prodigious account of the Chinensians according to Scaliger BUt grant that Herodotus were negligent and carelesse in many things wrote by hatred or favour related Fables and that Cicero in his first book of Laws tells many of them Shall we likewise call him a cheater and a truthlesse person whom Cicero calls The father of History that we shall not believe him in those things wherein he had no interest and wherein he was both an eye and ear-witnesse with others and upon certain and sure grounds hath left us the relation He relates in his Euterpe That he was brought in by the Egyptian Priests into a great room that he there saw three hundred forty and one woodden Colosses whom the Egyptian Priests related had been the images of so many Egyptian Kings And as many woodden Colosses which were the images of so many Egyptian Priests And in the time of their discourse one Hecataeus relating his descent and ascribing it to the sixteenth God that they on the other side did likewise rehearse their descens but would not admit what was spoken by Hecataeus that a man could be progenerated of God They likewise agreed in that that every one of those woodden Colosses had one honest man to his Father And those men that were Kings the Priests declar'd to have been all such but far distant from those Kings who were Gods On the other side stood the images of the Priests according to the life that every one had liv'd The Priests rehearsing them and shewing every one of their Statues til they had shown them all affirm'd That every one of them was says Herodotus the son of a Priest deceased The Priests told that the time that those Kings had reign'd was ten thousand three hundred and forty years In which time they affirm'd that no God had reign'd in humane shape in Egypt But in relating these and the like stories Herodotus very warily provides in the said Euterpe And these things sayes he the Egyptians affirm that they know upon continual account and setting down the years By which records it's plain how trustie and conscientious Chronologers the Egyptians were and how conscientious a Writer of the Egyptian affaires Herodotus was who was so cautions in these relations And grant that Plato though call'd Divine did mix his Philosophy with a great many Fables Shall we think therefore that the History which Critias in his Dialogue call'd Timaeus relates a matter of fact not opinion is a fable And which Critias by all probable reasons did demonstrate to be true and certain as having learned by a continued tenor of tradition he from his Father his Father from his Granfather Critias his Grandfather Critias from his great Grandfather Dropidas and Dropidas himself from Solon his acquaintance He related that an antient Egyptian Priest mocked Solon who told him of the antient acts of his Athenians of Phoroneus and Niobe before the flood of Deucalion and Pyrrha after the flood That this Priest I say laught at these Histories which Solon related as of great authority and antiquity as if they had been boyish tales First because he had mentioned but one flood there having been many more before Next that he had not known the most famous of his ancestors That he had no knowledge of another Athens the most antient which had stood before the Flood which had destroyed them Nor had not heard of those famous enterprises and glorious actions which those Athenians had perform'd ten thousand years before the flood At which time an innumerable company of most fierce Warriers had invaded Egypt and Greece and all that was within Hercules pillars Against all whom the only valour of the Citizens of Athens amongst all Nations was only then shown The same History is cited likewise in Arnobius a Writer of a very high spirit where writing for the Christians against the Pagan Gentiles he uses these words We were the cause sayes he that ten thousand years ago a great Army of men came from the Atlantick Islands as Plato relates and destroyed a great many Cities Let us return to Solon He wonder'd at the relation of the Egyptian Nor did he doubt of those things he had heard because he had occasion to inquire of those things seriously and diligently at the Fountain head in the Histories of the Egyptians which were of indubitable truth which they reserv'd so sacred in their Temples in their holy Bibliotheicks which they entituled the Medicine of the mind as the Library of the most antient King of Egypt Osimandius was styled Solon believed before that the floud of Deucalion was the most antient and taken out of the most over-worn records and believ'd that there was nothing known before it He wonder'd at the Egyptian History which he found had surpassed that long in extent of time Nor did Solon reject that jeer of the Egyptian Priest in which he call'd him and all the Grecians children in the knowledge of History he knowing very well that neither Solon nor any other Grecian knew any thing of true antiquity For so soon as Solon return'd to Athens being convicted of his error and certainly perswaded of the truth of these things he had heard in Egypt made Verses in the commendation of those gallant men that had performed so valiant actions ten thousand years ago before Deucalions flood Certainly it were great madnesse to affirm that the Gentiles ever had any other knowledge of God than that which they might gain by the things which are visible in the creation The invisible things of that true God were first reveal'd to the Jews to whom God first manifested and declar'd himself to them first in Adam and afterwards in the rest of the Patriarchs of the Jews This God was hid and conceal'd from the Gentiles as was the Altar in Athenâ— dedicated to the unknown God The Gentiles were blind in the knowledge of the true God But who caâ— say that they were blind in the knowledge of thâ— world and of