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
Chanel and easily commanded themselves to be corrupted Little they cared for any right way of living right or wrong good or bad they saw nothing but what pleased their own fancies and gave themselves the Liberty of all manner of sin Men fell through their own wickedness and that I may speak with Jeremiah Chapter 28. They gave free reigns to their own disposition as horses furiously rushing to the battel Men returned for this reason to their own inclination because in the first Creation it being only corrected and amended and the vitiousness of it not quite weeded out in the framing of man and the nature of him it was alwayes in possibility not being quite taken away to return into it self But whatsoever was good in man by the correcting of his faultiness or any perfection which he had by his Creation was quite lost in men being enslaved to their own wills but what was evil in their clay and composition still remained The uprightness of men perished and their sin defaced them being so well created And the fault which was left in their creation and not quite rooted out in the first creation of man was a leven in their hearts more powerfull than their Creation by which they were altogether swelled and depraved Besides those things are stronger which move us inwardly than those things which work upon us outwardly The perfection of the Creation of Men flowed from God and happened to man externally as a thing different nay quite contrary to the flesh and matter of men On the contrary the faultiness of the clay and composition cleaved to them more inwardly as a thing proper and natural to Men. Therefore men returned to their nature because they did according to their own disposition which was shown them from within As also because the faultiness of their inward nature did more strongly move them than the perfection of their creation outwardly conferred upon them yea because the flesh and matter of man was reprobate Earth the Mother of good seed and the Mother of ill weeds The step-mother of all Vertues which God in his creation had sown in the hearts of men and the mother of all Vices which naturally spring in them as in their native soyl and which like watred Herbs grow most plentifully The cursed step-mother hates her Sons-in-Law but like a very loving mother embraces and fosters her Children Hence it happened that nature and the flesh of man refused that tryed and choyce seed of perfection with which they were created and that by the same nature it returned again into it self when it found liberty And that in this regard it was far easier to do evil than good From thence the heart of man was over-run with the briers and thorns of all maner of Vices proceeding from their clay and composition This returning of man from the perfection of their creation to the wickedness of their nature and flesh is that natural sin which we mean whether we may call it natural because it is naturally inherent to us or as St. Paul sayes Because it dwells in us Because there is a Law in the members of men leading men captive to the Law of sin which is in their members Where note the Law of natural sin fixed in the members of men or the natural Law of sin inherent in the flesh and nature of men In which sense it is to be understood 7 Chap. to the Romans Or whether that may be called a natural sin because it was a declination from that nature Law of perfection in which men were created in the beginning For which cause and most properly it might be called a sin That there remains yet some foot-steps of this perfection in the hearts of men yea that men are struck with a natural and tacit conscience of it is manifest because all those who are formed of a better and more perfect mould are naturally more averse from all sin who seem by the sent to hunt and track that perfection to which they perceive themselves created and from which they are fallen by the study of vertue In which sense the Apostle is chiefly to be understood in such places as he sayes Men naturally accuse themselves and are to themselves a Law CHAP. VI. God restor'd men created upright and turn'd backward to the wickedness of their own nature into a better estate by a second creation and lifts them up from men to be Gods Of that which is produc'd and of that which is made Of mutable and immutable Of mortal and immortal Of the Spirit which is in God and of the Spirit of the world BUt God neither despis'd nor relinquish'd men fallen off from their creation and bestain'd with their sins Nor did he so farre suffer them to be restored into the former state of full perfection as they had been perfect men in the beginning but decreed to new create them and advance their perfection above the perfection of men Men were faln headlong from the splendor of their perfection to their filthiness which is also the loathsomness of Beasts God commanded men by a second creation to pass as I may so say from men to Gods to be carried from corruption to incorruption from death to eternal life And which was the chief blessing of God to man he commanded them of wicked evil and bemyred creatures to be exalted to the perfection of his holiness and glory to which they should as with a fiery Chariot be carried by the Spirit of Regeneration Nay if we rightly weigh the councel and decree of God we shall find it his second intention to create men mortal and corruptible but his first to create them incorruptible and immortal Creation was a thing divine Regeneration was a thing more excellent and divine according to that distance of proportion by which incorruptible is preferrible to corruptible and immortal preferrible to mortal But that I may rehearse from the beginning all the business as it concerns Christian doctrine we must know that two things occur in the creation and framing things worthy observation which are not demonstrated by their causes but are aym'd at in the Scriptures and appear by their effects One which immediately flow'd from God another created by God but mediatly One produc'd another made One spiritual another animal material carnal and corporeal One permanent stable eternal another mutable subject to vanity One incorruptible which purifies another corruptible which pollutes One which favours of life another which savours of death One which is able to endure that celestial Lightning with which God thunders and which shines in his sight like gold in the fire another which God consumes with his splendor and which melting at his rayes departs into froth smoak and ashes One thing which God loves another which he disdains One which he chuses another which he rejects One which St. Paul Cor. 1. chap. 2. calls The Spirit which is of God another which the same Apostle calls in that
