Testament for they touch each other What do the Papists then when they put and chop in the Apocripha for Canonicall Scripture betweene Malachi and Matthew Law and Gospell What doe they but make a wall betweene the Seraphins that they cannot heare each others crie What do they but make a stoppe betweene the Cherubins that they cannot touch each others wing What do they but make a ditch betwixt these grounds that they cannot reach each to others coasts What do they but remooue the land-marke of the Scriptures and so are guilty of Cursed be he that remooues his neighbours marke Deut. 27.17 And what do they but â—â—â—orce the mariage of the Testaments and so are guilty of the breach of that which God hath ioyned together let no man put asunder These two Testaments are the two paps of the Church from which we suck the sincere milke of the Word One pap is not more like to another then are these two for substance but for language they varie in colour The old as all can tell is written in Hebrew but some forraigne languages are also admitted into Scripture besides the Hebrew as forraigne nations were to be admitted also to the Church besides the Hebrewes A great peece of Ezra in Chalde because takeÌ„ from Chalde Chronicles Those parts of Daniels visions that concerne al the world are written in the Chaldee the tongue then best known in the world because the Chaldeans were then Lords of the world The eleuenth verse of the tenth of Ieremie is in the same tongue that the Iewes might learne so much of their language as to refuse their idolatrie in their owne language Other words of this Idiome are frequent in the Scripture as I take two names giuen to Christ as Bar the sonne in Psal. 2.10 and Hhoter the rod of Iesses stemme Isa. 11. to be natiuely Chaldee words and for that they do shew the greater mysterie viz. that this Sonne and this Rod should belong to Chaldeans and Gentiles as well as to Iewes or Hebrewes Infinite it is to trace all of this nature and language The Arabian is also admitted into Scripture especially in the booke of Iob a man of that country whether Philistin Phrases and other adiacent nations Dialects be not to be found there also I referre to the Reader to search and I thinke he may easily find of the eloquence of some peeces aboue others and the difficultie of some bookes aboue others those that can euen read the English Bible can tell I would there were more that could reade it in its owne language and as it were talk with God there in his own tongue that as by Gods mercy Iaphet dwells now in the tents of Sem or the Gentiles haue gained the preheminence of the Iewes for religion so they would water this graffing of theirs into this stocke with the iuyce of that tongue thereby to prouoke them the more to Ielousie CAP. XXXIII Of the New Testament Language or the Greeke THe Greeke tongue is the key which God vsed to vnlocke the tents of Sem to the sonnes of Iaphet This glorious tongue as Tully cals it is made most glorious by the writing of the New Testament in this language God hath honoured all the letters by naming himselfe after the first and the last as Homer shewes the receit of all the Grecian ships by shewing how many the greatest and how few the least contained Iauan is held both by Iewes and Christians to haue planted the Country The tongue is likely to be maternall from Babel The Iewes vpon Genesis the forty ninth thinke that Iacob curseth his sons Simeon and Leuies fact in one word of Greek Macerothehem that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their swords but all the Chaldees and other Translations render it better their habitations Gen. 49.5 The ancientest Heathen Greek aliue is Homer though the tongue was long before and Homers subiect of Ilias treated of in Greeke verse by Euanders Wife of Arcadia as some haue related Homer watered the tongue and in succeeding ages it flourished till it grew ripe in the New Testament The Dialects of it familiarly knowne to be fiue The Attick the Ionick c. The Macedonian was something strange as appeares in Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. 