that it seems this Father did not know that St. Irenaeus writ in Greek this Version then must be made in the time that passed between St. Augustin and Tertullian and whereas St. Ierom makes no mention of it in his Catalogue composed the Year of our Saviour CCCLXXX and the Fourteenth of Theodosius it must needs be made between the Year CCCLXXXV and the time which St. Augustin speaks of Our Author thinks it is the Work of some French or Spaniard that was very ignorant in the Latin who undertook this Version upon the account of the Priscillianists who renew'd the Errors of the Gnosticks which St. Irenaeus had disputed against This Version was the occasion of a very singular Action which was that after the Heresies were smothered this Version was so rough and full of strange Matter that it was quite despised so that Gregory the Great could not find one simple Copy of it after an exact Search which he caused to be made and that none of the ancient Schoolmen speak of it But on the contrary the Greek Authors had several Copies of the Greek Original and there are Fragments of it in all Places And nevertheless now this excellent Greek is lost and the World is full of the bad Latin Translation the Fate of Books very often is like that of Fountains there are little Rivers that carry their Name into the very Sea and very considerable ones that lose themselves without any Name St. Irenaeus writ his Books both without Distinction or Arguments and his Translator or some other Authors have added what we see at this day IV. Our Author in his last Dissertation of the other Works of St. Irenaeus begins his Letter writ to Blastus and by the first to Florinus the first treated of Schism and the second of Monarchy Baronius thought that Florin's Errors oblig'd St. Irenaeus to write the Books against Heresies but Mr. Dodwell is not of his mind It is manifest that it is against the Valentinians that this Father intended these Works and Florinus taught a quite contrary Doctrin to that of these Hereticks for whereas these Hereticks establish'd two Principles the one good the other bad them Florinus made conformable to the Doctrin of the Church but he made that the Author of Good and Evil. As for Blastus he is acquitted of the Crime of Heresie whereof many Ancient and Modern accused him and it s believed he was but a Schismatick having done the Office of a Priest after he was deposed by his Bishop These two Letters were writ at the same time after his Work against the Hereticks according to our Author in the Year CLXXXII and the Third of Comodus and the Eighty fifth of Irenaeus Florinus did not stop at these Errors he soon fell into the Dreams of the Valentinians which obliged St. Irenaeus to write him a second Letter which he entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Eighth because it was writ against the Eighth des Eons de Valentinians Our Author believes that Irenaeus was above Eighty five years old when he writ it which was about the CLXXXII Year of Jesus Christ. Irenaeus writ also an Harangue against the Gentiles the Subject whereof was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Science It is known that Isocrates not having the necessary Talents for speaking publickly contented himself in writing several Orations with important Advise to them that ruled the People he was imitated by a great many others and the Christians themselves were assisted by this Custom to teach the Pagans the Truths of the Christian Religion and did not neglect to embellish their Orations with the vain Ornaments of the Sophists to move the Curiosity of the Readers whose Gust lay that way Such was then St. Irenaeus's Discourse of Science that it was addressed to the Greeks that is to say to all them that were not Christians for as the Christian Church succeeded that of the Iews and the Iews called all them Greeks that were not of their Religion so the Christians gave the same Name to all those that did not embrace their Opinions Mr. Dodwell believes that this Work was employ'd to refute the Opinion of some Philosophers who thought that by Study and Meditation one might raise himself beyond all that is sensible or material and to the perfect knowledge of God and of all Spiritual Beings and this by themselves that St. Irenaeus proved that Knowledge was reserved for the other Life and that we do not know in this but only by Faith St. Irenaeus writ another Work which he named the Demonstration of Preaching or of the Apostles Doctrin and dedicated it to one Mavejon to contradict several Writings that were father'd on the first Disciples of our Saviour and particularly the Sermons falsly attributed to St. Peter Mr. Dodwell says that the design of this Work was the same of that of the Prescriptions of Tertullian The Ancients speak yet of another Work of St. Irenaeus intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is according to St. Ierom's and Mr. Dodwell's Interpretations a Book containing divers Treatises our Author imploys a long Discourse to shew that St. Irenaeus had erected a School in his latter days and that he taught his Scholars what he himself had learned of the Apostles Disciples that is to say Apostolical Traditions and that this Work we speak of was a Collection of the Lessons that he made in that School It is pleasant to see the trouble Mr. Dodwell gives himself to establish this his Opinion and it is like he took it with pleasure because it tends to the general end he proposed to himself of reconciling the Traditions of the two first Ages of the Church with the Scripture What is very advantageous is that all these Enquiries include many
undoubtly his In the time of Dionysius of Alexandria who lived about the middle of the Third Age one Nepos Bishop of Egypt writing of a Book to maintain the Reign of a Thousand Years where he proves his opinion by the Apocalypse Dionysius undertook to refute him And to Answer to the Testimony of the Apocalypse that his Adversary quoted he says that some have slighted this Books thinking it the Heretick Cerinthus's who admitted no other Beatitude than what consisted in Corporeal Enjoyments But as for himself he says he durst not entirely reject it because it was esteemed by many Christians yet that he was perswaded that it had a hidden sense which cou'd not be comprehended by any one That it was the Book of some Author inspired by the Holy Ghost tho' not St. Iohn the Evangelist but another that bore his Name as he endeavours to prove by the difference of the Stile and thoughts Denis without doubt went too far upon this matter as well as in the Letter that he writ to the Bishops of Pentapolis when to refute the Error of Sabellius who confounded the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity this slipt from him That the Son is the work of the Father and that he was to the Father as a Vineyard is to it's Vinekeeper or a Ship to its Ship-wright and that he was not before he was made That happen'd to Dionysius adds our Author that does almost to all those that dispute against an Error viz. to speak after such a manner as favours the opposite Errors Baronius thinks that a Letter that Turrian published under the Name of Dionysius and which is inserted in the first Volume of the last Councils P. 850. is certainly his But Mr. Du Pin believes it a Supposititious Work because the Author of this Letter approves of the Word Consubstantial and says that the Fathers have thus call'd the Son of God Whereas it is certain that Dionysius and the Synod of Antioch received not this term and that in his time they cou'd not say that the Fathers commonly made use of it There remains nothing else of this Bishops but a letter to Basilides printed in the first Book of the Councils Besides many Fragments of Methodius Bishop of Olimpius or Patarus in Lycia that Father Combefix has taken from the Ancients or Collections of divers Manuscripts we have now his Feast of the Virgins compleat which we ow to Possinus the Jesuit 'T is a Dialogue of many Virgins each of which make a Discourse in praise of Virginity nevertheless without blaming Matrimony a Moderation very rare to the Ancients says Mr. Du Pin This Work is composed of Ten Discourses full of Allegories and places of Scripture and treats on divers matters as occasion serves In the Second to prove that God is not the Author of Aulteries altho' he Forms the Children that are produced by so wicked an Act he brings some natural instances In the Eighth Discourse this Father speaking against the Fatum of the Stoicks proves that Men are free and that they are not necessitated to do good or evil by the Influences of the Stars At the end of this Dialogue the Author speaks very Orthodoxly of the Holy Trinity if we may believe Mr. Du Pin. We have only some Scattered pieces of Methodius's Treatise against Origen taken from Saint Epiphanius and Father Sirmond Our Author doubts whether the passage that Iohn Damascenus relates in the Third Prayer to Images are Methodius's or no. He affirms there that the Christians made Images of Gold to represent the Angels for the Glory of God If this is our Bishops says Mr. Du Pin it must be that he meant something else than what Damascenus did and that by the Word Angels Principalities and Powers he must understand the Kings of the Earth He adds to the Authors of the Three First Ages Arnobius Lactantius Commodianus and Iulius Firmicus Maternus altho they pass'd the greatest part of their lives in the Fourth Age because they imitated the First Fathers in disputing more against the Heathans than Hereticks He praises Lactantius very much and confesses that in his Book of the Persecucutions he seems to Note that St. Peter came not to Rome till the beginning of Nero's Empire Afterwards he gives an account of the Councils held in the Three First Ages of the Church and affirms that there are none more ancient than those that were held in Victors time about the end of the Second Age upon the Celebration of Easter and that they held no Councils to condemn the First Hereticks the Disciples of Simon Carpocratus the Basilidians and Gnosticks because the Christianâ— abhorr'd all their Errors He rejects all the Decretals attributed to the First Popes And believes 't was Riculphus and Benet his Successor that counterfeited them in the Ninth Age. He ends this Volume with an abridgment of the Doctrin Disciplin and Morals of the Church in the Three First Ages He Makes no Notes upon this Abridgment because he takes it for granted that he has proved all he says there in the Body of his Work Nevertheless we have not observ'd says the Abridger upon the reading of it by what reasons Mr. Du Pin in his Treatise maintains the following Proposition which he advances in his short account 1. That altho' all the Fathers agreed not that Children were born subâ—ect to sin and deserving damnation yet the Church was of the contrary opinion 2. That they Celebrated the Sacrifice of the Mass in memory of the Dead 3. That they pray'd to Saints and Martyrs and believed that they besought God for the Living There are others also better maintain'd and of great consequence in relation to the differences that now separate the Christians 1. That the Ancients spoke of the Virgin Mary with much respect that they went not so far upon the subject as they have done since that for the Generality they did not believe she continued a Virgin after our Blessed Saviour was born that they spoke not of her Assumption and that there 's a passage of St. Ireneus which is not favourable to her Immaculate Conception 2. That the Scripture contains the chief Articles of our Faith and that all Christians may read it 3. That the Elements of the Eucharist were ordinary Bread and Wine mingled with Water That they divided the consecrated Bread into little bits that the Deacons distributed it to those present who received it in their hands and that they also gave them consecrated Wine That in some Churches this Distribution was reserved to the Priests but in others each Person drew near to the Table and took his Portion of the Eucharist 4. That in these Three First Ages the Unction of the Sick which St. Iames speaks of was not mentioned 5. That Priests were forbid to intermix their Civil and Spiritual Affairs 6. That the Priests were permitted to retain their Wives that were Espoused before Ordination but not to Marry afterwards Tho' Deacons
some that will have the Moderns far Excel the Antients in both They compare the Statue of Daphne and Apollo of Michael Angelo with the Grecian Venus now at Florence the Grand Duke having given above thirty thousand Pounds for it tho' by stealth got from Rome they tell you that the Venus of the Grecians has Admirable Proportion but 't is still Stone there is a stiffness which shews it still to be an Image without Life but the Daphne of Michael Angelo appears to be Flesh and Blood her Breast sinking under the Fingers of Apollo when he lays his Hand there These same Gentlemen will have it that our Moderns far Excel the Antients in Picture nay some have been so grosly ignorant as to pretend the Grecians were meer Blockheads to any of our Contemporary Artists much more to Raphael Urbin Titian Rubens c. That a House or Sign Painter with us Excell'd Apelles that drew the Mistress of Alexander and Alexander himself Tho' we can never be of their Opinion since we are sensible that 't is built on a wrong Bottom because the Paintings of Greece are lost they therefore conclude from a Daubing found in a Cave that they were such Bunglers which without doubt was rather the performance of some of the grosser and more ignorant Ages in the World when all Sciences were forgot and Europe drown'd in a general Darkness and Barbarity For tho' some alledge against the Testimony of Pliny because he took too much of his Natural History upon trust yet we can never admit that enough to invalidate his Account of things which requir'd no more than the Eye to judge of being things that he daily convers'd with in Rome which he abundantly declares when he tells us the Pictures he mentions were extant in his time in the Temples of that City The disadvantage the Antients have is that we have our Pieces still extant but theirs all lost Painting is an Art that is not to be learn'd by those Methods that other Arts are for Books will afford very little help The Directions of a Master and a timely beginning are absolutely necessary for if you once get an ill habit and a vicious way of Drawing 't will scarce ever be possible to recover it The most gainful Painting in this Nation is drawing to the Life which to be a Master in requires many years Practice As 't is said of Poetry Poet a nascitur non sit so I may in some measure say of Painting that he that will expect to be a Master must have a Genius naturally enclin'd to it else so near a kin 't is to Poetry he will be but an indifferent Man at it tho' with this difference that a Painter that is not extraordinary may live by his Trade and have his Pieces hung in the Company of the best yet Mediocribus esse poetis non dii non homines non concessêre Columnae But if a Gentleman has a mind for his Diversion to apply himself to Painting Landskips and Perspective are the most proper for him the first being to be learn'd in a years time to such a degree of Perfection if the Disciple have a Genius for Painting that he wou'd be able to live by it and by Consequence enough for any Gentlemans Diversion There are Books which Treat of Painting and Drawing one of the best of which is Sandersons we have formerly seen a Book under the Name of Michael Angelo on the same Subject There 's an Account of Painting lately publish'd in fol. Dedicated to their Majesties Mr. Writes Account of my Lord Castlemains Embassy to Rome Ars pictoria in fol. But instead of relying altogether on Books we refer you to the Choicest Catalogues of Picture you can meet with at Auctions which you may imitate Geometry THe Use of this admirable Science is so general and so well known that it scarce requires a Discussion of it here for who is ignorant that all our most Necessary as well as most Noble Arts and Sciences depend on it as to the First there is none of the Mechanicks can ever be brought to Perfection without it and so the second as Painting and Architecture c. take their Original from it What cou'd the Performers in the First do without it in drawing a Face the several postures of the Body and all manner of Buildings If they were ignorant of Proportion Angles Circles Squares c. all their Works wou'd want Beauty and themselves Satisfaction when they come to view the product of Fancy and Guess where Certainty is requir'd So in Architecture none can even merit the name of Master without more than an ordinary Skill in this Science Besides no Gentleman can be a Judge of the Performances of either without an Insight into Geometry What is said of these two will also reach Statuarists and other Carvers But to return to our Subject The Knowledge of a Point or a Line which is compos'd of a continu'd Chain of Points in its several Forms as Right and Curve to know a Superficies which is bounded by Lines as a Line is by Points the difference of Superficies viz. a plain Superficies that lies strait between its Lines and a curved one that lies not within two Lines besides the other Consideration of Superficies as a Convex and Concave To know the Quality of Angels as right obtuse and acute Angles of points that are the Bounds of Lines as Lines are of a Superficies and a Superficies of a Body of Circles Diameters Segments greater and lesser of four square Figures many square Figures Of Triangles their several Lines of Parallel Lines either Circular or Right or any other Form where the Lines are Equidistant Of Erecting and letting fall Perpendiculars of drawing parallel Lines of dividing Lines into two or more equal or unequal Parts Of cuting any Number of Parts from any Right Line given Of finding out all the Chords Lines of a Circle c. Of having the Segment of a Circle to find out the Center and consequently the whole adding several Circles into one Of Substracting lesser Circles out of greater in short all the Doctrine of Triangles too long to be here enumerated the Knowledge of all this I say is absolutely necessary in most if not all our Mechanicks A Joyner can't so much as cut out a Round Table unless he understand a Circle or a Carpenter square a piece of Timber unless he know by the Rule of square Figures when his Work is finish'd The Watch and Clock-makers wou'd be at a loss if it were not for this Science But if we ascend higher no Builder can raise a Fabrick without Geometry or rather not regularly design one the manual Operators in our common Buildings very seldom being Proficients in any Rule but that of Wood or Brass or Iron which serves them instead of Geometrical Problems but if you come to the Nobler Structures what can any man do to the making of Pillars Arches to omit the rest of the
a place of the Babylonish Thalmud and some passages of two or three other Rabbies from whence it appeareth that the Iews thought the Angels had much curiosity to know what passed amongst men and particularly in anything of great importance After all these remarks we find a little abridgment of the Life of Lightfoot where as occasion serves there are divers Reflections intermixed which we shall mention briefly The thoughts of Monsieur Simon are there refuted touching the abridgment of a new Polyglot which he hath proposed in his Criticks and touching the Authentickness of the Vulgar c. He also refutes the Interpretation that Lightfoot hath given in the Epistle to the Corinthians just before cited For altho Mr. Bright had a great esteem for Lightfoot he thought himself not obliged to receive all his opinions or defend whatsoever he hath said He saith he is not of the same Opinion with our Author who believed that the least point of the Bible is a Divine Institution and that all therein is mysterious even unto the least irregularities Mr. Bright Criticises on two or three remarks of Lightfoot upon the Rabbies founded upon the faults of the Copier which he explains after a mysterious manner As the Life of Lightfoot composed by Mr. Bright was too short Mr. Stryp hath joined thereto another more large which is followed with a collection of divers things concerning the person and writings of our Author Therein we see the manner of his Study and Employ with the esteem they had of him in England and elsewhere c. those who love to know the least particulars of the lives of great men will here find what will both divert and instruct ' em There is an account in his Life of some of the reasons of the controversies between the Divines assembled at Westminster who had undertaken to reform during the Civil Wars what they called Errours in the Church of England Lightfoot opposeth stifly some of their opinions as may be seen in the third Article of the Collection that is added to his Life We shall find in the eighth a List of his Works which have not been finished which were mostly concerning the History of the Hebrews with the explication of some Book of the Holy Scripture One part is in English and the other in Latin He hath even given himself the trouble to write all the Texts of the Evangelists and to dispose them into an harmonious method It is offered to any Bookseller that will Print it In what respecteth the Harmony we may advertise the Publick that Mr. Toignard hath promised to publish it at the end of his wherein shall soon be seen the method which he hath made use of in a place of Iosephus where he compares the Iudaick Antiquities with the Books of the Iewish Wars This last Harmony is now in the Press and will soon appear abroad Before we consider the works set forth by Lightfoot we cannot forbear speaking of the loss that hath been sustained in a Map of Palestine which he had effected with much care and traced with his own hand 'T is a loss doubtless very great to such as desire to be instructed in the Sacred Geography because there is no Card of Iudea left that can satisfie those who are but indifferently versed in this kind of learning We have nevertheless endeavoured to supply this loss received by that of Lightfoot working therein upon his Ideas and in giving a Map of those places whereof this Author makes mention in his Geographical Remarks and which have been placed according to his observations But altho many faults are in this Map corrected which are found in all others we shall yet find it a trouble to persuade our selves that the notions of Lightfoot could be followed to such perfection as what he had done himself The first Work that we meet with in this Volume is an Harmonious and Chronological disposition of the Text of the Old Testament The Sacred Writers are so little tyed to the order of Time and those who have collected them into a Body had so little regard to Chronology that the Jews form thereupon a constant explication of the Holy History to wit that in Holy Writ there 's no before nor after Our Author proposeth to himself to remedy this inversion of Method in making an Abridgment of all the Holy History and placing every event where it ought to be in his Judgment He hath added in the Margin the year of the World and that of the Judicature or Reign of those who governed Israel and he hath taken care to mark the precise date of all the events whereof he could have had any certain knowledge Those that he hath placed by his own conjecture have no date In the Margin he hath added the reason why he hath there inserted these places without undertaking to refute the reasons of those who place them elsewhere lest he should make his volume too large He hath only proposed his opinion upon the difficulties that represent themselves and leaves them to be judged by the Reader His opinions are often very new as will be easily acknowledged if they compare what he saith with what is to be found in other Interpreters As for the rest he confesseth what he hath written is but an Essay and advertises the Reader that he ought not to expect it very exact 1. The Text of Genesis Chronologically disposed reaches to p. 22. and Lightfoot ends the History of this Book by a Citation from the first of the Chronicles which he believed ought immediately to follow the death of Ioseph 1 Chron. 6.21 22.23 In this place are to be found the years of the Patriarchs and the years of Promise joyned with those of the World 2. The Books of Exodus Leviticus and Numbers joyn'd together continue the holy History p. 38. where the Establishment is seen of the half Tribe of Manasseh on that side Iordan There are only two places of two other Books inserted amongst those of Moses Lightfoot believes that the 88th and 89th Psalms were composed by Heman and Ethan Sons of Zerach which lived according to him in the time that the King of Egypt oppressed the Israelites with excessive Labour and Taxes The Author thinks also that Iob lived in the same time and that he was the Grand Son of Nahor Abraham's Brother and that Elihu one of those which speaks in his Book and who was his near Kinsman is the Author of this work This he asserts in p. 24. 3. Afterwards comes Deuteronomy followed with the Abridgment of the Books of Ioshua and Iudges The History of Ruth is inserted between the time of Ehud and Deborah The Author takes notice but of one word in chap. 3. and 13. v. that has an extraordinary point and but of one other in the 19th chapter of Genesis of the same nature Our Author seeks there the mystery of it 4. Lightfoot continues his Chronological Abridgement of the Sacred History by some Texts
the Gospel Preached unto 'em and Maximianus Herculius violently persecuted the Christians which he found here in the year CCCIII. It 's what Vsher tells us Chap. 7. Where beginneth what we have called the second part of his Work It may be that many things might be added to the precedent which he saith there upon the Faith of the Monks of the great number of Martyrs that Maximianus put to death and of the circumstances of their punishments Howbeit it 's certain that Dioclesian and Maximian having voluntarily quitted the Empire in the year CCCIV. and Constantius Chlorus being declared Augustus he put a period to all violences of what nature soever in the Provinces of his Jurisdiction and England was amongst the rest in which the Monks assure us that he built some Churches but dying two years after at York his Son Constantine who till then had been but Caesar was proclaimed Augustus by all the Roman Army which had lately got a signal victory over the Picts This gives occasion to our Archbishop to seek into the native Country of Constantine and of Helena his Mother in the eighth chapter The Country of this Princess is very doubtful although the Monks affirm she was of Treves yet is it not unlikely to be true that her Son was born in England as it may be seen in our Author who builds his opinion chiefly upon these words of Eumenius in his Panegyrick of Constantia O fortunata nunc omnibus terris beatior Britannia quae Constantinum Caesarem prima vidisti Vsher afterwards sheweth that some Bishops of England assisted at the Council of Arles in CCCXIV and 11 years after at that of Nice likewise at the other Councils called upon the occasion of the antient controversies Notwithstanding that hindered not Arianism to pass into Great Britanny when Gratianus had granted liberty to all the sects of the Christians saving to the Manicheans to the Photinians and to the Eunomians But it seemeth that the Tyrant Maximius that favoured the Orthodox suffered not Arianism to take root in England where he began to Govern in CCCLXXIII some time after he sent hence a great number of Inhabitants which he established in Amorica that is to say Low Brittany which he remitted to one Conan Meriadoc who was the person according to the Monkish History that obtained of Dionot King of Cornwall his Daughter Vrsula in Marriage with 11000 Virgins of noble Birth besides 60000 other Virgins of meaner families All the World are acquainted with the Story of St. Vrsula and of the 11000 Virgins and those that would know who hath refuted it may consult Vsher who relateth it with many reasons to shew it is but an impertinent Fable altho' Baronius maintains the contrary In that time many people went to see the Holy places in Palestine which was the occasion of making known in the West the Books of Origen which were unknown there before Rufinus Amongst others a Priest of Aquila after having lived three years in the East and Studied under Evagrius an Origenist imbib'd not only the sentimeâ—ts of Origen but returning into Italy spread them every where by translating divers of his works It was of him that Pelagius and Celestius learned at Rome this Doctrine whereof we shall speak in the sequel They both were Monks and of Great Britain Celestius of Scotland and Pelagius of England the second was called Morgan in the Language of the Countrey that is to say born of the Sea or in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a name given him out of his Countrey If St. Ierom may be believed Pelagius was an ignorant man who could not express himself that was more to be pittied than envied and Celestius a studier of solecisms but St. Augustine speaketh advantageously of their wit in divers places and indeed it is seen by the fragments that remain in his works that they expressed not themselves so ill as St. Ierom saith We have still two pieces of Pelagius amongst the supposed writings of this last whereof one is a Letter to Demetriades and the other is intituled the Symboli explanatio ad Damasum whereas it should have been called Professio fidei ad Innocentium for it was to Innocent that Pelagius sent it This last piece is also found in Baronius and in the first Tome of the Councils of the edition of Cologne in 1606. Pelagius sojourn'd long enough at Rome where he acquired much reputation by his works and his conduct whence it cometh that Augustin Bishop of Hippona spoke honourably of him and writ to him a very obliging Letter before he entered into a dispute with him He calleth him in his Book de peccatorum meritis vir ut audio sanctus nec parvo profectu Christianus bonus ac praedicandus vir He is saith he a man as I am told Holy and much advanced in Piety a man of Merit and Praise worthy Father Petau in his book De Pelagianorum Semi Pelagianorum Dogmatum Historia remarketh that St. Augustin composed the Book in which he speaketh so advantageously of Pelagius after the condemnation of Celestius in the Council of Carthage in CCCCXII Thence he concludeth that it is not of this Pelagius whereof St. Chrysostome speaketh in his fourth Letter wherein he deplores the fall of a Monk of the same name There is no more likelihood that the Pelagius a Hermit to whom St. Issiodorus de Diamette hath written great censures be him that we speak of here whose life was always irreproachable as appears by the Testimony of St. Augustin Rome being taken by the Gothes in the year CCCCX Pelagius who was there departed and Sailed to Africa yet he remained not there but immediately went into the East Notwithstanding his Disciplie Celestius stayed at Carthage and aspired to be Priest of that Church but as he made no difficulty to maintain the Sentiments of his Master he was accused by Paulinus Deacon of the same Church in a Council where Aurelius Bishop of Carthage presided in the year which is already mention'd Celestius was there condemned and excommunicated as having maintain'd these seven Propositions I. That Adam was created mortal and that he should die whether he had sinned or not II. That the sin of Adam was only prejudicial to himself and not to all Mankind III. That the Law opened the entrance into Heaven as well as the Gospel IV. That before the coming of Iesus Christ men were without sin V. That Children newly born are in the same State as was Adam before his fall VI. That all Mankind dyeth not by the Death and Prevarication of Adam as all Mankind riseth not by the Resurrection of Iesus Christ. VII That man is without Sin and that he can easily obey the Commandments of God if he will Celestius answered to these Heads but we have only part of his Answers in the Books of St. Augustine that is to say that we have no other Testimonies of his Doctrine than
dogmata postea subtilius explicata tractet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For what regards the High Priest Levites and the Laicks relates according to our Author to the Priesthood and to the Custom of the Jews This Epistle being written about the end of Nero's Empire or at least before that of Vespasian whilst the Temple yet stood Letter 347. 1. p. Tacitus After having said that many learned men have discovered of what use Tacitus is in Politicks without excepting the the Italians who pretend to be the great Masters in this Science He saith that Berneggerus and Freinshemius had given at Strasbourg an Edition of it in 8 vo with a very large Index and most useful Notes in the Margent He adds that he read it with pleasure and that it was esteemed by all the Ingenious of Paris The same Author undertook to make an Addition in Folio with a perpetual Commentary drawn from all the Notes which had appeared tell then upon Tacitus Letter 1092. 1. p. Theophilactus 'T is the abridgement of the Greek Fathers which had written before him and is as the Voice of the Greek Church who gave us the opinions of St. Paul which he had preserved with much Fidelity Letter 1243. 1 p. Predestinatus 'T is the Title of a Book in 8 vo printed at Paris 1643. by Father Sirmond Grotius saith that he hath drawn this Book from a Manuscript which was formerly Hinâ—mar's Archbishop of Rheims that this work is oppos'd to those that believe absolute Predestination And that the Stile is strong and elegant Letter 673. p. 2. Father Casaubon I have not had less veneration saith our Author for his natural openness and sincerity than for his great Learning He told me in the year 1613. at London where I was almost every day with him when he went out of France he quitted all Studies which belong to the ancient Souldiery to which he had been perswaded by Henry the 4 th who was as great a Soldier as a Prince and that in England he had turned his Studies of that side which most pleased King Iames who was given more to peace than War Casaubon had no Collection except in his memory Margents of his Books and upon loose Papers Wherefore we have no Notes upon Polybe but what is upon his first Book and they are imperfect also 184. Letter p. 2. Selden This Author who made his wit appear in many pieces hath given to the Publick his book entituled Mare Clausum in opposition to another intituled Mare liberum This work is very learned and attributes in particular to the King of England all the Sea that extends it self from the Coasts of England Spain France the Low Countreys and Germany unto that of Denmark Letter 590. p. 1. Selden saith Grotius in another place hath taken figurative Expressions whereof I have made use in my Poetry to defend the Laws of the King of England and hath opposed them to others more serious I am very much obliged to him for the honesty with which he hath spoken of me and I believe I shall not injure the Friendship that is between us by this Epigram that I have made upon his Book Ipsum compedibus qui vinxerat Ennosigaeum Est graeca Xerxes multus in Historia Lucullum Latii Xerxem dixere Tagatum Seldenus Xerxes ecce Britannus erit Letter 371.2 p. The Bishop of Bellai I know him saith Grotius not only by his writings but also by Conversation He is an honest man and well versed in Controversie This is the Title of one of his Books The Demolishings of the Foundation of the Protestant Doctrine He hath a great hatred to the Monks and would not have them instruct the People but have it referred to the Ordinaries He is very much esteemed amongst the Bishops and of an exemplary Life Letter 1716. p. 1. Crellius I thank you saith our Author to him Letter 197. p. 1. both for the Letter and the book youâ— sent me I have resolved to read over and over with care all that you have written knowing how much profit I have gain'd by your Works When I received your Letter I was employed in reading your Commentary upon the Epistle to the Galatians You have very happily found the design and occasion of this Epistle as well as the sequel of this discourse I have cast my eye saith our Author elsewhere in speaking to Ruarius friend to Crellius upon his Commentary to the Epistle to the Hebrews which is very Learned I have profited much thereby as well as upon that which he hath made upon the Galatians of which the Ministers of Charenton make the same judgment as I do Let. 552. p. 1. He saith to his Brother speaking of the Book that the same Crellius had written against that of Grotius de satisfactione Christi that he hath written modestly and with much learning altho' he approves not of his opinions p. 2 Letter 138. George Calixta Professor of Divinity at Helmstadt I know not whether you have seen the preface that Calixta hath put before the books of St. Austin de Doctrina Christiana and of the Commonitorium of Vincent de Lerins the book that he hath made de Clericorum coelibatu and the first part of his divine Morals with a digression touching the new Method de Arte nova I approve the judgment of this Man and the respect he hath for antiquity joyned to the love of Peace A. M. des Cordes Canon of Limages p. 1. Letter 350. see Letter 339. p. 1. Salmatius I have run through the book of Salmatius upon Simplicius There is as you say much reading I wonder he disposeth not his thoughts in a better order 'T is sometimes difficult to reconcile him to himself he often disputes about words c. To William Grotius p. 2. Letter 326. Salmatius hath been with me he is dispos'd to defend every thing to the utmost extremity and even maintains that St. Peter never set foot in Italy I wonder the spirit of a Party should have so much strength says he in the same Letter 533. Salmatius is pleas'd to defend Opinions abandoned by all the World for even Blondel who is a Minister in France maintains in a book Printed at Geneva that St. Peter was at Rome He denyes also a Woman was ever Pope but Salmatius affirms it in the same Letter 536. A great friend of Salmatius hath told me a little while since that a Book could not easily be made de lingua Hellenistica Rediviva drawn from this that he saith he is constrain'd to confess in many places that he acknowledges the thing and disputes but of the Name He saith that no body hath remark'd that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answereth to a manner of speaking Latin But I had and even in three places Mat. vi 2. c. in the same book 6921. Daniel Heinsius I have read the Works of Heinsius upon Nonnus which was not worth my while for others have said several
