as by inspiration sets forth to declare that all the beasts of the land of Iudah perish'd when Palestine was drown'd which words if you take only the literal sence of them seem to intimate that all the earth or both Hemispheres round about which the Sun takes his course were overflow'd Nor is it material to me that which is said that the treasures of the great deep were broke up and the windows of heaven opened For that great Abysse was the sea of Palestine from which all the fountains spring Which Genesis sets down to us were to have been broken up to represent to us that all Palestine was dissolv'd in water and did sweat out all the moisture in its veins But there are some who to adde force to such things as are hyperbolically written interpret the Cataracts of heaven The waterie heaven disgorg'd upon the whole earth which is a meer soppery For these things were written in a high stile to expresse the abundance of rain by which the Land of the Jews was overflow'd The mountains were covered under the whole heaven must be understood of the high mountains of Palestine as also the whole heaven was that which covered Palestine For it is ordinary to assign every Country it s own heaven In the same sense understand the 2 Chapter of Deutr. where God casting a fear upon all the nations of the Holy Land to which he was to lead his people Israel exhorts them in these words To day I will begin to send thy fear and terrour upon the Nations which dwell under the whole heaven All the heaven is here understood which was over the whole Land of Palestine For God did not that time send the fear of the Jews upon the Nations that dwelt in China America the South or Greenland But if we will take notice of the thing and not of the words it will appear that the Deluge came only upon the Land of the Jews and not upon the whole world Both from the causes of the Deluge which I now spoke of and which I now told you were the sins of the Jews As also by Noe the Jew and his sons the reliques of the Jews as also from the place upon which the Ark stood upon the decay of the waters upon the mountains of Armenia sayes Genesis Which mountains of Armenia as they look toward Palestme make up a part of Syria next to Palestine But certainly Iosephus meâ—nt that that was a particular Deiuge where writing against Appion lib. 2. he speaks of all the authors Gentiles who have made mention of the Jews amongst whom he mentions Berosus Berosus says he hath â—ritten of the Ark in which the chief of our Family was prâ—served He said not in which the chief of mankind was saved but the chief of our stock or linage that is of the Jews For there he speaks of the Jâ—ws whom Iosephus calls his own and his own stick bâ—ing a Jew himself Who I say was the chief of the people of the Jews after the Fâ—oud for Iosephus derives the first kinred of the Jews before the Flood from Adam by which it is very clear that only the reliques of the Jews were sav'd in the Ark and that the Family of the Jews was restor'd by Noe who was the second beginner of that kinred after the Deluge CHAP. VIII The same which was prov'd in the former Chapter by the Dove sent out by Noe and by the natural descent of waters IT is clear that this Deluge was peculiar to the Jews not universal in all Nations by that which is written of the Dove which Noe sent out and she return'd to him at night For that branch with green leaves which the Dove pull'd from the tree was not of those Olives which the Deluge had overwhelm'd and for a whole year buried them in mudd Therefore it is more probable to say That that Dove being sent from the mountains of Armenia flew over all the waters of the Deluge and in the higher fields of Asia gather'd from an 〈◊〉 free from dirt and slime that branch with green leaves to shew to Noe a flourishing not a wither'd hope of his deliverance Which that we may more clearly perceive let us consider and recollect that violence with which the showers of the flood in great bodies of water broke out and did beat the whole earth without rest or interruption day or night Let us bethink us how great muddy streams fell from the mountains into the valleys And that deluge made up and sweld with those torrents was nothing else but Water mix'd with slime and clay which being afterwards macerated for a whole year in which it was upon the highest mountains and fifteen cubits above them the dregs of that slime falling down to the bottom stuck in the branches of the trees and every leaf of them For this we are taught by dayly experience where troubled and clayie rivers break over their banks For after theâ—e waters are driven off we see the reeds and the trees with which these banks are planted pressed down with the weight of the slime and defil'd with most filthy clay As also all the Olives were drown'd at the Flood of Noah As likewise we may very well read that all those Olives for a whole year in which the deluge is said to have whelm'd them to have been altogether spoil'd and destroyed and to have rotted at last And thus I conceive that the fields of upper Asia are higher than the Mountains of Armenia because I think the lowest earth lies always to the Sea side and those grounds are higher which are the farthest from the Sea and are higher raised within the uppermost and continued Globe of the earth which we see clearly when we see famous and swift rivers through great and long tracts of land hasten to the sea according to that reason by which they flow down from upper ground to a continued descent Nor shall I omit to relate what a most experienced Geometrician related to me That he had try'd the descent by which the river of Garonne run from Tholouse through the land of Burdeaux into the Ocean and measuring a hundred rods he found many timâ—s a whole rod of deâ—cent for this swift course to the Sea I perswaded my self that it had been so accounted by Ausonius in his Mosella Smooth Loyrs and swift Rhoans strong Garonns stream If you will not grant such a declination as the Geometrician said the Garonne run into the Ocean take the Danow that famous and swift River which runns six hundred miles of continual descent from its own soâ—ntain into the Euxine sea And let us know his deâ—cent not in a hundred but six hundred roâ—s measuring as also that after the measuring ofâ—â—x hundred miles there is found one mile of descent By which reason the fountain of the River Danew may be found higher than the shore of the Euxine sea one whole mile Grant also that decâ—iâ—itie not to be hindred
