Body was made of Adamah red fat Earth of which God produced not an Image but a Body of Flesh Blood and Bones in the Form it now has And though Nature and Experience assure our Mortality and that our Bodies are but Anviles of Pains and Diseases and our Minds but Hives of innumerable Cares Sorrows and Passions and that our greatest Glories are but painted Posts for Envy to cast her Darts at yet our unhappy Condition and darkness of Understanding is such that we only esteem this Slave of Death and only at idle Hours remember the immortal imprison'd Soul the everlasting Subject of Reward or Punishment This we never think on while one Vanity is left us We plead for Titles till our Breath fails us Dig for Riches 'till Strength be spent and exercise Malice while we are able to Revenge And then when time has depriv'd us both of Youth Pleasure and Health and Nature her self hates the House of her old Age we remember with Iob we must go whence we shall not return and that our Bed is made ready for us in the Dark Then we look too late into the bottom of our Conscience and behold the fearful Image of past Actions with this terrible Inscription God will bring every work to Iudgment Let us therefore not flatter our selves wilfully to offend God in hope easily to make our peace at the last which is a Rebellious Presumption and Deriding the dreadful God that can ruin us eternally § 4. To this corruptible Body God gave a Soul spiritual and incorruptible which shall again return to him as the body to the Earth The Soul's Immortality is manifest comparing the manner of the Creation of other things with it Gen. 1.20 24. with v. 26. cap. 2.7 Man thus Compounded became a Model of the Universe having a Rational Soul with ability fit for the Government of the World an Intellectual Soul common with Angels and Sensitive with Beasts thus he became a little World in the Great in whom all Natures were bound up together our Flesh is heavy like Earth our Bones hard as Stones our Veins as the Rivers Breath as the Air Natural Heat like the warmth inclosed in the Earth which the Sun stirreth up in procreation Radical moisture which feeds that Natural Heat is as the fatness in the Earth our Hairs as Grass our Generative Power is as Nature which produceth our Determinations like wandring Clouds our Eyes like the Lights in Heaven our Youth like the Spring our setled Age like the Summer declining like Autumn and old Age like Winter our Thoughts are the motions of Angels our pure Vnderstanding like the Intellectual Natures always present with God and the habitual Holiness and Righteousness of our Immortal Soul was the Image of God as a shadow may be like the substance Man's Four Complexions like the Four Elements and his Seven Ages like the Seven Planets Our Infancy is like the Moon in which it seemeth only to grow as Planets in our next Age we are instructed as under Mercury always near the Sun Our Youth is wanton and given to pleasures as Venus our Fourth Age Strong Vigorous and Flourishing is like the Sun Our Fifth Age like Mars striving for Honour our Sixth like Iupiter Wise and stayed our Seventh like Saturn slow and heavy when by irrecoverable loss we see that of all our vain Passions and Affections the Sorrow only remains and our Attendants are various Infirmities and Diseases of which many are the remainders of former Follies and Excesses and if Riches yet continue with us the more our Plenty is the more greedily is our End wish'd for we being now of no other use but to detain our Riches from our Successors and being made unsociable to others we become a burthen to our selves Now and never before we think upon our Eternal Habitation to which place we pass with many sighs groans and doleful thoughts and in the end by Death we finish the sorrowful Business of a wretched Life toward which we have been always travelling sleeping and waking and by what crooked Paths soever we have walked yet it led us the straight way to the gate of Death Neither can beloved Companions or rather our Gods Riches or Honour stay us one hour from entring that all-devouring Dungeon of Death which is not yet satisfy'd with all those past Generations but still cries all Flesh is grass 'till it have consumed all Thus the Tyde of Man's Life once declining makes a perpetual Ebb never to return hither and his Leaf fallen shall never spring again § 6. Our Parents having one Prohibition for trial of Obedience would need extend their freedom of Will to that and so brought all Mankind into endless Misery § 7. God on the Seventh Day ceased to Create more Kinds having perfected those he intended and endued with Generative Power such as should continue by Generation CHAP. III. Of Paradise and many Opinions about it § 1. PAradise the first Habitation of Adam Eastward in Eden about which Mens Opinions are as various as the Persons that Disputed it and many imbibe gross Errors led by the Authority of great Men wherein many Fathers were far wide as it is the Fate of all Men to err neither has any Man knowledge of all things § 2. Many held Paradise in Moses Allegorical only as Origen Philo and Ambrose lean'd to that Opinion so did Strabus Rabanus Beda Commestor Chrysamensis and Luther thought it not extant though it was formerly Vadianus Noviomagus held it the whole Earth Tertul. Bonaventure and Durand place it under the Equinoctial Postellus under the N. Pole § 3. Paradise by Moses's description was a Place on Earth in Eden a Country Eastward so called for the Pleasantness thereof as in America a Country is called Florida Here the vulgar Translation is mistaken in interpreting it a Paradise of Pleasure from the beginning This situation of Paradise in the East occasion'd the praying and setting Churches to the East contrary to the standing of Solomon's Temple and the Priest turning to the West yet God is every where neither is any Mystery in the word Eastward but the place stood so from Canaan Moses's whole description proves it an Earthly place and Ezechiel witnesseth Eden was a Country near Charan So Adam's actions and end of placing in it prove no less against those vain Allegories of Scripture stories confuted by Iews as Epiphanius Yet I exclude not an Allegorical sense of some stories besides â—he Literal as Augustine and Suidas held Paradise had both Homer's Alcinous Garden and Elizian Fields were Poetical Fictions stoln out of the Divine Treasury and profaned by them § 4. It is no Curiosity to enquire after the Place seeing nothing is in Scripture but for instruction and if the truth of the story be necessary the place set out for the proof of it is not to be neglected and Mens fancies therein overthrow the Story For what is more ridiculous than to seek Adam's Paradise
the compass it has to qualify and mask over inward Deformities for a time Yet no man can long continue masked in a counterfeit Behaviour The things which are forced for pretences having no ground of Truth cannot long dissemble their own nature and the Heart will be seen at the Tongues end In this great dissimilitude of reasonable Creatures the common People are ill Iudges of honest things and their Wisdom is to be despised said Eccles. As for the better sort every Vnderstanding has a peculiar Iudgment by which it both censureth others and valueth it self and therefore I will not think it strange if my worthless Papers be torn by Ratts since in all Ages Censurers have not spar'd to tax the Reverend of the Church with Ambition the severe to themselves with Hypocrisie lovers of Iustice with Popularity and Men of the truest valour with Vain-glory For nothing is so easie as to Reprove and Censure I will not trouble the Reader with repeating the deserv'd Commendations of History yet true it is that among many other Benefits for which it has been honour'd it triumphs in this over all Human Knowledge that it gives Life to our Vnderstanding since the World it self has Life even to this day And it has triumphed over Time which nothing else but Eternity has done for it has carried our Knowledge over the vast devouring space of many Thousand Years and has opened the piercing Eyes of our Mind that we plainly behold living now as if we lived then that wise Work of the great God saith Hermes By it I say we live in the very time when it was Created behold how it was govern'd how cover'd with Water and again repeopl'd How Kings and Kingdoms flourished and fell and for what Virtues or Vices God made the one prosperous and the other wretched Neither is it the least of our Debt to History that it has made us acquainted with our dead Ancestors and raised them out of Darkness to teach us no less wise than eternal Policy by comparing former Miseries with our own ill Deservings But neither the lively Instructions of Example the Words of the wisest nor Terror of future Torments have yet so wrought upon our stupid Minds as to make us remember That the infinite Eye and Wisdom of God doth pierce through all our Pretences Nor to make us remember That the Iustice of God requires no other Accuser than our own Consciences which by no false Beauty of our apparent actions nor all the formality which we to gull Mens Opinions put on can be covered from him Examples of God's Judgments in particulars upon all Degrees that have played with his Mercies would fill Volumes For the Sea of Examples hath no Bottom though Marks set on private Men are when their Bodies are cast into the Earth written only in their Memory which lived with them so that the Persons succeeding who saw not their Fall fear not their own Faults God's Iudgments on the Greatest have been Recorded to Posterity either by those happy Hands which the Holy Ghost guided or by others Now to point as far as the Angels Fall for Ambition at Kings eating Grass with Beasts for Pride and Ingratitude at Pharaoh's wise Action when he slew the Infants at Jesabel's Policy in covering Naboth's Murder with many Thousands of the like were but a Proof that Example should be rejected at a distance For who hath not observed what Labour Practice Peril Blood-shed and Cruelty the Kings and