things which he remarks upon Iohn I find that speaking of the Trinity he contradicts himself in many places as it happens to those who would know too much upon this matter In the same Let. 149. there are many things which are not to be despis'd in the book of Heinsius but he hath not drawn a few thereof out of the Epistles of Scaliger and the Works of Peucerus of Fuller and Selden without naming them The more I consider him the more I find that those who would know more concerning the Trinity than Scripture tells us are punished for their pride The desire they have of contradicting others makes them to contradict themselves See only p. 272. He calleth practice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is really different and not simply according to our manner of conceiving After that he saith that Essence in Trinity is really distinct and the proprieties of the Persons only according to our manner of conceiving c. Let. 152. Grotius censures such like absurdities in his Letters 156. and 157. Ph. Cluvier After having cast my eyes upon the Germany of Cluvier I cannot but approve the application which alwayes produceth some fine thing when it 's applied altogether to one subject He doth not seem to me so haughty as he appear'd in a little book which he had sometime since publish'd yet he shews a great boldness therein A sensible proof of this is that he often blots out and changes words in the antient Writings without following any Manuscript but his conjectures only He hath also much delight to reprehend others and when it 's any that 's still living 't is the more easily to be suffered but he often accuseth Caesar Strabo and several other excellent Authors of great Ignorance c. to Isaack Pontanus Let. 11. P. 2. C. Graswinkelius This Author made an answer to Seldens book Intituled Mare Clausum Here is what Grotius saith on 't Let. 999. 2. par The book of Mr. Graswinkel ought to be very dear unto me seeing it hath cost me 11 l. 1 s. 2 d. Carriage I approve his exactness in gathering all that can serve for his subject He writes even Latin better than the most part of your Authors c. Father Petau the Iesuit Denis Petau saith Grotius hath publish'd three Books de Dogmatibus Theologicis He promiseth more upon other questions more or less necessary He applyes himself to the opinions of the Greek and Latin Fathers and speaks not of the Scholasticks He distinguisheth the Tenets defined by the Church from those upon which it is permitted to say what we will He expounds-them all very well his Books are extream useful Salmatius is abused therein and it 's said it was he who named himself Wallo Messalinus But I could not but laugh to see him call Conrad Vorstius Calvinist Let. 678. p. 2. Mr. Arnaud Doctâ—r of the Sorbon All the World knows that Grotius was very far from the opinions of Mr. Arnaud upon Praedestination and Grace but this hath not hindered Grotius from giving him the praises he deserves This he saith of his book of Frequent Communion Mr. Arnaud will have publick penitence re-established in regard to the publick sins that those who shall make their sins known but by their Confession to the Priest abstain from the Communion untill they are assured that they are amended in it This book was approved by five Archbishops thirteen Bishops and one and twenty Doctors some have already introduced this Custom into their Churches For it is lawful for Bishops to bring again into use the antient Canons even by the Authority of the Council of Trent by the example of Cardinal Berronius Archbishop of Milan who hath been Canonized Let. 669. p. 2. to William Grotius Adververtise your Stationers saith he in the 671. Letter to send for the book of the frequent Communion and to get it Printed anew You will do thereby a good service to Christianity And elsewhere They make it a crime in him for having said in what he has written against a Iesuit that he believes those who feel in themselves their ancient inclinations to vice do not ill to abstain from Communion and that he judgeth that even those who are given but to venial sins do not amiss to abstain and other such like things The antient severity which we are no more able to suffer as one saith annoy'd him Nocuit antiquus rigor cui jam pares non sumus aâ—t ille The Prince of Conde for he hath also Written upon this matter but without adding his name thinks it's believ'd hitherto that if any one hath confessed his sins is in the resolution of never more returning to 'em and to undergo the penitence that will be imposed on him he may morally be assured that he is in a State of Grace and that he doth well to Communicate The Queen demanded the judgment of the Sorbon upon these matters The Parliament and Sorbon think it is against the Laws that a Subject of the King should be constrained to quit the Kingdom especially the Abbot Dubyse Dubysium who going to Rome to justifie himself was immediately put into prison Therefore Mr. Arnaud being a Man of so good a life that his greatest enemies could find nothing to say against him being thirty six years old and submitting himself to the judgment of the See of Rome to the Catholick Bishops and particularly to the Archbishop of Paris and the Sorbon as you may see by what I have sent you we may judge here of his affair adding to these Iudges those which the Pope hath Commissioned for that purpose For my part as I favour those who would reestablish the antient satisfaction I see that the most part of those who favour Mr. Arnaud are Jansenists to wit Calvinists upon matters of Predestination Thus it is that Grotius speaks to his Brother in a Letter dated the 9th of April 1644. Peter Hoofet I have begun to read the History of Hoofet 't is a fine work his expressions after the antient manners of speaking will not please others But Thucydides and Salust have given him the example as well as Tacitus who lived a great while after them Let. 636. 2. p. He also praises the History of Henry the Great Writ in Dutch by the same Author Iustus Vondel This famous Flemish Poet published in 1638. a Tragedy which is acted once a year at Amsterdam entituled Gishrecht van Amstel He dedicated it to Grotius who makes this judgment thereof in a Letter to Vossius the 28th of May the same year Vondel did me a kindness in dedicating unto me as to a man who hath some gust of these sort of things a Tragedy whose subject is noble whose order is excellent and expression fine c. It is a folly not to have in a subject of 300 years the customs of that time represented Thus it is that those of Geneva in a French Edition of Philip de Comines have observ'd every
where where the Author saith that the King heard Mass that he was at the Lords Supper II. These are the chief things of the Criticks which are in the Epistles of Grotius We shall observe in short the Theological matters before our Author was put in Prison being still in possesion of his Employments he Writ several Letters touching the Controversies of Grace and Predestination which then were maintain'd with much heat and which was the occassion of his ruine In Letter 31. p. 1. He quotes some words of St. Ierome whom he saith 't is hard absolutely to excuse of Semipelagianism as well as St. Chrysostome He endeavoureth notwithstanding to give a favourable interpretation thereof Here is one of these passages of St. Ierome drawn from his third book against the Pelagians Vbi misericordia Dei Gratia ex parte cessat arbitrium quod in eo tantum est ut velimus cupiamus placitis tribuamus assensum Iam in Domini potestate est ut id quod cupimus quod laboramus ac nitimur illius ope auxilio implere valeamus Grotius saith that perhaps St. Ierome and the other Fathers who speak thus have call'd Grace but that which renders us holy and acceptable unto God and not that which excites us to do well and which prevents the first motions of our will He speaks more of this preventing Grace in the 31 33 34 and 62. Let. He treats in Epistle 62. and 31. of Predestination and he maintains that on this occasion we ought not to prefer the authority of St. Augustin to that of all the Fathers who lived afore him in the purer Ages of the Church and such as were also troubled with disputes But he clearly maintains that all these Fathers rejected absolute Predestination and maintain'd that God hath predestinated to Salvation those only whom he foresaw would make good use of his Graces and on the contrary hath resolved to Damn those only whom he foresaw would continue impenitent according to the formal Concession of Prosper Disciple to St. Augustin Retractatis priorum de hac re opinionibus paene omnium par invenitur una sententia qua propositum praedestinationem Dei secundum praesentiam receperunt He cites upon this occasion divers passages of Iustin Martyr St. Irenaeus St. Chrysostom and several others But these things may be seen treated on more at large in the Pelagian History of Vossius which our Author approveth of in several places of his Letters Moreover he treats of Liberty Universality and Sufficiency of Grace of Perseverance and of the certainty of Salvation in Letter 62. But as he speaks of these difficult matters only by the by to comprehend well the sentiment of the Remonstrants which he maintains thro' the whole we should read in those amongst their Doctours who have treated thereof ex professo as Episcopius de Courcelles c. Grotius seems to have believed in his Youth that the Socinians were far from deserving the name of Christians and merited not barely to be called Hereticks as appears by a Letter Written in 1611. to Anthony Walaeus But afterwards he was of another mind on this occasion tho' he always protested that he was not of their opinions touching the Divinity and satisfaction of Jesus Christ. He cou'd not however hinder his being suspected of having too much inclination to their opinions tho' he took great care to Write the contrary to his Friends See Letters 880 883 1035. P. 1.411.456 P. 2. He assures us in this last Letter that after having had some Conversations with Ruarus this Unitarian had in fine answered him upon the Article of satisfaction so that there scarcely remain'd any Controversie amongst them Alios quosdam adds he afterwards qui in illo caetu fuerunt plene ad meam perduxi sententiam This may be seen in their Confession of Faith and in the Apology which they made about it a little after This renders one thing credible enough which Grotius saith in the same Letter which he had learned of Bisterfeldius and of some others viz. that Crellius said on his death-bed that he would never have undertook to Write against his book of the satisfaction of Iesus Christ if we had read what Grotius had remarked in his Book de jure Belli ac Pacis concerning the Communication of Punishments The same thing happened to our Author in respect to the Roman Catholicks as it did in regard to Socinianism As he grew mild concerning the opinion of the Socinians which was the cause why his Enemies accused him of being an Unitarian so he growing more moderate in regard to the Roman Catholicks he was accused of being of their Communion It may be seen by some Letters Written in his Youth that he had the same sentiments of the Roman Church as the generality of Protestants tho' he was then more moderate than several Reformed Divines See his Letters 14. and 15. of the 1. p. and the 15th of the 2. p. There is also a Letter from Paris of the 7th of Iune 1622. wherein he exhorts Episcopius to refute the grounds of the followers of Cassander who maintain that those who disapprove most of the errors of the Roman Church ought not for that to separate themselves from it's Communion He saith that we ought principally to examine two questions against these Gentlemen the first is to know if an action permitted of it self such as is genuflection in Communicating becomes unlawful by the Interpretation which those give it who govern the Church that this action hath Jesus Christ for an Object present under the accidents of Bread or even the visible Signs the other to know if it be lawful for one to joyn with an Assembly whose Pastours maintain certain Tenets which are disapproved are necessary to enter into their Communion tho' they exact not of Particulars a distinct profession But Grotius believeth that it 's needless to prove against these Gentlemen that the Pope hath not the whole Authority which the Court of Rome attributes to him because they do agree therein He saith that they bow not their knee before the Images that they shun the Processions wherein the Eucharist is carried that they hold the belief of the Invocation of Saints and that of Purgatory as Opinions that are unnecessary as they do not hold themselves obliged to embrace the definitions of the Latin Church and that they place the force which is used to make them to be received in the Rank of Persecutions which good Men ought to suffer as well as the denying of the Cup. It seems that in process of time the Correspondence which Grotius had with some of those whom he calls Cassandrians made him almost of their Opinions as may be seen by the notes upon the Consultation of Cassander and the other books which he published touching the means of reuniting Religious He testifies in many places of these Letters that he desired passionately the Reunion of Protestants amongst themselves
was Ambassador to the Court of Swedland he notwithstanding doth advance divers things which are contrary to what Grotius saith himself in his Letters He saith for example that Grotius being vext because Cardinal Richelieu had cut off his Pension the first time he was in France and had caused him thus to leave it See not the Cardinal under this fine pretence that he helped not the Ambassadors It 's what Mr. Aubery calls an unconceivable stand or for a better expression a Dutch obstinacy which hindered his reconciliation with this potent Minister tho' he had a very great need of him for his service in his particular affairs so that he treated but with the subaltern Ministers Grotius saith on the contrary that he saw him pretty often and relates some discourses he had with him as may be seen in 1. p. letter 491 505 535. and elsewhere There is no great likelihood that Grotius gave the Chancellor of Swedeland long relations of any affairs which he had negotiated as he saith with the Cardinal himself if he had never seen him during his Residence in France as Mr. du Maurier assures But it seems this Author hath confounded the Cardinal of Richelieu with Cardinal Mazarin of whom Grotius thus speaketh in a Letter dated the 26th of September 1643. I have caused your Letters to be given to Cardinal Mazarin I shall not see him without an Order from our Queen because at his own house he gives not the hand to the Ambassadors of Crowned heads and being treated with the Title of Eminence he treats not again with that of Excellence pretending to be equal to Kings according to the Opinions of the Court of Rome and very difficultly yields precedency to Princes of the Blood Mr. du Maurier also says another thing which is not conformable to the Letters of Grotius viz. that the Ministers of Charenton who despised Grotius during the time he was but a private man in France used him quite another way when he was Ambassador of Swedland Having considered saith this Author that it would be a very great honour to them that an Ambassador of so considerable a Crown should be present at their Assemblies they sent unto him one of their Ministers with the Elders of the Consistory to pray him to honour their Sermons with his presence telling him that the very Lutherans were of late admitted to their Communion by an Act of the last Synod of Charenton hut he answered them haughtily that they having neglected him whilst he was a private man and a Refugee he would neglect them in his turn being Ambassador It 's very well known that the Ministers of Charenton endeavoured to draw Grotius to their Assemblies from the first time that he was in France but as we see nothing of it in these Letters we do not at all rely upon it It 's true some were deputed to Grotius as he says himself in the Letters 378. p. 1. 340 and 350. p. 2. but he refused not to go to the Sermons of Charenton after the manner which Mr. du Maurier saith he thus tells us himself he received the Deputies of Charenton Letter 350. p. 2. I have had this day at my House three Learned Reformed Ministers le Faucheur Minister of Montpellier and Mertrezat and Daille Ministers of this Church They desired me to join my self to their Communion and told me that what was in times past established at Alez and Charenton being changed by new rules wherein Lutherans are admitted to the Communion they hoped we should hold their Confession for a Christian Confession as they had the same opinion in respect to the Remonstrants that they remembred what I formerly writ against Sibrandus to wit that I should be very much surprized if the Reformed refused the Communion to Chrysostome and Melanchton if they came again into the World That they had read and approved my whole Book of the Truth of the Christian Religion and the admonition I gave at the end to Christians to bring them to an agreement I told'em I was satisfied with what they said being conformable to my maxims that the opinion of Melanchton had always extreamly pleased me and that I had sufficiently shewn it that as to what concerns Ecclesiastical Peace I knew well that it ought not to be troubled by a turbulent manner of acting That there should be free conferences amongst the learned They also said that they endeavoured to bring the Remonstrants of Holland into their Communion and that they had written about it to M. Rivet that they were become more prudent with time and that they hoped that the Dutch after having well examined their reasons would do somewhat in their favour After having said these things on each side I added that I was ready to testifie by the external signs the Communion of the Spirit in which I had always joined with them and that it was never my fault that it was not so that if I went into a Country where Lutherans knowing my opinions of the Eucharist would receive me into their Communion I would make no difficulty to communicate with them They approved this conduct Grotius seemed after this to be inclined to go to communicate at Charenton but there was an obstacle which never could be taken away that hindered him 't was that Grotius would have had a distinct place in the Temple and to be received there in the quality of Ambassador of Swedland which the Consistory of Charenton would not grant him Grotius complains thereof in these terms in Letter 358. I am surprized at the inconstancy of these people who having invited to their Communion the Lutherans say that they cannot receive an Ambassador of Swedland in the Quality of Ambassador because of the difference which is between the sentiments of that Kingdom and theirs Grotius notwithstanding in the Letters which we have cited praiseth the moderation of the Ministers of Charenton But here is a good character of Mr. Daille in Letter 232. p. 2. A Roman Catholick having put several questions to M. Daille in a Letter and amongst other things why the Reformed had condemned the Arminians he answered that seeing peace was oftentimes offered to the Lutherans who are of the same opinions it was not so much the Arminians who had been condemned as Arminianism I fear saith Grotius that those who are here stronger than they shall say one day that they drive not away the Calvinists but Calvinism which I pray God may not befal them M. du Maurier relates a pleasant History of a Lutheran Minister that Grotius had at his House whom he names Doctor Ambreus whereas Grotius complains of Brandanus Letter 840. p. 1.410 p. 2. He saith that this Ambreus instead of expounding purely and simply the Word of God flung himself into controversie with so much violence that his Sermons were full of invectives which Grotius being at last weary of exhorted him to expound the Gospel without wounding Christian Charity Upon which Doctor
made a Priest by Innocent the first being retired to Marseilles began to compose Books by which sweetening a little the Sentiments of Pelagius wâ—om he also condemned as a Heretick he gave birth to the opinions to which were since given the Name of Semi-pelagianism His Sentiments may be seen in his Collations or Conferences that St. Prosper hath refuted and maintain'd against the pure Pelagianism Here in a few words is what they were reduced unto I. The Semi-pelagians allowed that men are born corrupted and that they cannot withdraw from this Corruption but by the assistance of Grace which is nevertheless prevented by some motion of the Will as by some good desire whence they said nâ—cum est velle credere Dei autem gratiae est adjuvare to Will to Believe dependeth of me but it 's the Grace of God that helpeth me God according to them expecteth from us these first motions after which he giveth us his Grace II. That God inviteth all the World by his Grace but that it dependeth of the Liberty of men to receive or to reject it III. That God had caused the Gospel to be preached to Nations that he foresaw would embrace it and that he caused it not to be preached to Nations that he foresaw would reject it IV. That notwithstanding he was willing all should be saved he had chosen to Salvation none but those that he saw wou'd persevere in Faith and good Works V. That there was no particular Grace absolutely necessary to Salvation which God gave only to a certain number of men and that men might lose all the Graces they had received VI. That of little Children which died in their Infancy God permitted that those only should be baptized who according to the foreknowledge of God would have been pious if they had lived but on the contrary those that were wicked if they came to a more advanced Age were excluded from Baptism by Providence VII The Semi-pelagians were yet accused to make Grace entirely outward so that according to them it chiefly consisted in the preaching of the Gospel but some of them maintained that there was also an interiour Grace that Pelagius himself did not totally reject Others allowed that there was preventing Grace So it seemeth that the difference that was betwixt them and Pelagius consisted only in this that they allowed Men were born in some measure corrupt and also they pressed more the necessity of Grace at least in words Tho' the difference was not extreamly great he notwithstanding anathematized Pelagius But this they did it 's like in the supposition that Pelagius maintained all the opinions condemned by the Councils of Africk St. Augustine accuseth them to have made the Grace of God wholly to consist in Instruction which only regardeth the understanding when as he believ'd it to consist in a particular and interiour action of the Holy Ghost determining us invincibly to Will good this determination not being the effect of our understanding The other Sentiments of this Father are known opposite either to the Doctrine of Pelagius or that of the Semi-pelagians We may be instructed herein particularly in his Books of Predestination and Perseverance that he writ at the entreaty of St. Proâ—per against the Semi-pelagians and in the works of the latter To come back to the History 't is said that in the year Ccccxxix one Agricola Son of Severiaenus a Pelagian Bishop carried Pelagianism into England but St. Germain Bishop of Auxerre was sent hither by Pope Celestin or by the Bishops of the Gauls and extirpated it suddenly Several miracles are attributed to him in this Voyage and in the stay he made in England as Vsher observes But if what Hector Boetius saith a Historian of Scotland who lived in the beginning of the past Age be true he used a means that is not less efficacious for the extirpation of Heresie which was that the Pelagians that would not retract were burned by the care of the Magistrates But whilst St. Germain purified England the Seeds of Pelagianism that Cassian had spread amongst the Monks of Marseille and in the Narbonick Gaul caused it likewise to grow in France St. Prosper and Hilary had writ of it to St. Augustine and had specified it to him that several Ecclesiasticks of the Gauls looked upon his opinions as dangerous novelties St. Augustine answered to their objections in the books which we lately have named but the support that Hilary Bishop of Arles and Maxim Bishop of Riez granted to the Semi-pelagians hindered any body from molesting them tho' they shewed much aversion for the Doctrine of St. Augustine Iulian and the other Bishops banished as I have already observ'd from Italy were gone to Constantinople where they importuned the Emperour to be re-established but as they were accused of Heresie he would grant them nothing without knowing the reasons why they were banished Nestorius Bishop of Constantinople writ about it to Celestine who answered him after a very sour manner and as if it had not been permitted to be informed of the reason of their condemnation reproaching him at the same time with his particular Sentiments His Letter is dated the 12. of August in the year Ccccxxx. It was at that time that St. Augustine died whose Elogium may be found in our Author who approveth of the praises that Fulgentius giveth him in his 2. Book of the Truth of Predestination where he speaks of him as Inspired A little after his death the Letters of Theodosius that had called him to the Council of Ephesus arrived in Africk whence some Bishops were sent thither In the year Ccccxxxi the 22. of Iune this Council composed of CCX Bishops was assembled for the Condemnation of Nestorius Cyril of Alexandria presided there and whilst it was holding Iohn Bishop of Antioch was assembled with 30. other Bishops who made Canons contrary to those of this Council The particulars were that the party of Cyril and that of Iohn reciprocally accused each other of Pelagianism but the greater part approved of the Deposition of Iulian and other Bishops of Italy that Nestorius had used with more mildness He is accused to have been of their opinion and to have maintained that Jesus Christ was become the Son of God by the good use he made of his Free-will in reward whereof God had united him to the Everlasting Word This was the cause that in this Council Pelagianism and Nestorianism were both condemned together But notwithstanding all this and the cares of three Popes Celestinus Xystus and Leo the first Semi-pelagianism was upheld amongst the Gauls It may be that the manner wherewith Celestine writ to the Bishops of France contributed to it because that tho' he condemned Pelagius with heat and praised St. Augustine he said at the end of his Letter that as to the deep and difficult Questions which were found mingled in this Controversie and which were treated at length by those that opposed the Hereticks that as
of wit It 's notwithstanding most true that nothing more useful could have been imagined nor more proper for the acquisition of the Knowledge of Plants One finds for example walking in a Garden a Plant never seen before and hath none to tell him the Name on 't and knoweth not whether it be a Forreign or Native one If he had the most exact and the most universal Herbal that can be imagined it may be he may look it all over without finding the Plant he seeks for unless he takes the pains to read all the Descriptions after one another and to compare this Plant with the Figures he may probably spend too much time unless by chance he meets it on a sudden On the contrary according to the method of Mr. Raius he only need take notice of the marks whereof we now speak and to seek for the Plant in Question in his Herbal amongst those that are of a like Character If it hath been described it will be infallibly found in the Rank and under the kind it ought to be Not but that there are Anomal Plants that one cannot tell where to range them but if any of this Nature be found it must be sought for in a particular book of the second Tome of Mr. Raius where he hath put those whose Character was ambiguous The Author having made a Collection of all those who have written before him whether of the Plants of Europe Asia of Africk or America it may be said that nothing will scape this Herbal when there are Figures That will undoubtedly render it a little dear but whatever it costs when all these Figures will be in it it will not cost the tenth part of what all the Herbals would which it comprehendeth There are divers which are no more to be found or which are extreamly dear as Fabius Columna which is but a small one in 4 to This is the Judgment of a Botanist which Mr. Raius knoweth not Nothing is to be added but 1. There will be found in this Volume the Abridgement of the History of Plants of Mexico by Francis Hernandez 2. The Reader ought moreover to remark in general the method of Mr. Raius that it hath been invented but to avoid Confusion and to help the Memory It would be ridiculous to imagine that by the means of some Divisions and Subdivisions drawn from the exteriour figure of Plants their nature is throughly known as the Philosophers of Schools imagined to know all by the means of the Vniversals and Categories into which they reduced well or ill all the Beings that they knew They did the same thing as a man would do who for to know the forces of an Army would carefully observe what colours the Cloaths of the Souldiers were that shou'd compose it and should believe he could judge thereby of the enterprizes of this Army The Truth is that we know but the outside of things and some of the Effects they produce whilst the inside remains in such Obscurity as all our Knowledge cannot dissipate so we cannot distinguish the Species but by some outward appearances which cannot be so much as described but very grosâ—â— A Body of Canon Law with the Notes of Peter and Francis Pitheas Brothers Sold at Paris 1687. in Folio 2. Volume and at Rotterdam By Reinier Leers THis new Edition of the Works of Peter and Francis Pitheas is added by the care of Mr. Pellatier Comptroller General of the Kings Exchequer to the Works of Peter Pitheas his great Grand-Father This Family was originally of Normandy and we find the Name of William Pitheas in the Catalogue of the Gentlemen of that Province who made the Voyage to the Holy Land in the year 1190. since they retired into the Countrey and Peter Pitheas who was Advocate in the Parliament of Paris rendered himself so famous by his profound Learning that they called him the Varro of his Age. He was afterwards Procurer General of the Chamber of Justice the King established in Guyenne and after having refused the same place in Catalonia he returned to Paris where he contributed much to the Resubmission of this great City under the Obedience of King Henry the fourth The most part of his and his Brother Francis's Works had been printed But there were some others upon which Francis wrought since the death of his Brother and not having time to print them he gave them to Anthony Alain his Friend who kept them a long time and at last they came into the hands of Mr. Pelletier who knowing how precious the Relicks of these great men of Letters are hath himself assisted in the Work and given the publick this mark of his Love to Sciences So we find in this Edition with another in Folio of Francis Pithou which is the Codex Canonum vetus Ecclesiae Romanae notis illustratus Parisiis ex Typographia Regia 1687. Many pieces that had not appear'd which are enlarged with many fine Notes Two Treatises with necessary Indexes of William Seldens of Utrecht about the use and abuse of Books Amsterdam at Booms 1688. p. 520 IF there be Plagiaries who attribute unto themselves the works of others whether it is in translating them into another Language or in publishing the same things in another order and under another Name the Publick may be assured that Mr. Selden is not of this number He attributes not his Works to the fertility of his imagination and suffers us not to doubt that they are fruits of his reading For almost at every Period he cites the Authors whence he hath taken what he saith We see therein passages of Scripture Fathers Scholastick Doctors Canonists Catholick and Protestant Divines Lawyers Physicians Philosophers Historians ancient and modern Poets Humanists Criticks c. And in case the Citations are as faithful as they appear exact this work may be very useful to find passages or Authorities which men want sometimes we shall briefly explain the Subject thereof It is divided into two parts the first whereof treats in nine Chapters of those who love Books 1. He begins by relating the Names of some persons who have Written or became famous by their Works and then passeth to the manner of describing how the Books of the Ancients were made the matter and form of their Volumes after which he sheweth that the fair sex is not destitute of learned Persons and that well ordered study cannot be displeasing to Women 2. The multitude of Books is the subject of the second Chapter He speaks herein of those Libraries which have made most noise and of the Invention of Printing He examines whether this prodigious quantity of Writings and great Reading spoils sound sense 3. He gives rules to prevent the falling upon bad Authors by marking 1. That we ought not to Write with haste 2. That we ought to propose general maxims and leave the application thereof to the Reader which is the Origin of Apologies and Fables 3. That the Style ought to
Mosques and to see their Priests call People to Prayer from the top of the Building but the first time that the Priest was doing this Functions there were so many Stones thrown on that side that obliged him to come down in haste and after this Mutiny there was none put to do this Office The King of Persia's Patience is to be more admired here than the Georgias Zeal For tho they have neither Piety nor Vertue the meer Passions of the Machine or Body may naturally produce Sallies and Religious Extravagances it was a thousand times observed That the most Prosâ—igate when let loose on the persecuted Party by the chief Persecutors were those that shewed most Zeal The Capucins of Tifflis are very near as lewd as the Theatins of Mingrelia their capacity in Physick and Chymistry is of more use to them than any they can have in Controversy and they do not maintain their Embassies as they told M. Chardin for any Benefit they reap but meerly for the Glory of the Roman Church which would not be Universal say they if it had not Ministers in all parts of the Inhabited World they have the Popes leave to receive Pay for their Cure which they turn to good Profit they have power to absolve from any sin and to disguise themselves to sell and buy and to receive and set at interest The Zeal of the Georgians for their Fast is so unreasonable that they do not believe one a Christian that does not Fast as they do which obliges the Capucins to fast the Georgian way and to abstain from Hares Tortoises and other things which the Georgians abhor There is also at large the Patent which the King of Persia sent to M. Chardin full of Pride and indeed generally the Eastern Princes assume the highest Titles that can be conceived I believe that for the honour of Europe and Christendom every one ought to know what Spirit guides them in the East for when that is not known we are thought the most ridiculous People in the World which is false for these in Asia surpass us and if we keep our selves as we are they will always excel us in that particular there was lately published which was well done a strange Legend of pompous Titles which the Kings of Siam give themselves the Author being minded to shew That the Eastern Nations are infinitely more vain than all the other he has inserted in his Journal the Translation of a Letter from the Prince of Georgia to Iohn Casimer King of Poland but because the Patent of the King of Persia is dressed with much form there is care taken to expound all after an Instructive manner I will meddle but with this Point the Persians have this way never to place the Name of God at the bottom of a Leaf they put it at top and at the side and leave a Blank whereto it relates and they make a great business of this Circumspection And they take the same care for their King's and chief Ministers Names in all their Law Papers and in Petitions and Publick Acts. The Author being invited by the Prince of Georgia to a great Nuptial Feast gives us the Description of it which among other curious Circumstances has this that the Prefect of the Capucins all in white and very old was obliged to play upon the Virginals before the Guests and to sing at the same time he sung first the Magnificat the Te-Deum and the Tantum ergo and then the Tunes of the Court in Italian and Spanish because the Hymns did not enough delight this Mahometan Prince This Consort lasted 2 hours during which M. Chardin that found it very mean learned of a Steward that the Mahometan Faith did not permit the use of Musick and above all prohibits it in Matters of Religion there being nothing but the voice of Man wherewith God will be praised The Prince asking how the King of Spain his Cousin did occasioned the Authors Learning that Clement the 8th writing to a Prince of Georgia and saying that Philip the Second was his Cousin gave way to this pretension of Kindred and that the Iberians and Spaniards were Brothers Before M. Chardin quitted Tifflis he had the complaisance on the Account of a Capucin to write in his Table Book several Secrets of an Old Woman that practis'd Physick His Journey from Tifflis to Irivan was very tiresom Irivan is a Town of Armenia whereof he gives us the Description it is the most considerable Government of the Kingdom The Revenues producing near 500000 Crowns yearly without reckoning the 200000 which it raises by indirect ways he that was in possession of it then was called Sefi-Couli-can the Dukes Slave of Sefi the Name of Slave which really belongs to the Subjects of the Eastern Princes is a Name of Honour in Persia Chacouli or Coulom-cha which signifies Slave of the King iâ— as honourable a Title as that of Marquess in France The Slaves of the King have at the Persian Court almost the same imployments that ordinary Gentlemen have at that of France they are Children of Quality that are engag'd very young in that Service as well for the profit that they receive as that they the sooner have admittance to the Court as for the rest the Persian Eloquence does not flatter ill the Vanity of that Nation when to signify that an Embassador has saluted the King they say He has kiss'd the King's Slaves Feet and for to say That a Prince has done some great Action they say The Princes Slaves have done a great Action The Author imagines That this is copied from the Alcoran wherein the Works of God are often called the Works of Angels the Mahometans maintain that it expresses more nobly the Works of God for if they that are but Servants are capable of forming the World what will not he do that is Master The Governour of Irivan seems to have much Merit for several Reasons but before he is spoke of Mr. Chardin rehearses several considerable Points of the Tradition of that Country which is of great Service to the Christians of Europe because it shews that those of Asia make far more idle Stories some of these Traditions relate to Noahs Ark. I shall be easily pardoned if without stopping at these things I acquaint my Reader that M. Chardin shews us very curious things concerning the Couriers of the King of Persia and of the Persian Marriages Their Morals upon the Chapter of Women is the most licentious in the World For they may have four they may buy or hire as many as they will and use them as Treasure without breach of Civil or Ecclesiastick Law There are but few nevertheless that Marry more than one Wife and they find it more to their advantage not to trouble their Houses with Jealousies of several Heads whereof every one would be Mistress and to diversifie their Pleasures cheaper by the number of Slaves which they bring up to be their Concubins without
