which could easily return to its own disposition 18 V. Of the matter of men subject to corruption Of the upright creation of men Of the Return of man to the disposition of his own nature And of his matter given to corruption 22 VI. God restor'd men created upright and turn'd backward to the wickedness of their own nature â—â—to a better estate by a second creation and lifts them up from men to be Gods Of that whâ—ch is produc'd and of that which is made Of mutable and immutable Of mortal and immortal Of tâ—â—e Spirit which is in God and of the Spirit of the world 28 VII Of one God and of one Spirit which is of God Of divers Gods and Spirits 31 VIII Men being misled by evil spirits fell from their right estate wherein they were creâ—â—ed into the wickedness of their own nature Being restor'd by the Spirit of Regeneration who only proceeds from God they know God whom flesh and blood knows not They obtain hâ—liness which they could not have in their first creation and recompence their natural death with a supernatural immortality 37 IX The Regeneration oâ— men is the grace and gift of God It is not granted to all men to be regenerated but only to the Elect. Election is in things natural Divine Election is in Gods Elect. Who are elected And who are called Reâ—robates 43 X. Divine election is consider'd two manner of waâ—es in God and in mystery One is from eternity The other only distributed according to mystical occasions The one admits of all men indifferently The other first chose the Jews and in them all the Nations of the world The Contents of the Chapters in the second Book CHAP. I. OF the election of the Jews The election of the Jews began from Adam the first father of the Jews The fews the first-born because first elected They were not elected of their own deserving but of the meer bounty of God who willed and chused them Made of the same common earth of which other men were created God ioyn'd in marriage to the church of the Israelites Father of the Jews The Jews esteem God because the sons of God Godâ—â—e Mother of the Jews Friend of the Jews The Jews the friends of God 55 II. God King of the Jews Jews the people of God God the Lord of the Jews Jews the servants of God The Jews call'd holy Call'd just The Jews elected for an eternal people Set apart from all the people of the earth for the lot and inheritance of the Lord. 65 III. To the elected Iews an elected Land was given A holy Land because the Land of the holy And the land of Promise because it was promised with an Oath to the Fathers of the Iews A description of the Holy Land That was a choice land not of its own nature but according to the pleasure of God who bless'd and chus'd it The land of the Iews And for the Iews only to dwell in 73 IV. Jerusalem the holy City of the holy Land the Temple placed in Jerusalem on the forked hill of Sion Eternal hils The City of David The City of the great King Of the Kings of the Iews 79 V. The Gentiles elected in the Iews by a mystical election Esteem'd the sons of God because elected in the Iews And grafted in the Iews 83 VI. Gentiles different from the Iews in Kinred and Original in as much as they are ingrafted in them Gentiles call'd Atheists because without a God called simply men and sons of men and foolish wicked c. 88 VII That the Gentiles are called Sinners 94 VIII Gentiles called children little ones pure 98 IX The Gentiles called the sons of wrath The enemies of God Beasts and so esteemed by the Iews yea unclean beasts The opposite comparison betwixt the Iews and the Gentiles 107 X. The Iews form'd by God in Adam The Gentiles created by God And created by the word of God as other creatures as also on the same day when other creatures were created The Iews peculiarly form'd by the hands of God God call'd the fashioner of the Iews Adam first Father of the Iews The Iews are call'd the Sons of Adam 112 XI The Iews are called by Moses the sons of Adam The 32 Chap. of Deut. is explained And Isaiah and Hoseas of Adam the first Father of the Iews The Gentiles called strangers the Iews a kind of men distinct in species from the Gentiles The Gentiles earth-born The Psalm 49 is explained Abraham had servants born in his house and also bought who were not of his stook that is of Adam Who are the sons of men Who is the son of man The difference 'twixt the brethren of the Iews and other strangers 118 The Contents of the third Book CHAP. I. THe original of the Gentiles is proved to be different from the original of the Iews out of Gen. The Gentiles were created in that creation which is mentioned Chap. 1. All creatures and all men male and female were created on the sixth day of the creation as plants trees and flying fowls upon their own dayes through all the woold Why upon that day one man and he alone from whom all should arise was not created 129 II. Adam was