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
upon all things created but gave it particularly to men Neither hath he yet given that Spirit to all men by vertue of which they may know God as he is by the essicacies of which all men may be holy as God is holy by whose power lastly all men may gain eternal life which is Divine immortality Yea God has onely imparted that Spirit to elected men whom he has advanced from the degree and rank of men to the highest rank and degree above all men whom he had adorned with his Divine Gifts with his Knowledge and Holiness and taken them into his fellowship as Gods so that most truely and fitly we may say of this that God who is the Lord of all things yet is the God of very few and only of the Elect. Election is in all things created Things that have a living soul are more elect than those which have not Then of things animated sensitives As also in stones and metals one stone in better than another one metal better than another There is also elected earth and reprobate earth The choiceness is in choicer flowers both for colour and smell The Cedar is more choice than the shurb the true than the wild vine and the pleasant fruits of Trees are sweeter than the wilde ones Among Creatures Lions excel in strength Harts in swiftness Lambs in mildness Amongst Birds Nightingals excel for singing the Eagle for flight As likewise of the flesh of beasts and birds some make choicer dishes than others What shall I say of men Some are more commendable for the gallantry of their integrity some higher spirited than others fairer more noble more fortunate in honour and riches others more excellent in the study of Vertue in cleerness of wit and knowledge of things There is likewise an election in life and permanency of things Some things quickly grow and quickly fade The Crow lives nine times the just age of a Man The Hart lives four times the life of the Crow The Rook lives thrice the life of the Hart. The Phenix lives nine times the Rook's life And if we believe the most ancient Traditions before Hesiod's times The Hamadryades lives ten times longer than the Phoenix To these adde if you please the life or duration of Heaven and Earth and that eviternal Marriage by which the Heaven descends into the lap of the Earth and by which the Earth fructifies with continual Buds towards Heaven and the order of the Stars surrounding the Heaven from aeternity as also the unwearied motions of the Sun and Moon by which they are inceslantly mov'd and by which eviternity it self is accounted But the Divine Election is not in all these created things I say that Election by which God did elect to himself all men which is not of kin or blood with the first Creation which surpasses all kinde of things created and is infinitely above them and which is the Election of Regeneration that is of the second Creation not of the first Certainly if there be any thing in the first Creation either exquisite precious or choice delicate strong high or fair or noble or fortunate or abstruse in wisdom or long in continuance of permanency and life That is in the second Creation much more exquisite beyond exquisitness far more precious beyond preciousness far more choice beyond choiceness far more delicate beyond dalicateness far more strong beyond strength far more fair beyond fairness far more noble beyond nobility far more fortunate beyond fortune far more wise beyond wisdom far more permanent beyond permanency But of this we must hear Baruch Chap. 3. of his Book Where are sayes he the Princes of the Nations that have Dominion over the Beasts of the Earth who treasure up silver and gold wherein men trust they are rooted out the sons of Agar have sought for wisdom which is of the Earth idle speakers and seekers out of understanding They were those which from the beginning were called Giants men of great stature great warriours Those the Lord hath not chosen He sayes The Election of God was not towards Kings and Princes of Nations not towards learned Men and excellent in humane wisdom not towards the Rich and Noble not towards the strong and the Renowned those famous Thunderbolts of War because they fulfilled that Law of Nature and their first Creation by which all men are born and created to die and attained not to that Eternal Life which consisted in the power of Divine Election and the vertue of the second Creation God is said to chuse and to take to himself those whom he intends to frame a-new and to new create them to whom he made manifest and discovered himself whom he has gifted with his sanctity whom he has made partakers of his immortality and Life Eternal and whom from Men he advanced to be Gods Moreover God is said to reject those and to cast them out whom he is pleased to create but not to regenerate into whose hearts he has not shined whom he suffers to live defiled with the pollution and wickedness of their flesh whom being subject to the power of Death he has not redeemd from Death and whom he suffers not to savour any thing above man Not to elect signifies to reject and cast out which is common in sacred Authors Samuel comming into the house of Jesse that he might anoint one of them whom he knew not King over Israel as soon as he saw Eliab Jesse's first-born in whose countenance was a royal majestie straight he believ'd that he had been chosen by God But God admonishes Samuel Look not upon the countenance of Eliab for I have rejected him Sam. 1. Chap. 16. I have rejected him is in that place directly I have not chosen him This will more clearly appear by the Gospel of St. Matthew Chap. 24. concerning the judgement of the Elected and Reprobate which shall be in the day of the Lord Then sayes the Evangelist one shall be taken another left shall be left in that place is cleerly the same which is cast off and rejected Thus prayed Solomon 1 Kings 8. Let our God be with us not leaving us nor casting us off but enclining our hearts towards him where observe first to leave and reject with the most wise Prince are the same Mark secondly That God enclines the heart of man which again when he does not encline he is said to harden as also to hate when he does not love As that is to be understood I have loved Jacob and hated Esau Lastly that is a remarkable place in the Prophet Jeremy where he brings in God threatning destruction to the Jews I will sayes the Lord turn my back and not my face to them in the day of their destruction There to turn his back to the Jews is to fight against them to leave forsake and fly from the Jews is to overthrow cast them down and destroy them Men therefore rejected and reprobate are properly such who are left by God
