to leave the other darker than before In fine the Iews of later times know what they know of their own Rites by learning only and have ever had concurrent Christians to study with them and exceed them as the more concerned to gain such knowledge and to gainsay such friends as they But we are no such Enemies unto Learning howsoever though we cannot get the light we seek from them as to burn their Books for a blaze at once and after that to stand in need of such a Guide as we might have gotten rather than none at all in the Quarters of an Enemy And thus have I endeavoured not to say all that may be said but to travel through a Question that hath sometimes puzzled me before and which being well cleared if I have attained unto that happiness may prevent perplexities and more digressions that may else beâ—al me hereafter in my proceeding But chiefly upon Cunaeus's encouragement who has offered fine things upon the same Subject viz. That this Point is of great moment towards the interpretation of the whole Bible and such as doth deserve to be discuss'd with diligence CHAP. XXXII Shewing the providence of God over his people Israel according to the Blessing promised of their multiplying in respect of fruitfulness and of protection in Egypt however hardly used otherwise from Famine War and Pestilence That the indulgence of Concubines might contribute much to the number of their encrease That in an ordinary way of computatioâ— without flying unto Twins or any other miracles out of seventy persons only the Muster-Roll of Moses might easily arise NOW when it had pleased God to sever from the Tents of Abraham and Isaac whom he pleased and to plant them so as they might either afflict or befriend the House of Israel in the times to come he brought the whole House of Iacob by another Providential Famine into Egypt whither he had brought Ioseph as if he had been but a lost man before to provide for all the rest It is said that all the souls that came with Iacob into Egypt which came out of his loins besides Iacob's Sons Wives were sixty six And the Sons of Joseph which were born to him in Egypt were two souls All the souls of the house of Iacob which came into Egypt were seventy And again Thy Father went doâ—n into Egypt with seventy persons or names and now the Lord thy God hath made thee as the Stars of Heaven for multitude Neither doth Iosephus reckon more But when they came forth of Egypt after two hundred and nine years the Children of Israel being numbred from twenty years old and upward were found to be six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty all able to go forth to Battel Judge how many more the Women and Children might be And when the Tribe of Levi was numbred by it self every Male from a month old and upward it amounted to twenty two thousand more to which we may allow as many Females so that we can hardly imagine less than a million and an half of these people in the whole And how this account may be stated to â— reasonable man to save him the labour of adjusting it I have begg'd the assistance of a learned Gentleman who hath obliged us both with this return Which I give you clearly in the Postscript as I received it though it seem in divers passages to contravene some of my own opinions as they are here and there delivered in these Papers See the Postscript where the Contents intended in this Chapter are annexed CHAP. XXXIII That a great number came along with the house of Jacob for Abraham had a great Train Isaac more Jacob all they left and such as he brought with him from Padan-aram Six Objections propounded And two fundamental Arguments for the Thesis BUT if all that be not ample satisfaction what If I should pro-pound another thought fortified with its probabilities unto other searching Spirits Which is that the seventy names or persons were only of such as came out of Iacobs loins Heads of Families which were to be the Princess of Israel and that indeed a great number came along with them We cannot but remember what a Band of his own trained Servants bred in his own Tents Abraham carried forth against the Kings when he rescued Lot and no doubt he left others with the Women and the Cattel at home It seems to have been about thirty years after that Abraham being much more enâ—reased in wealth and power was sought unto by Abimelech to enter into League with him And it was about a hundred years after if my Chronologer guess well before another Abimelech entred into the like Covenant with Isaac when he sowed in the land which is more than Abraham had done and received in the same year an hundred fold and waxed great and went forwards and grew until he became very great for he had possession of flocks and herds and great store of Servants so that the Philistines envied him And as for Iacob he returned out of Padan-aram or Mesopotamia to his aged Father Isaac at Hebron where Abraham and Isaac for the most part so-journed with much more Cattel and with two Bands in his Retinue together with both his Wives only Rachel fell in travail of Benjamin and dyed by the way falling short of Hebron no more than Bethlehem is distant from it and his twelve Sons besides his Daughter Dinah mentioned it may be on occasion only and that Iacob might have more at least by Bilhah and Zilpah the Concubines that his Wives had given him out of their emulation unto one another So that after Isaac's death he must needs be not only enriched with the inheritance but powerful in the number of all his people A specimen whereof we have in the attempt of Simeon and Levi alone by themselves who took each man his sword and came upon the City of Shechem boldly and slew all the males unless any man will have it so that two single men stormed a walled City and put all the males to the sword who however sore might have been defended by the very Women in such a Case Now as the absence of Iacob from his aged Father before was very long some twenty years so it is not to be expected that Isaac's days should be extended much longer by the Providene of God since the Heir of the Promise was restored home to him Of all the Patriarchs none made so little noise in the World as Isaac none lived either so privately or so innocently He used no Concubine although Rebekkah was twenty years barren ...... And now that Rebekkah's Darling was come back he left all to him in the hundred and eightieth year of his life Which Iacob managed not above ten years longer upon account before he was enforced by God's Providence to descend into Egypt with all his house The Question is