of Solid Piety and very fit to remove the Abuses whereunto Superstition wou'd engage ' em The Bishop of Mysia Suffragan of Cologne the Vicar General of that City the Divines of Gant Malines and Lovain all approved it Nevertheless the Iesuite assures that That Writing scandalized the good Catholicks that the Learned of all Nations refuted it that the Holy See condemned it and that in Spain it was prohibited to be printed or read as containing Propositions suspected of Heresie and Impiety tending to destroy the particular Devotion to the Mother of God and in general the Invocation of Saints and the Worship of Images There are now near 10 Years past since M. Meaux kept us in Expectation of Mr. Noguier and M. Bastides Refutation but at length instead of an Answer in form there only appeared a second Edition of his Book bigger by half than the first by an Addition of an Advertisement in the beginning of it One may soon judge that it does not cost so much pains to compose 50 or 60 pages in Twelves as the taking of the City of Troy did But tho' the time was not very long it was too long to oblige all that time the Pope and the Court of Rome to give their Approbation to a Book so contrary to their Maxims Without doubt the Secret was communicated to them and they were assured That as soon as the Stroke was given and the Hugonots converted either by fair or foul means what seemed to be granted would be recalled Some Roman Catholicks worthy of a better Religion suffered thro' the ignorance of this Mystery A Prior of Gascogne Doctor in Divinity called M. Imbert told the People that went to the Adoration of the Cross on Good Friday in 83. That the Catholicks adored Iesus Christ crucifyed on the Cross but did not adore any thing that they saw there The Curate of the Parish said it was the Cross the Cross but M. Imbert answered No no it is Iesus Christ not the Cross. This was enough to create trouble this Prior was called before the Tribunal of the Arch-bishop of Bordeaux and when he thought to defend himself by the Authority of M. Meaux and by his Exposition what was said against that Book was objected to him that it moderated but was contrary to the Tenets of the Church After which he was suspended from Ecclesiastical Functions the Defendant provided an Appeal to the Parliament of Guienne and writ to M. de Meaux to implore his protection against the Arch-Bishop who threatned him with a perpetual Imprisonment and Irons it is not known what became of it The History of M. de Witte Priest and Dean of St. Mary's of Malines is so well known that I need not particularize upon it Our Author refers us here to what the Journals have said It is known what Persecutions he has suffered for expressing the Popes Supremacy and Infallibility according to M. de Meaux's Doctrine He did not forget to alledge that Bishops Authority and to say That his Exposition required no more of a Christian and an Orthodox but this did not hinder the University of Lovain to judge that Proposition pernicious and scandalous that intimates that the Pope is not the Chiefest of Bishops In the mean time the Reformed did not forget M. de Meaux his Advertisement did no sooner appear but it was refuted by Mr. de la Bastide and Mr. Iurieâ— a little after made his Preservative against the change of Religion in opposition to that Bishops Exposition But all these Books and those that were writ against his Treatise of the Communion under the two Kinds had no Answer this Prelate expecting booted Apologists who were to silence his Adversaries in a little time The Roman Catholicks of England notwithstanding their small number flattered themselves with hopes of the like Success having at their head a bold couragious Prince and one that would do any thing for them They had already translated M. Condom's Exposition of 1672 and 1675 into English and Irish and as soon as they saw King Iames setled on his Brothers Throne they began to dispute by small Books of a leaf or two written according to the method of the French Bishop The Titles with the Answers and the several Defences of each Party may be had in a Collection printed this present Year at London at Mr. Chiswells which is Entituled A Continuation of the present State of Controversy between the English Church and that of Rome containing a History of the printed Books that were lately published on both sides The Gentlemen of the Roman Church did begin the Battel by little Skirmishes but found themselves after the first or second firing without Powder or Ball and not able to furnish scattered Sheets against the great Volumes made against them said at last instead of all other answer that the little Book alone entituled The Papist Misrepresented and there represented a-new was sufficient to refute not only all the Dissertations which the English Divines lately published against Papists but all the Books and Sermons that they ever preached against Catholicks It is to no purpose to take the trouble of Disputing against people that have so good an Opinion of their Cause And in consequence of this the English answer to M. de Meaux's Exposition and the Reflections on his Pastoral Letter of 1686. met with no Answer as well as several other Books But Dr. Wake had no sooner published his Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England but these Gentlemen which know better to assault than to defend made a Book Entituled A Vindication of the Bishop of Condom 's Exposition with a Letter of that Bishop Because we do not design to enter on the particulars of these Controversies we will only take notice as to what past That First M. de Meaux denyed that any Roman Catholick writ against or did design to write against it Secondly That Sorbonne did not refuse approving his Book Thirdly He says his Exposition was reprinted to alter those places which the Censurers had improved and maintains that it was put into the Press without his knowledge and that he had a new Edition made only to change some expressions that were not exact enough Fourthly That he neither read nor knew any thing of Father Cresset's Book Dr. Wake published the Defence of his Exposition about the middle of the same year 1686 where he shews First That the deceased Mr. Conrait a Man acknowledged by both Parties to be sincere had told many of his Friends that he saw this Answer in Manuscript and other persons of known honesty that are still living assured the Author that they had this Manuscript in their hands Dr. Wake justifies his Accusations on the 2d and 3d heads by so curious a History that it seems worthy of being believed He says that one of his Acquaintance who was very familiar with one of Marshall de Turenne's Domesticks was the first that discover'd this Mystery For this
Domestick shewing his Friend in his Masters Library the suppressed Edition of M. de Meaux's Exposition with Marginal Notes which he assured him were Written by the hands of some of the Doctors of Sorbonne the Friend desired to borrow the Book which the Servant consented to So strange an accident made the borrower use his utmost care to get a Copy of the First Edition but there was such care taken to suppress it that all he could do was but to gather up some loose Leaves whereof he almost made an entire Book and copyed what he wanted out of M. Turenne's Original which he then restored to the Servant it is this same Copy which Mr. Wake has with his Certificate that gather'd it and compared it with the Mareschal's Copy It is not at all likely that Mr. Cramoisi Director of the Printing-House at the Louvre should Print a Book of Importance without the knowledge and good-will of the Author that was a Bishop and Tutor to the Dauphin and a great Favorite at Court and it is more unlikely that Mr. Crà moisi should obtain the King's leave and the Approbation of the French Prelates for a subreptitious Copy And why did not M. de Meaux shew his resentment for a boldness of this nature And how came he to give this Printer not only the Corrected Copy but also all the other Books that he made since We must examin but Fourteen places of the First Edition taken notice of by Dr. Wake to see whether the alteration that M. de Meaux made in it did only concern the exactness and neatness of the style First Edit p. 1. Thus it seems very proper to propose the Doctrine of the Catholick Church to the Reformers in separating the Questions which the Church hath decided from those which belong not to her Faith Second Edit p. 1. It seems that there can no better way be taken than simply to propose the Doctrine of the Catholick Church and to distinguish them well from those that are falsly imputed to her First Edit p. 7 8. The same Church Teaches That all Religious Worship ought to terminate in God as its necessary end So that the honour which the Church gives to the blessed Virgin and to the Saints is only Religious because this honour is given to them only in respect to God and for the love of him And therefore the honour we render our Saints is so far from being blamable as our Adversaries would have it because it is Religious that it would deserve blame if it were not so M. de Meaux has thought it expedient to blot out the last period and to express himself thus in his common Editions p. 7. And if the honour that is rendred to Saints can be called Religious it is because it regards God In the same place speaking of M. Daille the Author expressed it after a very ingenious manner but little favourable to his cause As for Mr. Daille said he he thought that he ought to keep to the Three first Ages wherein it is certain that the Church then was exercised more in Suffering than Writing and has left many things both in its Doctrine and Practice which wants to be made clearer This Acknowledgment was of importance and the Censurers had reason to note it and has not been seen since All the other Alterations are as considerable as these and Dr. Wake protests he could mention more if he were minded to shew all the places wherein the Manuscripts differed from the common Editions The Author may judge whether these be words or things that M. de Meaux has corrected but as to Father Cresset it may be said that this Bishop has strained his boldness to such a degree that none dares give him the Epithet it deserves Is it possible that this Author should not have heard of a great Volume in Quarto Writ against the profitable advice of the Blessed Virgin since the Pastoral Letter of the Bishop of Tournay who approved this last Book has caused such long Disputes in France Can it be supposed that M. de Meaux was ignorant that the Opinion of this Jesuit was contrary to his Exposition After M. de la Bastide reproached him with it in his Answer to the Advertisement And that the Author of the General Reflexions on his Exposition and M. Iurieu in his Preservative have made great Extracts out of the Book of The True Devotion Since Mr. Arnaud laughed at Father Cresset in his Answer to the Preservative and Mr. Iurieu refuted his Adversary in the Iansenist convicted of vain Sophistry That Mr. Imbert in his Letter to this Bishop offered to refute the Preservative provided he might be secured that no violence should be done him and that he might have the liberty of saying what he thought In fine after that he himself Answered divers passages of the Preservative in his Treatise of the Communion under both kinds Let us add to all this what M. de Meaux had the confidence to advance in his Pastoral Letter upon the Persecution of France I do not wonder says he my dear brethren that you are come in such great numbers and so easily into the Church none of you have suffered violence either in his Body or Goods And so far from suffering Torments that you have not heard talk of any I hear that other Bishops say the same Let this notorious falshood be compared with the Apology for the Persecution which this Prelate made in a Letter to one of his Friends that I read my self Writ and Signed by his own hand The Original whereof a certain Author proffered to shew him And it will be acknowledged that one may be very hard upon the Catholick Religion without committing so gross a contradiction But why should we stay so long upon the discovering the mystery of the Composition the Gentleman had done it himself without thinking of it Confessing that he weighed all his words and racked his Invention to cheat the simple At least this is what they that understand French will soon perceive in reading this period of his Advertisement In the mean time the Italian Version was mended very exactly and with as much care as a Subject of that importance deserved wherein one word turned ill might spoil all the Work Though one must be very dull to look upon these pious Cheats as a sincere dealing M. de Meaux was so fearful lest he might be thought to abolish some abuses and to labour to reform his own Church that he has lately given evident proofs of the hatred that he always bore the Protestants and which he thought fit to hide under an affected mildness until the Dragoon Mission It was in the History of Variations that he unmasked himself and shewed him what he was by the Injuries and Calumnies which he cast upon the Protestants and has given a Model of the manner how he deserves to be treated There were Three Months past when Dr. Burnet whom this Bishop attacked without any cause made
Christ which according to Calvin descends not from Heaven The vertue of the Mind being sufficient to penetrate through all impediments and to surmount the distance of Places He cites several other places of Beza of Martyr and many English Doctors by which it appears that they did not believe the Body of Iesus Christ properly descended from Heaven into the Eucharist or is in divers places at the same time though they say we are nourished hereby through Faith but after an incomprehensible manner Yet it must be granted that if these Great Men understood nothing by nourishing our selves by the flesh of Iesus Christ but to believe that we are saved by his Sacrifice and to feed our selves with this hope or to receive his Spirit it was not necessary to tell us of a miraculous Union of our Spirits with the Body of Iesus Christ notwithstanding the distance of places the Spirit of God being every where and Faith having no relation to local distance there 's nothing in the Spiritual eating of the Body of Iesus Christ taken in the sense we have above-mentioned of Miraculous nor of Incomprehensible more than in other acts of Piety and other Graces which God gives unto us Whether we suppose this or any other method to expound the eating of the Body of Iesus Christ there would be no danger to the Reformation to say that these Learned Men have not had an Idea altogether distinct thereupon or that their Expressions are not exact Although it were granted that they mistook in some things it would not follow that the Romish Church could have justly rejected all their Doctrines or that Protestants are in the wrong by inviolably retaining their Sentiments as far as they are conformable to Holy Scripture and to abandon that wherein they might be deceived We do not make a profession of believing that those who err in one thing are deceived in all or of rejecting every thing they have said because they have not perceived the truth clearly enough in some things Thus all the Objections of this nature might be ruined without undertaking to defend indifferently all that the Reformers may have said seeing it 's agreed on that the Protestant Religion is not founded upon their Authority and that they might be mistaken in inconsiderable things without its being in danger But Dr. Wake thought not convenient to act in this manner He believes that the Reformed never changed their Opinions hereon and for the Divines of Edward and Elizabeth he maintains that they were perfectly of the same opinion which he proves by a passage of the History of the Reformation by Dr. Burnet In the Second Part which is wholly included in the 3d Chapter he answers first to what Mr. Walker affirms to have been allowed by Protestants and maintained against him that he hath not well understood the words of some of the Authors whom he cited that say very well that in Communicating Iesus Christ ought to be Adored but not as Corporally present under the Species of Bread and Wine As for Forbes and Marc-Antony de Dominis it is agreed on that the desire they had of reconciling Religions made them say too much Thorndyke speaks not less vigorously but upon a Hypothesis quite different from that of the Roman Church seeing he believed that the Bread is called the Body of Iesus Christ and the Wine his Blood because by the Consecration they are Hypostatically united to the Divinity of Iesus Christ as well as to his Natural Body It was spoken of in the First Part. To oppose to the Catholick Author Doctors of his own Party they say that Thomas Paludanus and Catharin maintains that it was an enormous Idolatry to Adore the Sacrament without believing Transubstantiation Thus although it is agreed on that if a Consecrated Host is truly Adorable one would not be guilty of Idolatry if one Adored one which should not be Consecrated thinking it once would be so It 's incredible that the Reformed Religion can receive so much prejudice hereby as the Authority of the Catholick Doctors who have been cited because the Reformed deny that a Host can be Adored whether it be Consecrated or not As to the Grounds of this Subject he sends us in his Preface to a Book Entituled A Discourse concerning the Adoration of the Host Printed at London 1685. In the Second place The Catholick Doctrine is briefly examined but as there is none who hath not read divers Treatises upon this Subject we shall insist no longer upon it ORIGINES BRITANNICAE Or the Antiquities of the British Churches with a Preface concerning some pretended Antiquities relating to Britain in vindication of the Bishop of St. Asaph by Dr. Stillingfleet London 1685 in Fol. p. 364. WE should speak of the Preface of this Work wherein the Author refutes the Opinion of the Scots concerning the Antiquity of their Kings if there had not been an Extract made of a Book wherein it is already done and the Principal reasons related with much fidelity It shall suffice to say in general that our Prelate in it defends the Bishop of St. Asaph who in his Relation of the Antient Ecclesiastical Government in Great Britain and in Ireland hath shewn 1. That the Scots could not be in Great Britain so soon as they say 2. That the Historians from whom this is maintain'd are not of sufficient validity for one to rely upon As the Scots may be pardoned the zeal they have for their Country their Neighbours likewise may be suffered to endeavor the refuting them if it be necessary It 's a contestation which as Dr. Stillingfleet observes will not be decided neither by a Combat nor a Process and which hath no influence in matters of Religion or State That which concerns the Antiquities of the British Churches is more considerable by the connection which this matter hath with the important Controversies as it will appear hereafter This nevertheless is but the Proof of a greater Work where the Author endeavors to clear the most important difficulties of Ecclesiastical History Judging that to Write a compleat Ecclesiastical History is a design too great for one Man to accomplish he hath only undertaken to clear some parts thereof and thought he was obliged to begin with that which concerns the Antiquities of the Church whereof he is a Member This Book is divided into Five great Chapters the Abridgment of which you have here 1. It hath been believed for a long time in England that the Gospel was Preached here in Tyberius's Reign But if the short time be considered betwixt the Resurrection of our Lord and the death of this Emperor and that 't is thought during a long while the Apostles Preached the Gospel only to the Iews it will be hard to suppose that in this little distance persons came from Iudea into Britain to Preach the Gospel Some of the Learned of the Church of Rome have by the same Reason refuted the Fabulous Tradition which
upon Holy Writ and its Perfection The Second upon Justification the Third and Fourth upon the Messia and the Fifth upon divers Subjects Amongst the Pieces which have not as yet been published are Nine Discourses delivered at divers times at the opening of the Academy of Groningen Two Dissertations upon the Hebrew Tongue divers Letters or Extracts of Letters which deserve to be Read as much for the matters of Critick which are therein treated as for the moderation which the Author shews upon Controversies which in his time were agitated amongst the Divines of those Provinces and for several Historical Actions which may be there learned To help the Reader to judge of the knowledge of Mr. Alting we shall shew some of the critical Subjects which are treated on in his Letters or in the Pieces which have not yet been published The First Dissertation of the Fifth Heptad is Entituled de Cabbala Scripturaria He first seeks for the Etymology of the word Cabal which is the Name that the Iews give to their Traditions and pretends that even after that God had given his Law by Writing a kind of an Oral Tradition was conserved in the Church as long as there were Prophets and Apostles He adds that after the destruction of Ierusalem the Iews esteem'd another Cabal which they have equalled and even preferred to the first and which is not in the Talmud but in Books a great deal less known whether the Iewish Doctors do keep them hidden or whether their proper obscurity renders them impenetrable In regard to the Practick Cabal which only serves for Magical Operations the Author entirely disapproves thereof but as for the Theoretick where some make Thirteen sorts and others Three as it is a kind of a Symbolick Divinity he will have it to be treated even as Allegories are There 's a great respect due to Allegories whereof the Sacred Writers are the Authors as in Gal. 4.22 But those that have no grounds in Scripture are looked upon with contempt Mr. Alting maintains that we ought to make this use of the Cabal and pretends that in the Old Testament there are divers Transpositions Changes Additions or Retrenchments of Letters which have not been without a Mystery He gives for example the change which God himself made of the Names of Abram and of Sarai into those of Abraham and Sarah He saith these Names were given them by a particular Providence to mark that they should be the Heads of a Holy Generation whence the Messia should spring that it is for this reason that Abram signifies Father raised or rather Father of the raised and that the Name of Sarai shews that this Raised is the Messia the Son of the Soveraign being composed of Sar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of the first Letter of the Name Iehova 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that it signifies a Prince-Lord that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which marks Iehova was in the Name of Sarai and not in that of Abram because it was to the Woman Eve and not to Adam that God made a Promise of the Messia or the Seed which should bruise the Serpent's head That God to reward the Faith of Abram being willing to admit him to the participation of this Promise with Sarai would have them partake of the Sign which was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that they both should have in their Name a Letter of his viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is worth Five or the half of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which stands for Ten. The Author in this Dissertation makes still many Remarks upon divers proper Names and other words of the Bible Written diversly to shew that this came not by chance There are many of these Mystical and surprising Expositions in the Fourth Dissertation of this Heptade de arborum fructiferarum praeputio sanctitate fruitione where our Author Answers to the following Questions according to his Method viz. in relating the Opinion of divers Rabbins and several Famous Divines and then his own These Questions are Why God commanded that for the Three first years of a Tree People should look upon the Fruit of it as polluted and why he forbid the eating of it And why he would have the Fruit of the Fourth year dedicated to himself If these Consecrated Fruits belonged only to Priests and Levites or if all persons which were not polluted or if all unclean persons might eat of them The Second Discourse of the Seventh Heptade treats of the Anointing of the Chief Priests and Kings where the Author mentions the Opinion of the Iews which believed that Moses only made the Holy Oyl because in the Second Temple there was none of this Oyl the Vial wherein it was being lost with the Ark which denoted according to Mr. Alting that the Priesthood and Temporal Reign of the Iews was declining and making room for the Reign and everlasting Priesthood of the Messia This Exposition is founded upon this That the Chief Priests and Kings of the House of David were Consecrated with this Oyl whose Dignity was hereditary and descended to their Children But for the Officers whose Charges were not considerable nor did belong to a certain Family they were not Anointed As for the Kings of Israel after the Schism of Ieroboam either they were Anointed or not if they were as Iehu was it was with another Oyl and not with that which was kept in the Temple of Ierusalem There was much of this Holy Oyl poured upon the Heads of Chief Priests and Kings to Consecrate them but the manner of this pouring was different 'T was poured round the Head of a King in form of a Crown and the Forehead of Chief Priests was Anointed in such a manner that the Traces of the Oyl expressed the Figure of X. The Rabbins troubled themselves to find out the Reason of this Ceremony but our Author finds it not hard to discover it in the Truth of Iesus Christ Sacrificing himself upon the Cross. In a Discourse upon the Leprosie which is the Fifth of the IX Heptade it 's asserted that the Iews believe that the Leprosie is no Contagious Disease but an extraordinary one which God inflicted upon certain persons by an effect of his unsearchable Judgments which they prove by Seven Reasons 1. Pestilential Diseases fall indifferently upon Men and Beasts but the Leprosie has never infected a Beast It 's true that there is talk of the Leprosie of Cloaths and Houses but it 's not well known what that is and 't is believed this kind of Contagion never appeared out of Palestin 2. All Lepers were to present themselves to one Priest who should carefully examin and was obliged to search them strictly But if the Distemper had been Contagious the Priests would have been exposed to great danger because the Labour of their Duty and the Obligation of going bare-foot made them very weak 3. These who were attackt with this Distemper were comers-out amongst the
Christ the Sins which were committed before his coming and which he bore by his patience and that God hath declared in the Gospel how much he loves Justice since he has pardoned Sinners after that his Son their Surety had expiated their Crimes and has even pardoned those which sinn'd before his coming It was objected to Mr. Alting that the sense he gave to the term Paresis was unknown to all Greece He answers to this it is the Custom with the Writers of the New Testament to give Hebrew Significations to Greek Words and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers to the Hegnebbir of the Hebrews nor is it strange that St. Paul has taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Transport To confirm his Opinion the Author brings many Examples of a very extraordinary Signification of the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for which answering to that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chi In Hebrew is employed for although in the following passages Iohn 4.44 Two days after Iesus returned into Galilee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 altho' Iesus had testified himself that no Prophet would be well received in his own Country Rom. 5.7 One would scarce die for a just Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 altho' for a good Man some wou'd even dare to die There are infinite Examples of these Hebraisms Thus the passage of St. Iohn 8.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which has given so much trouble to the Interpreters is a phrase of the Rabbins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lebitchilla tascher ani omer Lachem I am really what I tell you The same Apostle doth not commonly take the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a Greek sense but in a signification which the Rabbins give to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beparhesia which signifies Publickly 50 27 42 44 52. In the 45.50 Mr. Alting proves the necessity of studying the Hebrew Tongue against a Professor who durst maintain in his Publick Lessons that that Tongue was not necessary for Ministers nor for Students in Divinity because St. Augustine and all the Doctors of his time were ignorant of it except St. Ierome who drew upon himself the hatred of all his Contemporaries The same Author writing against the Jew Athias p. 4. according to the citation of Mr. Alting Libros veteris Testamenti partem Bibliorum inutilem dixit potiorem vero sanctiorem novi Testamenti libros that is the Books of the Old Testament are the unprofitable Part of the Bible but that those of the New Testament are the most holy and most considerable Mr. Perizonius designing to refute Spinosa consulted Mr. Alting upon some difficulties which our Professor resolves in his 59. and 50. The first relates to the Authors of the Canon of the Old Testament and 't is asked whether it was Esdras Mr. Alting saith That 't is commonly believed upon the Testimony of Buxtorf who assures us in his Tyberiade That the Members of the great Synagogue assembled to bring into one Body the Canonical Books and that Esdras presided in that Assembly and that the three last Prophets were there accompanied with Mordocheus But Gans David remarks that Simeon the Just who is said to have been the last of the Assembly of this great Synagogue lived eight Generations after Ioshuah Son to Iosadack Add to this that there is no likelyhood that Malachy was Contemporary with Esdras since he doth not speak of the rebuilding of the Temple nor return of the Iews and that he chiefly sticks to reprehend the Priests who corrupted the Law by their Interpretations So that this Prophet seems to have lived about the time of Hillel when the Sect of the Pharisees began to flourish and their Traditions to be in Vogue Parker has remarked that the Fathers of the Church pass'd for Apostolical Traditions customs established by long use whereof the first Author was not known and to which they had a mind to give some Authority The same Remark may be made concerning the Iews There were amongst them Institutions whereof the Authors were uncertain which they attributed to the Members of the great Synagogue and made them come from inspired Men which were but Traditions of the Pharisees The Members of the Synagogue never lived in the same time nor in the same place and that consequently there never hath been such an one It is an invention of the Sticklers for Tradition to give some likelihood to their System The second difficulty regards the numbering of Iews who returned from Babylon to Ierusalem Esdras and Nehemiah agree in a Total Sum which was 42360. but when we our selves will muster up the number of each Family there will be only found 29818 in Esdras and 31089 in Nehemiah There is yet this thing remarkable that Nehemiah mentions 1765 Persons which are not in Esdras and that Esdras has 494 whereof Nehemiah doth not all speak The Difference that seems to make it impossible to reconcile these two Authors is what makes them agree for if you add the Over-plus of Esdras to the number of Nehemiah and the Surplus of Nehemiah to that of Esdras the same Number will come of them both Which being substracted from 42360 there remains 10777. which were not mentioned perhaps because they lost their Genealogical Books being of the Posterity of the Priests Chabaja Cotzi Barzillai or of the Israelites of the Ten Tribes In the sixtieth Letter our Author makes the History of the Canon of the Old Testament Moses saith he committed the keeping of his Books to the Levites Deut. 31.25 and the following and created them as 't were Doctors of the People Deut. xxxiii 10 And it seems that Malacby alludes to this charge Ch. 2. vers 4 5 6 7. Yet these Doctors did not much increase this Bibliotheque until the time of David The Prince assisted with some Prophets divided the Priests and Levites into divers Classes who were to serve by turns But this Order was the cause of a great confusion amongst the holy Levites whereof none took care but when his turn was come Thence proceeds the disorder which is remarked in the Collection of the Psalms David gave them to the Levites who were in their Week according as he composed them each Classis kept those which had been remitted to it In fine there was a Collection made joyning together what each Classis had received without having regard to the Order or time in which they were Written The same thing sometimes hapened in regard to the Sermons of the Prophets Habac. 2.2 which having been intrusted to divers Priests were gathered according to this Method and put into the number of the Sacred Books As in the time of Malachy they began to have too much esteem for Traditions and to attribute unto them an Authority which weakned that of the Sacred Writings this Prophet discover'd the Imposition of the Levites who gave way to these Traditions because it augmented their credit He prohibited for the future that any Writing whatever should be put
used to moderate the severity of Wisdom by honest Recreations to render it amiable and would not have Vertue to be painted with an Austere Face and with a Forehead always wrinkled In short the Soul is so engaged in Sense and Matter that this Philosophy is too fine which in a manner unmans a Man and deprives him of all his Senses This hath made his followers nothing but Idea for they often perceive that they have a Body as other Men have which troubleth and hindreth them so much the more as they have a desire of giving all to the Mind It must therefore be allowed that Wisdom it self may sometimes Laugh without offence Every one knoweth that he admitted for Principle a Vacuum and Atoms The Vacuum because if all was full there would have been no Motion The Atoms because according to him nothing is made of nothing He maintained that the World cannot be eternal because it bears sensible Marks of Novelty We know for Example the birth and progress of Arts and Sciences He pretended that Providence medled with nothing but leaves all things to Chance The Ancients agreed not amongst themselves about the time in which Zoroaster lived and our Author relates all along and at the same time resutes their Sentiments After all he subscribes to the Opinion of those which place it 600. Years before the Expedition of Zerxes against the Greeks which goes back to the Year 3634 from the Iulian Period that is to say about the times of Samuel Very little as yet is known concerning the Life of Zoroaster Plato calls him the Son of Oromazes but this is the Name which Zoroaster of Persia gave to the Divinity whose Son t is said he was for the Veneration he had for him Plin. lib. 36. c. 1. says that he laughed the same day he was born and that his Brain beat with such Violence that it lift up the Hands of such as toucht it a presage of Learning which one day he was to be Master of He liv'd 20 Years in a Desart without growing aged for having wish't to dye by Thunder Heaven heard his Prayer But before that he advertiz'd the Syrians to keep his Ashes very carefully assuring them that their Empire should continue so long as they regarded that Injunction Suidas attributes this Advertisment to Zoroaster of the Chaldeans and Cedrenus to him of the Persians He composed two Millions of Verses which were delivered in Greek and upon which Hermippus made a Commentary But some say that the Oracles upon which Syrianus wrote 12 Books made some of these Verses There are some other Books attributed to him which are evidently supposititious Africanus says that 't was Belus who invented Astronomy and that this Prince lived in the times of Deborah according to this Author Belus began his Raign Anno Mundi 2682. There were yet some other Magi of the Chaldeans who were sufficiently celebrated amongst the Greeks but the Names of 'em are only remaining He who first brought the Sciences of the Chaldees into Greece was Berose a Priest of Belus he taught 'em Astronomy and Philosophy in the Isle of Co and composed three Books in which he finisht the History of the Medes Iosephus preserved some of his Fragments in his Books against Appion they were dedicated to Antiochus under the name of GOD KING OF ASSYRIA under whom he liv'd as Mr. Vossius believes tho other Authors say that he lived under Antiochus Soter We ought yet to take care that we confound not this Berose with that of Annius of Viterbe which every Body knows to be fictitious and full of ridiculous Fables Iustin Martyr assures us that the Babylonian Sybil who gave her Oracles at Cames was his Daughter if it is true then there was another Sybil besides that which lived in the times of Tarquin the Old who lived two hundred and fifty Years before Berose Onuphrius proves that there had been many Sybils Altho the name of Chaldeans properly belonged to a whole Nation yet it was given in particular to certain Philosophers who liv'd retir'd in separate places and were exempt from Imposts and publick Charges They were particular Families which communicated their Knowledg to their Children after such a manner that it spread not to other Families but only passed from Father to Son They might thus perfect their Sciences better than by admitting Strangers in their Schools and 't is said that this practice is now used amongst the Chinese in respect of their Trades The Greeks who have spoken thereof as Strabo distinguish the different Sects of the Chaldeans according to the places where they lived There was of 'em at Hipparena Orchoe Babylon and Borsippa Cities of Mesopotamia and Chaldea They were not all of the same Opinion if we may believe Strabo and Lucretius who says lib. 5. that in case there was no fault of the Copiest in this Work the Babylonians refuted the Doctrin of the Chaldeans touching Astrology Vt Babylonica Caldaeam Doctrina refutans Astrologorum Artem contra convincere tendit The Babylonians gave diverse Names to these Sects and some of 'em may be seen in the Prophet Daniel but the signification thereof is very uncertain Our Author tells us the Conjectures of the Rabbins upon teefe Names 2. He divides their whole Doctrin into four parts The first thereof contains their Speculative Divinity and their Phisicks There was a study as Mr. Stanley believes appropriated to those which were called Chartummim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The second includes their Astrology and art of Divination in which those were employed who were called Chasdim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Mechasephim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The third treats of Theurgie or Natural Magic And the fourth of Divine Worship which was the study of the Asaphim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psellu◠tells us that Zoroaster divided all Beings into three Orders There is one saith he which is Eternal without beginning or end Some have had a beginning which will never end But others shall have an end as they have a beginning Divinity hath for its object the two first Orders And Natural Philosophy the last The Chaldeans affirm'd but one only Principle of all things full of Goodness and Wisdom To represent its perfections they gave it the Name of Fire and of Light which is the Reason that in those Oracles that yet remain amongst us we often find God spoken of in these Synonimous terms The Light the Rays the Brightness of the Father Paternal Fire the only Fire the first and supream of all Fires When any one demanded of 'em after what manner they apprehended the Divinity He Answered that his Body resembled Fire and his Soul the Truth From whence it may be they understood that God was Goodness it self or the Chaldean word which they Translate for Truth signifies Goodness and that it appeared adorned with Fire The Hebrews speak after the same manner when they say God is a Consuming Fire that he is full of