A THEOLOGICAL SYSTEME Upon that PRESVPPOSITION That MEN were before ADAM The first PART LONDON Printed in the Year 1655. THE PROEME IT is a natural suspition that the beginning of the world is not to be receiv'd according to that common beginning which is pitched in Adam inherent in all men who have but an ordinary knowledge in things For that beginning seems enquirable at a â—ar greater distance and from ages past very long before both by the most ancient accounts of the Chaldaeans as also by the most ancient Records of the Aegyptians Aethiopians and Scythians and by parts of the frame of the world newly discovered as also from those unknown Countries to which the Hollandeâ—s have sayled of late the men of which as is probable did not descend from Adam I had this suspition also being a Child when I heard or read the History of Genesis Where Cain goes forth where he kiâ—ls his brother when they were in the fields doing it warily like a thief least it should be discovered by any Where he flies where he fears punishment for the death of his Brother Lastly where he marries a a wife far from his Ancestors and builds a City Yet although I had this doubt in my mind yet durst I not speak any thing of it which did not rellish of that received opinion concerning Adam created first of all men till I met with the 12 13 14 verses of the 5 ch of the Epist of St. Paul to the Rom. which I have in hand and consider of now twenty years or thereabouts And as he who goes upon Ice goes warily where he cracks it being not well frozen or tender but where he finds it frozen and well hardned waâ—ks boldly So I dreaded first least this doubtfull dispute might either cuâ— my soles or throw me headlong into some deep Heresie if I should insist upon it But so soon as I knew by these verses of the Apostle that sin was in the world before it was imputed and when I knew and that certainly that sin began from Adam to be imputed I took heart and found all this dispute so solid that I pasâ—'d through it with lesse fear I found men who beyond that imputation of sin which had its original from Adam had indeed sinned but their sin was not imputed to them according to the similitude of Adam to whom first of all sin was imputed and so imputed that it was â—eputed a crime to him and to all men and turned to death But as the nature is of things that are firm in themselves the firmnesse of this Tenent appeared to me to be such that the more questions of Divinity I did turn it to and those the greater and most difficult so much the purer greater and solid Christian Religion shined forth to me Such as to Heaven So great as there she seems A tryal of which I put forth in that Essay which for that purpose I did compose for the clearing of those verses of the Apostle Nor considering the bulk of the work could I then make an end Now I intend still by way of Essay to open the body of Divinity it self by which the Doctrine of the Gospel upon presupposition of men before Adam may be laid open more at large and that it may appear that this Tenet is no ways disadvantagious to our faith which is in Christ nay that it unrevelled it from a great many niceties with which it 's entangled and does almost in every place make it clearer to our eyes and minds Which I promise without boasting Whether I do it and bring it to passe let the courteous Reader judge I doe not doubt but a great many persons who shall see the title and the intention of this book not reading the work it self with tongue and hand will streight fall upon this work as a new thing and streight draw their pens to fall upon that which they have not understood To all whom I now answer That whatsoe'r they write I shall not answer them But if there be any more calm and wise as I hope there will be a great many such who shall refrain themselves And if there be any thing in my writings which after diligent perusal shall offend them and shall admonish me in a civil and Christian way I shall yeeld my self wholly to them and affording them all respect shall endeavour to satisfie them But this especially and most exactly I promise If any man in a known case shall shew me my error that is to say that I contradict the History of Genesis in the least or any other place of the holy and Orthodox scripture which are contained in both the Testaments or step aside from them a nails breadth or from any head of Christian faith First I shall thank him for his teaching of me then I shall not be ashamed to set down my name nay I shall think it my greatest credit to fill it with capital letter in confessing my fault which I detest if any such I have committed For although I am my own greatest friend yet truth's more dear to me which I only professe My name I do not now mention for modesties sake not as conscious of any evil action For I fear lest I should abuse so noble a subject by the slendernesse of my Treatise and lest all which I shall study or frame upon such high matter should be far inferiour But let them account which know me what and how great have been my tossings up and down these thirty years and what chances have drawn me in that time forward and backward So that more by meditation than reading and serious study as was needfull I have at last finisht this ill compos'd and undigested work Therefore I intreat my Reader he will be pleased to take this beginning howsoever in good part The Contents of the Chapters in the first Book CHAP. I. THe verses of the Apostle Original sin in them is chiefly handled The Law there meant is the Law of Adam not the Law of Moses Of sin natural and legal imputed and not imputed As also of Death natural and legal Humane Laws were appointed for the governing of right reason They are bounded by men The Laws of God are above men Pag. 1 II. The natural sins of men are the very defaults of humane nature the causes of which are not to be ascribed to the sins of Adam Legal sin imputed to men by the sin of Adam is additional Conceiv'd spiritually and not propagated naturally 7 III. The natural death of meâ—arises from the nature of man which is mortal nor is caus'd by the condemnation of death decreed against Adam Which is the legal death And is meant spiritually not naturally 12 IV. Men were in the beginning created according to the Image of God and very good Of the Image of God in the first creation Of the Image of God in the second creation Men were created upright in the beginning but of vitious matter