But if there had not been choice enough of kin of either side at hand better an Alien of any other Countrey than of Canaan which he knew to be the very Land that God had promised to his Father and Forefathers for an everlasting possession not without the destruction of the inhabitants as the very Seed of the Serpent and Coar of enmity Thou shalt not therefore take a Wife of the Daughters of Canaan had Isaac said unto his Father Iacob For must such a mixture be Or such a Seed proceed from the Bowels of a Canaanitish Woman as shall be proper to destroy the Canaanites Was not this then as just an exception against Iudah now as it had been against Esau before and for the sake of which his own Mother could not love him but procured his disherison For Esau when he was forty years old married two Hittites before Ishmael's Daughter which were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekkah and she said I am weary of my life because of the Daughters of Heth. Now if any one ask here Why what choice had he or the other Brothers Whither should they go Whom did the other Brothers marry Did not Ioseph for his part marry the Priest of On 's Daughter an Egyptian for whose sake it may seem that he left the Egyptian Priests demesns intire when he cunningly bought all the rest of Egypt for his bread into bondage unto Pharaoh Or who ever blamed Abraham for his taking of Hagar or Keturah for his Concubines Or Iacob himself for taking Bilhah into his bosom who proved not honest to him or Zilpah and had been bred amongst the Idols of Laban which Rachel stole whether for love or hatred is a Question Although it hath been taken for an opinion that the Hebrews took their Wives only ex Ingenuis out of free-born women and their Concubines ex Ancillis out of Handmaids yet M r Selden proves that these did not differ in the quality of Wives but only in the inequality of conditions forasmuch as Keturah in Genesis is called Abraham's Wife and in the Chronicles his Concubine which some do therefore improbably think to be the same with Hagar re-assumed We may observe that Hagar had been seasoned with the same Religion before Abraham took her by being bred in his house insomuch that she prayed in her distress and had an Angel to comfort her But she was repudiated for her rebellion against her Mistress and her Son sent away with gifts which followed because it is said that unto the Sons of the Concubines both of them which Abraham had he gave gifts and sent them away from Isaac his Son while he yet lived And by Keturah whose true Religion we have no ground to question he had some Issue which retained their profession in the time of Moses who married a Wife out of Iethro's house descended from Midian a Son of Abraham by this Keturah Among some or other of these therefore the Sons of Iacob might have found Wives as well as Moses who is not blamed for it Or else among the Women that Rebekkah Rachel and Leah had brought with them if they were more than two or the Daughters born of them in the space of a hundred and fifty years or as they might give their Sisters to their choicer Servants so they might take their Daughters and so contain themselves within themselves which might be the reason of their leviration which God did after establish by a Law or Brothers marrying of a Brother's Widow in case he dyed before he had any Issue by her Indeed it is not mentioned whence the other Sons had their Wives only Iudah seemeth to be blamed As for Ioseph's taking the Priest of On 's Daughter 1. Pharaoh gave her 2. God himself who was able to sanctifie her unto him as it is like he did by the towardly Children which she bare him which pleased Iacob when he blessed them 3. If Ioseph spared the Priests Lands it is an Argument that he feared Sacriledge as many of the Heathen after did with the like regard unto the Iewish Priests And this is delivered by Iosephus as a Law among the Iews Let no man speak evil of those Gods which other Countries and Cities suppose to be Gods Let no man spoil any strange Temple nor take that which is dedicated unto any God And as for Iacob's taking of Bilhah and Zilpah the same may be said as of Abraham taking of Hagar and Keturah They came from Padan-aram with him and abode with their Mistresses after he had purged his house from Idols Labans and all if any did remain which it may seem that Rachel stole away to please her Husband Iacob when time should serve to discover it not fearing her Fathers displeasure rather than out of any love to them because she may be understood to have been of the forwardest when Iacob purged his house to bring all the strange Gods and ear-rings unto him As also because she had the blessing of the two more pious Sons CHAP. XLI Pursuing the same Argument and opening the Law of Leviration by which Pharez was restored Other marked persons not blot to the Genealogy of Christ. BUT the