sin CHAP. VI. How the sin of Adam was cause of mens salvation not condemnation Since the death of Christ no mans sin is imputed to another but every own bears his own sin THat question which is commonly disputed concerning original sin is intricate dark and difficult upon presupposition that all men were born of Adam Upon my supposition if God give me leave I will make it so plain and open that we shall never have any difficulty There are some that throw hatred upon God according to the first supposition in saying that his Law was too rigid and cruel in that he imputed that which was done by Adam without the knowledge of men before they had a being to all mankind and in that the punishments for that sin were so heavy that the whole nature of man was over-run with punishments and plagues For by no humane Laws was there ever any successors appointed of others crimes Let Children says Plato not suffer for the wickedness of their Parents It seem'd a cruel and pernicious president to the Senate of Rome to destroy Cassius's children when Cassius the Offender himself was destroyed people who did endeavour to settle such ways of punishment seemed to do things worthy the hatred of men and the anger of the Gods But this seems to exceed all kind of cruelty that after a miserable and tormenting life men should be cast into a burning lake and give their enlivened liver again to be gnawn by worms and there in weeping and gnashing of teeth to die and never die for ever and beyond eternity To which inconveniences that from my supposition I may briefly and clearly answer and stop every mouth speaking irreverently of God It is before sufficiently shown that the imputation of Adams sin added nothing to the nature of man given to corruption which is meerly mystical and is only conceived in spirit therefore as to nature that imputation added no new businesse We must here consider what damage men receiv'd in this according to mystery We must first resolve that the Apostle Paul where he says in the 10 to the Romans That Christ is the end of the Law Meant that Christ was the end of all mysteries both which were commanded by the Law and contained in the books of the Prophets In which signification the Law is very frequent and is taken for the whole Bible Let it be so saith the Lord to St. John refusing to baptize him for thus it becoms us to fulfill all-truth Truth in that place is the mysterie For Christ fulfilled all mysteries which he perfected and accomplished the ends of them Besides mystery is called truth because all mysteries ordain'd by God lead to truth Nor is mysterie an empty name and a bare title or fiction without its reallity and species Yea it accomplishes the chiefest thing of all in that it begets truth salvation and immortality to men which shall be cleared in its own place Christ was the chief end of that mysterie by which the sin of Adam was imputed to men that to them the justice of Christ which is the death of Christ might be imputed You must also take notice that Christ is Jesus who is the Saviour to whom the destroyer is oppos'd and that is Antichrist the destroyer of men Jesus came to save men not to destroy them But as Christ was ordained the end to the salvation of man their were mediums appointed to bring them to that end for the accomplishment of the forementioned salvation The imputation then of the sin of Adam which brought us to that end was the cause of our salvation not our destruction Therefore that dispensation of the divine Law was first of meeknesse and bounty not of wrath and crueltie by which men not knowing and being not yet born had the guilt of Adam imputed to them For the sin of Adam was imputed to them without their knowledge that the justice of Christ might be likewise imputed to them without their knowledge which is the salvation of the Lord Sin begat Justification by the same miracle as darknesse is said to have produced light and death raised up life They are much deceiv'd who think that eternal death ensued that condemnation of death which was decreed upon the sin of Adam For I think it is sufficiently clear'd out of the Apostle Paul to the Romans whom to this purpose I cited in the former chapter that the condemnation was not eternal but bounded with some limits That it was born with Adam and ended with Moses Death reign'd from Adam to Moses says the Apostle For that death followed the fate of sin and of the father of it who begat it The sin of Adam began to reign from the transgression of the Law which I therefore call a legal sin Legal sin liv'd as long as the Law liv'd and when the Law was extinct that was likewise extinguished That legal death reign'd as long as the Law reign'd and behoved to die also when the Law died Eternity also is indefinite Legal death had its certain limits Adam and Moses beyond which it could not remain Therefore that death could not confer an eternity upon men which it self had not What then shall we sin because we are not under the Law and because there is now no condemnation remaining by the Law which may hinder our design of sinning Far be it says the Apostle And that this objection may be quite satisfied I think I shall doe very well to discover the whole mystery in order and what I have spoken apart to set down together and represent it altogether to the view Reason and holy Writ witnesses that all things are corruptible and mortal which are composed of mortal and corruptible matter And that men being made of matter mortal and corruptible by virtue of their mortal and corruptible creation could not ascend up to an incorruptible and immortal God to become themselves immortal and incorruptible God is incorruptible but men from their flesh which is their matter reap corruption Galat. 