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
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
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
blessed in Abraham The Angel which was the Lord himself did bear witnesse Likewise this promise gave God unto Isaac In thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed Gen. 26. And to Jacob Chap. 28. All the nations of the earth shall be blessed in thee and thy seed Therefore it appears that in the Fathers of the Jews and in their seed and in the Jews themselves all the Kinreds all the People all the Nations and Tribes of the earth were to be blessed but these Kinreds Nations People and Tribes we shall meerly call those Gentiles which are without the Kinred Nation People and Tribe of the Jews That blessing by which the Gentiles were blessed in the Jews is The election of God in mystery which was first proper to the Jewes and which by derivation and participation was from the Jews powr'd upon the Gentiles Therefore if God have preferr'd the Jews in a mystical election let the Gentiles have next place with him in the same election But by no nearer title did the Jews cleave to God than by this that they were the first-born in this mystical Election That mystical begetting of the Jews was a kind of a mystical nature by which the Jews were acknowledged as natural Sons For which God is said to have carried them in his womb Isa 46. To which portion or degree of nature because the Gentiles were neither called nor chosen adoption was granted to them which is an imitation of Nature by which being adopted into the family of the Jews they were esteem'd the Sons of the Jews not according to flesh and nature but according to that adoption which is perfected by mystical nature I say by that same election by which the Jews are the Sons of God in the first degree of nature and by which the Gentiles adopted in the Jews are called the Sons of God but because they come in by a second degree by adoption are onely call'd and esteem'd adoptive Sons In which sense St. Paul is to be understood Eph. 1. where he says That God did prâ—destinate or chuse the Gentiles into the Election of the sons of God that is to say of the Jews The Gentiles were adopted into the family of the Jews by that mystical election at which time they were made the sons of Abraham And they were made the sons of Abraham when Abrams name was chang'd and instead of that he call'd Abraham and then when Abram was made Father of the Gentiâ—es Thou shalt be called Abraham sayes the Lord to Abram Gen. 17. Because I have appointed thee father of many Nations Abraham was made father of the Gentiles by the same right as the Gentiles were made sons of Abraham and sons of the Jews in Abraham St. John Baptist meant that election where reproaching the Jews he affirms That God out of these stones could raise up seed to Abraham For he can raise up stones who can call things that are not as if they were as to this purpoâ—e St. Paul spoke Rom. 4. That is to say who can call men out of stones and turn the stones themselves to be men stones I say that are distant from men in the whole scheme of animals I say God that could doe these things which are without and beyond nature could likewise adopt Children to Abraham which is an imitation of nature Adoption sayes he is an holy thing which imitates the benefit of nature But by how much truth is more holy than Imitation by so much is nature more holy than adoption Nature and adoption make sons nature true ones adoption feign'd ones Adoption transfers men from one Family to another and from one name to another It changes the kinred which is fiction and imitation but cannot change the bloud which belongs to nature and truth But neither can adoption alter the condition of the linage As for example it can make sons but of libertines cannot make free or of servants freemen The mystical adoption is otherwise by the force of which the nature of the Gentiles is turn'd into the nature of the Jews That which is imitation of nature in civil adoption is nature it self in the mystical And truth whose image is pretended only by the Law is by the mystery of this adoption really begotten Therefore the Gentiles change both their kind and their linage by adoption and translation into the Nation and family of the Jews And because they change their stock they change likewise the condition of their stock for the Gentiles become by that adoption not only sons but of servants free-men and free-born For all the efficacie of this adoption is to liberty and all such who by right of that adoption come to a part of the liberty of the sons of God claim a liberty That mystery is the force and power of the Spirit of Christ by which the Gentiles are changed into spiritual Jews and into the true sons of Abraham not according to the nature of the flesh but according to the nature of Promise and Spirit which is the true adoption and election of the Gentiles Yea Promise is that election by which alone the Jews are what they are by which the Jews themselves are the sons of Abraham true Israelites and true Jews not according to the flesh but according to Promise and to Spirit For all those that descended of Israel are not Israelites nor those who are the feed of Abraham all his sons but in Isaac shall thy seed be call'd that is to say not the sons of the flesh or the Jews but those that are called sons of the Promise in his seed Rom. 9. I say that promise is it which makes true Israelites and true sons of God But also the Jews without that shall lose their own family which is Gods and their father Abraham they would leave off to be what they are and of Jews become Gentiles and by crosse-changing of their kinred of sons of God become sons of men The Scripture more significantly expresses this conversion of the kinred of the Gentiles into the kinred of the Jews where it affirms them not only to be adopted but ingrafted in the Jews That as a branch which is grafted grows to be one with the tree wherein it is grafted whether it be grafted by plastring or incision I say as by incision one tree is chang'd into another and of two arises one so the Gentiles by ingrafting become one with the Jews as also by force of that ingrafting are chang'd to be the very Jews and so from two Nations are made one people of God Besides there is a difference betwixt grafting of one tree into another and grafting of the Gentiles into the Jews for an unfertil tree uses not to be grafted in an unfertile one nor a wild one on a kindly and right stock but the branches of the Gentiles bâ—rren of holinesse were grafted in the Jews who were holy and fruitful in holinesse of works and those wild ones implanted in the