those things that were cone in the world In Divinity they were blind but who will deny but that in humane affairs they were clear-sighted The Lord himself says The sons of this age are wiser than the sons of light in their own generation Lu. 16. In which place the sons of this age are the Gentiles the sons of light are meant by the Jews In which signification we see Israel call'd A light of them that were in darkness Rom. 2. As likewise St. Stephen in the 7th of the Acts commends the wisdom of the Egyptians Nor did he think that all their humane knowledge was lies Therefore the sons of this age the Gentiles were clearer sighted and wiser than the Jews who were the sons of light not in the knowledge of God but in their generation sayes the Lord that is in things which rellish'd of the deduction and kinred of the Gentiles of their own creation which belong'd to the History of the world the nature of men
Periodical years whose beginnings are certain and known and have certain and known ends whether they be these lesser years or the greater year whom we alwayes make periodical and confine within certain limits It is not so with the great year which comprehends the past periods of all the years both lesses and the greater which is call'd the age of ages or that age which begins at the beginning of ages and shall endure to the end of them For this age has no determinate period It depends of a beginning not imaginable and although it alwayes rends towards its end by a restlesse motion yet it never reaches it For which cause this Serpent of Claudian does not fitly expresse this year but rather Lucans Bear which turning his teeth towards his tail endeavours to draw out the Huntsmans dart but reaches it nor Iamblicus speaks fitly to this purpose sayes he God the creator turning the celestial globes with incredible swiftnesse turns his own frame towards himself and has commanded it to be in perpetual motion from the beginning to the end That age which runs out from the beginning of things created and shall onely stay when there is an end of them and which is time it self properly and a comprehension of all things past and to come is call'd the body of times by Tertullian Apol. 26. But is call'd the age of ages and the age simply and the day of eternity by holy Authors But if the great and returning year of Cicero doth so astonish him in numbring those ages If the Cave of Claudian which is the same as Ciceroes great year is unknown and hid from our senses scarce accessible to the Gods In what clouds and darknesse doe you think shall mens minds be in recounting all those ages which make up eternity it self I say that eternity in which are comprehended all those that are past and all that are to come And which devours that Cave of Claudian as a throat doth a morsel and turns Ciceroes returning year round as a Potter doth his wheel This was that which the Author of Ecclesiasticus wrote concerning in the beginning Who can tell the sand of the sea the drops of the rain and the days of eternity And in the 18 Chapt. of the day of eternity As a drop of the sea or a grain of sand so are a thousand years in the account of eternity Therefore did Socrates call those Mad-men that were more curious in their disputes concerning the original of the world Plato in his Dialogue of the soul He professed he knew nothing of it the contemplation had made him so blind The knowledge of the original of the world which is only competent to God himself deceives men because it is hid from men nor can we find out the times and ages of the world And if the Son of God as he was man knew not the end of the world why should we poor men search the beginnings of it For the future and that which is past are the same in the account of time The times are not hid from the Almighty Job 20. And belongs not to us to know them Acts last Chapter Wherefore it is written in Ecclesiastes 1. There is no remembrance of things past There were stout men sayes Horace before Agamemnon but all died unlamented and unknown because they are shut up in the long and lasting night of Oblivion CHAP. VI. Men know not their first histories and originals Of the Chaldaeans Of the stupendious number of years which the Chaldaeans are said to have set down in the computation of their Astronomical Tables Of the Egyptians And of the myriads of years that the Egyptian Kings are said to have reign'd The Kings of the Egyptians Gods Heroes and men WEll said that old man The Gods wrap up our minds still in a cloud But as Geographers use to place Seas upon that place of the Globe which they know not so Chronologers who are near of kin to them use to blot out ages past which they know not They drown those Countries which they know not These with cruel pen kill the times they heard not of and deny that which they know not The Grecians divided the times into those which were unknown into those which were Heroick fabulous into such as were Historical and which they knew to be true The unknown times were those with them which past from the beginning of things to the Flood which time whether it had a beginning or not certainly by computation cannot be comprehended as Censorinus since Varro affirms The fabulous and Heroick times were those which were from the Floud to the first Olympiad unknown likewise Nor is it plainly known how long Inachus was from Ogyges or Codrus from Inachus The Historical and known part is computed from the first Olympiad and is treasur'd up in History But whatsoever we have learned in the knowledge of things we owe to the Greeks and to Latine Authors who have written after them But sayes he all things among the Greeks are very late and you shall find that the building of Towns and the invention of Arts was immediately found out and but a day old And they last of all began to write Historie