5. Especially their deuout Macedonian or about their oraisons How God scattered and diuulged this tongue of the Greekes ouer the world against the comming of Christ and writing of the New Testament is remarkeable Alexander the great with his Macedonians made the Easterne parts Grecian The Old Testament at Ptolomaeus his request translated into Greek was as an Vsher to bring in the New Testament when Iaphet should come to dwell in the tents of Sem. The Iewes vsed to keepe a mournefull fast for that translation but as Iewes mourne so haue Gentiles cause to reioyce In like sort for the preparation for the Gospell of late which as farre as Antichrist his power could reach lay depressed but not ouerwhelmed the Greeke tongue at the sacking of Constantinople by the Turkes was sent into these Westerne climates that we might heare Christ speake in his owne language without an Aegyptian to interpret to vs as Ioseph had to his brethren What need we now to rely vpon a Latine foundation when we haue the Greeke purity Neuer did the Turke any good to Chriâ—tianity but this and this against his will but God worketh all things for his owne glory And we may say of the poore inhabitants of Grecia as of the Iewes by their impouerishing we are inriched As Athens in old time was called the Grecia of Grecia so the New Testament for language may be stiled the Greeke of Greeke In it as vpon the crosse of our Sauiour in the title are three tongues Hebrew Greek and Latine Greeke the foundation the other two but little additions In the Greeke Master Broughton hath giuen learned rules and examples of the kinds of it viz. Septuagint Talmudick Atticke and Apostolicke The Hebrew or Syrian for so that word Hebrew in the title of the crosse must bee vnderstood is easily found out euen in translations Latine there is some in the Gospells but not much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Census for tribute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ward or watch Matthew 28.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiculator Marke 6.27 which word is vsed by Targum Ieruselamy in Gen. 37. of Potiphar that hee was Rabh Sapulachtaria Princeps spiculatorum And some other words of the Latine tongue which language in our Sauiours time the conquest of the Romans had scattered in Ierusalem and in the parts adioyning and so may one finde some Latine in the Syrian Testament and abundance of Greeke CAP. XXXIIII Of the Chaldee and Syrian Tongues THe Chaldee and Syrian tongue was once all one as appeareth in Genesis 31.47 Ezra 4.7 Dan. 2.4 In Character indeed they differed they of Babilon vsing one kind of letter they of Syria another This was that that nonplust the Babilonian wizards about
light heart but where the guiltinesse grones heauy too the gold is worth nothing At last the murderers conscience accuseth and condemnes him like both witnesse and Iudge for his bloudy fact His heart and eyes are both cast downe the one as farre as hell whither the fact had sunke and the other to the earth whither the bloud He is now wearie of his owne life as ere-while he was of anothers He ties his purse of gold which had hired him to kill the other about his necke and offers it to euery one he meets as his reward if he would kill him At last hee is paid in his owne coine and hires his owne murderer with that price wherewith he himselfe was hired And so perish all such whose feet are swift to shed bloud and he that strikes with an vnlawfull sword be strucken with a lawfull againe This mans case makes mee to thinke of Cain the old grandsire of all murderers Of his heauy doome and misery and burden and banishment Dauid once groaned vnder the burden of blood-guiltinesse but God at his repenting eased him Psal. 51. Iudas takes a worse course then euen Cain did to bee released of the sting of bloudshed Mat. 27. God grant I neuer know what it is to bee guilty of shedding of bloud but onely by reading CAP. XVIII Of the name of the Red Sea IN Hebrew it is called Suph the sea of weeds Because saith Kimchi there grew abundance of weeds vpon the sides of it In Greeke Latine and English and other Westerne tongues it is commonly called the Red Sea Diuerse reasons are giuen by diuerse persons why it is so called the best seemes to me to be from the rednesse of the ground about it And so Herodotus speakes of a place thereabout called Erythrobolus or the red soile It is thought our country tooke the name of Albion from the like occasion but not like colour As from the white rocks or clifts vpon the sea side The Iewes hold that Whale that swallowed Ionah brought him into the Red Sea and there shewed him the way that Israel passed through it for his eyes were as two windowes to Ionah that he looked out and saw all the sea as he went A whetstone yet they will needs haue some reason for this loudly and this is it because Ionah in Cap. 2.5 saith Suph hhabhush leroshi which is the weeds were wrapped about my head which they construe the Red Sea was wrapped about my head And to helpe the Whale thither Rabbi Iaphet saith that the Red Sea meets with the sea of Iapho or the Mediterranean vnlesse the Rabbin meanes that they meet vnder ground guesse what a Geographer he was and if hee find a way vnder ground guesse what a deepe scholler A long iourney it was for the Whale to go vp to Hercules pillars into the Ocean and from thence to the Red Sea in three dayes and nights but the fabling Iewes must find some sleight to maintaine