created apart from other men in that creation which is mentioned Gen. 2. Adam was the first and father of the Iews not of all men The framing of Adam was altogether different from the creation of the first men Eve could not be created the same day as Adam was made 135 III. Of the marvellous framing of Adam Of the marvellous conceptions of Isaac and Christ Adam was made a type of Christ in all things like him but his justice Eve the wife of Adam was likewise a figure of the Church who was the spouse of Christ 140 IV. Cain a tiller of the ground Abel a shepherd and a keeper of sheep Cain having kill'd his brother Abel is afraid Flies the punishment of fratricide Flies like all guilty men to the East of Eden Marries a wife begets a son and in the same East of Eden builds a City Adam is said to have begotten sons and daughters from the birth of Seth to the death of Adam himself It is not written that he begat either sons or daughters from the death of Abel to the birth of Seth. 146 V. The Genâ—tles prov'd different from the Iews out of the monuments of the Gentiles from the stock of Adam The argument of eternity divided into two classes by the antients Of time Of the bundles of years which the Chaldaeans had made up Of the Periodical year Of the returning and great year Years signified by Serpents Of the cave of age decipher'd by Claudian Of the age of ages 153 VI. Men know not their first histories 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 Aegyptians And of the myriads
election advanced its Head above the rest was called the Princess of the Provinces in the first of the Lamentations of Jeremiah which God had peculiarly chosen out of all the Provinces and Cities of Israel it was called Jebus which is a treading under foot when it was numbred among the Cities of the Nations but being chosen and made a City of the Jews it was called by God Jerusalem that is The sight of peace Baruc. 5. Her foundations are in the holy mountains and glorious things are spoken of her Psalm 87. For that called the faithful City a City holy and elected and adorned with other great Titles well known in holy Writ The Temple placed in it was adorned with an Elogy of most choice holiness I have chosen and sanctified that place that my name may be there for ever and my eyes and my heart continue there alwayes 2 Chron. 7. That Temple was built upon the Mount of Sion God laid the foundation of the mount Sion for everlasting Psal 48. Hence those eternal Hills Deut. 33. as also Genesis 49. which are probably those two on the forked Hill of Sion upon the which the Temple of the Lord was built as likewise the City of David or of the King for which cause Jerusalem is said to be built upon the holy Hills Psal 87. now cited It was called The Temple of the Lord the rest of the Lord and his foot-stool the place of the Throne of God the place of his footsteps where he dwells in the midst of the sons of Israel Ezech. 43. for which cause the Hill of Sion is called the City of God because God dwelt in it God is great and very highly to be praised in his City in his holy hill This God is our God for ever Psalm 48. Our God is onely excellent in Sion cries out Isaias in the ravishment of his Spirit Chap. 3. onely that is cheifly by excellency and beyond all others excellent In which sence that Hill is likewise called a fat mountain and curdled Psalm 68. For all the rest of the Land of Canaan and Jerusalem flowed with the milk of election and sanctity of the Lord but the Hill of Sion was the cream of that milk that milk thickned and curdled a fat cheese pressed out of the milk of the election and sanctity of the Lord but that City was likewise called The city of the solemnity of the Jews Isay 33. Because all the Jews met there to pay their Vows and Sacrifices to God as also for their solemn joy and festivals according to the command of the Lord Deut. 12. In Sion you shall be joyful before your God you and your families in all wherein the Lord shall bless you there you shall feast before the Lord your God you your sons and daughters and your Levites there shall be the rest of the Lord and your rest The Temple and Jerusalem are for the most part joyned 2 Kingâ— 12. In this Temple and in Jerusalem will I put my name for ever And in Joel In the hil of Sion in Jerusalem there shall be salvation he that calls upon the Lord there shall be sâ—ved We must hear the Prayer of Solomon wherein he attests God in the behalf of Jerusalem and the Temple Kings 1. Chap. 8. Wheresoever said he thou shalt send thy People they shall pray to thee toward the City which thou hast chosen and towards that house which I have built to thy Name and thou shalt hear their prayer in heaven More I will say of the holy and chosen Land of Jerusalem and of the Temple of God when I shall speak of the return of the Jews which shall be their