Publicans and sinners Both with the Jews are unlawful either to enter into the Gentiles or to receive them Publicans and sinners are put together in many places of the Gospel because the Publicans or Farmers of the Customes which the Jews paid to the Romans were Gentiles or sinners amongst the Gentiles We must likewise consider the answer which our Saviour gave to the Jews when they enquired of his Disciples why he sat and did eat with publicans and sinners I came not sayes he to call the just but sinners to repentance which is I came not to call the Jews but Gentiles to repentance For Christ did prophesie there should be a call of sinners and Gentiles of all such as would hear his voice and a rejection of the sinners and Gentiles of all such which would not hear his voice Like to this is that Mat. 26. The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners for the Son of man was betrayed into the hands of men or sinners or Gentiles which is the same that by the Romans who were Gentiles and not by the Jews he might be condemned and crucified Moreover by this observation of sins we excellently finde the meaning of that place to the Galathians Chap. 2. where you shall read this But if desiring to be justified in Christ we be found sinners is God the Author of sin c Which you must thus open and understand But if we Jews desiring to be justified in Christ for here he discourses of the Jews who would not live after the manner of the Gentiles If we Jews sayes he desiring to be justified in Christ the God of the Gentiles are found to be Gentiles that is to degenerate into sinful Gentiles shall Christ be the cause that we contrary to the Command of God have departed from being Jews to be Gentiles that leaving the Law of God we have turn'd to the Councel of the ungodly and walked in the way of sinners God forbid sayes the Apostle that we should think any such thing For Christ is not the cause of the Gentiles sins but of Faith which Gentiles who believe in Christ have in Christ Christ destroyes the sins of the Gentiles but is the Author of Faith to the Gentiles and wakens that Faith which he revealed to the Nations of sinners then in name but elected through Faith and called to the holiness of the Jews What then if we be called Gentiles so long as the Faith of the Gentiles is inherent in us and we are justified by Christ the God of the Gentiles CHAP. VIII Gentiles called children little ones and poor VVE must very attentively observe that which we read in the 9 of the Proverbs where Christ the wisdom of the Father speaks to the Gentiles whom being made a man he was afterwards to call in these words My speech unto the sons of men Understand ye little ones wisdom and ye foolish take heed Wisdom cried out standing in the streets and high-wayes speaking to the trivial commune and unclean Gentiles and who are here openly meant by the sons of men and by the unwise and likewise here called lutle ones That voice which was heard from Heaven which stirs up both Jews and Gentiles gathered into one Church Rev. 19. Give praise to God you his servants that fear him small and great did mean these same little ones that is praise the Lord both Jews and Gentiles as you were of old incorporal and unanimous or as Saint Paul translates and reherses it Romans 15. Rejoyce ye Nations with his people But of the agreement of the Jews and Gentiles in praising of God we shall speak more in its due place It is clear that the Gentiles are called little ones Psalm 64. The arrows of the little ones are made their wounds that is the Gentiles are wounded with the same Arrows which they shot against the Jews according to the 35 Psalm The snare which the Gentiles have laid for the Jews hath taken them and they are fallen into the same snare Wisdom cries out Chap. 1. Ye little ones how long will ye love childishness and ye fools those things that are hurtful to you and fools hate understanding The little ones fools and unwise in that place are the Gentiles who stammer like Infants who desire things hurtful to them and hate the knowledge which is of God Solomon calls those same little ones evil and wicked men Chap. 7. of the same Book where he sayes thus I looked out of my window through the casement and I see the little ones I observe the foolish young man who walks in the street by the corner walking in the dark when it 's almost night Understand those little ones here not such are borderers upon Infancy but those that are foolish of untam'd pleasure wicked men who apply themselves to whores which the following words do make appear The Gentiles are call'd little ones in regard of the Jews who are call'd the great Nation nor was there another Nation so great Deut. 4. And higher then other Nations Deut. 26. The Iews were called great and mighty and high not by reason of their stature for they seem'd to be locusts compar'd to the Canaanite whom they had view'd by their Spies and who Numb 13. were of the sons of Anac men of mighty stature and monsters in regard of the Jews who were but little men Therefore the Jews were great in that they were chosen and belov'd by God and because in that regard they excell'd all other Peoples and Nations On the contrary the Gentiles were neither chosen nor belov'd by God but for the contrary reason call'd low little small To this compare what is written in the 24 Rev. And I saw the dead great and small which ascribe not to the ages or statures of those that shall rise again but to the future resurrection of the Iews and Gentiles which St. Paul calls the 24 of the Acts the resurrection of the just and the unjust of which before Solomon gives the reason of this why the Gentiles should be call'd little and small in that Book to which they say he gave the the Title of Wisdom Chap. 12. Because they wander'd says he in the way of error esteeming those things Gods which were superfluous in beasts living like witlesse children for which cause God had given them a judgement as to foolish children In this sense understand these words which the Lord professes in the gospel Matth. 11. I praise thee O my Father that thou hast hidden these things from the prudent and wise and hast revealed them to little ones that is that Gospel which thou hast not reveal'd to the Jews thou hast made manifest to the Centiles For the Jews are called wise and prudent according to Exod. 4. Behold a prudent and a wise people The Little ones are understood the Gentiles For Christ did not come to the Jews whom he was not then rejecting because they believ'd not in him but to the
taken for a foolish and an ignorant person For a fool and an ignorant person hath nothing to say The Jews called the Gentiles foolish and ignorant because they knew not their Law nor thought they that any speech which spake not of the Law of God Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise Straight the Prophet would have thought himself dumb if he had spoken any thing besides the praise of God his justice and his law which was the chief duty of the elected Jews whose lips therefore were said to be circumcised but the Gentiles were of uncircumcised lips And therefore were rightly call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Infants The Gentiles were call'd little ones for the same cause as they were esteem'd poor and because God had opend to them as to the Jews his treasures of election and grace Little small and poor the same as Servius upon that of Virgil Take from poor Micon Goddess in good part This wild boar's head these horns of an ag'd Hart. Little Micon that is poor Micon The Gentiles by the poor are chiefly meant by Authors in both Testaments There was not a poor man nor a beggar amongst the Jews because the Law did forbid it And those which begged within the Ports of the Jews were strangers and gentiles nor did the Lord so earnestly recommend the poor to the Apostles as they were meerly poor for the Apostles being likewise poor themselves how should they have holpen the poor but because the Gentiles were poor whom by his comming Christ call'd to the participation of election and grace which is by the Jews and to whom he open'd the door of his gospel CHAP. IX The Gentiles called the sons of wrath the enemies of God beasts and so