variety and excellent order Ver. 2. And on the seventh Day God ended his Work Or rather had ended as it may be translated for he did not work on the Seventh Day But rested from all his Work which he had made haing so compleatly finished it that there remained no more to be done An Emblem of the Rest that we shall have when we have done our Work faithfully and left none undone as Origen's words are L. VI. contra Celsum Ver. 3. And God blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it As God sanctified Jeremiah in after-times from his Mother's Womb Jer. I. 5. by ordaining him to be a Prophet So he now determined and appointed the Seventh Day from the very beginning of the World to be observed in Memory of its Creation And this setting it apart and consecrating it to that Holy Use was his blessing it or recommending it to be observed as a Day of blessing and praising him in all his Works of Wonder And I know not why I should not add of his bestowing Blessings upon all his pious Worshippers There is no mention indeed made of Adam's or Abel's c. observing this Day which hath inclined many to conclude these words to have been written by way of anticipation This Day being set apart in after-times by the Law of Moses for God's Service but in their Opinion not till then To which I cannot agree because it seems to me far more reasonable to think That God took Care to preserve the Memory of the Creation in the Minds of Mankind and the Worship of Him the One Only God by whom it was created Which could not be done by any means more effectually than by setting apart this Day for that purpose Which if he had not appointed yet Men being made Religious Creatures I cannot but think they would have agreed upon some set time for the Exercise of their Religion as well as some set Place though that be not mentioned neither where to meet for Divine Service And what time more proper wherein to Honour their Creator with their Sacrifices Praises and Thanksgivings than this Day Which Philo well stiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the birth-day of the World Which was so much observed all the World over though they forgot the reason that the Seventh Day he observes may be truly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Vniversal Festival kept by all People Josephus speaks to the same purpose and there is a great deal more said by Aristobulus a Peripatetick Philosopher out of Hesiod Homer and others in Eusebius his Praepar Evang. L. XIII c. 12. concerning the Sacredness of the Seventh Day Which though Mr. Selden L. III. de Jure N. G. cap. 17 c. endeavours to prove is meant of the Seventh Day of the Month not of the Seventh Day of the Week yet we may look upon that as a Remain of this ancient Tradition Which in time Men forgot as they did the most Natural Duties having so corrupted their ways as we read Gen. VI. 10 11. that there was nothing good among the generality of them And therefore no wonder if they did not regard the Service of God every Seventh Day To which I shall show in due place Noah the only righteous Man among them had some regard Which continued in the Family of Abraham after the Flood Moses speaking of it not long after their coming out of Egypt where it is likely they were not suffered to observe it having no time free from their intolerable Labours as a Day known to them before the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai Exod. XVI 23 25 26. Which is not to be understood as if the Patriarchs before and after the Flood kept such a Rest as God enjoyned the Israelites by Moses For that was proper to them for a peculiar reason because they had been Slaves in Egypt and therefore were commanded to keep the Sabbath without doing any manner of work upon that Day Deut. V. 15. Which is all the Christian Fathers mean when they say the Patriarchs did not Sabbatizare keep the Sabbath as the Jews did See Tertullian adv Judaeos cap. 2 4. Irenaeus and others For in Religious Offices I doubt not they observed the Seventh Day as a proper time for that Sacred Hymn which Galen himself L. III. de usu Partium says we should all sing to the Creator of all if we our selves first know and then tell others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. how wonderful he is in Wisdom how great in Power and how rich in Goodness Because that in it he had rested from all his work This is the reason why this Day was distinguished from the other Six That a remembrance of God's resting from all his Works on this Day might be preserved by Mens laying aside their other Employments so long as to praise him Solemnly by whom this great World was made Which God created and made Or as the Hebrew phrase is created to make i. e. rested from all the Six Day 's Work For he created something at the first out of which to make all the rest in six Day 's space and now he ceased from all Ver. 4. These are the generations c. That is this is a faithful Account of the Original of the World Which Moses here repeats more deeply to imprint on the Peoples Minds that the World was not a God but the Work of God Which they were to acknowledge every Seventh Day In the Day i. e. At that time so Day often signifies when the LORD God made the Earth and the Heavens It is observed by Tertullian That exinde Dominus qui retro Deus tantum c. from henceforward verse 7 8 9 15 c. he is called LORD who hitherto was called only God Of which he endeavours to give a reason L. adv Hermog cap. 3. The Hebrew Doctors observe that Jehovah Elohim LORD God joyned together is the full and perfect Name of God And therefore fitly reserved till this place when the Works of God were perfected and not before Ver. 5. And every Plant in the Field before it was in the Earth c. That is before there was any Seed to produce them God made them to spring up with their Seed in them as was said before in the first Chapter And Moses here mentions these alone because they were the first Productions out of the Earth without which there had been no Food for living Creatures For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the Earth and there was not a Man to till the Ground Here are two reasons to confirm that Plants were not produced in the way they are now For there had been no showers of Rain nor was there any Man to prepare the Earth to receive the Seed if there had been any both which are necessary in the ordinary Method of Divine Providence ever since the World was made From hence some collect there were no Praedamites People before Adam for then
Moses Ararat as by Pliny they are called Taurus And that Author thinks the Ark setled in some of the Eastern Parts of Taurus because Noah planted himself in the East after the Flood and it is likely did not travel far from the place where the Ark rested as appears he thinks from Gen. XI 2. where we read his Posterity when they began to spread went Westward and built Babel The common Opinion is That the Ark rested in some of the Mountains of Armenia as the vulgar Latin translates the word Ararat i. e. saith St. Hierom upon the highest part of Taurus But Epiphanius who was before him saith upon the Gordiaean Mountains and so Jonathan and Onkelos and the Nubiensian Geographer and many others mentioned by Bochartus Who is of this Opinion as having the most Authority Many of which say That some Relicks of the Ark were remaining upon those Mountains Which as Theodoret observes upon Isa XIV 13. were accounted the highest in the whole World V. Phaleg L. II. c. 3. and L. IV. c. 38. There were such Remainders of this History among the ancient Scythians that in their dispute with the Egyptians about their Antiquity they argue it partly from hence that if the Earth had ever been drown'd their Country must needs be first inhabited again because it was first clear'd from the Water being the highest of all other Countries in the World Thus their Argument runs in Justin L. II. c. 1. where he hath given us a brief relation of it if we had Trogus whom he Epitomizes it 's likely we should have understood their Tradition more perfectly in this manner If all Countries were anciently drown'd in the Deep profectò editissimam quamque partem we must needs grant the highest parts of the Earth were first uncovered of the Waters that ran down from them And the sooner any part was dry the sooner were Animals there generated Now Scythia is so much raised above all other Countries that all the Rivers which rise there run down into the Moeotis and so into the Pontick and Egyptian Sea c. Ver. 5. And the Waters decreased continually until the tenth Month. For the Summer's heat must needs very much dry them up when there was no Rain In the tenth Month were the tops of the Mountains seen This shows the Mountain on which the Ark rested was the highest at least in those Parts Because it setled there above two Months before the tops of other Mountains were seen And perhaps the Ark by its weight might settle there while the top of that Mountain was covered with Water Which it 's possible might not appear much before the rest Ver. 6. At the end of forty Days Forty Days after the tops of the Mountains appeared i. e. on the eleventh Day of the eleventh Month which was about the end of our July Ver. 7. He sent forth a Raven For the same End no doubt that the Dove was sent forth To make discovery whether the Earth were dry For if it were the smell of the dead Carcases he knew would allure it to fly far from the Ark Which it did not but only hover'd about it as it follows in the next Words Went forth to and fro In the Hebrew more plainly going forth and returning That is it often went from the Ark and as often returned to it For after many flights finding nothing but Water it still betook it self unto the Ark either entring into it or sitting upon it 'till at last the Waters being dried up it returned no more That is Fifty Days after its first going forth Verse 13. All which time it spent in going out and coming back Bochart indeed approves of the Greek Version which makes the Raven not to have returned For which he gives some specious Reasons L. II. c. 12. P. 2. Hierozoic and hath such of the Hebrews to countenance him as R. Elieser who saith Pirke c. 23. That the Raven found a Carcase of a Man upon a Mountain and so would return no more But the next words which in the Greek and Hebrew are both alike confute this Translation Vntil the Waters were dried up from the Earth Which make this plain and easie Sence in connexion with the foregoing as they run in the Hebrew that while the Earth continued covered with Water the Raven often flew from the Ark but finding no convenient place to rest in returned thither again Till the Ground was dry Whereas according to the Greek we must suppose the Raven to have returned to the Ark when the Waters were dried up from the Ground Which is very absurd For if it had some time sat upon a Carcase floating in the Waters before they were dried up or upon the top of some Mountain which already appeared what should make it return when all the Waters were gone every where and not rather while they remained upon the Ground Ver. 8. Also he sent forth a Dove As a proper Creature to make further Discoveries Being of a strong flight loving to seed upon the Ground and pick up Seeds and constantly returning to its rest from the remotest places These two Birds the Raven and the Dove some imagine were sent forth upon one and the same Day or but a Day between as Bochartus conjectures But this doth not agree with Verse 10. where it is said Noah stayed yet other seven Days and then sent out the Dove again Which relates to seven Days preceding which seem to have passed between the sending out of the Raven and of the Dove Ver. 9. The Dove found no rest c. For though the tops of the Mountains appeared yet they continued muddy as some conceive or they were so far off that the Dove could not easily reach them Ver. 10. And he staid yet other seven Days It appears by this that on the seventh Day Noah expected a Blessing rather than on another Day It being the Day devoted from the beginning to Religious Services Which he having it is likely performed thereupon sent out the Dove upon this Day as he had done before with hope of good Tidings Ver. 11. And lo in her Mouth was an Olive-Leaf or Branch the word signifies pluckt off Bochart thinks the Dove brought this out of Assyria which abounds with Olive-Trees and lay South of Ararat the Wind then blowing towards that Country from the North. See Hierozoic L. I. c. 6. p. 2. where he shows out of many Authors that not only Olive-Trees but some other also will live and be green under Water All the difficulty is how the Dove could break off a Branch as the Vulgar translates it from the Tree But it is easily solved if we allow as I have said before that now it was Summer-time which brought new Shoots out of the Trees that were easily cropt So he knew the Waters were abated The tops of Mountains were seen before verse 5. but now he understood the Waters had left the lower Grounds Yet not so left them that