little the better for the very places of Scripture we most frequently alledge because they most commonly respect the Masoretick Bible which we have not room to explain to those who know nothing of these things If therefore such Subjects are fit for Divines to understand then must the Knowledge of the Rabbinical Writings be so likewise 'T is peculiarly incumbent on the Ministry by their Office to defend the Doctrines they teach by the Scriptures But if they are unable to defend the Scriptures the only Evidence and Proof of their Doctrines the Christian Religion with the Doctrines thereof must fall to the ground And yet this Position That the present Hebrew Bible and Greek Testament in the Words Letters Points Vowels and Accents we now enjoy is the same uncorrupted Word of God which was delivered of old by the holy Pen-men of it to the Church This we say cannot well be defended against all Opposers without the Rabbinical Knowledge we speak of And so much for the need of this Knowledge We shall only give some Directions about this Study First He must well understand the Hebrew Bible in the first place who would know the Rabbins before he look after them And for this if he hath no Latin he must get William Robertson's First and Second Gate to the Holy Tongue His Key to the Bible Iessey's English Greek Lexicon c. But we suppose most have the Latine Tongue and such have Grammars and Lexicons enough as Buxtorf's Epitome his Thesaurus His Lexicon And many other Authors especially Bythner's Lyra Prophetica in Psalmos Leusden's Compendium Biblicum Arius Montanus his Interlineary Bible c. Let him read the Hebrew Bible much And then for the Rabbins take this brief Account and Direction The ancient Chaldee Paraphrasts are most of them translated and thereby easie to learn The ancient Cabalistical Writings as the Zohar Bahir c. are both most difficult and least useful Their Oral Law or Traditions were collected after the Destruction of the Temple A.D. 150. by Rabbi Iudah the Holy as they call him This they preferr before the Scripture and suppose it was Orally delivered by Moses to Israel and unlawful to be written but when Ierusalem was destroyed they were constrained to write it lest it should be lost but yet 't was so written as that none but themselves might understand it This Book is called Mishnaioth comprizing all their Religion with the Bible 'T is divided into Two Parts each Part into Three Seders or Books each Seder into many Masecats or Tracts each Masecat into Chapters and Verses A brief Account of the Contents of the Mishna and all the Parts of it is given by Martinus Raimundus in his Prooemium to his Pugio Fidei a very Learned and Useful Book which also gives an Account of the Tosaphot the Gemara and the Commenâ—â—ries thereon which compleat the Talmuds both that of Ierusalem A.D. 230. and that of Babylon Five hundred Years after Christ which Gemara is but a Comment and Dispute on the Mishna which is the Text of the Talmud There are several Masecats or Tracts of the Mishna translated as the Nine first Masecats viz. Beracoth c. So also Masecat Middoth by Le Empereur Sanhedrin and Maccoth by Cock Megillath by Otho Codex Ioma and others But as the very Learned Ludivicus de Campeigne du Veil observes He that would know the Mishna must learn Maimonides This Moses Maimonides Physician to the King of Egypt about Five hundred Years ago wrote his Iad Chaseka or Mishna Torah wherein he hath comprized the Substance of the Mishna and Talmud in a pure pleasant plain and easie style if compared with the Mishna and Talmud and yet he that has read him may with ease and pleasure understand all the Mishna And then for the Talmud There is Clavis Talmudica Cock's Excerpta c. This Maimonides of whom the Jews say from Moses the Law-giver to Moses Maimonides there was never another Moses like this Moses Several of his Tracts are translated also as Iesudee Hatorah the First Masecat of all and Deoth Aboda Zara the 1 st entituled De Fundamentis Legis 2. Canones Ethicae 3. Idololatria 4. De Iure Pauperis 5. De Poenitentia c. But most are translated by the excellent Ludivicus de Campeigne du Veil as De Sacrificiis one of the fourteen Books which he hath divided this Work into and De Cultu Divino another of the fourteen Books comprizing several Tracts Also his Tracts about Vnleavened Bread about the Passover about a Fast c. As to other Rabbins several are translated as Cosri c. and that on various Subjects as Logick by R. Simeon Physick by Aben Tibbon with Maimonides's Epistle against Iudiciary Astrology So of Arithmetick and Intercalating the Month by Munster and that of Maimonides by Duveil with many other Books as Ietsirah Bachinath Olam c. And of History as Seder Olam Zutha and Seder Olam Rabba Tsemach David c. And as to Rabbinical Commentaries the best and chief are R. Sal. Iarchi or Isaac R. Aben Ezra R. David Kimchi all these upon the Proverbs are translated by Antony Giggeius upon several minor Prophets by Mercer viz. on Hosea Ioel Amos c. on Ioel and Iona by Leusden as also a Masecat on the Misbna called Pirke Abbot Kimchi on the Psalms is likewise translated These Rabbins lived about Five hundred Years ago and do excellently explain the Text where Grammar and Jewish History are necessary But several of the above-mentioned Books being scarce we shall be ready to Translate and Print in two Colums the one Hebrew the other English either any Masecat of the Mishna or any Hilcoth or Tract of Maimonides or the Commentaries of the Rabbins on any part of the Bible if our Bookseller receive Encouragement which with Buxtorf's Great Lexicon Talmudicum and his Book de Abbreviaturis would no doubt enable one that hath read the Hebrew Bible to understand the Rabbins Which is all the Direction we have room to give here and therefore conclude with our hearty Wishes That our Young Students may be mighty in the Scriptures Acts 18.24 2 Tim. 3.15 16. and thereby they will by the Grace of God become Able Divines according to the Old Proverb Bonus Textuarius Bonus Theologus The PROEM Containing the Cause Occasion and Method of the ensuing Debate IN this Introduction we shall take notice of Three things wherein are contained the Cause and Occasion of the following Discourse with the Method of proceeding therein 1. The Weight and Moment of the Subject in Controversie 2. The many Circumstances that render its Consideration at this time necessary and seasonable 3. The Method and Order of manageing the same First As to the Weight and Moment of the Matter in Controversie it is small in quantity about no more than a Point or Tittle but great in quality about no less a Cause than the Keeping or Rejecting of the Bible For 1 st The Old
we shall translate a full Testimony out of his Book entituled Mozenee haleshon hakkodesh towards the beginning of it as it is delivered by Buxtorf De Punct Origine pag. 13. The words are these or to this effect viz. The words of the Lord are pure Words or Sayings preserved by the hands of holy Men one Generation after another For they were sanctified from the Womb they heard the holy words at the Mouth of him who is most excellent in Holiness and they were Interpeters between him viz. the Lord and between Iacob The holy People and these were before the building of that holy House viz. the Temple and when it stood upon its Basis or Foundation and after it until the Vision and Prophecy was sealed up But after a few years about the time of the building of the holy House the second time at that time the Spirit of the Lord the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding rested upon the Men of that House that were called Anashee keneset haggedolah The Men of the great Synagogue or Sanhedrim to explain all that was sealed up in the Command And the words that are translated by the Mouth of the Just Men from the Mouth of the former and latter Prophets that is delivered by Oral Tradition from hand to hand Also they were rendring a Reason or restoring the Accent Meshebe taam Prov. 26.16 and taught their Posterity Chephets Colinian the sence of every word or thing al jad taamee hamikra by the hand or means of the Accents of the Scripture And the Kings and the Ministers they taught their Posterity and the closed Sections and the open Sections And what continues carries on the sence in opposition to the Pause and the Verses or Pauses that stop the sence and they were Eyes to the Blind therefore we go in their steps and follow after them and lean upon them in all the Expositions of Scripture And after the Captivity of our Fathers from the Holy City the Lord stirred up the Spirit of his Saints and the Chief of them was our holy Rabbi viz. Iudah to compose what was noted in loose Writings of the Commands of our God and that is the Mishna whereunto nothing may be added nor may any thing be taken away from it Also after them came other holy Princes and pious Hero's and they are the Men of the Talmud viz. the Gemarists and they went on in their paths viz. of the Masters of the Mishna and they took up the Stones out of the High-ways of the Testimony and they removed every Stumbling-stone out of the paths of the Lord. And after this stood up in Israel according to the good Hand of our God upon us two great Rows or Orders Neh. 12.31 the one keeping the Walls of the Sanctuary of Strength Dan. 11.31 founded by the Hand of our God that no Stranger may be able to destroy it Now this Sanctuary is the Holy Books of Scripture and the Men of this Row or Order are the Men of the Masora or the Masorites who separated all the mixed Multitude from the holy People alluding to Nehem. 13.3 and meaning what is Humane from what is Divine in Correcting the Copy And they numbred the Men of the Sanctuary from Two or Eleven to the end that no Stranger might draw near to the Gates of Righteousness Blessed be the Lord our God who hath put such a thing as this in the heart of the rest of the Kingdom of his Priests to beautifie his House which is a House of Wisdom as Solomon saith Wisdom hath built her House And the second Row that goeth over against it And I go after it Neh. 12.38 are those that are expert in War alluding unto Cant. 3.8 in the Law or about the Law and they are the Grammarians Thus far Aben Ezra In this place saith Buxtorf Aben Ezra doth elegantly and discreetly Expound in what manner and by whom the holy Word of God was preserved from the Beginning quite down to the Time of the Grammarians and what was done in every Age about the Preservation thereof and by whom it was done For First he saith The true and genuine Sence of the Word of God was preserved without Points by holy Men such as Moses and the Prophets unto the time of the Second Temple and the time wherein Vision and Prophecy were sealed up Secondly After the building of the Second House about the ending of Prophecy or the Prophetick Gift and Ministry God raised up other holy Men to wit the Men of the Great Synagogue that is to say Ezra with his Councel who preserved the Word of God which was brought to them by Oral Tradition This Holy Scripture they did by other means than Tradition with great care and study deliver down to Posterity But how they did this and what in particular it was that the Men of the Great Synagogue did about the Preservation of the Scripture this he doth teach particularly and by Parts For First he saith That this was done Al jad taamee hamikra By the means of the Accents of the Scripture Secondly By the Kings and Ministers that is the Vowels The Kings he calls afterwards seven viz. Holem Shurek Chirek Pathak Segol Kamets Tsere And the Ministers Sheva Mute Mobile and Compound And he doth not mean the Accents which the Grammarians divided into Kings and Ministers Vid. Balmes cap. 3. of the Points more of this Thirdly By the Doctrine concerning the Sections that are close open or continued Hasetumim Vpetuchim Vdebikim Fourthly By Hapesukim the Verses or the Distinction of the Scripture into Verses by these helps he saith they are like Eyes to the Blind and in their Steps we go in Reading and Expounding the Scripture at this time He saith we every where lean on their Exposition of the Scripture and therefore not of the Tiberian Masorites Thirdly In the Third place after the Men of the Great Synagogue he proceeds to the Masters of the Mishna and to them he chiefly ascribes the true Explication of the Precepts of God Fourthly He makes the Talmudists or Gemarists succeed the Masters of the Mishna and to these he ascribeth the Illustration and Explication of the Doctrine of the Mishna and their Disputations Fifthly He saith By the good Hand of God to Israel he raised up Two other Orders of Men labouring profitably for the Preservation of the Scripture The First Order he ascribeth to the Masorites but unto these he ascribeth no Invention either of the Points or of the Accents or of the Distinctions But he principally commends these for Two things First That they did separate every thing that was strange that is Foreign or Humane from the Books of Scripture if any thing had by hap crept into it Secondly That they numbred the Words and Letters of the Books of Scripture that so there might be no way left whereby the Text could be corrupted in time to come And agreeing to this is what he writes of the Masorites in his Book
of Tiberias have used or thus is their Manner or Custom And they are the Foundation for from them were the Men of the Masora and from them have we received all the Punctation He goes on further and saith Perhaps they did so that no Man might think that the Punctator had forgotten that is to Point that Tau and doubted about it that is to say how he should read it This is the place at large we are now to examine the sence and meaning of it First then he saith That there were certain Punctators that had a custom to place Sheva under Tau at the end of a word Then he tells who these were that did use so to do and they were not all the Punctators but those of Tiberias the same also who were the Masorites Ergo there were others who did not use so to do though not of the like esteem for Skill herein as the Masorites Therefore Thirdly He shews what value this Tiberian Punctation ought to be of with us which is by him expressed to be of such worth as that we ought to follow them in all things as being the most diligent of the Punctators What Capellus objects here is That Buxtorf translates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are some Punctators And thence inferrs there were other Punctators than the Masorites Resp. He doth not translate the word nor doth he inferr from that word but what he saith There are some Punctators relates to the scope of the place and from the same he draws this Inference as very well he may as might easily be plainly demonstrated were it worth while to enlarge upon the Point But to proceed Fourthly He shews the End why the Masorites did thus Which was this lest the Reader should think that here was something wanting and might stick in doubt how it should be read Lest saith he any one should think that the Punctator had forgotten something This certainly he doth not say of the same Tiberian Masorites but of some other former Punctator For if he had meant the same Masorites here he should have said Shelo jakshob Adam ki shakachu That no Man might think that they had forgotten And not Shakach That He had forgotten So that Aben Ezra did not reckon the Tiberian Masorites to be the Authors of the Punctation but the Correctors and the Preservers thereof in its Original Purity as we may perceive by the scope of the place The Second place the sence whereof is to be considered is what Aben Ezra saith in his Commentary on Exod. 25.31 on the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Teaseh raiti Sepherim shebedakom Chokmee Tiberia c. I have seen saith he the Books which the Wise Men of Tiberias searched examined corrected and swore their fifteen Elders that they had thrice considered every Word and every Point and every word that is written full or defective and behold Iod is written in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Teaseh but I have not found it so in the Books of Spain France or beyond the Seas c. ' Now as to the sence of this place what is more plainly spoken by these words than this That they had three times searched or examined the Pointed Copies Therefore the Pointed Copies must be in being before their time which they took and examined others by and not their own invented Shapes of the Points examined as Dr. Walton supposeth For Aben Ezra saith he saw the Book which the Tiberian Masorites Badaku searched or examined He doth not say which they made or invented Of these Books he saith they swore the fifteen Elders that they had thrice considered every Word and every Point and every Word that was written full or defective Here we see their Consideration was as much on the Words as the Points and of the words written full or defective as either and they can be no more thought hereby to be the Authors of the Punctation than of the Letters and Words and of the Words full and defective for as much is said of the one as of the other If therefore they only searched examined or tried the one they did no more to the other Again What is it that Aben Ezra found in these Books thus examined by the Masorites of Tiberias Why it is this That the letter Jod is there written in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Teaseh which he did not find in other Copies in Spain France or beyond Sea Can we hence suppose that Aben Ezra did reckon that the Masorites were the Inventors or Authors of the letter Iod Or of the placing it to the word No one will say we can No more can we suppose it of the Points not yet so much seeing the Instance alledged is a Letter and not a Point So that the only thing that appears by his words is That he accounted the Books or Copies which they had examined by the best they had to be the most exactly corrected and therefore fittest to be the Standard And on this account he might well say of them they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Foundation or Standard for we still keep to their Copy and all our Bibles now have Iod in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Teaseh as the Masorites have without supposing them to be the Authors of any part of the Scripture CHAP. V. What Aben Ezra and other Iews do say of the Masorites Skill That they did not suppose them to be the Authors of the Points is proved WE come now to the Second thing to be discussed And that is what Aben Ezra and the rest of the Rabbins do say of the Masorites of Tiberias in Commendation of their Skill and Accuracy in the Pronunciation of their Tongue and about the Punctation And here we are to enquire Whether what they speak concerning them doth belong to the Masorites as Authors or Correctors and Restorers only of the Punctation The Testimonies which Buxtorf collects in Commendation of the Masorites Accuracy are these First Aben Ezra saith in his Book Tsakooth fol. 136. col 1. where speaking of long Kamets he saith The Men of Tiberias also the Wise Men of Egypt and Africa knew how to read Kamets Gadol And fol. 135. col 1. and saith that wise Man before-mentioned viz. R. Iudah Chiâ—g the first Hebrew Grammarian That the Men of Tiberias read Sheva Mobile if Iod follow after it with the Vowel Chirek as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iichesiahu Iermiahu And if Kamets Gadol follow Sheva as in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is read as Pathak short as Barakah Shamarim c. In his Book Mozenaiim fol. 221. col 2. Rabbi Iudah the Grammarian whose rest saith he be in Eden saith That Daleth in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deu is read as if with Shurek because it hath after it a Guttural letter with Shurek and so is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deeh or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dei and so are all like unto it And they say that so the Men of
Tiberias did pronounce Ephodeus in his Grammar cap. 5. fol. 35. col 2. speaking of the true Pronunciation of the Hebrew Tongue and that it is unknown at this time he saith And Rabbi Ionah the next Grammarian to R. Iudah hath already written that Resh hath certain peculiar Properties according to the way of the Men of Tiberias for they are more clear or elegant in the Holy Tongue than all the Hebrews The same he repeateth cap. 32. Balmesius in his Grammar under letter F 3. pag. 2. writeth thus And the Tiberian Readers read it like the Pronunciation of Aleph with Shurek but I know not the reason saith he why they so read it speaking of Vau in the beginning of a word before a letter with Sheva Mobile marked which should be pronounced with Shurek but here hath no other sound than a gentle Aleph And of this Pronunciation of Vau as Aleph Aben Ezra saith fol. 135. col 2. I sakooth So have we received of our Fathers one age after another that it should be so pronounced So Kimchi in Miklol fol. 62. a. Again Balmesius saith in letter F 1. pag. 1. speaking of the letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cheth and Ain in the end of words he saith For many Grammarians which I have seen lean upon the Readers of Tiberias who pronounce it as if there were Aleph For Example They read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Misbeach as if it were written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Book entituled Keneh binah fol. 33. â— And in all the Variations or divers Pronunciations of the Points which are often-times divers ways pronounced The Men of Tiberias are clear more accurate and skilful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than all the Hebrews that are in other Countreys In the Book Leviath Chen whose Author is R. Immanuel Son of Iekutiel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benevontine cap. 3. fol. 5. And although there doth not appear any difference in our present reading between Koph and Caph with Dagesh and between Teth and Tau daggesh'd and between Vau and Beth raphated the Men of Tiberias which were in those days were more expert in our Language than all the Jews They made a difference between them and so they made a difference between the reading of Pathak and Kamets and between Segol and Tsere and between Kibbuez and Shurek Again cap. 18. fol. 19. col 1. where treating of the Pronunciation of the letter Resh he saith In the reading of this letter Resh dageshed and raphated the Men of Tiberias were expert bekiim skilful in those days and in that time And in fol. 105. col 2. treating of the difference that is between divers Letters and Vowels in Verse he saith And we are not skillful in the difference of their Sound or Pronunciation like the Men of Tiberias who were of old time more clear or skilful in the Language than all the Hebrews even as the best Grammarians have testified concerning them Rabbi David Kimchi in Michlol fol. 108. col 2. treating of the letters Begadkephat saith That the Author of the Book Ietsirah hath written Resh with them For he saith there are seven Letters that double as Begadkephrat but the pronouncing of Resh raphated and dageshed we do not hear or sound But I have found saith Kimki in a Book of one Eli the Son of Iudah Hannasir who saith That the sign or difference between Resh dageshed or raphated or hard and gentle belongs only to the Sons of Mesia which is Tiberias for they speak them in their Talk and read them in reading the Scripture and it is in the Mouths of Men Women and Children it departs not from them and without any difference they read and speak Resh Where it should be pronounced hâ—rd there they use to speak or read it with Dagesh and where it should be gentle or soft with Rapha c. Rabbi Iehudah Mulcatus in his Commentary on the Book of Cosri part 2. sect 80. fol. 130. a. on those words of the Author Cosri Or to hasten the reading he saith these words Teach the properties of right Reading which were known to him although they are now strange to us as also many the like are in the reading of the Men of Tiberias which is different from our reading Vid Buxt de Punct Orig. par 1. pag. 24 25. From all which Testimonies it appears saith Buxtorf pag. 25. That the Men of Tiberias were no otherwise famous among the Jews who were but Five hundred or Six hundred years at most after them Then First For their skill at decently reading and pronouncing the Hebrew Tongue Secondly And also for their study and care to preserve the true reading of the Scripture For if they had believed them to have been the Authors of the Points doubtless they would not have passed over that with such negligent silence as not to speak a word about it when they speak of them and of their Commendation Nor can their being praised for Skill und Accuracy in the Punctation suppose them the Authors of it For none need be told that the Inventors of any Art are well acquainted with their own Invention and 't is a slender Encomium to say of such That they understand ther own Invention For if they should not well understand their own Device how should others or who else should Of their Skill and Accuracy Ierom seems to have knowledge alluding thereunto on Gen. 49.21 and that he hired a Iew of Tiberias to teach him to read And as neither He nor the Rabbins ascribe the Invention of the Points to them so the Pointed Bible of Hillel in being long before their time proves the contrary And so much for the Second thing that is What Aben Ezra and the rest of the Rabbins say in Commendation of the Skill and Accuracy of the Tiberian Masorites in the Pronunciation of the Hebrew Tongue and whether what they say of them doth belong unto them as Authors or as Correctors of the Punctation Thirdly The Third thing to be proved is That Aben Ezra doth not ascribe the Invention of the Points to the Masorites because he often differs from them and opposeth them but always follows the Punctation and enjoyns all others so to do As may be seen not only in the places before alledged where he reproves those who charge the Punctator with Errour and saith He hath Pointed right in every place And not only in his Comment on Exod. 34.5 but also in other places he expresseth the same esteem of the Authority and Perfection of the Punctation As for Instance in his Book Tsakooth pag. 179. where he brings Hosea 4.10 They left off to take heed he there saith If we should say so we should thereby accuse Hammappesik Happesukim the Punctator that he did not know the reason of the Accents but far be it from us so to do Chalilah Chalilah And in his Comment on Exod. 6.28 where our Translation ends that Verse as
Pointed signifieth to Ascend and if in six places they found it so pointed and yet signified a Leaf certainly the Text must be pointed before such Notes could be made or they would have made some difference in the Points of Gnaleh to Ascend and Gnaleh a Leaf had they Pointed the Text. So Gen. 19.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Haâ—l in eight places signifieth these and not the Name of God which in all other places it signifieth as it is so pointed This they could not observe before the word was Pointed Sixthly The Masorites make many Conjectures about the truest Forms of words that seem to be irregular which they call Sibbirim or Conjectures that is about words that do seem at first view that they might more conveniently be written otherwise than they are as to the sence of the place or usual form of the words as on Gen. 19.23 the Masorites say there are three places where they think Iatsa is used in the Masculine Gender when by Grammar-rule it should have been used in the Feminine being joyned with a word Feminine and of this kind are many such to restrain Persons from altering the least letter of the Text upon never so great appearance of its being more agreeing to the Nature or Manner of the Language so to be or Use of the words in Construction with it Now if notwithstanding their admirable Skill in the Nature and Use of the Language they did not dare to alter one Letter or Point where they thought the Nature and Use of the Language required they should who can imagine they would venture to place all the Punctation And so much for the Masoretick Notes on the words of the Text. CHAP. XII The Improbability of the Masorites Pointing the Text further shewed from the Nature of their Observations on the Letters of the Bible that are found Greater or Lesser than ordinary or that are Inverted or Suspended or that are Open or Shut or extraordinarily Pointed AS the Masorites consider the Text with respect unto the Verses and Words of it so they do in the next place consider it with respect unto the Letters of it Which that not one Letter might be lost they have counted how oft each letter is found in the Bible Now as to the Letters their Observations respect either 1. The Quality Or 2. The Quantity or Number of them First As to their Quality They consider their different Figure or Shape where-ever they are found in an unusual manner And these are either 1. Greater than ordinarily they are Or 2. Lesser than ordinary Or 3. Inverted Or 4. Suspended 5. Open or Shut Or 6. Extraordinarily Pointed First As to the Letters that are Greater than ordinary they only observe that so they are written that none may bring them into their ordinary form but they dare not alter them Whence we may conclude that these are not the Men that intruded the Punctation upon the Text. Now the Masorites have collected these great Letters both at the beginning of Genesis and of the First Book of Chronicles but with some difference The Great Letters are in these places following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the word Adam 1 Chron. 1.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Bereshit Gen. 1.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in hit Galak Lev. 13.33 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in achaD Deut. 6.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Halejovah Deut. 32.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in gihOn Lev. 11.42 And so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mal. 3.32 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Esther 1.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iob 9.34 Eccles. 7.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Numb 14.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal. 8.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deut. 29.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. 1.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 34.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eccles. 12.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deut. 6.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dan. 6.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa. 56.10 Deut. 32.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal. 84.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 34.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cant. 1.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deut. 18.13 Secondly The Lesser Letters are those that are lesser than the common Form And of these there are Thirty three collected Alphabetically by the Masorites in the beginning of Leviticus and in the beginning of the final Masora but a little different the one from the other Now of these Little and Great Letters both the Talmuds make mention of them as being before their time and therefore can be no late Innovation And they are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the word VEIIKRa Lev. 1.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in HAb Prov. 30.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iob 7.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. 28.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Numb 25.12 Psal. 24.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Esther 9.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iob 33.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lam. 2.9 Numb 31.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deut. 32.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 23.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lam. 1.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deut. 31.27 Lev. 6.2 final Neh. 13.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lam. 4.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 final three times Isai. 44.14 Ier. 39.13 Prov. 16.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nahum 1.3 Psal. 27.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lam. 3.36 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dan. 6.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ier. 14.2 final Iob 16.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 32.25 Gen. 27.47 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some Exod. 23.19 34.26 say the final Masora but that on Levit. say 2 Sam. 21.19 Esth. 9.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Esth. 9.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Esth. 9. The Name of one of Haman's Sons also Now what a small matter had it been for them to have made a letter that was too little to be as big as his fellows But this they durst not do but took this care to prevent any others doing of it after their time And therefore these are not likely to be the Men that placed the Punctation seeing they did not dare to mend a letter The like may be said of the Letters Inverted Suspended Open or Shut which do follow As The Masorites on Num. 10.35 do say there are Nine Verses wherein this Mark 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nun is found inverted but they dare not alter them and they there collect them as 1 The letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Numb 10.35 2 Numb 11.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The other seven are in Psal. 107. as ver 23 24 25 26 27 28 ver 40. In our Bible Nun is not found inverted in some of these places But as Buxtorf saith we should seek for them in Masoretick Manuscripts of the Bible How is it likely the Masorites intruded the Points who durst not put 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the right way Fourthly They observe that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is final in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Pathack So Mercer on Prov. 24.14 on the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dech he saith In a Manuscript it is writ with Tsere but in the Margin it is noted that in Hillel's Copy 't is written with Segol The same faith R. Moses Bar Nachman in his Commentary on the Book of Ietsir or Iezirah Capellus objects It may be Hillel's Copy was not so ancient as is pretended But gives no Reason why we should suspect its Antiquity which is generally owned by the Jews as Iuchasin Kimchi Vid. Buxt de Punct Orig. part 2. cap. 7. So that the Points were before A. D. 500. being found in Hillel's Copy A. D. 340. and mentioned in the Bahir Zohar Mishna and Talmuds And hence we conclude the FIRST PART of this Discourse That the Text was not Pointed by the Masorites A. D. 500. or since that time at Tiberias or elsewhere And thus have we collected what others have written and our selves observed about the Novelty of the Points the like we intend about their Antiquity in the SECOND PART but more briefly if possible The End of the FIRST PART 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR A Discourse concerning the Antiquity and Original of the Points Vowels and Accents that are placed to the Hebrew Bible The SECOND PART WHEREIN The Antiquity Divine Original and Authority of the present Punctation is proved By the Testimony of Jews and Christians The Universal Consent of all Nations that receive the Scriptures Their quiet Possession of the Text as 't is now Pointed by Prescription from Age to Age. The Vowels an Essential part of Speech oft expressed by the Punctation only The Obscurity of the Scripture without Points which yet was commanded to be written very plainly The Old-Testament evidencing it self to be the Word of God in and by the Punctation only The Anomalies thereof manifesting its Antiquity The Promise of Christ Mat. 5.18 That nothing shall be lost out of the Law or the Prophets whereof the Points are so great a part The manifest Absurdity of the contrary Opinion And other Considerations TOGETHER WITH Answers to the several Objections of Elias Levita Ludovicus Capellus Dr. Walton and Others against their Antiquity Such as are The Testimonies of some Jews about the Points The Unpointed Copy of the Law so kept in the Synagogue The Silence of the ancient Caballistical Writings of the Mishna and Talmuds about them The LXX and Chaldee Paraphrase reading otherwise than our Punctation directeth The Samaritan Character supposed to be the ancient Hebrew never Pointed The Novelty of their Names The Superfluity of their Numbers The possibility of preserving the Sound without the Shapes and of reading the Bible without Points as well as the Rabbinical Commentaries the Talmuds and other Oriental Languages are read without them By the help of the Matres Lectionis or Letters Evi a h v i By the scope of the place c. The Silence of Ierom and the Fathers about them The Opinion of divers Modern Divines both Papists and Protestants against the Antiquity of the Shapes of the present Punctation The Keri u Ketib being about the Letters and never about the Points and the like In TWO PARTS The FIRST PART containing the Testimonies The SECOND the Arguments of Jews and Christians for their Antiquity and Divine Authority wherein the Objections against the same are Answered The FIRST PART of the SECOND PART Containing the Testimonies of Iews and Christians for the Antiquity of the Points with the Answer to the several Objections that are made thereunto CHAP. I. §. 1. The Question stated §. 2. The several Opinions of those who own the Antiquity of the Points enumerated Their Divine Original proved by the Testimony of all the Iews Elias only excepted The extent and weight of this Testimony in part considered §. 3. The Objections of express Testimonies against the Antiquity of the Points answered §. 4. The Objection of the Law being kept in the Synagogue without Points answered §. 5. The Silence◠of the ancient Caballistical Writings the Mishna and Talmuds about the Points answered § 1. IN the FIRST PART of this Discourse Chap. 1. we declared that there were two Periods of Time particularly fixed unto the one or the other of which all Parties do in some respect ascribe the Original of the Points The one is the time of Ezra the other is A. D. 500. The one makes them of Divine the other of Humane Original and Authority So that the Question is Whether the Shapes or Figures of the Points Vowels and Accents which are joyned to the Text of the Hebrew Bible were invented and placed to the Text as early as the time of Ezra or else not until the Talmuds were finished A. D. 500 And having at large discovered the Improbability and Absurdity of the Opinion That the Points were first invented after the Talmuds were finished A. D. 500. in the First Part we are now to prove That the Shapes or Figures of the Points Vowels and Accents which are joyned to the Text of the Hebrew Bible were invented and placed to the Text as early as the time of Ezra Not that we need to enlarge upon this position having proved it in proving the other For none doubt of the Points being placed by Ezra but those who suppose them first invented A. D. 500. Which Opinion being already refuted there is no other time assigned by any for their Original since the time of Ezra And having largely shewed that they were not first invented and placed A. D. 500. or since that time nor yet at any other time since Ezra it followeth they were placed by the time of Ezra So that what is further alledged for the Antiquity of the Points is ex abundanti and more than could be required not but that we intend to produce sufficient Proof for their Antiquity and Divine Authority § 2. We have moreover observed already Part 1. Chap. 1. That those who acknowledge the Antiquity and Divine Authority of the Points c. do yet differ among themselves about the precise time of their first Invention For 1. Some suppose they are coaevous with the Letters and as ancient as Adam This is the Opinion of R. Azarias in Meor Enaim cap. 59 of Antonius Rodulphus Cevallerius in Rudamentis Linguae Hebraicae cap. 4. Petrus Cevallerius ibid. in Annotationibus Matthias Flacius Illiricus Clavis Scripturae part 2. tract 6. pag. 644. Marcus Marinus in Pref. to Arca Noae Vid. Buxt de Punct Orig. part 2. cap. 1. R. Samuel Arcuvolti Arugath Habbosem cap. 26. 2. Others imagine that they were Orally delivered by Moses on Sinai but not placed to the Text till Ezra's time So the Author of Cosri thinks part 3. sect 31. The Talmudists the Author of Tsak Sephataim and Others say the same 3. Others believe the Points were placed together with the Letters as the Scripture was at first written by the Pen-men of it So saith Baal Samadar and Others Vid. Arugath Habbosem cap. 26.