esteemed by the Jews yea unclean beasts the opposite comparison betwixt the Jews and the Gentiles IN the Epistle to the Ephesians Saint Paul call'd the Gentiles the sons of wrath and reckoned himself amongst the Gentiles being the Apostle of the Gentiles when he sayes And we by nature are the sons of wrath whether we conceive them to be the sons of the first Creation whom the Lord abhors or whether we take them as opposite to the Jews who by the Nature of their Election are esteemed the sons of love The Gentiles likewise called the Enemies of God in as much as the first Creation which is Elesh is enmity with God or because the Gentiles by a narural imbred hatred are Enemies to the Jews Let all thy enemies perish did Deborah sing who had destroyed the Gentiles who were Enemies to the Jews and to God but concerning the Gentiles Enemies to God and the Jews more at large in its due place Furthermore that which is the chief disgrace of the Gentiles is that they are compared every where to Beasts in sacred Authors and are accounted Beasts beneath men by reason of that great opposition by which the Iews are accounted Gods The 22 Psa thus complains of the Nations who had assaulted Israel Many Bulls have encompassed me fat Bulls have beset me they opened their mouth upon me like a ravening and a roar-Lion Psalm 57. Deliver me from the Lion's whelps the sons of men whose teeth are weapons and arrows Yea the 74 Psalm called the Gentiles Beasts Give not the beasts souls that trust in thee that is Deliver not the Jews who acknowledge thee to be the God of the Iews to the Gentiles their enemies who neither know thee nor acknowledge thee to which apply that of Baruch Chap. 3. Where the Princes of the Nations shall have dominion over the beasts of the earth that is over the Gentiles their flocks and their people There is a remarkable place to this purpose in Isaiah Chap. 3. Thou are made honourable and glorious in my eyes said God to the people of the Jews I have loved thee I will give men for thee and Nations for thy soul That is I will expiate and redeem thee by the death of men and people that is of the Gentiles whom like Beasts I will sacrifice for thee There could be no thing granted to the Jews more honourable and glorious than that honour and glory to become honourable and glorious before the eyes of God As likewise the Gentiles are numbred among the Beasts and Creatures walking upon the Earth in the same Chap. Isaiah 24. So sayes the Lord who created the heavens giving breath to the people upon the earth and life to them that tread upon it The people walking there upon the earth is indifferently taken for men and beasts for which cause the Gentiles are called a people not a people Deut. 32. I will provoke you by a Nation which is not a Nation and a people which is not a people in which words Deuterònâ—my meant the Gentiles as also the men of the first Creation who were properly in flocks like Cattle nor made up in Cities and Civil Societies of men The Jews did not value men by their reason but by their understanding I say by that intellect by which the true knowledg of God is gained which is above reason by which the manifestation of the Divine Law was given to the Jews and by which the granting of the Spirit of Christ was revealed to the Jews Hence that famous promise to Israel Psalm 32. I will give thee understanding and inform thee in the way wherein thou shalt walk Then immediately after a Precept given to the Jews Be ye not like to horses and mules which have no understanding And cettainly Divine understanding makes all men quite different from brutes Which although men have excellent beyond horse and Mule yet have they it in a manner commune with horse and mule so really did the Jews believe that the Gentiles were not men because they thought them altogether destitute of the knowledge of God But you shall likewise finde the Gentiles reckoned amongst the unclean Beasts Mat. 15. It is not good to take the bread of the children and throw â—t to the dogs said the Lord to the Gentile a Caâ—aanitish Woman In which the Jews are the sons and the dogs the Gentiles The Lord meaning so likewise said to his Disciples Jews Gave not that which is holy to dogs nor cast your pearls before swine That is beâ—â—ow not that which belongs to the sanctified Jews upon the Gentiles whom the Evangelist here call dogs and swine It is meant that the Apostles ought to preach the Gospel to the Jews first before they addressed themselves to the Nations Lastly it is excellent which the Lord advises us Luke 12. God sayes he caeres not for the sparrows or the crows which are said of the Jews and the Gentiles whom God should esteem and care for without any difference is here meant by the unclean sparrowâ— the Jews the foul Crows the Gentiles The Gentiles are esteemed unclean by thâ— Jews Acts 10. where Saint Peter sayes thuâ— You know how abominable it is to a man who is a
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
by any intervening mountain nor rough with any stops through a clear plain as we see in a globe either of Metal or Yvorie very even and smooth so that nothing can hinder those waters slowing along so smooth a channel Then grant that the Country about the Euxin sea is so much drown'd that the waters of it are rais'd from the bottom perpendicularly a whole mile Which height will doubly out-vie the height of the highest hils This being granted it would be found according to that which I said That the sountain of the Danow was higher than the shore of the Euxine sea that that deluge which would rise up to the right and left of that Continent would only touch the brim of the fountain of Danow and not pass those lands and those on the other side would remain untouch'd and dry as before Think so likewise of the deluge of Noah Concerning whose waters we might easily gather how much of Asia they overflow'd beyond the Armenian mountains if we knew the height of the mountain of Ararat which is one of the highest and on the top of which the Ark stood and what risings and what barrs that Globe of the Continent of Asia rais'd against those waters that flow'd down upon them from above from above I say those fifteen cubits by which according to Genesis it was higher than the mountains which it covered Truly I really think that the waters of Noahs floud rose a hundred miles or thereabouts up inthe Continent of Asia because the continent of that Globe being full of risings and stops nay advancing it self with very high ridges as far as the hill Taurus broke as is probable the forâ—â— of the water by the interposition of mountains that the waters could not go any further That the Dove could flee and return one hundred miles to bring that branch with green leaves in a day I guesse from hence because she being out in the morning and came home at night both by reason of the swiftnesse of her wing with which the Dove is naturally endow'd as also by the leading and conduct of God Almighty she went to fetch the pledge of peace by which God was reconcil'd to the Jewish Nation But she had not flown so far if she had intended to pluck a wither'd and a slimie branch for there were enough hard by the Ark. CHAP. IX This same is prov'd by the historie of the sons and posterity of Noah By Eusebius in his Chroniclae There were particular deluges Aegypt never drowned Strabo of the Turdetanian Spaniards Scaliger and Servius concerning the Trojans are cited Solinus of the Indians Sanchoniato