6. God is immortal The flesh savours of death Rom. 8. God is good it self Goodnesse dwels not in the flesh of man but evil is continually with it Rom. 7. Men that are in the flesh cannot please God For the flesh is enmity to God Is not subject to the Law of God nor can be And a thousand such things we read in the Scripture By which it appears the vitiousnesse of the flesh matter and creation of man ought to be redrest and that men ought to be transformed to new creatures that of evil they might become good of corruptible incorruptible of mortal immortal and possesse the Kingdom of God Which flesh and blood which is corruption cannot possesse Cor. 1. Chapter 15. Men that were to be transform'd and new created behov'd to die as we have shown you before And God decreed that they should all die in his Christ who in forming a humane body and dying for them by proxie might alter
Chanel and easily commanded themselves to be corrupted Little they cared for any right way of living right or wrong good or bad they saw nothing but what pleased their own fancies and gave themselves the Liberty of all manner of sin Men fell through their own wickedness and that I may speak with Jeremiah Chapter 28. They gave free reigns to their own disposition as horses furiously rushing to the battel Men returned for this reason to their own inclination because in the first Creation it being only corrected and amended and the vitiousness of it not quite weeded out in the framing of man and the nature of him it was alwayes in possibility not being quite taken away to return into it self But whatsoever was good in man by the correcting of his faultiness or any perfection which he had by his Creation was quite lost in men being enslaved to their own wills but what was evil in their clay and composition still remained The uprightness of men perished and their sin defaced them being so well created And the fault which was left in their creation and not quite rooted out in the first creation of man was a leven in their hearts more powerfull than their Creation by which they were altogether swelled and depraved Besides those things are stronger which move us inwardly than those things which work upon us outwardly The perfection of the Creation of Men flowed from God and happened to man externally as a thing different nay quite contrary to the flesh and matter of men On the contrary the faultiness of the clay and composition cleaved to them more inwardly as a thing proper and natural to Men. Therefore men returned to their nature because they did according to their own disposition which was shown them from within As also because the faultiness of their inward nature did more strongly move them than the perfection of their creation outwardly conferred upon them yea because the flesh and matter of man was reprobate Earth the Mother of good seed and the Mother of ill weeds The step-mother of all Vertues which God in his creation had sown in the hearts of men and the mother of all Vices which naturally spring in them as in their native soyl and which like watred Herbs grow most plentifully The cursed step-mother hates her Sons-in-Law but like a very loving mother embraces and fosters her Children Hence it happened that nature and the flesh of man refused that tryed and choyce seed of perfection with which they were created and that by the same nature it returned again into it self when it found liberty And that in this regard it was far easier to do evil than good From thence the heart of man was over-run with the briers and thorns of all maner of Vices proceeding from their clay and composition This returning of man from the perfection of their creation to the wickedness of their nature and flesh is that natural sin which we mean whether we may call it natural because it is naturally inherent to us or as St. Paul sayes Because it dwells in us Because there is a Law in the members of men leading men captive to the Law of sin which is in their members Where note the Law of natural sin fixed in the members of men or the natural Law of sin inherent in the flesh and nature of men In which sense it is to be understood 7 Chap. to the Romans Or whether that may be called a natural sin because it was a declination from that nature Law of perfection in which men were created in the beginning For which cause and most properly it might be called a sin That there remains yet some foot-steps of this perfection in the hearts of men yea that men are struck with a natural and tacit conscience of it is manifest because all those who are formed of a better and more perfect mould are naturally more averse from all sin who seem by the sent to hunt and track that perfection to which they perceive themselves created and from which they are fallen by the study of vertue In which sense the Apostle is chiefly to be understood in such places as he sayes Men naturally accuse themselves and are to themselves a Law CHAP. VI. God restor'd men created upright and turn'd backward to the wickedness of their own nature into a better estate by a second creation and lifts them up from men to be Gods Of that which is produc'd and of that which is made Of mutable and immutable Of mortal and immortal Of the Spirit which is in God and of the Spirit of the world