Continent of America was found full of such Beasts when the Spaniards first came thither yet none of the Islands though very large which lay remote from the Land had any Lions Tygers or such-like Creatures in them Which is a demonstration that these Creatures were not originally from that part of the Earth for then the Islands would have been furnished with them as well as the Continent just as they are with all sorts of Vegetables And consequently the Continent it self was stored with these Creatures from some other part of the Earth Which might be done by some Neck of Land not yet discovered which joyns some part of Europe or Asia to the Continent of America Or if there be no such Neck of Land now extant yet there may have been such a Bridge as we may call it between the Northern parts of Asia or Europe and some Northern part of America or between the South-East part of China or the Philippine Islands and the Southern Continent of that other part of this World Though now broken of as many suppose England to have been from France by the violence of the Sea or by Earthquakes which have made great alterations in the Earth And truly he that observes as that great Man the Lord Chief Justice Hales speaks in his Book of the Origin of Mankind § II. c. 7. the infinite number of Islands lying between the Continent of China and Nova Guinea the most contiguous to each other hath probable reasons to believe that these were all formerly one Continent joyning China and Nova Guinea together Though now by the irruption of the Sea crumbled into many small Islands CHAP. XI Ver. 1. AND all the Earth i. e. The Inhabitants of the Earth as 1 Kings X. 24. all the Earth is explained 2 Chron. IX 23. all the Kings of the Earth Were of one Language In the Hebrew of one Lip which is one Instrument of Speech comprehending the rest Their Mouth found the same words So it follows And of one Speech Or Word as the Hebrew hath it Some distinguish these two so subtilly as to say they had not only the same Language but the same manner of pronunciation which is often very different in the same Language The Heathens themselves acknowledge there was but one Language anciently see Josephus and out of him Eusebius L. IX Praep. Evang. c. 14 15. which in all likelihood was the same that had been from the Beginning which Adam himself spake For Methuselah the Grand-Father of Noah lived some time with him and spake we may well suppose the same Language that he did And we cannot but think the same of Noah Who propagated it among his Posterity till this time But whether this was the Hebrew or no we cannot be certain The Chaldee Paraphrasts and the Hebrew Writers generally say it was and most Christian Writers have been of their Opinion In so much that R. Gedalian upon these words saith The wise Men among the Christians have searched what was the first Tongue and all the World confesses that from Adam to the Flood they spake the Holy Language Which it is not to be thought we have now intire and pure but that a considerable part of it still remains in the Bible As may be proved by no contemptible Arguments particularly this that Shem the Son of Noah was for some time contemporary with Abraham who descended from him and in whose Family continued the same Language which they both spake unto Moses his days They that have fansied there were more Languages than one at this time grounded their mistake upon those words Gen. X. 5 20 31. where the Sons of Noah are said to have had the Earth divided among them according to their Tongues Not considering that he speaks of this very Division of which he is going to give an account and briefly mentioned there verse 25. For the thirteen Sons of Joktan immediately after mentioned who had their share in the division were not in being when their Uncle Peleg was born as the most learned Primate Vsher hath demonstrated in his Annals A. M. 1757. Ver. 2. As they journeyed from the East He doth not speak of all the Posterity of Noah who after the Flood planted in the East much less Noah himself But of a great Colony of them who when the East was much peopled chose to go Westward By the East most understand Armenia where they suppose the Ark rested and Noah with his Sons planted But this hath great difficulty in it for the Mountains of Armenia lay North of Shinar or Assyria and not East Which Bochart solves in this manner Assyria being divided into two parts one on this side the other on the further side of Tigris they called all that part beyond Tigris the East Country though a great part of it towards Armenia was really Northward and that part on this side they called West though some of it lay to the South L. I. Phaleg c. 7. But there is no need of the help of this solution the Mountains of Ararat running a long way Eastward From which when Noah and his Sons descended they setled it's likely in Countries which were very much Eastward of Assyria They found a plain They continued to dwell in the Mountainous Countries of the East where the Ark rested till they grew very numerous and wanted room and then descended into the Plain and some of them went Westwardly into the Land of Shinar that pleasant Plain as Mr. Mede fansies where God at the Beginning had placed the first Father of Mankind Adam Shinar By this Name we are to understand not only that part of Assyria where Babylon stood but all that Country which bordered upon Tigris unto the Mountains of Armenia from whence Noah and his Sons are supposed to have descended when the Earth was dry and not to have gone far from thence at first till they were multiplied and then some of them came into this Country which Noah had inhabited before the Flood Thus Bochart in the place before-named But there is no certainty the Ark rested in Armenia it might be further Eastward upon some other part of that long Ridge of Mountains called Ararat From whence they descended when the Earth was dry and dwelt in the lower Grounds which were warmer and more fruitful than the Mountains But that from the East Mankind were propagated is apparent from the increase of Arts and Sciences which as Dr. Jackson observes Book I. c. 16. were in some measure perfected there in Times as ancient as any prophane History can point us unto and thence derived as from a Center to more remote parts of the World the ripeness of Literature civil Discipline and Arts among the Eastern People before they did so much as bud forth in Greece or Italy I may add Egypt either is a demonstration that these were the Stock and the other but Slips or Branches transplanted from thence Nay the State and Grandure of those Eastern Countries
another Light being the Work of the first Day Ver. 6. And God said Let there be a firmament The next thing that God commanded to come forth of the Chaos was the Air particularly that Region next to us wherein the Fowls fly as it is expounded afterwards verse 20. The Hebrew word Rachia properly signifies a Body expanded or spread forth as may be seen in Exod. XXXIX 3. Isai XL. 19. Jer. X. 9. where it can have no other meaning but is by the LXX translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and from thence by us Firmament because the Air though vastly extended and fluid yet continues firm and stable in its place In the midst of the Waters and let it divide the Waters from the Waters This Region of the Air manifestly parts the Waters above it in the Clouds from those below it here upon Earth the one of which Waters bear a good proportion and are in some measure equal unto the other for there are vast Treasures of Water in the Clouds from whence the Waters here below in Springs and Rivers are supplied This appeared afterwards in the Deluge which was partly made by continued Rains for many days The great Objection against this Exposition is That now there were no Clouds neither had it after this rained on the Earth Gen. II. 6. But it must be considered That neither were the Waters below as yet gathered into one place And therefore Moses here speaks of the Air as a Body intended to be stretched between the Waters above and beneath when they should be formed That the Clouds above are called Waters in the Scripture-Language is plain enough from Psalm CIV 3. Jer. X. 13. and other places Ver. 7. And God made the firmament and divided c. What his Divine Will ordered his Power effected by that Light which rowled about the CHAOS and that Heat which was excited within it whereby such Exhalations were raised as made the Firmament That is the thicker Parts of them made this Region of the Air which is the lower firmament verse 20 And the thinner Parts of them made the Aether or higher Firmament wherein the Sun and the Planets are seated verse 14 15. Ver. 8. And God called the firmament Heaven Made it so different from the rest of the Mass called Earth that it had the Name of Heaven to distinguish it from the other So all above the Earth is called as appears by the following part of the Chapter in the Verses now mentioned And that 's the very import of the word Schamaim which in the Arabick Language as Aben Ezra observes signifies heighth or altitude And the Evening and the Morning were the second Day This was the Work of another whole Day Concerning which it is commonly noted That it is not said of this as of all the Works of the other five Days God saw that it was good What the reason of this should be is enquired by all Interpreters and the most solid Account that I can find of it is this That the Waters mentioned upon this Day were not yet separated and distinguished from the Earth And therefore in the next Day 's Work when he did gather the Waters together verse 10. and when he commanded the Earth which was become dry to bring forth verse 1.2 these words God saw that it was good are twice repeated Which made Picherellus and Ger. Vossius think the two next Verses 9 10. belonged to the second Days Work and that the first words of the ninth Verse should be thus translated And God had said Let the Waters under the Heaven c. And so the words in the end of the tenth Verse God saw that it was good relate to the second Day L. 2. de Orig. Idolol c. 67. Ver. 9. And God said Let the Waters under the Heaven All the Waters which continued mixed with the Earth and covered the surface of it Be gathered together c. Collected into one Body by themselves And let the dry Land appear Distinct and separate from the Waters There being such large portions of Matter drawn out of the CHAOS as made the Body of Fire and Air before-mentioned there remained in a great Body only Water and Earth but they so jumbled together that they could not be distinguished It was the Work therefore of the third Day to make a separation between them by compacting together all the Particles which make the Earth which before was Mud and Dirt and then by raising it above the Waters which covered its Superficies as the Psalmist also describes this Work Psalm CIV 6. and lastly by making such Caverns in it as were sufficient to receive the Waters into them Now this we may conceive to have been done by such Particles of Fire as were left in the Bowels of the Earth Whereby such Nitro-sulphureous Vapours were kindled as made an Earthquake which both lifted up the Earth and also made Receptacles for the Waters to run into as the Psalmist otherwise I should not venture to mention this seems in the fore-mentioned place to illustrate it Psalm CIV 7. where he says At thy rebuke they i. e. the Waters fled at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away And so God himself speaks Job XXXVIII 10. I brake up for it i. e. for the Sea my decreed place and set bars and doors Histories also tell us of Mountains that have been in several Ages lifted up by Earthquakes nay Islands in the midst of the Sea Which confirms this Conjecture That possibly the Waters were at the first separated by this means and so separated that they should not return to cover the Earth For the Word in the beginning of this Verse which we translate gathered comes from Kav which signifies a Square a Rule or perpendicular Line And therefore denotes they were most exactly collected and so poised in such just Proportions that they should not again overflow the dry Land This Work of God whereby the Waters were sent down into their proper Channels and the Earth made dry and fitted for the habitation of such Creatures as were afterwards created is observed by Strabo in his Geography as an act of Divine Providence L. XVII Because says he the Water covered the Earth and Man is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Creature that can live in the Water God made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. many Cavities and Receptacles in the Earth for the Water and raised the Earth above it that it might be fit for Man's habitation Ver. 10. And called the dry Land c. This is sufficiently explained by what hath been said upon Verse 5 8. only this may be added That the word Eretz Earth in Arabick signifies any thing that is low and sunk beneath opposite to Schamaim Heavens which in that Language as I noted before signifies high and lifted up Ver. 11. And God said Let the Earth bring forth grass the Herb yielding c. Or rather it should be translated and the Herb yielding