Iombal ACcording as it is believ'd that all mankind was o'rwhelmed in Noahs Floud they likewise believe that the losse was repair'd by his posterity And if it could appear that the people of all Lands were propagated since the Floud of Noah from his posterity there were no reason but I should yeeld to them Read but attentively the tenth Chapter of Genesis from whence the reparation of all mankind is ascrib'd to the sons of Noah as also the division of the whole earth by them is asserted And it will appear more clear than day that not all the Countries and regions of the earth were possessed after the floud by the sons of Noah but only those Countries in the Holy land as they are there set down or rather those Countries of the Holy hand and the Countries round about it In that chapter the beginning of the Kingdom of Nimrod was Babylon Assur built Niniveh There is nothing but Babylon and Niniveh said to be possessed in the whole chapter either beyond Euphrates or beyond the River of Egypt or beyond the red sea or beyond the whole Palestine which I determined before the bounds of the holy land and which do environ it every way Yea you shall read in that chapter that the Philistines the Hethites Iebusites Amorrhites Gergesites Hevites Sinites Aradites Samarites and Amathites were all Nations of the holy land which appears from the places and journals of that Country And the bounds of Chanaan the Sons of Cham are as one comes from Sydon to Cerar even to Gaza till thou enter into Sodom and Gomorrha and Adma and Zoboim even unto Leza which are either places or Cities of the holy land It is immediatly added After this the Chananites were dispersed But no body doubts of them but that they were a very well known people of the holy land Then thou shalt find it thus written These are the sons of Cham in their kinreds tongues generations lands and people Which if you read suddenly you will imagine that those tongues generations lands and nations had possessed the third part of the earth But take notice that these great names of tongues generations lands and nations are to be understood for their own nations in the holy land divided and distributed amongst them wherein they dwelt according to that description in the tenth chapter Observe too that tongues are here preposterously set down For at that time all the Nations were of one lip The earth was of one lip and of one speech and so of one tongue as it is written in the following chapter the 11 of Gensis Not was that confusion of tongues which follows in in the 11 chapter in the building of Babel The Sons of Sem are reckoned who was the Father of the Sons of Heber And there were born unto Heber says Genesis two sons the name of the one was Phaleg because in his days the earth was divided and the name of his brother Joctan That land which was divided is to be understood the holy land For it is said moreover of these brothers that their habitation was as one goes from Messar to Sephar a mountain in the East which is a meer itinerarie of the holy land These were the families of Noah and according to their peoples and Nations and from them were the Nations divided upon the earth after the Floud For by them was the habitation of the holy land divided For land simply nam'd the Hebrews interpret for their own which I have told you oftner than once before Grant that all the world was at this time divided by Phaleg could it be possible that in five generations for Phaleg is the fifth in discent from Sem that they could inhabite China America the Southland and Greenland and whatsoever land lies betwixt them therefore the name of land must here he streightned to the chosen land only which if the businesse be well look'd into could not be well inhabited and replenished by the offspring of Noah in ten generations But they guesse and rashly too that all the places of the earth were divided and inhabited by the Sons of Noah out of an opinion which as I said before has prepossest all persons that all the men of the world were drowned in Noahs Flood As also from the names of the Sons of Noah which names some having some affinity
upon all things created but gave it particularly to men Neither hath he yet given that Spirit to all men by vertue of which they may know God as he is by the essicacies of which all men may be holy as God is holy by whose power lastly all men may gain eternal life which is Divine immortality Yea God has onely imparted that Spirit to elected men whom he has advanced from the degree and rank of men to the highest rank and degree above all men whom he had adorned with his Divine Gifts with his Knowledge and Holiness and taken them into his fellowship as Gods so that most truely and fitly we may say of this that God who is the Lord of all things yet is the God of very few and only of the Elect. Election is in all things created Things that have a living soul are more elect than those which have not Then of things animated sensitives As also in stones and metals one stone in better than another one metal better than another There is also elected earth and reprobate earth The choiceness is in choicer flowers both for colour and smell The Cedar is more choice than the shurb the true than the wild vine and the pleasant fruits of Trees are sweeter than the wilde ones Among Creatures Lions excel in strength Harts in swiftness Lambs in mildness Amongst Birds Nightingals excel for singing the Eagle for flight As likewise of the flesh of beasts and birds some make choicer dishes than others What shall I say of men Some are more commendable for the gallantry of their integrity some higher spirited than others fairer more noble more fortunate in honour and riches others more excellent in the study of Vertue in cleerness of wit and knowledge of things There is likewise an election in life and permanency of things Some things quickly grow and quickly fade The Crow lives nine times the just age of a Man The Hart lives four times the life of the Crow The Rook lives thrice the life of the Hart. The Phenix lives nine times the Rook's life And if we believe the most ancient Traditions before Hesiod's times The Hamadryades lives ten times longer than the Phoenix To these adde if you please the life or duration of Heaven and Earth and that eviternal Marriage by which the Heaven descends into the lap of the Earth and by which the Earth fructifies with continual Buds towards Heaven and the order of the Stars surrounding the Heaven from aeternity as also the unwearied motions of the Sun and Moon by which they are inceslantly mov'd and by which eviternity it self is accounted But the Divine Election is not in all these created things I say that Election by which God did elect to himself all men which is not of kin or blood with the first Creation which surpasses all kinde of things created and is infinitely above them and which is the Election of Regeneration that is of the second Creation not of the first Certainly if there be any thing in the first Creation either exquisite precious or choice delicate strong high or fair or noble or fortunate or abstruse in wisdom or long in continuance of permanency and life That is in the second Creation much more exquisite beyond exquisitness far more precious beyond preciousness far more choice beyond choiceness far more delicate beyond dalicateness far more strong beyond strength far more fair beyond fairness far more noble beyond nobility far more fortunate beyond fortune far more