their owne inuentions CAP. XIX Of the word Raca Mat. 5.22 WHosoeuer shall say vnto his brother Raca shall be worthy to bee punished by the Councell The word is a Iewish nick-name and so vsed in the Talmud for a despitefull title to a despised man as Our Rabbins shew a thing done with a religious man that was praying in the high way by comes a great man and giues him the time of the day but he saluted him not againe He stayed for him till he had finished his prayer after he had done his prayer he said to him Reka is it not written in your law that you shall take heed to your selues Had I strucke off thy head with my sword who should haue required thy bloud c. And so goes the angry man on Irenaeus hath a Phrase nigh to the signification of this word qui expuit cerebrum a man that hath no braines and so Raka signifies a man emptie whether of vnderstanding or goodnesse so the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is frequently taken CAP. XX. Wit stollen by Iewes out of the Gospell Gospell OVR Sauiour saith to His Disciples the haruest truly is great but the labourers are few Matth. 9.38 Whosoeuer heareth these sayings and doth them I will liken him to a man that built his house vpon a rock And the raine descended and flouds came c. And euery one that heareth these sayings and doth them not shal be likened to a foolish man that built his house vpon the sand Mat. 7.24 25. c. Of euery idle word that men speake they shall giue account therof at the day of Iudgement Mat. 12.36 With what measure you mete it shall be measured to you againe Mat. 7.2 Iewes RAbbi Simeon saith today is the haruest and the worke is much and the labourers idle and the reward great and the Master of the house vrgent Pirk Abhoth Per. 2. He that learneth the law and doth many good works is like a man that built his house the foundatiō of stone and the rest of bricke and the waters beate and the stone stood c. But hee that learneth the law and doth not many good workes is like a man that built his house the foundation of brick and the rest of stone c. and the brick wasted c. Abhoth Rabbi Nathan The very same words almost in Orehhoth hhajmi Rabbi Mair saith with the measure that a man measureth they measure to him againe Sanhedrin The whole Lords Prayer might almost be picked out of their workes for they deny not the words though they contradict the force of it The first words of it they vse frequently as Our father which art in heauen in their common prayer booke fol. 5. and Humble your hearts before your father which is in heauen in Rosh hashaua But they haue as much deuotion toward the Father while they denie the Sonne as the Heathens had which could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our father Iupiter and worshipped an vnknowne god Act. 17. They pray almost in euery other prayer Thy kingdome come and that Bimherah bejamenu quickly euen in our dayes but it is for an earthly kingdome they thus looke and pray They pray lead me not into temptation fol. 4. liturg while they tempt him that lead them in the wildernesse as did their father Psal. 95. By this Gospell which they thus filch they must be judged CAP. XXI Saint Cyprians nicety about the last Petition in the Lords Prayer SAint Cyprian it seemeth is so fearefull of making God the Author of euill that he will not thinke that God leadeth any man into temptation The Petition he readeth thus Ne nos patiaris induci in tentationem suffer vs not to be lead into temptation but deliuer vs from euill leauing the ordinanary current and truth of the Prayer because hee will not bee accessary to imagine that God should lead man into temptation whereas all men as well as he do thinke that God doth not leade man into euill
temptations as Sathan doth and yet that God doth tempt men So hee is said in plaine words to haue tempted Abraham And Rabbi Tanchum wittily obserues that Abrahams two great temptations begin both with one straine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Get thee gone The first Get thee gone out of thy country from thy kindâ—ed and fathers house Gen. 12. the second Get thee gone to the land of Moriah and offer thy sonne Isaac vpon one of the mountaines Gen. 22. May we not safely say here that God lead Abraham into temptation But as it followes liberautt à malo God deliuered him from the euill of the temptation which is being ouercome And Saint Iames saith sweetly though at first he may seeme to croste this Petition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Brethren account it all ioy when ye fall into diuerse temptations Iac. 1.2 to be in temptation is ioy for God chastiseth euery sonne that he receiueth and yet pray lead vs not into temptation but deliuer vs from euill let the latter comment vpon the first lead vs not into the