things flow'd from that beginning which is the beginning of their knowledge and are content to remit that alone to posterity So Plato To this adde the length of time which changes and consumes all things from whole devoâ—ring jaws the Egyptians could not rescue themselves For they though they show'd abundance of ancient monuments both of their own and other Nations had notwithstanding lost the Annals of their King God Vulcan and of the Sun his son To these deluges fires and devouring times add that grosse ignorance which in several ages hath orerun the whole world more powerfull than fire than water than time it self which hath swallowed blotted out and defaced the memory of things past To this add the wickked dispositions of many men and the hatefull desires of Princes as that of Nabonassar the Chaldaean from whom to the death of Alexander there were four hundred twenty four years He caus'd the deeds of all Kings before him to be abolish'd that a new beginning of all affairs and Kings might begin its computation from himself whence the date of Nabonassar was deriv'd Alvarez a Samedo in his History of China relates That a certain King call'd Tein commanded by a Proclamation to burn all the Books of the Chinensians except Physick-books and was so carefull in bringing an utter destruction for 40 years that he reigned that he utterly overthrew all learned men and all learning in his own age As that was likewise the ambition of vanquishing Princes which so much alter'd the computation of time when they chang'd the Epoche and would have the times nam'd by their names Hence those known Periods from the death of Alexander of Augustus from the fight of Actium and that which was call'd the Epoche of Dioclesian The antient Aegyptians renew'd the intervals of their years as often as they receiv'd new Lawes from new Kings and new Conquerours Which Scaliger in his Book De emendatione Temporum sayes they did very frequently We must needs imagine that all climates of the world have been diversly ruin'd but successively and by turns not all with one push or at one time That those men who were in their own land too numerous behov'd to make up their losses That by divers chances and fortunes mankind hath been toss'd hither and thither nor could not alwayes continue in the same stations Hence it is that no Land could ever boast it self of its Aboriginals that is to say of those men who were first created in it who in the first spring of the Creation came forth every where out of the earth And hence it is that I trust neither Aegyptian Scythian nor Aethiopians calling themselves Aboriginalls and the most antient of Nations The Christian Fathers who liv'd in the next age to Christ whom its fit we call the sons of light as they were not wiser than the sons of this world in their generations so were not they more diligent or provident than they in the enquiry of those generations They were wiâ—e in those things which belong'd to heaven and the second creation they neglected such things as were of the earth and the first creation And as they adhered to the reading of the holy Scriptures they very well rejected the fables of the pedigrees of the Gentiles who thought themselves Aboriginals But on the other side too negligently by their leave they rested upon Adam and thought him alone the first parent of all men because he is read the first in Moses The same negligence which possessed the first pursued the successive Doctors of the Church who knew no other men but such as were begotten by Adam Yea they pronounced them Hereticks that plac'd the Antipodes over against Adams posterity because they must then think them the posterity of some body else I would St. Augustine and Lactantius were now alive who scoff'd at the Antipodes Truly they would pity themselves if they should hear or see those things which are discover'd in the East and West Indies in this clear-sighted age as also a great many other Countries full of men to which it is certain none of Adams posterity ever arived CHAP. XIV They are deceiv'd who deduce the Originals of men from the Grand-children of Noah Grotius concerning the Original of the Nations in America confuted IT is the manner of all men who search out the Originals of Nations to derive them after the flood from the Grandchildren of Noah who were the Grandchildren of Adam And great men are so earnest in this whom I very much prise and have in continual respect for them that they cut out all their originals out of this block And either from some antient record or some old tradition or the similitude of some old and obsolete name or from any other conjecture Some they imagine that landed at such or such a place to have been the authors or fathers of such a Nation As if Italus who fled for example into Italy and gave a name to that Countrey had been the father and author of all the Italians and that Nation had had no Inhabitants before Italus As if the Francks should be thought the authors and first founders of all the French Nation and that there had been no Frenchmen before the Franks because the Franks seiz'd upon France and chang'd the name of the Province and of Gallia made it Francia Must needs Peru be thought to have had their Original from the Chinensians because a piece of a broken boat like those of the Chinensians was found on the banks of Peru Those who guesse so seem to me to be like that two-peny Doctor who told the sick man he had eaten an Asse because he saw the dorsers standing under the bed Hugo Grotius sets out a discourse of the Originals of the Nations of America whom he derives from the Norwegians who eight hundred years ago were carried to Island and went from thence to Greenland and so from Greenland through the Lands adjoyning he conjectur'd got to the South parts of America Laetius did confute the conjecture of Grotius Grotius vindicates himself from Laetius and those things which in him Laetius had confuted he by this absurdity resolv'd to restore But sayes he if the Americans are not Germans the Norwegians and Germans were with him all one now they shall be the Off-spring of no Nation which is as much as to believe with Aristotle that they were from eternity or born of the earth as is reported of the Spartans or of the Ocean according to Homer or that there were some men before Adam as one in France lately dream'd If such things sayes he be believ'd I see a great danger imminent to Religion Grotius had â—â—ittle before read a little discourse of the Prae-Adamices undigested and about to be revis'd which he under colour of friendship by an acquaintance had requir'd of me which I friendly did communicate to him not that he should abuse me Nor do I desire to make return or speak ill of the