wise beyond wisdom far more permanent beyond permanency But of this we must hear Baruch Chap. 3. of his Book Where are sayes he the Princes of the Nations that have Dominion over the Beasts of the Earth who treasure up silver and gold wherein men trust they are rooted out the sons of Agar have sought for wisdom which is of the Earth idle speakers and seekers out of understanding They were those which from the beginning were called Giants men of great stature great warriours Those the Lord hath not chosen He sayes The Election of God was not towards Kings and Princes of Nations not towards learned Men and excellent in humane wisdom not towards the Rich and Noble not towards the strong and the Renowned those famous Thunderbolts of War because they fulfilled that Law of Nature and their first Creation by which all men are born and created to die and attained not to that Eternal Life which consisted in the power of Divine Election and the vertue of the second Creation God is said to chuse and to take to himself those whom he intends to frame a-new and to new create them to whom he made manifest and discovered himself whom he has gifted with his sanctity whom he has made partakers of his immortality and Life Eternal and whom from Men he advanced to be Gods Moreover God is said to reject those and to cast them out whom he is pleased to create but not to regenerate into whose hearts he has not shined whom he suffers to live defiled with the pollution and wickedness of their flesh whom being subject to the power of Death he has not redeemd from Death and whom he suffers not to savour any thing above man Not to elect signifies to reject and cast out which is common in sacred Authors Samuel comming into the house of Jesse that he might anoint one of them whom he knew not King over Israel as soon as he saw Eliab Jesse's first-born in whose countenance was a royal majestie straight he believ'd that he had been chosen by God But God admonishes Samuel Look not upon the countenance of Eliab for I have rejected him Sam. 1. Chap. 16. I have rejected him is in that place directly I have not chosen him This will more clearly appear by the Gospel of St. Matthew Chap. 24. concerning the judgement of the Elected and Reprobate which shall be in the day of the Lord Then sayes the Evangelist one shall be taken another left shall be left in that place is cleerly the same which is cast off and rejected Thus prayed Solomon 1 Kings 8. Let our God be with us not leaving us nor casting us off but enclining our hearts towards him where observe first to leave and reject with the most wise Prince are the same Mark secondly That God enclines the heart of man which again when he does not encline he is said to harden as also to hate when he does not love As that is to be understood I have loved Jacob and hated Esau Lastly that is a remarkable place in the Prophet Jeremy where he brings in God threatning destruction to the Jews I will sayes the Lord turn my back and not my face to them in the day of their destruction There to turn his back to the Jews is to fight against them to leave forsake and fly from the Jews is to overthrow cast them down and destroy them Men therefore rejected and reprobate are properly such who are left by God
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
right and manur'd stock Which St. Paul hath taught us Rom. 11. where he compared the Gentiles to a wilde Olive but the Iew in which the Gentile is engrafted to a good and right Olive Likewise Saint Paul in that place made that wild Olive partaker of that juice and fatness which is in the true Olive Therefore the Gentile being sanctified or this wilde Olive turn'd into a a true Olive may well wonder at the new fruits of his works his new sap which is none of his own CHAP. VI. Gentiles different from the Jews in Kinred and Original in as much as they are ingrafted in them Gentiles called Atheists because without a God called simply men and Sons of men and foolish wicked c. WE shall prove the Gentiles different in their Original from the Jews both by their adoption and by their engrafting in the Jews for adoption concerns strange Families and trees of several kindes are grafted one in another Nor am I ignorant that Kinred by the Female side and Cosens might be adopted for Sons but we must observe that Saint Paul Ephes 2. set down the Gentiles that were received into the Family of the Jews strangers aliens unknown far distant from the Family of the Jews which in that place the Apostle calls a Commonwealth and in regard of that calls the Gentiles their fellow-Citizens with the Saints that is to say of the Jews But this Commonwealth so to be understood as that the Jews and the Gentiles are both the Domesticks and Sons of God I know likewise that in Trees of the same kind sweet are grafted in sweet and true stocks in true ones but you must take notice that in Rom. 11. Saint Paul has a two-fold grafting according to Nature and against Nature The Apostle has given us in that place one example of grafting according to nature when he sets down that by which he tells us the Jews shall sometimes be again grafted in their own Olive Again he has given us an instance of grafting against Nature which the Gentiles are grafted in the Jews That against Nature he calls this when the Gentiles different in original from the Jews against the Nature of their stock were grafted the wilde stock in the tame one Nature then which is the Original and Linage of the Gentiles is different and not the same with the Original and Linage of the Jews And by no more distinguishing congruous difference could the Gentiles have been noted different in stock and Original from the Jews thâ—â— by such a presupposition which grants the original of the Gentiles or of the first men to have such a beginning as was determinable from Adam and accounts them created many Ages before Adam and which again affirms that the Jews were later and created in their first Father Adam from whom to us according to the vulgar account there is no more then five thousand six hundred and seventeen yeers Yea you will say If adoption admits onely in imitation of Nature the younger into the Family of the elder according as Sons ought to be younger than their Fathers What Monster of adoption is that by which the Jews being younger adopted the most ancient Gentiles to be their Sons And again if in regard of the same age a Tree is said to adopt a graft I say if a tender and new plant is grafted in an old and strong stock what new manner of grafting is that by which the most ancient Gentiles shall be grafted in the later Jews and if you look upon the original quite green I answer That the Gentiles in their Creation and Nature are indeed ancienter then the Jews but the Gentiles are said to be adopted into the Jews by that mystical Election not by Creation and Nature of which Genesis gives a fair instance where Esau was elder but younger in election The Apostle calls those Gentiles who according to my supposition were the men of the first Creation Atheists or without a God in respect to that opposition by which that true God the Creator of Heaven and Earth was not the God of the Gentiles as he was God of the Jews and as the Gentiles did not enjoy him for their God as did the Jews And that was for this reason because God had discovered himself to the Nation of the Jews and to them alone but not so to other Nations wherefore the Jews are called The people of God Hence