full Election In the top of the hill of Sion stood the Palace of the King which was called The City of David and which the Lord himself call'd the City of the great King Of this David and of this great King we shall afterwards have a great discourse In the mean time we must speak something of the Kings of the Jews who sat upon the high Throne of the City of David of whom this was the original We said before that the Lord God was King of the Jews A God to help them with heavenly assistance A King to stand for them in the battel to advance the shield draw the sword and put to flight the â—nemies of the Jews But because when the Jews began to be very stiff-necked it often came to passe that God turn'd from them and going from home as the Gospel speaks conâ—inued long absent then the Jews wthout a King and a Defender were open to the incursions of their enemies who spoyl'd them and most cruelly did destroy them utterly They fearing lest this might again befall them when Samuel their Judge was deed as also his Sons not walking in his ways requested a King who might judge them according to the manner of other Nations who might go out before them and fight their battels for them Which troubled Samuel Nor did the Lord slight the Petition of the Jews Hearken to them in all that they say to thee for they have not rejected thee but me Sam. 1. Chap. 8. Which open thus I was saith the Lord God and King of the Jews by Covenant And I appointed thee O Samuel by that Kingly power which I had over the Jews and thy sons to be their Judges Therefore having rejected thee and thy sons from being Judges they have not rejected thee but me who appointed thee And in that wherein they trespasse against thee they more hainously and grievously trespassed against me For in this they plainly discover'd their thoughts how little confidence they have in me and how weakly their hopes are fix'd upon me But because they are so unbeleeving and hardned in the foolishnesse of their hearts Harken to them and set a King over them Yet truly God had promis'd before in the desert that he would set a King over the Jews Deut. 17. Yea God had promis'd the Jews Kings at what time he blessed Abraham and the Jews in Abraham Kings shall come out of thee And Jacob prophâ—cying and in his sons blessing all the Jews The Scepter shall not depart from Juda. CHAP. V. The Gentiles elected in the Jews by a mystical â—lectâ—on Esteem'd the sons of God because elected in the Jews And grafted in the Jews AFter we have spoken of the election of the Jews it is fit that in order we should speak of the election of the Gentiles which sprang from the Jews as our Lord Jesus Christ himself most openly expresses to the Samaritan Woman in the fourth Chapter of the Gospel according to St. John Salvation is by the Jews But that which God the Son told this Gentile woman God the Father long before promis'd the Fathers of the Jews first to Abraham Genesis Chapter 12. All the kinreds of the earth shall be blessed in thee Then in the following Chapter That all the Nations of the earth should be
called high for its fruitfulnesse and the excellency of goodnesse by which it was advanced above other Lands The Land of Canaan was likewise call'd The Land of Promise because God by a peculiar Covenant promis'd it to the Fathers of the Jews It is written Gen. 12. That God appeard unto Abraham when he came into the Land of Canaan to which he led them by the hand and said to him To thy seed will I give all this Land And in the 15 Chapter In that day the Lord made a Covenant with Abraham saying I 'll give this Land to thy seed This promise was confirm'd to Isaac the son of Abraham 26. Gen. in these words Abide saies the Lord in the Land which I shall name to thee That Land was Canaan For to thee and to thy seed will I give all these Lands fulfilling my Oath which I sware to thy Father Thirdly this was likewise confirm'd in Jacob the son of Isaac The Land wherein thou sleepest sayes the Lord I will give to thee and to thy seed Hence that 104. Psal Remember for ever the Covenant of his speech which he ordain'd for a thousand generations which he promis'd to Abraham and his Oath unto Isaac which he appointed Jacob for ever and Israel for an everlasting Covenant saying to thee will I give the Land of Canaan the lot of thy inheritance God declar'd this Oath himself more openly Exod. 4. I have made a Covenant with the Israelites that I should give them the earth over which I lifted up my hand that I might give it to Abraham Isaac and Jacob Psalm 104. Canaan is call'd The lot of Israels inheritance According to which signification the people blessed God Psal 16. Because their lot had faln in a fair ground That Land of Promise Oath or Covenant which commonly and improperly is call'd Canaan because Canaan was only a regîon or a Province of it I say that