ceases the world should likewise never cease Besides action was always in God a power unvanquishable for God was never idle which we perceive by the world which is the image of God For there is no rest in all the arts of the world For the world is always big and alwayes brings forth according to the nature of time and place Therefore we shall easily imagine that the world had no birth if we have regard to God in whom the world all creatures must be from eternity from whom they must needs have their birth and of whom God in his good pleasure travel'd with from all eternity But if we believe that God always and from eternity carried the world in his mind and will we must needs believe That God by that unvanquishable power by which he acts and brings forth always did beget the world from eternity On the contrary they that assign'd to the world a beginning teach us that things had a beginning the forms of which by little and little this Universe did receive And that the unsetled Globe of the world became one lump and that the first creatures crept out of the earth and believed that the world was amazed at the sight of a new Sun Nay Porphyrius has very elegantly decipher'd the youth of Nature where he speaks of the first and most antient sacrifice of the Egyptians He says There seems a great space of time to have past over since the Egyptians the wisest of men began at home to sacrifice to the heavenly Deities not with the first fruits of Myrrhe Cassia or Frankincense but with green grasse which with uplifted hands as being the first gown of teeming nature her did present Porphyrius did not say that an infinite time had past but seem'd to have past Which observe to be according to the opinion of those who said that the world from all eternity did rowl with a perpetual motion nor that it was begotten at any certain time At a certain time that is at a known time In which sence Sanchoniato who liv'd before the destruction of Troy said that the beginnings of the world were infinite and that the world should have no end but after many ages They likewise believed that the perpetual motion wherewith the world is rowl'd had likewise begotten returnable time Time I say which has from many ages lasted shall last out many more As also they granted the parts of this time to be minutes hours days months ages ages of ages or that age which is extended from age to age There were likewise years of years the twelf-years eight years and nineteen years amongst the Greeks The things which Claudius Salmasim a man of most excellent learning has written in his Preface to his Climacterical years are things curious and choice He said that the Chaldaeans were so large and liberal in the computation of the times of their Kings that they number'd them not by years but by divers sums consisting of years There were three kinds and names of those as he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he has found it written contained six thousand years 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contained six hundred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sixty It was ordinary too amongst those of Mexico and Peru to make up such hâ—â—â—s of years in making up the account of the world and numbred the age of the world by Suns One Sun says Goâ—â—arâ— consisted of eight hundred and sixty years And if there be any trust to be given to them the last Sun amongth them was to be reckoned from the year of our Saviour a thousand forty three which Garcillassus a Vega a Mexican himself of the royall Posterity of Inca has left us written in his Commentaries There are likewise divers years of fix'd stars and wandring ones in which they end their courses or are joyn'd together For a year as Scaliger says is the circuit of that Period by which it is surnamed That is thought the greatest Period which is made up of the course of the eighth sphere and which ends when all the stars return to the point from whence they go forth Which Cicero call'd The returning year because all the courses and conjunctions of those stars being ended they return'd and should again begin their turns like single stars who go and return in their courses and conjunctions with an unwearied motion That year being done which is call'd great The wandring stars again that course begin Which when the world was new they enter'd in Which Verses are in the elegant Poet Ausonius To which you may adde those things which Pomponius Mela after wrote of the Egyptians They says he have it recorded in their Histories That the stars have perfected their courses four times since they were Egyptians Claudian has lively describ'd that great year which according to Ciceroes relation contains so many ages of years in his Panegyrick to Stilice Far hence unknown and from our senses hid Scarce seen by Gods Times mother doth abide The immense cave of age whose lap affords All space of time or else recalls and hoords But round this cave a mighty serpent lies By whom each mortal thing decays and dies Youthful with burnishe scales whose mouth devours Still his own tail re-furnishing lost hours 'T is ordinary that all sorts of years are signified by Serpents taking their tails in their mouthes according to all circular figures which is alwayes return'd into it self as all years are alwayes return'd into the same beginning Therefore did Claudian assign a huge Serpent to this great year and that Caâ—e the pale and aged mother of years encircled by that Serpent and feign'd that she devour'd her own tail because that great year like other and the lesser tyears should alwayes return into it self and begin where it left off Yea because as he speaks it should alwayes by a silent motion run over again its own tracks Nor was the eternity of years represented by Serpents only for the figures sake because they were wrapped round but likewise by reason of their own nature by which they were thought after along age to be again renewed in themselvesâ— and be as it were immortal as the Phoenicians and Egyptians believ'd That great Serpent which environs the care of the great year is said to be alwayes green in her scales because this sort of creature is believ'd by reason of the force and abundance of spirit that it hath not only to put off old age and become young again but likewise to receive greater encrease of strength as likewise because the nature of it is lively and fiery For which cause Virgil has set forth his Serpents blustering with blood and fire which agrees very well with the great year which has a green and fresh old age alwayes taking and retaking recalling and furnishing time out of his large bosom That which we have said of Serpents turning back to bite their own tails agrees with these