it is that God speaks to them friendly Ezekiel 34. You are my flock you are the flock of my pasture you are my men The Jews are the men of God Let the Nations know because they are men sayes David Psal 19. The Gentiles are called Men simply not the men of God in that regard because at first being simply created they could have no rellish of God for God is above men and because they could have no taste of God nor draw neer to him they were without God nor deserved to be called the men of God Wherefore men simply so called in holy writ are meant the Gentiles so in Psal 66. Thou hast put men over our heads that is to say thou hast set the Gentiles over our heads which are to be understood of the Jews vanquished by the Gentiles to which refer that of Jeremiah Thou hast given Israel to the Nations and made him contemptible to men Where Nations Gentiles and men are the same Isaiah exhorts the Jews Chap. 51. Fear not the revilings of Nations Then in the 6 Chap. of restoring the Jews and putting the Gentiles to flight God sayes he shall set the men a far off and she that was desolate shall be multiplied in the midst of the earth Men in that place are the Gentiles whom God â—hould drive out of the Land of the Jews that the Jews might again be restored to it But for the same reason as the Gentiles were called Men they were likewise called the sons of men Of which there is as many witnesses as there are Chapters almost in both Testaments for which cause it will be here in vain to quote those innumerable Autorities The Gentiles were called the sons of men by way of opposition as the Jews were called the sons of God Those Gentiles which were called Atheists and without a God were called wicked foolish corrupt abominable in their iniquities Psal 9. Thou hast reproved the Nations and the wicked shall perish that is the Gentile Again in the Psalm 14. which is likewise the 53. The fool hath said in his heart That there is no God Which are to be understood of the Atheistical Gentile They are become corrupt and abominable in their in quities There is none that doth good God looked down from heaven upon the sons of men that he might see if there were any that understood and sought after God They have all gone astray they are become unprofitable there is none that doth good no not one This was a lively portraiture of the Gentiles because they
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
Israel is placed in the third place betwixt the Egyptians the Assyrians as also that he is a blessing in the midst of the earth that Holy earth which God is said here to have blessed Therfore we may here see the Egyptian and Assyrian placed on this side and that side according to the number of the Sons of Israel and placed neer the banks of the Tribes of the Jews That the Sons of Adam or the Jews were separated from the Egyptians and the Assyrians betwixt whom being placed they are parted from them by the Rivers Nilus and Euphraies is briefly set down in that Geographick Table which is inserted in the third Chapter of this Book Therefore the Sons of Adam are set apart in the Song of Moses The Nations divided by interposition of the Jews are the Egyptians and Assyrians Gentileâ— The Jews are called the sons of Adam upon the same account as Adam is called the father of the Jews Isaiah 43. God reproâ—ing Israel in that Chapter for their sin objects this to him Thy father sinned first Which the Prophet meant of the father of the Jews and not of the Gentiles for he spake onely to Israel and for that reason he said Thy father O Israel who was not likewise the father of the Gentiles that first father of the Jews is without doubt Adam because there was no sinner before him nor none after him can be understood But let us hear Hosea the Interpreter of Isaiah in the sixth Chapter of his Prophesie where God layes the same reproach against the Jews They sayes he have transgressed my Covenant as Adam did Adam then as he was the Father of the Jews so was he the Prototype of the Jews sin according to whose example the Jews were sinners begotten a sinful by father transgressed the Covenant of God and as Adam is the first Father of the Jews so the Jews are all the sons of Adam as likewise Adam was the son of God and derived from God Wo be to the Nations that riseth up against my kinred Judah sung when he had overcome the Nations Wo be to the Gentiles who rise up against the Jews On the contrary The Gentiles were called strangers who did not derive themselves from God and Adam to which strangers and Gentiles it was not lawful for the Jews to approach Act. 10. It is abominable to a Jew to be joynedor draw nigh to a stranger that is to a Gentile besides they were called by the Jews strangers unknown because they were aliens not onely from the Nation but family of the Jews nor were not onely received as brothers into the Holy Cities Ephes 7. The sons of strangers shall build the walls Isaiah 60. and in the 61 Chap. And strangers shall stand up and feed their cattel and the sons of strangers shall be labourers and dressers of vines Which ought to be understood of the servants of the Iews or their hirelings to which adde six hundred such which you may every where finde in holy Writers But not onely by kinred and exposition of kinred did God distinguish the Iews from the Gentiles but would have them different in the species it self He chused it for his inheritance the kinred of Iacob whom he loved Psalm 47. Where observe that the kin of the Iews is distinguished from the kin of the Gentiles whom God did neither love nor chuse for his inheritance Certainly the Philosophers make the brures a distinct species from men and with the holy Writers the species of the Iews is distinct from that of the Gentiles whom you shall every where read confusely mentioned with beasts and esteemed beasts in regard of the Iews who by excellency are called men or by a more excellent title are called the men of God You shall finde the species of the Iews peculiarly made and formed by God in Adam you shall finde the species of the Gentiles promiscuously created with the rest of the creatures in the same day of Creation which is diligently to be observed that a day did not distinguish them whom the nature of their Creation did not distinguish The Iews were properly and apart from all other things created the frame and work of the second Creation in Adam the Gentiles properly were the promiscuous buds of the first Creation together with all things else created and the off-spring of that earth which likewise brought forth other creatures Therefore did David call upon all Nations in these words Hear all you Natious hearken all you inhabitants of the earth and ye sons of men David spoke palpable to the Gentiles sons of men the Inhabitants of all the earth whom he likewise calls born upon the earth to distinguish them from the Jews who were not born upon the earth or born from the earth as the Gentiles who were not created in the beginning of things but form'd out of the clay in Adam Furthermore the Psalmist comparing here the Gentiles to foolish beasts sayes They were made like to them who like beasts were allotted to death to eternal death from which they should not return to life their graves are their houses for ever sayes the Psalm as also in the same place they shall not see light for ever likewise David distinguishes the Jews from them in the same Psalm in which he exhorts them not to fear those beasts born upon the