c. though the copula be omitted which is usual in Scripture Particularly in Habak III. 11. the Sun Moon i. e. the Sun and Moon Moses having shown how the first Matter ver 2. and then the Elements of things as we call them ver 3 6 9 10. were produced he proceeds to the Production of more compounded Bodies And here an account is given of all sorts of Vegetables which are ranged under three Heads Grass which comes up every Year without sowing Herbs bearing a Seed which comprehends as Abarbinel here notes all sort of Corn and whatsoever is sown and Trees which also bear Fruit. There are several kinds of all these which some have cast into Eighteen others into Six and thirty Classes none of which could at the first spring out of the Earth of it self by the power of external and internal Heat and of the Water mixed with it no not so much as one single Pile of Grass without the Almighty Power and Wisdom of God who brought together those Parts of Matter which were fitted to produce them and then formed every one of them and determined their several Species and also provided for their continuance by bringing forth Seed to propagate their Species to the end of all things And here it is very remarkable how God hath secured the Seeds of all Plants with singular Care Some of them being defended by a double nay a treble inclosure Ver. 12. And the Earth brought forth Grass and the Herb c. These things did not grow up out of Seed by such a long process as is now required to bring them to maturity but they sprung up in their Perfection in the space of a Day with their Seeds in them compleatly formed to produce the like throughout all Generations Thus Moses gives a plain Account of the first Production of things according to the natural Method For supposing they had a Beginning the Herb and the Tree must naturally be before the Seed they bear As the Hen is before the Egg she lays And to make a Question which was first as some of the Philosophers did is very frivolous because that Power which alone could produce the Seeds of all things could as easily make the things themselves with a power to propage their kind by Seed It is therefore most judiciously noted by Abarbinel a learned Jew That the Production of Plants in the beginning differed from their Production ever since in these two things First That they have sprung ever since out of Seed either sown by us or falling from the Plants themselves but at the beginning were brought out of the Earth with their Seed in them to propage them ever after And Secondly They need now as they have done since the first Creation the influence of the Sun to make them sprout But then they came forth by the Power of God before there was any Sun which was not formed till the next Day Of this last Theophilus Antiochenus long before Abarbinel took notice L. II. ad Autolycum where he says God produced things in this order foreseeing the Vanity of Philosophers who saying nothing of him made all things to be produced by the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the Elements Porphyry himself also L. II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could observe out of Theophrastus That the Earth brought forth Trees and Herbs before Beasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Which Eusebius remembers in his Praepar Evang. L. I. c. 9. p. 28. Ver. 14. Let there be Lights This is a different word from what we had verse 3. signifying as Paulus Fagius observes that which is made out of Light luminous Bodies whereby Light is communicated to us The Hebrew Particle Mem before a word being used to express the Instrument of an Action And so now we are to conceive that the Light produced at first having for three Days circulated about the Earth and that near unto it to further the Production of the things before-mentioned was on this fourth Day distributed into several Luminaries at a great distance from the Earth So it follows In the firmament of Heaven in the upper Region which we call the Aether or Sky where the Sun and the Planets are placed To divide the Day from the Night By a continued circular Motion finished in four and twenty Hours in one part of which by the presence of the Sun the Day is made and in the other part by the Sun's absence Night is made in a constant succession And let them be for Signs and for Seasons That is for Signs of the Times or Seasons as Ger. Vossius expounds it by the Figure of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And by Times are meant the Spring Summer Autumn and Winter And by consequence the Seasons for Ploughing Sowing Planting Pruning Reaping Vintage Sailing c. L. de Scientiis Mathemat c. 38. And for Days and Years By a speedy swift Motion round in twenty-four Hours to make Days and by a slower longer Motion to make Years and a grateful variety of Seasons in the several Parts of the Earth which by this annual Motion are all visited with the Sun's Beams Ver. 15. And let them be for Light c. i. e. Let them there continue to give constant Light and Warmth to the Earth And so they do immovably Ver. 16. And God made two great Lights It is observable that nothing is said to have been created since the first Matter out of which all things were made or formed And the two great Lights or Luminaries Inlightners as the word signifies are the Sun which inlightens us by Day and the Moon which inlightens us by Night The Moon indeed is not so great as the rest of the Planets for it is the least of all except Mercury but it affords the greatest Light to us by reflecting the Beams of the Sun to us in its absence and thereby very much abating the disconsolate darkness of the Night He made the Stars also That is the rest of the Planets and their attendants Ver. 17. And God set them in the Firmament of Heaven c. By the repetition of this so often Moses intended to fix in the Peoples Mind this Notion That though the heavenly Bodies be very Glorious yet they are but Creatures made by God and set or appointed by his Order to give us Light And therefore he alone is to be worshipped not they It is commonly taken notice of that there is no mention of the Creation of Angels in all this History nor was there any need of it For the ancient Idolatry consisting in the worship of the Sun Moon and Stars as appears from the very Names of the most ancient Idols in the Old Testament such as Moloch Ashtaroth and the like which they believed to be eternal Beings The great Design of Moses was to confute this Opinion by representing them over and over as the Work of the Eternal God which struck at the very Root of Idolatry The worship of
Angels was a later invention Ver. 18. And to rule over the day and over the Night Some have fansied that the ancient Idolatry sprung from this word Rule Men looking upon these glorious Lights as having a dominion over them Whence the Sun was called Baal that is Lord or Governor by the Eastern People and Moloch that is King by the Egyptians But one word sure was not the ground of so foul an Error when the scope of Moses was to show that these things were made by an higher Being and made not to rule over Men but over the Day and the Night which the Sun makes when it rises and sets by the order and appointment of God And God saw that it was good He was pleased with this Work as suitable to the Ends for which he intended it The first Light was good ver 4. for the purpose to which it served which was by its heat to agitate rarefie and separate the Matter of the CHAOS for the making of Air and gathering together the Waters and drying the Earth and producing Grass Herbs and Trees which made it necessary it should continue some Days near to the Earth that it might powerfully penetrate into the Matter it was to digest But if it should have continued longer so near to the Earth it would not have been good for it because it would have burnt up all the Plants that the Earth had brought forth and by its too scorching heat have hindred the Production of those living Creatures which were ready on the next Day to be made or at least made the Earth unfit for their habitation For the Air which all living things even Fishes themselves need nay the Plants also which have Vessels for conveying Air to all their Parts would have been so very hot that it would have afforded no refreshment to them Therefore it was good that it should be advanced into the Firmament of the Heaven and there embodied in those Luminaries which being removed further from us give such a moderate heat as is necessary for the preservation of us and of all things living that dwell upon the Earth Ver. 19. And the Evening c. Thus the fourth Day concluded Ver. 20. And God said Let the Waters c. Now God proceeded to form the lower sort of Animals or living Creatures viz. The Fish and the Fowl which are in many respects inferior to Beasts And the Fishes are called moving in the Hebrew creeping Creatures because their Bellies touch the Water as creeping things do the Earth Both Fishes and Fowls were made out of the Waters that is out of such Matter as was mixed with the Waters which contained in them many things besides simple Water for the Sea and Rivers are still very richly furnished with various Compounds for the nourishment of an innumerable multitude of Fishes The great congruity that there is between Fish and Fowl in many particulars will not let us doubt they had the same Original For they are both oviparous which makes them more fruitful than the Beasts of the Earth neither of them have any Teats they both direct and as I may say steer their Course by their Tail c. See Ger. Vossius de Orig. Progr Idolol L. III. c. 78. Bring forth abundantly That is various sorts of both kinds there being many hundred kinds of Fishes and Birds or Fowls many of the latter of which live in the Water which shows their Original to have been from thence and others of them live both in the Air and Water The formation of these Creatures is in every part of them very wonderful especially in those parts whereby they are fitted to swim and to fly Which demonstrate a most wise Agent by whose infinite Power they were so contrived as to be able also to propagate their Kind Ver. 21. And God created great Whales The vastness of these Creatures perhaps made Moses again use the word Create which he had not done since the beginning of the Chapter not because they were made as the CHAOS was out of Nothing but because it required a greater Power to make out of the precedent Matter moving things of so huge a Bulk and of such great Agility than to make any other thing hitherto formed The Hebrew word Tanim which we translate Whales comprehends several sorts of great Fishes as Bochartus observes in his Hierozoic P. 1. L. I. c. 7. where he shows the prodigious bigness of some of them But he should have added that this word also signifies