called high for its fruitfulnesse and the excellency of goodnesse by which it was advanced above other Lands The Land of Canaan was likewise call'd The Land of Promise because God by a peculiar Covenant promis'd it to the Fathers of the Jews It is written Gen. 12. That God appeard unto Abraham when he came into the Land of Canaan to which he led them by the hand and said to him To thy seed will I give all this Land And in the 15 Chapter In that day the Lord made a Covenant with Abraham saying I 'll give this Land to thy seed This promise was confirm'd to Isaac the son of Abraham 26. Gen. in these words Abide saies the Lord in the Land which I shall name to thee That Land was Canaan For to thee and to thy seed will I give all these Lands fulfilling my Oath which I sware to thy Father Thirdly this was likewise confirm'd in Jacob the son of Isaac The Land wherein thou sleepest sayes the Lord I will give to thee and to thy seed Hence that 104. Psal Remember for ever the Covenant of his speech which he ordain'd for a thousand generations which he promis'd to Abraham and his Oath unto Isaac which he appointed Jacob for ever and Israel for an everlasting Covenant saying to thee will I give the Land of Canaan the lot of thy inheritance God declar'd this Oath himself more openly Exod. 4. I have made a Covenant with the Israelites that I should give them the earth over which I lifted up my hand that I might give it to Abraham Isaac and Jacob Psalm 104. Canaan is call'd The lot of Israels inheritance According to which signification the people blessed God Psal 16. Because their lot had faln in a fair ground That Land of Promise Oath or Covenant which commonly and improperly is call'd Canaan because Canaan was only a regîon or a Province of it I say that Land God describes to Abraham in the 15 of Genesis I will give thee this land from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates And of this God spake to Jacob in the Vision of the Ladder Thou shalt be stretch'd out in it from the East to the West from the South to the North. These degrees are mark'd out in length and bredth Exod. 23. By these words I will put thy bounds from the Red sea to the sea of Palestin from the desert to the River To which adde that of the 89 Psalm Understand also by this red Sea not of the Gulf of Arabia but all that length of the Ocean which is saild about from the Gulf of Arabia to the Gulf of Persia which is either the red or Erythraean sea or more properly the Idumaean from Esau or Edom whose posterity inhabited the borders of that Sea which in the Hebrew is Edom in the Greek Erythraean in the Latin Red from whom this Sea took its name not from the colour but deriv'd from the first Prince Adde likewise Psalm 89. I will put his right hand in the Rivers Understand those rivers Nilus and Euphrates according to Genesis before-cited Chap. 15. I will give thee this Land from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates Nilus by excellency is the River of Egypt For although in the borders of Egypt and the Holy land there is found a little stream which is called The River of Egypt and the River of Nile Yet understand the Nile it self that the borders of the Holy Land may be fair and large from a very great river to a great river from Nilus to Euphrates And take Nilus here not as it divides Africk but the mouth of the Sea of Alexandria into which Nilus flows This mouth of the Sea of Alexandria is call'd Nile because this Sea is said to be changed into Nile and to receive the colour and taste of Nile it self where the Sea here with seven mouths disgorges it self into the Sea so Lucan in the end of his first book Where by the famous Nile the sea is changed The desert is stretched from the border of the sea of Alexandria continued along by the border of the gulf of Arabia which by a name largely taken the Hebrews call the flood of Egypt where it disgorges it self into the Red Sea and that is it which is meant in Exod. 23. I will put the bounds from the desart to the River That is to say from the Border of the Sea of Alexandria which is Nile and the Border of the gulf of Arabia to Euphrates which is here simply called the River These bounds then were appointed to the Holy Land the Red Sea which is the Ocean the Sea of Palestine which is the Mediterranean on one hand Nilus and Euphrates on the other And here really was that fenced Garden of the Jews nor could there be one better fenced then one environed with two Seas and two great Rivers That you may not onely imagine but see plainly this description I will here insert the Map of it First you must take notice That as the Jews were not chosen according to their own desert being made of that common clay but of the meer grace of God So the Land of the Jews was good and chosen not of its own nature but of the pleasure of God who blessed and chose it which Moses tells us in Deuteronomy 11. That Land sayes he is not like the Land of Egypt where after the seed is sown they dig rivers to water it but it is of hills and fields expecting rain from heaven to water it which thy God visits alwayes and his eyes are upon it from the beginning of the yeer to the end of it Therefore that ground was fertile not of its own nature and disposition as the Land of Egypt which is accounted of all Nations the fertillest upon Earth but because God had blest it because he gave it rain in his own time and opened to it his good treasure as it is Deut. 29. and Chapter 33. because the heaven mizled with rain upon it and that I may end in a word because God descended most upon it God provided that elect earth for the elected Jews Ezech. 20. That Israel might dwel in it alone and without fear Deut. 33. That is undefiled with admiration of Nations which ascribe to that chief right of election what we handled in the former Chapter in which God set aside the Jews for a peculiar people and Nation out of all the peoples and Nations of the earth whom being chosen for his portion and the lot of his Inheritance he likewise placed in a choice Land that they might inhabite it alone without fear TERRAE SANCTAE DELINEATIO CHAP. IV. Jerusalem the holy City of the holy Land the Temple placed in Jerusalem on the forked hill of Sion Eternal hills The City of David The City of the great King Of the Kings of the Jews JErusalem which was chief of the Cities of the Holy Land in greatness and
