and many other such things as were able to tyre one who would rehearse them These antient Priests esteemed Man to be best compos'd of all creatures and therefore that he was called the Microcosm as participating of the creation of all things And therefore that some by Saturn become sullen others by Jove are mirthful some are red-colour'd by Sol others Iascivious by Venus some are cheaters by Mercury some imperfect by Luna Nay that some bray like Asses â—ome like Dogs others like Swine others ravenous like Lions some like Doves others like Serpents according to the various dispositions similitudes and sympathies of participation which men have been said to have with all things created But likewise the Scripture hath taught us that Spirits have profess'd the pleasures of men have been given to men to some lying spirits to some sleeping spirits to others spirits of giddiness then that there are cozening seducing and lying spirits it appears because Christ warns his disciples that they should trust no spirit yea and rebuk'd them because they knew not by what spirit they were led And it is likewise witnessed in the Gospel that the mother-in-law of St. Peter was troubled with a feverish spirit Who will wonder then that men being left by God after their creation in their own power and turn'd over to so many Spirits Gods and Lords who set them a work did appoint and worship so many several sorts of Gods under so many divers shapes of things created if he consider the almost innumerable affinities and sympathies which men are found to have with these Spirits Gods and Lords as also with all things created in heaven and in earth God abborr'd those Spirits and Gods fallen off from the uprightness and perfection of their creation to their own changeable condition with such an abomination as the most upright and best must needs hate that which is evil and wicked Therefore you shall hear these Gods in Scripture call'd wicked Spirits wickednesses spirits of error evil spirits and very evil spirits as in that 9th Chapter of the Judges God sent a very evil spirit betwixt Sichem and Abimelech call'd likewise vain and lying spirits curses deceitfull Idols abominations uncleannesses pollutions whorings dung the sleep and the anger of the Lord as is that in Samuel 1. chap. 26. The sleep of the Lord had fallen upon Saul and his people The sleep of the Lord is the same in this place with the evil spirit from the Lord in the 16 Chapter of the same Book where you shall read that the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him Such also is that Sam. 2. Chap. 24. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel which the first Book of the Chronicles speaking of the same thing expresses in these words And Satan rose up against Israel where Satan is the same with the anger of the Lord or anger from the Lord. As also the holy Scriptures are clear witnesses that those Spirits Gods and Lords by the Law of their creation which is changeable and corruptible are mortal and that they are condemned to eternal death where wicked and perverse men are called The sons of Belial Sam. 1. Chap. 2. As also Nabal a perverse man is branded with that name in the same book Chap. 25. As also the same son of Belial is called The sonne of death Sam. 2. Chap. 12. And in the same Book Cha. 23. the flouds of death are called the flouds of Belial where David says in his Song The pangs of death compast me about the flouds of Belial made me afraid In which places Belial is not only called mortal but mortality it self for being Prince of all Spirits which were his ministers both mortal and condâ—mned to a death from whence there is no resurrection Who will not believe that those Spirits are destined to eternal death since God himself hath said that at that latter judgement of all corruptible things they shall be condemned and cast with the Reprobates into eternal fire CHAP. VIII Men being misled by evil spirits fell from their right estate wherein they were created into the wickedness of their own nature Being restor'd by the Spirit of Regeneratinn who only proceeds from God they know God whom flesh and blood knows not They obtain holiness which they could not have in their first creation and recompence their natural death with a supernatural immortality THe Apostle deduces the stain of all sins which overthrew men chiefly from this Chap. 1 Epist to the Romans because they had left God the Creator and had given themselves over to those Gods Lords and unclean Spirits Hence their minds were blinded and given over to their own lusts were set on fire with wicked and unlawful desires contrary to nature and so receiv'd in themselves the rewards of their sin and thence open'd such a wide door to wickedness and filthiness that at last they fell into all manner of sin And as they preferr'd their own lust to the knowledge of God so on the contrary he gave them up to a reprobate sense that being men they should doe things not beseeming men Hence they became evil wicked fornicators avaricious given to lewdness full of envy and blood brawlers deceitfull despightfull whisperers back-biters hatefull to God contumelious proud arrogant inventers of wickedness disobedient to Parents foolish madd without affection truth or compassion Truly men being misled by those Spirits being thrust forward by the violence of their own appetite according to the affection and