now see accordingly The Scriptures were always delivered in the Vulgar Tongue of the People of God in Hebrew when they understood Hebrew in Chaldee when they understood Chaldee as parts of Ezra Daniel c. and in Greek when that was understood by them as is the New Testament All sorts are commanded to read and know the Scriptures Wise and Simple Men and Children it being their Rule by which they shall be Judged It was therefore required to be written very plainly as apears in the place mentioned Deut. 27.8 So also Hab. 2.2 And the Lord said Write the Vision and make it PLAIN upon Tables that he may run that readeth it Now it is granted us by most of our Adversaries That the present Hebrew Bible as to the Words and Letters of it are for the main the same which God gave at first These were required to be written very plain and were accordingly so written and kept but without Points they are most dubious most obscure and uncertain therefore they were at first written with Points § 2. The Obscurity of the Text without Points as it hath been evidenced in the Prooemium so also at large it 's demonstrated by Buxtorf de Punct Orig. par 2. cap. 8. Cooper Domus Mosaicae and Wasmuth's Vindiciae where many Instances are produced which evidence its Obscurity without Points As for Example Vau is defective in Verbs Plur. Third Pers. and in the Pronoun Third Pers. which renders the word very dubious as in Gen. 1.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Iosh. 11.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Deut. 2.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 19.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Gen. 26.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zech. 11.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Sam. 14.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 King 22.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and innumerable such like 2. Vau is oft defective where in the Conjugation Hiphil it should be put to supply Iod the first Radical and also 't is wanting as the mark of the Conjugation as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ier. 32.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 King 17.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ezra 16.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 King 24.7 3. Vau is often omitted where Vau is the second Radical Letter where it ought not to be did not the Points supply it as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like 4. So in Nouns Femin Plur. as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 1.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 5.4 and Gen. 3.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 3.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. So in others as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lev. 5.12 5. So Iod is oft omitted as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 6. He is defective in the end as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ruth 1.9 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 12. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 20. 7. He is oft very ambiguously put for Vau to signifie Shurck or Holem First for Holem as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hab. 3.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 13.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ezek. 12.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal. 42.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iosh. 11.16 So for Shurck as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Buxt de Orig. Punct par 2. cap. 8. These words may be read with Points but without they cannot I never saith he saw any so writing without Points And saith he I can easier read all other Rabbinical Books without Points than the Bible though I never saw them before and yet have read the Bible often If we give up the Points we have little left of the Old Testament worth contending for Grant the Text to be a Nose of Wax of dubious and uncertain Sence and then prove it to be a Rule of Faith and Worship if you can The Old Serpent doth breath deadlier Poyson saith Dr. Broughton against the Authority of God's Word by teaching that the Vowels are not from God Vid. Positions touching the Hebrew Tongue pag. 669. The Law is called a Light and a Lamp but without Points 't would be Darkness it self It must needs therefore have had Points from the first for it was plainly written but this it could not be without either Points or Vowel Letters And yet none pretend to imagine that there ever were any other Vowel Letters in the Bible than there are now and it is now so obscure for want of Vowel Letters or Points that none can understand it in very many places If therefore it were written plainly at first it was written with Points As for Instance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is plainly expressed by the Points only thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Moon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Brick or Pavement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Frankincence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Poplar-tree So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seas So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he praised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was mad And so of Dabar which as it is Pointed hath Eight several Significations As he spake a Pestilence a Bee a Word a Thing and the like innumerable which without Points are most dubious and render the Scripture so as Isa. 24. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Moon shall be Confounded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Sun Ashamed Which the LXX read The Brick shall be confounded and the Wall ashamed by the change of a Point So Exod. 32.18 't is not the Voice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of them that Cry but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of them that Sing where the same word expresseth two contrary sences as it is Pointed § 3. Capellus Vind. lib. 2. cap. 8. confesseth the Rabbins are easier read without Points than the Bible but yet the Mishna and Talmuds and Cabalistical Writings are very difficult though understood by some Persons and though the Bible be more difficult yet 't is not altogether impossible to every one Resp. The Mishna c. was written on purpose in such a style as that none but the Jewish Rabbins might understand it but the Law was written that all Men might understand and keep it 2. The Matter being oft purely Divine where there is left no humane help to find the sense as often falls out in Iob Psalms Proverbs Isaiah c. where the Words are Elyptical no where else used without Antecedents and Consequents c. there 't is plainly impossible to understand the Text without Points or immediate inspiration Obj. The same difficulties are in Expounding the Pointed Text as in reading the unpointed but the Ministry serves for one and may so do for the
1665. The Author himself relates some Passages which are thought to be little to the purpose after which he examines the Hypothesis of Mr. Vossius upon the Version of the LXX and upon the Tetraples and Hexaples of Origen Here follows an Abridgment of what he says of the Version that was declar'd Authentick by the Council of Trent All the Western Church under the time of St. Ierom made use of a Version of the Bible that some call'd Italick some the Old and others the Translation of the LXX the Author of it was not known but only that it was made upon the Version of the LXX Flemminius Nobillius re-establisht it as well as possibly he could and caus'd it to be Printed at Rome An. Dom. 1588. Father Morin reprinted it at Paris with the Greek Copy of the Vatican in the Year 1628. but it was not believ'd that this was the pure Latin Version that the Western Church made use of before that St. Ierom had made another This Father Corrects the Translation of the LXX only in some places and notwithstanding the Tempests that he rais'd against him for daring to have recourse to the Hebrew Text 't is this Version that the Western Church made use of for many Ages altho' some men say that it was not this Author which is now call'd the Translation of the Septuagint When the Council of Trent declar'd this Translation Authentick they did not pretend to declare that it had no defect and that it merited more Faith than the Hebrew and Greek Texts The Council only Commanded that they should use it preferrably to all other Latin Versions which were very numerous Many Catholick Doctors have not understood the sence of the Council for they wou'd not suffer themselves to believe that there remain'd any Faults in this Translation of the LXX some great men run the risque of their Lives being imprison'd in the Inquisition for having believ'd it as Mariana relates Leo Allatius makes mention of a Decree of a general Congregation of the Cardinals Dated the 17 th of Ianuary 1577. bearing that there must not be cut off from the Translation of the LXX even not so much as one Syllable or one Iota but this Decree never being publisht cou'd not Captivate the Faith of any person And Pope Sixtus the 5 th and Clement the 8 th sufficiently evidenc'd they were not of this Opinion since they have endeavour'd to make a Correction of this Translation Sixtus made a Constitution by which he enjoyn'd the rejecting of all Editions that were not conformable to that which he Publisht But Clement the 8 th nevertheless made another and maintain'd in his Bull that he had very exactly Corrected the Defects of the LXX An English Protestant whose Name was Thomas Iamesius writ a very hot Book against the Church entituled Bellum Papalis sive Concordia discors Sixti V. Clementis VIII circa Hieronymianam Editionem Here is some things which are very perplexing to those Persons which have not much Wit and Learning for in fine this Edition of Clement the VIII now passes for Authentick altho' it is not Conformable to the Edition of Sixtus the V. who declar'd all the Editions of the Septuagint void which differ'd from his The rest of the Book the Author employes in speaking of the Versions of the Bible that have been made for the Eastern Church and of those that were publisht in divers Languages in these last Ages by the Catholicks and by the Protestants Afterwards he Examines what concerns it in the Treatise of M. Vossuis de Oraculis Sybillinis We soon expect a Work very like to this we have been speaking of the last Catalogue of Francfort promised it to us it is entituled Christiani Kortholti S. Theol. Doctoris de variis sacrae Scripturae Editionibus editio Nova post primam multo auctior emendatior in 40. Kilonii Keil is a Maritime Town of Holstein where there has been a Celebrated Accademy ever since the Year 1665. Animadversions on The Critical Disquisitions upon the Various Editions of the Bible By the Athenian Society HAving Translated this Abstract We think it necessary to make some Remarks thereon that our Young Student be not lead into Mistakes and dangerous Errors by the Learned Papist whose Interest and Design is to take away our Bible One Mistake we impute to the Abridger and not the Author who seems to say that the Jews use many superstitious Precautions about the Writing of the Bible which they do about the Law only as the Author must needs know though the Abridger might not The Author is a Papist and affirmeth that our Hebrew Bible is corrupt in many places that the Ancient Versions Translated by a better Copy and therefore sayes he would have it That those places of Sacred Text which bad Connexion tells us to be false or corrupted should be restored by the Assistance of the most Ancient Interpreters vid. Critical Enquiries into the various Editions of the Bible pag. 52 53. And to begin with the Service of his Mother the Church of Rome who follow the Vulgar Latin and Translate Gen. 5.15 She shall bruise thy Head which they expound of themselves and not of Christ though 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He in the Hebrew he tells us It might be that the Lattin Interpreter found it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 She in his own Copy for that in the writing of this Pronoun the Transcribers might easily mistake is apparent from the Manuscript Exemplars here he forgot the Jews Care in Writing the Law and says he cap. 9. pag. 56. Although there be a very great difference between the Exemplars of the Hebrew Context which are now extant and those which the Seventy Interpreters and St. Jerom made use of and that in our dayes they very much vary one from another yet we ought not thence to conclude that the Iewish Bibles were by themselves corrupted in hatred of the Christians as some Divines have been pleased to report So that though his Opinions are bad and dangerous yet there are others who are far worse both Papists and Protestants whose Arguments he Answers and particularly Dr. Isaac Vossius whose Sentiments are abominable yet published in the English Tongue We have not room here to Answer this Learned Critick the Author of these Critical Enquiries but do intend a distinct Discourse upon the Sacred Original Text of the Old Testament in Defence of its Purity and Perfection as 't is now enjoyed by the Protestant Church wherein we purpose to handle all those Curiosities that are the Subject of Critical Observation about the same if our Discourse about the Original of the Points Vowels and Accents find that Acceptance as may encourage such an Undertaking being very willing to Defend our Religion and the Rule of our Faith to the uttermost of our Power Yet something about it we intend in this Volume but very briefly Novorum Bibliorum Polyglottorum Synopsis Ultrajecti
same Feet which wou'd be an inconveniency capable of it self to make a Poet despair who intended to have any delicacy in his Verse 3. A third thing which hindereth the making Metrick Verses in French is that they have too great a quantity of long Syllables and too few short ones as one may be convinced in reading some Lines in a French Book where one shall soon find it The same thing may be remarked in the Hebrew Tongue in which I call long Syllables not those under which the Masorites have put one of the five Vowels which are called long for I doubt in this Case whether one may always confide in their Punctuation but those which are followed with several different Consonants can be short in no Tongue whatsoever Grammarians may say as the first Syllable in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chephtso and all the latter Syllables of the words which would not be the last in a Verse for they all have two Consonants after them It 's true that one may except words which end by one of the Letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ehevi which it may be could make no Position but at least the Rule will be good in respect of the other words ending in Consonants which are alwayes changeable For example in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 halach bagnatsath the second Syllable of Halac cannot be made short nor a Dactyl made of halac-ba upon which Cappel may be seen in his Refutation of Gomarus And this being supposed one may only read what place he will of the Poetick Books of Scripture and he shall see that there is such a Number of long Syllables that it is impossible to make Metrick Verses of them Those who have endeavoured to do it had no respect to this which is as ridiculous as if on would make Latin and Greek Verses without troubling himself with the quantity of Syllables It may be some will Object the Verses of the modern Rabbins whereof Buxtorf hath made a Treatise which he hath joyned to his Treasure because this Learned Man hath sought for Feet there as in Metrick Verses but it would be easie to shew that he hath been entirely mistaken that the Rabbins have regard only to the length and number of Syllables and that all their Licenses consist principally in the Pronunciation and the suppression of the Scheva simple or compound I shall not engage my self here in this matter and we are besides assured that those who do understand a little Hebrew and who know in what consists the Cadence of our Verses in Rhyme will agree hereupon by the only reading of the Examples which Buxtorf relates But it falls out I know not how that those who apply themselves to the Study of the Eastern Tongues do ordinarily neglect that of their own Language and it is perhaps one of the Reasons for which we have not hitherto discovered what the Poesie of the Hebrews is 4. What hath been said sufficeth if I am not mistaken to shew that one cannot make Metrick Verses in Hebrew We must remark that even this in part renders the Rhime in this Tongue very easie for the Cases and suffixe Pronouns Rhime together as do all the Plurals which causeth such a multitude of Consonancies and Rhimes that much care and labour would be necessary to write in Hebrew without Rhiming at every moment Thus the easiness of making Verses after this manner as is remarkable by what we have observed in the French and Hebrew seems to have lead the Hebrews thereunto Mr. Vossius saith very ingeniously in the Book which we have cited that Nature it self hath taught this Poesie to Men in rendering them capable of singing If some one adds he gives attention to the Custom of Children when they begin to sing and remarks after what manner they adjust together the words of their Songs to be able to sing them it will be perceived that they oft do repeat the same word and in this ignorant way of speaking there will be found the Principles of rhiming Poetry For it cannot be denyed that the same words repeated make a kind of Hamony which though it is not very agreeable and very fine is yet very natural and very exact though those who have a little more delicacy keep from making the same word rhime with it self II. This being so it cannot be thought strange that we should affirm that the Poetry of the Hebrews consists only in Rhime and is very irregular The Genius of the Hebrew Tongue cannot permit as I have already shown any other kind of Verses and it is easily conceived that the Hebrews who were not extraordinary Polite took little Pains to reduce Poetry to an Art as the Arabians have since done and the Rabbins after them Mr. Vossius hath remarked that not only the Arabians the Persians and Affricans but also the Tartars and Chinois and several other Nations of America know no Poetry but Rhime There is a likelihood that the Northern People who possessed all Europe in the falling of the Empire had also such like Verses and that it is from them that the Monks of the following Ages learned to make Latin Verses in Rhime whereof so great a Number is found in the ancient Offices There remains yet some Fragments of the ancient Poems of the Brittans such as is that which Vsher relates of one Thalascienus whom he calls The Prince of Bards and who lived in the time of Iustinian 1. But as these Northern Nations had no concern as we know of with the Eastern no consequence can be thence drawn We shall then stop at the Arabians and shall observe that the advantage they have received from time to time in their Poems was long without any Rule consisting only in Rhimes good or bad without observing any constant measure in Verses Nevertheless it was look'd upon as a more elegant Style than those Books which were solely composed of irregular Verses Sometimes there were divers Rhimes sometimes all the Verses of a Poem ended after the same manner It was in this Condition when the Alcoran was written to wit before the middle of the seventh Age All this Book is almost composed with Rhimes tho' the Periods are very unequal and it appeared in that time so well written that Mahomet himself boasts in several places that neither Angels nor Devils could equal the Elegance of his Style We may thence conclude that this Style was established a long time since amongst the Arabians else this Impostour would not have chosen it or it would not have pleased them as it did It is true that one Abubeker formed the Style thereof but that 's nothing to my design because it is enough for me that it should thereby appear in what consisted the Elegancy of the Style amongst the Arabians And the Authors who have written since have endeavour'd to imitate it as divers Learned Men have observ'd and amongst others Iohn Fabricius of Dantzick in his Specimen
Arabicum where he hath published amongst other Arabian Pieces a Discourse of a famous Author in Asia named El-Herir who hath perfectly imitated the Style of the Alcoran Those who will assure themselves hereof by their Eyes may only read this Book and compare it with the Alcoran or at least with the Surates XII and LXIV which Erpenius printed in Arabian and Latin Some may perhaps say that those are not so much Verses as Rhimed Prose because there are not equal measures but we are not to dispute about words We Answer to this that this Poesie in the beginning was in effect but a rhimed Prose and it's ' what appears by the Verses of Ali and other Poets in the time of Mahomet which the Arabians have yet where there is no exact measure observ'd It was since Mahomet that Poetry was reduced into an Art as I shall observed after I have remarked that the Arabians having a very long time remained separate from others and without any strange Nations entring into Arabia it may be believed that these Customs were very ancient when Strangers begun to know them So tho' there was no knowledge of their Poesie but of late yet it followeth not that it had not been a long time amongst ' em In fine they could not learn this Poesie of the Romans nor of the Greeks to whom it was unknown so that it may be reasonably believed that the Arabians have had from unregistred times a Rhiming Poesie As in these latter times these People knew not what Study was and Sciences we must not marvel if it remained very imperfect for several Ages It was but under Chalife Alraschid who lived towards the end of the eighth Age that a Learned Arabian Named Al-Chalin Eben Achmed Al-Farachidi reduced Poetry into an Art This Art consists not in any distinction of long Syllables or short ones but solely in the Rhime number of Syllables and in the observation of certain length which they keep in carefully distinguishing the moveable Consonants from the quiescent ones Those who would be throughly instructed therein may consult a small Book of Learned English-man Named Samuel Clark Printed at Oxford in 1661. in 12 o and entituled Scientia Metrica Rhythmica seu Tractatus de Prosodia Arabica 2. The Ethiopians have also a Rhiming Poetry but which resembles much more the ancient Poesie of the Arabians than the new one if we believe Mr. Ludolf who speaks thereof in these Terms The Verses of the Ethiopians consist in pure Rhime if one can call Rhimes Consonants of the same Order which end the Verse though they have different Vowels He adds that they have divers sorts thereof and promiseth to give examples in his New Ethiopick Grammar and in his Commentary which is said to be out by this time 3. If it be now asked with which of these Poetries that of the Hebrews has most connexion it will be answer'd with the ancient Poetries of the Arabians The Hebrews have never much cultivated Sciences and never took great Pains to imbellish their Tongue nor to write politely They were all occupied in Agriculture and had but little concern with their Neighbours from whom perhaps they might have drawn much knowledge This is confess'd by their ancient Books wherein no Tract of Erudition is found as in those of the Greeks and other Nations who have applyed themselves to Sciences Nevertheless they had had since the beginning of their Republick Songs and Verses in which they celebrated the Praises of God and related the History of their Nation witness the Songs of Moses and the Book of the Wars of the Lord which was a Collection of Poetry as it appears by Iosh. 10.13 2 Sam. 1.18 therefore nothing extraordinary will be advanced if it is said that their Poetry was not very regular nor very polite no more than that of the ancient Arabians If it was known in what consisted the Poetry of the Ancient Egyptians one might search into that of the Hebrews for the same Rules for 't is probable that it could be only there that Moses cou'd learn to make Verses But as we know nothing on 't all that can be done on this occasion is to seek for the Rules of Poetry of their Neighbours as we have done in respect of the Arabians and Ethiopians and to see if the Poetry of the Hebrews is not the same But we have shewn that the Hebrew Tongue can suffer no other Poesie than that and it remains now but to mark the principal Rules thereof and to apply them to the Poetical Books of the Hebrews III. The Poesie of the Hebrews having never been reduced into an Art there cannot be many Rules given thereof because a great Number of Rules is begun to be observed but when we have endeavour'd to form them all that can be said on 't is brought to some general Remarks which suffice to make known the Nature thereof 1. It is a Rhiming Poetry like ours as we have already remarked and as it shall be still more clearly seen by the sequel 2. The Rhimes are not alwayes very happy see the last Chapter of the Prosodia of the Arabians already cited The Rabbins who took their Poesie from them distinguish well enough their Rhimes into three sorts The first is when two Verses do finish by the same Consonant and the same Vowel without the preceding Letters agreeing They call these sorts of Verses passable as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abad and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phakad The second is when the two latter Consonants do agree as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Emor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schomor this Rhime according to them is just The third is when the three latter Consonants are the same as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spharim and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dbarim which is a laudabâ—â— Rhime They look upon it as a License when words whose Pronunciation is alike are made to rhime but whose Letters are not the same as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 succha and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tsouka It is yet another License but a less one to make words to rhime which end by like Vowels as if the one finisheth by a sehurce and the other by a cholem as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thamouth and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thicroth These distinctions being founded upon the Nature of the Hebrew Tongue and being more simple than that of the Arabians it 's believed they may be applyed to the ancient Poetry of the Hebrews So it may be remarked that in the ancient of the Hebrews although most of their Rhimes are just or laudable there is nevertheless a great Number of passables whereof some are harder than others the hardest are those which agree only in the latter Vowel when the words do end by a quiescent the sound whereof is not sensible for example 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tha 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tho c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ba 〈◊〉
that we were obliged to cite St. Ierom and Scaliger But we have undertaken to refute no body because then there should be made a Book on purpose for that which would be very unusefull after the direct Proofs which have been related 2. When the Psalms shall be seen disposed in form of Rhimed Verses it will perhaps be imagined that there was nothing so easie as to find these Rhimes But that which appears easie after it hath been expounded was often very difficult before the Exposition Enigma's are clear as the day when we see the mystery of them and we often wonder that we could not understand them at first sight when we learn what they signifie It is the same with the Poesie of the Hebrews on this occasion the difficulties which hindered its discovery being taken away nothing will appear so easie but this is what rendered the discovery The Verses are not distinguished in the Books of the Hebrews but written all after one another even as Prose which was the Cause that tho' we knew that certain Books are Poesies yet it hath been insensibly forgotten in what these Verses consisted and how they could be distinguished Two things besides have much contributed to this The one is that several of these Verses are extreamly short and the other is that their Rhimes are not always very happy If one writ at length irregular Spanish Verses composed of assonant Rhimes there are very few People who could guess them to be Verses if the Style did not make it known and without a good knowledge in Spanish Poesie it would scarcely be possible to distinguish between the beginning and end of these Verses It is the same with the Italian irregular Verses which rhime sometimes and sometimes the rhime is neglected as is thought fit We are well assured that very few Vltromontans could in the form of Verses write again this Period of a famous Italian Poesie Tempesto so furor non fù mai Pira in magnanimo petto ma un fiato sol di generoso affetto che spirando ne l'alma quando é piu con la ragione unita la desta e rende á le bell opre ardita As in this would appear but four Rhimes amongst so many words it would be suspected either that some of them were lost or that those which are in it came by chance Yet these are six Verses which may be read in Scene V. of the V. Act. of Pastor Fido. To this must be added that to find out the beginning and ending of Verses thus written one must know how to pronounce them which is not easie for Strangers as all those who have some knowleege in Italian Poesie are sensible And it is a thing which is yet more difficult as to the Hebrew Tongue whose Pronunciation is as rude as that of the Italian Tongue is sweet So the manner of writing Poesies without distinction of Verses their inequality the smallness of some the neglected Rhimes or omitted and the difficulty of the Pronunciation were Obstacles great enough to hinder the easie disentangling the Hebrew Verses 3. Hereby we see that though Copiers should have Committed never a Fault it would be still hard to find out these Verses But we ought to Judge that the Copyers might have sometimes without thinking on 't transpose the Order of words not knowing the measure of the Verses they did Copy So we see that the ancient Manuscripts not only of the Greek and Latin Authors who have written in Prose but also Poets whose Verses have no very sensible Cadence vary extreamly amongst themselves in the disposition of the words Hereupon may be consulted the Lyrick and Dramatick Poets of the Greeks and Latins where the Learned have often remarked some Transpositions If there have happened such changes in the Books of the Grecians and Latins which have been carefully enough Copied and by Copiers who understood well those two Tongues it may be easily judged that the Hebrew Tongue being lost in the Captivity and the Books of the Hebrews having been Transcribed by Copyers who understood them but by halves there wou'd some slight changes have slipped thereinto which though they did nothing to the sense would yet disorder the Verse We think we can shew that there are in effect some transpositions of words in the Psalms which do quite disorder the Rhime and which render the sense more difficult an Example on 't hath been related heretofore drawn from Psal. 9. Thus in Psal. 71. ver 6 and following the rhimes are disturbed and the sense less clear The Version of Geneva hath thus Translated this place I shall speak of thy Iustice only O God thou hast taught me from my Youth and hitherto have I declared thy wonders Now also when I am old and grey-headed O God forsake me not c. It 's easily observ'd that these words are entangled but it will be yet easier if the Original is read where one will hardly find out as much as disjecti membra Poetae On the contrary in disposing them so that the Rhime may be found they are Translated thus Lord thou art the only God I will celebrate thy Iustice I will declare thy wonders O God thou hast instructed me from my Childhood until now O God for sake me not until Old Age c. Not that there was frequent need of transposing the words to find the Rhimes it hath almost always presented it self without that but a transposition as that which offers it self by chance to one who seeks whether the Psalms are composed of rhimed Verses is sufficient to make him believe that if there be rhimes in them the Hebrew Poets made them without taking any heed thereto 4. Besides the Transpositions which may happen in the Psalms there may also be some places where the Copyers have taken one word for another or have even forgotten some Those who have a little understanding in Criticks or who have sometimes examined the Varieties of reading of the New Testament which are in the Editions of Courcelles or in that of Oxford will easily agree hereunto and those who would deny the possibility of these kinds of oversights should shew how that which is happened in respect of the New Testament transcribed by Christian Copyers whose Mother Tongue was the Greek was impossible in respect to the Psalms which have been Copyed since the Captivity by Copyers who only knew the Hebrew by Study But it is not only very possible that the Copyers have committed some Faults that indeed happened as Cappel and several others have shewn To be convinced hereof we only need to compare Psal. 14. with 53. which certainly are the same and it will be found that the 14 th is the less correct that there are some words missing in it and that the Copyers have been mistaken in some others which hath wholly alter'd the sense and the rhime Besides we need but to compare Psal. 18. such as it is in the Collection of the