Gentiles whom being made a man he call'd and took to himself To this calling and assumption he had invited the Gentils in Wisd aforesaid If there be any little one let him come unto me and she spake to the unwise Come eat my bread and dâ—ink my wine which I have provided for you leave your childishness and live and walk in the ways of Wisdom Christ invites whom he there signifies by unwise and little ones to the participation of the gospel to the eating of his body and the drinking of his blood In them who renounce childishnesse and the prudence of men life eternal is begotten and wisdom which is of God is acquir'd The Princes of the Jews took it ill that the children in the Temple should call Jesus the son of David that is King and cry Hosanna but Christ alluding from the little ones to the Gentiles who were called children and little ones thus answer'd the Jews Did you never read the cause Out of the mouthes of babes and sucklings thâ—u hast perfected praise This was the Lords meaning You O Jews reject and speak evil of me but the Gentiles as it is written shall receive me and perfect my praise for by children and sucklings he meant the Gentiles who are call'd children and little ones These word in the 18 Chapter of Lukes gospel are likewise to be taken figuratively Let the children come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the Kingdom of heaven Which is suffer the Gentiles to come unto me for they shall hear my voice and believe in my name But the kingdom of heaven belongs to such who shall hear me and believe me Certainly the simplicity of infants and children which was that likewise of the first creation is not that alone by which we enter into the kingdom of heaven by which comes Election and Salvation but the grace of the gospel which is the faith of the Gentiles in Christ Which that you may more clearly understand take heed to that which follows Whosoever says Christ receives not the kingdom of Christ as a little Child shall not enter into it Which thus interpret and explain Whosoever receives not the doctrine of the gospel as a little child that is to say like a Gentile who believe me and humbly relies upon my grace not as a Jew who believes Moses and is gloriously addicted to the works of the Law he shall not be partner of the salvation and glory which is in the kingdom of God The disciples of Christ were striving and the Jews themselves who should be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven Matth. 18. And Jesus calling a little one plac'd him in the midst of them and said Verily I say unto you unless you be converted and made like little ones you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little one doth he shall be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven The words and the actions of our Saviour certainly were for the most part Parables Therefore he spake here figuratively and parabollically to the Jews swell'd with vain-glory because they were call'd great and a great Nation unlesse their stomachs fell and they were turn'd to little ones as the Gentiles they should not have entrance into the kingdom of heaven Here God apparently meant the Gentiles by those Little ones because he sayes after Whoever shal offend one of these little ones who shal believe in me c. Which could not be taken of no infants or children which were so by age whose faith was yet stammering but of the Gentiles of riper age who believed in Christ as men of age and ripe reason believe in him but the Jews used to defame the Gentiles whom they esteemed vile humble and nothing worth Besides it is manifest that the Gentiles were types of Christian humility which by infants and children is represented and the Jews only bubbles of vain-glory from that Parable wherein the Pharisee marches so stately into the Temple casting his merits to God Luc. 18. Lord sayes he I thank thee that I am not like other men extortioners unjust adulterers or even like this Publican I fast twice in the week I give the tenth of all that I possess But the Publican standing afar off would not lift up his eyes to heaven but struck his blest saying God be merciful to me a sinner The Pharisee without doubt in that place was the Jew for which cause he said I am not like other men that is like the Gentiles for thâ— Publican was a Gentile But he said Be merciful to me a sinner that is to me a Gentile As also those that exacted tribute from the Jews were Gentiles as we have said Certainly the humility of the Gentiles which was the default of their vilenesse and rejection became a Christian vertue under the Gospel On the contrary that glory by which the Jews exalted themselves to be a great Nation before the Gospel was turn'd into the smoake of idle pride under the Gospel And bence it came to passe that the Gentiles who were truly humble were exalted to be Jews really great On the contrary the glorious Jews became a base and an abject people I say to you saith the Lord The Publican went to his house justified that is to say made a just man or a Jew of a Gentile The Pharisee on the contrary not being heard left off to be just and to be a Jew and fell off to be a Gentile To which apply that of Matthew now cited Chap. 18. Who shall humble himself like a little one or a Gentile shal be greatest in the kingdom of heaven We must moreover narrowly consider that of St. Paul Romans 2. Thou O Jew believest that thou art a leader of the blind a light of those who are in darknesse a teacher of the unwise an instructer of children By those who are blind by those who are foolish by infans to â—certainly the Gentiles are here understood who seteachers instructers and leaders the Jews presum'd themselves to be by that prerogative by which they esteem'd themselves for a light to the Nations Isay 42. All this Chapter is design'd against the Jews who mis-regarded and set at nought the Gentiles That instructer of children is the same meant by St. Paul as a teacher of little ones Isay 33. Where sayes he is the learned Where the expounder of the Law Where the teacher of little ones The learned and the teacher of the Law is the Jewish Doctor who is both reacher of the Little ones and of the Gentiles in this place because the Jews taught the stranger and the Proselyte their Laws because I say they boasted themselves given as a light to all Nations and a light to those that were in darknesse that is to the Gentiles to whom God was in a cloud nor did manifest himself to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek in Latine an Infant who can not speak and is commonly