Princes of the World have undergone and exercised taken upon them and committed to make themselves and their Issues Masters of the World yet hath Babylon Persia Macedon Rome or the rest no Fruit Flower or Leaf springing upon the face of the Earth Nay their very Roots and Ruins do hardly remain for all that the Hand of Man can make is either over-turned by the Hand of Man or Consumed by Time Politicians say States have fallen either by Foreign Force or Domestick Negligence and Dissention or by a third Cause rising from both Others observe That the greatest have sunk under their own weight others That Divine Providence hath set a Period â—â— every State before the first Foundation thereof as Cratippus objected in Pompey But seeing the Books following undertake the Discourse of the first Kings and Kingdoms and that a short Preface cannot run very far back to the Ancients I will for the present examine what Advantage has been gain'd by our own Kings and their Neighbour Princes who having beheld both in Divine and Humane Letters the success of Infidelity Injustice and Cruelty have notwithstanding Planted after the same Pattern Mens Iudgments agree not and no mans Affection is stirred up alike with Examples of the like nature but is either touched with that which seemeth to come nearest to his own private Opinion or else best fits his Apprehension But the Iudgments of God are unchangeable no Time can weary him or obtain his Blessing to that in one Age which he Cursed in another Those therefore which are Wise will be able to discern the bitter Fruits of irreligious Policy as well in old Examples as new for ill Actions have always been attended with ill Success as will appear by the following Examples We have then no sooner passed over the violence of the Norman Conquest but we encounter that remarkable Example of God's Justice upon the Children of Henry I. who having by Force Craft and Cruelty over-reached his Brother Robert D. of Normandy Vsurped the Crown of England and disposessed him of his Dukedom and barbarously deprived him of his Sight to make his own Sons Lords of all but God cast them all Male and Female Nephews and Neeces Maud excepted into the bottom of the Sea Edward II. being Murdered a Torrent of Blood followed in the Royal Race so that all the Masculine Princes few excepted dyed of the Bloody-Flux And though Edward III. in his young Years made his knowledge of that horrible Fact no more than suspicious yet his putting to death his Vnkle the Earl of Kent made it manifest he was not ignorant of what had past nor greatly desirous to have had it otherwise But this Cruelty the unsearchable Iudgment of God revenged on his Grandchild and so it fell out even to the last of the Line That in the Second or Third Descent they were all buried under the Ruins of those Buildings whose Mortar had been tempered with innocent Blood For Richard II. having Murdered his Vnkle of Glocester was himself Murdered by Henry IV. Henry IV. having broken Faith to his Lords and by Treason obtained the Crown Entailed it by Parliament upon his Issue and by many Treacheries left all Competitors defenseless as he supposed leaving his Son Henry V. full of Valour and signal Victories yet was his Grand-child Henry VI. and his Son the Prince without Mercy Murdered and his Crown transferred to the Houses of his Enemies It was therefore a true Passage of Caussabon a Day an Hour
as high as the Moon or beyond the Ocean which he waded through to come to Iudea or that it is a separated ground hanging in the Air under the Moon from whence the four Rivers fall with violence and force through the Sea and rise again in our habitable World as Commestor dreamed and others That therefore the Truth might receive no prejudice God's Wisdom hath so carefully described the place for our easie finding as the choisest part of the Earth And if it be a generous mind to desire to know the Original of our Ancestors this search cannot be discommended § 5. Paradise is not so defaced by the Flood that it cannot be found as Augustinus Chrysamensis judged for though the Beauty of it be lost and Time has made it as a common Field in Eden yet eight hundred and seventy years after would not so particulary have described it nor the Prophets have mention'd Eden so often if the same could not be found or if the Rivers which in his time bear the Names were not the same of which Euphrates and Tigris were never doubted as the Country of Eden is yet well known As for the alteration made by the Flood changing the current of Rivers and raising of Mountains as some judge it is improbable for the Waters covered the Earth spherically and did not fall violently from higher places or come in with Storms ebbing and flowing which makes such choakings up of the mouths of Rivers The Waters then were raised by universal erruptions and by down right falls of Rain which use to scatter the strongest Winds Seth's Pillar erected 1426 year before as Antiquitiy reports and standing in Iosephus's days and the City under Libanus whose Ruins