Crocodiles which he himself shows are set forth in Job XLI as the most astonishing Work of God For Job Ludolphus I think hath demonstrated that nothing but the Crocodile can be meant by this word Tanim in Ezek. XXIX 3. and XXXII 2. and some other places Vid. L. I. Comment in Histor Aethiop Cap. XI n. 86. And God saw that it was good Was pleased with the Structure of these several Creatures Of the Birds who were furnished with Wings to fly in the Air and of the Fishes whose Fins serve them to swim in the Water and of Water-Fowl whose Feet are formed so as to serve for the same use and some of them such as dive under Water covered so thick with Feathers and those so smooth and slippery as the Learned and Pious Mr. Ray hath observed that their Bodies are thereby defended from the cold of the Water which cannot penetrate or moisten them See Wisdom of God in the Creation P. I. p. 135. Ver. 22. And God blessed them c. His blessing them was giving them a Power to Multiply and Increase till they had filled the Water with Fish and the Air with Fowl Which required a particular Care of Divine Providence as Abarbinel observes because they do not bring forth young Ones perfectly formed as the Beasts do but lay their Eggs in which they are formed when they are out of their Bodies This saith he is a wonderful thing That when the Womb as we may call it is separate from the Genitor a living Creature like it self should be produced Which is the reason he fansies that a Blessing is here pronounced upon them and not on the Beasts that were made the next Day The ancient Fathers are wont to observe That the first Blessing was given to the Waters as a Type of Baptism Theophilus ad Autolyc L. II. and Tertullian de Baptismo cap. 3. And let Fowl multiply in the Earth There for the most part they have their Habitation and their Food though some live upon the Water Ver. 23. See verse 19. Ver. 24. And God said Let the Earth bring forth Thus by a gradual process the Divine Power produced Creatures still more Noble The Matter being more digested and prepared in five Days time than it was at first I do not know whether there be any weight in the Note of Abarbinel who observes that Moses here uses a new word which we translate bring forth to show the difference between Plants
and Fore-appointing what we intend to do Purity and Holiness likewise seem to be comprehended in this As may be gathered from the Apostle Coloss III. 10. For the new Man consists in righteousness and true holiness Ephes IV. 24. But though he was created with a Faculty to judge aright and with a Power to govern his Appetite which he could controul more easily than we can do now yet he was not made immutably good quia hoc Soli Deo cedit which belongs to God alone as Tertullian excellently discourses in that place but might without due care be induced to do evil as we see he did For an habituated confirmed estate of Goodness was even then to have been acquired by Watchfulness and Exercise Whereby in process of time he might have become so stedfast that he could not have been prevailed upon by any Temptation to do contrary to his Duty And let them have dominion c. Some have thought the Image of God consisted in this alone See Greg. Nyssen cap. 4. De Opific Hom. p. 143. Which rather follows upon Man's being made in God's Image viz. An intelligent being which gave him Dominion over other things that are not indued with such Understanding I conclude this Note with a very pertinent Observation of his in that Book cap. 16. That Moses speaks more Magnificently of Man than any Philosopher ever did For they could say nothing of him beyond this That he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little World But according to the Churches account his Greatness consists not in his Likeness to the created World but in his being made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the Image of the Nature of the Creator of all things Over all the Earth Over all four-footed Creatures in the Earth though never so wild as Bochartus observes Ver. 27. And God created Man in his own Image From these words Origen gathers there is a great deal of difference between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Image and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Likeness because though God said verse 26. Let us make Man in our Image and after our Likeness yet here he is said to have made him only in his own Image and not for the present after his Likeness For that saith he Lib. IV. contra Celsum is reserved to the other World when as St. John says 1 Epist III. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we shall be like him But this seems too curious No doubt God made Man just as he designed in such a compleat resemblance of himself that there is no Creature like to Man no more than God hath any equal to himself As some of the Hebrew Doctors explain this Matter And therefore Moses repeats it again In the Image of God created he him To imprint upon the Minds of Men a Sense of the great Dignity of Humane Nature which was foully debased by worshipping any Creature Male and Female created he them He made Woman the same Day he made Man as he did both Sexes of all other living Creatures and as he made Herbs and Plants with Seed in them to propagate their Species on the same Day they were produced It is plain by this also That Woman as well as Man was made in the Image of God And it seems to be pertinently observed by Abarbinel That Moses here again uses the word Create and that three times to denote the Original of Humane Souls which are not made out of pre-existent Matter as our Bodies are but by the Power of God when they had no Being at all Ver. 28. And God blessed them c. The former part of this Blessing be fruitful and multiply God had bestowed before verse 22. upon other Creatures Unto which he adds two things here replenish the Earth and subdue it He gives them the whole Earth for their Possession with a Power to subdue it That is to make it fit for their Habitation by bringing under or driving away wild Beasts For Secondly he gives them the Dominion unto which he designed them in their Creation over all other Creatures whether in the Water Air or Earth And he speaks to them in the Plural Number which is a demonstration that Man and Woman were both created and received his Blessing on the same Day Ver. 29. Behold I have given you c. Here he assigns them their Food and makes no mention at all of Beasts but only of Plants and Fruits of the Earth For Beasts being made by pairs in their several Species we may well suppose as Man and Woman were and not being yet multiplied the killing of Beasts Birds and Fishes would have been the destruction of the kind Whereas there were Plants innumerable and great variety of Fruit for their sustenance And therefore here being no grant made to them of Animals for their Food though no prohibition neither it is very probable they abstained from eating Flesh till after the Flood when God expresly gave them every living thing for Meat as much as the Herbs IX 2. unless it were upon some special occasions As perhaps when they sacrificed living Creatures which they did in process of time IV. 4 though not at the first Ver. 30. And to every Beast c. Here he gives to the Beast and Fowl and Creeping things all Herbs for their Food but saith nothing of Fruit from which we cannot well think the Birds would abstain And therefore they are included in the Phrase of every green Herb. Ver. 31. Very good From these words Epiphanius confutes the Manichees Haeres LXVI n. 18. where there is an explanation of this Phrase God saw that it was good throughout this whole Chapter Where it being said at the end of every Day 's Work God saw it was good and particularly here on the Sixth Day before he had quite ended the Work of it he saith so of the formation of the Beasts ver 25. Abarbinel will have this to relate peculiarly to the Creation of Man and Woman But the beginning of the Verse plainly shows that he speaks of every thing that he had made And therefore their Doctors in Bereschith Rabba whom he mentions say a great deal better That Man is meant in the first and principal place when Moses says God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good CHAP. II. MOSES having given a short Account of the orderly Production of all things from the meanest to the noblest explains more largely in this Chapter some things which were delivered briefly in the foregoing because he would not too much interrupt the coherence of his discourse about the Works of the Six Days Particularly he relates how Eve was made and also further illustrates the Production of Adam c. Ver. 1. Thus the Heavens and the Earth i. e. The visible World Were finished Brought to that Perfection wherein we see them And all the host of them That is all Creatures in Heaven and in Earth which are called Host or Army because of their vast
indeed L. I. de gubern Dei thinks this Speech proceeded from Atheism and that in those early days the opinion sprung up which in his time had infected many Deum terrestria non respicere c. That God did not mind what we do on Earth but the foulest Fact may be covered with a Lye But this Conceit is confuted by the very question which is put to Cain Ver. 10. And he said What hast thou done Consider what an heinous Crime thou hast committed which cannot be concealed from me For The Voice of thy Brother's Blood cryeth c Calls for speedy and severe Vengeance In the Hebrew it is Bloods in the plural Number because say the Hebrew Doctors he killed Abel and all his Posterity which were in his Loins According to what we read 2 Kings IX 26. I have seen the Blood of Naboth and the Blood of his Sons though we read of no body stoned but Naboth himself saith the LORD and I will requite thee in this Plat c. See Sanhedrim Cap. IV. and Excerpt Gemara Cap. VI. N. 7. à Joh. Coch. Ver. 11. And now thou art cursed from the Earth which hath opened c. I pass a Sentence of perpetual banishment upon thee from this Country which hath drunk in the Blood of thy Brother Hitherto Adam and his Children had lived together but now as Aben Ezra well observes Cain was banished into a Region far off from his Father Who dwelt in the Neighbourhood of Paradise Ver. 12. And when thou tillest the Ground c. And wheresoever thou shalt flee the Earth which thou tillest shall be barren and not bring forth answerable to thy Labour A Fugitive and a Vagabond shalt thou be in the Earth In that strange Country thou shalt have no rest but wander up and down unquietly and not know where to settle Or as the LXX translate the Words go about groaning and trembling full of anguish in thy Mind and with a continual shaking in thy Body Thus St. Basil in his Homily against Drunkenness understood it when he said A Drunkard draws upon himself the Curse of Cain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Staggering and turned about uncertainly all his life long Hen. Valesius thinks his Brother's Ghost haunted him whithersoever he went Which made him run from place to place to avoid its persecution So he paraphrases these Words Annot. in L. III. Euseb Hist Eccles Cap. 6. Vmbra fratris tui quem occidisti persequetur te ubique aderit infesta And so he interprets the foregoing Words The Voice of thy Brother's Blood cryeth to me from the Ground Thy Brother whom thou hast impiously slain requires me to avenge him and exact the punishment of thee which is due for his Murder And indeed it was a Notion not only among the Pagans but among the Jews also as he shows that the Ghosts of those who were murdered persecuted their Murderers and required punishment of them Ver. 13. My punishment is greater than I can bear This is too heavy a Punishment for I sink under the weight of it Others interpret it as appears by the Margin of our Bible My sin is unpardonable or too great to be forgiven Thus he who at first was not so sensible of his Sin as to confess it now thinks it to no purpose to beg Mercy Ver. 14. Behold thou hast driven me this Day from the face of the Earth Banished me as was said before Verse 11. from my own Native Country And from thy Face shall I be hid And more than that I am banished from thy blessed Presence as appears from verse 16. and shall not have the liberty to come before thy Glorious Majesty With respect to which he may be said to have been