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
those mystical ornaments and gifts with which God decks his Israelitish Bride that he might advance her from the clay of her creation to the splendour of divine glory Ezechiel Chap. 16 I cloth'd thee saith the Lord with partie-coloured garments and shod thee with shoes of violet colour and girded thee with silk and put a fine garment upon thee and deck'd thee with an ornament and put bracelets upon thine arms and a chain about thy neck And put a jewel upon thy face and rings into thine ears and a crown of comliness upon thy head and thou wast adorn'd with gold and silver and thou wast cloth'd with silk and embroydery of divers colours Thou didst eat wheat and honey and thou becamest excellently fair and rose up into a kingdom Again God restified his paternal love to the Jews when he chose them to be his Sons and did become their Father nay he grac'd his Election of them when he call'd them his honourable Sons Ephraim is my honourable son Jerem. 31. Whom he likewise nam'd Gods according to his own name O Israel I have call'd thee by my name Isai 43. According to that solemn custom by which children are called after the name of their Father Of which see the 82 Psalm I have said ye are Gods and all of you sons of the most High Which Christ himself interprets concerning the Jews in the tenth Chapter of the Gospel according to St. John The Jews were there stoning Christ because he call'd himself a God Christ reproving the Jews in that place argues with them in these words Is it not written in your Law I said you are Gods If God said that they were Gods to whom the word of God came the Scripture cannot be false He whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world you say that he blasphemes because I say I am the son of God Which you may more more easily and roundly polish thus If the Scripture O Jews call'd you Gods to whom the word of the Lord came Why should not I be call'd the Son of God who am the Word of God To this that which is written in the beginning of the same Psalm God stood in the Congregation of Gods and standing in the midst of the Gods he gives Judgement which are to be understood of the Jews For that assembly in the midst of which God is said here to stand was the Temple of God That place of the Throne of God and the place of his fooostool where he dwelt in the midst of the sons of Israel Ezechiel 43. In which Temple the Assembly and Church of the Jews was kept The Jews then were Gods and the Assembly of Gods was the Synagogue of the Jews Moreover God threatned in this Psalm those Gods and those Jews that they should die like men that is to say like the Gentiles But you shall die like men that is like the Gentiles as afterwards shall appear David tells us the reason in the beginning of this Psalm why the Jews must needs dye as well as the Gentiles because the Jews says he would judge unrighteousness and accept the face of a sinner that is to say because the Jews forgetting the Law of God would imitate the iniquity of the Gentiles because they would turn themselves to the faces of the Gentiles and transform themselves from holy Jews to be sinfull Gentiles for the Gentiles were sinners as after shall appear The Jews are called gods here inasmuch as they are the Sons of God and because Sons are said not only to bear the names of their Parents but likewise to represent their persons I say you are gods and all of you the sons of the most high The Jews were Gods most dear and best beloved Children whom God is said to carry as a man is said to carry his child Deut. 1. As also to instruct them as a man instructs his son Deut. 8. To have carried them about and to have preserv'd them as the apple of his eye Deut. 32. Which in Latin is translated to have carried them about in his eys Nor did God only love them as a Father loves his children but open'd likewise the bowels of his mercy to the Jews like tender Mothers who hugg their children close to their brests Whom he is likewise said to have carried in his womb And if the Mother would be unmindfull of her Children yet God would not be unmindful of the Jews Isay 49. What shall I say more of that frienship wherein God was pleased to joyn himself to the Jews God was joyn'd to the Jews and lov'd them Deut. 10. The seed of Abraham my friend Isay 4. As also God calls Israel his darling his child of his houshold his tender child Jeremy 3. Which that I may more nakedly and truly expound God was tyed to Israel in that bond of friendship by which the soul of Jonathan was tied to the soul of David 1 Sam. ch 18. and by such a one as God himself lov'd his belov'd Disciple Therefore was Israel call'd the chiefest lover of the Lord Deuteronom 32. God is also call'd the Shepherd of Israel and the Jews are call'd the Sheep of his Pasture We are the people of the Lords pasture and the sheep of his hands Psalm 95. Which was certainly a great sign of their Election For a good shepherd knows the number of his sheep and calls them by their names So God knows the elect and reckons their number so God led the Jews with his rod and his staff and put them in a place of pasture brought them out by the waters of comfort Psalm 23. Lastly there is no example of love paternal affection motherly dearnesse friendship and care by which he chose lov'd fed cared for and kept the Jews CHAP. 