these Countries a very quick and easie Passage Gerard Vossius de Scientiis Mathematicis p. 242. says Ex Asia per fretum Anianum non difficilem fuisse Navigationem in Mexicanam atque inde facillimum transitum in peruanum I must confess nothing pleases me more than the common Saying Omnia modice intra moâ—um Yet I must subjoyn what Josephus a Costa says relating hereunto both upon the account of Mr. Boyle who in his History of Cold commends the said a Costa as a very inquisitive and philosophical Person as also upon the said Acosta's own account who was for a long time a Traveller in America In his Natural and Moral History of the West-Indies p. 303. he says The Old World joyns with the New in some Part by which Men and Beasts may pass And p. 503. If there be any Sea betwixt the Old World and America it is so narrow that wild Beasts may easily swim over and Men may go over in small Boats So that without a Miracle here is a plain Solution of this Difficulty how the remote Parts of the Earth might be Planted with Men Tygers Panthers Bears c. Pag. 5. 'T is a Paradox to me that Methusalem was the longest liv'd of all the Children of Adam and no Man will be able to prove it while from the Process of the Text I can manifest it may be otherwise ANSWER 'T is no Paradox to believe that which hath been opinioned by most Men and in most Ages and is Established on good Grounds although it may not unexceptionally be Established by the Process of a Text and such is the Case of Methusalem's long Life The Instances in Lucian de Longaevis and in Phlegon Trallian of the same Subject come very short of the Age of Methusalem Josephus indeed in the first Book of his Antiquities c. 4. cites Hesiod Hecataeus Hellanicus Acusilaus Ephorus and Nicolaus who affirm that some lived to a Thousand Years And Pliny in the seventh Book of his Natural Histry c. 48. confirms the same But each of those Authors leave us uncertain as to the Point in Hand Josephus lessens the Authority he produceth by insinuating the little Credit to be had to his Authorities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither doth he express how they made their Computation Pliny destroys the Authority he brings by telling us that some accouâ—t six Months to a Year some three Months some a Lunar Month as namely the Aegyptians and that this is the reason why some were said to live a Thousand Years Which Latitude should we assume Methusalem may be said to have lived some Thousands of Years But the Computation of Time in the Mosaical Writings is most certain the Years are there according to the Course of the Sun the Months according to the Course of the Moon as will plainly appear The time of the Children of Israel's eating Manna is accounted fourty Years in the end of the sixteenth Chapter of Exodus and reckoned from their departure out of Aegypt Numbers the 33d Chapter Verse 38. Which Number from the same Season of the Year to the same by the Years of the Sun is most exact for they came forth of Aegypt the fifteenth Day of the first Month in the beginning of Barley Harvest and the very same Day of the same Month in Barley Harvest their Manna ceased Josh 4. ver 12. In the 25th Chapter of Leviticus the Israelites are commanded to sow their Fields and cut their Vineyard and gather the Fruits thereof six Years and to let the seventh rest as a Sabbath Year to the Lord. And seven of those Sabbaths are accounted Fourty nine Years at the end whereof in the tenth Day of the seventh Month began the Jubilee These Years were manifestly Years of the Sun otherwise all the Fruits of those Years could not have been gathered in Harvest and Vintage as God appointed for Fourty nine Years of the Moon would very near have cut off One and a Half the last expiring in Winter before any Corn or other Fruit were ready to be gathered therein St. Austin in his fifteenth Book de Civitate Dei cap. 14. writing against the Opinion of some who were perswaded that the Years of the Ancient Fathers which lived in the first Age were not of the Sun useth these Words Tantus tunc dies fuit quontus nunc est Tantus tunc mensis quontus nunc est quem Luna caepta finita conclusit Tantus annus quontus nunc est quem duodecim menses Lunares addites propter cursum solis quinque diebus quadrante consummant The Day was as long then saith he as it is now the Month as long then as now contained within the compass of the Moon 's Course from the beginning to the end The Year was then as long as now perfected by twelve Months of the Moon with five Days and a Quarter added So that the Year in the Writings of Moses was a solar Year the same we use at this Day The Months mentioned by Moses were lunar Months compleat This is manifest by the History of Noah's Flood in the seventh and eighth Chapters of Genesis where we are taught that the Flood begun the seventeenth Day of the second Month and the Ark rested on a Mountain of Ararat in the seventeenth Day of the