excommunicated though not in the full sence of that Word as Mr. Selden shows L. I. de Synedr C. II. p. 446 455 c. And I shall be a fugitive c. Wandring up and down in unknown Regions And it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me I shall be look'd upon as a common Enemy So that whosoever lights upon me taking me for a dangerous Person will kill me To find another in Scripture-Language signifies to fall upon him by chance or unawares without any precedent hatred As Bochart observes from 1 Sam. XXIV 14. and other places L. II. Hierozoic P. I. cap. 21. Ver. 15. And the LORD said unto him Therefore whoso slayeth Cain c. Or as the word we translate therefore may be rendred not so It shall not be as thou suspectest But Lud. de Dieu gives many Instances where this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used as an Affirmative signifying as much as surely So the meaning is Take it for a certain truth That if any Man slay Cain he that is Cain shall be avenged seven fold or rather through seven Generations God will punish the slaughter of Cain a long time For the Number seven is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Chronic. Except before Joh. Antiochenus speak an Indication of an indeterminate but great Number signifying as much as he shall endure many Punishments For God intended the life of Cain should be prolonged in a miserable estate as an Example of his Vengeance to deterr others from committing the like murder And the LORD set a mark upon Cain c. What this Mark was we must be content to be ignorant Some think God stigmatized him with a Letter of his Name in his Forehead or rather I should think set such a Brand upon him as signified him to be accursed others That he look'd most frightfully so that every Body avoided him or that his Head shaked continually or as others he had a trembling in his whole Body or his Face perhaps was blasted by Lightning from the Presence of the LORD Certain it is that it was some notorious Mark of God's Displeasure Which made Men shun him For we must not imagine there was no Body in the World at this time but Adam Eve and Cain But consider that the Design of this Holy Book is not to give us a particular Account of the whole Race of Mankind descended from Adam who no doubt had a great many more Children than Cain and Abel and they also bad Children before this hapned but only of those Persons who were most remarkable and whose Story was necessary to be known for the understanding of the Succession down to Moses his time Accordingly we read presently after this that Cain had a Wife and more than that he built a City Which supposes a great Company of People to inhabit it verse 17. And here by the way we need not wonder there is no mention made of the Institution of Sacrifices when the first Peopling of the World is only supposed not related Ver. 16. And Cain went out Not voluntarily but by the force of the Divine Curse From the presence of the LORD There was a Divine Glory called by the Jews the
go down into the Valley where the Children of Cain lived The same Author viz. Patricides with Elmacinus also says that they were inveigled to break this Oath by the Beauty of Naamah before-mentioned IV. 22. and the Musick of her Brother Jubal For the Cainites spent their time in Feasting Musick Dancing and Sports Which allured the Children of Seth to come down and marry with them Whereby all manner of Impurity Impiety Idolatry Rapine and Violence filled the whole Earth and that with impunity as Eusebius observes L. VII Praepar c. 8. This Moses here takes notice of that he might give the reason why the whole posterity of Seth even those who sprang from that holy Man Enoch except Noah and his Family were overflown with the Deluge as well as the race of Cain Because they had defiled themselves with their cursed Affinity and thereby were corrupted with their wicked Manners Ver. 3. And the LORD said Resolved with himself My Spirit Either speaking by his Prophets such as Enoch had been and Noah was Or working inwardly in all Men's Hearts Shall not always strive with Man Chide and Reprove them and thereby endeavour to bring them to Repentance but proceed to punish them There are several other Interpretations which may be seen in all Commentators Which to me seem more forced than this For that he also is Flesh For that besides his wicked actions he is grown wholly Fleshly in his inclinations and affections He savours nothing but carnal things and consequently is incurable Or as others expound it even the best of them the Children of Seth are become fleshly Men. Yet his days shall be an Hundred and twenty years I will not destroy Mankind presently but have patience with them so long that it may appear I would willingly have saved them Ver. 4. There were Giants in the Earth Men of vast Stature and Strength which tempted them to oppress others by Violence For so several of the Ancients Translate the Hebrew word Nephilim by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Violent Men who carried all before them by main force Tyrants who filled the World with Rapines and Murders and all manner of wickedness having society with the Devil as Eusebius understands it L. VII praepar c. 8 in infernal Arts which they introduced Josephus calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 insolent contemners of all the Laws of God and Man Which made Origen look upon them only as impious Atheists But no doubt the extraordinary Bulk and Strength of their Body is also intended In those days i. e. Before the Sons of God married with the Daughters of Men. For these Giants were produced by those who went down and mixed with the posterity of Cain in the days of Jared As both Elmacinus and Patricides understand it And also after that when the Sons of God came in unto the Children of Men and they bare Children to them The word Children is not in the Hebrew and it better agrees with what goes before to translate it Even they bare Giants unto them Besides those which were before there was a new Race of Gigantick Persons begot by the Sons of God on the Daughters of Men. The same became mighty Men. Of great Power as well as Strength of Body Which were of old This may referr either to what goes before or to that which follows Men of renown Of great Undertakings and adventurous Actions Which got them a great Name in Ancient time But they were no less famous for their Wickedness than for their Valorous and great Exploits for by their means all Mankind were over-run with Impiety as it follows in the next Verse Ver. 5. God saw the wickedness of Man that it was great c. All sorts of Wickedness in an high degree overspread the whole Earth And that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart c. And that there were no hopes of their amendment their very minds being so set upon Wickedness that they thought of nothing else but how to satisfie their Lusts In the Margin it is their whole Imagination i. e. all the designs and contrivances of all the Men of that Age and this continually Day and Night were only Rapine Filthiness and all manner of Evil. Ver. 6. And God repented c. God can neither properly repent nor be grieved But such Expressions signify he resolved to do as Men do who when they repent of any thing endeavour to undo it And so it here follows Ver. 7. The LORD said I will destroy Man whom I have created c. Though they be my Creatures I am resolved to have no pity upon them but to abolish them and all things else upon the Earth For that sort of punishment which God intended would in its own nature sweep all away For it repenteth me that I have made them See Verse 6. This represents how highly God was offended that he would leave nothing of the old World remaining but only to preserve the Seed of a new one Ver. 8. But Noah found grace c. This single Person God resolved to spare because as it follows he continued untainted in the midst of an universal Contagion Ver. 9. These are the generations of Noah An account of his Family Or as Paulus Fagius who upon XXXVII 2. expounds the Word we translate Generations to signifie Events These are the things which befel Noah and his Family Which way soever we expound this the next Words are inserted by a Parenthesis as a Character of Noah who was A just Man Free from that Violence which the rest committed And perfect in his generations Not guilty of any of those other Sins which every where abounded And Noah walked with God Not only did well but was addicted as we speak to it continuing constant in the way of Righteousness Ver. 10. And Noah begat three Sons c. Ver. 32. Ver. 11. The Earth also was corrupt before God The Jewish Doctors say That by corruption is always understood either filthiness or forbidden mixtures or else Idolatry Some take the first to be here meant and then the next words Filled with Violence denote their perverting of Justice taking Bribes and oppressing Men by open force But others think it better by corruption to understand Idolatry And then this Generation is accused of the two highest Crimes that can be committed the one of which is between Man and his Neighbour and the other between Man and God The highest degree of the former is when they that sit in Judgment make Unrighteous Decrees Which R. Solomon thinks is principally meant in these Words the Earth was filled with Violence See Mr. Selden L. V. de Jure N. G. c. 9. latter end However we understand the Words they point at some special enormous Sins which are only comprehended in general Words before Ver. 12. God looked upon the Earth c. No fruits of God's long-suffering appearing he resolved to visit Men for their Wickedness Which had rather increased than been
not compleat as appears by comparing this with IX 28 29. where he is said to have lived three hundred and fifty Years after the Flood and in all nine hundred and fifty Whereas it should have been nine hundred fifty one if he had been full six hundred Years old when the Flood began V. 10. And it came to pass after seven Days c. As he had said verse 4. Ver. 11. In the second Month. Of the Year not of the six hundredth Year of Noah's life i. e. In October for anciently the Year began in September Which was changed among the Israelites in Memory of their coming out of Egypt into March Exod. XII 2. The seventeenth Day of the Month. Which was the beginning of our November All the Fountains of the great deep were broken up c. Here are two Causes assigned of the Deluge First The breaking up the Fountains of the great Deep And Secondly The opening the Windows of Heaven By the great Deep is meant those Waters that are contained in vast quantities within the Bowels of the Earth Which being pressed upward by the falling down of the Earth or some other Cause unknown to us gushed out violently at several parts of the Earth where they either found or made a vent For that 's meant by breaking up the Fountains of the great Deep The great holes or rather gaps that were made in the Earth at which those subterraneous Waters burst out This joined with the continual Rains for forty Days together might well make such a Flood as is here described For Rain came down not in ordinary Showers but in Floods Which Moses calls opening the Windows or Flood-gates of Heaven And the LXX translate Cataracts Which they can best understand who have seen those fallings of Waters in the Indies called Spouts Where Clouds do not break into Drops but fall with a terrible violence in a Torrent In short it is evident from this History that the Waters did once cover the Earth we know not how deep so that nothing of the Earth could be seen till God separated them and raised some into Clouds and made the rest fall into Channels which were made for them and commanded dry Land to appear Gen. I. 2 7 10. Therefore it is no wonder if these Waters were raised up again by some means or other to cover the Earth as before Especially when the Waters above the Firmament came down to join with those below as they did at the beginning This some wise Heathen look'd upon as a possible thing For Seneca treating of that fatal Day as he calls it L. III. Nat. Quest c. 27. when the Deluge shall come for he fansied it still Future questions how it may come to pass Whether by the force of the Ocean overflowing the Earth or by perpetual Rains without intermission or by the swelling of Rivers and the