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 peoplâ— of the earth for the lot and inheritance of the Lord. THat love with which a good King is mov'd towards his people comprehends the affections of all other men For a good King is Father Pastor and Friend to his people yea head of his people as the man is the head of the woman And in that regard Ierusalem by which the people of the Jews is signified and which is call'd the City of the great King is Queen and Princesse and Bride to that King in holy Authors Therefore God is King of the Jewish people and the people of the Jews are the people of their own King And not only King but God is the God of the Jews in so far as as the Jews were Elected and themselves anointed to be Kings and insomuch as God is above all Kings as Kings are above their Subjects But God became the God of the Jews not only by Election and mind but also by Covenant and paction often confirm'd and iterated of
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
Israel is placed in the third place betwixt the Egyptians the Assyrians as also that he is a blessing in the midst of the earth that Holy earth which God is said here to have blessed Therfore we may here see the Egyptian and Assyrian placed on this side and that side according to the number of the Sons of Israel and placed neer the banks of the Tribes of the Jews That the Sons of Adam or the Jews were separated from the Egyptians and the Assyrians betwixt whom being placed they are parted from them by the Rivers Nilus and Euphraies is briefly set down in that Geographick Table which is inserted in the third Chapter of this Book Therefore the Sons of Adam are set apart in the Song of Moses The Nations divided by interposition of the Jews are the Egyptians and Assyrians Gentileâ— The Jews are called the sons of Adam upon the same account as Adam is called the father of the Jews Isaiah 43. God reproâ—ing Israel in that Chapter for their sin objects this to him Thy father sinned first Which the Prophet meant of the father of the Jews and not of the Gentiles for he spake onely to Israel and for that reason he said Thy father O Israel who was not likewise the father of the Gentiles that first father of the Jews is without doubt Adam because there was no sinner before him nor none after him can be understood But let us hear Hosea the Interpreter of Isaiah in the sixth Chapter of his Prophesie where God layes the same reproach against the Jews They sayes he have transgressed my Covenant as Adam did Adam then as he was the Father of the Jews so was he the Prototype of the Jews sin according to whose example the Jews were sinners begotten a sinful by father transgressed the Covenant of God and as Adam is the first Father of the Jews so the Jews are all the sons of Adam as likewise Adam was the son of God and derived from God Wo be to the Nations that riseth up against my kinred Judah sung when he had overcome the Nations Wo be to the Gentiles who rise up against the Jews On the contrary The Gentiles were called strangers who did not derive themselves from God and Adam to which strangers and Gentiles it was not lawful for the Jews to approach Act. 10. It is abominable to a Jew to be joynedor draw nigh to a stranger that is to a Gentile besides they were called by the Jews strangers unknown because they were aliens not onely from the Nation but family of the Jews nor were not onely received as brothers into the Holy Cities Ephes 7. The sons of strangers shall build the walls Isaiah 60. and in the 61 Chap. And strangers shall stand up and feed their cattel and the sons of strangers shall be labourers and dressers of vines Which ought to be understood of the servants of the Iews or their hirelings to which adde six hundred such which you may every where finde in holy Writers But not onely by kinred and exposition of kinred did God distinguish the Iews from the Gentiles but would have them different in the species it self He chused it for his inheritance the kinred of Iacob whom he loved Psalm 47. Where observe that the kin of the Iews is distinguished from the kin of the Gentiles whom God did neither love nor chuse for his inheritance Certainly the Philosophers make the brures a distinct species from men and with the holy Writers the species of the Iews is distinct from that of the Gentiles whom you shall every where read confusely mentioned with beasts and esteemed beasts in regard of the Iews who by excellency are called men or by a more excellent title are called