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
God so intimate with the Jews that he entrusted them with his laws and decrees that they were admitted to the secrets of God that they were called a wise and understanding people Deut. 4. Nor was there any other Nation so honourable which had those Ceremonies just Judgements and the whole Law In the same Chapter What is all flesh that it should hear the voice of the living God which speaks out of the fire and can live cries out Moses Deut. 5. where observe the prerogative of the chosen Jews and of the second creation of men which is not granted unto flesh that is to say to the first creation for flesh the first creation consumes at the hearing and sight of God here the same Moses in the same Ch. Behold the Lord our God shews unto us his Majesty and his greatness ye have heard his voice from the middle of the fire we have found this day that a man can speak with God and live The holy Prophet could not be satisfied thinking upon the beginnings and first fruits of the Jews regeneration what should be their full election by force of which they received the fery words of God into their eyes and ears and by which they shone and did not burn with that holy lightning Enquire of the days of old which were before thee from that day on which God created man upon the earth from the height of heaven to the foundation of it if at any time there was such a thing done or was ever known that a people should hear the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire as thou hast heard and lâ—v'd Hence it is that they were the chief and choice in Gods esteem that the Jews were called a Nation drawing near unto God that they were stiled a great Nation nor that there was any other Nation so great which had Gods drawing near to it Ch. 4. For this cause you shall read That God carryed them upon Eagles wings Exod. 9. and very often that he freed them and took them with a strong hand and stretched out arm What Nation is like thy people Israel for whom thou hast done so great and horrible things upon earth to redeem them Sam. 2. Chap. 7. And that was the matter that God appointed the Jews to be the head and not the rail of the Nations Nor did God only chuse the Jews for a time according to the distiny of empires and people but God did chuse his people for ever Thou hast confirmed Israel to thy self for an eternal people As David prophecies Sam. 2. Chap. 7. And many things to that sense we read in the Prophets which I must handle another time and which was a special token of their election The Lord would not have the Jews defil'd by mixture of Nations but set them apart for an inheritance out of all the Nations of the earth 1 Kings Chap. 8. I have set you aside from all people that you might be mine Lev. 20. Hence it is that God is said to have hedg'd enclos'd and as it were with a wall of fence surrounded Israel his possession his land his vine Hence it is that the Church and the Israelitish Spouse is called a fenced garden and a sealed fountain in the Canticles least being plac'd in the high-way it might be trodden by passengers nor the South wind spoyl her flowers nor the Boar spoil her waters Because the Nations were not partakers of that mystical Election by which God had elected the Jews Neither would God that the Jews should enter into fellowship with the Nations either in body or mind either in Matrimony or Religion either in civil affairs or in divine Thou shalt not enter into a league with the Nations or joyn thy self in marriage with them Deut. 7. Thou shalt not give thy daughter to his son nor take his daughter to thy son that the Jews might not be mingled with other Nations who taught the worshipping of Idols CHAP. III. To the elected Iews an elected Land was given A holy Land because the Land of the holy And the land of Promise because it was promised with an Oath to the Fathers of the Iews A description of the Holy Land That was a choice Land not of its own nature but according to the pleasure of God who bless'd and chus'd it The land of the Iews And for the Iews only to dwell in TO the elected Jews God gave elected ground which was likewise called holy because the Land of the Holy That there is elected and blessed earth as likewise rejected and cursed earth is witnessed in the Epistle to the Hebrews Chap. 6. A land says he drinking the shower that comes upon it and bearing seasonable fruit to them who tills it receives a blessing from God But that which brings forth thorns and bryars is rejected and almost curs'd the end of which is to be burnt Which the Gospel according to St. Matthew express'd in these words Chap. 13. God loves not that earth which is in the way that is commune trodden and unclean nor that which is full of briars but he loves good ground in which the son of man may sow good seed Nor am I ignorant