But the Egyptians and Phoenicians had a constant record of things past the Greeks themselves confesse Those same Greeks but very lately learned the use of Letters from the Phoenicians being taught by Cadmus who was himself a Phoenician for which cause it was doubtfull whether the Greeks had any use of Letters in the time of the Trojan expedition as Josephus has written against Appion But the Greeks that could scarce assert their own affaires for truth from the first Olympiad nor could be sure of any thing that was before the first Olympiad yet by hearing and reading knew such things as came to their ears concerning the Chaldaeans Egyptians Scythians and Phoenicians the most noble of Nations but by allusion and so confusedly deliver'd that those things which from their Predecessors they receiv'd confus'd to their Successors they in like manner return'd them And if the particulars taken severally beget no faith yet being joyn'd together they will prove that those Nations many ages before were reign'd over and were famous both in peace and war Diodorus Siculus a most famous man and who had a great opinion of learning amongst all by reading enquiring and travelling Europe Asia and Africa forty years had furnish'd his Library with many antient and exquisite Volumes This he relates concerning the Chaldaeans That they thought very long agoe that the world according to its nature was eternal which had no beginning nor should have any corruption in order to an end thereof And that man-kind was from eternity without any beginning of their generation That they believ'd the Stars were eternal And by long observation of those eternal stars and by an exact knowledge of each of their parcicular motions foretold a great many things which should befallâ—men You will haodly
and perfectness but that they might be restrained within them Divine law will'd that men should not only continue in their righteousness and perfection but that they should be advanced above their own righteousness and perfection Humane lawes have provided that men like beasts should not be meerly turned to pasture The Divine law will'd that man should be carried upward to the sight and glory of immortal God Humane lawes were within the limits of men Divine lawes were above men Humane lawes restrained the nature of men Divine lawes resolv'd to alter humane nature Humane lawes grafted in nature help nature and savour of nature Divine lawes being placed above nature breath all Mysterie and Divinitie help nature that it may purifie it nay that it may turn humane nature into divine Let us here leave Humane lawes and onely talk of that which God gave to Adam And because by the mystical not the natural dispensation of that Law we become more than men and are transform'd into gods Which is the end of this Systeme of Divinity and Christianity Likewise we shall handle that legal sin which broke the Law of God I say that first Law of God which Adam the first man did transgress And which men were reputed to have violated in Adam CHAP. II. The natural sins of men are the very defaults of humane nature the causes of which are not to be ascribed to the sins of Adam Legal sin imputed to men by the sin of Adam is additional Conceiv'd spiritually and not propagated naturally THere are some persons who believe that Warrs Plagues Fevers and all the troop of natural corruptions invaded the Earth by that imputation of the sin of Adam which first transgressed the Law of God And much they stand for this not taking notice of the difference betwixt natural and legal sin For Warrs Plagues and Fevers and whatsoever else of this sort troubles and afflicts mankind are the consequences of natural sin which is the wickedness and imperfection of Nature This will easily appear to such who will suffer that antient cloud of prepossession to be remov'd which dulls their sight for who knows not that Warrs had their original from such whom either greedy desire of prey or cruel thirst after revenge or sacred ambition of Rule stirred up to take arms Then who hath not had experience of the breeding and inflammation of Plagues and Fevers either by the natural corruption of the air or by the corruption of our natural bodies We have as many witnesses of this observation and truth as we have Statesmen and Physicians whose approbations almost innumerable it is needless here to relate We shall therefore assert a double sin in Adam a natural and a legal A natural sin naturally inherent in Adam by the infirmity of his nature and that peccant matter whereof he was made Legal which hapned and was imputed to Adam by violation of the Law of God A natural sin which infected the natural sense matter and nature of Adam A legal mystical and spiritual which broke the Law mystical spiritual which only in spirit and reason could be conceived For who can conceive a tree of good and evil who can understand the eating of knowledge the eating of good and evil unless he conceive it intellectually and mystically Likewise we conceive a two-fold sin in all men as we assert a two-fold sin in Adam natural and legal A natural sin which being innate in every person by reason of his peccant nature is deeply and naturally rooted in their very bowels Which proceeds from the fat of them as is elegantly expressed in the 73 Psalm A legal sin which happen'd and was imputed to all men by the transgression of that Law which Adam did violate A natural sin which had an influence upon the natural sense and corporeal matter of all men Legal which pass'd upon all men spiritually and mystically by the legal sin of Adam We conceive that mystical and spiritual passing of legal sin upon all men by another sin which was Adams to have been by imputation by which we meant that it was imputed to all men that Adam had sinned With any else besides Divines