Land God describes to Abraham in the 15 of Genesis I will give thee this land from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates And of this God spake to Jacob in the Vision of the Ladder Thou shalt be stretch'd out in it from the East to the West from the South to the North. These degrees are mark'd out in length and bredth Exod. 23. By these words I will put thy bounds from the Red sea to the sea of Palestin from the desert to the River To which adde that of the 89 Psalm Understand also by this red Sea not of the Gulf of Arabia but all that length of the Ocean which is saild about from the Gulf of Arabia to the Gulf of Persia which is either the red or Erythraean sea or more properly the Idumaean from Esau or Edom whose posterity inhabited the borders of that Sea which in the Hebrew is Edom in the Greek Erythraean in the Latin Red from whom this Sea took its name not from the colour but deriv'd from the first Prince Adde likewise Psalm 89. I will put his right hand in the Rivers Understand those rivers Nilus and Euphrates according to Genesis before-cited Chap. 15. I will give thee this Land from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates Nilus by excellency is the River of Egypt For although in the borders of Egypt and the Holy land there is found a little stream which is called The River of Egypt and the River of Nile Yet understand the Nile it self that the borders of the Holy Land may be fair and large from a very great river to a great river from Nilus to Euphrates And take Nilus here not as it divides Africk but the mouth of the Sea of Alexandria into which Nilus flows This mouth of the Sea of Alexandria is call'd Nile because this Sea is said to be changed into Nile and to receive the colour and taste of Nile it self where the Sea here with seven mouths disgorges it self into the Sea so Lucan in the end of his first book Where by the famous Nile the sea is changed The desert is stretched from the border of the sea of Alexandria continued along by the border of the gulf of Arabia which by a name largely taken the Hebrews call the flood of Egypt where it disgorges it self into the Red Sea and that is it which is meant in Exod. 23. I will put the bounds from the desart to the River That is to say from the Border of the Sea of Alexandria which is Nile and the Border of the gulf of Arabia to Euphrates which is here simply called the River These bounds then were appointed to the Holy Land the Red Sea which is the Ocean the Sea of Palestine which is the Mediterranean on one hand Nilus and Euphrates on the other And here really was that fenced Garden of the Jews nor could there be one better fenced then one environed with two Seas and two great Rivers That you may not onely imagine but see plainly this description I will here insert the Map of it First you must take notice That as the Jews were not chosen according to their own desert being made of that common clay but of the meer grace of God So the Land of the Jews was good and chosen not of its own nature but of the pleasure of God who blessed and chose it which Moses tells us in Deuteronomy 11. That Land sayes he is not like the Land of Egypt where after the seed is sown they dig rivers to water it but it is of hills and fields expecting rain from heaven to water it which thy God visits alwayes and his eyes are upon it from the beginning of the yeer to the end of it Therefore that ground was fertile not of its own nature and disposition as the Land of Egypt which is accounted of all Nations the fertillest upon Earth but because God had blest it because he gave it rain in his own time and opened to it his good treasure as it is Deut. 29. and Chapter 33. because the heaven mizled with rain upon it and that I may end in a word because God descended most upon it God provided that elect earth for the elected Jews Ezech. 20. That Israel might dwel in it alone and without fear Deut. 33. That is undefiled with admiration of Nations which ascribe to that chief right of election what we handled in the former Chapter in which God set aside the Jews for a peculiar people and Nation out of all the peoples and Nations of the earth whom being chosen for his portion and the lot of his Inheritance he likewise placed in a choice Land that they might inhabite it alone without fear TERRAE SANCTAE DELINEATIO CHAP. IV. Jerusalem the holy City of the holy Land the Temple placed in Jerusalem on the forked hill of Sion Eternal hills The City of David The City of the great King Of the Kings of the Jews JErusalem which was chief of the Cities of the Holy Land in greatness and