Kings that had taken Lot his Nephew Prisoner Father Kircher says that the Abyssins pretended to have all these Books and a great Number of others in the Library of the Monastery of the Holy Cross upon Mount Amara and that the Queen of Sheba received them as a Present from Solomon They pretend moreover that she Composed many Books that they have in the same Library and that she had a Son born by Solomon who was Prince Melilech that had also Compos'd many Books they had in the same place Those who cannot get the Works of Father Kircher may find what I have said in a Treatise of Bibliotheques publish'd 1680. If the Abyssines had only said that Solomon gave many Books to the Queen of Sheba and that he lay with her they wou'd have said nothing so very improbable for a Prince so Learned as he was and which is more an Author of such a multitude of Books wou'd not without doubt send away a Princess so Curious as the Queen without giving her a Copy of his Works and some other rare Treatises Besides he hated not the Sex and perhaps she was touched with the same desire and a long time after that obliged the Queen of the Amazonâ— to make a Visit to Alexander And it is apparent enough that Solomon had as much Complaisance as the King of Macedon But these are things which are so insignificant that all the World may be permitted to believe what they please of it The Author then considers the Vanity of the Egyptians who gave 100000 Years Antiquity to their Writings and sends us to St. Augustin who refutes them in his eighteenth Book of the City of God the 29 th Chapter He relates what was said of Zoroaster concerning the making of a Book entituled The Similitude which was edged with Gold and required for a Covering twelve hundred and sixty Oxes Hides some think this Zoroaster was Cham the Son of Noah He omits not that it was said of Trismegistus that he had Composed twenty five thousand Volumes or else thirty six thousand five hundred and twenty five and that the Science of the Egyptians in which Moses was so well Vers'd was contained in this great Number of Books and that Moses himself took some thoughts from 'em to insert in the Pentateuch He forgets not likewise to speak of the Sybil Daughter or rather Daughter-in-Law to Noah nor the Book of Iob according to some writ before Moses for there are some which pretend that Moses found it perfect at Iethro's his Father-in-Law in the Land of Midian and thinking it proper to Comfort the Israelites in their Misery he took it with him into Egypt to show it them Mr. Huet dissents from this Opinion and believes only that Moses Composed the History of Iob during the Servitude of his Brethren to the end to propose to them a great Example of Patience and Hope After all these ridiculous and fabulous Traditions the Author concludes that there is great probability that the Custom of writing Books was in use before Moses's time but nevertheless that the Pentateuch is the most Ancient of all Canonical Books and even of all Books whatsoever that are now extant He maintains that the Prophecy of Enoch was not written and that St. Iude had no knowledge of it only by inspiration that the Book that formerly bore the Name of this Patriarch was made by some Cheat and that St. Augustin did not well consider the Text of the Apostle since he makes him say that Enoch writ Prophecies He makes the same Judgment of the other Works that go under the Name of the Patriarchs As to the two Pillars of the Descendants from Seth he is of their Opinion who conclude it to be one of the oversights of Iosephus he also takes occasion by this to reproach him with having corrupted the sense of a Passage of Moses to flatter the Idolaters 't is where he says that Moses forbid the speaking ill of the Gods of other Nations and the destroying their Temples As to what concerns Zoroaster the Author says that we have no certainty and after having related a long passage of Mr. Huet's who believed he should find Moses not only in Zoroaster but also in all the false Gods and in all the first Heathen Poets he gives his own Judgment upon this Opinion with much equity He shows after that by a Passage of Eusebius's that Moses having lived in the time of Cecrops the first King of the Athenians he was before the most ancient Greek Poets Orpheus Linus and Museus and gives the Reason why some maintained that Cecrops and Moses was the same Person He says also that nothing certain can be established concerning the History of Mercurius Trismegisâ—usâ— He gives the Title of some of his Works which Clement of Alexandria has spoken on and sends us to Causabon where we may see that instead of Moses's Copying any thing from the Egyptians it must be confess'd that all the wise Heathens have borrowed something from him The Work that he cites of Causabon's is the 10 th Article of the Exercitations against the Annals of Baronius Causabon justifies that the Pimander of Trismegistus was writ since the Apostles time by one that was half Christian and half Platonick In â—â—ne Mr. Selden observes that that Treatise of Origen's is a suppositious Work which says the Book of Iob was found in the House of Moses's Father-in-law Our Author refutes those that believed Iob was the same with Iobab in the 36 th Chapter of Genesis who was the great Grand-son of Esau He does not believe Iob Composed his History himself because it is writ in Verse and he does not disapprove the Opinion of Mr. Huet upon it who says that Moses having Collected divers Memoirs which were in Manuscript concerning the Life of Iob and heard upon that the Relation of many Persons composed a Work with all these Materials We shall hardly give Credit to this Proof that the Author makes use of for altho' he had a very great reason to say that a Man in such Afflictions as Iob was cou'd not entertain his Friends in Verse yet a Poetical Discourse is as likely on this occasion as in those that are recited in Tragedies or sung in Opera's yet it is not improbable that Iob himself after his Affairs were re-established might give the History of his Misfortunes in Verse This is an Abridgment of Mr. Selden's first Dissertation which is about eighteen Pages In the second he examines whether Moses was the Author of the Pentateuch and answers in the affirmative and refutes the Objections of Spinoza He thinks it very unadvised that some writ in Dutch against this impious Author because says he this wou'd make us fear that the Curiosity of the People wou'd be stirr'd up if these Disputes were manag'd in a Language that they understood not I believe that our Author speaks principally in respect to the Philosophical Works of Spinoza many think
so that they were half naked Besides which they suffered both their Beard and Hair to grow This Dress with their particular manner of Carriage drew many Children after them and exposed them to their Ridicule Yet for all the apparent Severity they were very debauched as they walked the Streets this Aspersion was often cast upon them especially when out of Greece 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grec imposteur Their Garments were generally black and dirty and if any one was seen to affect the same Slovenliness he was certain to have the same Reproaches rendred him as St. Ierome makes appear in his Epistle to Marcellus upon the Infirmity of Blasill The Christian Monks with their habits inheriting the Vanity of the Philosophers also it is believed by some Authors that the Heathens called them through Contempt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Black Casacks and said they were no mark of Virtue so that it was but wearing a Mourning Dress and that it imported not what they appeared outwardly since there was nothing but excessive Vanity within Now to return to Iustin Antiquity assures us he lived very conformably to the habit he wore He went to Rome in the beginning of the Reign of Antonine the Pious and fixt his Abode there applying himself to the defence of the Christian Religion against the Heathens Marcionites and other Hereticks in pursuit of which he writ several Books that have been lost About the hundred and fortieth Year of the Blessed Jesus he Presented to Antonine his Apology for the Christian Religion Which seemed to be the Cause that the Emperor publish'd an Edict and sent into all Asia commanding that the Christians should be proceeded against according to the ordinary Forms of Justice whereas before they took away their Goods banished them and sometimes put them to death without any Formalities at all In Dr. Cave there are some critical Observations on the date of this Edict by which he plainly proves that it was Antonine's and not Marcus Aurelius's as some Learned Men have supposed After having Publish'd this Apology Iustin makes a Voyage into Asia where he came acquainted with Trypho the Iew which Dr. Cave believes to be R. Tarpho who was Friend to R. Akiba that is so often spoke of in the Thalmud Trypho had retired from Iudea after the War of Barchocheas and Iustin finding him at Ephesus disputed with him for two days of which he gives an account to the Publick in a Book Entituled A Dialogue with Trypho From thence returning to Rome he composed that Apology which is called the First tho it was really the Second and Presented it to Marcus Aurelius Lucius Verus for a certainty not being at that time at Rome Iustin had great Contests also with one Crescens a Cynic Philosopher who under the pretended Austerities of a Philosophical Life concealed many shameful Disorders Wherefore Iustin calls him a Philosopher and no Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Man enraged against Iustin resolved to do his utmost to ruin him he found it not difficult to make use of the excessive Superstition of Marcus Aurelius to that end who had also a very ill Opinion of the Christians as is evident by these words of his Book 11. § 3. Such is the Disposition of the Soul that it must be separated from the Body whether it be extinguish'd and dissipated like a Vapour or whether it Subsists This Disposition must proceed from its own Iudgment not from a Passion purely which troubles it as is often seen in the Christians but from a calm and solid Reasoning such as may be inspired to another without making use of Discourses full of Figures and Exaggerations The Circumstances of Iustin's Death may be seen in the Account of his Martyrdom which Dr. Cave believes to be true Their shortness he says being no little sign that they have been taken from ancient Memoirs without being corrected and added to in latter Ages as many things of the like nature have been It is true that some have doubted whether those Acts contained the Martyrdom of Iustin according to matter of Fact but their Suspicion seems not to be well grounded because there is nothing but what agrees very well with it especially the Time and Death of this Martyr which was when Rusticus was Praefect of Rome as St. Epiphanius confirms Rusticus was a great Man both in the Wars and State very much enclined to Philosophy and particularly that of the Stoicks He had been Governor to Marcus Aurelius as may be seen in the First Book of this Emperor where are the chief Lessons that he learnt of him Before this Rusticus Iustin and Six other Christians were brought after they had been first put in Prison He asked them if they were Christians they all freely confessing it publickly and refusing to Sacrifice to the Roman Deities were Beheaded Baronius concludes it to be in the 165th Year after Christ as agrees very well with the Alexandrian Chronology that saith a little after Iustin had presented his second Apology to the Emperor he received the Crown of Martyrdom Dr. Cave after the Relation of Iustin's Death gives a Character of his Virtues and Learning in the manner of a Panegyric as he does to all the Lives he has Written where all along he mingles Eloquence with the Critical part of his History He tells us that although Ancients have extremely praised the Learning of Iustin this Holy Man had no knowledge of the Hebrew as appears by the Etymology he gives of the word Satanas which he saith comes from Sata and from Nas that in Hebrew and Syriac signifie an Apostat Whereas 't is known that the Termination in AS is from the Greek and is added to the word Satan which signifies in Hebrew an Enemy The Etymology that Iustin gave to this word without doubt made Trypho Laugh this shews that some Moderns have not been very well acquainted with the Writings of our Martyr because that a false Etymology of the word Osanna being found in his Book entituled Questions and Answers to the Orthodox They have concluded it to be none of Iustin's who according to them understood Hebrew very well because he was born in Palestine Mr. Rivet also gives this Reason in his Book Entituled Criticus Sacer from whence Sundius hath taken it and added to this Treatise de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis which consists almost of nothing else but what others that have treated of the same matter have said before him Dr. Cave informs us that this Author who pretended to have read the Writings of the Ancients his Citations of which savour infinitely more of Ostentation than Judgment or Fidelity hath sufficiently declared his Ignorance in what relates to the Fathers with whom he has pretended to be so well acquainted when he made that Remark on Iustin. Though Dr. Cave does not look upon this Work as his but rejects it for other Reasons as well as many other that have been
his Remarks he says that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essence is plainly to be understood in this place for that of Person but that Beryl was mistaken when he said that Jesus Christ had no Personality before his Incarnation yet he might reasonably maintain that he had the same Divinity with his Father since if any other had been proper to him alone there would have been more Gods than one By this may be seen that it is not always very easie to apprehend the Opinion of the Ancients upon difficult things and above all when they are related by their Adversaries What Dr. Cave observes a little further is more pertinent to Origen's case Origen was Sixty Years old and ceased not nevertheless to take pains at that time it was that he composed this Book against Celsus He writ also about the same time Letters to the Emperor Philip and to his Empress which gave occasion to some to believe tho' without any reason that he was a Christian He also applied himself to confute certain Hereticks who maintain'd that the Soul died with the Body to rise again with it and the Helcesaites who were a kind of Gnosticks and whose Errors were stifled in the very beginning Decius succeeded Philip who violently persecuted the Christians and in whose Reign Alexander Bishop of Ierusalem as Dr. Cave relates in his History died in Prison Origen was also imprisoned with him and suffered much thereby but escaped his own Death by that of Decius He at last died at Tyre being Sixty nine Years of Age in the Year of our Lord 254. in the first of Valerius as our Author has made appear against some Ancients who were deceived therein He was buried in a Church at Tyre among the Ruins of which his Sepulchre is yet to be seen according to the Relation of some Travellers Dr. Cave afterwards makes an Eloge of the good Works and Learning of Origen He was of an Extraordinary Sobriety and so little desirous of Riches that he many times refused Presents that Rich Persons offered him He even at the end of his Life sold his Library to maintain him and sold it upon this Condition that the Purchaser should give him four Oboles that is to say five Pence a day during his Life The extraordinary Pains which he took for many Years procured him the Names of Adamantinus and Chalkenterus that is of Steel and Brass He assures us that he wrote Six thousand Volumes which appears impossible except we make a Volume of each of his Homilies and Letters if so we may reconcile St. Ierom and Ruffinus who have contented very hotly about it To add the Judgment of the Heathens to that of the Christians about Origen I shall relate here at length a Passage of Porphyry of which Dr. Cave has given us the Sense It is to be found in the sixth Book of Eusebius Cap. 19. what this Great Philosopher says of Origen in a Work of his against the Holy Scripture Some have chose rather to seek Solutions of the difficult Writings of the Iews than to abandon them and have been oblig'd to put such Interpretations as have contradicted themselves and even agree not with their very Writings which includes not so much the Defence of these strange Writers as Advantagious Thoughts of their own Opinions for after having spoken those things in Pompous Terms which Moses gives the clearest Relation of in the World they esteem'd them as Enigma's and Enthusiastically maintain that they ought to be receiv'd as full of hidden Mysteries and they propose not their Explications till after they have confounded their Auditors with their Lofty Language And in a few words a Man that I have known being also very Young may serve me for an Example 'T is Origen who was then in great Esteem and is so-still because of the Works that he hath left behind him c. As to what regards his Life he was a Christian and liv'd and obey'd the Laws of the Empire But as for his Opinions and Sentiments touching Divinity he reason'd in the Greek and maintain'd strange Fables by Principles of the Greek Philosophers He afterwards incessantly read the Writings of Plato Numerius Cronius Apollophanus Longinus Moderatus and of many more famous Pythagoreans he also studied the Lives of Cherimon a Stoick Pholosopher and of Cornutus of whom having learnt the Allegorical manner of explaining the Mysteris of the Greeks he made use of it to his own purpose in interpreting the Writings of the Jews Dr. Cave thinks that Porphyry was not wholly mistaken in accusing Origen for having learned of the Heathens the Method of turning all into Allegory which without doubt did prejudice more as to Religion than he could Convert But one may also suppose that Origen was perswaded to the Allegorical Method of Interpreting the Scripture as much by the Example of Philo and the ancient Iews as by that of the Heathen Philosophers See the Fourth Tome of the French Bibl. p. 528. Our Author afterwards shews Erasmus's Judgment upon Origen which is extremely advantagious to him he hath not according to Erasmus a bombast Style like to St. Hillary nor Silla with too far-fetch'd Ornaments as is St. Ierome nor overcharg'd with Rhetorick and Points like to St. Ambrose nor sharp Picquant and full of old Words like to Tertullian Neither too exact nor too periodical as is St. Gregory Nazianzen nor too full of digressions and abrupt Periods like St. Austin but always lively and natural Dr. Cave finds nothing to contradict the Judgment of Erasmus except where he says he believes Erasmus is deceived when he takes Origen to be concise and short since he hath been reproached with quite contrary defects As for the Errors of Origen he directs his Reader to the Originiana of Mr. Huet the present Bishop of Sâ—issons and to an English Discourse Printed at London 1661. in quarto where we make use says he of all the Advantages that can be drawn from Wit Reason and Eloquence to justifie Origen It is entitled a Letter of Resolution concerning Origen and the Choice of his Opinions To which may be added the Origenes defensus of the Jesuit Holloix Many great Men have formerly made Apologies for Origen and among others Pamphilus Martyr and Eusebius but they are all lost Nevertheless we may draw from the Ancients some general Remarks which may render him more excusable 1. He had written many things not dogmatically and to Remark that he had thereupon determin'd his own Sentiments but only for Exercise as he Witnesses of himself in divers Places of his Book of Principles which is the most critical of all his Pieces 2. In the heat of dispute sometimes he would to the utmost extremity oppose the Opinions of his Adversary which he disputed with although in effect he approved not of this immoderate way of Proceeding And this is what happened to Origen as some say in his Disputation against Sabellicus where sometimes he spoke as if
they writ their Epistles but that they only taught privately being not as yet separated from the Church He enquires into the time that all these Epistles had been written and shews according to his account that this agrees very well with the Epoche which he hath observed of the first Schism that happened in the Church Celsus a great Enemy to Christianity confesseth in Origen that the first Disciples of our Lord were all of the same Opinion and that they were not separated from one another until their number increased He reproaches them with these Divisions and had not omitted it if there had been any in the time of the first Disciples to have made a Demonstration of them in like manner The same Truth also appears by a place of Clemens of Alexandria This Author pretends to prove that the Heretical Churches were of a later date than the True To this purpose he divides the time which passed since the Birth of Iesus Christ into three Periods the first comprehends the time of our Saviour's Life from Augustus to the fifteenth Year of Tiberius according to the Calculation of Clement the second from the Death of Iesus Christ to the Martyrdom of St. Paul under Nero's Empire and the third from Nero to Adrian Clement shews that all Heresie began after these three Periods thus agreeing with Mr. Dodwell that they appeared not until Adrian so that some were in being until the Emperor Antoninus's time which is true of the Heretick Marcion and very likely of Valentinus Mr. Dodwell having proved in his first Dissertation that the Hereticks did not begin to disturb the Church until under the Emperor Trajan pursues this Subject in the Dissertation whereof we give the Extract and proves in particular that Marcion Basilides Valentinus and some other Hereticks made Polycarp say so often O God to what times am I reserv'd That all these Hereticks I say did not discover themselves until under the Empire of Adrian the reason hereof may be seen in the Author we will be satisfied to remark that he reprehends Tertullian by the bye of some very gross Faults as that he made but one Emperor of Tiberius and Claudius under the name of Tiberius Claudius but this of Tertullian will not seem so strange as in Eusebius one Emperor divided into three Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and that the Historian says they were Brothers After having spoke of the time of St. Irenaeus's Birth Mr. Dodwell search'd after that of his Death he rejects the pretended History of his Martyrdom by the Persecution of the Emperor Severus because it does not appear in any Author of the four first Ages that this Father was Martyred there being none that gives him this name To comprehend the strength of the Argument which is a Demonstration on this Subject you must know that the Honour of Martyrdom was so Glorious that this Praise was never forgot so that St. Irenaeus not having it from any Ancient Author though they gave him many Glorious Titles we ought to conclude that it was not due to him It 's true some of the following Ages honoured him with the Title of Martyr the first that gave it him was the Author of the Questions to the Orthodox which Mr. Dodwell supposes to be one Iustina Sicilian that is supposed to be writ about the end of the fifth Age at least he is sure he did not live until after the Emperors embraced Christianity and consequently his Testimony alone ought not to be taken for things that passed a long time before The second who calls S. Irenaeus Martyr is St. Ierom but because this Doctor has not given him this name in the places wherein he ought to have given it him if he had thought it his due Mr. Dodwell judges it is some Remark that might have passed out of the Margin into the Text so that nothing can be concluded in favour of St. Irenaeus's pretended Martyrdom neither from the Author of the Questions to the Orthodox nor from the Testimony of St. Ierom and Gregory of Tours may be looked upon as the first that spoke of it affirmatively but it is with so little Exactness and upon so false Supposition that one ought not to take notice of what he says He will have him dye in the same Persecution that crowned Photion Bishop of Lions whom nevertheless St. Irenaeus succeeded Besides it is certain that he lived when Victor was Pope as appears by the famous Dispute that happened about Easter which was undoubtedly in that Pope's time And it seems under the Empire of Commodus Eusebius and the Chronicle of Alexandria make mention of this Father in the third Year of this Emperor Mr. Dodwell believes that it was upon the occasion of his Works against the Schism of Blastus and Florinus that he put out under Commodus rather than Severus by reason of the Troubles of the Reign of this last during which it seems this Dispute was quieted The last Actions of St. Irenaeus which we have any knowledge of end in the Year CLXXXIX of our Saviour and the Tenth of the Emperor Commodus so that it may be concluded this Father died about Ninety but not full a Hundred Years of Age. This Author attributes this long Life to Providence that Tradition might be more compleat The same also was said of the Patriarchs before Moses because the Revelations were not writ but the Writings of the New Testament being received and known the like Necessity does not appear Nevertheless Mr. Dodwell carries this thought further and says That it was more difficult that the Churches planted by the Apostles should consent to an Error than to convey Books under the borrowed names of Apostles there would be nothing wanting to fall into this Unhappiness but the Perfidiousness of an Ill or the too great Credulity of a Good Man It 's to befriend Tradition extreamly to bring it from the Inconveniencies to which it seems a thousand times more subject than Scripture For after all how would it be possible to distinguish from the true Apostolick Tradition what might be added under pretext of Explication for some other end After having spoke of the Person of St. Irenaeus Mr. Dodwell passes to his Writings in the following Dissertations The design of his Work against Heresies and the time wherein it was written wholly takes up the fourth Dissertation If this Father excuses the Rudeness of his Style it is not that he was an Enemy to Eloquence or that he despised it but because his long abode in Gaul made him lose the Habit of speaking the Greek Tongue and because he was not accustomed to write whence it is concluded that his Work against Heresies was the first of his Writings nor did he write it until he was far in Years because he talks of having seen Polycarp in his Youth as a particular Advantage which seems to intimate that there were but few then in the World that could say the same thing He says
also that divers Bishops succeeded Polycarp in the Government of the Church of Smyrna which shews it was a long time after the Death of that Holy Man Irenaeus might be then about eighty Years of Age. This Work against Heresies was not all writ at the same time nor was it built upon the same Foundation on the contrary it appears by divers places that the two first Books entirely took up the Design of the Author It was after these were ended that he thought of making a third which soon followed the other two After that he made a fourth and fifth Book wherein he speaks of the Doctrin of our Lord. But though he writ these things at several different times all the work was ended in a short time As Irenaeus himself says in a Letter to a Friend that had desired to write upon this Subject Mr. Dodwell acknowledges that he does not know who this Friend was and makes no Scruple to refute those that thought it Turibius a Priest of Toledo whom the Author of this Fable Confounds with one Turibius of Asturia who lived not till the fifth Age whether there were two of this name or that they made two of one which was often done it was so that Anaclet was made two Popes in taking away from him the two first Syllables of his name However this Friend must be a Grecian because St. Irenaeus writes to him in Greek and makes an Apology for the Roughness of his Style It may be he lived in Cephalonia or in some place of the Continent that is near this Island according to the Author's Conjectures who pretends that the Heretick Ptolomy was of this Country He desired him to explain the Doctrins of the Valentinians and because they imbraced almost all the Opinions of the other Hereticks it makes Irenaeus speak of them all in his Work going back as far as Simon the Magician pretending that they derived their Birth from him as the Orthodox did theirs from Iesus Christ and his Apostles It is true the Valentinians and other Hereticks of St. Irenaeus's time did not acknowledge this for they maintained on the contrary that they received their Doctrin from Theodad Disciple of St. Paul as Basilides said he received his from Glaucias Interpreter to St. Peter But this Father proves that they descended by an uninterrupted Succession from the Heretick Menander Disciple to Simon the Magician The better to apprehend all this the Author observes that the new Hereticks used always to joyn themselves to the Ancient ones and to enter into a Society with them adding also some new Error to their Heresie whereby to distinguish themselves And as among Philosophers there was one Potamon that pick'd and chose what he liked in all the rest to form his own Principles by So it is very likely that the Valentinians formed their Heresie from what they found in the other Heresies that suited with their Design This is the reason that Irenaeus calls it a Recapitulation of all Heresies Ptolomeus was one of the chief Disciples of the Valentinian Heresie who according to the Maxim we just before spoke of added new Errors to those of his Masters It 's of him that this Father speaks of in the beginning of his Work Marcus was Disciple to Ptolomeus erected a new School and is more spoken of in what follows than his Master His Errors spread as far as Gaul and all along the Rhine But Mr. Dodwell proves that the Valentinian Heretick Colorbasus was more ancient than either Marcus or Ptolomeus because he was contemporary to Valentine of whom he learned his Doctrin after which he formed a new School All which is contrary to what Epiphanius writ These Hereticks like the Pythagorians did not explain their Opinions nor communicate their Books to any but them who were initiated into their Mysteries which was the reason that very few were well acquainted with them this caused St. Irenaeus's Friend to desire him to inform therein therefore this Father design'd as he himself declares to discover the Practices of the Valentinians and exclaim against their Manners Mr. Dodwell Remarks upon this that the Fathers used to represent the Ill Lives of Hereticks thence to draw Consequences against their Doctrins according to the Maxim of Jesus Christ You shall know them by their works Matth. 7.16 Though this Consequence is not always lawful for the Manners of one that is Orthodox in his Judgment and may be corrupt and on the contrary a Heretick may lead a pure and holy Life But it was just against the ancient Hereticks whereof the most part approved by their criminal Opinions their lewd Practices They affirm'd that one might deny our Saviour by word of Mouth if Persecuted That Magick was lawful and that simple Fornication was not a Crime .c. The Author employs the rest of this Fourth Dissertation to find out the time wherein St. Irenaeus writ this piece against the Hereticks to which purpose he runs over all the Valentinian Hereticks of whom we before have spoken and by the great many helps of Conjectures and Inquiries discovers the Times wherein they lived and Taught and concludes at last that Irenaeus writ this Work after the Death of Photinus his Predecessor about the Year CLXVII of the common Aera and the ninth or tenth of his Episcopacy and because this Father speaks of the Version of Theodotian which is thought to have been later he endeavours to shew that it is a Mistake and that there is nothing in the whole but what agrees with his Calculation The Reasons may be seen in the Author because they cannot be alledged here without being Tedious The Fifth Dissertation treats of the Interpreter of St. Irenaeus and a Passage of St. Ierom which joins St. Irenaeus with the Greek Authors that clear'd Erasmus from his doubt whether he writ in Greek or Latin Mr. Dodwell adds another that neither Erasmus nor Father Feuardant who published an Edition of St. Irenaeus took notice of which is that St. Ierom says that he 'll mention none of the Greeks but Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons He adds Arguments to these Testimonies This Author excuses the Roughness of his Stile because he lived along time among the Celtes and was obliged to make use of their barbarous Language but had he writ in Latin this excuse would not have taken for there was not only a Roman Colony at Lyons but also every fifth Year they celebrated the terrible Combat of Orators in Honour to Augustus of which Iuvenal speaks in these Verses Aut Lugdunensem Rhetor dicturus ad Aram. St. Ierom says also that St. Irenaeus writ learnedly and eloquently and without dispute this Father was too good a Judge to give this Praise to so rude Latin as that of St. Irenaeus was if it were that which is now extant it is not difficult to observe that the Author of this Version understood Greek very well but could not speak Latin so that if St. Irenaeus had writ in