imputation of anothers trespass is a meer supposition in Law but with Divines it is the form of the mysteries which I shall clear to you by a very part example Sedechias King of the Jews brake his allegeance to the King of Assyria That fault was imputed to all the Jews who were thought perjur'd in the perjury of the King by that supposition of the Law of Nations by which people are thought to commit a fault in the faults of their Kings God had entered into a Covenant with Adam and in him with all men as being the Governour Defender and Prince of all men That Covenant Adam broke and that failing of Adam was ascribed to all men by that divine way of mysterie by which all men are thought to be delinquents in the faults of their Governours Defenders or Princes Therefore I think not that the imputation of Adams sin did overthrow mans nature nor doe I again agree with those that will grant nothing to imputation I leave to things natural and mystical their own room Natural things I would have naturally taken Things mystical I would have mystically understood Corruption contracted from that matter of all men which is addicted to corruption was that which overthrew the nature of mankind The mystical imputation of the sin of Adam is that which infected all men with the mystical stain of condemnation I assert imputations without which the mysteries of Christianity would be subverted but these I restrain within their mystical limits lest they stray beyond their mysterie beyond conception spirit Therefore I think not from thence because the sin of Adam was imputed to all men that thence they came to be obnoxious to diseases but by reason of their corrupt and rotten nature The innate infirmity of men was the real and natural calamity of men And according to Ezekiel Chap. 28. There came a fire out of the midst of them to consume them than which there is nothing more true for it is a mans own nature which causes burnings in his heart which that I may the more evidently prove by examples It is not known that Adam who was the criminal and as they say the first fountain of so great evils was ever so much as troubled with the least disease all the Nine hundred and thirty years which he liv'd unless you will believe him who relates out of I doe not know what Author that Adam dyed of the Gout with which he was troubled and which he pretends that he had by succession from his Ancestors Did Cain fall sick when he slew his Brother Nay he was very strong and lusty he fled to the east of Eden got a company of wicked persons about him with whom he rob'd He married a Wife begot a Son and built a City And this is a continual
which in another place we shall speak more at large as in Deut. 26. Thou hast chosen the Lord to be thy God and the Lord hath chosen thee to day to be to him a peculâ—ar people and in the 27 Chapter Thou art made this day the people of the Lord thy God Therefore God as he is above Kings and as he is a God not only good but exceeding good was mov'd towards the people of the Jews with all those affections of love compassion and care above all the affections with which good Kings are mov'd towards their people That love by which the Lord chose the Jews to be his people was with command and â—ower inasmuch as he was made both their God and King Inasmuch I say as Kings govern their own people and God goâ—erns and commands the Kings themselves by which right and title God is called King of Kings and Lord of Lords But the Lordship and Government of God over the Jews was with majesty and power for their security and salvation not of tyranny to their ruine and destruction God said to Abraham Do not fear Gen. 15. I am thy defender and thy very great reward As also Deut. 33. Blessed art thou Israel who is like to thee a people who art sav'd by the Lord who is the shield of thy help and the sword of thy glory Therefore Gods chief rule and government was over the Jews for which reason he is called the Lord God of the Jews and the Jews were called the people of God a peculiar people and the Lords own Inheritance A people in respect of God by right of government and Kingly power A propertie in respect of the Lord and by right of Lordship By which signification also the Jews are called the lot and inheritance of the Lord Israel my inheritance Isay 19. To a part of which they come as servants and for which cause the Jews are call'd the servants of God The seed of Israel my servant Chro. 1.16 I have said to thee Israel thou art my servant Isa 14. And Psalm 123. Behold as the eys of the servants are in the hands of his master as the eys of the handmaid in the hands of their mistresses so are our eys towards the Lord our God Where observe that God is Lord and Mistresse of the Jews as he was before their Father and Mother It is so ordinary to call the Jews the propertie lot and inheritance of the Lord his servants his vineyard as also his vessels his houshold-stuff and whatsoever comes under the compass of inheritance and Lordship I say all these things are so frequent in holy Scripture that if I should stay longer in rehearsal of them I should lose time God was bound to the Jews and as it is in the 7. Chapter of Deut. God was joyn'd to them he chus'd and lov'd them that in requital the Jews might chuse God be joyn'd to God and entirely love God Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength Deut. 6. Yea which was the greatest relation symnathie and tie of friendship betwixt God and the Jews God exalted the Jews to a name to a praise and to a glory that they might be honoured by thoâ—e who were renowned commended and glorious Praise becomes the upright Psal 33. As a girdle cleaves to the loyns of a man so have I joyn'd to my self all the house of Israel that it might be to me a people a renown a praise and a glory But first of all the Lord call'd the Jews unto holinesse that he might be sanctified by those that were holy Be ye holy as I am holy You shall be holy unto me because I the Lord am holy Levit. 