sympathie which they have with those Spirits I say men oprest with the weight of their own sin and drownd in sticking clay might have despaird of any salvation nor ever have pluckt out their feet for thence if God had not helped them and stretched out his powerful hands from heaven to draw theÌ„ thence But God was not of that mind as most men are who rid an unhappy person from his present calamity and are never sollicitous afterwards to advance their condition God dealt better and more freely with men first he wash'd them drawn out of the puddle with his own living waters then advanc'd them being now clean and white by his own free merit and lastly from their foul wallowings receiv'd them into the glory of heaven and made them partakers of divine knowledge sanctity and immortality which is in his most happy vision And this he did by vertue and force of that Spirit which is of God and who is God himself by a second and new creation out of his own free will largeness of his bounty abundance of his love and meer grace which therefore is call'd the gift of God and his only free grace Therfore let all those who desire to know themselves here make a stand and endeavour to be free in their thanks to God Let them tast and see how sweet the Lord is Let them remember by how great mercies beyond their desert he has
very place The Spirit of this world These two are at continual variance and eternal discord since God made a mixture of all things when he gave to all things breath and life The Spirit which is of God we shall call that Spirit of regeneration which flows immediately and is produced from God which is altogether spiritual stable incorruptible and eternal which is fed with the fire of the vision of God which God onely loves and chuses We shall call the spirit of this world that spirit of creation with which the whole world was animated and which was infus'd into the whole frame in the creation Then that is the Spirit which by interposition of a medium being created by God is animal material carnal and corporeal which is changeable and subject to vanity which is corruptible which savours of death which faints and melts before the eyes of God which God disdains and rejects God when he made the world breath'd upon all things created and living in the world by that Spirit of the world and creation by which they live but did not likewise infuse into all things created and living in the world his Spirit of regeneration by which things created and living which are antient are renewed the corrupt refresh'd and the dead rise up into eternal liâ—e Nay he did communicate that to a certain company of the Elect to himself known with such resolution and decree that whomsoever this Spirit should inspire unto grace by his power they should receive immortality and through patience become that holy fire by which he shall try all things On that day when all the faultiness of the world shall be purg'd on which all things which have been fram'd shall be remov'd and consum'd and all changeable vain â—ortal and corruptible things which God abhors and rejects CHAP. VII Of one God and of one Spirit which is of God Of divers Gods and Spirits THe Spirit of regeneration is the same Spirit which is the Spirit of Christ by whom comes regeneration he is one neither enduring number nor consort The Apostle tells us that there are several spirits of creation both in the heaven and in the earth Cor. 1. chap. 8. which in that place he calls Gods and Lords The words of St. Paul are these For although there be those which are called gods both in the heaven and in the earth seeing there are many gods and many lords yet wee have but one God The same Apostle in the 8. to the Romans call'd those Gods and Lords in the heaven and in the earth heighth and depth whom he makes mention of amongst the Spirits of the creation for he addes Nor any other creature And certainly as the same St. Paul sets down wicked Spirits amongst the celestial you may likewise imagine that there are evil Spirits likewise amongst the terrestrial For seeing you read Sam. 1. Chap. 28. That the Witch saw Gods that is Spirits ascending out of the Earth The chief of those Spirits is he whom the holy Writ commonly calls the Devil Sathan Belial Mammon Prince of the power of the air of this world and this life That every one has their Angel and attendant the books of both the Old and New Testaments doe witness Jude the Apostle tells us that the chief of these Spirits and all the Angels under his command were created in the beginning good and upright as also that they were made with a creation changeable and corruptible in his Catholick Epistle in which place he sayes expresly That those Spirits did not keep their Principalitie but left their habitation Therefore it is to be presum'd that they had a good Principality which they kept not Hence that of Job Behold those which serve him are not stable and he finds wickedness in his Angels According as those spirits breath'd upon those things which were subject to the Lawes of the creation and as the Apostle speaks in the second to the Ephesians wrought upon them it is credible that all the created things of the world degenerated from that perfect good uprightness where in they were created when those Spirits fell from their Principalitie and habitation And hence it has come to pass that the men of the first creation forgetting their first Creator