remained to Annius's days and by Berosus forged Fragments call'd Enochia built by Cain and the City Ioppa remaining after the Flood argue the Flood had no such effect to work such alteration when even Bay-Trees outstood it Antiquity also speaks of Baris and Sion on which the Fable is that Giants were saved which argueth their Judgment touching the Antiquity of Mountains See Psal. 90.1 2. § 6. Paradise was not the whole Earth as Manichus Vadianus Noviomagus and Goropius Becanus judged seeing the Text saith it was Eastward in Eden and the Angel was plac'd on the east side of Paradise and Adam was cast out of it not out of all the Earth Yet the Error of Ephrem Athanasius and Cyrill was greater that Paradise was beyond the Ocean through which Adam walked when he was cast out to return to the Earth of his Creation and was buried on Calvery § 7. Paradise by Bar-Cephas Beda Strabus and Rabanus was placed on a Mountain almost as high as the Moon neither did Rupertus differ much It seemeth they took it out of Plato and Socrates who mis-understood it no doubt took this Place for Heaven the Habitation of Blessed Souls after Death though for fear of the Areopagites they durst not set down in plain terms what they believed of that Matter And though in the end Socrates was put to death for acknowledging one only sufficient God yet the Devil himself did him that right to pronounce him the wisest Man As for the place in question Tertullian and Eusebius conceive that by it he meant the Celestial Paradise Solinus indeed reports of a place called Acrothonos upon Mount Atho pleasant and healthful whose Inhabitants are called Macrobioi long lived Upon the aforesaid Lunary Hill they say Enoch was preserved which Isidore and Lumbard approve and Tertullian Ireneus Iustin Martyr believed the Souls of blessed Men lived there which Fancies Hopkins and Pererius have Confuted As for the Bodies of Enoch and Elias they may be changed as others shall be at the last Day The School-men in this and their other Questions were exceeding subtle but yet taught their Followers to shift better than to resolve by their Distinctions The Fables of Olympus Atlas and Atho higher than any Clouds Pliny himself disproveth § 8. Tertullian Bonaventure and Durand place Paradise under the Equinoctial to which Aquinas opposeth the Distemper of Heat there But this is Non causa for causa the true Cause is Eden and the Rivers are not there else the Clime hath as pleasant fertile places as any other neither was any Region Created but for Habitation and those hot Countries are tempered by East Winds and long cool Nights as I well know only where Mountains hinder the Wind and in sandy Grounds void of Trees the Country is not so well Inhabited as the other parts which are so Fertile that the Inhabitants Idleness maketh them Vitious and the Countries to be Terrae Vitiosae § 9. Paradise not being in the former places we are certain it was in Eden not hard to have been found out had not Names been changed since Moses's days and that other Nations have sought to extinguish both the Name and Monuments of the Iews For our help we have Euphrates and Tigris agreed upon and that it was Eastward from Canaan which latter might agree with Arabâ—a Stony and Desart but the former cannot neither has it the property of being exceeding Fertile As for bordering Countries though Moses name none yet Esaiah and Ezekiel do and though that Amos name Eden which is Coelosyria and Beroaldus findeth a City there called Paradise yet can it not be the Eden we seek seeing Coelosyria and Cyprian Damascena is full North from Canaan and wants our known Rivers Come then to the Edomits in Thelassar and the rest named by Esaiah Thelassar was a strong City in an Island upon the Border of Chaldea on the River Euphrates towards the North which after Senacharib's death Merodach Balladan injoyning Babilonia fortified against Esar Haddon which City Marcellinus calls Thelatha Pliny Teridata which Iulian durst not assault The other places in Esaiah are either in Mesopotamia as Charan and Reseph or in Media as Gosan so Ezekiel setting out the Countries which traded with Tyrus joineth Charan with Eden as also Calne which Ierom calls Seleuiza standing upon Euphrates towards Tigris called also Canneh and the Inhabitants Schenits by Pliny who Inhabited from Seleucia on both sides Euphrates Westward to Coelosyria as far as Tapsachus where the River is Fordable Charan therefore cannot be Channeh the one standing on Euphrates the other on Chaboras which falleth into Euphrates far off in Mesopotamia Or Aran between the Floods Besides Channeh or Chalne is by Moses named in Shinar one of Nimrod's Cities Lastly Sheba and Rhaama upon the Persian Gulf traded with Tyrus by Tigris and so to Seleucia and so to Syria by Euphrates 'till they came to Aleppo or Hierapolis from whence they went by Land to Tyre and after decay to Tripoly and now to Alexandretta in the Bay of Issicus or Lajazzo Chalmad is also joined with Eden by Ezekiel a Region of higher Media N.E. of Eden called Coronitana by Geographers Thus Eden is bounded on the E. and N. E. by Elanah and Chalmad On the W.