20. and Exod. 19. You shall be to me a Kingly Priesthood and a holy Nation As you also may read every where the Jews anointed and elected to be Kings Priests and Prophets which are most exquisite and choice names of holinesse Because the Jews were elected unto holinesse they are commonly called a Holy Nation and a Holy People in the Bible yea and simply holy In which St. Paul is to be understood Eph. 3. where speaking of himself he says To me the least of the Saints that is to me least of the Jews For Paul who was a great example of Christian humility was not such a one as in regard of his sanctity would boast himself a Saint So must you likewise understand that Acts 16. That the nations may receive their lot amongst the Saints that is to say that the Nations may become partakers of the blessing and election of the Jews for the Saints in that place are the Jews That lot and those Saints the Apostle Peter hath expounded in his 2 Epist Chap. 1. Peter sayes he the Apostle to those who have their lot with us in the common faith which is in Christ But Peter wrote to the Gentiles who had the same faith with the Jews the same blessing the same election in Christ for which cause St. Peters Epistles are call'd General Epistles To this adde what Paul wrote to the Gentiles the Colossians chap 1. Giving thanks to God who makes us worthy of a part of the lot of the Saints in light The Apostle makes himself a gentile of gentiles when he writes who made us worthy In the light was meant the same Christ mentioned by St. Peter Further these things are clear'd by St. John who was himself a Jew in his general Epistle or in his Epistle written to all the Gentiles Chap. 1. That you may likewise have fellowship of blessednesse with us With us that is with the Jews Therefore the Jews are holy and the Nation unholy or the Gentiles Psalm 33. Judge me O Lord and judge my cause against the unholy Nation That is Gentile and not Israelitish For that holinesse from which the Jews were called holy the Lord taught his people as also for that he gave his word to Iacob and his judgements to Israel And in that regard that the Jews were called to the justice of God they were called a just generation Psal 14. The Lord is in the just generation that is the Lord is in the nation and generation of the Jews The Jews were likewise called simply just in which sense take those words of the Wife of Pontius Pilate advising him not to meddle with Christ Have nothing to do with that just man as likewise that of Luke And the Jews observing sent deceiptfull men to take him in his speech by pretending to be just who should feign themselves just that is Jews to whom as the Priests and Scribes believed Christ would easilier discover his opinion of not paying tribute to Caesar As likewise the Histories of the Jews are called the Books of the just Josue 10. Is it not written in the books of the just that is to say in the books wherein the acts of the Jews were written For that cause also was
ceases the world should likewise never cease Besides action was always in God a power unvanquishable for God was never idle which we perceive by the world which is the image of God For there is no rest in all the arts of the world For the world is always big and alwayes brings forth according to the nature of time and place Therefore we shall easily imagine that the world had no birth if we have regard to God in whom the world all creatures must be from eternity from whom they must needs have their birth and of whom God in his good pleasure travel'd with from all eternity But if we believe that God always and from eternity carried the world in his mind and will we must needs believe That God by that unvanquishable power by which he acts and brings forth always did beget the world from eternity On the contrary they that assign'd to the world a beginning teach us that things had a beginning the forms of which by little and little this Universe did receive And that the unsetled Globe of the world became one lump and that the first creatures crept out of the earth and believed that the world was amazed at the sight of a new Sun Nay Porphyrius has very elegantly decipher'd the youth of Nature where he speaks of the first and most antient sacrifice of the Egyptians He says There seems a great space of time to have past over since the Egyptians the wisest of men began at home to sacrifice to the heavenly Deities not with the first fruits of Myrrhe Cassia or Frankincense but with green grasse which with uplifted hands as being the first gown of teeming nature her did present Porphyrius did not say that an infinite time had past but seem'd to have past Which observe to be according to the opinion of those who said that the world from all eternity did rowl with a perpetual motion nor that it was begotten at any certain time At a certain time that is at a known time In which sence Sanchoniato who liv'd before the destruction of Troy said that the beginnings of the world were infinite and that the world should have no end but after many ages They likewise believed that the perpetual motion wherewith the world is rowl'd had likewise begotten returnable time Time I say which has from many ages lasted shall last out many more As also they granted the parts of this time to be minutes hours days months ages ages of ages or that age which is extended from age to age There were likewise years of years the twelf-years eight years and nineteen years amongst the Greeks The things which Claudius Salmasim a man of most excellent learning has written in his Preface to his Climacterical years are things curious and choice He said that the Chaldaeans