that these things are allegorically spoken of the hearts of the Elect but we must likewise know that Christ here meant literally the Holy Land in which the sanctified Jews who are meant by good seed shall be sown by Jesus Christ which sowing we shall have occasion to set forth more at large That the Land of Canaan which the Jews inhabited was that choice blessed earth and belov'd of the Lord is set down in the 8. of Deuteronomy where Moses call'd it A Land of rivers waters and fountains in the fields of which should break out pools of water A Land of corn barley and vines in which grow olives and pomgranats A Land of oyl and honey where the Iews should eat their bread without want and should enjoy abundance of all things A Land which Ezechiel Chap. 20. calls An excellent Land amongst all Lands and chief of all Lands Which therefore God call'd a high land Deut. Chapt. 32. God hath plac'd Israel upon a high land to eat the fruit of the field to suck honey out of the rock and oyl out of the most hard rock butter from the heard and milk from the sheep with the fat of the Lambs and Rams of the sons of Basan with the marrow of wheat and that he might drink the most choice bloud of the grape Canaan was call'd a high land not for the lying of it for it is a Valley according to that in Numb 14. The Canaanite and Amalekite dwell in the valleys which he had said in the former and thirteenth Chapter By the Sea and near the streams of Iordan For which cause Esdras called that Land a Furrow Book 4. cha 5. Thou hast saies he of all the world chosen one furrow that is Canaan which is a valley Therefore it was
election advanced its Head above the rest was called the Princess of the Provinces in the first of the Lamentations of Jeremiah which God had peculiarly chosen out of all the Provinces and Cities of Israel it was called Jebus which is a treading under foot when it was numbred among the Cities of the Nations but being chosen and made a City of the Jews it was called by God Jerusalem that is The sight of peace Baruc. 5. Her foundations are in the holy mountains and glorious things are spoken of her Psalm 87. For that called the faithful City a City holy and elected and adorned with other great Titles well known in holy Writ The Temple placed in it was adorned with an Elogy of most choice holiness I have chosen and sanctified that place that my name may be there for ever and my eyes and my heart continue there alwayes 2 Chron. 7. That Temple was built upon the Mount of Sion God laid the foundation of the mount Sion for everlasting Psal 48. Hence those eternal Hills Deut. 33. as also Genesis 49. which are probably those two on the forked Hill of Sion upon the which the Temple of the Lord was built as likewise the City of David or of the King for which cause Jerusalem is said to be built upon the holy Hills Psal 87. now cited It was called The Temple of the Lord the rest of the Lord and his foot-stool the place of the Throne of God the place of his footsteps where he dwells in the midst of the sons of Israel Ezech. 43. for which cause the Hill of Sion is called the City of God because God dwelt in it God is great and very highly to be praised in his City in his holy hill This God is our God for ever Psalm 48. Our God is onely excellent in Sion cries out Isaias in the ravishment of his Spirit Chap. 3. onely that is cheifly by excellency and beyond all others excellent In which sence that Hill is likewise called a fat mountain and curdled Psalm 68. For all the rest of the Land of Canaan and Jerusalem flowed with the milk of election and sanctity of the Lord but the Hill of Sion was the cream of that milk that milk thickned and curdled a fat cheese pressed out of the milk of the election and sanctity of the Lord but that City was likewise called The city of the solemnity of the Jews Isay 33. Because all the Jews met there to pay their Vows and Sacrifices to God as also for their solemn joy and festivals according to the command of the Lord Deut. 12. In Sion you shall be joyful before your God you and your families in all wherein the Lord shall bless you there you shall feast before the Lord your God you your sons and daughters and your Levites there shall be the rest of the Lord and your rest The Temple and Jerusalem are for the most part joyned 2 Kingâ— 12. In this Temple and in Jerusalem will I put my name for ever And in Joel In the hil of Sion in Jerusalem there shall be salvation he that calls upon the Lord there shall be sâ—ved We must hear the Prayer of Solomon wherein he attests God in the behalf of Jerusalem and the Temple Kings 1. Chap. 8. Wheresoever said he thou shalt send thy People they shall pray to thee toward the City which thou hast chosen and towards that house which I have built to thy Name and thou shalt hear their prayer in heaven More I will say of the holy