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church_n	answer_v	argument_n	prove_v	3,101	5	5.5305	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62735	Primordia, or, The rise and growth of the first church of God described by Tho. Tanner ... ; to which are added two letters of Mr. Rvdyerd's, in answer to two questions propounded by the author, one about the multiplying of mankind until the flood ; the other concerning the multiplying of the children of Israel in Egypt.	Tanner, Thomas, 1630-1682.; Rudyerd, James, b. 1575 or 6.	1683 (1683)	Wing T145; ESTC R14957	173,444	408

Whether they were but seventy Males in all to wave the Question whether they were so many for some are of opinion that some of Iacob's Sons Sons are reckoned by anticipation and might for all that be born in Egypt after they were planted in the Land of Goshen Let us hear what may be said on either side And first that they were but seventy precisely or thereabouts as S t Stephen reckoneth For First It is safe to keep to the Letter of the Scripture in Historical Passages especially and not to wire-draw it or extend it more than needs for fear of wresting or of worser consequences that may be drawn from more remote constructions than from the very words Now of Iacob and his Sons it is expresly said First That Iacob sent his ten Sons and no more into Egypt to buy Corn by which it may seem that he had no such number to spare as hath been suggested Or that his Sons were but as the rest by the errand that they went on Secondly When Ioseph returned their monies it was to every man in the mouth of his Sack and being searched upon their second return when they had Benjamin with them the search began from the eldest to the youngest and could proceed no further because it seems they were no more Thirdly Their dealing was for little since so few Asses could carry what they came for and their Sacks not so full but that they could contain Provender besides proving nothing else but that these being laden the poor Ass-Riders must go on foot home Fourthly By Iacob's mean Present and Iudah's fear of losing the Asses when they were taken it seems they were but poor and so when Ioseph returned an answerable Present with Waggons to his Father to bring him into Egypt Fifthly Besides that there maybe no doubt of the number it is carefully recorded how many came with Iacob and were there before viz. seventy souls And so Iosephus Jewish Antiquary doth account and no more Sixthly In fine it would be a strange extravagancy to put so many Supernumeraries of we know not what Aliens unto this account which must needs reckon them to Israel and the Seed of Abraham and so to the only Church of God or else give some other clear account what became of them at the last Secondly Notwithstanding which Objections we must hold That Israel descended into Egypt with more than seventy person by these two Arguments which will be proved by answering the Objections only 1. Because he descended with all his houshold 2. Because he neither could nor ought to part with his circumcised Servants and their Wives and Children CHAP. XXXIV Certain Corollary Rules preliminary to the answering of the first Objection That Jacob sent his Sons to Joseph as a foreign Prince for a favour but not unaccompanied considering 1. Their concern 2. What weight of money they might take with them in so many Bundles if only to lade ten Asses 3. What the length and hazard of the way The four next Objections briefly answered TO the first good Rule these others may be joined as succedaneous Corollaries First That the sense of the Scripture is its own authority more than the Critical position of the words warranted by several Quotations in the New Testament out of the Old Secondly That necessary consequence is all one with the Text it self neither was a good Inference ever sleighted Thirdly That in such Historical Passages of Scriptures as do veil or are invelop'd with a mystery we are in a manner directed to a further indagation by S t Paul where he tells us what else we should have hardly found that one of Abraham's Sons by a Bond-maid and another by a free Woman did by an Allegory exhibit to us the difference of state betwixt Mount Sinai and the New Ierusalem or betwixt the Law and Grace Bondage and Liberty Fourthly That by comparing Passages one Scripture doth best expound another After which Preliminaries I address my self to answer the first Objection thus First It is still to be remembered that it is above two hundred and ten years since Abram armed three hundred and eighteen trained Servants born in his own house to pursue the Kings that had taken Lot Prisoner And if seventy Persons only in two hundred and ten years or thereabouts might become such an incredible number as the possibility hath been demonstrated what may we think of three hundred and eighteen more in the same Family Partakers of the like Blessings so far as their encrease was the encrease of Abraham's wealth and strenght But not to be entangled with too many difficulties to think modesty Iacob could scarce have less than a thousand souls within his Tents Secondly But why then did he send his ten Sons only with their ten Asses to buy Corn for them all Could they bring enough Or did they only bring for Iacob's own Tent and leave the rest to live