were so large and liberal in the computation of the times of their Kings that they number'd them not by years but by divers sums consisting of years There were three kinds and names of those as he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he has found it written contained six thousand years 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contained six hundred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sixty It was ordinary too amongst those of Mexico and Peru to make up such hâ—â—â—s of years in making up the account of the world and numbred the age of the world by Suns One Sun says Goâ—â—arâ— consisted of eight hundred and sixty years And if there be any trust to be given to them the last Sun amongth them was to be reckoned from the year of our Saviour a thousand forty three which Garcillassus a Vega a Mexican himself of the royall Posterity of Inca has left us written in his Commentaries There are likewise divers years of fix'd stars and wandring ones in which they end their courses or are joyn'd together For a year as Scaliger says is the circuit of that Period by which it is surnamed That is thought the greatest Period which is made up of the course of the eighth sphere and which ends when all the stars return to the point from whence they go forth Which Cicero call'd The returning year because all the courses and conjunctions of those stars being ended they return'd and should again begin their turns like single stars who go and return in their courses and conjunctions with an unwearied motion That year being done which is call'd great The wandring stars again that course begin Which when the world was new they enter'd in Which Verses are in the elegant Poet Ausonius To which you may adde those things which Pomponius Mela after wrote of the Egyptians They says he have it recorded in their Histories That the stars have perfected their courses four times since they were Egyptians Claudian has lively describ'd that great year which according to Ciceroes relation contains so many ages of years in his Panegyrick to Stilice Far hence unknown and from our senses hid Scarce seen by Gods Times mother doth abide The immense cave of age whose lap affords All space of time or else recalls and hoords But round this cave a mighty serpent lies By whom each mortal thing decays and dies Youthful with burnishe scales whose mouth devours Still his own tail re-furnishing lost hours 'T is ordinary that all sorts of years are signified by Serpents taking their tails in their mouthes according to all circular figures which is alwayes return'd into it self as all years are alwayes return'd into the same beginning Therefore did Claudian assign a huge Serpent to this great year and that Caâ—e the pale and aged mother of years encircled by that Serpent and feign'd that she devour'd her own tail because that great year like other and the lesser tyears should alwayes return into it self and begin where it left off Yea because as he speaks it should alwayes by a silent motion run over again its own tracks Nor was the eternity of years represented by Serpents only for the figures sake because they were wrapped round but likewise by reason of their own nature by which they were thought after along age to be again renewed in themselvesâ— and be as it were immortal as the Phoenicians and Egyptians believ'd That great Serpent which environs the care of the great year is said to be alwayes green in her scales because this sort of creature is believ'd by reason of the force and abundance of spirit that it hath not only to put off old age and become young again but likewise to receive greater encrease of strength as likewise because the nature of it is lively and fiery For which cause Virgil has set forth his Serpents blustering with blood and fire which agrees very well with the great year which has a green and fresh old age alwayes taking and retaking recalling and furnishing time out of his large bosom That which we have said of Serpents turning back to bite their own tails agrees with these
not but in a longer time and farre more ages be gained and found out CHAP. X. Of the antiquity of Astrologie BUt although it must needs be a vast and incomputable time in which those first searchers bestow'd their studie in contemplation of the Sphaere Astronomy their little of no consideration in comparison of those in which the influences natures of the stars were found out by which the strength of the stars both in the motion of the air moderating mens fortunes were found out to have a special command The first Astronomers advanc'd their faces to heaven to attain to the positions and motions of the stars The Astrologers who followed them return'd their eyes from the heaven to the earth to consider earnestly what the force and influxion of the stars could operate upon the Earth for they imagined that the stars had long goads with which they did punch us from heaven and that qualities were ingendred in men as their stars did encline them They found by manifold and long experience that some of the stars were of a fierie quality hot and cholerick some earthly dry and melancholy some ayrie moist and sanguine some waterie moist and phlegmatick They believ'd that every Planet had their winds assigned to them and that the courses and returns turnings and passings of stars did foreshew the times that some of the stars were bountifull some malevolent those bountifull which foretold happinesse to men those malevolent which foreshew'd danger and were destructive to men That those were mix'd and temperate which sometimes made mens lives happy and good sometimes unhappy and unprosperous That some stars were masculine others feminine some Homogeneous others Heterogeneous That some were happy for the day some for the night That some stars by their