opening of new Fountains or there shall not be one Cause alone of so great a mischief but all these things concurr uno agmine ad exitium humani generis in one Troop to the Destruction of Mankind Which last Resolution he thinks is the Truth both there and in the last Chapter of that Book Where he hath these remarkable Words Where hath not Nature disposed Moisture to attack us on all sides when it pleases Immanes sunt in abdito lacus c. There are huge Lakes which we do not see much of the Sea that lies hidden many Rivers that slide in secret So that there may be Causes of a Deluge on all sides when some Waters flow in under the Earth others flow round about it which being long pent up overwhelm it and Rivers join with Rivers Pools with Pools c. And as our Bodies sometimes dissolve into Sweat so the Earth shall melt and without the help of other Causes shall find in it self what will drown it c. There being on a sudden every where openly and secretly from above and from beneath an eruption of Waters Which Words are written as if he had been directed to make a Commentary upon Moses Ver. 12. And the Rain was upon the Earth forty Days c. It continued raining so long without any intermission Ver. 13. In the self-same Day c. In that very Day when the Rain began did Noah and his Family c. finish their going into the Ark. Which could not be done in a Day or two but required a good deal of time And now he had compleated it the very last Creature being there bestowed For it is likely he put in all other things first and then went in himself with his Wife and Children and their Wives Who were no sooner entred but the Waters brake in upon the Earth from beneath and came down pouring from above Ver. 16. The LORD shut him in Or shut the Door after him Closed it so fast that the Waters could not enter though it was not pitched as the rest of the Ark. How this was done we need not enquire It is likely by an Angelical Power which I supposed before conducted the several Creatures into the Ark. Ver. 17. And the Flood was forty Days upon the Earth c. After forty Days Rain the Waters were so high that they bare up the Ark so that it did not touch the Earth Ver. 18. And the Waters prevailed By more Rain which fell after the forty Days the Inundation grew strong and mighty as the Hebrew word signifies so strong that the Waters bore down Houses and Trees as some expound it And were increased greatly He said before verse 17. they were increased but now that they were greatly increased Which must be by more Rain still falling on the Earth though not in such uninterrupted Showers as during the forty Days And the Ark went upon the Face of the Waters Moved from place to place as the Waves drove it Ver. 19. And the Waters prevailed exceedingly upon the Earth This is an higher Expression than before signifying their rising still to a greater pitch by continued Rains And all the high Mountains that were under the whole Heaven were covered There were those anciently and they have their Successors now who imagined the Flood was not Universal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but only there where Men then dwelt as the Author of the Questions Ad Orthodoxos tells us Q. 34. But they are confuted by these Words and by other Passages which say all Flesh died For the truth is the World was then fully peopled as it is now and not only inhabited in some Parts of it as may be easily demonstrated if Men would but consider That in the space of One thousand six hundred fifty six Years when Men lived so long as they then did their increase could not but be six times more than hath been in the space of Five thousand Years since Mens lives are shortned as we now see them Therefore it is a strange weakness to fansie that only Palaestine Syria or Mesopotamia or some such
Country was drowned by the Flood no more of the Earth being then inhabited For those Countries could not have held the fortieth part of the Inhabitants which were produced between the Creation and the Flood no all the Earth was not more than sufficient to contain them as many have clearly proved Plato says there were in his days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ancient Traditions which affirm'd there had been sundry destructions of Mankind by Floods as well as other ways In which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a small parcel of Mankind were left And particularly he saith concerning Floods That they were so great that only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some very little Sparks of Mankind were saved and those upon the tops of Mountains And the like he saith of Beasts That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very few of them were left to support the life of Mankind L. III. De Legib p. 677. Edit Seran But this appears to have been an imperfect Tradition the higher Mountains having been covered with the Waters as well as the low Countries and that all the Earth over Which need not seem strange if we consider what was said before upon Verse 11. And withal observe that the Diameter of the Earth being seven thousand Miles and consequently from the Superficies to the Center no less than Three thousand five hundred Miles it is not incredible as Sir W. Raleigh discourses L. I. c. 7. § 6. that there was Water enough in the great Deep which being forced up from thence might overflow the loftiest Mountains Especially when Water came pouring down also from above so fast that no Words can express it For there is no Mountain above thirty Miles high upright which thirty Miles being found in the Depths of the Earth One hundred and sixteen times why should we think it incredible that the Waters in the Earth Three thousand five hundred Miles deep might be well able to cover the space of thirty Miles in heighth It would help Mens unbelief if they would likewise consider the vast Inundations which are made yearly in Egypt only from the Rains that fall in Aethiopia And the like Overflowings yearly in America of the great River Orenoque whereby many Islands and Plains at other times inhabited are laid twenty Foot under Water between May and September Ver. 20. Fifteen Cubits upwards did the Waters prevail c. Moses doth not here plainly say That the Waters prevailed fifteen Cubits above the highest Mountains though I do not see but there might be Water enough heaped up by the fore-mentioned means to cover them so high And the whole Verse be thus interpreted The Waters prevailed fifteen Cubits upwards after the Mountains were covered Otherwise by the high Hills in the Verse before we must understand only such single Hills as are in several Countries and by Mountains in this Verse those long Ridges of Hills such as Caucasus and Taurus c. which stretch themselves many hundreds of Miles through a great part of the Earth See VIII 5. Ver. 24. And the Waters prevailed upon the Earth an hundred and fifty Days These words seem to me to import That whatsoever short intermissions there might be yet the Rain continued an Hundred and fifty Days Otherwise it is hard to explain how the Waters increased more and more as it is said verse 17 18 19. Besides had the Rain ended as we commonly suppose at forty Days end the Waters could not have prevailed an Hundred and fifty Days but would have sunk much before that time by reason of the declivity of the Earth And yet they were so far from falling that as Mr. Ray hath observed in his pious and learned Discourse of the Dissolution of the World the tops of Mountains were not seen till the beginning of the tenth Month that is till Two hundred and seventy Days were passed CHAP. VIII Ver. 1. AND God remembred Noah c. Took Compassion upon him and heard his Prayers which we may well suppose he made for himself and for all Creatures that were with him Thus the word remember is used XIX 29. XXX 22. The Hebrew Doctors here again take notice of the word Elohim See VI. 12. which is the Name for Judges and observe that even God's Justice was turned to Mercy Justice it self was satisfied as Sol. Jarchi expresses it And God made a Wind to pass over the Earth c. Some gather from hence that during the fall of the Rain there was no Storm or violent Wind at all but the Rain fell down-right And consequently the Ark was not driven far from the place where it was built It having no Masts or Sails but moving as a Hulk or Body of a Ship without a Rudder upon a calm Sea Philo indeed in his Book De Abrahamo gives a quite different Description of the Deluge representing the incessant Showers to have been accompanied with dreadful Thunder and Lightning Storms and Tempests But there is not a word in this Story to countenance it This Wind it is very probable was the North-Wind which is very drying and drives away Rain Prov. XXV 23. which came perhaps out of the South as I said upon VI. 14. Thus Ovid represents it in the Flood of Deucalion where he saith Jupiter Nubila disjecit nimbisque Aquilone remotis c. And the Waters asswaged This drying Wind and the Sun which now began to shine with great power made the Waters fall For if the Second Month when the Flood began was part of our October and November then the Flood abated after an Hundred and fifty Days in the beginning of May when the Summer came on apace Ver. 2. The Fountains also of the Deep There was no further irruption or boiling up of the Water out of the Bowels of the Earth And the Rain from Heaven was restrained So that the Rains ceased at the end of an Hundred and fifty Days Ver. 3. And the Waters returned from off the Earth continually c. The Waters rolling to and fro by the Wind fell by little and little And after the end of the Hundred and fifty Days began to decrease So the vulgar Latin well translates the latter end of this Verse were abated i. e. began sensibly to decrease Ver. 4. And the Ark rested in the seventh Month c. Of the Year not of the Flood Vpon the Mountains of Ararat i. e. Upon one of the Mountains as XIX 29. God overthrew the Cities in which Lot dwelt i. e. In one of which he dwelt Judg. XII 7. Jephtah was buried in the Cities of Gilead i. e. In one of the Cities For there was no one Mountain called by this Name of Ararat But it belonged to a long Ridge of Mountains like the Alps or Pyrenaean which are Names appertaining not to one but to all And Sir W. Raleigh I think truly judges that all the long Ridge of Mountains which run through Armenia Mesopotamia Assyria Media Susiana c. i. e. From Cilian to Paraponisus are called by
the Dove would stay the Earth it is likely remaining very chill Ver. 12. And he staid yet other seven Days See Verse 10. The Observation there being confirm'd by what is repeated here Returned not again to him any more There wanting neither Food nor a Nest wherein to repose it self By which Noah understood the Earth was not only dry and fit to be inhabited But that it was not quite spoiled by the Flood but would afford Food for all Creatures Ver. 13. Noah removed the covering of the Ark. Some of the Boards on the top For he could see further by looking out there than if he look'd out at the Door or the Window which gave him a prospect but one way The face of the Ground was dry Quite freed from Water but yet so soft and muddy that it was not fit to be inhabited As appears by his staying still almost two Months more before he thought fit to go out So the following Verse tells us Ver. 14. In the second Month c. If their Months were such as ours twelve of which make Three hundred sixty five Days then Noah staid in the Ark a whole Year and ten Days as appears by comparing this Verse with VII 11. But if they were Lunar Months which is most probable then he was in the Ark just one of our Years Going out on the Three hundred and sixty fifth Day after his entrance into it Was the Earth dried Perfectly dried so that no moisture remained and Grass it is likely was sprung up for the Cattle It need not seem a wonder that Moses gives so punctual and particular an Account of this whole matter and of all that follows for he lived within Eight hundred Years of the Flood And therefore might very well know what had been done within that Period and easily tell how the World was peopled by the Posterity of Noah Which could not but be fresh in memory when Men lived so long that not much above three Generations had passed from the Flood to Moses For Shem who saw the Flood was contemporary