failing of Iudah concerning Tamar if it were not greater might yet seem more unlucky of the two and more prejudicial in the consequence unto the house of Israel than the other inasmuch as two misbegotten Children came thereby to be reckoned to the ruling Tribe of Israel and not only to have equal part with others but to have inheritance from Iudah all alike with Shelah Doth God abhor incest and adultery and yet suffer the choicest Blessings of all to descend to their Issue Or how is it that David and Christ should come to descend from this Pharez rather than from Shelah Now about the first failing of Iudah we may say That if Iacob had had the power of the blessing in his own hands as he had not it was not exception enough against him to put him by nor in the streights wherein they were can one be sure that there were no more strange Wives within the Tents of Iacob but only Shuah's Daughter However God was pleased to take the punishment of Iudah's fault home unto himself and he brought it home to Iudah for whatever Shelah was he gave him but three Sons in all two of which he permitted to be such wicked Canaanites as were not to be born withal so that the Lord himself slew them and in the stead thereof made him father other two which he least intended But on second thoughts neither was the latter fault so great as the first nor the consequence so bad as you imagine See what an Acquaintance had Iudah gotten by wandring away from the Tents of Israel and searching out for some good house or other wherein to solace and caress himself He turned in to a certain Adullamite whose name was Hirah And he
it seems as having a design upon his Friend so called hold him unto Shuah's Daughter with whom Iudah was taken in his vagary Which friendship howsoever continued till after her death good men being seldome forward to shake off even their Back-friends So that Hirah being with him to comfort him was as ready to help him at another turn even as lewd Suburbers delight to draw in Country-men into the Stews and to wait for him like a Pander and conceal his prank while he suffered him rather than himself to go aside unto a seeming Harlot and when Iudah came back to carry a Kid for him unto the Woman to redeem Iudah's pledges because he was ashamed to send by any but a Stranger So that Iudah seems to have continued still under the same or like temptations as long as he retaineth this acquaintance And it is by his temptations that we must endeavour to excuse him whereof this Heathen Hirah was the first Then we must consider that it was but simple fornication upon surprize and without design that Iudah suffered himself to be drawn in by whereas his marriage was a setled resolution And that God suffered him to be thus betrayed punishing one sin by another and the consequences of it for his injustice in denying his third Son Shelah unto Tamar which he was bound to do by a known Law amongst them Or for his distrust in God lest he should take away Shelah for doing his Duty as he had done the other two for wickedness Add to this the subtilty of Tamar who was a Free-woman of Israel by her marriage unto Er the eldest Son of Iudah whatsoever she was before that knew where the soft place was in Iudah's Head and meant to be meet with him inasmuch as she had been of a long time wronged and saw no other likelihood of redress but this for the Law as we may learn more clearly by the reviving of it was this viz. If Brethren dwell together and one of them dye and have no Child the Wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a Stranger her Husband 's Brother shall go in unto her and take her to him to Wife and perform the duty of an Husband's Brother unto her And it shall be that the first-born which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his Brother which is dead that his name be not put out of Israel The Law then obliging Tamar to live within under a Widow's guise and not to marry without but expect she had indeed Onan given to her but he hating to raise up Seed unto his Brother more than to lye with a taking Woman spilt his Seed upon the ground thinking it may be after that to go into fruitless dalliance And the thing displeased the Lord so that he slew him also after his Brother Er. The reason of Onan's sin is to be understood viz. Because he would have the eldest Brother's Right extinct and be eldest himself whereas if he had begotten a Son on Tamar even that Son should have carried the birth-right from him And when Tamar had remained still a shady Widow in hope of Shelah and she saw that he was grown and not given to her she began not only to despair of an Husband but of an interest in the house of Iudah which ought not to be denyed her It was the least of her intention therefore to play the Harlot whatever Iudah meant for being sped by him she put on her Widows Garments again and betook herself to her former place So that she may seem no more to blame than an honest Woman that puts her self into an Harlots place and so defrauds her own Husband Ay but the Law was That the Brother and not the Father-in-Law should raise up Seed unto the first Husband How then can Tamar be excused for tempting and lying with the Father We must not take Tamar for a scrupulous Casuist though she meant not to be an Harlot but contained ever after as it is most likely Iudah did of whose refraining there in mention but of his marrying again we read not but for an interested wronged Person that sought to right herself the best she could For if she conceived she should be wrapped up in the inheritance of her Issue which Iudah could not abandon or if not yet Iudah could not wrong her any further But take the Case as it will bear For a Brother to lye