presence and testimonie wrought some by their rays and aspect That they foreshew'd good or evil if their presence were good or bad their rayes good or evil That there were destroying stars which upon their meeting cut the thred of life Others Climacterical which troubled the course of life That there were heavier or lighter climactericals and by the meeting of some malevolent star became deadly That the numbers of seven and nine was not the cause of a Climacterical but the decree and finishing of a star and that therefore every Planet had his particular Period to signifie the climacterical returning to the same Period every year That there were besides trigonal retragonal hexagonal and diameter aspects That the trigons tetragons and hexagons some were placed on the right hand some on the left on the right hand those that wrought by radication and aspect on the left those that wrought by presence and testimonie In Diameter were weekly Climactericals in ninths or nine dayes in the Tetragon That benevolent stars softned the force of a climacterical star or place and that the aspect of a star sometimes chang'd the aspect of a sign They observ'd that the Zodiack had its parts masculine and feminine And as the Astronomers divided the Zodiack into twelve signs or parts the Astrologers divided every sign of the Zodiack into three Decans and nine benefactors or patrons that divided the twelfth part of the Zodiack into twelve parts which had the impression of the force of the twelve signs and their names alotted twelve parts in a twelfth sign in signs predominant Besides the antients painted these Decans with several colours The seven Planets and the twelve Asterisms of the Zodiack those in more flourishing colours the others in darker and obscurer colours To Saturn they alotted black to Jove white to Mars red To the Sun a shining colour to Venus diverse colours to Mercury sand colour to the Moon an ayrie colour They thought that a clear star was blunted by a dark one a dark star enlightned by a clear one and that stars by admixtion of others receiv'd a hundred colours different from their own Also to these Decans the Casters of Nativities attributed the first place in all Astrologie and Divination which arises from casting of Nativities Nay they thought that those Decans were so powerful that there were so many people in government and so many universal Laws as there were Decans Hence not only the nativities of Cities but likewise the nativity of the world was essayed But the Chaldaeans and the Egyptians were most acurate in the casting of Nativities in the framing of the Dodecatrope and the Scheme of the Horoscope They first sought for the Horoscope with all diligence they found out the Planet of the Nativity whom they call'd the Lord of the birth the Prince and giver of life then sought for the Lord of the time the alotter of his time and fortune In the erecting of the Scheme they appointed twelve places bad and unhappy according to whose determinations or aspects they gave Judgement As many they made fortunate or unhappy in Fortunes dodecatrope which they styl'd the twelve rewards of Fortune and so styl'd by the learned Salmasius not the labours of Fortune as they are commonly call'd According to the position and fabrick of the Scheme they ordain'd stars who received strength from the Horoscope and which moderated every ones Nativity And although every one of them were of sufficient force of themselves yet for divers aspects and configurations by which they were allay'd they either lost their forces or gained new influxions The Horoscope was generally with them the same which a Decan but in division and in their visibility according to which the Egyptians and Chaldaeans did cast Nativities they enquir'd out the twelve parts of the Horoscopant star and not only in what part of the twelve the Horoscope was but in what twelfth part of the twelfth part nay whether there were any one in the sixtieth part And they who were more acurate in their search whether there were any horoscope in the sixtieth part of the sixtieth The stars seem'd well or ill dispos'd when the Planets were plac'd in good or bad signs in good or bad parts of them Besides they ordained several Climactericals according to the Horoscops or Decans And as to every Decan they assign'd their own Planets they made also several Climactericals according to the order of the Planets to be disposed in every narivity Nor did they only take notice of the Planets and Decans in finding out of the Climactericals but considered likewise the ascensions of stars and the bounds of every time All which by exact and division to the least were inquir'd out and invented and accommodated and fitted carefully to their definitive art They observ'd besides general Lords of the times who from the beginning of their lives to the ends of them were constant companions of their fortunes and actions Who disposed the times years moneths dayes and hours to the following stars and those that follow'd to those that next them ensued That the general Lords of the time receiv'd its times from none but from its self But did dispense them