on Roots or Nuts and Almonds with which it seems by the Present that the Land abounded You must remember Ioseph's Dreams that their sheaves should do obeysance to his sheaf and the Sun and the Moon and the eleven Stars also and then you must consider his present state and the condition of all the Nations thereabouts Ioseph was advanced to be chief Minister of State under Pharaoh and according to his own advice he was appointed to take up the fifth part of the Land of Egypt for seven years together of plenty against seven other to ensue of certain famine according to the interpretation of Pharaoh's Dream And when the famine came in all parts Iacob heard that there was Corn in Egypt for Ioseph had gathered Corn as the sand of the Sea very much until he left numbring for it was without number but not to be had save only from the hands of Pharaoh or his chief Minister and therefore you may know he sent his ten Sons and not his Servants to do their obeysance for Corn But not without Attendance as we may easily collect from divers circumstances as 1. From the Concern that they had 2. From the money that they carried with them 3. From the hazard of the Journey and the length thereof As for their Concern they had every man his own Family and did not always eat in Iacob's presence Nor could they live on Nuts or Almonds any more than the Egyptians on their Fruits who were forced to sell their Lands and their Persons too to Pharaoh that they might have Bread For their money every of the ten carried a Bundle in his Bag Think you that a Bundle of Silver as money went then was but enough to buy one Asses burthen Weigh the Bundle and the burthen and consider For their Journey it could be little less than two hundred miles directly from Hebron unto Caire If they brought but each man an Ass-Load what might they spend by the

way Or what might they have to divide amongst them when they came home Certainly so little that there would have been no end of going or coming whereas by virtue of what they brought they were able to subsist it seems a good while e're Iacob could be prevailed with to venture Benjamin though Simeon lay at stake till their return And for the way it was never to be passed without a lusty Caravan for fear of the Ishmaelites of whose Progenitor it was said That he should be a wild man and that his hand should be against every man and every mans hand against him and the Arabians who wanted Cornespecially And now the Answer is the easier to the second viz. That in the search they went not so much by Pole as by Companies the Heads of which were the Leaders and the Purse-bearers for all the rest of their Retinue And in Benjamin's own Sack as it was designed the prize was found To the third we answer That if there were any Servants at all there might be Asses enough so that the Masters needed not to foot it back or to return home with so slender provision as is imagined And if there were no Servants Ioseph gave his Brothers not a little trouble when he gave them Waggons also without any one man mentioned to assist them It may seem rather by Iudah's fear about the losing of the Asses that they were not a few than that his Father was poor and for Iacob's Present let it be compared with other Presents of the same time nay with Abigail's a long time after when one would think that she should have stretched to pacifie the wrath of David That the seventy are recounted only to keep the Genealogy of the Head● of Israel Wherein the Servants had no share CHAP. XXXV The last Objection answered by shewing That the circumcised Servants were part of Jacob's household that could not be parted withal without loss scandal and prejudice to the Church of God as being 1. Children of the faith of Abraham 2. Graffed into his Seed by intermarriages 3. Distinct in Genealogy 4. Yet possibly some snare unto the Israelites by retaining a smack of their old Idolatry NOW I cannot be unsensible how loth some will be to admit many rude Herdsmen who were still apt to be at debate with their Neighbours into the number of Abraham's Seed the only Church of God lest it should be prophaned by them and prove an interruption to the promise yet I must needs shew them that these were no Aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel but were really constitutive members of that growing Body 1. I think it will not be questioned but that these were part of Iacob's house or houshold who dwelt in the Tents of Iacob and then it is expresly said that Israel took his journey with all that he had And Ioseph said unto his Brethren and unto his Fathers house distinct from them I will go up and say unto Pharaoh My Brethren and my Fathers house which were in the Land of Canaan are come unto me And the men are Shepherds for their trade hath been to feed Cattel and they have brought their Flocks and their Herds more than twelve men could manage and all that they have that ye may dwell in the Land of Goshen which was a fertile Tract about the mouth of the Nile or the tongue of the Red Sea nearest unto Canaan and neglected by the Egyptians For every Shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians Out of superstition say some because they worshipped some fort of Beasts and say others out of niceness because they more affected Towns and Trades And Ioseph placed