BUt God neither despis'd nor relinquish'd men fallen off from their creation and bestain'd with their sins Nor did he so farre suffer them to be restored into the former state of full perfection as they had been perfect men in the beginning but decreed to new create them and advance their perfection above the perfection of men Men were faln headlong from the splendor of their perfection to their filthiness which is also the loathsomness of Beasts God commanded men by a second creation to pass as I may so say from men to Gods to be carried from corruption to incorruption from death to eternal life And which was the chief blessing of God to man he commanded them of wicked evil and bemyred creatures to be exalted to the perfection of his holiness and glory to which they should as with a fiery Chariot be carried by the Spirit of Regeneration Nay if we rightly weigh the councel and decree of God we shall find it his second intention to create men mortal and corruptible but his first to create them incorruptible and immortal Creation was a thing divine Regeneration was a thing more excellent and divine according to that distance of proportion by which incorruptible is preferrible to corruptible and immortal preferrible to mortal But that I may rehearse from the beginning all the business as it concerns Christian doctrine we must know that two things occur in the creation and framing things worthy observation which are not demonstrated by their causes but are aym'd at in the Scriptures and appear by their effects One which immediately flow'd from God another created by God but mediatly One produc'd another made One spiritual another animal material carnal and corporeal One permanent stable eternal another mutable subject to vanity One incorruptible which purifies another corruptible which pollutes One which favours of life another which savours of death One which is able to endure that celestial Lightning with which God thunders and which shines in his sight like gold in the fire another which God consumes with his splendor and which melting at his rayes departs into froth smoak and ashes One thing which God loves another which he disdains One which he chuses another which he rejects One which St. Paul Cor. 1. chap. 2. calls The Spirit which is of God another which the same Apostle calls in that
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
Israel is placed in the third place betwixt the Egyptians the Assyrians as also that he is a blessing in the midst of the earth that Holy earth which God is said here to have blessed Therfore we may here see the Egyptian and Assyrian placed on this side and that side according to the number of the Sons of Israel and placed neer the banks of the Tribes of the Jews That the Sons of Adam or the Jews were separated from the Egyptians and the Assyrians betwixt whom being placed they are parted from them by the Rivers Nilus and Euphraies is briefly set down in that Geographick Table which is inserted in the third Chapter of this Book Therefore the Sons of Adam are set apart in the Song of Moses The Nations divided by interposition of the Jews are the Egyptians and Assyrians Gentileâ— The Jews are called the sons of Adam upon the same account as Adam is called the father of the Jews Isaiah 43. God reproâ—ing Israel in that Chapter for their sin objects this to him Thy father sinned first Which the Prophet meant of the father of the Jews and not of the Gentiles for he spake onely to Israel and for that reason he said Thy father O Israel who was not likewise the father of the Gentiles that first father of the Jews is without doubt Adam because there was no sinner before him nor none after him can be understood But let us hear Hosea the Interpreter of Isaiah in the sixth Chapter of his Prophesie where God layes the same reproach against the Jews They sayes he have transgressed my Covenant as Adam did Adam then as he was the Father of the Jews so was he the Prototype of the Jews sin according to whose example the Jews were sinners begotten a sinful by father transgressed the Covenant of God and as Adam is the first Father of the Jews so the Jews are all the sons of Adam as likewise Adam was the son of God and derived from God Wo be to the Nations that riseth up against my kinred Judah sung when he had overcome the Nations Wo be to the Gentiles who rise up against the Jews On the contrary The Gentiles were called strangers who did not derive themselves from God and Adam to which strangers and Gentiles it was not lawful for the Jews to approach Act. 10. It is abominable to a Jew to be joynedor draw nigh to a stranger that is to a Gentile besides they were called by the Jews strangers unknown because they were aliens not onely from the Nation but family of the Jews nor were not onely received as brothers into the Holy Cities Ephes 7. The sons of strangers shall build the walls Isaiah 60. and in the 61 Chap. And strangers shall stand up and feed their cattel and the sons of strangers shall be labourers and dressers of vines Which ought to be understood of the servants of the Iews or their hirelings to which adde six hundred such which you may every where finde in holy Writers But not onely by kinred and exposition of kinred did God distinguish the Iews from the Gentiles but would have them different in the species it self He chused it for his inheritance the kinred of Iacob whom he loved Psalm 47. Where observe that the kin of the Iews is distinguished from the kin of the Gentiles whom