and chosen Land of Jerusalem and of the Temple of God when I shall speak of the return of the Jews which shall be their full Election In the top of the hill of Sion stood the Palace of the King which was called The City of David and which the Lord himself call'd the City of the great King Of this David and of this great King we shall afterwards have a great discourse In the mean time we must speak something of the Kings of the Jews who sat upon the high Throne of the City of David of whom this was the original We said before that the Lord God was King of the Jews A God to help them with heavenly assistance A King to stand for them in the battel to advance the shield draw the sword and put to flight the â—nemies of the Jews But because when the Jews began to be very stiff-necked it often came to passe that God turn'd from them and going from home as the Gospel speaks conâ—inued long absent then the Jews wthout a King and a Defender were open to the incursions of their enemies who spoyl'd them and most cruelly did destroy them utterly They fearing lest this might again befall them when Samuel their Judge was deed as also his Sons not walking in his ways requested a King who might judge them according to the manner of other Nations who might go out before them and fight their battels for them Which troubled Samuel Nor did the Lord slight the Petition of the Jews Hearken to them in all that they say to thee for they have not rejected thee but me Sam. 1. Chap. 8. Which open thus I was saith the Lord God and King of the Jews by Covenant And I appointed thee O Samuel by that Kingly power which I had over the Jews and thy sons to be their Judges Therefore having rejected thee and thy sons from being Judges they have not rejected thee but me who appointed thee And in that wherein they trespasse against thee they more hainously and grievously trespassed against me For in this they plainly discover'd their thoughts how little confidence they have in me and how weakly their hopes are fix'd upon me But because they are so unbeleeving and hardned in the foolishnesse of their hearts Harken to them and set a King over them Yet truly God had promis'd before in the desert that he would set a King over the Jews Deut. 17. Yea God had promis'd the Jews Kings at what time he blessed Abraham and the Jews in Abraham Kings shall come out of thee And Jacob prophâ—cying and in his sons blessing all the Jews The Scepter shall not depart from Juda. CHAP. V. The Gentiles elected in the Jews by a mystical â—lectâ—on Esteem'd the sons of God because elected in the Jews And grafted in the Jews AFter we have spoken of the election of the Jews it is fit that in order we should speak of the election of the Gentiles which sprang from the Jews as our Lord Jesus Christ himself most openly expresses to the Samaritan Woman in the fourth Chapter of the Gospel according to St. John Salvation is by the Jews But that which God the Son told this Gentile woman God the Father long before promis'd the Fathers of the Jews first to Abraham Genesis Chapter 12. All the kinreds of the earth shall be blessed in thee Then in the following Chapter That all the Nations of the earth should be
Therefore the Election of the Jews must be brought back to Adam the first Father and the first head of the Jews And although the Jews are properly said to be the posterity of Judah Jacob's fourth Son yet taking the denomination largely we shall call those Jews likewise who were begotten even from Adam unto Judah Therefore God elected the Jews the Posterity of Adam and Abraham because he was joynd to their Fathers Adam and Abraham that is because he formed the Jews in Adam and blessed them in Abraham The promises of this mystical Election are found from Adam unto Moses both before and after the Flood repeated often and many wayes to the Fathers of the Jews but confirmed more peculiarly to the Jews in Moses by a Covenant as Deut. 7. Where Moses speaking to the people of the Jews sayes The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people to himself of all the Nations that are upon Earth God himself called that Nation his First-born Exod. 4. Israel my first-born as also the first fruits of the Harvest of the Lord Jeremiah Chap. 2. Both upon the same account by which all the first-born and first fruits belong to God by property of Election as also because the Jews first of all received the mystery grace of election In which sense I say is to be understood Ch. 49. The Lord from the wombe hath called me as also the Kingly Prophet Psalm 22. Thou art he that took me from the wombe thou art my hope from my mothers brests Vpon thee was I cast from my mothers wombe From the wombe of my mother thou art my God God called and chose Israel from the wombe of mystical Election that is to say the Jews were his first-born natural Children by