the Flood of Ogyges 100 after Iacob's Now Deucalion was born Anno 2356 and his Flood when he was 89 Years old which is Anno 2438 after Noah's 782 to which agrees Xenophon in Annius This Flood over-ran most of Italy when Egypt also was afflicted with Water and the Italians which escaped it were called Vmbri § 4. Noah's Flood as Berosus reports was heard of amongst the Caldeans N. Damascen maketh particular mention of it Eusebius also Records out of an Ancient History of Abidenus that one Sissitbus fore-warned by Saturn of a Flood fled to the Armenian Hills in a Ship who after the Fall of the Waters sent Birds three times to discover c. Cyril cites Polyhistor mentioning a general Flood Plato also produceth an Egyptian Priest reporting to Solon out of their Holy Books of an universal Flood long before Ogyges in Attica and calls Noah Old Ogyges He also speaks of a Flood of Nilus before that in Attica which afflicted the lower Egypt under King Prometheus 'till by Hercules's direction Nilus was reduced within her Banks whereof grew the Tale of an Eagle which feeding on Prometheus's Liver was slain by Hercules Xenophon cited by Annius speaks of the Universal Flood under the first Ogyges of Nine Months continuance a second of Nilus under Prometheus of one Month a third under Ogyges Atticus of two Months a fourth under Deucalion of three Months a fifth under Proteus of Egypt in Helene's Rape Diod. Siculus remembers another in lesser Asia before Deucalion's There was one in the Venetian Territories Anno 590. In Friesland a Flood drouned 100000 Anno 1238. In Dort in Holland 10000 perished Anno 1446. Others are mentioned by Strozius § 5. Noah's Flood was extraordinary not upon natural Causes as the other but by God's special Power strengthening the influence of Stars to fill all the Cisterns of Waters in Fountains and Clouds And though H. of Machline Scholar of Albertus observed a conjunction of Saturn and Iupiter in the last and of a watery Sign and House of Luna over against the Ship by which the Flood might have been foreseen and was also by Noah as P. de Aliaao judgeth yet however God used second Causes he added supernatural force to the Clouds and Fountains to empty their whole Treasuries of Waters § 6. There needed not new Created Waters in this Flood not to dispute whether God hath restrained himself from Creating For when he brake up the Fountains of the Deep and opened the Windows or Sluces of Heaven he shewed no new Creation but used his old Store contained in the vast Concavities of the Earth and in the Clouds wherewith he compassed the Earth after an extraordinary manner besides his Condensation of the Air to convert it into Rain which is so ordinary and thus might the Waters grow to exceed the Mountains 15 Cubits As for the Constellation they speak of L. Vives reports from a great Astrologer that the like was observed Anno 1524 after which it was exceeding Fair. To conclude I find no other Mystery in the word Cataract signifying the Windows or Flood-gates of Heaven but the violent casting down Waters not diffusively after the natural manner but as when it is emptied out of a Vessel in a whole body as it is sometimes in India which are called Spouts of Water Thus God loosed the retentive Power in the upper Air and the Clouds in which at other times he shutteth up the Waters to carry them to a place appointed § 7. Noah's Memory among the Heathen who for divers respects gave him divers Names as Ogyges the first because his Flood was before the Grecian Ogyges Saturn because he was Father of Nations Prometheus for his fore-sight Ianus Bifrons for his seeing what went before and came after the Flood Chaos and Seed of the World Coelum Sun Virtumnus Bacchus Liber Pater before him of Greece but of old the word was Boachus of Noachus He was also called Nisius of Mount Nisa in India joining to Paropanisus and other Easterly Mountains where the Ark rested and where the Grecian Bacchus never came His Posterity also named Cities Mountains and Rivers by his Name as a City by the Red Sea the River Noachus in Thracia § 8. Noah's Ark touching the Name Epiphanius in Ancyrius calls it Aron which properly signifyeth the Ark in the Sanctuary as Thebell a Vessel which swimmeth called Larnenx in Greek Certain places where it was framed cannot be defined yet Becanus conceives it was neer Caucasus where grow the noblest Cedars not far from the Nisaans with whom Alexander made War By all Probability the place was not far from where it landed being so large heavy laden wanting Sails of Form not apt to move and in a Calm as it is in all Rains down-right It was thought to have a flat Bottom and a crested Roof and the Wood Gopher of which it was made by all probability was Cedar being light easy to cut sweet and lasting abounding in the Eastern Mountains the Pitch was like to a Bitume which melteth only by Fire as is that by the dead Sea and Babylon § 9. Of the Ark's Capacity