God did neither love nor chuse for his inheritance Certainly the Philosophers make the brures a distinct species from men and with the holy Writers the species of the Iews is distinct from that of the Gentiles whom you shall every where read confusely mentioned with beasts and esteemed beasts in regard of the Iews who by excellency are called men or by a more excellent title are called the men of God You shall finde the species of the Iews peculiarly made and formed by God in Adam you shall finde the species of the Gentiles promiscuously created with the rest of the creatures in the same day of Creation which is diligently to be observed that a day did not distinguish them whom the nature of their Creation did not distinguish The Iews were properly and apart from all other things created the frame and work of the second Creation in Adam the Gentiles properly were the promiscuous buds of the first Creation together with all things else created and the off-spring of that earth which likewise brought forth other creatures Therefore did David call upon all Nations in these words Hear all you Natious hearken all you inhabitants of the earth and ye sons of men David spoke palpable to the Gentiles sons of men the Inhabitants of all the earth whom he likewise calls born upon the earth to distinguish them from the Jews who were not born upon the earth or born from the earth as the Gentiles who were not created in the beginning of things but form'd out of the clay in Adam Furthermore the Psalmist comparing here the Gentiles to foolish beasts sayes They were made like to them who like beasts were allotted to death to eternal death from which they should not return to life their graves are their houses for ever sayes the Psalm as also in the same place they shall not see light for ever likewise David distinguishes the Jews from them in the same Psalm in which he exhorts them not to fear those beasts born upon the earth who should sometime be governed by the Jews The just shall have power over them in the morning the just are the Jews of whom we spoke before that power of the Jews upon the Nations as also that morning shall be expounded in their own places This Psalm has given us a reason why the Iews ought not to fear these earth-born Gentiles of the first Creation in the words following immediately Their help shall grow old in the grave from their glory but God shall redeem my soul from hell David mixes his soul with the souls of the Iews none of the Gentiles sayes he shall redeem his soul God shall redeem the souls of the Iews when he shall receive the Iews or at such time as he shall receive the ejected Iews the Gentiles shall rise to eternal death or which is the same they shall die eternally by the fate of their Creation the Iews shall rise again to eternal life or which is the same they shall live eternally by the prerogative of their regeneration Therefore let the Jews who shall receive eternal life little regard the Gentiles destind to eternal death So farre were the Gentiles different in relation and kindred from the Jews as those divers species of creatures in unknown Countries are from those which we know so likewise were there more Nations unknown to the Jews than were known that is to say in those Countries which the Jews knew not Nor were these Nations only unknown to the Jews but likewise to their Fathers I say to their Fathers who were deriv'd from Adam Which God having a regard to threatens the Jews
head yet he was not punish'd as the head for his sin For if all sin and wickedness all feavers and plagues and eternal death it self as it is believ'd enterd into the world and pass'd upon all men Why was not Adam readiest to sin amongst all men being the head and cause of all sins by reason of his transgression Why was not he seized himself with troops and companies of all manner of plagues and fevers And why was not that author of eternal death himself given to eternal death Yea why did Adam if we will except his single transgression become famous for no other sin Yea why did he enjoy his health so well Why enjoyd he a long life nine hundred and thirty years Why has none of the Divines sent him to Hell that amongst the torments of the wicked and the damned he might be punisht with eternal death But if on the contrary no man was ever partaker or conscious with Adam of Adams sin yea if all men were purer from that sin then Children are free from sin as being not born when Adam dam sinn'd What was the reason thar men should become more wicked by that sin than Adam himself For it is certain that a great many men have been thought more famous for the sin of Adam then Adam himself were sore handled their life short and sickly and at last thrown down to hell there to die an eternal death This darkness from my supposition I will make as clear as day if we consider the sin of Adam either against the Law which was a legal sin or by default of his Nature subject to corruption which is a natural sin If we consider Adam sining by a legal sin or against the Law which is the same thing we shall conceive him not only as to himself but also in regard of all men and to all mankind whom he did represent by force and virtue of which representation he deserved the imputation of that sin to himself and all Mankind For as an Ambassadour who yeilds up a people to a conquering Prince in the name of his Country does not only bind in his rendition himself but all the people of the City whom the Ambassadour represents So Adam in regard