seventh Month which Space by God's holy Spirit is there counted a hundred and fifty Days which reckoning giveth to every Month thirty Days apiece neither more nor less Of this Opinion was St. Austin in hls fourth Book de Trinitate chap. 4. Si duodecim menses integri considerentur quos triceni dies complent talem quippe mensem veteres observaverunt quem circutius lunaris ostendit That is If the whole twelve Months be considered which contain thirty Days apiece such was the Month observed by Men of Old Time even that which the Course of the Moon sheweth According to this Measure of Time the Days of Methusalem were Nine hundred sixty and nine Years and it doth not appear that any other of Adam's Posterity lived so long I have been the longer on this pretended Paradox because this Instance is commonly made use of to invalidate the holy Scriptures and because the right stating of the scriptural Years and Months is of good Use in these Controversies Pag. 7. I know that Manna is now plentifully gathered in Calabria and Josephus tells me in his Days it was as plentiful in Arabia the Devil therefore made me quere where was then the Miracle in the Days of Moses since the Israelites saw but that in his time which the Natives of those Countries behold in ours ANSWER The Authority of Josephus is of little Moment in this case Mr. Gregory of Christ Church in his Discourse of the seventy Interpreters p. 33. hath these Words When Josephus cometh to the Miraculous Passages of holy Writ he useth a fair way of Dissimulation still moderating the wonder of a Work that he bring it
with renting the Vail of the Temple renting Rocks opening Graves c. enough to extort a Confession from the Centurion that Christ was the Son of God Page 9. That God brought back the Shadow of those Lines that it had gone down in the Dial of Achaz back Ten Degrees Here some affirm that the Sun went not back in the Heaven as 't is generally believed but only in the Dial of Achaz For say they if the Sun went back in the Zodiac or that Degree of the Ecliptick stand still which He was a running that day the Primum-Mobile came also backwards and with it all the rest of the Sphears if we say He went back only in the Zodiack and a Tenth part of the Zodiack then say they the Sun must needs return through a great many Signs of the Zodiack and bring back with Him past Months yea and Seasons of the Year Besides that this Sign was seen only in the Land of Judah and not in Babylon ANSWER What kind of Dial King Ahaz His Dial was is not yet agreed on by the Learned in that Science Gafferell in his unheard of Curiosities P. 280. hath these words As for the Figure of it there is no Man hitherto that hath Published what it was Mr. Gregory in his Preface is of opinion that King Ahaz His Dial is like none of ours now in use Godwin in His Jewish Antiqities gives this account The Dials in use among the Ancient Jews differ from those in use among us the time of the day was not distinguished by Lines but by Degrees In the Dial of Achaz the Sun went back Degrees not Lines the Prophet Isaiah makes no mention of Lines When our Author therefore speaks of the Shadow of Lines 't is no wonder that He misapprehends this Miracle 't is not to be doubted but that the Miracle was in the going back of the Sun and not in the going back of the Shadow the latter being the effect of the former All Mathematicians agree in this that a Dial may be made between the Trophicks on which the Shadow may naturally go back And Clavius hath demonstrated that the same may be done on a Dial made without the Tropicks In our Elevation here in Exeter a Plane may be fitted for such a Poler Altitude as will make a Retrocession of the Shadow Natural I Remember a good Mathematician told me that he made a South Vertical Dial for the Right Honourable the late Lord Clifford of Chudleigh in Devon on which this Phaenomenon of the Shadows going back might be seen the Degrees mentioned in this Miracle are primarily to be understood of those in Heaven for they are the Degrees most properly so called therefore the Sun with the Primum-Mobile and the Caelestial Sphears went so far backward in their Diurnal Motion as made up the space of Ten Degrees in the Equinoctial Line which answered to Two Third parts of an Hour on the Dial of Ahaz The Difficulties which are suggested are grounded on great Mistakes as if Equinoctial Degrees and Signs of the Zodiack were the same thing and that the Retrocession of the Sun Ten Degrees in the Polar Altitude of Jerusalem should bring back with Him Ten Months or Ten Signs of the Zodiack an Error inexcusable in the meanest Astronomer Of the like nature is that other From the Miracles being visible only in the Land of Judah and not at Babilon For the Acuteness of this Arch of Ten Degrees was such with relation even to those in Judaea that it could not be perceived there unless Geometrically observed by a Quadrant or Astrolabe And I am