whose Measures as God prescribed so the proportion saith Augustin answered the shape of a Man's Body whose Length contained the Bredth six times and the Depth ten being a Figure of God's City or Church in this World c. In the Measure the Cubit is questioned whether it were the common which is from the Elbow to the top of the Middle Finger a Foot and a half or the plain Cubit which is an handful more or the Kings and Persians which is three Inches more than the common or the sacred which is double the common wanting a quarter or the Geometrical which is six common Cubits and was embraced by Origen as also by Augustin who yet changed his Mind because Fishes were not Cursed Though Man's mischievous Ignorance seeketh many Impossibilities in this work yet no Monstrous thing is found in it for the number of Kinds to be stored in it was not so great excluding such as sprung from unnatural Copulations and diversity of Soils but that the common Cubit of those times may serve for add half a Foot to the common Cubit of our times which is a Foot and half and the length riseth to be six Hundred Foot the Bredth one Hundred the Depth Sixty As for the Geometrical Cubit it was not in use then as we see in the Measure of Giants and height of the Altar which might have no Steps Exod. 20.26 Buteo hate prov'd that the Number of Creatures might well be placed in the Ark which contained 450000 Cubical Cubits which is sufficient for a Hundred kind of Beasts and their Meat in the lower and second Story and 280 Fouls with Noah and his in the third § 10. Of the Arks resting on part of Mount Taurus or Caucasus between East-India and Scythia passing by many needless Disputes I will endeavour to satisfie my self and
he after setting his Country in Order or his Children returned and became incorporate with Israel § 3. Israel 's Iourney from Horeb to Kades § In this Journey they murmured for Flesh and were fed with Quails even to a Surfeit of which great numbers Dyed Then after the First Month they came to Hâ—zaroth where Miriam was smitten with Leprosie and so to Rithma near Kades Barnea whence the Spies were sent upon whose Return they mutined the Tenth time which being more Rebellious than all the rest God punished it accordingly extinguishing every one of those Seditions even the whole Multitude that came out of Egypt Two only Excepted And though the mildest of all Men was earnest with God for their Pardon yet not one escaped He spared them Forty Years till their Children were grown up and Multiplyed that in them he might perform his Promise which was never frustrated § 4 Of their Return and unwillingness thereto c. § Moses having related the Commandment of God touching their Return back toward the Red Sea they bewailed their Folly too late and as it is with Men whom God leaveth to themselves they wou'd needs amend their former Passionate Murmuring with a second desperate Contempt For now when God forbids with Threats they will desperately venture their own Destruction and were repelled and with Slaughter forced to take their way back to the Sea as God Commanded and came to Remmoparez c. Their Twenty Fourth Mansion was at Pharez where began the dangerous Insurrection of â—orah for which Offence and Contempt of God and his Ministers as 14700 Perished suddenly by Pestilence and 250 by Fire so those Lay-Men who would Usurp Ecclesiastical Authority were suddenly swallowed up alive of the Earth Form thence the 30 th Mansion was at Ietabata where Adrichomius maketh a River which runneth into the Sea between Midian and Aziongaber Now though it be Probable there was store of Fresh-water at Aziongaber where Solomon furnished his Fleets for East-India And though Herodotus mention a great River in Arabia the Stony which he calls Corys yet is Adrichom deceived in this as in many other things For it was at Punon that those Springs are spoken of which in Deut. 10.7 is also called Ietabata a Land of running Waters which by probability falls into the River Zared next adjoyning whereas that way is very long to Aziongaber Besides Belonius reports of divers Torrents of Fresh-waters in those Sandy parts of Arabia which running a few Miles are drunk up in the Sands From Ietabata they came to Hebrona and after Aziongaber called Beronice by Iosephus and Essia by Ierom which as yet was not in the command of Edom as after in Solomon's days § 5. From Aziongaber they removed to Zin Kades or Beeroth where Miriam dyed Then they came to Mount Hor where they murmured for Water and where Aaron dyed and Eleazer his Son succeeded § 6. Israel leaving the way by Edom after they had compassed the South they turned to the North toward the Wilderness of Moab leaving Eâ—â— oâ— the West When Arad King of the Sâ—â—th-Câ—â—â—â—anites thinking they would come by him while 〈◊〉 lay at Hor having had his Forces ready upon hâ— Borders made out into the Desart before Israel was removed and set upon such part of the Army as lay for his Advantage and took some Prisoners It is probable that either this Arad or his Predecessor