original of the Jews out of Genesis The Gentiles were created in that creation which is mentioned Chap. 1. All creatures and all men male and female were created on the sixth day of the creation as plants trees and fleeing fowls upon their own days through all the world Why upon that day one man and he alone from whom all should arise was not created BUt go to that I may leave nothing un-essay'd that may conduce to the clearing of this famous Argument I 'll prove out of Genesis it self that the Gentiles are different in stock from he Jews which being understood it shall appear â—leares thâ—n the Suâ— That 〈◊〉 of the first But indeed to read that which â—erlwaded by your Ottinâ—onâ— of 〈…〉 with superstition you dare nor will not understand is not to read it Hereâ—â—en 〈◊〉 of such Pâ—itâ—â— as in holy mysteries is entertained and betake my self to that Faith which is the Sister of a good Understanding and which loves right Reâ—son Henâ—e then those ill contriv'd and ill hanging together miracles which such fain to themselves who use to have their recourse to needless Faith and the power of God not necessary in such cases when there own reason is weak This they gain that without choice believing every thing no body believes them in any thing for where reason is absolutely weakened there Faith is quite destroyed especially in those things where there is a natural rational or historical connexion such as are related in the first Chapter of Genesis of the Creation of the first men of the framing of Adam and of the framing of Eve his Wife as also of Cain and Abel brothers the chief heads of which I shall only touch here It is clear then from the beginning of Genesit in that sixth day wherein the earth brought forth all Creatures That God upon the same day 〈◊〉 man and created the male and femal◠〈…〉 Oenesis speaks here of the species 〈…〉 them and relates the individuals Mate and Pemale he declares that every Male was created with the Female for the Male and Female are taken for one man for he manifests that without interruption and by one action and the same tenour of creation man were created by God Male and Female they two being one man but Genesis called that one man being Male and Female Adam for if the Scripture at any time has occasion to mention one man indifferently or all mankinde it uses to express them all in the same word by the proper name of Adam Moreover for the same reason as the earth brought forth grass and trees and all things were enlivened I say as all things were created according to their own species and in their own dayes in the self-same progressive Creation upon the whole earth whether known to our Fore-fathers or but lately or not yet known According to the same Analogy of Creation we must believe that men were made by God Male and Female in one day with an uninterrupted Creation and upon the whole earth and that there was no place in the whole earth which brought forth grass fostered trees cattel which before the sixth and last day of the absolute Creation had not its own men and its own Lords Besides these things were certainly created to serve man their Lord speaking in specie or men their Lords mentioning the individuals and God would have seem'd to have created something in vain inconvenient if upon that same day when he ordained these things for the service of men he had not created men at the same time who had either used them or might have used them wheresoever they were But if we affirm Adam to be the first and the onely man by whom afterwards the colonies of men were drawn out and dispersed over the earth to what purpose in that vast space of time in which the whole earth must needs receive its people from one man I say to what purpose should the Countries of Mesopotamia the Antipodes bring forth grass and herbs for what Lords use should the fruit have hung upon the trees in those Countries the cattel of them whom should they have helped being meerly created for that purpose to help men for either in that long space of time you must confess that they were created in vain or created to an use that God had never appointed them for or else that men were there created to make use of them The world was created in the beginning every way perfectly adorned every way perfectly good every way perfectly fair But the World had been created in the beginning every way without ornament every way imperfect in fairness every way imperfect in goodness which is a sin to think if all the places in the earth had at first wanted their own men The earth had been deformed if it had wanted grass trees and creatures but they had been absolutely deformed indeed if they had wanted at the beginning their comliness and ornament their men for whom the earth was created and all that therein is and if the ground had wanted Tillers as it requires What was the intention of God in the Creation of the world is found by God's Decree in the preservation and Government of the World It is written Exod. 23. That God when he led Israel out of Egypt to lead them into the Land of Canaan did thus provide for