that he did represent all mankind did not only bind himself but all mankind to the decree which went out against his sin and made them and himself partakers of the same sin And as in the businesse of rendition which the Ambassadour does in the behalf of his Country all are equally obliged to the Laws of it as well the Ambassadour as all men of the Country Just so in the businesse of Adams sin all mankind did equally fall into the imputation And as this rendition according to the School men is neither lesse nor more in one than another nor of all those that are yeilded none is more engaged to it than another Iust so the imputation of the sin of Adam admits not of a more or a lesse nor can the sin of Adam be thought to be imputed more or lesse to any man that ever was or is or shall be And Lucans expression might be very fit in this case It stains and equals all Yea Adam and all men that ever were made or shall be have suffered alike for that sin for all have equally endured the condemnation of death decreed against that sin and all those men were thought to be dead alike according to that legal spiritual and mystical death which ensued upon that legal spiritual and mystical sin If we consider Adam sinning in the default of his Nature given to corruption which is natural sin then we shall conceive him in regard of himself not in regard of all men And in that regard the more that Adam sinn'd to himself in that natural sin he gain'd himself more natural evil and punishment and so had fall'n into more grievous diseases And indeed because natural sin is receptive of more or lesse according to mans nature more or lesse corrupt as likewise all natural punishments admit of more or lesse and all natural evils which ensue upon that natural sin And as Adam beyond all other men was of a lesse corrupt nature by the prerogative of his creation which he had from God himself so sinn'd he lesse than other men in natural sin And was lesse punished for his natural sin and suffered fewer evils than other men suffered yea fewer than they for the self same sin now suffer Let us examine this businesse on the right ballance of reason that it may appear beyond all controversie that the sins of all men and all those evils and plagues which punish men and their eternal death which hinders them from eternal life to have flow'd from the fault of their own nature inherent to them and not from the sin of Adam Whence I pray that thirst of blood by which one man is a wild beast to another one man kills another is it not from black choler with which mans liver swells whence all those incestuous marriages contrary to Law whence unlawfull venerie and those wild lusts by which men run upon beasts rashly not from perverse and corrupt lust which is the itch of perverse and corrupt nature whence rapine and theft whence war and strife amongst you says St. James in his 4 Chapter of his Epistle are they not from your lusts And hence we chiefly gather that such vices are altogether tyed and addicted to the substance of men since the same substance is to men and beast and men and beast have the same vices Hence it is they call murtherers cruel persons Tigers Bears Lions Lustfull persons Goats Backbiters Dogs Thieves Kites and Eagles tallons Belly-gods hogs c. Because we believe that the sin of Adam was imputed to beasts and engendred such vices also in them Whence is it likewise that men have their health so that they are girt with the spleen as with a girdle whence have they the Kings evil whence bleer'd eyes their guts ake the roots of their hearts are perished whence have they these continual uncertain or Periodical Fevers whence so many sorts of the Gout and either the stone or gravel in the Kidneys which occasions a strangurie and other several sorts of diseases by which mens bodies are tormented are they not from the ill dispositions of mens bodies which are higher or lesse grievous in humane bodies as the badnesse of their affections is either lightned or remitted But certainly varieties of sins or health which make men either ill or diseased do plainly shew that all this vitiousness springs from our nature and from the substance of men which as it is diversly affected to divers by either lesse or more it is corrupted and troubled Neither could the legal sin of Adam ever bring any such thing to passe For it is but one and not vicious and passed not upon men either more intense or more remiss but made all men alike guilty and had made all
certainly Therefore we must understand the Serpent to have crept in two senses before sin and after sin that he crept before sin naturally by the nature of his creation that he crept after sin according to the decree of God and by that condemnation which was onely in spirit So may we understand Adam to have dyed two manner of ways Naturally that he dyed naturally according to the first intention of his making before the Law Legally and after a spiritual manner after the Law by that decree and Law of condemnation which is spiritually conceiv'd Therefore we shall think that there is a twofold death in all men as we conceive to be in Adam Natural which happens naturally to all men by their own imbred nature which is corruptible and mortal A Legal one which smote all men that minute mystically when it was decreed against Adam A natural death by which men dyed naturally before the Law a Legal death which passed spiritually upon them after the Law by transgression of the Law A natural death which followed mans natural sin