and stirr'd up by those Spirits of the corrupted creation strayed from the uprightness of their first creation and perish'd in their own thoughts Hence certainly was that foolishness of their darkned heart by which they thought God not to be their Creator by which they serv'd the creature rather than the Creator by which lastly they chang'd the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of a corruptible man of fowls beasts serpents Rom. 1. The Priests and Philosophers amongst the Gentiles who knew not God the Father and the Creator observ'd several Spirits and Gods whom they determined governours of several ranks and degrees and whom they plac'd either in the heaven or in the stars or in the fiâ—â— or in the air or in the water or in the earth or under the earth and whose shapes they did not deny might be called up by several wayes of sacrifice and inchantment For certainly they considered a certain affinitie and fellow-suffering of those Spirits with all things created on whom by their sympathie and similitude they had an influence They thought that all animals and vegetables from trees to metals and nones were mov'd and led by those Spirits Yea that all things did pray and sing hymns to the leaders of their own order Therefore say they the Heliotrop moves towards the Sun and if any one could observe her stamping that she makes in the air in her wheeling about he should observe a kind of a sound compos'd towards her King such a one as a Plant might be expected to make The Lotus opens and shuts her leaves turning towards the same Planet according as the Sun ascends or descâ—ends by degrees whom she seems to honour with the motion of her leaves as it were with the morion of her lips They have boasted the same things of Selenetropes which turn to the Moon as are related of Heliotropes The clapping and singing of the Cock at the Sun-rising are known which I should interpret to be mourning at his departure The Dogs bark at the Moon and inflam'd with the Dog-star run mad What shall I say of the stone Helitis which by its rayes imitates those golden ones of the Sun As also of the stone Selenitis which is shap'd like a hornd Moon and by its change follows the motion of the Moon What shall I say of the Helioselen which seems to present the conjunction of the Sun and Moon Not to speak of the seven metals to every one of which there is a particular Planet assign'd Then the Oakes dedicated to Jove the Laurel to Phoebus the Olîve to Minerva the Poplar to Hercules Horses to Neptune Swine to Ceres Goats to Bacchus Black sheep to infernal Juno Serpents to Aesculapius
oblig'd mankind Let them consider that they are living souls and that such perceive not the things which are of God nor can understand those things which are ponder'd by the Spirit Cor. 2.1 That worldly wisdom is call'd Devillish by St. James Chap. 3. and opposite to divine wisdom that flesh and blood cannot discover the mysteries of God but God who is in heaven Matth. 16. Therefore let them consider with themselves how great their weakness is in knowing God That they are clouds driven with winds which as St. Peter says are carried about with the wind of every doctrine and are not constant to one God That they cannot from themselves receive the spirit of truth because they neither see him nor know him in the Gospel according to St. John Chap. 16. Nay they know not themselves That they know not the ways of the the spirit nor know how their bones were set together in their mothers womb Eccles 11. But if they understand not their own wayes how shall they understand the ways of the Lord Prov. 20. Therefore the riches of the Lord are called unsearchable by the Apostle because a man cannot conceive them Yea because he cannot comprehend them for their exceeding height and splendor Therefore let them think with themselves that of themselves they are destitute of help and means to find out God that they are blind and darkned in the knowledge of him for whom according to their desert and the words of St. Peter the obscurity of darkness should be reserv'd Let them hence take occasion to bless God so goo and so mercifull who has prevented and assisted men that knew him not and hath of his own accord offer'd himself to be known by them yea that has taught them his wayes and hath as one friend speaks to another spoken to them plainly Let them again consider how wicked the affections of their hearts are All men and all the world naturally wicked S. John 1. cap. 5. setled in the dregs of their own matter Wisd 1. That they drink fin as fishes drink water That their devices and thoughts are evil from their youth Gen. 8. that 't is by their own nature and disposition But as the Ethiopian changeth not his skin nor the Leopatd his spots because they are naturally born with him no more can men do good having learned evil evil being likewise born in them that by the help of their nature they are perverse and by their inbred wickednesse that the will of the flesh is contrary to the will of God and that therefore the wisdom of the flesh is enmity to God and is not subject nor can be made subject to the Law of God as the Apostle tells us Rom. 8. That they are hard and their necks a cord of iron which despise the uprightness of their creation and could not submit to the harsh yoke of the Divine Law Let them again remember that God is not only just and upright as men were