which should be the glory of the earth The Lord would have his people encreased to a full and sufficient number of inhabitants which should be able to defend themselves from the beasts of Canaan and secure the people But if God had a double caution in this case for the comliness and security of the Land of Canaan alone although the Jews then abounded in number and were grown to be many hundred thousands What care shall we think God took in the Creation of the World for the comliness not onely of one Land but also of the Lands of the whole World lest they should be made desolate if he had created one man and one Woman from the beginning in the earth And if God would not expose many hundred thousand Jews to the beasts of one Land shall we think that he would expose one single man and woman to the heasts of all Lands Certainly if the beasts of the Land of Canaan had been so much multiplied against so many hundred thousand Jews that dwelt in 't much more should they have been multiplied against Adam and Eve being alone upon the whole earth CHAP. II. Adam was created apart from other men in that creation which is mentioned Gen. 2. Adam was thefirst and father of the Jews not of all men The framing of Adam was altogether different from the creation of the first men Eve could not be created the same day as Adam was made THe author of Genesis having absolâ—'d in the first Chapter the six dayes of the creation begins the second Chapter from the sanctification of the Sabbath which was the seventh day and rehearses what he had said in the first Chapter of the creation of the whole of which there was no more to be related But because the nation of the Jews was separate and set apart from all the Nations of the earth being elected by God That it might be to him a peculiar people of all the nations upon the earth which we prov'd our of the 7 of Deut Therefore the author of the Pentateuch who was himself a Jew whose end it was to write the original the deduction the Laws and Chronologie of his own Nation apart from the creation of the whole world and of all Nations begins the particular framing of the first Jew from whom that peculiar and choice Nation was deriv'd that is of them by whom salvation should be communicated to all Nations in Christ as to all Nations had come perdition from Adam And God fram'd Adam Gen. 2. Man that is Adam But because this Narration begins with and it is ordinarily received as a more special explanation of the creation of that man in his kind of whom Moses spake in the Ch. 1. Let us make man But they heed not that the particle and in the Hebrew is the introduction of a new matter not a continuation of that which was mention'd before such beginnings of Narrations you shall every where meet with in sacred authors yea books beginning with and as Ezechiâ—l And it came to pass in the thirtieth year And Jonas 〈◊〉 the word of the Lord came to Jonas Hence is it chiefly prefum'd that this framing of Adam was not that which is mentioned in the former Chapter of Gen. Because it is granted by all that â—haâ— first creation in the first Chapter which accoring to my supposition was the creation of the first men was compleated mone day the sixth and the last as is set down in the first Chapter But it is impossble that all those things which are set down in the second Chapter could have been transacted in that time which is receiv'd from morning to evening Therefore much lesse in the half of that sixth day in which God first oreated all creatnres then man Let us tell every minute in which God was pleased to declare that all his works were perform'd with time though he could have done them without time We shal find no such thing in the first creation of men nor the action of the creation of male and female interrupted as it is a long space betwixt the forming of Adam and Eve It is first said That God created Adam of the clay of the earth Where observe that God who in the first Chapter created man not simply of the earth but of that first matter of which he made the earth in this second Chapter fram'd Adam of the dust of the earth Observe that God I say who was in the first Chapter the Creator of man was in the second the framer of Adam For which cause God is also the framer of the Jews Isa 45. Thus says the Lord the holy One of Israel his maker The maker of Israel because the maker of Adam the first Father of Israel But of this enough already Secondly it is said That God breath'd upon the face of Adam the breath of life Thirdly He led him into Paradise Take good notice of these words of Genesis God had planted from the beginning a Paâ— adise of pleasure wherein to place man Understand by that beginning not of that time in which God made Adam but of that beginning long before which is spoken from the beginning of the first Chapter of Genesis In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth In which he likewise created men in their kind who from the beginning did inhabite that earth Certainly if this Adam had been he who was created in the beginning three dayes after the earth was created Genesis had not spoken of this Adam whom the Lord carryed into Paradise God had planted Paradise from the beginning Nay rather upon the third day he made Paradise for the third day dry land appeared and Paradise was planted and the sixth day man was created in his kind Fourthly it is written that God gave this Adam laws what he should eat what he should not eat what he should doe what he should shun Observe here narrowly no Law given to the men of the first creation which is related in the first Chapter of Genesis and no tree forbidden them And God said Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon earth and all trees which have in them their seed according to their kind that it may be to you for meat The tree of knowledge of good and evil was forbidden Adam the first man of the second creation which is mentioned in the second Chapter Thou mayest eat of every tree in the garden but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat For in the day that thou eatest of it thou shalt dye the death But those being divers ordinances argue different times Fifthly the Scripture stammeringly shews us That God had learn'd as it were by experience in a certain time passed That Adam being without a helper had neither till'd nor conveniently kept the Garden Therefore God said It is not convenient that man should be alone Let us make him a helper like unto himself Sixthly God