his Father and his Brethren in the best of the Land in the Land of Rameses as Pharaoh had commanded And he nourished them and all his Fathers houshold with bread according to their Families Which shews that some of the Servants also were of some account and had their own Families enough to people the rest of Goshen So that Ioseph wisely kept them at a distance from the sight of Pharaoh for fear of State-jealousie 2. As these could not be left behind without loss so neither w●s it lawful for Iacob or his Sons to turn them off or abandon them For their Circumcision was an indelible Character so that it would have been a reproach to Israel to have exposed any of his unto the Heathen or to have cast them into temptation of revolting to Idolatry after once they had been joined to the Church by the sign and seal of the righteousness of faith even of the same faith with Abraham in whose Seed all the Nations of the Earth were to be blessed and these in particular as the first-fruits of the Gentiles Children of the faith of Abraham and Heirs of the better part of the promise and not excluded from their lots in the other part neither as we trust to shew hereafter Neither was there need to put off these for any misdemeanour since every Head of an house had power of life and death and other punishments and that without appeal to the Supreme as is manifest in the Case of Iudah and Tamar when it was told Iudah that she was with Child of whoredom saith he Bring her forth and let her be burnt And though specious things are said about the ancient use of Excommunication in the Church yet it seems to me that hitherto and long after there was no cutting off from the people but by death wherefore an Angel met Moses with a drawn Sword and sought to have slain him for his neglect of circumcising of his Child 3. Nor let any one admire at this that follows They became the Children of Abraham by a kind of adoption or insition into the Stock of Abraham by marrying of the Daughters of Israel and so in course of time they became one Kindred with them For who should they give them to besides We cannot give our Sister to one that is uncircumcised said the Sons of Iacob for that were a reproach unto us But if ye will be as we be then will we give our Daughters unto you and take your Daughters unto us and we will dwell with you and we will become one people Trouble not your self about disparagement for they were bene nati well-born who were born in the same house emancipate also tanquam liberi aut liberti by Circumcision and they lived all upon one Stock so that there could not be any want amongst them But the truth is the dignity of Degree and Pedegree went to the prime Descendents male from the Loins of the twelve Patriarchs of Israel which may seem to be the true reason why we find in the Genealogies such an account as this viz. These are the Sons of Ephraim for instance of one after their families of Shuthelah the family of the Shuthalhites of Bacher the family of the Bachrites of Taban the

prayers into the nostrils of God at whose right hand the Mediator was even then also to do the same Offices for his Church and people that he doth now as it is described in the Revelation that he stood at the Altar having a golden Censer and there was given unto him much incense that he should offer it up with the prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar which was before the Throne And the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the Saints ascended up before God out of the Angels hand Say not therefore that the savour of Beasts being burnt could not be sweet of it self any more than that of the sinful prayers of men God smelleth not as men do but though under Moses's order other things were added unto Burnt-offerings that there might be no evil savour possibly in the Temple as to men yet all received another scent with a sweet perfume and odour as it passed through the ministration of the Angel the Mediator of either Testament before it came into the nostrils of his Father Secondly Lumine Prophetiae Whether it were by vision or any other way of Prophetical revelation Adam as a Prophet might have all this and more as no doubt he had from God for else how should the first Church of all have been informed or directed according unto God or godliness We may not therefore suppose Adam little the worse for his Fall as Socinus or as deprived of his natural endowments the Image of God but only of all the extraordinary improvements and comforts that he had before when he had ordinary communion with God So that it is still held in the Schools That Adam was absolutely the wisest of all mortal men not Solomon excepted whose wisdom was Government and that he did not after cease to know those Creatures which he had named in Paradise And as he was the first that received Grace so we may well think that he received it not in the least measure Wherefore since our Saviour doth assure us and yet it is not to be proved out of Moses that Abraham longed to see his day and that he saw it and was glad Most like it might be then when he was about to set his Knife to Isaac's throat and lo a Ram was provided ready for him to offer up instead of Isaac and the Angel from above staid his hand from such a sad issue of obedience and the Angel swore saying By my self