created in the beginning just and upright but which is most high above all men that he is most holy to whom all sins are most odious abominable detestable Let them therefore extol the bounty and liberality of God who notwithstanding hath so dealt with men that he has freely come to these wicked and reprobate sinners and has not disdain'd with the kiss of Justice and Peace to breath upon them a part of his Sanctity At last let them thus think that man is rottenness and the son of man but a worm and that God hath made man in vanity that they are grass and fade like the flowers of the field yea that like Hay to which they are compar'd they are out down from morn till night That men are feeble altogether nothing that they dwell in houses of clay which have no foundation and which are consumed as with a moth that their substance is vain like stubblé which is consumed with the breath of the fire and that they at last by the sin of their corruptible nature of necessity die or which is the same that all of them drink deep of death and necessity And that their nature being as it were flax before God who is a consuming fire before whom the frame of humane nature shakes is chang'd by a miracle into that fiery nature of God himself by vertue of which they are fed with the most glorious contemplation of him And what is most glorious in men that their mortality is chang'd into immortality that they may be eternally satisfied with glory Therefore let them consider with themselves that they were created in the beginning right and perfect but only with that righteousness and perfection which is contained within the circumference of men and with such a corruptible disposition that from the top of their circle and their perfection they fell headlong into the centre of corruption and imperfection But if they being created right and perfect could not retain their righteousness and perfection how much less could they being wicked attain to those things which were above their righteousness and perfection I say above it as far as heaven is from the earth the creation from the Creator and God from man yea there was a ladder given them to climb up to heaven or swiftness of wings to flie up to God By what intellect of their own or by what cleer eye of the mind could ever they gain the knowledge of God unto whom no man can find the way and who have not the least knowledge of themselves by what disposition or nature of their own could they attain to the holiness of God who do that evil which they would not Rom. 7. By what confidence of their own or conscience of goodness could they seize upon immortality the causes of which are so far distant from them that they cannot lengthen the appointed bounds of their lives one moment or one scruple of time Let them therefore confess themselves utterly unable to compass great blessings and plac'd at such a distance from them and therefore let them more submissly and fervently worship God who has so bountifully and liberally supplyed their wants and their weakness CHAP. IX The Regeneration of men is the grace and gift of God It is not granted to all men to be regenerated but onely to the elect Election is in things natural Divine Election is in God's elect Who are elected And who are called Reprobates THerefore let us be assured of this Divine Knowledge Sanctity and Immortality of which the salvation of Man consists could never be procured for man-kinde by the force of the first Creation in which men were created perfect as being placed above Humane perfection But that these things are bestowed upon men by the meer liberality and bounty of God and that they are carried away to the possession of so great riches by the Spirit and power of Regeneration which is man's second Creation But although God as I said before did not breath that Spirit
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
out of the Jews together with the wife of Moses and his sons Seeing Moses himself when he went away from Jethro his Father-in-law return'd into Egypt before he went out The which that he might doe he is said expresly To have taken his wife and his sons in the same Exodus and the 4. Chapter Whoever but slightly revises those Bookes shall observe more things of this kind and many things every where in them confus'd and obscure yea contradictory to one another as cold to hot dry to moist But you who think it enough to find out answers every where You take all that pains in vain unlesse you salve it by this observation And believe that these things were diversly written being taken out of several authors CHAP. II. God made himself obscurely known to men God in a cloud Of the Bible copied out There were Writers before Moses Genesis could not mention all He wrote not the history of the first men but the first Jews The Ark was not the first of ships The Vine planted by Noe was not the first vine How Melchizedech is to be understood without father mother or original WHy God would not fully manifest himself to men Why he spoke to them so intricately and obscurely Why commanded his word to be written so intricately and obscurely let wiser men inquire And why he suffered the primitive Copies to perish of a great many things which Writers received from God himself and permitted the more obscure and difficult to arive to our age But let God be to me as much hid as he will It is nothing to me Why God did it since I know he