earth who should sometime be governed by the Jews The just shall have power over them in the morning the just are the Jews of whom we spoke before that power of the Jews upon the Nations as also that morning shall be expounded in their own places This Psalm has given us a reason why the Iews ought not to fear these earth-born Gentiles of the first Creation in the words following immediately Their help shall grow old in the grave from their glory but God shall redeem my soul from hell David mixes his soul with the souls of the Iews none of the Gentiles sayes he shall redeem his soul God shall redeem the souls of the Iews when he shall receive the Iews or at such time as he shall receive the ejected Iews the Gentiles shall rise to eternal death or which is the same they shall die eternally by the fate of their Creation the Iews shall rise again to eternal life or which is the same they shall live eternally by the prerogative of their regeneration Therefore let the Jews who shall receive eternal life little regard the Gentiles destind to eternal death So farre were the Gentiles different in relation and kindred from the Jews as those divers species of creatures in unknown Countries are from those which we know so likewise were there more Nations unknown to the Jews than were known that is to say in those Countries which the Jews knew not Nor were these Nations only unknown to the Jews but likewise to their Fathers I say to their Fathers who were deriv'd from Adam Which God having a regard to threatens the Jews
the whole Sea betwixt a grain of sand and all the sand in the shore For a drop of water and the whole Sea are things omogeneal as also a grain of Sand and the whole shore as also these are here compared according to their habitude of number and measure by which they have relation one to another But there can be no proportion betwixt a thousand years which is a body of years and a Homogeneous body These are likewise compared together according to the habitude of number and measure which have relation one to another but there can be no proportion betwixt the eternity of God and a thousand years because they are of different kinds A thousand years and that pure eternity are of several kinds because that eternity consists not of years nor is compounded of ages or times and they cannot be compared according to their habitudes and measures for they have none common to both The things which I mentioned before of the beginnings of things and of the creation of the world from eternity out of Diodorus agree very well wiâ—h these testimonies of holy Scripture That the ancient Physiologists and Historians did believe that the world was eternal as also affirm'd that men were from eternity which Diodorus peaking of the Chaldeans expounds thus That they believed that the world was eternal having no certain determinate beginning for they did not deny the beginning of the world but thought it unknown and uncertain according to that of Ecclesiasticus There is no remembrance of former things That eternity was uncertain and undeterminate Wherefore in the Bible eternity is often undeterminate As it is read Genesis 6. My spirit shall not contend with man always Eternity in that place is long after undeterminâ—d which appears by what follows And his days shall be a hundred and twenty years For God determined here the age of man a hundred and twenty years which before was far longer and undetermined so it is to be understood of that servant whose ear his Master pierced with an Awl Deut. 5. He shall seâ—ve thee for ever that is undeterminately and so long as he liâ—es I passe by a great many places of this same sorâ— Let it therefore be taken for good that the creation of the world which is said from eternity by the authority of both Testaments could by no means be undersâ—ood since Adam was made according to the definition of both ages Whether you call eternity which is reckoned from many ages and times Or whether you understand it indefinitely or undeterminatly For it is known that the time betwixt â—s and Adam is within account For the times from Adam are of a known period without the account of ages Besides there is a great deal of difference betwixt those things that preceeded the beginning of all things and those things which were before 〈◊〉 Adam Of these there is neither mention nor knowledge Of the other there is certain knowledge and memory CHAP. XIII Of the ages of creatures describâ—d by Hesiod and Ausonius Why the Histories of the first men were not known Out of Plato By the change of the Epoche The Aboriginal Nations of the world are not known I Often have wondred at the ages of creatures which Hesiod relates That the just age of a man is Ninety six The age of a Crow eight hundred and sixty four The age of a Hart three thousand three hundred and fifty six The Rooks ten thousand three hundred and sixty eight The Phoenixes ninety three thousand three hundred and twelve The Nymphs live Nine hundred thirty three thousand a hundred and twenty For he put those very ages into a Verse from a tradition far more antient as we may conjecture than Hesiod There Hesiod was antienter than Ausonius who since that time a long while did translate them in Latine Verses But Plinie thinks that but a Fable which he writes concerning the Phoenix and the Nymphs Well grant they bee fabulous notwitstanding it appears by this that Hesiod receiv'd them of a fabulous and most ancient tradition I say from that tradition which had set down the ages of Crows Harts and Rooks of which the Antients doubted not and which they could not affirm the certainty of without many and frequent experiments Neither had Hesiod a most learned and elegant old Poet vouchsaf'd to have describ'd such idle stories in such excellent Verses nor Ausonius after him a sweet and acute Poet translated them if both of them had thought that the beginning of things was to be reckon'd from Adam from whom to Hâ—siod there was not as yet passed the age of an Hart. Those Poets set down such ages such bounds to the lives of Beasts but thought that God the Judge of eternity knew all other ages namely that of the world heaven and stars Of eternity I say which in that place Ausonius sets down as a secret and known to God alone The knowledge of those eternal ages which were from the beginning was hid from men according to that decree by which he has hindred men to know all things and through which he thought it fit in his wisdom that they should be ignorant of the dispensations of time According to that of the Lord when he was ascending to heaven It is not for you to know the times which the father has put in his own power Acts. ch 1. The Egyptians according to Plato ascrib'd the cause of this ignorance to the several destructions of men of which the greatest were by fire and water the lesser by many other several ways They said in some long tract of time there were some changes and differences of things in motion both in heaven earth in some long tract of time Whence higher Countries either were consum'd with too much fire or the lower drown'd by too large effusion of showrs But the Egyptians were free from fire and floud Nile saving them from fire And such was the temper of their climate that no showr from above had ever water'd them or ever should Nor were they water'd at any time with any other water than which either flow'd over from Nilus or sprung out of the bowels of the earth And for that cause being not much subject to fire nor overwhelm'd with water some men were always preserv'd with them sometimes more sometimes lesse but never a general desolation For which reasons they reserâ—'d alone the most antient Records And that both their own actions and the actions of other Nations which were memorable were diligently set down and written in the Records kept in their Temples That the Greeks and other Nations either by Plagues sent down from heaven or being desâ—royed either by water or fire in certain space of time had lost both letters and knowledge and enter'd as it were again into their childhood beginning at their Alphabet nor knew what had been at home or abroad but through a cloud and by hear-say Therefore they believe that the head of all