with his Brothers Wife or Widow in any other Case than this is incest And it is no more incest in the Father-in-Law so far as touching of bloud is intended for the Father-in-Law has no more blood in his Son's Wife that never conceived than in the Brother There is only the reverence of Descent that is more And the reason of another Descent viz. of inheritance being the reason of the Law that allows the dispensation it is the less wonder that Tamar should lay aside the respect of reverence only to a Father that would hold her still under greater wrong unless she laid this Veil aside and put another on which is all that I have to say for her But as for Iudah as his soul hated incest so neither was he guilty of it in the least as he was beguiled And though his two Sons Pharez and Zarah were misbegotten by mistake on Tamar yet they were not base-born but came by due Right into their Father Er's Lot as much as if Shelah had begotten them who ought to have endeavoured it So that Iudah by God's permission did but supply his Son's place as a punishment for his with-holding him And when God had pardoned all this to Iudah neither his Father nor his Brethren eyed him the worse but God himself prospered him the more For whereas his Brethren had all more Children than he when they came to be numbred at their going out of Egypt Iudah had seventy four thousand and six hundred males from twenty years and upwards whereas no other Tribe could come within ten thousand of His. If all this doth not satisfie let us hear the pious Bishop a little further I find not many of Iacob's Sons more faulty than Iudah who yet is singled out from all the rest to be the Royal Progenitor of Christ and to be honoured with the dignity of the birth-right that God's Election might not be of merit Else however he had sped alone Thamar had not been joined in this Line Even Iudah marries a Canaanite It is no marvel though his Seed prosper not Yet that good Children may not be too much discouraged with their unlawful propagation the Fathers of the promised Seed are raised from an incestuous Bed And as I may add in Christ's Genealogy we have Rahab the Harlot Ruth the Moabitess and Bathsheba to chuse the adulterous Wife of David But as the Apostle speaks he put no difference betwixt us and them purifying their hearts by faith Such was the state of the first visible Church which
whom the Serpent was to be sped at last In the mean while there are two further Points to be discreetly traversed 1. That Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years and it is likely Eve somewhat near the matter whether more or less and begat other Sons not mentioned and Daughters whereof the name of never an one is at all recorded 2. That some penitent issue is not obscurely shewn to have issued from Cain himself For all the Sons of Adam not named we may take it for granted that they either abode in their Fathers Tents taking their Sisters to Wives who were next to be taken or went off with Cain to help him build and replenish his City being nevertheless of the Seed of the Woman or of the true Church so long as they retained the Worship the Rites the Rules and the Moral Laws that they carried off from their Fathers house And others of them cleaved unto Seth and holp to make up his Family because the Earth must needs be replenished and Children go off to further distance And thus we may conceive that the true Church was far from failing betwixt the death of Abel and the birth of Seth howsoever the necessity of livelyhood or civil accommodation might divide the Members of it But as Adam had lived a hundred and thirty years before he had Seth so Seth live a hundred and five years more before he had Enos In which long tract of time and encrease of Generations when men began to multiply on the face of the Earth and that Daughters were born unto them so that the Sons of God saw the Daughters of men that they were fair and took them Wives of all they liked then the true Worshippers were â—ain to gather unto one House or Tribe And how they might attain to any consistency there I refer you to the Letter of a learned Gentleman in the Postscript All that remains to be said here is this That when the House of Seth came to degenerate too God brought a Deluge on the World as it is commonly accounted 1656 years after the Creation CHAP. XII Why God preserved Cham and Japhet in the Ark as well as Sem. That though they followed the way of the old World yet they were encreased in dominion which was not the blessing promised more than Sem Nay that he himself was greater in temporal accessions by other Sons than by Eber. NOW one might think since God Almighty was so much offended with the sins of the old World as to say It repented him that he had made man on the Earth and it grieved him at his heart that he would have taken such caution about the next succession that no generation like to that of Cain's should have survived the Deluge Yet as he preserved some of all kinds even of noxious Creatures in the Ark so he dealt by the intire Family of Noah He would not prejudge the Cases of Iaphet and Cham who were under the same protection discipline and common blessings with Sem till they came to be severed in their habitations and progenies Among the Sons of Noah saith Sir Walter Raleigh there were found strong effects of the former poyson For as the Children of Sem did inherit the Vertues of Seth Enoch and Noah so the Sons of Cham did possess the vices of Cain and of those wicked Giants of the first Age. As for Iaphet we read no hurt of him but it is rather recorded to his commendation that he joined with his Brother Shem to make some amends for the villany of Ham. who had exposed his Fathers