mystical Election nor did he think that they were to be esteemed as the Gentiles who were not called from the wombe nor chosen nor esteemed as his natural Children but adopted into this mystical Election by a second Election and only esteemed the Sons of adoption Hence it is that the Apostle Romans 2. ascribes first Salvation honour and glory which is Election to the Jews first then to the Greeks who are the Gentiles for the Greek in that place is the finer Gentile That the Jews had the first Election not of their own desert but of the meer grace and mercy of God from hence is apparent because that mystical Election proceeded from that eternal Election by which the Jews were chosen from eternity that is by which they were chosen before they were born when they had done neither good nor harm Not for their works as Paul says but of the meer bounty of God who call'd and chose them This eternal Election Isaiah meant Chapt. 63. Thou sayes he Lord art our Father Abraham knew us not and Israel had no knowledge of us The Prophet means That God was the Father of the Jews when their Fathers were not born at which time Abraham knew not the Jews and Israel had no knowledge of them The Lord did chuse thee because he lov'd thee Abraham and Israel are here indifferently taken Deut. 7. Not for their righteousness he chose them To which adde that place of 9 Deut. He sav'd me because he lov'd me Psal 18. He hath made us and not we our selves sung David King of the Jews Psalm 100. If you look upon the matter whereof the Jews were created you will find nothing that shall make them appear worthy of the Election For they were made up of the same flesh and bloud as the Gentiles and were temper'd with the same clay of which other men were fram'd As is the clay in the hand of the Potter so art thou O house of Israel in the hand of the Lord. The Prophet alluded to that very clay of which Adam the first Father of the Jews was made That same common and impure clay which is observable This we are taught Gen. 3. In which God is said to have cast Adam out of the Paradise of pleasure which was most choice Land that he might till the ground of which he was made Ground not choice but common unclean of which Adam and all other men were made for common and not elect and unclean are the same Act. 10. and many other places of both Testaments And for the same cause for which Adam was made of common and impure clay God is said to have found Israel in a place of horror and wast wilderness Deuteronom 32. Ezekiel likewise bears witnesse that the Jews were born unclean as other men were born unclean Chapter 16. Where God speaks to the People of Israel his Spouse and the Jews in these words Thy root and thy linage was from the land of Canaan thy Father was an Amorrhite and thy Mother a Hittite And when thou wast born thy navel was not cut and thou wast not wash'd with water to salvation nor salted with salt nor wrapp'd up in clouts No eye spar'd thee to do any of these things for thee but thou wast thrown out upon the face of the earth in the affliction of thy soul in that day wherein thou wast born Passing by thee I saw thee trampled in thy bloud And a little after I spread my garment upon thee and cover'd thy shame And I swore to thee and enter'd into a Covenant with thee saith the Lord and thou wert made mine and I wash'd thee with water and clens'd thee from thy bloud and anointed thee with oyl By which famous Text it appears that the Jews sprung from the same root and were made of the same common earth as all the Gentiles were made of For the Amorrhites and the Hittites here are taken for any manner of Gentiles as likewise the Land of Canaan for a Land not yet chosen an earth common and unclean I say God meant that the Jews being born of a Father and Mother sprung from an unelected earth were likewise themselves born unelected that they were born unclean and defil'd with the bloud of their first creation naked and cast out but by the bounty of God passing by them and pitying them they were wash'd cloath'd and receiv'd into the Covenant of mystical Election By no better signification could the love of God to the Jews have been expressed or rather that holy love by which God in his mystical election was joyn'd to the Jews than by that mystical Marriage in which God is said to have spred his garment over his Spouse the people of Israel Nor is there any other more holy or near knot than that by which two Lovers in the cement of Matrimony make such a mixture of their souls that two become one Hence these sweet Dialogues of Lovers as it were equally match'd with which Solomon has besprinkled his book of Loves where God the Bridegroom lover-like speaks to his Bride the people of Israel And where Israel his Spouse likewise enflam'd with love speaks to God her Husband with reverence and love Hence