had joined before with Amalek and worsting those Mutineers were thereupon incouraged to this Attempt As for the Overthrow which is reported Num. 21. to be given them by Israel it is rather to be understood of what was done after by Iosua than now by Moses For had Moses given them this Overthrow and destroyed their Cities he would never have left the South of Canaan once entred by him to wander about Edom and Moab and to seek a new Passage Neither could Israel have cause to Murmur the next day for Bread Or been weary of the Way if they had so lately taken the Spoil of Arad's Cities Yea they would rather have mutined against Moses for leaving such an Entrance into the intended Conquest and to lead them back into the Desarts which had consumed them They murmured presently upon their leaving Hor when they came to Phunon crossing the way to Aziongaber through Moab to Coelosyria and here the Brazen Serpent was erected From thence they proceeded as in the Holy Story and so came to Diblathaim Whence Moses sent to Sehon King of the Amorites to desire a Passage through his Country which he denyed § 7. Of the Book of the Lord's Battels and other lost Books § Iunius understanding thereby no special Book and Vatablus doubts Siracides refers it to Ioshua who fought the Lord's Battles cap. 46. But it seemeth probable there was such a Book lost as many others whereto reference is often made as Ios. 10.13 and 2 Sam. 1.18 and 2 Chron. 33.18 and 2 Chron. 9.29 and 12.15 and 20.34 1 Kings 4.32 33. Enoch's Books c. § 8. Of Moses sparing Lot 's Issue § Moab at this time inhabited the South of Arnon having lost the better side which the Amorites won from Vatablus the Predecessor of Balac What therefore Moses found in the Possession of Moab as also of Ammon he might not attempt but what the Amorites had taken from them The Emims and Zamzummims Giantly Nations had formerly dwelt there as the Anakims in Canaan but Moab and Ammon destroyed them Sihon proud of his Conquest against Moab presumed against Israel and lost All. Og King of Basan or Traconitis an Amorite was also destroyed and his Sixty Walled Towns taken by Iaer a Son of Manasses § 9. The Midianites with the Moabites practise against Israel and draw them to Idolatry for which God destroyed 24000 with the Pestilence The third time of numbring of the People who are found to be 601730 of which 12000 are sent against the Midianites who slew there Five petty Kings and destroyed their Cities after this Moses having divided his Conquest and blessed the Twelve Tribes dyed § 10. Observations out of Moses's Story touching God's Providence working his own purposes ordinarily by Mens affections Pharaoh's Fears bred his ungodly Policies and salvage Cruelties by this Moses is cast upon the Compassion of Pharaoh's Daughter and so provided of Princely Education Mens Affections cast him into Exile procured him a Wife and so a long stay to know the Wilderness to wean him from Ambition and so fit him to know God and to Govern Thus what Men think most casual God ordereth to the Effecting his own purposes many Years after CHAP. VI. Of the Bordering Nations Of other Renowned Men and of Joshua's Acts. § 1. HOW the Bordering Nations were prepared to be Enemies to Israel § Though the Ismaelites Moabites Ammonites and Edomites descended from Abraham and Isaac as did the Israelites and were not molested by them and therefore they should not have hinder'd their Conquest of Canaan yet God's all-disposing
the stock of Ithamar that obtained that High-Priesthood which continued in his stock until Solomon cast out Abâ—athar and put in Zâ—dok descended from Eleazer 1 Kings 2.26 35. In his time for the Sins of the Priests and People the Lord gave his Ark the Sacrament of his Presence into the hands of the Philistins as he did his Temple to be destroyed by the Chaldeans and after by the Romans because they put more Confidence therein than in the Lord himself whose Law they would not observe Whereas after the Captivity and in the time of the Machabees while they feared the Lord they were Victorious without an Ark more than they were when they guarded themselves with the Sign void of substance David also knew the Ark was not made for an Ensign in the Field The Trojans believed that while the Paladium or Image of Minerva was in the City it should never be overthrown The Christians also carried into the Field in the last Fatal Battel against Saladine the very Cross as they were made to believe whereon Christ died and yet lost themselves and the Wood. But Chrysostom said well upon St. Matthew if that be his work of them which wore part of St. Iohn's Gospel about their Necks for an Amulet or Preservative If the words profit thee nâ—t in thine Ears how can they about thy Neck For it was neither the Wood of the Ark or of the Cross but the Reverence of the Father that gave them for a memory of his Covenant and the Faith of his Son which shed his Blood on the other for Redemption that could or can profit them or us either in this Life or after it The Holy story