have I sworn saith the Lord because thou hast done this thing In blessing I will bless thee And had not Abraham reason to be glad We may doubt no less of Adam at some one time or other when he received this Ordinance of Sacrifice to be continued in their Generations until Shiloh came 2. Then after this they must needs receive and obey this enlightning from above for if we think upon Adam's Case he must needs at first be thunder-struck with the terrible appearance of God calling him to judgment and passing sentence on him For if Moses said which is not to be proved in terminis out of his own Books neither I exceedingly fear and qu●ke when he received the Law in the Mount how much more out first Parents when they hid themselves and made such weak and lamentable excuses being forced to appear for their transgression But what should they do at last Should they rest in despair and in dejection Or should they rather strive and endeavour to rise again Certainly to rise but if so must it not be by a right repentance And was that possible without hope Or such an hope without a ground of faith Or such a faith without a clear evidence to support it And if you say they might repent believe and pray and that that might be enough without Sacrifice I answer That there was never any faith without the Church never any Church without Ordinances whereby a right faith might be supplied and the Object of faith in some measure conveyed unto right Worshippers It is in vain to imagine that they should have some faith and no practice or any right practice without a certain faith before without which it is impossible to please God These therefore put together did constitute a true Church in the persons of Adam and Eve and the Head of the Church two or three till they bred more and a sure Religion unto them and theirs of the nature of which it is that if it be not imposed by another but excogitated only it is no Religion which signifies a bond or tye such an one as a man can●ot lay upon himself and if he do it b●nds not his God to accept it or reward it in the least or so much as to approve of it lest it be a thing incongruous or disagreeable unto himself We cannot therefore imagine any time at all betwixt the Fall and the introducing of some Religion by the benefit of which our first Parents might recover But the So●inians must needs suppose it if the Offering of Sacrifices were indeed the first Religion which they deny not and yet that it hung in suspense till a certain space of excogitation they care not though it be till Cain and Abel were grown unto maturity In the mean while is not this true that they which live without a right Religion do live without God in the World and are in a kind of reprobate estate Which doleful apprehension about our first Parents I have shewed you before how much the Catholick Church abhorreth CHAP. X. The last shift of the Socinians discussed wherein is shewed That Sacrifices neither probably nor morally possibly could be invented by men so as to be approved by God And that they had been unnatural if they had not been ordained towards a mystery Socinus not so pious as Pelagius or Homer IN fine Whereas the Socinians do distinguish betwixt the Laws of Nature that were eternal and immutable and those which excogitating reason might ordain towards the setting up of some conspicuous and idoneous worship to be rendred unto God and affirm that Sacrifices had their original from the latter inasmuch as they were not contrary to the former granting that they were not necessarily implied in the former and say besides that what Abel Noah and Abraham might do in this kind might be indeed by some especial Divine way so that it was not common unto others but only proper to themselves or such excellent men as they they have given us the last hints of Argument to proceed and to conclude on somewhat in the close We have shewed before the vanity of their reasoning à possibili ad necessarium from a thing possible to the certainty of the thing or to the probability either For who ever thought that a thing not repugnant must needs be or be most likely at the least How many instances might be given to expose such a supposition to laughter But

Abraham that which he hath spoken of him And if it be asked further Why what could he see in this day that should make him glad more than the Iews that descended from him who expected nothing more than temporal greatness at the Messiah's coming which seems to be the literal meaning of the promise Let us hear how our profound Bishop Andrews descanteth on it Why should Abraham saith he so desire to see this day two thousand years and more after his own were at an end How was he concerned in it Yes Christ's birth he needed and he had good by it Will ye hear it from his own mouth Thus he setteth down his Case Ecce ego pulvis cinis Lo I am but dust and ashes Dust refers us to Dust thou art and into dust thou shalt return But why Ashes He was not made of these This sure refers to somewhat else Ashes we know come of fire Without it they are not made So that besides death to resolve him into dust he saw a fire to turn him into ashes He saw it in his Vision when the Sun was down and it was Night and a great fear or horrour fell upon him he saw Clibanum fumantem a fiery Furnace Blame him not if after such a