certain that there is no Astronomer but must confess that altho the Miracle consisted in the going back of the Sun yet it was more apparent by the going back of the Shadow on the Dial. So that had there not been a going back of the Shadow the Miracle might have been lost and no Man might have observed it The Arch of the Ten Degrees in the Suns going back being as I have said so Acute as that it was not to be perceived but by the help of such Instruments which the Jews as far as I have Read never had Pag. 10. Others will not allow that the Flood of Noah was upon the whole Earth but only upon the Land of the Jews not to destroy all Men but only the Jews ANSWER If there has been any Authors so absurd as to limit the Flood to the Land of the Jews as Mr. Blount says there have been they are not to be Defended The only Modern Author of any repute that I have met with who bounds it within narrow limits is Isaac Vossius in His Dissertation de aetate Mundi where he hath these Words Longe absunt a veritate qui existimant Noachi aetate per Vniversum orbem propagataâ— fuisse homines qui ne Syriae quidem Mesopotamiae fines forsan excesserant ut vero Diluvii Inundationem ultra Orbis habitati Terminos producamus nulla jubet ratio Imo prorsus absurdum ubi nulla hominum sedes illic etiam viguisse affectus paenae solis hominibus inflictae That is They are far from truth who think that in the days of Noah Mankind was propagated through the whole Earth Whereas perhaps there were then no Men but those who lived in Syria and Mesopotamia Now that the Deluge should exceed the Bounds of that part of the Earth where Men were Seated seems not Rational to believe Nay 't is absurd to conceive that there should be any effects of Punishment where there were no Offenders And the same Vossius in His Cassigationes ad Scriptum Georgii Hornii in Defence of His Opinion says Non defuisse omnibus seculis qui Mosem sic interpretati sunt olim sic sensit Theodorus cumque secutus est Theodoretus ex Orthodoxis quâ—ssionibus que inter opera Justini Martyris extant clare colligi potest multas Christianas sic sensisse Clare quoque Josephus ostendit non Vniversam Terram fuisse Inundatam cum dicit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Continentem in mare mutavit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 minus est quam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sive Terra habitata illam enim in tres 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sine Continentes paâ—tiuaâ—ur vetres quod notissimum Pro toto vero Terrarum Orbe nu quam ea vox accipitur That is There have been some in all Ages that have Interpreted Moses as I have done Anciently of this Oppinion were Theodore Mopsuesten Theodoret and it appears out of the Orthodox Questions among the Works of Justin Martyr that many Christians were of that opinion Josephus clearly shews the Deluge was not over the whole Earth in its utmost Latitude when he says The Continent was changed into Sea A Continent is less than the Habitable World which the Antients divide into Three Continents And whereas Andrew Colvius objects to Vossius The Vniversality of the Expressions in Scripture relating to the Flood Vossius makes
All the old Paraphrasts call Shilo the Messias the Targum of Jerusalem renders it expresly untill the time when King Messiah shall come Jonathan renders it untill the time when Messiah shall come Onkilos untill Messiah come whose is the Kingdom The Talmud also reckons Shilo among the Names of the Messiah Hoornbeck writing of the Conversion of the Jews reckons the Concurrence of divers Rabbies to this Interpretation And to the same purpose Morney du Plessis in his Book of the Truth of Christian Religion cap. 27. all which Authorities assure us that the Ancient Jews understood this Prophesy of the Messias and that this was no Imagination according to a Fantastick Cabbala as is wickedly suggested The truth of this exposition is Confirmed by the Words which follow To him shall the gathering of the People be For this is the same Character by which he was declared to Abraham In thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed He was signified also by this Character in the Prophet Isaiah In that day there shall be a Root of Jesse which shall stand for an Ensign of the People to it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be Glorious As also in the Prophet Micah The Mountain of the House of the Lord shall be Established on the top of the Mountains and it shall be Exalted above the Hills and the People shall flow unto it And thus the Blessing of Judah is plainly understood Judah thou art He whom thy Brethren shall praise Thy hand shall be in the Neck of thine Enemies thy Fathers Children shall bow down before thee Now this Blessing was to make way for a greater This Government was not to fail until there came a Son out of Judah's Loyns greater than Him For whereas Judah's Dominion reached