Priviledges of the Church which is there refuted and of which he shews the evil Consequences or in fine of Heresies condemn'd some time since One may gather from all this that there were great Abuses in the Church of Rome for which there was no remedy in the times of Orthuinus Gratius nor is there any to this day There are four Pieces which give an account of the History of the Council of Basil who have declared the Authority of the Councils Superior to that of Popes The First is an Account of this Council by Aeneas Silvius Picolomini since Pope under the Name of Pius the Second This History is so ingenuous and plain that in the reading it seems as if one were present at the Council and even heard the Fathers speak which composed it There is no doubt but it has been faithfully done since he that wrote it was Secretary of the Council and whose interest it was as much to speak ill as well of its Authority Since according to the Remarks of Iohn Mason the Popes gave Benefices whereas the Council gave nothing Thus although the Author had retracted it 't was not of less consequence because he was Interess'd so to do when he became Pope whereas when he wrote it he was engag'd of neither side The reasons of the retraction which was found in a Bull at the head of his Works Printed at Basil are very weak as Edmund Richer proves in the fourth Book of his History of the General Councils The Second Piece concerning the Council of Basil is a Letter of the same Aeneas Silvius to a Spanish Divine where he relates after what manner Amideus Duke of Savoy was Elected Pope under the Name of Felix to oppose Eugenius IV. who had refus'd to submit to the Council This Letter was dated at Basil August 12. 1440. The Third Piece consists in two Letters from Iulian Cardinal of St. Angel Iulian the IV. Predecessor of this Pope had call'd together the Council of Basil and Nam'd this Cardinal as President who had taken much care to Assemble it but Eugene fearing that this Council might be some prejudice to the Council of Rome resolved to Dissolve it and enable the Cardinal of St. Angel with a sufficient power to do it Nevertheless this Cardinal who foresaw the scandal it wou'd cause cou'd not perswade himself to obey it but writ to Eugenius all the Arguments he had against it although those Reasons are in bad Latin they were nevertheless Vindicated very strongly He saith also first in other things Quid dicet universus orbis cum haec sentiat nonne judicabit clerum esse incorrigibilem velle semper in suis deformitatibus sordescere celebrata tot sunt in diebus nostris concilia ex quibus nulla secuta est reformatio Expectabunt gentes ut ex hoc sequâ—retur aliquis fructus sed si hoc dissolvatur dicetur quod nos Irridemus Deum hominâ—s What will all the World say when they shall see it will they not judge the Clergy is Incorrigible and that they are willing to run into greater disorders since which there have been so many celebrated Councils in our days of which there hath been no Reformation that people expect some fruit from this But if it is dissolved what will be said but that we mâ—ck both God and Man There is also in these Letters very lively painted the Terrours of the Court of Rome when a Reformation was fear'd and the ways that they took to hinder the Blow We may consult upon these 2 Letters Edmund Richer in the third Book of his History of the Councils Richer has also in his fourth Piece which is much more Correct than this last an Appeal from the University of Paris in 1517. to the following Council again Leo X. where appears a List of the chief Abuses that reigned then in the Eastern Churches and which made the Convening of a Council necessary with the proofs which the University shews contrary to Leo that the Council of Basil was Canonically Assembled and cou'd not be rejected The University protests also against the Treaty that Francis I hath made with Leo as pernicious to all the Kingdome in general and particularly in respect to Dauphine At this time was made the Elegy upon the Pragmatick Sanction after which succeeded this Treaty and is express'd throughout the whole with more Life and Courage than they dare do at this Day For although France has much Learning yet it hath as little Valour If Orthuinus Gratius had had any regard to order in his Collection 't wou'd ha' been seen here in the extract which is at the 123. Page of the Works of Nicholas de Clemengis where this Author reports That Eugenius spoke freely against the Council of Basil. There would also have been the Letter of Frederick of Brunswick a little while after chosen Emperour to Charles VIII King of France where he desires him to send Deputies to Mentz to try if they cou'd remedy the Schism that was then in the Eastern Churches It 's Dated 21st of May 1400. and it might contribute much to the knowledge of what was treated of in the Council of Basil concerning the Peace of the Church There may be added to these pieces concerning the Council of Basil those that one Brown speaks of in his Preface which he had drawn from a Manuscript shewn him by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury These are the Credential Letters and Instructions that King Henry the 6th gave his Embassadors which were to go to the Council of Basil and the Dispatches that he had made to the Court of Rome under Martin the 5th to hasten the Assembling of that Council Secondly The pieces which relate to the Council of Basil are follow'd with an Harangue that the Legats of Leo the 10th made 1519 before the Emperor Maximilian and the Assembly of the Princes of Germany to perswade them to consent to the levying in all their States the 10th part of the Ecclesiasticks the 20th of the yearly Revenues of the rich Laicks the 5th part only of all others and every House tax'd to the maintaining of a Soldier under the Pretence of making War with the Turks This Design was only to get the Germans Money to enrich the House of Medicis which sufficiently appear'd by the Affair of Indulgence But the Princes of Germany wou'd not hearken to it at all as may be seen in the Refutation of this Harangue by Ulricus Hutterius who hath unmask'd these Legats of Leo. If I shou'd keep the order of the old Edition of the Collection I shou'd put before it this Harangue and its Refutation a piece that Mr. Brown hath inserted in its Preface which is the Account of an Answer given to Cardinal Cajetan Legate of the same Pontiff in 1518 in the name of the Princes of Ausburge by Richard Bartholini de Barouse Chaplain to Cardinal de Gurk There are in this History all the Dificulties that were found in
this Demand of the Court of Rome and particularly the just cause they had to distrust him for his Covetousness after having been deceived so often under the same pretext 3. After that there is the Life of Gregory the 7th by Cardinal Bennon the reasons for which Henry IV. Emperor chose Guibert instead of Gregory are drawn from d' Othon de Frisinge the manner how Silvester the Second was accus'd of giving himself to the Devil with an Account of his Death taken out of Iohn Stella a Venetian the Judgment that Peter Crinitus made of Boniface the 8th the Life of the Emperor Henry the 4th Written by Otbert Bishop of Liege in the year 1106 with some Letters of the same Emperor to the Pope and to divers Princes the cruel manner wherewith Henry was treated by Gregory is sufficiently known and may be seen in their Lives what Princes ought to expect from the Pope if they are so vain to promise an Establishment of those Opinions in their States which the Court of Rome hath endeavoured to spread every where about her Soveraign Authority in all matters Spiritual and Temporal 4. How Popes have to the utmost endeavour'd to render the Election of the Emperor dependent upon the Court of Rome The Princes of Germany have not fail'd to oppose it and one of the principal Ramparts against the Enterprizes of Italy is the Golden Bull given by Charles the 4th in the year 1365 and the 10th of Ianuary 'T was this that oblig'd Orthuinus Gratius to publish this Bull in a Collection wherein he design'd to advertise the Princes of dangerous Abuses that ought to be corrected which was daily put in practice by the Court of Rome 5. One of the Fictions which hath been the worse founded and which was forg'd to establish the temporal Greatness of the Pope is the pretended gift of Constantine where he says that he gave all the West to Pope Silvester and his Successors Now there is none who hath Learning or Sincerity amongst the Roman Catholicks that will not acknowledge this to be meerly Supposititious and that this is not the same that was 200 years since And he is wanting in the serious Refutation of a piece which he dares not now make mention of wherefore we ought not to regard as forreign to our purpose the Refutation of Laurentius Valla here brought against this Gift of Constantine which is throughly examin'd by the Collection of divers Learn'd men who either doubt it to be Authentick or wholly reject it If all these pieces were lost we shou'd not want to object to those Men who look upon this Gift as ridiculous the novelty of their Opinion which opposes the consent of many Ages Thus we must abolish all Writings which prove it with those that condemn it Or in keeping the first we must preserve the second 6. The Vaudois are in the number of those who have complained of the Abuses of the Roman Church and who have endeavour'd to Correct them as may be seen in the Confession of Faith which some of 'em sent formerly to Uladislaus King of Hungary with their Answer to one Augustine Dr. of Divinity addressd to the same Prince This Answer is Dated 6 days after Epiphany The Confession and Answer are much better Translated than most of the Pieces in the Ages past and contain Opinions very conformable to those of the Reformed on the Sacraments Invocation of Saints Purgatory Holy Scripture and some other Articles those who desire to know in what those who have written these Epistles differ'd from the Reform'd at this day may have recourse to the Original tho 't is not to be found only in this Book but also in the Collections of the Historians of Bohemia by Freber 7. After this of the Vaudois are some Pieces concerning the Doctrin of Wickliff and the manner how they were condemn'd viz. in a Book of one William Woodward who lived at the end of the 14th Age against the Opinions of Wickliff in 18′ Articles which are at the beginning of this Treatise and with a much greater number of Articles which were attributed to Wickliff whether true or false and condemn'd in the Council of Constance with the Censure and Refutation of 44 in particular Without doubt several of these Treatises are attributed to Wickliff as some Learn'd Protestants have made appear Some seem to be ill understood as the last Omnes Religiones indifferenter introductae sunt à Diabolo If Wickliff had said he understood by Religions the Order of the Monks against whom he was much Incensed as it appears by the Articles of Page 277. against the Religions Nevertheless the censure of this Proposition supposes that we must take the word Religions in the most common sense of the different manners of serving God as are the Iudaick and Christian Religions But when they will condemn any one or take all that he says in the worst sense it ought to render their Explications extreamly suspected who has given us his Opinion of the Ancient Hereticks as well as the Orthodox Fathers hurried away by their Zeal ordinarily render'd 'em as worthy to be condemn'd as possible There are Remarks also upon this ill Custom and the manner whereby Aeneas Silvius exposes the Opinions of Wickliff which he says pass'd from England to Bohemia and in the Sentence of the Council of Constance against him who declared him to be a Heretick after his Death commanded to take up his Bones if it was possible to distinguish 'em from those of the Faithful who were buried near him and cast them out of the Church-yard 8. Aeneas Silvius saith in his History of the Bohemians That the Opinions of Wickliff were transferr'd from England into Bohemia by a Bohemian Gentleman who Studied at Oxford and returning into his own Country carried some of Wickliff's Books with him However the Council of Constance after they had condemn'd him also condemn'd Iohn Hus and Ierom of Prague and their Disciples as may be seen at large by divers Pieces which are here inserted touching the affairs of the Bohemians It is shewn there also what pass'd in the Council of Basil the Demands that were made to 'em and their Answers thereon Orthuinus Gratius has not forgot on this occasion the celebrated Letter of Poggius to Leonard Arretin upon the Death of Ierom of Prague but he endeavours to be beforehand with the Reader against Poggius that he may not believe all he says to the honour of Ierom of Prague This is apparent that this History has too much effect upon the mind of the Reader and makes him suspect Ierom of Prague of Hypocrisie and the same Author hath put after the Letter of Poggius a Discourse of Leonard Arretin against Hypocrites where Gratius having easily apply'd the Truths that Leonard Arretin advances to the Fathers of the Councel which is not to be believed altho' the Application was but too just 9. This Piece that follows
made for Women against the Calumnies of Men By James Chausse Master of the Court-Rolls Printed at Paris sold by Samuel Parrier in the Pallace 1685. in Twelves and at Amsterdam by Peter Morteri I Have in the first Article of the last Month said that 100 Officious Writers might please themselves infinitely in imploying their Pens to the Glory of the Fair Sex He needs be no great Divine that says so and he must have but a little Memory and a very mean Knowledg of Books who without this Treatise is afraid of being deceived in judging as we do since so many have Written in favour of Women in all Countries and all Ages of the World We shall always find some who exercise themselves with pleasure upon this repeated Subject How many Books have we seen in favour of Women Those Written by Monks wou'd stock a Library even the Chief Magicians according to the Common Opinion have Written upon this Inviting Subject as appears by the Discourse of Agrippa De nobilitate praecellentia foeminei Sexus I know some have Writ against them but their number is inferiour to those who spoke in their Praise There are too many as well on the one side as the other but those who know how to Write being sensible of the trouble there is to keep the Mean more easily pardon the Extreams these Authors fall into 'T is very difficult to maintain Marriage without decrying Celebacy and speak for a single Life without bringing Marriage into Disgrace Therefore we ought to excuse those who cannot shun this Rock St. Ierom had so little power in this Affair that his Friends were forc'd to suppress some of his Books where under pretext of establishing Continency he entirely ruin'd the Doctrin of the Church concerning Marriage Some say that Mr. Chausse runs upon the different Rock when he says That Marriage is the only way to Paradise and 't is to rob himself of the greatest happiness and the most solid Blessings of this Life to forbear entring into the Matrimonial State But certainly when they only imputed these thoughts to him they forgot the Declaration which he made in these decisive Terms Nothing is better nor more excellent than Marriage except an absolute Continency There are some who indifferently regard the Disputes of these Authors and only divert themselves as if they saw different Persons acting a Comedy Yet there cannot be seen without some agreeable Sentiments two Books publish'd at Paris both at the same time each well arm'd with Approbation and Priviledge which maintains absolute Contraries upon the great Theme of Matrimony One of these Books is an Answer of Mr. Ferrand to his Apology for the Reformation the other is that of which we are going to speak Marriage is in it every where almost elevated to the highest point of perfection where Fidelity continues during this Life but in the other Book 't is to Virginity that this advantage is attributed and that in so violent a manner that if we follow'd the Maxims of the Author cited step by step we shou'd look upon Married Persons but as Vultures and Swine We ought certainly to remit something of each side and say that Celebacy and Marriage are speaking Morally in themselves neither good nor bad Those who remit nothing on the part of Marriage will immediately shew us how to prove the Excellency thereof by these three Reasons First Because it was God that Instituted Marriage in the Earthly Paradice during the State of Innocency Secondly There is nothing agrees better with Man than Marriage nor is more adapted to his Necessities Thirdly That Marriage is the most necessary thing in the World to maintain Society Wisdom and Chastity These three Proofs are clearly amplified these two Considerations annext First That Marriage is the most perfect Bond the sweetest and most beneficial of all humane Unions The Second That 't is the most legitimate and agreeable exercise and of the most absolute Authority in the World This he proves by most lively Descriptions and observes that this Union includes both Body and Souls that it represents the greatest Mysteries of Religion that 't is a Source of sweetness and infinite Consolations and which furnishes us with excellent Vertues as Patience Charity and a desire to improve our selves amongst the number of the Elect and Fellow-Citizens He adds that the Father of a Family is Master of a little State where he exercises the Function of a King Priest and Prophet It allows him a very lawful and priviledg'd satisfaction of that desire which rules in a Man He ends with this Consideration That in one sense nothing can be more excellent than Marriage since 't is an Universal Custom and the most general of all Societies in all times all places and all sorts of persons how different soever This seems to me a just Abridgment of the first part of the Work In the second is represented the Infamy of Incontinency considering three sorts of people that plunge themselves therein one by Inclination another by Habit and the last by both but with this difference that the first look upon Lasciviousness as their Sovereign good whereas the second continues there in spight of themselves being subjected to the force of Custom and Temper but the last look upon these Irregularities as an Innocent Gallantry The Author considers besides that four sorts of Importunities that of the Heart of the Eyes of the Mouth and that of the Hand he shews wherein they consist he proves 'em Criminal and gives the Reason why God hath so severely prohibited such things to Man as he was Naturally inclined to and why he tolerated Poligamy in the Ancient Patriarchs The Third Part contains the full End and chief Design of the Author for he writ this Book only to perswade the necessity of Marriage to a considerable Person whom he extreamly Honoured for his Merit and Family where in this place he displays all his force to represent to the life those Motives that ought to perswade People to Marry he immediately proposes this Principle there is nothing but Marriage that can naturally preserve Man from the guilt of unchastity and by consequence that 't is necessary for Salvation After that other Reasons seem Superfluouse Nevertheless the Author sticks not to this great Principle which he ought to make appear since he believes it is true but he brings many other Advantages with abundance of Truth he urges the unusefulness of Continency he says that the most Favourable Iudgments of the Wisest about a single life is that 't is a vertue neither good nor bad and that being without Action it is a kind of Vice He maintains that God made Two Sexes in Nature to shew they cannot subsist without being joyn'd together he sends us to learn of the Animals amongst which the Mutual love of Males for Females and Females for Males is common to every Individual after this he considers Men as Men in a State in a Family and in
a Church and he says that in all these regards they are obliged to Marry because adds he 't is necessary to endeavour to preserve their own kind as they are Citizens to the Republick Successors to their Families and Servants to the Church he speaks very large upon these three Duties and considering the Beauty and Perfections of Man he is wrapp'd up in admiration and says can there be any thing more Noble than the Ambition of Producing Creatures so perfect He asks if it is possible that we should be so much moved with the Glory of making a fine Book drawing a Beautiful Picture or a handsome Statue and shou'd not be sensible of the Glory of making of Man This appears so Noble and Admirable that all men that we read of in Scriptures have thought themselves very happy in it as Ibstan and Abdan of which the first had 30 Sons and 30 Daughters and as many Sons and Daughters in Law and the second had 40 Sons and 30 Grandsons whom he saw altogether on Horse back O God cries he out can any thing be added more to the Happiness of a Father can any thing be seen more memorable in the Life of Man In my Opinion it exceeds all the Acts of Cesar and Alexander such an Increase is more Noble than any Action that can be found in History Hence he supposes that Augustine had acquir'd more Glory if instead of leaving so many Volumes he had furnished he World with 30 Children and he wou'd perswade us that the Invention of Archimedes and Des Chartes are Trifles in Comparison of the Exploits of a simple Country Fellow who helps to People the World by lawful means I say lawfully For the Author thinks no Off-Spring good that is not from Marriage He fortifies his Proofs as much as possible and goes back to the Antient Iews observing that Marriage being one of these things which generally happen sooner or later it is better to engage our selves in happy time than after a thousand declamations against it whilst we are hurrying on to old Age when Marriage can produce nothing but vexatious consequences Dom. Anthonius de Guevare Preacher to Charles the 5 th represents it very Ingeniously in one of his florid Epistles Yet what Reasons appear so fine and commodious to Monsieur Chauss are subject to a little Inconveniency because they are the same which are brought for Polygamy and which indeed is the best Argument for it and because they ruin a Notion that was very common even among those who for Political Reasons ascribed a kind of dishonour to a single Life The Notion is That a Widow which Marries not is more esteemed than she that a second time admits another into her Embraces We have not much Authority for this only the words Virgil makes Dido speak teacheth us that it was the opinion of the Ancients Ille meus primus qui me sibi junxit Amoris Abstulit ille habeat secum servetque sepulcro The Ideas of Honesty are more Favourable to second Marriage therefore we must agree to 'em But 't is as certain that these Weddings were formerly and still are subject to many Canonick Penalties and if you 'l believe the Learned Counsel who assisted in the Laws of the Queen the Devolution that hath been in certain Countries was established there but to keep the widowers from Incontinency and prevent their second Marriages to the great prejudice of the first Wives Children all this is silenced by the principles of our Author For if we agree with him we shall find that a Widow which Marries not at the end of six Months at the least is answerable to God her Country and Mankind to the State her House and to the Church all the time she lives in Widowhood since she robs the Publick of a great Advantage and Generation the most memorable thing that can be done of the handsomest Action of life and of atchieving a more Illustrious Glory than Alexander and the Cesars According to these Principles the man whereof St. Ierom speaks that had been a Widower 21 times and Married a Wife that buried as many Husbands was an Incomparable Hero and that he and his Wife ought to be received into the Catalogue of Saints We may say also according to the same Principles that Incontinence is a great Sign of Gods Favour since it obliges Man to keep in the State of Matrimony and make himself as Famous as possible by the Increase of Children This may be said in the abuse of Monsiur Chause his Reasons but no Equitable Persons will put so far fetch'd an Inference upon the Intention of the Author Now let us review the 4 th Part. It is designed as an answer to those which exclaim against Marriage The Author is consider'd as an opposite against all Mankind and it ought not to be taken for a Contradiction altho he acknowledges in another place that all the World should Marry for he had drawn from thence a proof of the Excellency of Marriage Nevertheless 't is next a Contradiction what he says here provided it be true that those who are Marry'd speak ill of the State If men will Criticize it must not be upon what they ought to do but rather upon the extream difficulties which the Author represents in the Combat he undertakes since it is certain all that is said against Marriage hath been only for a little merriment and is very little perswasive since it makes but a slight Impression upon the greatest number of Men he refutes these Railery's who speak contrary to their practice for very often if they lose their Wife they take another in three or four days after But as the Author hath writ his Book in Favour of a Man of another Temper that is to say who wou'd not so much as hear of the Conjugal Bond he endeavours to make all the Apologies he can for Marriage First against those who raise Accusations against the Conduct of Women Secondly Against those who found it upon the Nature of Marriage it self Thirdly such as say the consequences and obligations are an unsupportable Yoke These three chief Accusations furnish him with a large Field in which the Reader may trace him with pleasure The first Head is composed of divers Branches which the Author displays without any dissimulation Having collected faithfully the chief Invectives against the Sex he afterwards answers them in order using the same sincerity in relation to the Reasons that respect the other two Heads and says amongst other things That the state of Angels and Saints ought not to be alledged as a prejudice against Marriage since on that account their possession is equal with the Devil and the damn'd The last part is very important for it treats of the most likely means to make our Marriage happy The Author gives us thereupon many good Counsels first that after having recommended our selves to God who presides in a more particular manner over that state we make a
Choice of such a Person as pleases us and who has an agreeable Temper It wou'd not be unpleasing to have her handsome but since 't is not very common to find such a one we ought to be contented if she please us whether she does others or no and that 't is not always advantageous for the Wife to please all the World But 't is not sufficient to be pleas'd with her Beauty except there be a Sympathy in Humours The Author advises us to study the Genius of those we design to marry that may the better succeed in spight of the Address that some make use of to hide their weakness he adds for the better security that we may choose one that is young and resides near our own habitation In the first place he advises to a choice in a well ordered Family and to observe the equality of Condition and Fortune and to take care that she has no such pre-engagements as may make her marry him by constraint To these things only which regard the Lover he adds two others for the choice of a Husband which relate both to Women and Children he adviseth them upon the whole to a conjugal Amity good Example Devotion and Moderation in the pleasures of the Bed and gives good reasons for what he says There is upon this subject also one of the elegant Epistles of Anthoninus de Guerre's Advice touching the Education of Children In fine we may say without flattering Mr. Chause that there appears in the whole Book the Character of an honest Man and good Christian without prejudicing his Favour we may see besides good Wit much reading of the ancient Poets many things that divert the Reader at the same time that they instruct him I believe that a good part of Mankind wou'd be glad that this Work might have the same Success that the discourse of Socrates had at Xenophon's Feast this great Philosopher so sensibly touch'd the Guests in speaking to 'em of Love that those amongst 'em who were yet Batchellors made Vows to marry and those that had Wives immediately took Horse and ran full speed home that they might soon embrace their Wives 'T is a good Observation that the Author who in his Book exhorted Men to marry says not a word to perswade Virgins to the same He well foresaw that this Silence would surprize some of his Readers therefore he has put 'em out of pain in the Preface by acquainting them that Virgins are sufficiently convinced of the necessity of Marriage therefore want no Exhortations thereto 't is certain says he that though a Virgin never proposes Marriage because of her modesty there is nothing she so passionately wishes for her Heart often gives her Mouth the Lye she often says I will not when sometimes she dyes for desire The rest of the Passage ought to be read The Lives of Saints and Saintesses drawn from the Fathers of the Church and Ecclesiastical Authors Tom. 11 4to at Paris 1687 with Approbation of the Doctors WE have not seen the first Volume of this Work but 't is sufficient to give an Idea to the Reader of it and the other Ten that are to follow because 't is apparent the Saints in Ianuary and other Months have not been less fruitful in Miâ—acles than those of February whose Lives are contained in this Second Tome But two of the Licensers assure us that the Author continues to give Marks therein of his Exactness and great Judgment Tho' the Month of February hath but 28 Days yet there are more than 60 Lives in this Volume without reckoning that one Life sometimes includes the History of several Saints They are all Edifying at least for those who suffer themselves to be gained rather by Declamations than solid Reasons who are only touched with Noble Actions rather than with what is related in a Sublime and Periodick Style In the Title the Authors which are made use of are commonly marked and the place is sometimes marked in the Margen Neither do the Licensers fail to say that tho' Men make a kind of Religion of Piously cheating others in the matter that the Author treateth on after having first abused themselves He on the contrary advanceth no fact but for which he hath Witnesses which cannot in Reason be denyed being perswaded that how bright soever the Actions of Saints are they alwayes makes less Impression upon the hearts of Men as soon as there is any Ground to doubt of them It were a thing to be desired that not only the Lives of the Ancients that have been Canonized were given to the Publick but also a compleat Ecclesiastical History written in a Style as pure as that of this Book Such another Work would be extreamly profitable providing the Author always kept the Character of an Historian and fell not into the ways of Preachers eâ—pâ—cially of the Catholicks It may be that Vertuous Actions that would be read therein would make more Impression upon the Mind and would more Efficaciously oblige the Readers to imitate them such is that which the Author relates of the Solitary Moses which Maria Queen of the Sarazins asked of the Emperour Valens to be Bishop of the Christians of her Nation He was brought to Lucius Bishop of Alexandria who was an Arian to be Consecrated but Moses would not receive from him the Imposition of Hands because he had dipped them in Blood and defiled them by the Death of a great many Saints Lucius who imagined that the refusal of this Hermit came from this that he believed him an Heretick answered him That not knowing which was the Faith it was against Justice that he should thus treat him before he knew him Your Faith replyed Moses shews it self clearly by your Actions So many Servants of God banished so many Priests and Deacons Relegated into Countries where Jesus Christ is not known exposed as a Prey to wild Beasts or consumed by Fire are convincing proofs of the Impiety of your Belief For we know that these Excesses are infinitely opposed to Jesus Christ and unworthy of all those who have the Sentiments which they ought to have Ethelbert was made a Saint who was first King of Kent that embraced Christianity and he certainly deserves it were it for nothing but the Sweetness with which he received the Preachers Pope Gregory I sent him The Monk Augustine was the chief of them and was accompanied with Forty others Before they came into England he stopped in the Isle of Thanet which is on the East of the Province of Kent whence he sent word to the King that he came from Rome to bring excellent News to those that would believe him and would follow the Advices he would give them seeing they would be certain to Reign everlastingly with the True God and of enjoying Heaven and all manner of Happyness Some time after the King himself went to meet those Missioners and speak to them in these terms These are fine words and
fitter to makâ— them suspected than any thing else As to the Impious it 's certain they never are more obstinate against Divine Truths than when they are threatned to have them demonstrated making them then to deny several Propositions which at another time they would have granted These Truths being the foundation of all Morality we ought never to speak of them but as undoubted Principles If we have any sensible and popular Reasons it may be added in a few words without making a shew of proving them these sorts of Proofs convincing better than long Arguments The same Precepts are given in respect to the other Mysteries of the Christian Religion as the Trinity and Incarnation and it s affirmed that there is no better manner of Preaching them than in making People observe what glory they owe to God and Jesus Christ and to enlarge yet more upon the good and useful Sentiments which these Mysteries ought to inspire into us This method is very profitable chiefly for Roman Catholick Preachers whose Religion is not very demonstrable and who are to deal with a People who have accustomed themselves to believe rather by Prejudice than be perswaded by Reason After that he speaks of Division and as it s to be taken for granted that Christian Orators are always Masters of their Subject and of the Propositions which they would form thereon So they will do wisely to propose to themselves only two or three Truths to establish in so many different parts Several Reasons and divers Important Precepts are given on this matter As that all Propositions must be Moral and Practicable except those which are formed upon matters of Faith which import the necessity of Sanctification and that they given an occasion to come to some particulars of the ordinary actions of life After that he marks the qualities that the proofs ought to consist on by which these Propositions are maintained 1. Their Sense must be different from that of the Proposition 2. The truth must appear more plain in ' em 3. They must be conclusive To make sure of the force of an Argument we need only according to the Author to consult our selves before we make use thereof and to examine if this reason would content our mind when another should coldly propose it As to Novelty he proves here that it consists not in making digressions and in seeking for subtil reasons but in expounding things after so natural a turn that no other form but that of truth is given them In following this method it may happen by the ill Judgment of the generality of Preachers who reject every thing which does not appear extraordinary that the most common things will seem the newest to the People being such Truths which never were Preached unto them We should be too long if we related all the fine things the Author speaks upon the Method of understanding a solid Argument without coming into teedious Repetitions by applying it to the pretence of Preachers and particular cases IV. The Fourth Book treats of what may preserve in the Auditors a favourable disposition to the Speakers and it s believed that the whole Artifices is to render them attentive by proposing things to them after an easie and acceptable manner For Attention cannot be easie 1. Without clearness in the expressions and in the Matter it self which obliges us to banish all words that are too old or too new as well as the Terms of Art and of the Schools and all Methaphysicual Speculations 2. Briefness in Periods without which the Discourse becomes Unintelligible and in the Sermon it self which ought never to last longer than an hour The attention is rendred agreeable by variety in Subjects and Phrases by diversity of the Style by Figures and Ornaments which however spoil all when they are excessive or far sought And in short by sweet and affectionate Motives through the whole Sermon Upon all this are remarked the Defects which we ought to take heed of and we are taught how to avoid being lifeless and insipid He finishes the whole work by giving rules for Panegyricks Historia Animalium c. Or a short and Accurate History of Animals mentioned in Holy Writ in which the Names of every one are drawn from their Originals and their Nature Profits and Vses are Explained A work in which many Writers both Sacred and Prophane are Illustrated and chiefly Great Bochart in all the Chapters is Augmented and Amended by the Labour and Study of Henry May. Francfort and Spire 1686. in Octavo at Amsterdam Sold by Waesberge and Boom THE Work is in Two Parts Writ by Mr. May Professor of the Eastern Tongues at Durlac upon Animals and chiefly upon those which the Scripture speaks of He undertakes to make the History of Four footed Beasts Fowls Creeping things and of Aquatick or Amphibious Animals He designs Four things in this piece 1. To Search after the Etymology of their Names chiefly in Hebrew because this Disquisition may serve for the understanding of several Passages of Sacred and Profane Writters 2. To make an exact Description of Exteriour forms of Animals of their Nature and of their Qualities 3. To remark the usefulness which may be drawn from them in the various occasions of life 4. To speak of the Superstitious use that Pagans have made of them in the Sacrifices and Ceremonies of their Religion Amongst the Authors that have written upon this Subject there are few who perfectly knew the Eastern Tongues Bochart is perhaps the only Man who was so well read in this point as to undertake without Temerity to write upon so difficult a Subject But Bochart himself confesses that he has yet left a great many things to be discovered Besides that his Book is very large of the Animals spoken of in Scripture and of full Citations which few are capable of understanding Therefore Mr. May thought it would not be unprofitable to examine this matter according to the Ideas of this great Man whose faults he endeavours to make known and augment his Discoveries The First Book treats of the Four kinds of Animals and the Second of divers Four Footed Beasts in particular This Second Book is divided into Two Sections the one for Domestick and the other for wild Animals This is sufficient for the method of your Author we shall make no longer stop before we enter upon the Principal Matters which he treats on only observe what is most singular and in what he differs from Bochart In the 11. Ch. of the first Book he remarks after Bochart Ludolf and Goliâ—s that the Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behema which the Hebrews give four fooâ—ed Beasts comes from the Ethiopick Bahama which signifies to be dumb or to form only inarticulate sounds In the same Chapter he searches for the Origin or Division of Animals into clean and unclean which is so Ancient that it was in use even before the Flood G. 7.2 He hath an inclination for the opinions of