him I will not throw on t the people of the Land of Canaan before thy face least the Land become waste and wild beasts multiply against thee I will by little and little drive them out of thy sight till thou be encreased and possess the Land That is likewise written in Deut. 7. these words The Lord shall consume these Nations in thy sight by little and little thou canst not overthrow them at once least the wilde beasts encrease against thee Here is a two-fold condition why God would not in one year and at one push throw out all the Nations of the Land of Canaan in whose place he was to settle the Jews The first was because he would not have that earth which he was about to bless to become ugly and ill-favoured for there is horror not comliness in desolation yea solitariness is a mark of cursing Therefore did the Prophet weep when she was cursed Why dost thou sit a solitary City that was full of people And afterwards All the comliness of Sion is departed from her her Princes her young men and her virgins are gone into captivity And Isaiah ch 64. The city of the holy one is laid waste Jerusalem is desolate The second caution was Lest the Beasts should grow and multiply in Canaan against the people of God The first caution was for comliness the second for security God would not as hâ— might easily have done quite destroy the Nations of Canaan but drive them out by little and little till the people of the Jews might encrease and that Land might have its ful number of its own men
who was the first Father of the Jews which Cain was not able to doe because Adam had as yet begotten no daughters He must marry a wife of the daughters of the Gentiles who was sprung from the men of the first creation That wicked brother-killer degenerated from his own stock and grafted himself into the prophane Nation Cain comming to this East-quarter of Eden built a City and called the name of it according to the name of his son Enoch to distinguish it from other Cities of the East of Eden which had likewise their own names But with what Workmen and Carpenters did Caiâ— build this City Of what Citizens was it made up If he had no other Workmen but from his Fathers house no other Colonie but what came from thence to inhabite his City Adam then had no children Abel was kill'd Cain fled And Adam then being one hundred and thirty years old begat Seth whom so soon as Eve had born Adam said God has given me another seed for Abel whom Cain slew By which words it is manifest that Adam had no seed instead of Abel til the hundred and thirtieth year of his age At which time Cain had married his Wife and built his City Genesis sayes beside And the days of Adam after he begot Seth were eight hundred years and he begat sons and daughters Which without doubt he would have spoken concerning the time betwixt Seth and Abel if Adam had in that time begotten any sons or daughters But because in that time he neither begat sons not daughters it is said after he had begotten Seth God hath given me another seed for Abel whom Cain killed that is Seth is come in the place of Abel who is dead CHAP. V. The Gentiles prov'd different from the Jews out of the monuments of the Gentiles and from the stock of Adam The argument of eternitie divided into two classes by the antients Of time Of the bundles of years which the Chaldaeans had made up Of the Periodical year Of the returning and great year Years signified by Serpents Of the cave of age decipher'd by Claudian Of the age of ages VVE have seen that the Gentiles in their kind and affection to their kind were opposite to the Jewes were begotten of another â—ock than the Jews and also call'd and esteem'd strangers by the Jews themselves We have seen the Gentiles the first men that were Gen. Chap. 1. created with the Sun and Moon which deteâ—minate beginning is unknown to all men On the other side we have seen Adam from whom the Nation of the Jews is deriv'd created apart from those first men created in the first Chapter and from the men of the first creation We have seen Eve his Wife created after a discontinuance of his creation and not upon the same day We have seen Cain a tiller of the ground and Abel a keeper of sheep Two brothers undertaking several tasks undergoing divers duties found out and established by custom Abel slain by Cains when they were gone forth slain in the field to hide it from men and the concourse of people We have seen Cain afrighted for the slaughter of his brother fearing the men of his own time that is his Judges Flying from his own Countrey and a Captain of Thieves in a strange Nation marrying a Wife building a City nor a City without a name but with such a name as was signal from his first-born Enoch Which that I may the more clearly illustrate we have seen Adam and Eve otherways created by God than the Gentiles were created and the men of