believe the number of years that the College of Chaldaeans affirm'd that they had spent in the consideration of the world sayes Diodorus For til the expedition of Alexander into Asia they reckon'd four hundred and seventy thousand years since the time they had begun to observe the stars Diodorusâ— thought it hard to be believ'd but not impossible as believing himself that the motion of the eternal circuit by an eternal Law was ordered by the constellations and the stars And that was it which made Cicero living at the same time with Diodorus write the same things of the Chaldaeans whom he calls Babylonians For they deceive us sayes he in saying that the Chaldaeans busied themselvs four hundred and seventy thousand years in calculating the nativities of all children for if they had so done they had not left off But we know no body that can inform us that such a thing is practised or ever was Cicero refutes not the account of years in that place which he did not think impossible otherwise by impossibility he had refuted it but the vanity of the Caldaeans predictions those careful trials and experiments given by tradition concerning the Nativities of Children all through the continuation of so many years which to Cicero seem'd improbable For why sayes he should the Chaldaeans have discontinued and not in his time likewise have calculated Nativities Besides that wonderful number of years which as Diodorus and Cicero relates the Chaldaeans bestowed either in the observation of the stars or in the raising of Schemes in Nativities is not different from those bundles of times and years which as I shewed before the Chaldaeans made use of in the computation of the inaugurating of their Kings For the number of those times was so great and return'd so far upon former ages that they numbred not those many sums of ages by years not by thousands of years but by several compactions of years The Egyptians contending in Astrologie with the Chaldaeans thought that the motions of all the stars and constellations and every particular one of them was ordained from eternity And the same Diodorus affirms that they had preserved in memorie the descriptions of those motions all through an incredible computation of years As it is likewise known that they kept the Histories of their Kings all along through incredible computations of time Having Gods for their Kings and Heroes and men Of whose most ancient Dynasties marvellous things are related by Herodotus and other Writers of the Egyptian affairs Salmasius the learnedst both amongst those Greeks and Romans makes mention of a most antient Writer who sets down thirty Dynasties of Kings and writes that they endur'd three Myriads of years expounds those myriads to have been ten thousand thousand and three thousand years There are those in Egypt who say that the times of their King God Vulcan was worn out of memory whom they affirm to have reign'd infinite ages in Egypt And that the Sun the Son of Vulcan did possesse the Kingdom of Egypt six hundred thousand six hundred and seventy six years after his Father Salmasius the most acute inquirer of their affairs recounting the number in his Climacterical years Nor must we traduce the truth of Herodotus and other Writers of the Egyptian affairs because Diodorus has written That they embrac'd those wonderful relations for truths For those words of Diodorus have relation to something else than those almost infinite accounts of time For Diodorus in so doing should have turned those monstrous relations back upon himself who doubted not to relate those four hundred and seventy thousand years of the Chaldaeans which were also hard to be believ'd For it is indeed probable that Herodotus an excellent Writer and very acurate in most things and Diodorus himself an assertor of Historical truths spake nothing of those accounts but what they had heard either from Egyptian Priests out of their records and had acuratly examin'd and seen them in Egypt which for their own parts both Herodotus and Diodorus ingenuously confesse But Diodorus himself also relates this of the Egyptians nor thinks it any wonder in part 2. book 1. of his Library That the Egyptian Kings born in that Country rul'd Egypt above 4700 Yeares Whose times we shall find to have surpassed above threescore thousand years if we reckon that there is already a thousand two hundred years past since threescore of the Kings of France began to reign But to say that those thousands of years and myriads which I have mentioned are to be understood of Lunary years or of the the third part of the year as they say it was sometimes divided into the Spring Summer and Autumn were to make Objections to no purpose Since Diodorus himself says this of the Chaldaeans That they said that the Sun and Moon runs through the twelve signs of the Zodiack That the Sun ends his course in a year The Moon in a month As likewise Herodotus says this expresly of the Egyptians that he had learned of the Inhabitants of Heliopolis who were thought the most skilfull of all the Egyptians That the Egyptians were the first of all men that found out years and divided them into twelve months This division of years and months is meant in the first Chapter of Genesis where he speaks thus of the creation of the Sun and Moon Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven and let them divide the night and the day and let them be for signs and times and dayes and years For the dayes in this place are moneths which are divided into thirty days and years which are made up of twelve moneths The Sun being the greater Luminary had alotted to him the greatest parts of the year The Moon had alotted to it the lesse that is the dision of the moneths Therefore that division of years and moneths was alotted by creation and nature from God himself to the Sun and Moon nor was there ever any other account used among the Chaldaeans and Egyptians men most expert and skilfull in the knowledge of the stars But the Chaldaeans were so far from augmenting the numbers by breaking their years which they reckoned always by the Sun by dividing them into monethly and Lunary years that of those very Solar years they bound up their years into compacted numbers which they us'd for conveniency of reckoning and a farr shorter way of account Let them alone then who ever uses such trifling diminutions and divisions to make such handfuls and heaps of years which they neither know or ever could satisfie themselves in to this day However it comes to pass it will always appear that those myriads I spoke of will alwayes much exceed in the least computation that beginning of the creation which is alwayes set down in Adam CHAP. VII Of the Egyptian Kings who were men Plato in Timaeus concerning the warriers of the Atlantick Ilands is cited The sons of this age wiser than the sons of light Of the