only to the Tribes of Israel the Dominion of Him who came out of His Loyns should be over the World all Nations shall serve him Seeing then that this Exposition is not only according to the ancient Jews but according to the Scriptures themselves How greatly hath Mr. Blount erred in affirming that this Exposition was occasioned by the introduction of Sects among the Jews Page 158. As for the Messias being of the line of David this was no general Opinion for how then could any have imagined Herod the great to have been the Messias ANSWER If this way of arguing be good there is no general Opinion concerning any thing Leo Modena in his History of the present Jews p. 249. acquaints us that the 12th Article of their Belief is That the Messias is yet to come And Modena pag. 247. says that this is one of those Articles which are generally believed by all Jews without contradiction Yet Isaac Vossius p. 226. of the Sibilline Oracles tells us Ne nunc quidem inter Judaeos desint qui Herodem pro Messia admittant There are not wanting now some among the Jews who affirm that Herod was the Messias Is there any Opinion more general than that of the Existence of God yet some Philosopers have deny'd it Have there not been some Prodigies in Nature who denied that there was any such thing in the World as Motion yet nothing can be more evident Aristotle in his Metaphysicks disputes against some who deny'd that it imply'd a Contradiction for the same thing to be and not to be at the same time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet I presume most men think the contrary to be a general Opinion In a word this Method of Argumentation used by our Author is very ridiculous For what Tully in his Books de nat Deorum speaks is very manifest Nihil tam absurdum quod non dixerit aliquis Philosophorum Nothing contained so great an absurdity but some Philosopher or other would contend for it Pag. 158. How could Josephus fix that Character upon Vespasian as Him who should restore the Empire and glory of Israel to whom all Nations should bow and submit unto his Scepter ANSWER Josephus sought the Favour of the Romans and He was kindly used by them so that 't is not so strange He should interpret Oracles in Favour of Vespasian None of the Jews besides Him did so Philostratus says That Apollonius Tianaeus was familiar with Vespasian and He indeed apply'd the Oracles of the Messias or King promiss'd to Vespasian but He was a vain Sycophant a Magician and in this very ridiculous But notwithstanding their Flatteries Vespasian was of another Mind He was perswaded that the Oracle did belong to one of the Jewish Nation and of David's Family wherefore He made it his Business to destroy the whole Race of that Family as Eusebius informs us lib. 3. cap. 11. and 12. Page 158. I do not read that the Jews harboured any such Exposition during their Captivity under Nebuchadnezzar albeit that the Scepter was at that time so departed from the Tribe of Judah that it was never resetled in it more ANSWER I have already made it plain that the authentick Paraphrasts of the Jews understand it in this sense as also God's holy Prophets Our Author takes for granted That there should always be a King of the Tribe of Judah until the Coming of the Messiah which is not affirmed by the Prophesy We readily acknowl'dge that Judah was not a Kingdom till the Coming of the Messiah for there was no kingly Authority in Judah before David nor after Zedekiah Unless you perhaps count the Macchabees of whose Tribe there is some dispute as Du Plessis Morney assures us c. 29. of his book of the truth of the Christian Religion or Herod who was an Idumaean The Meaning therefore of the Prophesy is Not that Judah should have a King till the Messiah came or that it should not cease to be a Kingdom but that it should not cease to be a State a Body Politick having Power of Government within its self until Messiah came Wherefore the Seventy for Sceptrum a Scepter translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Ruler not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Governour should not fail to be in Judah It should not cease to be a Government altho' it had no King of that Title It cannot be said that the Scepter departs from the Poles whether the Elector of Saxony or Prince of Conti enjoy it And to this purpose Episcopius in his Institutions truly asserts Nec dubitandum quin respublica ista quando ei praecrant Levitae Hasmonâ—i aut Herodes Idumaeus aut quicunque alius eamque ex legibus more populi regebant respublica semper manserit populi Judaici eaque nomenclatura ubique venerit ut ex historia temporum manifestum est 'T is not to be doubted but that it was the Republick of Jewry when the Hasmonean Levites presided or Herod the Idumean or whosomever else govern'd according to the Laws and Customs of the People of Jewry This Republick so long continued and it had that Denomination as is manifest out of History