did it I cannot pierce that cloud with my eyes wherein God dwells but know certainly that God dwells in a cloud And in the cloud I worship him I am not able by that clearnesse which I have if any such there be to enlighten those obscure things in the Scriptures which we read daily to order all those things which are consus'd and undigested to recall those things which have been slipt to restore things that are wanting or reconcile things that are contrary nor to have full knowledge of the beginning of the world by reading of them nor distinguish the order of the holy Scripture nor perfectly understand the Prophets nor perfectly know the efficacie of mysteries Whatsoever else in the holy Scriptures is omitted or defective or is contrary I know notwithstanding that the holy Spirit of God is in them For either I believe that the originals of them were dictated to holy authors or taken out and copied from the Originals And as in a cloud thicken'd by a tempest the rays of the Sun which dart through it witnesse that the Sun is there so also in those obscure and hidden clouds of the extracted Copiâ— the fiery beams of the holy Spirit which runs all along through them bewrayes that God whom those clouds hide I know likewise that in Gods corn-fields burs and thorns grow up that tares grow up amongst his seed that weeds and barren stalks arise in his harvest I know that in the Lords harvest there is a great deal of chaff mix'd with the wheat I know that the building of Christ is raised with gold silver wood stone hay and seed confusedly intermix'd And I know also that such things are built up with confus'd with and grow up with the Scriptures Yea you will say it is easie to discern the cockle from the wheat the chaff from the grain the gold from the silver the hay from the stubble But what wit so clear can we have who can distinguish the primitive copy from the second copy A copy I say so near to the original that according to your own confession he shall mock your skill in the several similitudes of phrases And yet truly it is not very hard to distinguish the true copy from the other where the author confesses out of what books he took it The difficulty is to know what are the words of the Copier and which are the real words of the Original And to speak the very truth it is impossible to know all these things Many things indeed there are that if one take good heed you shall find which are the Original which the Copy And if a hound who hunts after a wild beast where he sees most steps in the dust according to his exquisite sent discerns them and runs the track of the beast which he pursues Why also may not our reason using its own weights and measures especially being assisted by God discern things humane from divine And if Isaac the Father distinguish'd the voyce of Jacob from the hands of Esau Why may not our minds also enlightened by God distinguish the voice of God from the hands of men That force I have not nor weaknesse rather to call it to presume my self inspir'd from heaven in understanding expounding and distinguishing them So much I say that I have that divine spark of fire reason in me as another man may have and the same Spirit of Christ which informs every Christian and without which no man can be a follower of Christ Foâ— if any one have not the Spirit of Christ he is not Christs Rom. 8. Trusting in the help of that holy Spirit and mov'd by that instinct which is rather a touch of God than a knowledge I dare guesse at some things in the Bible for all men cannot perform all things And these indeed I think I have successfully found out for I have ventur'd upon nothing which I have not weigh'd in the scale of Reason and Faith That the same fate which swept away abundance of prophane authors hath likewise consum'd most of the Original copies of the Bible I am very certainly perswaded I do not doubt but Moses set down very accurately the Jews going out of Egypt God's Law deliver'd in Sinai the Ceremonies prescrib'd in that Law as also the History of Four hundred years in which the Jews wander'd in the desert as also that memorable mysterie of Deuteronomy I also believe that the incomparable Prophet according to his high knowledge of the Jewish affairs wrote the Chronicle of the Jews from the first original of them and from Adam the first author of that people till his own times as also the original of all things before Adam And that he learn'd those things and the antient monuments of the Jews and the first creation out of antient Writers and by Gods instruction For although we know no Writer more antient than Moses yet who dares deny that their are Writers more antient Yea it appears clearly that there were Writers before him because he has written the Historie of his own Nation before and after the Floud for two thousand and five hundred years Which according to the nature of things and their tenor and order which is also to be observ'd without all inconâ—enience it is thought either from bookes in his owne time extant or from ancient traditions