Iâ—â— to enter into a stranger But God hath shewed me to caâ— no man common or unclean For the Angel haâ— said so to Peter What the Lord hath cleansed 〈◊〉 not thou call common Before then that the Lorâ— purified the Gentiles that is before Christ 〈◊〉 death the Gentiles were common and uncleanâ— but after the death of Christ and after that God had purified the Gentiles it was not lawfull to call any man common or unclean But that I may comprehend in brief what 〈◊〉 have spoken here of the Iews and the Gentiles and to show that in stock and nature the Gentilâ— were different from the Iews let us imagine 〈◊〉 our selves the Gentiles every way opposite 〈◊〉 the Iews The Iews by their Election and Creation placed in the degree of Gods the Gentiles in their Creation thought meer men the Iews the sons of God the Gentiles the sons of men the Iews holy the Gentiles wicked and ungodly the Iews just the Gentiles sinners the Iews wise and understanding the Gentiles foolish and unwise the Iews great and high the Gentiles low and small the Jews rich the Gentiles poor the Iews sons of love the Gentiles sons of wrath the Iews friends the Gentiles enemies the Iews thought clean the Gentiles unclean and raised of unclean beasts But if sometimes we likewise read the Iews called simply men as also sons of men wicked impious sinners unwise unworthy sons of wrath enemies unclean beasts and so stigmatized these Iews must be understood such as had fled over to the Customes of the Gentiles which as the first Psalm speaks Have departed to thâ— councel of the ungodly had stood in the way of sinners and not in the Law of God Of Iews who called themselves Jews but were not but of the Synagogue of Satan such as they are called Chap. 2. of the Revelations CHAP. X. The Jews form'd by God in Adam The Gentiles created by God And created by the word of God as other creatures as also on the same day when other creatures were created The Jews peculiarly form'd by the hands of God God call'd the fashioner of the Jews Adam first Father of the Jews The Jews are call'd the sons of Adam THe Jews are the Sons of God by election and fabrick By election which was a mystical generation By fabrick which is nigher to Nature God form'd the Jews in Adam as he took them in Abraham and led them into Canaan of whom Isaias in the 41 Chapter And thou Israel my servant the seed of Abraham my friend since I took thee from the furthest parts of the earth and took thee from far God brought the Jews into the Holy Land in Abraham by that mystical promise by which he gave that Land to Abraham the first Father of the Jews and promised it with an Oath to his seed In which respect Abraham by the right of the Promises is fitly call'd the first Father of the Jews God form'd the Jews in Adam when he form'd Adam the first Father of the Iews and made him in the fashioning of him the first Author and Father of them Wherefore God was call'd the fashioner of the Jews Isa 45. Thus saith the Lord the holy one of Israel the fashioner of him God was the fashioner of Israel because he was the fashioner of the first Father of them whom he made of the clay of the earth Wherefore God is said in Deut. 26. To have made the Jews higher than all the Nations he had created For God had first created the Gentiles and the men of the first creation then form'd the Jews the sons of Promise and the second creation It is worth our taking notice that the men of the first creation who according to my supposition are Gentiles as also the whole world were created by the word The first Chapter of Genesis hath this expresly which is the Chapter of the creation And God said Let us make man according to our own Image He said Let us make And by his word he made him But not by his word but of wrought clay the Lord made Adam Gen. Chap. 2. Which Chapter peculiarly handles the creation of Adam and the framing of the Jews in Adam Whose Historie Moses being about to write began it from the dust of Adam the first father of the Jews as is usual amongst all Historiographers who write the Historie of their Nation to begin from the first Authors of them And God made Adam of the dust of the earth saith Gen Chap. 2. He did not create Adam by his word but made him with his hand out of the dust of the earth That dust of which the Lord fram'd Adam was as the clay in the hand of the Potter as Ieremiah speaks to this purpose Wheresore you shall find it written in the 45 Chapter of Isaias now mentioned Ask the things to come of my sons and command me concerning the work of my hands Where the sons of God and the work of Gods hands are clearly the Jews I know it is written in the same Isaias My hand hath laid the foundation of the earth and my right hand hath measur'd the heavens As also Chap. 19. The Assrrian is the work of my hands But you must understand where you read that the hand of God was us'd