nakedness However it is not obscurely implyed that Iaphet was either fallen or about to fall off to degenerate worship because this is added to his blessing for that act of silial Grace and Duty That God would at last enlarge or perswade Iaphet to dwell in the Tents of Sem who though chosen by God is for the most part concluded to have been the younger Brother Which Prophetick Promise to Iaphet as the like Curse to Ham were not to be accomplished in either of their persons but in their posterities some Ages after Wherefore for all the love and great savour that God shewed unto Noah he would not hinder the accursed race of enmity from spreading out of his Loins also to be two ways branched for the greater afflictions of Sem's choicest Descendents until the time appointed For as the Sons of Noah descended from Mount Ararat where the Ark rested whether it was Caucasus or Taurus Ham and his Sons seized on all that they were able to occupy from the parts of Mesopotamia to the ends of Africk which was the Road that a part of them took Of his Son Cush descended Nimrod the Founder of the ensuing Babylonian Greatness as also Ashur who gave the Name of Assyria that built Niniveh And of his Son Canaan descended the Sidonians Hittites Iebusites Ammonites Girgasites Hivites Arkites and other reprobate Hoards or Nations Of his Son Mizraim descended also Pathrusim the Father of the Philistines and Casluhim the original of some of the Bordering Arabians And such of his Race as aimed further Southwards peopled all Egypt and Ethiopia to the Lands end so far as their number or encrease could seize on Lands without resistance So that out of Ham proceeded the Princes and people which held the great Kingdoms as they grew of Babylon Syria and Egypt for many Descents together towards the future oppression of the Sons of Sem the blessings of Shem and Iaphet as my Authour hath it taking less effect until the time appointed So that the first great Lords of the Earth were of this accursed Race that they might thresh in the Theshingfloors of Israel and bring their Fans in their hands whensoever the House of God was to be purged by the affliction of his people And to shew besides that God accounteth not as men do of Worldly Greatness he letteth it go to chuse unto the Heathen who thereupon do idolize the Fortunes of their Princes and set them up for Gods The first of which this Ham is counted to have been by the Name of Iupiter Hammon and the places where he was adored most do countenance that opinion And who was ever set up for an Idol but the worst of men From Iaphet also and his seven Sons the Medes Seythes Thracians Macedonians Grecians and the most part of Lesser Asia were replenished together with the Isles of the Gentiles by which name the ends of the habitable World were only known unto the Hebrews From whence came Alexander first and his Captains and after them the Romans to subdue and to waste Eber. Which events seem to have been more clearly revealed unto Balaam than unto any of the better Prophets even in the infancy of this people while they travelled in the Desart towards this Land of Promise And Ships shall come saith he from the Coasts of Chittim and shall
of Moses And although Cunaeus doth collect in favour it may be of some opinion that the Church of old was still restrained unto one Family as from Adam to Seth and so to Noah and to Sem alone of his and to Abram alone of his and to Isaac alone of his line and that God despised all other Nations as prophane until the coming of Christ yet it seems to me that although many Families and Nations did not escape corruption yet some true Worshippers there were here and there without those houses and without that Nation But the first Church was the Metropolis only of all the rest Thirdly And now we may perceive the reason why Abram's Servants also must be circumcised to the solution of the Question with favour against Pererius That Circumcision was to be imposed since it was not free for Servants bought with Abram's money to obtain liberty upon the pretence that they would not be cirumcised Nor was ever Hyrcann's blamed in later times for compelling the Edomites when he had subdued them to be circumcised but commended rather The reason of their Circumcision besides the share which they had in the desire of all Nations was partly to propagate the knowledge of God if they went off and partly to constitute and fortifie the Body of the Church if they continued in the Tents of Abraham Such was the Church which it pleased God to form to himself from the beginning such the Materials of it And how many of these had true Grace in their hearts besides Abraham himself and his Wife Sarah and it may be his Steward Eliezer before Isaac was born I leave the Brethren that are most concerned to enquire But that part of this Question which relateth to the whole Church of the Old Testament with reference as a seal unto some Covenant that we may not be delayed in our progress here will fall in in a proper place in order CHAP. XVII Abraham's obedience so acceptable unto God that he maketh himself known to him in a more familiar way than ever before That Abraham knew nothing to the contrary why there might not be more righteous people in Sodom than his Brother Lot His various peregrinations are recounted and further Questions propounded to be enquired into SUCH hath been the acceptation of a liberal obedience in the hearts of generous Princes both of ancient and later times that they have not thought much to go out of their way and to come incogniti to visit one or other of their meaner Subjects whom they have known by such a Character In the like manner after Abraham had circumcised all his Males it pleased