telleth us how after this Victory of the Philistins the Ark of God was in Captivity yet they overthrew the Philistin's Dagon and brake off both Head and Hands to shew he had neither Wisdom nor Power in God's Presence and that God and the Devil cannot inhabit in one House or one Heart If this Idol then could not endure the representation of the true God what Marvel is it that when it pleased him to Cloath his only Begotten with Flesh and sent him into the World that all the Oracles wherein the Devil derided and betray'd Mortal Men lost Power Speech and Operation at that instant For when the true Light which never had any beginning of Brightness brake through the Clouds of a Virgins Womb shining upon the Earth long obscured by Idolatry all these stinking Vapours vanished Plutarch rehearseth a Memorable History of that Age of the death of their great God Pan but could not find the true cause thereof c. God also plagued the Philistims as well as their God and forced them to return his Ark and to give him Glory after they had tried all their wit to the contrary See the Story Thus God is acknowledged of his Enemies as he had been of Pharaoh and was after of Nebuchodonezer Darius c. § 3. Of Samuel's Government 1 Sam. 7. He descended of Korah 1 Chron. 6.22 for his Father Elcana a Levite of Mount Ephraim came of Korah the Son of Izaar Son of Cheath Son of Levi. His Mother after long Barreness obtained him by earnest Prayer to avoid the reproach of Barrenness as it was esteemed considering it was God's Promise Deut. 7. and Blessing to Adam and Abraham c. Under his Government the Lord freed Israel from the Philistins who at his Prayers were miraculously overthrown as were the Amalekites at the Prayer of Moses He Ministred Justice at three fit places Of which see Cap. 12. § 1. CHAP. XII Of Saul the First King of Israel § 1. THE deliberation to change the Government into a Kingdom arose upon Samuel's being grown unable to sustain the Burthen of so careful a Government which he put over his Sons who failing of their Father's Care and Uprightness and relishing nothing but Gain sold Law and Justice to the best Chap-men The Elders observing this and that the Old Man though a Prophet yet as a natural Father discerned not his Sons Errors and remembring the lamentable success of Eli's Sons Rule saw no other way to put them off than by desiring a King This Motion displeased Samuel who seeking Counsel from God as in a Cause of so great consequence he was order'd to hear the Voice of the People yet so as God accounted it a Wrong to himself rather than to Samuel and therefore commanded him to declare unto them the Inconveniencies and Miseries which shall befall them under that Government All which are not intolerable but as have been and are still born by Subjects free Consent But the Oppressions threatned verse 14 c. give an occasion â—o the Question Whether a King fearing God or one which will Rule by his own discretion and playeth the Tyrant be here set out as some judge or that the Text only teacheth what they ought with patience to bear at their Sovereigns hand as others judge The first ground themselves upon Deut. 17.14 c. and on the words of the Text which do not say he may but he will do so and so shewing what Power severed from Piety will do as in Achab's Example contrary to the Law Deut. 16.18 The Arguments on the other side are largely handled in that Discourse of free Monarchies which I shall not take upon me here to Insert This change of Government God fore-told Gen. 15. and 17. and 49. and provided for the direction of it by Laws Deut. 17. But whether the Reasons which move most Nations moved them to choose a Monarch or thereby to be cleared from the Sons of Samuel doth not so plainly appear for neither Perswasions nor Threats could draw them from their desire of a King § 2. Saul ' s Election § Samuel by God's direction having yielded to the People returned to his City Rama expecting the Lord's direction touching the King to be chosen which the Lord accordinly performed giving him warning the day before Samuel hereupon prepared to entertain whom God should send and Saul intending nothing less than a Kingdom found it and was Anointed and Confirmed by signs given him by Samuel and returned home Thus God oft by meanest occasions ordereth the greatest things and in Moses and David's Calling from feeding Sheep Iames and Iohn from Fishing c. Among the Signs given to Saul one was of the Company of the Prophets not such as by divine Revelation fore-told things to come as Moses Ioshua Samuel c. but such as were exercised in Expounding Scriptures as were those 1 Cor. 14. at which time God changed his Heart from a Vulgar condition to a Kingly After this another Assembly at Mispezh Saul was Published and designed King by God and accepted of the People and saluted King § 3. Saul's Establishment after his Victory against the Ammonites 1 Sam. 11. The Ammonites attending the Advantage of Times for recovery of their Territories taken from them by the Amorites having in vain