things flow'd from that beginning which is the beginning of their knowledge and are content to remit that alone to posterity So Plato To this adde the length of time which changes and consumes all things from whole devoâ—ring jaws the Egyptians could not rescue themselves For they though they show'd abundance of ancient monuments both of their own and other Nations had notwithstanding lost the Annals of their King God Vulcan and of the Sun his son To these deluges fires and devouring times add that grosse ignorance which in several ages hath orerun the whole world more powerfull than fire than water than time it self which hath swallowed blotted out and defaced the memory of things past To this add the wickked dispositions of many men and the hatefull desires of Princes as that of Nabonassar the Chaldaean from whom to the death of Alexander there were four hundred twenty four years He caus'd the deeds of all Kings before him to be abolish'd that a new beginning of all affairs and Kings might begin its computation from himself whence the date of Nabonassar was deriv'd Alvarez a Samedo in his History of China relates That a certain King call'd Tein commanded by a Proclamation to burn all the Books of the Chinensians except Physick-books and was so carefull in bringing an utter destruction for 40 years that he reigned that he utterly overthrew all learned men and all learning in his own age As that was likewise the ambition of vanquishing Princes which so much alter'd the computation of time when they chang'd the Epoche and would have the times nam'd by their names Hence those known Periods from the death of Alexander of Augustus from the fight of Actium and that which was call'd the Epoche of Dioclesian The antient Aegyptians renew'd the intervals of their years as often as they receiv'd new Lawes from new Kings and new Conquerours Which Scaliger in his Book De emendatione Temporum sayes they did very frequently We must needs imagine that all climates of the world have been diversly ruin'd but successively and by turns not all with one push or at one time That those men who were in their own land too numerous behov'd to make up their losses That by divers chances and fortunes mankind hath been toss'd hither and thither nor could not alwayes continue in the same stations Hence it is that no Land could ever boast it self of its Aboriginals that is to say of those men who were first created in it who in the first spring of the Creation came forth every where out of the earth And hence it is that I trust neither Aegyptian Scythian nor Aethiopians calling themselves Aboriginalls and the most antient of Nations The Christian Fathers who liv'd in the next age to Christ whom its fit we call the sons of light as they were not wiser than the sons of this world in their generations so were not they more diligent or provident than they in the enquiry of those generations They were wiâ—e in those things which belong'd to heaven and the second creation they neglected such things as were of the earth and the first creation And as they adhered to the reading of the holy Scriptures they very well rejected the fables of the pedigrees of the Gentiles who thought themselves Aboriginals But on the other side too negligently by their leave they rested upon Adam and thought him alone the first parent of all men because he is read the first in Moses The same negligence which possessed the first pursued the successive Doctors of the Church who knew no other men but such as were begotten by Adam Yea they pronounced them Hereticks that plac'd the Antipodes over against Adams posterity because they must then think them the posterity of some body else I would St. Augustine and Lactantius were now alive who scoff'd at the Antipodes Truly they would pity themselves if they should hear or see those things which are discover'd in the East and West Indies in this clear-sighted age as also a great many other Countries full of men to which it is certain none of Adams posterity ever arived CHAP. XIV They are deceiv'd who deduce the Originals of men from the Grand-children of Noah Grotius concerning the Original of the Nations in America confuted IT is the manner of all men who search out the Originals of Nations to derive them after the flood from the Grandchildren of Noah who were the Grandchildren of Adam And great men are so earnest in this whom I very much prise and have in continual respect for them that they cut out all their originals out of this block And either from some antient record or some old tradition or the similitude of some old and obsolete name or from any other conjecture Some they imagine that landed at such or such a place to have been the authors or fathers of such a Nation As if Italus who fled for example into Italy and gave a name to that Countrey had been the father and author of all the Italians and that Nation had had no Inhabitants before Italus As if the Francks should be thought the authors and first founders of all the French Nation and that there had been no Frenchmen before the Franks because the Franks seiz'd upon France and chang'd the name of the Province and of Gallia made it Francia Must needs Peru be thought to have had their Original from the Chinensians because a piece of a broken boat like those of the Chinensians was found on the banks of Peru Those who guesse so seem to me to be like that two-peny Doctor who told the sick man he had eaten an Asse because he saw the dorsers standing under the bed Hugo Grotius sets out a discourse of the Originals of the Nations of America whom he derives from the Norwegians who eight hundred years ago were carried to Island and went from thence to Greenland and so from Greenland through the Lands adjoyning he conjectur'd got to the South parts of America Laetius did confute the conjecture of Grotius Grotius vindicates himself from Laetius and those things which in him Laetius had confuted he by this absurdity resolv'd to restore But sayes he if the Americans are not Germans the Norwegians and Germans were with him all one now they shall be the Off-spring of no Nation which is as much as to believe with Aristotle that they were from eternity or born of the earth as is reported of the Spartans or of the Ocean according to Homer or that there were some men before Adam as one in France lately dream'd If such things sayes he be believ'd I see a great danger imminent to Religion Grotius had â—â—ittle before read a little discourse of the Prae-Adamices undigested and about to be revis'd which he under colour of friendship by an acquaintance had requir'd of me which I friendly did communicate to him not that he should abuse me Nor do I desire to make return or speak ill of the