God not to defer as in former times but to make haste to come and see him incognito but in a more familiar manner than before to make the last promise or to confirm all the former to him to be surely made good to him within the set time mentioned before so that to keep reckoning we may account it to have been within a month or two after the last appearance To this was added the great favour of Almighty God for when did he ever do so by any other mortal man to commune with Abraham about the destruction of Sodom and to hearken to his intercession In which it appeareth that Abraham thought no other but that there might be many righteous persons there whom God would not destroy with the wicked besides his Brother Lot Some are of opinion that Abram remained five years at Charran of the Chaldees or that part of it to which Mesopotamia may be reckoned after he had received the first promise And then upon the death of his Father Terah who as S t Chrysostom observes though an Idolater had a fatherly affection for his Children he came as far as Sichem in the land of Canaan in the seventy fifth year of his Age and there he received the second promise and built an Altar to the Lord for remembrance because the Lord had there appeared to him It is only said that he came unto the place of Sichem unto the Plain of Morch And that the Canaanite was then in the Land So that it seems not likely to me that he entered into the City at all whether it were a walled City as is most probable it being a great and ancient one or only a City of Streets as we find such accounted in the number before the Nations were replenished But he removed journeying southwards and about Luz or Bethel which was after called so by Iacob he built another Altar for constant worship and there he called on the name of the Lord. But the very next year as it may seem he was driven into Egypt by famine and the year after that returned again to the place where he had erected his second Altar and here he remained if conjecture fail not about a year or two when obeying the command of God he went about surveying the Land of promise and came the third year to the Plain of Mamre about Hebron which was after called so and there built another Altar to the Lord viz. as a place where he designed some residence if it should please God to permit him And hereabouts he continued eighteen years even till he had received the last promise and then he journeyed again toward the South Country and dwelt between Cadesh and Shur and sojourned in Gerar where he made a Covenant by mutual Oath with Abimelech a King of the Philistines at Beersheba And Abraham planted a Grove in Beersheba and called there on the name of the Lord the everlasting God And he sojourned in the Philistines Land many days But by the death of Sarah in Kiriath-arba which is Hebron in the Land of Canaan we may learn that though the Son of Promise was born among the Philistines yet Abraham returned at the last to Hebron where he had his place of worship among the Hittites And there he had his last blessing of encrease by Keturah according to the fulness of the promise of God to the rise of many Nations from him And there he left in his Tents Isaac and Iacob Heirs of the same promise with himself having lived a hundred and seventy five years whereof one hundred hereabout and leaving Isaac about seventy years of Age and his Son Iacob fifteen And his Sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him with Sarah in the Cave of Machpelah So that all the expeditions of Abraham were 1. from the remoter parts of Chaldea unto Charran from thence 2. unto Sichem from thence 3. to Bethel from thence 4. to Egypt from thence 5. back again to Bethel from thence 6. to the Plain of Mamre which is Hebron or Kiriath-arba from thence 7. to the Parts of Gerar and from thence 8. back again to Hebron of the Sons of Heth. That which remaineth to be enquired is first What use Abraham made of his Altars secondly How he governed his
own Hoard thirdly How he lived amongst the Canaanites and Philistines fourthly In what estate he left his whole Posterity CHAP. XVIII Letters and Writing most probably from Adam as also Altars Of Cain and Abel and the difference of Sacrifices and of theirs in particular Whether they offered in one place and whether Adam offered for them or they for themselves Why Abel more accepted and how Cain knew it THough it hath been thought by many studious of the Pagan Antiquities and too much addicted to credit them that the Patriarchs before the Floud delivered unto their Posterities all the learning which they had by Oral Tradition only and that Writing was first expressed by certain Hieroglyphicks and after Letters formed by the cunning of the Phoenicians or the Greeks yet I must confess I take it to be but an heathenist conceit and not fit to be imagined that the Church of God did ever want its Scriptures out of which by Divine Instinct Moses drew the Abstract of the things that were before his time Which it pleased God to allow only as to be preserved unto after Ages whatsoever is reported about a certain Prophecy of Enoch to which S t Iude is conceived to refer But there is also reference in other places unto certain current Traditions among the Jews It is as easie for me to believe that our Father Adam could as well write and read and teach his Children so to do as speak and set the names on every Creature Should we think it to be too hard for him or that he had not time enough in the nine hundred and thirty years that he lived to accomplish it I cannot so much as think that the Church or the World either could want the use of Letters so long as Seth whose engraven Pillars are spoken of much less as Enoch who was