with Abraham as he was with Jacob whose great Grand-Child was the Father of Moses Ver. 16. Go forth out of the Ark. Though he saw the Earth was fit to be inhabited yet he waited for God's Order to go out of the Ark as he had it for his entring into it Thou and thy Wife c. I do not think the Observation of some of the Jews is absurd who by comparing this Verse with VII 13. make this Collection That while they were in the Ark the Men did not cohabit with their Wives it being a time of great Affliction And therefore they kept asunder in separate Apartments So R. Elieser in his Pirke Cap. XXIII where R. Levitas thus gathers it When they went into the Ark it is said VII 13. Noah and his Sons entred and then Noah's Wife and his Sons Wives Behold saith he here the Men are put together and the Women together But when they come out it is here said Go forth thou and thy Wife and thy Sons and thy Sons Wives with thee lo here they are coupled together as before they were separated And so we find them again verse 18. where it is said Noah went forth and his Wife c. Ver. 17. Bring forth every living Creature c. that they may breed c. One would think by this that no Creature bred in the Ark no more than Men But now are sent forth to breed and multiply in the Earth Ver. 20. And Noah built an Altar to the LORD We never read of any built before this time Though we may reasonably conclude there was an Altar upon which Cain and Abel offered in the place appointed for Divine Worship Offered burnt-offerings He restores the ancient Rite of Divine Service which his Sons and their Posterity followed Some think these Burnt-Offerings had something in them of the Nature of a Propitiatory Sacrifice as well as Eucharistical which they certainly were for their Deliverance from the Flood Their Reason is taken from what follows Ver. 21. The LORD smelled a sweet savour That is as Munster understands it he ceased from his Anger and was appeased So the Syriack also and Josephus L. I. Antiq. c. 4. But it may signifie no more but that his Thankfulness was as grateful to God as sweet Odors are to us And the LORD said in his Heart He determined or resolved in himself The Vulgar understands this as if the LORD spake comfortably to Noah which in the Hebrew Phrase is speaking to ones Heart and said I will not again curse the Ground any more i. e. After this manner with a Deluge For the imagination of Man's Heart is evil from his Youth Such a proclivity there is in Men to evil that if I should scourge them thus as often as they deserve there would be no end of Deluges But the Words may have a quite different sence being connected with what went before in this manner I will not curse the Ground any more for Man's sake tho' he be so very evilly disposed c. Those Words from his Youth signify a long radicated corruption as appears from many places Isa XLVII 12 15. Jerem. III. 25. Ezek. XXIII 8 c. Sol. Jarchi extends it so far as to signifie from his Mother 's Womb. Ver. 22. While the Earth remaineth While Men shall inhabit the Earth Seed-time and Harvest c. There shall not be such a Year as this last has been In which there was neither Sowing nor Reaping nor any distinctions of Seasons 'till the Rain was done Day and Night shall not cease One would think by this expression that the Day did not much differ from Night while the Heavens were covered with thick Clouds which fell in dismal Floods of Rain CHAP. IX Ver. 1. AND God blessed Noah and his Sons c. The Divine Majesty appeared now to Noah and his Sons to assure them of his Favour and Protection and to renew the blessing bestowed upon Adam as after a new Creation saying Increase and Multiply Ver. 2. The fear of you c. He seems also to confirm to them the Dominion which God gave to Adam at first over all Creatures I. 26. Ver. 3. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you c. Here the first Grant made to Mankind concerning Food is enlarged as St. Basil observes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first Legislation granted to them the use of Fruits but now of all living Creatures which they are as freely permitted to eat of as formerly of all the Fruits of the Garden For God seeing Men to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contumacious as Greg. Nyss expresses it Tom. I. p. 157. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He conceded to them the enjoyment of all things This is the general fence of the Jews and of the Christian Fathers and of the first Reformers of Religion They that would have this only a renewal of such an old Charter
from whom came the Hebrew Nation as was said before Verse 21. Abraham being descended from him in the Sixth Generation All other derivations of the Name of Hebrew have great Objections lie against them but this hath none that I can see and is most agreeable to the Grammar of that Language in which all such Names ending in Jod as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth are noted to come either from a Place or Country or People or Author Therefore since there is no Country or Place from which the Name of Hebrew can be derived it is most reasonable to deduce it from the Author of this People Heber And it is authorized by that Speech of Balaam Numb XXIV 24. Where as by Ashur is meant the Assyrians so by Heber in all reason we are to understand the Hebrews Ver. 25. Peleg Either he or some of his Posterity in memory of him it is not unlikely gave Name to a Town upon Euphrates called Phalga not far from the place where the River Chaboras runs into it Upon which Charrah stood built by Charan the Brother of Abraham For in his Days was the Earth divided The great Dispersion which we read of in the following Chapter fell out just when he was born which made his Father call him by this Name signifying Division and Separation Which it appears by the Account given of his Ancestors XI from verse 10 to 16. hapned in the Hundred and first Year after the Flood In that Year the Tower of Babel and their Language were confounded upon which necessarily followed the Separation here mentioned The Age that preceeded from the Deluge to this Division is called by the ancient Poets the Golden Age as Bochart observes L. I. Phaleg c. 9. because the Earth not being divided they enjoyed all things in common And Noah whom they called Saturn governing them not as Kings do their Subjects but as Parents their Children not so much with Fear and Dread as with Love and Reverence to his fatherly Authority it made the World so happy as it hath not been since Joktan or Jektan The Brother of Peleg had a numerous Offspring of thirteen Sons all seated in the inmost parts of Arabia Foelix So the Arabians it is certain derive their own Original Who in this may as well be credited as the Europaeans who derive themselves from Japetus or Japhet and the Africans from Cham or Hammon They call him Cahtan as our Mr. Pocock as well as others observes by which Name the Arabick Paraphrast upon this place explains that of Jektan And this Cahtan they say expresly was the Son of Eber the Son of Salah c. From whence the Name of Catanitae a People in Arabia Foelix mention'd by Ptolomy and a City in the Territory of Mecha still retains the very Name of Jektan being called Baisath-Jektan i. e. the Seat or Habitation of Jektan in the Arabian Geographer See Mr. Pocock's Notes upon Abul-Farajus concerning the Original of the Arabians p. 38 39. Ver. 26. Almodad The eldest Son of Joktan seems to have given Name to the People whom Ptolomy calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the middle of Arabia Foelix near the Original of the River Lar which runs into the Persian Gulph The Greeks who knew little of this People who lived a great way from the Sea might easily mispronounce their Name calling them Allumaeotae instead of Almodaei Sheleph or Saleph Was it is likely the Father of the Salapeni For such a People there were mentioned by Ptolomy who calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who were remote from the rest about the Neck of Arabia not far from the Spring of the River Betius Hatzermaveth Though the Arabians write this Name with the very same Letters yet it sounds among them thus Hadramuth or Chadramuth Which the Greeks pronounce divers ways because of the ambiguous sound of the two Letters Tzadi and Cheth For sometimes he is called Asarmoth sometimes without an A. Sarmoth and Armoth and Atermoth as Bochartus hath observed Who thinks the Country called Chatramitis or Atramitis Chatramotis or Atramotis to have been peopled by the Children of this Hadramuth as the Arabians pronounce this Name Hatazmaveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salmasius shows is the Name of a City or Place and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a People or Nation Exercit. in Solin p. 489. And the same People he observes p. 490. are called by Artemidorus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose Country was that part of Arabia which abounded with Frankincense Myrrh Cassia and Cinnamon as Theophrastus tells us And Strabo calls them as he there notes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Vranius in Stephanus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So differently was this hard Word pronounced Who were so famous that Eustathius Antioch Eusebius and others make this Hatzermaveth the Father of the Arabians and Epiphanius derives their Language from him which they as was said before derive from Jektan himself looking upon the Dialect of Chadramitis as barbarous See Bochartus L. II. Phaleg c. 16. where he observes that Hatzermaveth in Hebrew signifies the Entrance of Death and Hadhramauth in Arabick the Region of Death Because the Air of that Country was very thick and foggy and consequently unwholsom as Arrianus relates who saith that the Frankincense and Myrrh were therefore gathered only by the King's Slaves and by condemned Persons Jerah or Jerach From whom came the People called Jerachaei who lived near the Red-Sea called by Agatharcides and others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alilaei Which is the very same in Arabick with the other in Hebrew For Hilal is the Moon in that Language as Jerach is in Hebrew And the Nubiensian Geographer mentions a People about Mecha who at this day are called Bene-hilal the Children of Jerach as the Hebrews would have expressed it It seems they are come more towards the East when anciently they dwelt in the South Ptolomy mentions also an Island upon the Coast of the Alilaei which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But it doth not signifie the Isle of Hawks as the Greeks fansied who imagined all these old words to come from their Tongue but of the Jerachaei Ver. 27. Hadoram He seems to have fixed his Seat in the utmost Corner of Arabia towards the East where there was a People whom Pliny calls Drimati A Name easily made from Hadoramus And the extream Promontory of that Country is called by the Greeks Corodamon by transposing the Letters D and R from Hadoramus I can find nothing more likely than this Conjecture of that great Man Bochartus who hath out-done all that went before him in this Argument L. II. Phaleg c. 20. Vzal Abraham Zachut as he also observes says the Jews who in his time dwelt there called the chief City of Aljeman by the Name of Vzal Now the Kingdom of Aljeman or Jeman is the South-part of Arabia Foelix As the very Name of Jeman imports which signifies both the Right-hand and the South Diklah Both in the Chaldee and