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
spiritly which consists of most faculties As for example The soul of a brute is more sprightly than the soul of a Plant because a Brute surpasses a Plant in its sensitive faculty The soul of a Man is more sprightly than the soul of a Brute because he surpasses it by his reasonable faculty Therfore the souls of the Elect are most spiritly above the souls of all other men because the Elect surpasse all other men by the Spirit of Christ by the Spirit of Regeneration and that Spirit which proceeds from God Which for that cause the Kingly Prophet called the principal Spirit Psalm 51. By vertue of which the Elect are called Spiritual yea spiritual in their bodies by a resurrection to a spiritual and eternal life The manner of composition of matter and conposition of Spirit is utterly different For that matter which hath most materials cast upon it swells to be bigger but that Spirit becomes more pure and clear which is compos'd of most Spirits And as in Arithmetick to multiply a minute is to to diminish it and divide it into subtiller parts so that Spirit which is multiplyed and rarified by more Spirits becomes more subtil The Spirit of Christ is added yea multiplyed and substracted in the Elect as it was multiplyed in Elisha and as it was taken from Moses and added to the sevent â— men of the Elders of Israel Numb 11. But these things are not belonging to the present discourse Truly I beleeve that Spirit of Christ which is infus'd into the Elect to have been that Leven laid up into three measures of meal of which speaks the Gospel according to St. Matthew Chap. 14. I say that Leven because it increases and is multiplyed in the Elect because it is mix'd with those three faculties of the soul which are in men the rational sensitive and vegetative The Spirit of Christ who from eternity is in the Elect by an eternal election without difference of Nations is in them the strength and power of regeneration resurrection and eternal life That strength is show'd forth and that power is brought unto act by a mystical election and mystical dispensations of time by which the Jews were first elected the Nations being refus'd and rejected which Jews by turn being ejected and neglected the Gentiles were taken into the place of the Jews and by which afterwards the Jews and the Gentiles in one body shall be joyn'd together in one Election and by whch at last the regeneration of both shall be perfected that at the end of time God may grant unto them both resurrection and life eternal without difference of Jew or Gentile which shall be the return from that mystical Election to eternal Election the end and consummation of all mysteries The end then of this Systeme which I must handle and bring about is set down in that mystical Election which was first fram'd to the Jews and into which the Gentiles came thrusting out the Jews that both Jews and Gentiles at last might come into one full salvation I say all this dispute shall be concerning the Jews and the Gentiles Of the Jews who without controversie sprung from Adam and of the Gentiles which according to my supposition I hold to be created before Adam Of the Adamite Jews and of the Gentiles before Adam The second Book of this SYSTEME OF DIVINITY CHAP. I. Of the election of the Jews The election of the Jews began from Adam the first father of the Jews The Jews the first-born because first elected They were not elected of their own deserving but of the meer bounty of God who willed and chused them Made of the same common earth of which other men were created God joyn'd in marriage to the church of the Israelites Father of the Jews The Jews esteem God because the sons of God God the Mother of the Jews Friend of the Jews The Jews the friends of God WE shall understand that the Gentiles are not sprung from the Linage and Kindred of the Jews by that which shall be spoken of the Election of the Jews and Gentiles of both a part We shall begin from the Election of the Jews The Election of the Jews is extolled in the 10 Ch. of Deut. above all things where Moses spoke to the people of the Jews Behold the heavens belong to the Lord and the heaven of heavens the earth and all therein yet the Lord was joyned to your fathers and chused their seed after them Deuteronomy agrees in this with the Epistle of the Hebrews where you may read this That Christ no where chose the Angels but the seed of Abraham For I placed the Foundation of the mystical Election on Christ inasmuch as he was made a Jew and of the seed of Abraham But Adam is but a Type of Christ chief of the seed of Abraham and of the Jews I say a type going before his prototype in order and time By which the mystery of Adam â—s finning is a presupposition of that mystery in which Christ died for the sin of Adam and in which the mystery of election is perfected Therefore we must review the Original of that mystical Election according to the order and dispensation of time from Adam the first Father of the Jews And by the same argument that salvation is from the Jews salvation will appear to come from Adam the first Father of the Jews I say from the very same Adam from whom likewise came condemnation Which salvation being propounded to all men in Adam men never had received it if Adam had not lost it Certainly Regeneration which is the second Creation the Salvation of men and their Election took its Original from the Law which was given to Adam and from that death which from the transgression of that Law did arise I say from the death of Christ which is an abolition of the first Creation and which from Adam himself entred into force But of this more exactly another time But by the same mystery that the Original of Election flowed from Adam upon all Men it was propagated by the same Adam as from his Off-spring upon his Sons and Grand-children all the branches of the Jews For for that cause did God chuse the seed of the Jews because he was before joyned to their Fathers in the forementioned 10 Chap. of Deuteronomy or which is the same because God chose the Father of the Jews For that Glew by which God clave unto the Fathers of the Jews was their Election for it is written in Exodus The God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob. This is my Name for ever and this my memorial from generation to generation Yet take notice of what Laban sayes to Jacob Genesis 31. The God of Abraham the God of Nachar judge betwixt us and the God of their Fathers Where observe that God was not onely the God of Abraham but the God of Nachar Abraham's Brother and the God of Thare Abraham and Nachar's Father
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.