the men of God You shall finde the species of the Iews peculiarly made and formed by God in Adam you shall finde the species of the Gentiles promiscuously created with the rest of the creatures in the same day of Creation which is diligently to be observed that a day did not distinguish them whom the nature of their Creation did not distinguish The Iews were properly and apart from all other things created the frame and work of the second Creation in Adam the Gentiles properly were the promiscuous buds of the first Creation together with all things else created and the off-spring of that earth which likewise brought forth other creatures Therefore did David call upon all Nations in these words Hear all you Natious hearken all you inhabitants of the earth and ye sons of men David spoke palpable to the Gentiles sons of men the Inhabitants of all the earth whom he likewise calls born upon the earth to distinguish them from the Jews who were not born upon the earth or born from the earth as the Gentiles who were not created in the beginning of things but form'd out of the clay in Adam Furthermore the Psalmist comparing here the Gentiles to foolish beasts sayes They were made like to them who like beasts were allotted to death to eternal death from which they should not return to life their graves are their houses for ever sayes the Psalm as also in the same place they shall not see light for ever likewise David distinguishes the Jews from them in the same Psalm in which he exhorts them not to fear those beasts born upon the earth who should sometime be governed by the Jews The just shall have power over them in the morning the just are the Jews of whom we spoke before that power of the Jews upon the Nations as also that morning shall be expounded in their own places This Psalm has given us a reason why the Iews ought not to fear these earth-born Gentiles of the first Creation in the words following immediately Their help shall grow old in the grave from their glory but God shall redeem my soul from hell David mixes his soul with the souls of the Iews none of the Gentiles sayes he shall redeem his soul God shall redeem the souls of the Iews when he shall receive the Iews or at such time as he shall receive the ejected Iews the Gentiles shall rise to eternal death or which is the same they shall die eternally by the fate of their Creation the Iews shall rise again to eternal life or which is the same they shall live eternally by the prerogative of their regeneration Therefore let the Jews who shall receive eternal life little regard the Gentiles destind to eternal death So farre were the Gentiles different in relation and kindred from the Jews as those divers species of creatures in unknown Countries are from those which we know so likewise were there more Nations unknown to the Jews than were known that is to say in those Countries which the Jews knew not Nor were these Nations only unknown to the Jews but likewise to their Fathers I say to their Fathers who were deriv'd from Adam Which God having a regard to threatens the Jews
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
inconvenient to joyn Strabo to Plato in his third Book of Geographie where he relates this of the Turdetans the Inhabitants of Spain These sayes he are held the most learned amongst all the Spaniards they use Grammar and have their monuments of Antiquitie written and Poems and Laws in Verse for six thousand years as they say The Turdetans then had their Laws long before the floud if in the days of Strabo they had then written six thousand years which they being themselves in that deluge untouch'd kept likewise untouch'd for the space of six thousand years continually and us'd and observ'd them Scaliger likewise thinks that the first Olympiad was celebrated in the year of the world 3074 and that the destruction of Troy was four hundred and eight years or thereabouts before the first Olympiad And Servius has observ'd upon that Verse of Virgils Th' old Cities sack'd reign'd in for many years Ancient sayes he or noble because it is said to have reigned two thousand eight hundred years The beginning then of the Kingdom of Troy must be before the beginning of the world and if Troy was rul'd in for two thousand and eight hundred years Phrygia as also Spain must be said to be freed from the floud of Noah Which you may also think of India which Father Liber first enter'd From him says Solinus in his 25 Chap. unto Alexander the great there are reckon'd six thousand four hundred and fifty years and three moneths over accounting it by the Kings who are said in his time a hundred and fifty three of them to have liv'd Salmasius the restorer of Pliny in Solinus and the disperser of his errours sets down this number in Pliny Besides the same Scaliger is author that Semiramis was before the destruction of Troy and places her in the first age after the Floud and sayes that Sanchoniato liv'd in her