a Legal death caused by the legal sin of men from the sin of Adam A mystical cause of a mystical effect which onely by way of spirit and mystery is conceivable And truly as the Law of creeping ordain'd against Serpents in the Law of Adam did adde nothing to the reptile nature of Serpents but a condemnation meerly spiritual so the Law of death added nothing to the mortal nature of men except that condemnation of death which in thought and mystery is only conceiv'd Remember says David Psal 89. what is my substance And a little after What man is he that liveth and shall not see death which the Kingly Prophet understood of natural death the causes of which he ascrib'd to the substance and matter of men not to the sin of Adam adde to this what St. Paul hath written Rom. 8. Flesh savours of death and in the 6 Chap. of the same Epistle The wages of sin is death In which he meant natural sin and natural death because natural death is incorporate with natural sin being the sauce of which the flesh rellishes which is the nature and matter of sin Moreover by this distinction of natural and legal sin and natural and legal death easily appears the interpretation of that place of Numbers Chap. 27. where the daughters of Zelopheâ—ad speak unto Moses Our Father dyed in the desert and was not in that sedition which was stirred up against the Lord by Core but died in hâ—s sin They say that their father was dead not in that Judgement wherein Core was swallowed up who rebelled against the Lord but by the sin and fault of his nature which is the seed of sin and corruption and by that fate of nature by which death is the last period of all things subject to corruption They doe not say that he was swallowed up in that just Judgement wherein the lowest earth opened to swallow up those Conspirators but that he dyed a single death in the desert by that same natural Law by which all men owe themselves to death and by which simple natural death abides natural sin CHAP. IV. Men were in the beginning created according to the Image of God and very good Of the Image of God in the first creation Of the Image of God in the second creation Men were created upright in the beginning but of vâ—tious matter which could easily return to its own disposition IT seems not to agree with that which is set down in the 1 of Genesis That I said the Creation of man was evill and corrupt For there it 's said that God did create man according to his own Image and that all things which God created were very good whence Interpreters conclude and rightly that man being created according to Gods own Image was created perfect and upright And if all that God created was very good that man then who was the most excellent of the Creatures was exceeding good To this that I may answer I would first have it granted that the impression of Gods Image in the first creation is different from that in the second creation God expressed in the first Creation that first Image and copie of his wonderful art by which he made the World and all that therein is and by excellent wisdom compos'd and ponder'd them In his renewing which is the second creation God express'd the Image of his own nature wherein he communicated his love and bounty to the Wor'd God in his first creation shewed the out-side of his work but in the second he opened the bowels of his love The first creation expressed the Image of God which we may call the exterior the second creation presents us with the internal Image of God There was nothing besides which God did not communicate in the Image of that plat-form and of his admirable art which he exppress'd in all things which he created But he did not make all things partake of that Image of his nature loâ—e and bounty which be most worthily shewin men when he did regenerate or when he went about to regenerate them Furthermore whatsoever material or corporeal things ar created by the law of their own nature they ar created corruptible and mortal but whatsoever out of things corruptible and material are created a new by the Law of that second creation become incorruptible and immortal To say nothing of other material and corporeal things it is certain that men in the beginning were created according to the Image of God that Image of their Creator which we may call the Image of creation yea they were created according to such an Image of creation which above all other Images of creation is the most excellent amongst all the frames of the creatures which more expresly and more highly represented the Creator But we must confess that men were created at first according to the exteriour Image of God which is called nighest to God at a greater distance in comparison to the Image of the second creation It is true that men were created in the beginning perfect right and excellently good in as farr as men by force and vertue of their creation could be created perfect right and excellently good But no man ought to be ignorant that men were created from the beginning of corruptible matter which might easily be turn'd from perfect to imperfect from right to wrong from good to evil which the men which were first created did evidence by a strong and approved example since the nature of their composition and their own negligence carried them being upright made so far aside Therefore so often as I think of this That men being created according to the Image of God the Creator and according to the Image of the first plat-form perfect right and very good by a fault in them ingrafted by nature did degenerare from righteousness to wickedness from good to evil So often I fancy a Watch newly