euill of temptation which in the Apostles Phrase is suffer vs not to bee tempted aboue our strength CAP. XXII Septuaginta interpreters I Will not with Clemens Iosephus Austen Epiphanius and others spend time in locking them vp seuerally in their closets to make their translation the more admirable I will onely mind that They did the worke of this translation against their will and therefore we must expect but slipperie doing And that appeares by them Their additions variations and without doubt ouersights may well argue with what a will they went about this businesse It were easie to instance in thousands of places How they adde men and yeares Gen. 5. and 10. and 11. and 46. How they add matter of their owne heads as how they helpe Iobs wife to skold Iob 2. adding there a whole verse of female passion I must now saith she go wander vp and downe and haue no place to rest in and so forth And so Iob 1.21 Naked came I out of my mothers wombe and naked shall I returne thither the Lord hath giuen and the Lord hath taken away euen as pleasâ—th the Lord so come things to passe blessed be the name of the Lord which clause euen as pleaseth the Lord so come things to passe is not in the Hebrew but is added by them and so is it taken from them into our common prayer booke in that paâ—t of the manner of buriall To trace them in their mistakes is pretty to see how their vnpricked Bible deceiued them As to instance in one or two for a tast Hebrew Gen. 15.11 It is said that the birds light vpon the carcasses and Abraham droue them away in Heâ—rew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vaijashhebh Iudges 5.8 The Hebrew saith they choose new gods then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lahhem shegnarim was warre in the gates Iudges 7.11 The Hebrew saith and hee and Phurah his seruant went downe to the quarter or side of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hhamushim the armed men Septuag They reade in stead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vajashhebh hee droue them away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vajeshhebh hee sate by them and of this Saint Austen makes goodly Allegories They say they chose new gods as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lehhem segnorim barly bread They say he and his seruant Pharah went downe to the quarter of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hhamishim fiâ—ty men Thus doe they vary in a world of places which the expert may easily see and smile at I omit how they vary names of men and places I will trouble you with no more but one which they comment as it were to helpe a difficulty 1. King 12.2 It is said of Ieroboam that hee dwelt in Egypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vaijeshhebh bemitzraijm 2. Chron. 10.2 It is said that he reâ—urned from Aegypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vaijashobh mimmitzraijm The septuagint heales this thus thus translating 2. Chron. 10.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he had dwelt in Aegypt and he returned out of Aegypt Such is the manner of that worke of the Greeke Now to examine the Authoritie of this wee shall find it wonderfull That some of the Iewish Synagogues read the old Testament in Greeke and not in Hebrew Tertullian seemeth to witnesse But those were Iewes out of Canaan for they were not so skilfull in the Greeke tongue in Canaan for ought I can find as to vnderstand it so familiarly if they had beene I should haue thought the septuagint to bee the booke that was giuen to Christ in the Synagogue Luke 2.17 Because his text that he reades does nearer touch the Greeke then the Hebrew But I know their tongue was the Mesladoed Chaldee The greatest authority of this translation appeareth in that the holy Greeke of the new Testament doth so much follow it For as God vsed this translation for a Harbinger to the fetching in of the Gentiles so when it was growen into Authority by the time of Christs comming it seemed good to his infinite wisdome to adde to its Authority himselfe the better to forward the building of the Church And admirable it is to see with what sweetnesse and Harmony the New Testament doth follow this translation sometime euen besides the letter of the old to shew that he that gaue the old may and can best expound it in the new CAP. XXIII The Septuagint ouer-authorized by some SOme there were in the Primitiue Church like the Romanists now that preferred this translation of the Greeke as they do the vulgar Latine before the Hebrew fountaine Of these Saint Austen speakes of their opinion herein and withall giues his owne in his fifteenth booke de Ciuitate Dei Cap. 11.13.14 where treating of Methushelahs liuing foureteene yeares after the flood according to the Greeke