time and makes Iombal more antient than Sanchoniato and sayes that Sanchoniato receiv'd many things from Iombal out of Porphyrius And Eusebius relates that Sanchoniato met with some reserv'd pieces or volumes of the Ammonites which he took out of the Repositorie of the Church where they had lain But how can such stories agree with the time of Noahs floud To this add that neither Sanchoniato nor Iombal antienter than he are reckon'd amongst the sons of Noah And it must needs be that those volumes lay without the Ark and were preserv'd on which Sanchoniato lighted as Eusebius says Here to reckon those things which I set out before more at large That is an inconsistent time which is reckon'd from Adam to Abraham the Chaldaean or to Moses the Egyptian and it is unadviâ—edly set down to be sufficient to gain the knowledge of those arts which Abraham and Moses were exact in But certainly the time 'twixt Noahs floud and Abraham would be likewise a great deal more incompetent if according to the same inconsideratenesse it should be proportioned as sufficient for the attainment of the forementioned disciplines especially Astronomy Theology and Magick The which that they did flourish in the time of Abraham is evidently prov'd because Vr of the Chaldees is call'd by Eusebius Camarina and Camarina is the same with the City of the Chaldaeans And the Camarini were call'd Chaldaeans aswell as Astrologers and Magicians For the name of the Chaldaeans was a token of Nation and Art It is likewise written of the Camarinian Magicians that they raise Leviathan who is the Devil That there is a land and water Leviathan is certain or which is as much that there are land and water Devils â—rom whom Philippus Codurcus a learned man and â—ell skillâ—â— in the Hebrew imagined that those Spirits which we in our mother tongue call Luithons or Luthins have taken their derivation To think that these Theorems of Magick or spels hatefull to God were kept in the Ark that they might not be lost in the floud were a wickedness to believe But to say that the art was invented or repaired betwixt the floud and Abraham were impossible to prove as other things are CHAP. X. Of Eternity before Eternity Of Eternity from Eternity THose who think that the floud of Noah was over all Nations erre much in the ordering of all actions and dispensing of them since that time They are likewise very much deceiv'd in the ordering and dispensing of all actions since the beginning of the world who affirm that the world was made with Adam They have streightned the beginning and the ending in such narrow bounds that it cannot by any means fit to so small room which is read of the world created from eternity and which shall endure to eternity I need not say amongst Historians and Philophers who were Gentiâ—es but likewise amongst the Prophets and Apostles But indeed that little space of time to which they limit the things past and things to come those two eternities how well does it accord with that expression of the short garment in Isay Chapter 4â—28 A short garment sayes he cannot cover both It is written I confesse That God created the heaven and the earth in the beginning That I dare boldly affirm we know not that beginning I know there is a setled number of the stars in heaven there is a determinate number of the grains of sand in the Sea shore But I think to make up a sum of all those stars all those grains all those ages which have bin from the beginning is without the compasse of all Arithmetick and humane account In these numbers there is no number nor need we to comprehend the number of them It is enough that God doth know the number of the stars which he created The times are not hidden from the Almighty Moreover I find two several acceptions of eternity in the holy Scripture The first is by which God is call'd eternal before time and before all things created Another by which eternity is bounded by ages and the beginning of the creation These two â—gnifications of eternity are both together comprehended in that place of the Proverbs where Wisdom is brought in speaking after this manner God possess'd me from the beginning of his wayes before he made any thing Or according to others I had a rule from eternity from the head from the beginnings of the earth or from the creation of the world There appears here a two-fold beginning one before time and before the creation of the earth one from ages from the beginnings of the earth or since the creation of the world The first is distinguished from the second because in the first God is only said to have possessed wisdom in the second place to have ordain'd and install'd her to have a rule over all things created Both beginnings then are eternal but the first antientest The first beginning was eternal by its self eternal before eternity The second begining was eternal in regard of us since our understanstanding cannot reach its number St. Paul hath most clearly