and many other such things as were able to tyre one who would rehearse them These antient Priests esteemed Man to be best compos'd of all creatures and therefore that he was called the Microcosm as participating of the creation of all things And therefore that some by Saturn become sullen others by Jove are mirthful some are red-colour'd by Sol others Iascivious by Venus some are cheaters by Mercury some imperfect by Luna Nay that some bray like Asses â—ome like Dogs others like Swine others ravenous like Lions some like Doves others like Serpents according to the various dispositions similitudes and sympathies of participation which men have been said to have with all things created But likewise the Scripture hath taught us that Spirits have profess'd the pleasures of men have been given to men to some lying spirits to some sleeping spirits to others spirits of giddiness then that there are cozening seducing and lying spirits it appears because Christ warns his disciples that they should trust no spirit yea and rebuk'd them because they knew not by what spirit they were led And it is likewise witnessed in the Gospel that the mother-in-law of St. Peter was troubled with a feverish spirit Who will wonder then that men being left by God after their creation in their own power and turn'd over to so many Spirits Gods and Lords who set them a work did appoint and worship so many several sorts of Gods under so many divers shapes of things created if he consider the almost innumerable affinities and sympathies which men are found to have with these Spirits Gods and Lords as also with all things created in heaven and in earth God abborr'd those Spirits and Gods fallen off from the uprightness and perfection of their creation to their own changeable condition with such an abomination as the most upright and best must needs hate that which is evil and wicked Therefore you shall hear these Gods in Scripture call'd wicked Spirits wickednesses spirits of error evil spirits and very evil spirits as in that 9th Chapter of the Judges God sent a very evil spirit betwixt Sichem and Abimelech call'd likewise vain and lying spirits curses deceitfull Idols abominations uncleannesses pollutions whorings dung the sleep and the anger of the Lord as is that in Samuel 1. chap. 26. The sleep of the Lord had fallen upon Saul and his people The sleep of the Lord is the same in this place with the evil spirit from the Lord in the 16 Chapter of the same Book where you shall read that the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him Such also is that Sam. 2. Chap. 24. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel which the first Book of the Chronicles speaking of the same thing expresses in these words And Satan rose up against Israel where Satan is the same with the anger of the Lord or anger from the Lord. As also the holy Scriptures are clear witnesses that those Spirits Gods and Lords by the Law of their creation which is changeable and corruptible are mortal and that they are condemned to eternal death where wicked and perverse men are called The sons of Belial Sam. 1. Chap. 2. As also Nabal a perverse man is branded with that name in the same book Chap. 25. As also the same son of Belial is called The sonne of death Sam. 2. Chap. 12. And in the same Book Cha. 23. the flouds of death are called the flouds of Belial where David says in his Song The pangs of death compast me about the flouds of Belial made me afraid In which places Belial is not only called mortal but mortality it self for being Prince of all Spirits which were his ministers both mortal and condâ—mned to a death from whence there is no resurrection Who will not believe that those Spirits are destined to eternal death since God himself hath said that at that latter judgement of all corruptible things they shall be condemned and cast with the Reprobates into eternal fire CHAP. VIII Men being misled by evil spirits fell from their right estate wherein they were created into the wickedness of their own nature Being restor'd by the Spirit of Regeneratinn who only proceeds from God they know God whom flesh and blood knows not They obtain holiness which they could not have in their first creation and recompence their natural death with a supernatural immortality THe Apostle deduces the stain of all sins which overthrew men chiefly from this Chap. 1 Epist to the Romans because they had left God the Creator and had given themselves over to those Gods Lords and unclean Spirits Hence their minds were blinded and given over to their own lusts were set on fire with wicked and unlawful desires contrary to nature and so receiv'd in themselves the rewards of their sin and thence open'd such a wide door to wickedness and filthiness that at last they fell into all manner of sin And as they preferr'd their own lust to the knowledge of God so on the contrary he gave them up to a reprobate sense that being men they should doe things not beseeming men Hence they became evil wicked fornicators avaricious given to lewdness full of envy and blood brawlers deceitfull despightfull whisperers back-biters hatefull to God contumelious proud arrogant inventers of wickedness disobedient to Parents foolish madd without affection truth or compassion Truly men being misled by those Spirits being thrust forward by the violence of their own appetite according to the affection and sympathie which they have with those Spirits I say men oprest with the weight of their own sin and drownd in sticking clay might have despaird of any salvation nor ever have pluckt out their feet for thence if God had not helped them and stretched out his powerful hands from heaven to draw theÌ„ thence But God was not of that mind as most men are who rid an unhappy person from his present calamity and are never sollicitous afterwards to advance their condition God dealt better and more freely with men first he wash'd them drawn out of the puddle with his own living waters then advanc'd them being now clean and white by his own free merit and lastly from their foul wallowings receiv'd them into the glory of heaven and made them partakers of divine knowledge sanctity and immortality which is in his most happy vision And this he did by vertue and force of that Spirit which is of God and who is God himself by a second and new creation out of his own free will largeness of his bounty abundance of his love and meer grace which therefore is call'd the gift of God and his only free grace Therfore let all those who desire to know themselves here make a stand and endeavour to be free in their thanks to God Let them tast and see how sweet the Lord is Let them remember by how great mercies beyond their desert he has