Divines think that this darknesse was spred over the face of all the earth Because all the Evangelists agree with one consent that they were upon the whole earth Which notwithstanding the better Interpreters have translated upon all the Land of the Jews according to the Hebrews say they which for the earth mean Palestine Nor was the miracle without a mysterie for there had been a time when dark night covered all the Land of Egypt at the command of Moses but all the Israelites had light in their dwellings Now was the day come at the death of Christ when the light of the Gospel should appear to the Gentiles and all the Land of the Jews and the Jews themselves should be o'r-cast with the darknesse of incredulity Here let us speak of the Star which appear'd to the wise men on the Nativity of our Lord which it is common and ordinary to place in heaven amongst the rest of the Stars which that it never was nor ever could be is made appear thus All other men on the earth had seen it as well as the wise men Herod had seen it among the rest being troubled at this report whom this appearance did more especially concern But Herod neither saw it nor could see it for calling the wise men privately sayes the Evangelist he enquired of them what time the star did appear Therefore it is clear it was neither a Star in heaven nor visible to all as is commonly believ'd but that Star that fire did only shine to the wise men that by the guiding of it they might arrive at Bethlehem and which those wise men did follow as a torch that they might worship the King of the Jews nor did it appear to Herod nor any of the rest Such was that fierie army sent to the help of Elisha from heaven whom the Prophet saw and yet his Servant that stood by him could not see such another miracle though different in the species of it for one man did not see those fires innumerable which Elisha saw The three wise men saw one Star which a great many men could not see It appears out of the Gospel it self that that Star was not fix'd in heaven from these words Behold a star went before them and stood above the place where the child was But if that Star had bin in heaven how could it stand above the place where the child was or how could the wise men draw a perpendicular line from the point of that Star upon the house The wiâ—e men might have discern'd to what Countrey that region of the heaven where in that Star was did answer But to know that small place that manger in which the child lay could not be done by seeing by any count or wit of man Therefore it is certain that Star or that light or fire as I may call it as it is written in the 8. of the Apocalyps It fell from heaven burning like a lamp I say it is certain that lamp from heaven which lighted the Magi was sent from heaven for their particular use after which the Magi should walk and which standing still above the place where the Child lay they should likewise stand still and adore that Jesus Christ whom they sought for Such was that cloud like a white one in the day-time and fierie in the night which no man will say was an apparition in the whole Hemisphaere for it was particularly over the Jews camp and particularly covered the holy Tabernacle They marched according to the particular motion of that cloud and stood still when it stood still as we must likewise believe the wise men did with their Star As also if that Star had been fix'd in heaven it had gon before others also who journeyed from the East to the West which is not written yea only that it went before the Magi. It would likewise have run according to the account and course of other Stars which are about the Tropick from the East to the West But who could have followed it with like swiftnesse Lastly if this Star had been placed in sight all famous Historians would have spoken of it who wrote the memorable things of their own times and ages which none did Therefore it is sufficiently prov'd that most thought not the wisest Interpreters erre who think that that Star appear'd to all men in heaven which appear'd indeed to the wise men onely onely to three men as is written They erre I say because they understand that generally of a Star which ought to be particularly understood of a light or a burning flame CHAP. IV. In the miracle of Ezechiahs sicknesse the Sunne went not back in heaven but in the Dyal of Achaz THat which I shall speak of the miracle which God did in curing Ezechiah being sick is lesse common of greater concernment as it is in the Kings Book 2. Chap. 2. The Prophet Esay being to give Ezechiah a sign that he should be whole and go into the Temple of the Lord calls upon the Lord. And God brought back the shadow by those lines that it had gone down in the Dyal of Achaz back ten degrees Which is written in Esay ch 3â— in these words Behold I will make the shadow of the lines by which it is gone down in the Dyal of Achaz to return in the Sun And the Sun returned ten lines by the degrees that it had gone down In this miracle it is received as current that the Sun went back in the heaven For the miracle which was only in the Dyal of Achaz is put in the Sun and the heaven and because the shadow is brought back in the Dyal the Sun must needs go back in Heaven nor could God make a miracle in the Dyal of Achaz but with a violent motion he must turn the whole heaven and disturb the most general frame This is to fool one with that fine