the first creation We have seen Cain banish'd from the house of his Father Adam and the Family of God a renegado to the remote and strange Gentiles Lastly we have seen out of Genesis and out of other choice places of both the Testaments thâ— multitudes of proofs by which it is abundantâ— prov'd that the Gentiles are different from Adam and from the Jews of his posterity But because it is said That arguments joyn'd are more strong we desire to joyn to these arguments of Scripture those monuments which are a great many of the creation of the world and the first men whom the most antient and best-esteemed Philosophers and Historians have delivered to have been many ages ago And those which argued concerning the world were distributed into two Classes One was of those who affirmed that the world was without beginning and ending that it was from eternity and should remain to eternity Others disputed that the world had a beginning and should have an end but both granted that the beginning and ending of it were neither of them known They that said that the world was eternal believ'd that there was a God who was not begotten and who never should die Yea they would have God and the world to be one thing and that God had put on the world And that Jove the greatest of the Gods was the whole world a living soul compos'd of living souls and a God compos'd of gods as of his parts For they made the parts of the world of the number of eternal Gods for there were eternal Gods to wit the Sun and Moon and the rest of the stars which were in continual motion and which had no beginning nor ever should have an end And for this did they affirm that the Universe was eternal because if it was begotten it was begotten of nothing But that nothing could come of nothing they did imagine granted Likewise they guessed the eternity of the world by that eternal perseverance and constancy by which the world is permanent and alwayes like to it self Therefore did they say it was immutable because it was always such and should be alwayes such as it now is To which adde that of Ecclesiastes Chap. 1. What is that which was but it shall be There is nothing new under the Sun Nor can any one say Loe this is new For it hath been in the ages which have been before us And the same Sun still arising This was certainly the cause that there were Adulterers too before Helen that there were Captains before Idomeneus and Sthenelus and that Troy was taken before Agamemnon God made Eternity Eternity made the world said Mercury in Poemander Therefore God was before eternity and eternity before the world But as the Sun being the cause of the day is born with the day not before the day and as God the cause of eternity was not rather before eternity but from eternity with eternity So the eternity which made the world was not so much before the world as with the world from eternity Wherefore the same Poemander would have eternity to be in God and the world in eternity Yea he said that eternity was the soul of the world as God was the soul of eternity He said then that the world was the work of eternity that it was not made at a set time but alwayes and from eternity and since eternity never
it is said in the book of the warrs of the Lord. As he did in the red sea so shall he do in the brooks of Arnon But that Book of the Wars of the Lord could not be cited by Moses in which there could be mention made of those things which were done at Arnon in the very place where Moses perform'd this exploit Truly I believe that Moses made a Diarie of all those wonderfull things which God did for the people of Israel under the conduct of Moses From which collections the books of the wars of the Lord might afterwards be taken Which for that cause was neither the Original nor the Original of the Original but indeed a Copy from a Copy That which we read in the third Chapter of Dentronomy does manifest that they are written long after Moses Jair the son of Manasses possessed all the Country of Argob and it is call'd after his name Basan Hanoch Jair to this day Moses could never have said to this day For Jair scarcely had possession of his own Villages at that time when Moses is brought in so speaking And hence it manifestly appears that the author intended to shew whence according to the most antient and first original that City was call'd Jair deriving the cause from Moses to his own time and therfore as was fit call'd it Jair from that antient Jair unto this day The like we read in the same Deuteronomy in the same Chapter Only Og King of Basan was remaining of the race of the Giants His iron bed is shown which is at Rabbath of the children of Ammon For what needed Moses to have said to the Jews that his bed was shown at Rabbath of the children of Ammon that they might learn the bignesse of the Giant Why I say needed he to send the Jews