inconvenient to joyn Strabo to Plato in his third Book of Geographie where he relates this of the Turdetans the Inhabitants of Spain These sayes he are held the most learned amongst all the Spaniards they use Grammar and have their monuments of Antiquitie written and Poems and Laws in Verse for six thousand years as they say The Turdetans then had their Laws long before the floud if in the days of Strabo they had then written six thousand years which they being themselves in that deluge untouch'd kept likewise untouch'd for the space of six thousand years continually and us'd and observ'd them Scaliger likewise thinks that the first Olympiad was celebrated in the year of the world 3074 and that the destruction of Troy was four hundred and eight years or thereabouts before the first Olympiad And Servius has observ'd upon that Verse of Virgils Th' old Cities sack'd reign'd in for many years Ancient sayes he or noble because it is said to have reigned two thousand eight hundred years The beginning then of the Kingdom of Troy must be before the beginning of the world and if Troy was rul'd in for two thousand and eight hundred years Phrygia as also Spain must be said to be freed from the floud of Noah Which you may also think of India which Father Liber first enter'd From him says Solinus in his 25 Chap. unto Alexander the great there are reckon'd six thousand four hundred and fifty years and three moneths over accounting it by the Kings who are said in his time a hundred and fifty three of them to have liv'd Salmasius the restorer of Pliny in Solinus and the disperser of his errours sets down this number in Pliny Besides the same Scaliger is author that Semiramis was before the destruction of Troy and places her in the first age after the Floud and sayes that Sanchoniato liv'd in her time and makes Iombal more antient than Sanchoniato and sayes that Sanchoniato receiv'd many things from Iombal out of Porphyrius And Eusebius relates that Sanchoniato met with some reserv'd pieces or volumes of the Ammonites which he took out of the Repositorie of the Church where they had lain But how can such stories agree with the time of Noahs floud To this add that neither Sanchoniato nor Iombal antienter than he are reckon'd amongst the sons of Noah And it must needs be that those volumes lay without the Ark and were preserv'd on which Sanchoniato lighted as Eusebius says Here to reckon those things which I set out before more at large That is an inconsistent time which is reckon'd from Adam to Abraham the Chaldaean or to Moses the Egyptian and it is unadviâ—edly set down to be sufficient to gain the knowledge of those arts which Abraham and Moses were exact in But certainly the time 'twixt Noahs floud and Abraham would be likewise a great deal more incompetent if according to the same inconsideratenesse it should be proportioned as sufficient for the attainment of the forementioned disciplines especially Astronomy Theology and Magick The which that they did flourish in the time of Abraham is evidently prov'd because Vr of the Chaldees is call'd by Eusebius Camarina and Camarina is the same with the City of the Chaldaeans And the Camarini were call'd Chaldaeans aswell as Astrologers and Magicians For the name of the Chaldaeans was a token of Nation and Art It is likewise written of the Camarinian Magicians that they raise Leviathan who is the Devil That there is a land and water Leviathan is certain or which is as much that there are land and water Devils â—rom whom Philippus Codurcus a learned man and â—ell skillâ—â— in the Hebrew imagined that those Spirits which we in our mother tongue call Luithons or Luthins have taken their derivation To think that these Theorems of Magick or spels hatefull to God were kept in the Ark that they might not be lost in the floud were a wickedness to believe But to say that the art was invented or repaired betwixt the floud and Abraham were impossible to prove as other things are CHAP. X. Of Eternity before Eternity Of Eternity from Eternity THose who think that the floud of Noah was over all Nations erre much in the ordering of all actions and dispensing of them since that time They are likewise very much deceiv'd in the ordering and dispensing of all actions since the beginning of the world who affirm that the world was made with Adam They have streightned the beginning and the ending in such narrow bounds that it cannot by any means fit to so small room which is read of the world created from eternity and which shall endure to eternity I need not say amongst Historians and Philophers who were Gentiâ—es but likewise amongst the Prophets and Apostles But indeed that little space of time to which they limit the things past and things to come those two eternities how well does it accord with that expression of the short garment in Isay Chapter 4â—28 A short garment sayes he cannot cover both It is written I confesse That God created the heaven and the earth in the beginning That I dare boldly affirm we know not that beginning I know there is a setled number of the stars in heaven there is a determinate number of the grains of sand in the Sea shore But I think to make up a sum of all those stars all those grains all those ages which have bin from the beginning is without the compasse of all Arithmetick and humane account In these numbers there is no number nor need we to comprehend the number of them It is enough that God doth know the number of the stars which he created The times are not hidden from the Almighty Moreover I find two several acceptions of eternity in the holy Scripture The first is by which God is call'd eternal before time and before all things created Another by which eternity is bounded by ages and the beginning of the creation These two â—gnifications of eternity are both together comprehended in that place of the Proverbs where Wisdom is brought in speaking after this manner God possess'd me from the beginning of his wayes before he made any thing Or according to others I had a rule from eternity from the head from the beginnings of the earth or from the creation of the world There appears here a two-fold beginning one before time and before the creation of the earth one from ages from the beginnings of the earth or since the creation of the world The first is distinguished from the second because in the first God is only said to have possessed wisdom in the second place to have ordain'd and install'd her to have a rule over all things created Both beginnings then are eternal but the first antientest The first beginning was eternal by its self eternal before eternity The second begining was eternal in regard of us since our understanstanding cannot reach its number St. Paul hath most clearly