in the creation that phrase is there used according to the force of the Hebrew tongue for the force and power of God which is the word of God And in that regard the word of God who is the Son of God and who is the only force power and great strength of God is not only call'd the hand of God but the arm of the Lord which I must in another place more exactly examine But where the hand of God is ascrib'd to forming and as it were to the Potter they are meerly taken for the hands wherewith he as a Potter moulded the clay and made the work Therefore in the same sence as the Lord is called the fashioner of the Jews Isa 54. in the same signification the Jews are truly and properly call'd the work of the hands of the Lord in the same place and the same Chapter Certainly Adam in the genealogie of Christ is call'd the first and the Father of the Jews where Christ is deriv'd from Adam in the third Chapter of the gospel according to St. Luke Where take good notice that Adam the first author the first Father of the linage of the Jews is called the son of God For it is said about the end of that Chapter Who was the son of Enos who was the son of Seth who was the son of God Adam then was the son of God By that fashioning and for that reason because being made of the dust of the earth he was the work of his hands For which reason all the Jews descended from Adam that is the sons of Adam made by God and the work of his hands in Adam are calld the sons of God But why may I not
original of the Jews out of Genesis The Gentiles were created in that creation which is mentioned Chap. 1. All creatures and all men male and female were created on the sixth day of the creation as plants trees and fleeing fowls upon their own days through all the world Why upon that day one man and he alone from whom all should arise was not created BUt go to that I may leave nothing un-essay'd that may conduce to the clearing of this famous Argument I 'll prove out of Genesis it self that the Gentiles are different in stock from he Jews which being understood it shall appear â—leares thâ—n the Suâ— That 〈◊〉 of the first But indeed to read that which â—erlwaded by your Ottinâ—onâ— of 〈…〉 with superstition you dare nor will not understand is not to read it Hereâ—â—en 〈◊〉 of such Pâ—itâ—â— as in holy mysteries is entertained and betake my self to that Faith which is the Sister of a good Understanding and which loves right Reâ—son Henâ—e then those ill contriv'd and ill hanging together miracles which such fain to themselves who use to have their recourse to needless Faith and the power of God not necessary in such cases when there own reason is weak This they gain that without choice believing every thing no body believes them in any thing for where reason is absolutely weakened there Faith is quite destroyed especially in those things where there is a natural rational or historical connexion such as are related in the first Chapter of Genesis of the Creation of the first men of the framing of Adam and of the framing of Eve his Wife as also of Cain and Abel brothers the chief heads of which I shall only touch here It is clear then from the beginning of Genesit in that sixth day wherein the earth brought forth all Creatures That God upon the same day 〈◊〉 man and created the male and femal◠〈…〉 Oenesis speaks here of the species 〈…〉 them and relates the individuals Mate and Pemale he declares that every Male was created with the Female for the Male and Female are taken for one man for he manifests that without interruption and by one action and the same tenour of creation man were created by God Male and Female they two being one man but Genesis called that one man being Male and Female Adam for if the Scripture at any time has occasion to mention one man indifferently or all mankinde it uses to express them all in the same word by the proper name of Adam Moreover for the same reason as the earth brought forth grass and trees and all things were enlivened I say as all things were created according to their own species and in their own dayes in the self-same progressive Creation upon the whole earth whether known to our Fore-fathers or but lately or not yet known According to the same Analogy of Creation we must believe that men were made by God Male and Female in one day with an uninterrupted Creation and upon the whole earth and that there was no place in the whole earth which brought forth grass fostered trees cattel which before the sixth and last day of the absolute Creation had not its own men and its own Lords Besides these things were certainly created to serve man their Lord speaking in specie or men their Lords mentioning the individuals and God would have seem'd to have created something in vain inconvenient if upon that same day when he ordained these things for the service of men he had not created