just at his Birth Which St. Austin takes to have been the reason why his Father called him Peleg quia tunc ei natus est quando per linguas terra divisa est because he was then born to him when the Earth was divided by their Languages But the Text doth not make this out for it only says in his Days the Earth was divided And the Thirteen Sons of Joktan Peleg's Brother who had their share in this division being not then born we must conclude that if this division began at Peleg's birth it was not finished 'till some Years after Elmacinus says in the Fortieth Year of Peleg's Age the Hebrews generally say at his Death See Hottinger's Smegma Orient p. 62. and 166. And they left off to build the Tower I see no reason to believe that God overturn'd it by a terrible Tempest as Epiphanius expresses it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is the Opinion of Josephus L. I. c. 5. Antiq. and Abydenus mention'd by Eusebius L. IX c. 4. Praepar Evang. and divers others of the Ancients Nor is there any ground for what others say particularly Benjamin Tudel in his Itinerary p. 77. that it was burnt by Fire from Heaven For Moses doth not intimate that it was either burnt or over-turned But only that they desisted from their Enterprize Which naturally ceased when they could no longer joyn to carry on the Building Which may rather lead us to think that the City and Tower stood long after this And that Bochart's Conjecture is not unreasonable That it was the very Tower which was afterward consecrated to Belus described by Herodotus L. I. For it is evident that though this City and Country lay waste for some time Men being frighted by the confusion of their Languages from living there yet Nimrod a bold Man came and made this the Seat of his Empire And it 's very probable carried on that Work which was broke off by the Dispersion For it is not said Gen. X. 10. that he built Babel as he did Niniveh and other Cities verse 11. but only that it was the beginning of his Kingdom the head City where he made his residence Ver. 9. Therefore is the Name of it called Babel Which signifies in Hebrew Confusion So frivolous is their Conceit who make it to have been called by this Name from Babylon the Son of Belus All the difficulty is to know who called it by this Name Some think the Children of Heber in whose Family the original Language continued But it may be as rationally conceived that in the confusion of Languages all retained some of the ancient words and particularly this By which they all commonly called this Place Confound the Language of all the Earth That is the Language of all those People who were in this Western Colony not the Language of Noah and his Plantation more Easterly who kept as I said the Primitive Language Scatter them abroad upon the face c. This Dispersion was so ordered that each Family and each Nation dwelt by it self Which could not well be done as Mr. Mede observes but by directing an orderly Division Either by casting of Lots or chusing according to their Birth-right after Portions of the Earth were set out according to the Number of their Nations and Families For otherwise some would not have been content to go so far North as Magog did and others suffered to enjoy more pleasant Countries Ver. 10. These are the Generations of Shem. It appears from the foregoing Chapter that these here mentioned were not all the Persons who descended from him But these were the Ancestors of Abraham whom Moses derives by these from Shem. Ver. 11. Lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred Years So that as he had seen Methuselah and Lamech before the Flood he might also see not only Abraham but his Son Isaac who by this Account was one and twenty Years old when Shem died Ver. 14. Begat Eber. Who was the Father of those from whom came the Hebrew Nation Abraham being descended from him in the sixth Generation And that Nation being called Eber Numb XXIV 24. and the Children of Eber Gen. X. 21. It is not reasonable as I observed before to seek for any other derivation of the Name of Hebrews Ver. 16. Peleg or Phaleg It is not unlikely that either he or some of his Posterity in memory of him gave Name to a Town upon Euphrates called Phalga Not far from the place where Chaborus runs into it upon which Harah or Charrah stood built by Haran Abraham's Brother Ver. 18. Reu or Ragau. As some pronounce the Hebrew word gave Name to a Field near Assyria Judith I. 5. or as Tobit saith in Media Where Strabo mentions a City called Raga and so doth Stephanus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the hundred and thirtieth Year of his life if we may believe Elmacinus p. 29. Nimrod began to Reign in Babylon And in his days also he says the Egyptian Kingdom began Which need not seem strange though scarce two hundred Years were passed since the Flood when we consider the vast increase of People in these Ages from a few Planters within such a compass of time And likewise the extraordinary fruitfulness which God after the Flood bestowed upon them for the Peopling of the Earth For he says twice to Noah and his Sons immediately after they came out of the Ark increase and multiply IX 1 7. and replenish the Earth From this Antiquity of the Egyptian Kingdom it is that the later Pharaohs called themselves the Sons of ancient Kings Isai XIX 11. In Reu's time also both the Egyptians and Babylonians now began to make Images and worship them if Patricides may be credited See Hotting Smegma Orient cap. 8. n. 16. Ver. 20. Begat Serug From whom Bochartus thinks some of his Descendants might call the City Sarug Which the Arabian Geographer says was near to Charrae or Haran He first began to celebrate every Year the Memory of famous Men after they were dead and commanded them to be honoured as Benefactors if we may believe Suidas in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Damascen and a long Roll of other Authors mentioned by Jacobus Geusius Par. I. c. 2. De Victimis Humanis Ver. 22. Begat Nahor The same Writers say That Idolatry increasing much in his days there was a great Earthquake the first that had been observed which overturned their Temples and broke their Images in Arabia Ver. 24. Terah Whom they make to have been an Idolatrous Priest but to have repented and been converted to the worship of the True God See Verse 31. Ver. 26. And Terah lived seventy Years and begat Abraham Nahor and Haran i. e. He was seventy Years old before he had any Children and then had three Sons one after another Who are not set down in the order wherein they were born For Abraham's being first named doth not prove him to have been the eldest Son of Terah no more
and Animals The former of which spring out of the Earth indeed but continue fix'd in it and perish if they be separated from it Whereas Animals though made out of the Earth and living upon it have a separate existence and do not still adhere to it After his kind Three sorts of living Creatures are immediately mentioned which were formed out of such Matter as the Earth afforded not simple Earth we must understand no more than before simple Water for it was impregnated with many other Principles the first of which Behemah which we translate Cattle always signifies the Flocks and Herds of tame Beasts when it is distinguished from Chaja which we translate in the end of the Verse Beasts of the Earth that is wild Beasts Between which two he mentions a third kind of living Creatures on the Earth which he calls Remesh creeping things because whatever Feet they have they are so short and small that they seem to the naked Eye to have none at all but to crawl on their Bellies upon the Ground Of all these three kinds there are various sorts wherewith God hath replenished the Earth And of every kind some vastly great and others very little as Abarbinel notes even among Reptiles there being Serpents of a prodigious length and other creeping things far smaller than Ants. Ver. 25. And God made c. The Earth did not bring them forth by Virtue of the Influence of Heaven upon prepared Matter But God framed them out of the Matter so prepared and produced them in their full perfection after their several kinds And God saw it was good Was pleased with the great variety of these Creatures and their compleat Structure fitting them for their several uses Ver. 26. Let us make Man God not only reserved Man for the last of his Works but doth as it were advise and consult about his Production Not to signifie any Deliberation within himself or any Difficulty in the Work but to represent to us the Dignity of Man and that he was made as Abarbinel glosses with admirable Wisdom and great Prudence To the same purpose S. Chrysostom here speaks And see Greg. Nyssen de Opificio Hominis cap. 3. and Orat. I. on these words With Greg. Nazianzen Orat. XLIII p. 699. who observes that God brought him into this World as into a noble Palace ready furnished with all manner of things Which is the Notion also of Methodius See Epiphanius Haeres LXIV n. 18. It is to be observed also That God doth not say Let the Earth bring forth Man as he said before verse 24. of other Animals for the same reason To represent Man as a far more noble Work than any other upon Earth For though he was made as we read in the next Chapter of the dust of the ground yet a greater Power and Skill was imployed in producing a Creature of such Beauty and Majesty Let us The ancient Christians look'd upon this as a plain intimation of a Plurality of Persons in the Godhead Insomuch that Epiphanius says This is the Language of God to his WORD and only Begotten as all the faithful believe Haeres XXIII n. 2. and see Haeres XLIV n. 4. and Haeres XLVI n. 3. where he says Adam was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 formed by the Hand of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost To which one cannot but incline who considers how poorly the Jews expound this place Who fansie a kind of Senate or Council of Angels without whom God doth nothing which they ground upon Dan. IV. 14. whereas there is not the least signification as yet of any such Beings much less that they had any hand in the making Man who was not made in their Image but in the Image of God Yet thus Saturnilus foolishly expounded these words as Epiphanius informs us in the fore-named Haeres p. 62. Edit Paris And Moses Gerundensis still more foolishly imagines God spake to the Earth that it should bring forth Man as it had done other Creatures But Maimonides who magnifies that Saying of their Masters That God doth nothing without his Council is forced to acknowledge More Nevoch P. II. cap. 6. That it is not to be understood as if he askt their Advice or was assisted by their Judgment but only that he used them as Instruments in the producing of every thing Which is directly contrary to the very words which are not in the form of a Command but of a Consultation before Execution Others therefore think God speaks after the manner of Kings who advise with their Council but do things themselves And are wont to speak in the Plural Number when they declare their Pleasure But I take this to be a Custom much later than the Days of Moses when they spake as the King of Egypt doth to Joseph Gen. XLI 41 44. I am Pharaoh and see I have set thee not we have set thee over the land of Egypt In which Stile the King of Persia writes long after this Ezra VI. 8. I Darius make a decree All these poor shifts are a plain confession that they found it very hard as the Socinians do at this day to give any account of this way of speaking without granting a Plurality of Persons in the Godhead And therefore Menasseh Ben Israel in his Conciliator mentions one of their Doctors who in Bereschith Rabba says That when Moses by God's Direction was about to write these words Let us make Man he cryed out O Lord of the World why wilt thou give Men occasion to err about thy most simple Vnity To which he received this answer Write as I bid thee and if any Man love to err let him err The same Story is told by Joseph Albo. Which shows that their Doctors have been long puzzled with this manner of Speech which unavoidably suggested to their Thoughts more than One Person in the Deity Which till they believe they are at a loss what to say about it In our Image after our likeness Two words some think to express the same thing With this difference only as Abarbinel explains it That the last words after our likeness give us to understand that Man was not created properly and perfectly in the Image of God but in a resemblance of him For he doth not say in our likeness says that Author as he had said in our Image but after our likeness where the Caph of similitude as they call it abates something of the Sence of what follows and makes it signifie only an approach to the Divine Likeness in Vnderstanding freedom of Choice Spirituality Immortality c. Thus Tertullian explains it Habens illas ubique lineas Dei quà immortalis anima quà libera sui arbitrii quà praescia plerumque quà rationalis capax intellectus scientiae L. II. contra Marcion cap. 9. And so Gregor Nyssen cap. 16. De Opific Hom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. All have a Power of Considering and Designing of Consulting