there be an end says St. Paul when he shall resign the Kingdom to his Father The Kingdom of Christ was from eternity it shall likewise end within age and eternity For this cause all times were made by Christ Heb. 1. and Christ was called the Prince of time Timothy 1. cap. 1. Yea the Kingdom of Christ is called the Kingdom of all ages Psal 144. For which cause St. Paul calls Christ Blessed unto all ages God the Father reign'd before ages before the times of eternity before he had ordained wisdom and had given her command over all things God the Father shall likewise reign after ages after that wisdom who is Christ the Son hath yeilded up the Kingdom to the Father in the end of ages God the Father reigned before eternity and shall after eternity God the Son reign'd from eternity and shall to eternity In which sense understand that in the 90 Psalm From age to age thou art God As also which David sings 4 Chron. chap. 16. Blessed be the Lord from eternity to eternity CHAP. XII Eternity uses to be understood in Scripture by the duration of the Sun and Moon Of an age Of eternal times St. Paul expounded Eternity indefinite JEremie to signifie the eternity of that Law â—nd Covenant by which God had taken the Jews to himself to eternity as also the eternity of that Covenant which God had made with Messias and with his servant David by things undoubted and very well known If says he the Laws of the Sun and Moon and the Stars fail then the seed of Israel shall fail before him And again If the Covenant of the Lord with the day and night can be frustrate then can the Covenant of the Lord be frustrate with David his servant Therefore both of them are set down indubitable and unmoveable the eternity of the seed of Israel as also of the Kingdom of Messias as also the eternity of the Sun and Moon Stars Days and Nights And as they are conveniently joyned so are they conveniently convertible thus The seed of Israel shall never fail before the Lord for the Sun and Moon and Stars can never fail before him It is impossible that the Covenant of God should be in vain which he made with his Servant David that he should be and remain for ever It is likewise impossible that the Covenant which God made with the Day and Night should fail but they should be to eternity and remain continually God meant that impossibility of his Law which should never perish and of his Covenant never to be broken In the 6 chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke It is easier for the heaven and earth to passe away than that one tittle of the Law should passe away Of the Law that is of the Coâ—enant which God made with Israel and with his Messias The whole world is here understood by the heaven and the earth and that impossibility he clears by another as great an impossibility that is the least tittle of the Law shall never passe away nor shall ever the world passe away Such is that which we read Psalm 72. The Messias shall endure with the Sun and Moon unto eternity Which is convertible thus The Sun and Moon shall endure together with Messias for ever It is written Genesis 1. Let us make lights in the midst of heaven that they may divide the day and night and be for signs and times for days and years Which the author of Ecclesiasticus rehearses in these words chap. 43. The Sun and Moâ—n shew the time and appoint the age Times are made up of days and nights months and years and ages which the Sun and Moon divide and dispense and appoint the measure of them especially the Sun who for excellency is called the Father of times and ages by the ancients For which cause holy Writ measures out the eternity of ages by the Sun It is common in holy authors to reckon weeks of years months of years years of years and with them you have many times also ages of ages which comprehend many myriads of years of which an eternity is made up Which you may well call the year of the world or the great world whose times ages are reckon'd innumerable Which you shall not need to wonder at if you wonder that the day of days the year of years the age of ages and all ages of ages have descended from eternal times and shall endure to eternity I thought upon the days of old I have the eternal years in remembrance I have counted the years which were from the beginning says David Psalm 76. The Prophet counted those days but could neâ—er find the number of them For there is no remembrance of things past Ecclesiast chap. 1. And truly For the memory of men being finite and fading can no way extend it â—eif to the knowledge of those former things which are infinite and derived from years eternal As if St. Paul had meant in those places which I mentioned before in the former chapters where he said that the mysterie of the Gospel was hid from eternal times and ages to expresse a thing so much secret and remote that the mystery had been hidden since the world was made with Adam from whom to the Apostle was not above four thousand years That had been indeed to have thrown four drops of water into the midst of the Sea or to have thrown four grains of sand upon the Sea shore according to what is written in the 18 chapter of Ecclus. As a drop of the water of the Sea or a grain of sand so little are a thousand years in the days of eternity The author of the Ecclesiasticus here meant that whatsoever proportion a drop has to the whoâ—e Sea or a grain of Sand to the whole shore a thousand years should have the same proportion to the day of eternity which containâ— the beginning and ending of all things created in the endlesse volums of years For eternity here is taken in the second acception which is from eternity and shall remain to eternity Which times are compounded of ages which ages are accounted by years Nor think here that age to be the first and pure eternity which admits of no distinction of years of no composition or comparison with this second eternity which is secular compounded For although the author of Ecclesiasticus seems to have taken this out of the 88 Psalm where it is said A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday It is to be observ'd that the Psalmist in that place meant that there could be no proportion or comparison betwixt 1000 years Gods eternity which 1000 years he compar'd with a day that is past with that which is not For there is no proportion betwixt an entity and a non entity But in this place the author of Ecclesiasticus admits a perfect proportion betwixt a thousand years and the day of eternity betwixt a drop of water and