translation Hence came saith he that famous question where to lodge Methuselah all the time of the flood Some hold saith he that he was with his father Enoch who was translated and that he liued with him there till the flood was past They hold thus as being loath to derogate from the â—uthority of those bookes quos in autoriâ—atem celebriorem suscepit ecclesia which the Church hath entertained into more renowned Authority And thinking that the bookes of the Iewes rather then these do mistake and erre For they say that it is not credible that the seuentie Interpreters which translated at one time and in one sense could err or wouldly or erre where it concerned them not But that the Iewes for enuy they beare to vs seeing the Law and Prophets are come to vs by their interpretation haue changed some things in their bookes that the Authority of ours might be lessened This is their opinion Now his owne he giues Cap. 13. in these words Let that tongue be rather beleeued out of which a translation is made into another by Interpreters and in Cap. 14. The truth of things must be fetched
the writing of the wall so that they could not read it though it were in their owne language because it was not in their owne letter In after-times the very languages themselues began to vary as the Chaldee in Daniel and Onkelos and Ieruselamy and Ionathan and the Syrian in the Testament doe witnesse The Paraphrafts do much differ between themselues for purity of speech and all far short of the Bible Chaldee They are very full of Greeke words and so the Syrian a relique of Alexanders conquests some thinke they finde some Greeke in Daniel Montanus himselfe renders Osphaia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all along Foure kind of characters is the Chaldee to bee had in or if you will the Chaldee in two and the Syrian in two Our Bible and Paraphrasts and Rabbins Chaldee is in the Hebrew letter and the other kind of letter is the Samaritan The Syrian hath either a set letter such as we haue the New Testament imprinted in or their running hand such as the Maronites vse in their writing for speed there is no great difference betwixt them as you may see by their Alphabet CAP. XXXV Of the Arabian Language THis is the most copious of the Hebrew Dialects and a tongue that may brag with the most of tongues from fluencie and continuance of familiaritie This tongue is frequent in Scripture especially in Iob a man of that country How other parts of the Bible vse it I thinke may be iudged by the neerenesse of Iudaea and Arabia and of the two languages In this one thing it differs from its fellow-Dialects and its mother tongue that it varieth terminations in declining of nownes as the Greeke and Latine do and that it receiueth duall numbers in forming verbs as doth the Greeke Of the largenesse of the Alphabet and difference from other Alphabets and quiddits of the tongue or indeed any thing of the tongue I cannot say which I haue not receiued of the most industrious and thrice learned both in this and other the noble tongues Master William Bedwell whom I cannot name without a great deale of thankfulnesse and honour To whom I will rather be a scholler then take on me to teach others This tongue was Mahomads Alcoran written in and is still read in the same Idiome vnder paine of death not to mistake a letter which is as easily done in this tongue as in any CAP. XXXVI Of the Latine Tongue THis is the first Idiome of our Grammar Schooles A tongue next the sacred tongues most necessarie for Schollers of the best profession Whether Latine were a Babel language I will not controuert pro et contra Sure I dare say that what Latine we read now was not at Babel if we may beleeue Polybius who saith that the Latine tongue that was vsed in Iunius Brutus time was not vnderstood in the time of the first Punicke warre but onely by great schollers So much in few yeares it had degenerated The old Poets compared with smooth Ouid and Tully shew much alteration This spacious tongue once almost as big as any and as large as a great part of the world is now bounded in schooles and studies The Deluge of the North the treasurie of men ouerwhelmed the Romane empire scattered the men and spoiled the Latine Goths Vandalls Lombards and the rest of the brood of those frozen Climates haue beaten the Latine tongue out of its owne fashion into the French Spanish and Italian But some sparkes of their hammering are flowne into other languages of the West So that most countries hereabout may owne Rome for a second Babel for their speech confused CAP. XXXVII The Language of Brittaine neere a thousand yeares ago Ex Beda lib. 1. de Hist. Angl. Cap. 1. BRittania in praesenti iuxta numerum librorum c. Brittaine in my time saith Bede doth search and confesse one and the same