Discourse upon the Authors of the Bible At Paris 1686. ALtho' the Title of this Work is so well known that the Design of it is easily perceived yet since the Matter is new and the manner it is promised to be treated on is difficult Mr. Du Pin thought it very necessary to Instruct the Publick more particularly in a Preface of the assistance that he had and the Method he follow'd to accomplish this work He divided it into Two Parts and begins the First with Justifying the Title of Bibliotheque shewing for example that 't is a Name that ought to begin to the collection of many Authors and to Books that treat of their Works He afterwards shews that the Custom of writing Bibliotheques is very Ancient and that it was introduced amongst the Christians in the First Ages of the Church The Stromates of Clement of Alexandria being a kind of Bibliotheque of the Opinions and Thoughts of an Infinite Number of Writers and the History of Eusebius may be call'd a Bibliotheque of Ecclesiastical Authors since he hath done almost nothing else in this Work than Writ their Life give a Catalogue of their Writings and relate many Passages out of them After having spoken of those who have taken like pains and above all of Photius Mr. Du Pin adds that Authors never took so much pains especially Ecclesiasticks as in the Last Ages in which Learning was renew'd and Criticks carryed to such a point as they never were before Both Catholicks and Hereticks have endeavoured to out-vy one another in making Bibliotheques Erasmus pursues he in Printing the Fathers hath put Prefaces and Notes before their Works which contain must Judicious Criticks and that altho' he is sometimes too confident in rejecting some Pieces It must be confessed nevertheless that he has broke the Ice for those that have followed him He speaks with the same freedom of other Authors of the Roman Church and in respect to the Protestants altho he accuses them of Passion and of being very Erroneous he confesses nevertheless as to what regards Criticks they were sometimes sharper and more quicksighted than the Catholicks and that the Protestants have discovered many things therein that they were obliged to acknowledg and aprove of The Author afterwards tells the Motives that engaged him to undertake this Work which were that no body before him had done any thing Compleat upon it He shews the design of his Book by a Comparison between a number of Books well ranged which is properly call'd a Bibliotheque and the Order that he has observed in this Work to which he gives the same name There is only this difference between these two Bibliotheques it is that in the first if we content our selves only to read the Titles no advantage to Learning is to be received from it and to run through all the Authors which compose it much time and pains is required Whereas in this we may instruct our selves in many important things with great Facility since there is not only the Titles of the Books but also the Abridgment and Sum of what they contain with a Remark upon the particular Sentiments in them In the Second Part of the Preface Mr. Du Pin shews the necessity there was to make use of such a Method as followed to write the Life of the Authors to make a Catalogue and Remark of the Chronology of their Works the Circumstances of the Time Place Age and Condition of him that writ and of the Persons he was concern'd with changing the manner of his Discourse according to the nature of the Subject An Author that engages against a Heresy of his own time that is the Head of a Party and who hath Personal Contestations with those that Attack him expresses himself very differently from him that writes against a Heresy that is extinguisht who takes no part in the Quarrel and has no other Motive in writing than defending the Truth St. Cyprian speaks of the Reconciliation of Penitents following the different Circumstances of the Times St. Augustin writing against the Pelagians speaks otherwise of Grace and Free-Will than he had done before And from the time that his head was possess'd with these Hereticks and the Donatists he speaks continually in all his writings even in his Homilies of the Church and of Grace He afterwards tells the Reason why many Works are attributed to some Celebrated Authors which is none of theirs viz. the Malice of Hereticks the little Piety of some of the Orthodox the Levity of some Men Ignorance or Avarice of the Copyists of the Printers and the oversight of those that have taken for Authors of certain Dialogues such Persons as are made to speak in those Dialogues So 't is that Vigilius of Tapse has made Five Books under the name of Saint Athanasius and it may be that also under the same name he made the Creed that is attributed to this Father In short the Ambiguity of Titles and the Resemblance of Names have often caused Pieces to be attributed to such Persons as they belonged not to After that he establishes Rules for true Criticks remarking that the Proofs or Conjectures that we can make of any Work are Internal or External Time is one of the most certain Internal Marks and nothing is more capable of convincing an Author of Imposture than when the date of his Work is false or that he speaks of Persons that have lived a long time after him whose Name is affixed to the Work 2 ly The matter that is contained in a Book discovers whether it be Supposititious or no. 1. When we find Opinions in it that were not maintained till a long time after that Age. 2. Expressions concerning those Opinions Ceremonies and Customs that were not then in use 3. Errors that are of a latter date or such matters as were not treated on in that time that the Author lived whose name is affixed to the Work 4. Opinions contrary to such as are seen in their writings 5. Or Histories manifestly Fabulous 3 ly The turn of the Discourse the manner of Writing the Elocution the Figures and the Method being a thing most difficult things to Counterfeit are of very great use to discover whether a Work be supposititious or not Tho'we must not always reject a Book for a small alteration in the Stile without any other proof because Persons may write differently according to their Age Places and the Subject of the Discourse nor should we receive a piece as true only for the Resemblance of Stile for an Ingenious Man often imitates the Phrases and Genius of an Author very well in a Discourse that is not long The External proofs whether a Work is supposititious or no are taken 1. From Ancient Manuscripts in which we find not the Name of the Author or find that of an others 2. The Testimony of Ancient Authors that reject this work or that say nothing at all of it Mr. Du pin
begins to apply his Rules for Criticism to the Books of the Bible and proves by them that Moses was really the Author of the Pentateuch since 't is Established by Holy Scripture by the Authority of Iesus Christ by the consent of all Nations and by the Authentick Testimonies of the most Ancient Authors It is necessary to observe that this Dissertation upon the Bible and all the rest of the Book is disposed in such order that each Article contains a following Discourse where he only proposes his opinion and maintains it by some Reasons which all the World agrees to After that is the Notes that include the Proofs and Authorities of what has been advanced in the precedent Article Following this Method the Author to prove that Moses writ the Books that bear his Name Cites in the Notes many passages of the Old and New Testament He says that the Samaritan Pentateuch being writ in ancient Hebrew Characters must necessarily be composed before the Captivity of Babylon where the use of these Characters were lost He relates the Testimonies of Manethon Philocorus Atheneus and other ancient Authors that Iosephus and the Primitive Christians have preserved some passages of to which he adds other Authors of a latter date and whose Works still remain amongst us as St. Strabo the Abridgment of Trogue-Pompeus Iuvenal Pliny Tacitus Longinus Porphirius Iulian c. And from this universal Consent he draws an invincible Argument to prove that Moses writ the Law and that he was the Law-giver of the Iews In the Notes he Answers Eleven Objections which seem to be drawn from the Critical History upon the Old Testament and the Sentiments of some Dutch Divines upon this Book which contains the Reasons of those who pretend that the Pentateuch is a Collection made upon the ancient Memoirs and Writings of Moses but compiled by some other In short he maintains that when they wou'd suppose that the reasons that are alledg'd against the Antiquity of the Pentateuch are all unanswerable they shou'd prove only that there is some Names of Towns or Countries changed some little words inserted to clear Difficulties and in fine that the Narration of the Death of Moses was necessary to be added to finish the History of the Pentateuch We have not the same certainty according to M. Du Pin in respect to the rest of the Historical Books since we are absolutely ignorant of the Authors of ' em The Judgment that he gives of the Book of Iob is that the Foundation of Narration is true But that the manner how this History is related the Stile that it is writ in the Discourses that were held between Iob and his Friends and what is said of his mean condition must be confest to have been much amplifyed and adorned with many feigned Circumstances to render the Narration more agreeable and useful For the Book of Wisdom which is commonly attributed to Solomon he thinks it to be composed by a Grecian that was a Jew who to imitate the Books of Solomon had taken many thoughts from thence In respect to the Book of Ecclesiasticus some have imagin'd that Iosephus acknowledg'd it to be Canonical because he cites a passage out of it in his Second Book against Appion But according to the observation of Mr. Pithou this allegation which is not in the ancient Version of Ruffinus was added to the Text of Iosephus * The Book of Esther was according to some in the Iews Canon but others deny it s ever being there Meliton rejects it and the Six last Chapters of this Book are not in the Hebrew Origen believed they were formerly and that they have since been lost But it is evident they are taken from many places says our Author and that they contain such things as were apparently Collated by some Greeks that were Iews St. Ierom formally rejects the Book of Baruck and denies its being Canonical in his Preface upon Ieremiah The Story of Tobias also is not in any ancient Catalogue placed in the Rank of Canonical Books no more than that of Iudith In a word the ancient Christians followed the Canon of the Iews for the Books of the Old Testament there is none else cited in the New and a great part of these are very often mentioned The first Catalogues of Canonical Books made by the Greek and Latin Ecclesiastick Authors comprehended none but these In the Chronicle of Eusebius the Books of the Maccabees are opposed to those of Holy Writ and placed with Iosephus and Africanus The Book of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus are in the ancient Catalogues placed in the number of such Books as are most useful Except Canonical Nothing can be concluded in favour of their Divinity from any passages of the Fathers since Origen St. Ierom and St. Hillary place them in the number of Apocryphal Books Even from the time of St. Gregory the Great these Books were not in the Canon of the Holy Scripture since this Pope speaks in those terms We do nothing unreasonable in bringing the Testimony of such Books as are not Canonical since they were publisht for the Edification of the Church Many Ecclesiastical Authors both Greek and Latin agree only upon 22 Canonical Books joyning the History of Ruth to the Iudges and the Lamentation of Ieremiah to his Prophesies altho' they lived after the Third Council of Carthage and Innocent the First who placed the Maccabees and other Apocryphal Books in the Canon of Holy Writ Which shews adds the Author that these Definitions were not approved by all Authors nor followed by all Churches until it was intirely determined by the Council of Trent This Ecclesiastical Assembly has this common with others That the last Decrees do still abolish the preceeding ones Besides it is just that the Church of Rome who hath power to make new Articles of Faith should also have power to make those Books Canonical whence they take these new Articles III. In the Third Article of this Dissertation where there is the History of the Hebrew Text the Version of the 70 and other Greek Translators the History of Aristeus is refuted almost by the reasons that are mentioned in the Extract of Mr. Hodi Nevertheless he believes not that it can be absolutely denyed that there had been a Greek Version of the Bible made in the times of Ptolomy Philadelphus because there 's no likelyhood that the Authors of Books attributed to Aristeus and Aristobulus have wholly invented this mater But he rejects as a conjecture without any Ground the Opinion of Father Simon viz. That this Version was called the Version of the Seventy because it was approved by the Sanhedrin He also maintains against the common receiv'd opinion of the Learned that the Caldaick Language was not the only Language spoke by all the Iews at their return from the Babylonish Captivity but that many amongst them did then speak Hebrew and all of 'em understood it but that
the Syriack Tongue did insensibly mix with the Hebrew Dialect and became common to the Iews and hath since been called the Hebraick Language IV. He Examins in the Fourth Article the Works of many Authors who make mention of the Old Testament as those of Philon Iosephus Iustus c. in speaking of the Writers of the New Testament he Remarks after St. Ierom that the last Chapter of the Gospel of St. Mark is but in a very few Copies and that we may reject it almost with all the Greeks because it seems to mention several things contrary to those which are spoken of by the other Evangelists Besides he assures us upon the Credit of this Father that that which obliges St. Iohn to write his Gospel after all the rest was that having read the rest he remarked that they had only confined themselves to write the History of one Year of the Life of Jesus Christ viz. from the Imprisonment of St. Iohn the Baptist to the death of our Saviour and thereupon he resolved to give the Church an account of what happned in the preceeding Years He does not precisely find in the Acts of the Apostles the time when St. Paul changed his Name from Saul Mr. Du Pin conjectures that it was after the Conveâ—tion of Sergius Paulus because he says it was the custom of the Romans to give their own Names in Testimony of Friendship It might also be said as Budeus proves in his Pandects that it was to honour their Patrons and Benefactors for these they had obliged to take their Names He ends this Dissertation with the Books of the New Testament which were at first doubted but that were soon after placed in the Canon of Holy Writ by the consent of all Churches to wit the Epistle to the Hebrâ—ws the Epistle of St. Iames the Second Epistle of St. Peter the Second and Third of Saint Iohn that of Saint Iude and the Apocalypse The Bibliotheque it self he begins with Criticisms upon the Letters of Agbar to Iesus Christ and Iesus to Agbar which he shews to be Supposititious as well as the Gospel according to the Egyptians The Gospel according to the Hebrews and many other pieces that some wou'd have to pass under the name of the Apostles There were Persons in St. Ierom's time that pretended the Gospel according to the Hebrews was originally that of St. Matthews because it was written in Syraick and Chaldaick Characters Mr. Du Pin proves here that they were different not only by the passages of this Gospel according to the Hebrews which has nothing in it like the History of the Adulterous Woman in Saint Matthew But also because Eusebius and after him St. Ierom absolutely distinguisheth them that this last had translated the Gospel according to the Hebrews whereas the Author of the Version of St. Matthew is wholly unknown and that in the Gospel according to the Hebrews the Scripture is cited there after the Hebrew and St. Matthew in his follow'd the Translation of the Septuagint Yet there is room to doubt of this last Argument since the same St. Ierom which distinguishes these Two Gospels here confounds them in another place according to the relation of our Author in the 39. pag. of his Dissertation And it is not only Contradiction of that Father which he has observ'd Always saith Mr. Du Pin when St. Jerom Treats expresly of Canonical Books he rejects as Apocryphal all those that are not in the Iews Canon but when he speaks without making any reflection he often cites these same books as Holy Scripture Ib. p. 72. speaking diversly by Economie and according to the Persons with whom he had to do The Epistle of St. Barnabas which we have also an entire Latin Translation of and great part of the Greek Original is certainly his since we see in it the same passages that St. Clement of Alexandria Origen Eusebius and St. Ierom cite out of it But says he if this Letter was really St. Barnabas's it ought not to be added to the other Books of the New Testament That follows not according to our Author for if 't is true that a Book is Canonical when we are certain 't was writ by an Author who had the Authority of making it Canonical Who is it that hath said St. Barnabas must be of this Number rather than St. Clement or Hermas 'T is the business of the Church to declare it and it 's sufficient that it has not done it therefore his Letter is look'd upon as Apocryphal altho ' 't was certainly his own He adds that this Letter is unbecoming this Saint being full of all Stories and Allegories But we must know a little the Genius of the Iews and the first Christians who were nourisht and brought up in the Synagogue to believe that these kind of Opinions cou'd not come from 'em On the contrary this was their Character they Learned from the Iews to turn all the Seripture into Allegories and to make Remarks upon the Properties of Animals which the Law had forbidden 'em to eat of We must not be surprised then if St. Barnabas who was Originally a Iew writing to the Iews has Allegorically explain'd many passages since every body knows that the Books of the first Christians were full of these sorts of Fables and Allegories He rejects the Liturgies attributed to the Apostles Because he cou'd not but make a little Reflection upon what is read in the Celebration of the Eucharist in the First Epistle to the Corinthians and upon what St. Iustin and the first Fathers of the Church have said to perswade us that the Apostles and those which succeeded them have celebrated the Sacrifice of the Mass with great simplicity He only relates a small Number of Orisons but by little and little he adds some Prayers and a few External Ceremonies to Render the Sacrifice more venerable to the People In fine the Churches have regulated all abuses in the Sacrament and wrote down the way of celebrating it as may be found in the Liturgy The Apostles Creed the Canons and Apostolick Constitutions are none of theirs Ruffinus was the first and only Author of the Fifth Age who wrote that the Apostles composed the Creed and he only advanced it as a popular Tradition Mr. du Pin to confirm his Opinion and prove that the Creed was not the Apostles as to the Words and Form gives us a Table of the Four ancient Creeds the Vulgar the Aquilean the Eastern and Roman where one might compare them together and observe considerable Differences between them for Instance the Terms Catholick Communion of Saints and Life everlasting which are in the Vulgar or Common Creed are wanting in the other Three As for the Canons which are attributed to the Apostles he defends the opinion of Aubespinus and Beoregius who believ'd 'em very ancient and who pretend that they were properly a Collection of many Councels held before that of Nice the
Opinions of the Apostles and makes this Reflexion upon it taken from St. Augustin It is evident that nothing is of so dangerous a Consequence in Matters of Religion as slightly to give credit to every one and eagerly to embrace whatsoever bears the appearance of Piety without considering whether it be really so or no. Non sit Religio nostra in Phantasmatibus nostris Meliùs est enim qualecunque verum qùam omne quidquid pro arbitrio fingi potest melior est vera stipula quà m lux inani cogitatione pro suspicantis voluntate formata De ver Rel. c. 55. There remains nothing of Quadratus Aristides Agrippa nor of Hegisippus but some Fragments that Eusebius and St. Ierom relates For 't is a false Hegisippus an Author of the Fourth Age that made the History of the Iewish Wars and of the taking of Ierusalem divided into five Books which has been often published and is no more than an Abridgment of Iosephus He acknowledges for the Works of St. Iustin only his two Apologies and his Dialogue with Tryphon There are also two Discourses to the Gentiles which are at the beginning of his Works and that may be attributed to him without injuring him as well as the Epistle to Diognetus He observes also the particular Opinions of this Father and that of his not despairing of the Salvation of the Gentils For in his 2d Apology p. 83. he says That those who lived conformably to Reason like to Socrates Heraclitus c. may be call'd Christians and he seems to suppose they might be saved in following the Law of Nature Mr. Du Pin explains many Passages of Iustin Tatian and Theophilus of Antioch concerning the Generation of the Word and its visibility which appears not agreeable to the Common Opinion He remarks that this Theophilus was the first that used the word Trinity to note the three Divine Persons and that he calls the third the Wisdom That Athenagoras said that the Devils lost themselves by the love they bare to Women that he admits Free-will in its utmost extent praises Virginity and condemns second Weddings calling them an honest Adultery But Denis of Corinth in a Fragment that Eusebius has preserved of him l. 4. c. 23. advertises Pinytus Bishop of the Gnossians not to charge the Christians with the heavy burden of an Obligation to Virginity but to have respect to the weakness which the generality of Mankind lay under This same Author complains that they had falsified some of his Letters and says That we need not wonder that some Men dare to corrupt the Sacred Books since they do it in Books of much less Authority St. Irenaeus as well as St. Iustin seems to have believed that Souls are immortal only by Grace and that those of the wicked shall cease to be after having suffer'd torment for a long time He has also some peculiar Opinions for example that Iesus Christ lived above 50 Years upon the Earth That the Saints shall in the other Life learn by degrees whatsoever they are ignorant of c. We must pardon the Antients adds the Author these sort of Opinions it being not singular to any one for many had the like Eusebius hath preserv'd us a Fragment of an Author nam'd Rodon who mentions that in a dispute he had with one Apelles a Heretick who having been convinc'd of many Frailties said That he was not to examine what he believed and that all those who hoped in Jesus Christ Crucified should be saved That the Question about the Nature of God was very obscure that he believed there was but one Principle but he was not certain and that the Prophesies were contrary one to the other Mr. Du Pin wonders that the Books of the Pedagogue of Clement of Alexandria are not Translated into the Vulgar Tongue But says he if any one would undertake this Translation he must leave out some places which ought not to be read by all the VVorld and others he must accommodate to the Customs and Manners of our time We doubt very much whether this way of acting will denote a sufficient respect for Antiquity and are apt to believe that our Author in making his Extracts has not followed the Counsel he gives to others The same St. Clement has made other Celebrated Books under the Name of Stromates that he calls so because they contain many thoughts collected from different places and crowded together which makes a variety something resembling what we see in Tapestries Wherefore this Father himself compares his Work to a Meadow or a Garden where we find all sorts of Herbs Flowers and Fruits and we may gather such as please our selves but not to such Gardens where the Trees and Plants are placed in order on purpose to divert the sight But rather to a shady and thick Mountain where the Cyprus Linden-tree Lawrel Ivy Apple-tree Olive Fig-tree and other Fruitful Trees are mingled with Barren ones In the Third Book of the Stromates Clement affirms that St. Peter and St. Philip were Marryed and that they had Children that Saint Philip had Marryed his Daughters and that St. Paul had also a Wife In which he is deceived says the Author This Father has spoken something that seems to Favour Arianism which is That the Nature of the Son is most Excellent and most Perfect and that it comes nearest to God Almighty He excuses him saying that the Ancients had not an exact distinction between the Terms Nature and Person but often took one for the other Yet confesses that he speaks after such a manner to perswade us that he believ'd not or at least made no reflections upon Original sin How do we say says he that a Child prevaricates as soon as he is born or how can it having done nothing fall under Adams Curse There 's a Contestation amongst the Learned upon the Marriage of St. Tertullian whether he was Married before or after his Conversion and when he was a Priest for in the Books which he Dedicated to his Wife one may find that he lived with her when he wrote them The Author of the Life of Tertullian and of Origen was obliged to say that he also compos'd 'em after his Conversion But Mr. Du Pin affirms that 't is more probable that he was Marryed after his Baptism and that he writ his Books to his Wife when he was very Aged and fell into the Error of the Montanists He Examins the Reasons of his change and believes with St. Ierom that the Envy he bore to the Roman Clergy and the outragious manner wherewith they treated him enraged him against the Church and made him separate from it He afterwards gives a Catalogue of Tertullians Works and with care distinguishes those he made whilst a Catholick from those that he composed after he was engaged in the Heresy of Montanus placing amongst these last his Book of Prescriptions Amongst the
of making Reflections upon it The Affair happen'd when the Learned M. Pigot Printed the Life of St. Chrysostom writ by Paladius He wou'd have added there amongst other little Pieces this same Letter of his written to the Monk Cesarius and some say that it was ready for the Press but he was desired to Suppress it and made to understand unless he did so he shou'd obtain no priviledge for his Book wherefore he did what they desired him The Protestants who come to understand this Matter have not fail'd to take notice of it as if the Publication of this Letter had been hindered only because it favour'd them One of 'em has Printed a long Dissertation upon this Subject under this Title St. Anastasii Sinaitae Anagâ—gâ—carum Contemplationum in Hexaemeron liber 32 hactenus desideratus cui praemissa est expostulatio de Sancti Iohannis Chrysostomi Epistola ad Caesarium Monachum adversus Apollinarii haeresin à Parisiensibus aliquot Theologis non ita pridem suppressâ Londini 1682 in 4 to Now we shall speak to the Notes This Second Volume wholly fill'd with his Remarks is as I have told you very large yet its only upon the three first Pieces of the Collection which are the Epistle of St. Polycarp that of St. Barnabas and a Discourse on Hyppolitus There is above 15 or 16 to comment upon besides little or great 'T would have been very pleasing if the Author had made Notes on them all for his Commentaries are fill'd with so much Learning and Judgment that all Ingenious Men that read 'em receive advantage from them It wou'd be impossible here to give a particular Accont of all the fine things in this second Volume wherefore we shall be content to give the World leave to judge of the whole by some of its parts The Title of St. Polycarp's Letter by which it appears that he and his Priests writ to the Philippians gives M. Le Moyne a good opportunity to speak of the difference between Ecclesiasticks for after having rejected the Opinion of those that alledge that as a Proof of the equality between Priests and Bishops he shews there was a difference in that time but not so great as is between the Ecclesiasticks at this Day since the Priests Consecrated Virgins even conferred Orders performed the Chrism gave their Opinions in Synods and had Seats like to the Bishops which were call'd Thrones as well as theirs Here he takes occasion to reprehend Salmasius who thought these words of Eusebius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signified Bishops that were Suffragans to a Metropolitan whereas he ought to be understood by 't says our Author Simple Priests which he proves also to have been call'd Antistites which a Learned Man being ignorant of fell into this over-sight and understood by it Antistitem secundae sedis the Patriarch of Constantinople He proves by the Example of St. Cyprian that the Bishops writ conjoyntly with the Priests to other Bishops and Priests both together and some time even with the Deacons He Relates a Letter of Constantine's the Emperour wherein he speaks much upon it because it is directed to Miltiades Bishop of Rome and to Mark which is not conformable to the Idea they have of the Pope's Preeminence for its a little too familiar not only to write to him by himself but also to associate him with another that was only a simple Priest The Author justifies its being read Mark contrary to the reading of a great many Learned Men and he wonders that in the same Book where the great Salmasius who hath cited this Letter of Constantine's against the Pretensions of the Court of Rome shou'd believe it as false This defect of Memory is more supportable than the Infidelity of this Translator who to disguise Constantine's directing to the Pope and to another in the same Letter has thus changed these words of the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec tuam Sedulitatem Latet The Author makes this Remark upon the word Sacerdos a Sacrificing Priest that it was never given to the Ecclesiasticks in the first or second Age the reason of which he says was because the Christians conforming themselves to the practice of the Synagogues and not that of the Temple of Ierusalem established Priests Deacons Bishops c. But not Sacrificers or Sacrificing Priests by which he Convicts him of Imposture who disguised himself under the Name of Denis the Areopagite and who affected to be call'd Sacerdos He concludes this Remark with Criticising upon some Authorities that seem to be contrary to this point Mr. Le Moyne as occasion offers it self explains all obscure places and corrects the Errors but he has a very handsome Quality that is not very common for he treats those very civilly that are guilty of Mistakes and very often censures the faults without naming the person As he was very well acquainted with Iudaick Antiquities and the Eastern Tongues So he has taken a great many Etymologies from them which has been unusefully sought for both in the Greek and Latin He is not satisfied only with clearing a great many Critical Points but has also engag'd himself to defend our Mysteries the Divinity of the word against a Heretick which was so much the more dangerous as beside his Heresie he had Wit and Learning he was not so uncivil and imprudent as some others who have boldly published it did not concern them if what they affirm'd was never before known to the World His Name was Sandius he was wise enough to see 't was the greatest Absurdity in the World to pretend that an Opinion was true that took birth only in these last Ages or in case that it was true it was not worth the while to trouble the Church for common sense evidently tells us that every Opinion that Christianity has past by for these Sixteen Ages is unuseful for Salvation and of none or at most of very little importance So that when an Heretick is cunning he puts off no opinion but under pretence of its being founded upon some very antient Doctrin this was the craft of Sandius he apply'd himself very much to Ecclesiastical History that he might prove the Fathers of the three first Ages did not believe the Trinity as it is now taught from whence he pretends to draw one of these Advantages either that Error prevail'd in the Council of Nice and that so things ought to be reduced to their Primitive State or that the Fathers of this Council made that an Article of Faith without which their Predecessors burning with Zeal and Holiness had obtain'd the Glory of Paradice and therefore by consequence persons were not obliged to undergo the new Yoke that the Council of Nice wou'd have impos'd upon the Conscience Every one must be sensible that its the Duty of the Orthodox to dissipate these Illusions and the Author deserves praise for undertaking the proof of the Divinity of the Son by Passages of the Antients whilst M.