born so long after him though both in the life of Adam The like conceit I must needs retain concerning Altars When God had vouchsafed to reveal unto Adam this Grace and Mystery That whereas he had incurred the guilt of sin and the punishment of death by his transgression an atonement should be accepted for him through the shedding of the bloud of certain clean Beasts which are thought to have been revealed to him together with the first Notion of Sacrifice it self with respect to the Seed of the Woman promised in some uncertain time to come it was so natural to him to erect an Altar for Sacrifice and Oblations that he could not conveniently do any otherwise any more than men can eat without a Table Yet that a standing Altar was not always necessary appears by Abraham's building one in haste when he was tempted to sacrifice his only Son Isaac How Cain and Abel did to begin from thence may worthily be doubted as it is But to set it free as much as may be we must know That whereas not only death eternal but also temporal with many calamities besides the Curse of the Earth were the consequents of sin not only bloody Sacrifices or whole Burnt Offerings as they knew no other before Moses were to be offered for the expiation of sin but also other Offerings in acknowledgment of the Dominion of the supreme Majesty over all in way of thankfulness for plenty and prosperity in way of supplication for encrease and blessings in way of vowing and devoting themselves and the Goods which they enjoyed unto God's service in some acceptable manner The Queries are 1. Whether Cain and Abel offered apart or in one place 2. Whether they offered as for themselves so by themselves or whether they brought them to their Father Adam as the only High-Priest then on Earth and the first Prophet to offer for them 3. How the difference stood or appeared in respect of what they offered and how they were accepted For the first No doubt while they were young and lived in their Fathers house which necessity would teach him to build as well as to make himself Cloaths but that Adam offered for himself and all his Children but when they were able to go abroad and set up a Tent of their own to be filled with their younger Brethren and Sisters and their Children then of common Right Paterfamilias the head of the house was their Priest and in Case he sacrificed all the houshold were sufficiently consecrated to assist him by an implicite Ordinance of God because that which he required could not otherwise be done Some are of opinion that Adam appointed a certain place of meeting for Divine Offices for all his Children where most likely he erected an Altar which of old did as it were constitute a Temple sub dio and that continued some Ages both amongst the people of God and the Heathen There he instructed them there he prayed and offered up praises unto God more especially on the Sabbath Day and did all in substance that belonged unto Sacrifices ever after But against this that passage seems to make that when God demanded of Cain Where is Abel thy Brother He replyed I know not Am I my Brothers Keeper As if God knew they did not use to meet every Day or every Week together So that possibly they might offer in divers places 2. It might so happen that one or other of them might be absent and yet their Father who led a careful and penitential life might offer for which of his Sons came as Iob did for all his Sons when they were absent Yet I know nothing to the contrary but that Cain and Abel when they had housholds of their own might have Altars so too the mystery of oneness of Altars being not as yet revealed 3. For the last Query Why Cain's Sacrifice should not be accepted so well as Abel's Iosephus gives us this reason Because Cain being covetous offered only that which he had forcibly extorted as it were from Nature by the Plow whereas Abel offered things produced of themselves The Rabbi's tell other Dreams relating to the wickedness of the Person and the niggardliness of his Oblations But a clearer reason is hinted in the Text it self when it is said That Cain brought only of the fruits of the ground which was no expiatory Sacrifice for sin but a superfluous Oblation it may be of more splendid things than Abel whereas S t Paul assures us that without shedding of blood there is no remission for sin Which things have been touched before But how should these know the difference of their acceptations If they came to their Father Adam and his Altar by him who was both a Priest and a Prophet and though not in former favour yet not wholly left by God or deprived of all his manifestations to him But if they sacrificed otherwise God did not leave himself without witness till he raised up sufficient Seers to advise them that had to do with him And thus the worship of God came to be
Geometrical Progression towards infinity which I now come to state more particularly And what wonder is it if every man under these circumstances which I have discoursed of should have five or six Sons apiece and as many Daughters reckoning one with another for though some might not have so many so others might have a far more numerous Issue Many a poor Cottage here in our less pregnant Climate can furnish out a larger Stock honestly begotten by one Wife only Certainly no man that considers what has been said can think this an unreasonable supposition especially if he consider also what David says Psal. 127.4 Lo Children and the fruit of the womb are an heritage and gift that cometh of the Lord and also how eminently this truth appeared in the Wives of their famous Progenitors Abraham Isaac and Iacob who were all successively barren till God made them otherwise and it is very probable that