men at the same time who had either used them or might have used them wheresoever they were But if we affirm Adam to be the first and the onely man by whom afterwards the colonies of men were drawn out and dispersed over the earth to what purpose in that vast space of time in which the whole earth must needs receive its people from one man I say to what purpose should the Countries of Mesopotamia the Antipodes bring forth grass and herbs for what Lords use should the fruit have hung upon the trees in those Countries the cattel of them whom should they have helped being meerly created for that purpose to help men for either in that long space of time you must confess that they were created in vain or created to an use that God had never appointed them for or else that men were there created to make use of them The world was created in the beginning every way perfectly adorned every way perfectly good every way perfectly fair But the World had been created in the beginning every way without ornament every way imperfect in fairness every way imperfect in goodness which is a sin to think if all the places in the earth had at first wanted their own men The earth had been deformed if it had wanted grass trees and creatures but they had been absolutely deformed indeed if they had wanted at the beginning their comliness and ornament their men for whom the earth was created and all that therein is and if the ground had wanted Tillers as it requires What was the intention of God in the Creation of the world is found by God's Decree in the preservation and Government of the World It is written Exod. 23. That God when he led Israel out of Egypt to lead them into the Land of Canaan did thus provide for him I will not throw on t the people of the Land of Canaan before thy face least the Land become waste and wild beasts multiply against thee I will by little and little drive them out of thy sight till thou be encreased and possess the Land That is likewise written in Deut. 7. these words The Lord shall consume these Nations in thy sight by little and little thou canst not overthrow them at once least the wilde beasts encrease against thee Here is a two-fold condition why God would not in one year and at one push throw out all the Nations of the Land of Canaan in whose place he was to settle the Jews The first was because he would not have that earth which he was about to bless to become ugly and ill-favoured for there is horror not comliness in desolation yea solitariness is a mark of cursing Therefore did the Prophet weep when she was cursed Why dost thou sit a solitary City that was full of people And afterwards All the comliness of Sion is departed from her her Princes her young men and her virgins are gone into captivity And Isaiah ch 64. The city of the holy one is laid waste Jerusalem is desolate The second caution was Lest the Beasts should grow and multiply in Canaan against the people of God The first caution was for comliness the second for security God would not as hâ— might easily have done quite destroy the Nations of Canaan but drive them out by little and little till the people of the Jews might encrease and that Land might have its ful number of its own men
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
brought to Adam all the creatures of the earth and all the fowls of heaven Which it is not likely he did in half a day For thither must the Elephants come from the furthest parts of India and Africk who are of a heavy and a slow pace What shall I speak of so many several species of creatures and fowls unknown to our Hemisphere who must swim so much Sea pass over so much Land to come from America to Mesopotamia and there receive their names Seventhly He saw what he would call them He saw that is that he took notice that he should fitly call every one of them and in every name he disputed with himself that is he had those operations of mind which are distinguishable discursively and in time Nor is it possible that Adam could in one half of a day see all the creatures of the earth and the fowls of heaven and then premeditately give every one of them a convenient name which neither in pronouncing of their names not in a continual rehearsing of them he could have perform'd in so short a time Eighthly God sent a deep steep upon Adam and when he had slept a long and deep sleep God took one of his ribs and filled up the flesh for it Ninthly He made a â—oman of the rib Nor did the Grecian Jews believe that the rib of Adam was made a woman the same day that Adam was made for they affirm That Adam was made in the New Moon that is the first day of the Moon But Eve was made the second day of the Moon Which the famous Salmasius has mentioned in his Climacterical years and refuted the superstition of the Jews and withall has cleared their Opinion who believ'd that there