knowledge of the high truth and true sublimity in fiue tongues according to the fiue bookes wherein the Law of God was written namely in the English Brittaine Scottish Pict and Latine tongues And in the ninteenth chapter of the same booke he saith that when Austen the Monke came from Gregory the great to preach the Gospell in England he brought with him Interpreters out of France to speak to the English That language it seemes was then vsuall in England but whether the French that France speakes now is a question William the Conqueror tooke great care and paines to haue brought in his tongue with his conquest but could not preuaile CAP. XXXVIII Ionathan the Chaldee Paraphrast his conceit of Leuies choosing to the Priesthood translated out of his Paraph. on Gen. 32.24 ANd Iacob was left alone beyond the foord and an Angell in the likenesse of a man stroue with him and said Diddest thou not promise to giue tithe of all that thou hadst and behold thou hast twelue sonnes and one daughter and thou hast not tithed them Out of hand he sets apart the foure first borne to their foure mothers for saith the margin they were holy because of their primogeniture and then were eight left He begins againe to count from Simeon and ended in Leui for the tenth or tithe Michael answereth and saith Lord of the world this is thy lot c. thus the Chaldee On whose words if they were worth commenting on I could say more CAP. XXXIX Of the Iewes abbreuiature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THis short writing is common in all their Authors When they cite any of the Doctors of their schooles they commonly vse these words Ameru rabbothenu Zicceronam libhracah in foure letters thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus say our Doctors of blessed memorie But when they speake of holy men in the old Testament they vsually take this Phrase Gnalau hashalom on him is peace in briefe thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus when they mention Moses Salomon Dauid or others this is the memoriall they giue them The Arabians haue the like vse in their Abbreuiation of Gnalaihi alsalemo on whom is peace The words in Hebrew want a verbe and so may be construâ—ed two wayes On him is peace or on him be peace The learned Master Broughton hath rendered it the former way and his iudgement herein shall bee my law To take it the latter way seemes to relish of Popish superstition of praying for the dead which though the Iewes did not directly do yet in manner they appeare to do no lesse in one part of their Common Prayer booke called Mazkir neshamoth the remembrancer of Soules which being not very long I thought not amisse to translate out of their tongue into our owne that the Reader may see their Iewish Poperie or Popish Iudaisme and may blesse the Creatour who hath not shut vs vp in the same darkenesse CAP. XL. Mazkir neshamoth or the Remembrancer of soules in the Iewes liturgy printed at Venice THe Lord remember the soule or spirit of Abba Mr. N. the sonne of N. who is gone
to his owne freewill that the repairing of Adam through Christ might be the more glorious Hereupon one sings O foelix lapsus Vnhappy was the fall of Adam since by his fall we all fell but yet happy was that vnhappy fall since it must bee recured by Christ. Ioseph suffered his brother Simeon to go into prison for a while that at last he might bring him out with greater comfort So God suffered Adam to go into Satans Newgate for a while that at last he might bring him out with greater comfort The day thou eatest hereof thou shalt dye there is the prison And the man tooke and ate there Adam goes into prison the seed of the woman shall breake the head of the Serpent there Ioseph deliuers Simeon out of prison God brings man out of hell through Christ. Whereupon a Doctor in admiration questions vtrum mirabilius homines iustos creare an iniustos iustificare whether is more admirable that God created man righteous or that hee iustified man when he had made himselfe vnrighteous Whether was more miraculous for God to make man of nothing or to repaire him from worse then nothing Wonderfull he was in both in his first and his second creation for Iustificatio est secunda hominis creatio mans Iustification is his new creation CAP. XLVIII Ophitae Euia SOme Heretickes in Epiphanius thinke themselues beholden to the Deuill for his paines that he tooke to ouerthrow Adam for they vsed to worship a serpent because say they hee brought knowledge into the world Clemens Alexandrinus doth partly thinke this conceit was got among the Heathens who at their feasts of Bacchus vsed to carrie a serpent as it were in procession and to crie Euia Euia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And Euia saith Clemens if it be asperated Heuia it signifies