as there was not one feeble Person Psal. 105.36 so there was not one barren person among their Tribes But because that by accidents and natural infirmities some of these may reasonably be supposed to dye before they come to maturity or at least before they have the like number of Children I will therefore suppose no greater number than four Sons live to contribute their Parts to the next Generation by getting five or six Sons likewise whereof four live to do the like and so on till two hundred and ten years be expired In the next place I will suppose that every one of these four may be Father of his first-born at twenty four years of Age compleat for the life of man being now contracted as I have before shewn to seventy years it is but reasonable to suppose that they made more haste than their long-liv'd Ancestors to secure an early share in the promise and if they might be Soulders at twenty years of Age Numb 1.45 certainly it is no unproportionable supposition to think they might be Fathers of their First-born at twenty four This will appear more probable yet if we consider the more early pregnancy of that Climate being almost under the Tropick whereas it is a common thing in our colder Situation of 52 Degrees latitude to anticipate that Age Add to this what the learned Selden tell us lib. 5. cap. 3. De jure Naturali Gentium apud Hebraeos Necessitatem Matrimonii Praecepto fructificandi seu propagationis multiplicationisque eo usque sanciri docent Rabbini ut ita eo teneri Masculos omnes ut quicunque expleto vigesimo aetatis anno sunt qui de minori aetate heic pronuntiant Vxorem non duxerit eum in illud committere seribant nisi aut assiduo Legis studio incumbat aut c. But because of this early commencing Fathers it is probable as I have before observed that they continued Proletarians the less time I will therefore suppose that these four Sons are all born in twenty four years more that is by such time as their Father is forty eight years of Age compleat and upon these three suppositions I frame the Calculation annexed The usual way of reckoning Generations and calculating their numbers is by Geometrical Progression and in this present Case according to the suppositions premis'd the proportions of every Generation would run thus 1 4 16 64 256 1024 c. But I find that at last in the Conclusion this way does not give a distint view of the Grand-Sons whereof a very considerable number are born within that Period which is allowed to the immediate Sons only and by that means the account is intermixed and confused at last and therefore I have thought of another way And although the eldest Son may have his first Child before the Father has his last yet for clearness sake and to avoid confusion I suppose the Father to have all his four Sons before his eldest Son has ever a Child not that it was always really so but to keep the account of each Generation distinct by it self from interfering with that which succeeded which would have been more intricate if I had supposed the Father and Son to have had Children born the same years both together I therefore suppose in the Table annexed that every man has one of his four Sons every six years so that his youngest Son is born six years before his eldest Son has a Child This Table has but two Columns or Ranges of Figures the first contains every sixth Year from Iacob's coming into Egypt in every of which and no other for distinctness sake I suppose the Children to be born the number of whom is placed in the other Column over against each Year But this Column contains the number of Children which will arise from one man only as suppose from Adam in two hundred and ten years on the suppositions laid down if multiplyed by three it will give the numbers arising from the three Sons of Noah if multiplyed by seventy it will give the numbers of the Children of Israel which are as follows Of Males up to 80 years of Age 1437310 Of Females the same 1437310 Besides Concubines 400000 Summ Total 3274620 This account agrees exactly with that of Moses at their first Muster in the Wilderness Numb 1.46 where all of twenty years old and upwards fit for War are computed at six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty and in the next Verse it is said that the Levites were not numbred among the rest but by themselves Numb 2.39 where the Males from a Month old and upwards amount but to two and twenty thousand Now if you allow eight thousand one hundred and eighty of these to be twenty years of Age and upwards to sixty eight and then add that number to the number of the other Tribes fit for War which is six hundred and three thousand five hundren and fifty then the total Summ will be the same with that which arises by my Computation viz. six hundred and eleven thousand seven hundred and thirty where none are taken in that were born before the hundred and forty fourth year from their coming into Egypt so that none are above sixty eight years of Age of these six hundred and eleven thousand seven hundred and thirty at their going thence and none under twenty which being so near the mark I think the Total number of Males and Females cannot be very wide from the truth As for that ascititious Tribe the Concubines I have put them down at a venture at four hundred thousand which is not so much as two thirds of the Males from twenty years old and upwards to sixty eight by eleven thousand seven hundred and thirty For though I have formerly hinted that one Concubine to each man was the most probable number yet perhaps they might be without Concubines for some years after they were married till such time as their appetites beginning to be cloy'd with one and the same Dish their stomachs began to hanker