oblig'd mankind Let them consider that they are living souls and that such perceive not the things which are of God nor can understand those things which are ponder'd by the Spirit Cor. 2.1 That worldly wisdom is call'd Devillish by St. James Chap. 3. and opposite to divine wisdom that flesh and blood cannot discover the mysteries of God but God who is in heaven Matth. 16. Therefore let them consider with themselves how great their weakness is in knowing God That they are clouds driven with winds which as St. Peter says are carried about with the wind of every doctrine and are not constant to one God That they cannot from themselves receive the spirit of truth because they neither see him nor know him in the Gospel according to St. John Chap. 16. Nay they know not themselves That they know not the ways of the the spirit nor know how their bones were set together in their mothers womb Eccles 11. But if they understand not their own wayes how shall they understand the ways of the Lord Prov. 20. Therefore the riches of the Lord are called unsearchable by the Apostle because a man cannot conceive them Yea because he cannot comprehend them for their exceeding height and splendor Therefore let them think with themselves that of themselves they are destitute of help and means to find out God that they are blind and darkned in the knowledge of him for whom according to their desert and the words of St. Peter the obscurity of darkness should be reserv'd Let them hence take occasion to bless God so goo and so mercifull who has prevented and assisted men that knew him not and hath of his own accord offer'd himself to be known by them yea that has taught them his wayes and hath as one friend speaks to another spoken to them plainly Let them again consider how wicked the affections of their hearts are All men and all the world naturally wicked S. John 1. cap. 5. setled in the dregs of their own matter Wisd 1. That they drink fin as fishes drink water That their devices and thoughts are evil from their youth Gen. 8. that 't is by their own nature and disposition But as the Ethiopian changeth not his skin nor the Leopatd his spots because they are naturally born with him no more can men do good having learned evil evil being likewise born in them that by the help of their nature they are perverse and by their inbred wickednesse that the will of the flesh is contrary to the will of God and that therefore the wisdom of the flesh is enmity to God and is not subject nor can be made subject to the Law of God as the Apostle tells us Rom. 8. That they are hard and their necks a cord of iron which despise the uprightness of their creation and could not submit to the harsh yoke of the Divine Law Let them again remember that God is not only just and upright as men were created in the beginning just and upright but which is most high above all men that he is most holy to whom all sins are most odious abominable detestable Let them therefore extol the bounty and liberality of God who notwithstanding hath so dealt with men that he has freely come to these wicked and reprobate sinners and has not disdain'd with the kiss of Justice and Peace to breath upon them a part of his Sanctity At last let them thus think that man is rottenness and the son of man but a worm and that God hath made man in vanity that they are grass and fade like the flowers of the field yea that like Hay to which they are compar'd they are out down from morn till night That men are feeble altogether nothing that they dwell in houses of clay which have no foundation and which are consumed as with a moth that their substance is vain like stubblé which is consumed with the breath of the fire and that they at last by the sin of their corruptible nature of necessity die or which is the same that all of them drink deep of death and necessity And that their nature being as it were flax before God who is a consuming fire before whom the frame of humane nature shakes is chang'd by a miracle into that fiery nature of God himself by vertue of which they are fed with the most glorious contemplation of him And what is most glorious in men that their mortality is chang'd into immortality that they may be eternally satisfied with glory Therefore let them consider with themselves that they were created in the beginning right and perfect but only with that righteousness and perfection which is contained within the circumference of men and with such a corruptible disposition that from the top of their circle and their perfection they fell headlong into the centre of corruption and imperfection But if they being created right and perfect could not retain their righteousness and perfection how much less could they being wicked attain to those things which were above their righteousness and perfection I say above it as far as heaven is from the earth the creation from the Creator and God from man yea there was a ladder given them to climb up to heaven or swiftness of wings to flie up to God By what intellect of their own or by what cleer eye of the mind could ever they gain the knowledge of God unto whom no man can find the way and who have not the least knowledge of themselves by what disposition or nature of their own could they attain to the holiness of God who do that evil which they would not Rom. 7. By what confidence of their own or conscience of goodness could they seize upon immortality the causes of which are so far distant from them that they cannot lengthen the appointed bounds of their lives one moment or one scruple of time Let them therefore confess themselves utterly unable to compass great blessings and plac'd at such a distance from them and therefore let them more submissly and fervently worship God who has so bountifully and liberally supplyed their wants and their weakness CHAP. IX The Regeneration of men is the grace and gift of God It is not granted to all men to be regenerated but onely to the elect Election is in things natural Divine Election is in God's elect Who are elected And who are called Reprobates THerefore let us be assured of this Divine Knowledge Sanctity and Immortality of which the salvation of Man consists could never be procured for man-kinde by the force of the first Creation in which men were created perfect as being placed above Humane perfection But that these things are bestowed upon men by the meer liberality and bounty of God and that they are carried away to the possession of so great riches by the Spirit and power of Regeneration which is man's second Creation But although God as I said before did not breath that Spirit