in the Hebrew tongue a female serpent Where the good man calls the Chaldee tongue the Hebrew For in the Hebrew I do not find such a word for a serpent But all the Chaldee translations of the Bible in the third of Genesis and diuerse other places doe vse the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hiuia for a serpent which I take to bee the word hee meanes CAP. XLIX Of the Greeke Translation of the fifth of Genesis HOw the Septuagint does adde hundreds of yeares to mens ages before and after the floud few schollers but they know This bred the difference of computation of the times while some followed the Hebrew some the Greeke Hence came two notorious doubts About Methuselah liuing after the flood who died a moneth or two before And of Sem his death before Abrahams birth who liued as long after Abraham came to Canaan as Abraham was old when he came thither viz. seuenty fiue yeares And so might well be Melchizedek The Greeks had a great deale of stirre where to put Methushelah all the floud-time for feare of drowning At last some laid him on the top of Noahs Arke and there hee was all that watry yeare The Iewes lay Og the giant there also as the Chaldee Paraphrast vpon the foureteenth of Genesis ridiculously obserueth Whose words for your fuller sport I will not spare to set down The thirteenth verse hee renders thus in Chaldee And Og came who was left of those that died in the floud for hee rode vpon the Arke and was as a couering vpon it and was nourished with Noahs vittailes but he was not preserued for his owne sake or merit but that the inhabitants of the world might see the power of the Lord and say Did not the Gyants in old time rebell against the Lord of the world and he destroyed them from the earth yet assoone as these Kings make warre behold Og is with them Og saith with himselfe I will go and shew Abraham Lots case that hee is taken prisoner that so he may come to rescue him and may himselfe fall into their hands He goes and comes to him about the Passeouer day and finds him making vnleauened cakes then hee told Abram the Hebrew c. Thus far the Chaldee of whose conceits here and in one thousand of places more and so of his nation the Iewes I know not whether to say Risum or fletum teneatis amici But to returne to my purpose The Greeke Bible makes Methushelah liue fourteene yeares after the floud their reason of this their addition of yeares many render which I omit But S. Austen saith some fall short of this mans age In three Greeke bookes saith he and one Latine and one Syrian booke all agreeing one with another Methusalem is found to die sixe yeares before the floud So Austen in Ciu. dei lib. 15. cap. 13. Such differences may incite men to apply themselues to the Hebrew text where is no falsifying nor error CAP. L. Vpon the words The seede of the woman shall breake the Serpents head THe new Testament affords a rich Commentarie vpon these words in the Gospell of Saint Luke who in his third Chapter shewes how through seuentie fiue generations Christ is this seed of the woman and in the fourth Chapter how through three temptations this seed began to bruise the head of the Serpent where the Reader may obserue how the diuell tempts Christ in the very same manner that he had temped Eue though not with the same successe Al the sins of the world are brought by Saint Iohn to these three heads Lust of the flesh lust of the eyes and the pride of life 1. Iohn 2.15 By these three Eue falls in the garden She sees the tree is good for meate and the lust of the flesh inticeth her she sees it faire to looke on and the lust of the eye prouokes her and she perceiues it will make her wise and the pride of life perswads her to take it By these three the deuill tempts Christ when he is hungrie he would haue him turne stones into bread and so tries him by the lusts of the flesh He shewes and promiseth him all the pompe of the world and so tries him by the lust of the eyes and he will haue him to flie in the aire and so tempts him to pride of life But as by these three the Serpent had broken the head of the woman so against these three the seed of the woman breakes the head of the Serpent Dauid Prophecied of this conquest Psal. 91.13 The Dragon thou shalt tread vnder thy feet The verie next verse before this the deuill vseth to tempt Christ withall but to this he dare not come for it is to his sorrow CAP. LI. Iewish hypocriticall prayers reproued by our Sauiour Mat. 6.5 Because they loue to stand praying in the Synagogues and corners of the streets THis Sermon vpon the mount is much in reproofe of the Iewes Talmudicall traditions by which they made the word of God of none effect This verse reproueth one of their tenets for their high-way Oraisons for which they haue this tradition in their Talmud Rabbi