Night he desired to see such a Day and was glad when he beheld it Besides it is a vulgar errour which represents the Iews of the ancient times whatsoever the modern think as looking for no other than a King when their Messiah should come for they looked for such a Saviour as should be withal the greatest Prophet that they had ever had Wherefore Iudas Maccabaeus when he had pulled down the Altar that the Heathen had desiled he laid up the Stones by advice until there should come a Prophet to shew what should be done with them And was not this the Question put to Iohn the Baptist Art thou that Prophet or do we expect another And the Woman of Samaria spoke no doubt the sense of Israel when she said I know that Messias cometh which is called Christ when he is come he will tell us all things But however the Iews were mistaken in their day our Saviour himself after his resurrection beginning at Moses and all the Prophets expounded unto his Disciples in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself And the like method did the Apostles use towards all men when they had received the Holy Ghost This especially they studied to clear That they brought in no new faith by Christ. But we believe saith S t Peter that through the grace of the Lord Iesus Christ we shall be saved even as they viz. the Fathers which had born the Yoke of the Law before till they were weary signifying that they were also saved by the same Grace of Christ and not by the Law before it was revealed by the Gospel in a clearer manner We having the same spirit of faith saith Saint Paul by which the Psalmist spoke in the place he citeth And if it be necessary to insist on more Texts they will be apt some of them to fall in with the Reasons which I shall set in order CHAP. XXIII The Church of the Old and New Testament but one Christ made known in all his Offices before his incarnation That he was King and Captain of his people 1 Cor. 10. illustrated That Christ was Mediator also of the first Covenant delivered by Moses THEY amount in effect to these First One Church Secondly One Head and Thirdly The same Operations of the Spirit before and since Which do all prove the unity or sameness of that saving faith which was common unto them and us For the first of these Quis unquam negavit Who ever denied or doubted but that the Saints of the Old Testament made up the same Body of the Catholick Church to which we hope to be joined The general Assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in Heaven and the Spirits of just men made perfect Or who ever questioned but that those were saved by some faith or other equivalent unto ours Wherefore Iesus also took with him Peter Iames and Iohn to be transfigured before them when there appeared also Moses and Elias talking with him that his Apostles might be joined to his Prophets by himself the Mediator not only betwixt God and man but of either Testament For there is but one Body and one Spirit and one Lord and one faith and one hope and one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in us all as S t Paul expresseth it Ephes. 4.4 5 6. For the second Ex sponsione factâ ab antiquo as the Master of the Sentences speaketh by a certain compromise betwixt the Father and the Son our Blessed Lord and Saviour exercised all his Offices of King Priest and Prophet and was so obeyed and believed in according to the measure of revelation before he was incarnate and tanquam in praeludiis as the Fathers took the Phrase from one another he made himself manifest in sundry manners before he came in Person He appeared and communed with many but with Iacob only he vouchsafed to wrestle hand to hand and to name him Israel because he had prevailed with God And Iacob called the place Peniel for I have seen God saith he face to face and my life is saved To exemplify the appearances of Christ in these his Offices apart and severally through divers passages or places of the Old Testament may seem superfluous since they are to be found exerted there in act more than once and sometimes all at once In our Systems of Divinity they serve for better method or clearer illustration of some particular Points or Questions If he guided their Kings they expected another kind of Kingdom if he inspired their Prophets they expected another kind of Prophet when the time should come if they repaired to their Priests according to the Law they knew that they needed another Advocate or Intercessor in many Cases neither were they satisfied with any of their Sacrifices For thou desirest not sacrifice else would I give it Purge me with Hyssop and I shall be clean Create in me a clean heart and Deliver me from bloud-guiltiness that my tongue may sing aloud of thy righteousness c. Neither was this the Notion of so choice a Spirit as David's only but it passed into the Vulgar Doctrine of the Scribes for one of them replyed upon our Lord in these terms Well master thou hast said the truth for there is one God and to love him with all the heart is more than all whole Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices To whom our Lord again Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God Not as if Sacrifices the Ordinances and Sacraments of God could be neglected without which there was no remission of sin but because in Sacrifices there might be