there be an end says St. Paul when he shall resign the Kingdom to his Father The Kingdom of Christ was from eternity it shall likewise end within age and eternity For this cause all times were made by Christ Heb. 1. and Christ was called the Prince of time Timothy 1. cap. 1. Yea the Kingdom of Christ is called the Kingdom of all ages Psal 144. For which cause St. Paul calls Christ Blessed unto all ages God the Father reign'd before ages before the times of eternity before he had ordained wisdom and had given her command over all things God the Father shall likewise reign after ages after that wisdom who is Christ the Son hath yeilded up the Kingdom to the Father in the end of ages God the Father reigned before eternity and shall after eternity God the Son reign'd from eternity and shall to eternity In which sense understand that in the 90 Psalm From age to age thou art God As also which David sings 4 Chron. chap. 16. Blessed be the Lord from eternity to eternity CHAP. XII Eternity uses to be understood in Scripture by the duration of the Sun and Moon Of an age Of eternal times St. Paul expounded Eternity indefinite JEremie to signifie the eternity of that Law â—nd Covenant by which God had taken the Jews to himself to eternity as also the eternity of that Covenant which God had made with Messias and with his servant David by things undoubted and very well known If says he the Laws of the Sun and Moon and the Stars fail then the seed of Israel shall fail before him And again If the Covenant of the Lord with the day and night can be frustrate then can the Covenant of the Lord be frustrate with David his servant Therefore both of them are set down indubitable and unmoveable the eternity of the seed of Israel as also of the Kingdom of Messias as also the eternity of the Sun and Moon Stars Days and Nights And as they are conveniently joyned so are they conveniently convertible thus The seed of Israel shall never fail before the Lord for the Sun and Moon and Stars can never fail before him It is impossible that the Covenant of God should be in vain which he made with his Servant David that he should be and remain for ever It is likewise impossible that the Covenant which God made with the Day and Night should fail but they should be to eternity and remain continually God meant that impossibility of his Law which should never perish and of his Covenant never to be broken In the 6 chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke It is easier for the heaven and earth to passe away than that one tittle of the Law should passe away Of the Law that is of the Coâ—enant which God made with Israel and with his Messias The whole world is here understood by the heaven and the earth and that impossibility he clears by another as great an impossibility that is the least tittle of the Law shall never passe away nor shall ever the world passe away Such is that which we read Psalm 72. The Messias shall endure with the Sun and Moon unto eternity Which is convertible thus The Sun and Moon shall endure together with Messias for ever It is written Genesis 1. Let us make lights in the midst of heaven that they may divide the day and night and be for signs and times for days and years Which the author of Ecclesiasticus rehearses in these words chap. 43. The Sun and Moâ—n shew the time and appoint the age Times are made up of days and nights months and years and ages which the Sun and Moon divide and dispense and appoint the measure of them especially the Sun who for excellency is called the Father of times and ages by the ancients For which cause holy Writ measures out the eternity of ages by the Sun It is common in holy authors to reckon weeks of years months of years years of years and with them you have many times also ages of ages which comprehend many myriads of years of which an eternity is made up Which you may well call the year of the world or the great world whose times ages are reckon'd innumerable Which you shall not need to wonder at if you wonder that the day of days the year of years the age of ages and all ages of ages have descended from eternal times and shall endure to eternity I thought upon the days of old I have the eternal years in remembrance I have counted the years which were from the beginning says David Psalm 76. The Prophet counted those days but could neâ—er find the number of them For there is no remembrance of things past Ecclesiast chap. 1. And truly For the memory of men being finite and fading can no way extend it â—eif to the knowledge of those former things which are infinite and derived from years eternal As if St. Paul had meant in those places which I mentioned before in the former chapters where he said that the mysterie of the Gospel was hid from eternal times and ages to expresse a thing so much secret and remote that the mystery had been hidden since the world was made with Adam from whom to the Apostle was not above four thousand years That had been indeed to have thrown four drops of water into the midst of the Sea or to have thrown four grains of sand upon the Sea shore according to what is written in the 18 chapter of Ecclus. As a drop of the water of the Sea or a grain of sand so little are a thousand years in the days of eternity The author of the Ecclesiasticus here meant that whatsoever proportion a drop has to the whoâ—e Sea or a grain of Sand to the whole shore a thousand years should have the same proportion to the day of eternity which containâ— the beginning and ending of all things created in the endlesse volums of years For eternity here is taken in the second acception which is from eternity and shall remain to eternity Which times are compounded of ages which ages are accounted by years Nor think here that age to be the first and pure eternity which admits of no distinction of years of no composition or comparison with this second eternity which is secular compounded For although the author of Ecclesiasticus seems to have taken this out of the 88 Psalm where it is said A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday It is to be observ'd that the Psalmist in that place meant that there could be no proportion or comparison betwixt 1000 years Gods eternity which 1000 years he compar'd with a day that is past with that which is not For there is no proportion betwixt an entity and a non entity But in this place the author of Ecclesiasticus admits a perfect proportion betwixt a thousand years and the day of eternity betwixt a drop of water and