to another place to see the bed of the Giant who had seen him in his own Land and overcome him and measur'd him as he lay along in the fields of Basan It is a great deal more likely to think that this Writer to gain credit to what he wrote concerning the King and Giant Ogâ— of whom he made mention spake of his iron bed as a testimony of the wonderfull spoils of that terrible Giant which were not at that time to be seen at Basan where Og lay but in Rabbath of the children of Ammon the succession of ages having changed the place We read also in the 2. of Deuteronomy The Horraeans first dwelt in Seir whom the children of Esau driving out dwelt there as Israel did in the Land of his possession which the Lord gave him In these words it is said That the Idumeans who are the Sons of Esau inhabited Mount Seir driving out the Inhabitants of those Mountains And that the Jews again inhabited this Mount Seir and gain'd Mount Seir as a possession driving out and destroying those Idumaeans Yet it is most certain that the Idumaeans according to Moses himself were not thrown out in his time as it is in Deutronomy in the same Chapter And the Lord said to me saith Moses You shall pass through the confines of your brethren the sons of Esau who dwell in Seir and they shall be afraid of you Therefore take heed you move not against them for I will not give you of their Land one foot for I have given Mount Seir in possession to Esau Therefore Idumaea was not given to the Jews in the dayes of Moses but long time after as David Prophesies Psalm 108. Over Edom will I cast out my shooe that is I will extend my possession over Idumaea For possession is taken by setting down of the foot and the shoe in this place is the foot the thing containing for that which is contained And David made also good his prophecie 1 Chro. chap. 18. where we read that David consecrated silver and gold Which he had taken from 〈◊〉 Nations Edom Moab and Ammon And befides in the same place Abishai the son of Zervia smtoe Edom in the valley of salt eighteen thousand and put a Garrison in Edom that Edom might serve David Therefore in the time of Davâ—d and not of Moses Edom became a land of possession to Israel as God had promis'd as being a lot and part of the Holy Land And hence it is gather'd that these essayes of Deutronomie were written long after Davids time a great while after Moses I need not trouble the Reader much further to prove a thing in it self sufficiently evident that the five first books of the Bible were not written by Moses as is thought Nor need any one wonder after this when he reads many things confus'd and out of order obscure deficient many things omitted and misplaced when they shall consider with themselves that they are a heap of Copie confusedly taken Those things which we read concerning Lamech Gen. 4. are defective Because I have slain a man to my hurt and a young man to my grief For there is no mention made of that young man whom Lamech slew That History which is related in the fourth book of Moses concerning the circumcision of the son of Moses is desicient and is conjectur'd to be deficient because we see clearly what it should be The The 20 Chapter of Genesis of Abrahams sojourning with Abimelech King of Gerar is misplaced For it is not likely that the King would lust after Sarah who was an old woman and with whom it left off to be according to the manner of women and who was not capable of pleasure As also Genesis 26. the same is to be thought of Rebecca Nor must we think that the King was then in love with Rebecca Jacob and Esau being thâ—n of age That which we read in the 10 of Deuteronomy is misplac'd The Children of Israel remov'd their camp from Beeroth of the sons of Jacan where Aaron dyed And in the same place He separated the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of the Covenant Though long before the death of Aaron the Levites were seperated to look to the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant according to Gods command often iterated both in Leviticus and Numbers Yea whilst Aaron himself was alive yea still after that the Tabernacle was perfected the Levites carried the Ark as often as the Children of Israel remoâ—ed their Camp And if the Reader will take pains let him but run over this tenth Chapter of Deut. and he shall find the death of Aaron preposterously inserted in that Narration having nothing there to do and nothing beâ—onging to the buâ—nesse Yea he shall find it contrary to the computation of time whilst they were talking of the delivery of the Law of Sinai long before Aarons death You shall likewise find that passage in the 18 of Exodus misplaced And Jethro came the Father-in-law of Moses and his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped by Joâ—dan For how could Jethro come to Moses hiâ— son-in-law after the going