was the distance of a day betwixt their creation Tenthly God brought Eve to Adam If you all reckon these things severally not half a day not a week not a moneth will suffice for half of them Nor is it to be overslip'd that Adam called that Female a woman as being taken out of a man nor call'd her man as the females were in the first creation He created them male and female For this man in the second creation did so much excell all other men who were created before and begotten till his time for which cause he was to be the first and the Father of a Nation chosen by God and by which he was to represent by Gods decree all mankind That he could find no fit helper for him amongst all the women of the former creation But a woman must be fram'd for him more excellent than all oother women And hence it comes to passe that Marriages with the rest of the Nations are strictly forbidden the Jews and that the marriages of the sons of God must not be made with the daughters of men left the holy and elect people should be defiled with the prophane Nations and those that were created altogether in a huddle CHAP. III. Of the marvellous framing of Adam Of the marvellous conceptions of Isaac and Christ Adam was made a type of Christ in all things like him but his justice Eve the wife of Adam was likewise a figure of the Church who was the spouse of Christ THey which take pains in reading of the holy Scripture and are serious in the perusal of them find three men marvellously and peculiarly brought forth The first is Adam The second Isaac The third Jesus Christ The first was Adam whose mother was the Earth God his father The second Isaac whose father was Abraham God was his mother for it left off with Sarah to be according to the manner of women Gen. 18. To which God alluding Isa 46. speaking to the Jews the sons of Isaac says he carryed them in his womb The third is Jesus Christ whose mother was a Virgin and whose father God God was father both to Adam and Christ under whose imputation all the world was sometimes to fall God was the father Adam was the son of God Christ was the son of God and God the son Adam was a sinner Christ was just In all other things Adam and Christ were alike Adam was a type of Christ and opposite to Christ Isaac was a type of Christ and in the middle 'twixt Adam and Christ Christ was a Prototype of Isaac and an Antitype of Adam The common Opinion is That Adam was created by God of a full age of the perfect stature of a man and that the day wherein he was created he might be a man of thirty yeers of age at which age Christ died Truely I shall rather think that Adam was in all things like Christ except the justice of Christ as Christ was made in all things like Adam except the sin of Adam and that Adam not streight nor the first day but by leisure and by several ages successively grew from infancy and youth to man's estate by as many degrees as Christ arived at the same state at which Isaac arived at it being himself likewise miraculously brought forth and as other men begotten after the ordinary manner arise from children to be men And he shall finde this to be most probable whosoever shall seriously peruse the History of Adam from the framing of him till the framing of his wife Eve for God framed Adam out of Paradise whom he afterwards carried into Paradise that he might manure it sayes Genesis Hence I gather that Adam was framed an Infant without Paradise because I read that he was carried into Paradise to till it at such time of his age and strength as he was able to perform it Again I believe that that Paradise was that place of the Holy Land which is called Arabia felix for it is bounded Chap. 2. Genesis By Tigris and Euphrates two Rivers joining their streams in their course towards Arabia fall into the Bay of Persia Arabia felix is likewise to be understood the Paradise of the Lord in that place of Gen. 12. where Lot lifting up his eyes saw all the Region about Jordan which was altogether watered like the Paradise of the Lord and like Egypt as thou comest from Segor for it is probable that Genesis has compared and joyned to Arabia felix and Egypt two neighbouring Regions and two of the most pleasant I think that Adam was brought to that Holy Land even as I finde Abraham led to the same Land that Adam might have the first natural possession of it the first and the father of all the Jews and which by a stricter title and a more peculiar obligation God might afterwards promise give Abraham and to the Jews his posterity being Adam's seed and his own Adam being a young man and cultivating of Paradise God thought of giving him a Wife and being as it were uncertain whom he should bestow upon him he brought unto him all the creatures of the earth and all the Fowls of heaven that he might see what he would call them for every thing whatsoever Adam called it