Ancestors might presume of their salvation upon the same account as all the Patriarchs of the the Jews could conceive hope in their salvation For neither did those Fathers of the Jews know God the Father as Father nor believed in Christ the Son according to the Apostle in the last Chapter of the Romans The mystery of God the Father and God the Son was hidden from eternity to our times Therefore it was hid and unknown to all those Patriarchs that were betwixt Adam and Christ But if any mention the words of our Saviour saying that Abraham and Isay foresaw the day of Christ and were glad I answer they saw the day of Christs coming but cloath'd in shadows and figures as one Who sees in clouds or thinks he sees the Moon They smil'd upon Christ but knew him not as Infants smile upon their Mothers and whom by laughter they are said to know rather poetically than truly for instinct it is rather in Children than knowledge It is also written in the first Chapter to the Ephesians That God did chuse the Gentiles to the Adoption of his own Sons before the creation of the World God forbid that we should think that election was so unprofitable and to so little purpose which we suppose to be from eternity to the framing of Adam and so to Jesus Christ that none of all the Gentiles was elected and called to the participation of salvation which was in Christ all that time which was betwixt the infancy of the world till the death of Christ Melchisedech was a Gentile for he was not a Jew which he has clearly set down in his Epistle to the Hebrews chap. 7 verse 6. And he was the Priest of the most high God Therefore elected yea a vessel of most choice election who received the tenths from Abraham and to whose eternal Priesthood the eternal Priesthood of Christ is compared Iob is thought to be a Gentile a man single and upright fearing God and departing from evil a servant of God and therefore chosen and to whom as God says himself there was not the like upon earth Cornelius the Centurian of the Italian legion was a Gentile a man pious and fearing God with his whole houshold and given to good works I passe by a great many Proselites as also those Gentiles whom Mothanus Vuyerius the Chiron of our Achilles makes a long Catalogue of in his elegant and and learned Treatise of the vertue of Heathens I say I passe by all those good approved and wisemen whom long before the death of Christ its probable yea we may very well believe were chosen by God and called unto the Lord But in the same account were after Adam to Christ in the same account I say were those Gentiles in the first age from the creation of the world till the framing of Adam For this cause I think that all those Gentiles begotten before and after Adam good and meek men to have been Christs chief because I believe they were the bondmen and servants of Christ For if any had the spirit of Christ he was Christs as says the Apostle Romans 8. I think they had the Spirit of Christ because I think they were touched and inspired by the spirit of Christ which by secret operations and thoughts wrought in them salvation to life eternal The spirit of Christ was in the Gentiles as the soul is in Infants by which they are sensible and which the Infants perceive but are not sensible of it The spirit of Christ was in them as reason is in Children which is in them a power to become reasonable but as yet not brought in to act Therefore is that spirit called the power of God unto salvation Rom. chap. 1. The spirit of Christ was in them as in a grain of Corn there is a vegetative power For that grain of Corn grows and increases in the earth without the knowledge of the Husbandman who sowed it Which is observed in the Gospel according to St. Mark For this cause the spirit of Christ which is the kingdom of God is compared to the grain of Corn For that spirit which is in the elect grows and increases whilst the elect in whom it is know not of it That spirit of Christ was given to the Gentiles not knowing being supine and asleep to whom that of the 127 Psalm agreeed very well When he shall give his beloved sleep Behold the inheritance of the Lord The inheritance of the Lord which is the Kingdom of God the spirit of Christ and life eternal The spirit of Christ was in them but it was hidden and unknown nor revealed it self unto them They felt and worshipped that spirit they felt that which they knew not they worshiped that which they were ignorant of They dedicated Altars which they consecrated to the unknown God which unknown God St. Paul himself by name did expound to the Athenians The spirit of Christ was hidden in them therefore were they elect unknown as St. Paul calls others Jews in secret Romans 3. They were shut up to that faith which was to be revealed Which St. Paul also affirms of those holy Jews who lived under the Law from Adam till Christ and might be also well fitted to those just Gentiles who liv'd under Nature before the Law and Adam Those Gentiles were like wandring sheep who knew not the shepheard that led them but which according to Saint Peter in his second Epistle chapter 2. might be turned to the shepheard of their souls They were hidden in their knowledge and profession and only so far known as they could be discern'd by their workes which was the true and real proof of their Election As the Lord says By their works you shall know them More of this I will speake if it shall please God where I shall speak of purpose concerning the calling of the Gentiles which was in force after the rejection of the Jews I will begin the second Part of this Systeme from the rejection of the Jews Because I have spoken enough of the Election of the Jews and of the Gentiles elected in the Jews and will speak no farther of it The End of the first Part.