sport as if one would cause remove the chimney and the fire from him that he might not be burnt rather let him goe back himself and let the fire stand still lest the house be undermined by the removing of the chimney Let the miracle be plac'd in the Dyal as is the meaning of the Scripture and then the miracle will be in its own place Nature will stand in its own frame and mens intellects will not be fool'd with vain jugglings For good God what a mistake is this that has befool'd a great many wise men that they believed that the Sun had gone back If the Sun went back either he went back in the Zodiack or that degree of the Ecliptick standing still which he was running that day the primum mobile came backward and with the primum mobile all the rest of the Sphaeres amongst which the Sun was likewise turn'd back If we say that he went back only in the Zodiack and a tenth part of the Zodiack according to the proportion he is said to have gone back in the Dyal of Achaz the Sun must
needs return through a great many signs of the Zodiack and return pass'd moneths yea seasons of the year which were past in the minute of one hour which were an horrid confusion and absurdity But how much are they gone backward not to say from truth or from any probable conjecture who think that the whole heavens went back that the shadow of the Dyal might goe back That were to disturb all nature to make a difference in the tenour and order of all things to confuse the rising and setting of stars to destroy all Ephemerides and Astronomical tables and to make a confusion in all Astronomy But who ever heard of any such confusion who ever heard of this back supersant for the memory of things which past in the days of Ezechiah is yet extant among the Gentiles But why should there be a greater miracle in the sicknesse of Ezechiah than in the death of the Lord. There was darknesse only about Jerusalem in the death of the Lord and should the Sun shine longer to the world in the sicknesse of Ezechiah Christ died Ezechiah was only sick Christ in his death was perfecting the redemption of the World Ezechiahs sicknesse only concern'd himself and his people How ill such compariâ—ons shew let the miracle be placed in the Dyal not in heaven and all things will be very agreeable with that Dyal for the life of man is very well compared to a shadow yea to the shadow of a Dyal The last period of a mans life and of his Dyal is called the last hour Again the life of the King is well compared to a Kingly Dyal The shadow went back which was descending in the Dyal which Achaz had made The life of Ezechâ—ah who was dying whom Achaz had begotten went backward likewise nor could Ezechias have any more convenient sign of his recovery than this miracle which therefore was given as a particular sign to Ezechias Chron. 2. chap. 32. Ezechias was sick unto death and God gave him a sign he gave it to him not to all And this sign was seen in the land of Iudah not in all lands which is to be observed is proved by the same place of the Chron. That their was Ambassadors sent from Babilon who came to enquire of the sign which had happened not in the heaven which take notice of but upon the earth meaning the land of Iudah Nor had the Babilonians needed to have enquired of the Iews concerning the miracle if it had happened in Babilon or if the Sun had gone back in the Firmament for they themselves had seen it Therefore this miracle must be reduced to the Dyal of Achaz yea the holy Scripture expresly meaned so and directly sets it down in both places of Esay and of the Kings if the words of both places be well weigh'd as is fit The words in Kings are these The Lord brought back the shadow by the lines by which it had gone down in the Dyal of Achaz Observe here that the miracle is expresly signified in the Dyal of Achaz The words of Isay are And the Sun returned ten lines by the degrees it had gone downe In these places the bringing back of the shadow and the Sun are the same because the shadow could not return unlesse the Sun returned nor the Sun return but the shadow must return And that is it which Esay says in the words immediatly before Behold I will make the shadow of the lines return by which it is gone down in the dyal of Achaz in the Sun or with the Sun which is the same The Sun is not there taken for the Sun it self but for the light which it throws upon any superfice whereon it shines which it throws upon all dyals and such a one as you may believe it cast upon the dyal of Achaz Moreover those lines of which the Kings and Isaiah here speak were drawn out upon the dyal of Achaz according to the shadow of the Gnomon which according to art is plac'd in the middle of the dyal There were twelve chief ones of these marked upon the dyal to shew so many degrees or hours of the dyal whilst the shadow of the Gnomon in the mean time over-running the whole superfice of the dyal cast out a great many other lines by which it design'd the smallest minute of every one of these degrees and hours But these lines are hâ—re promiscuously call'd the shadow and the Sun because they are really set down and composed in all dyals by the Sun and shadow without prejudice to the principles of Geometry who define their lines pure not compounded longitudes Nor can I call those precisely shadows or precisely the Sun but rather the extremities or individual distinctions of the Sun and shadow for in them the last part of the Sun is the first of the shadow but the last of the shadow is not the first of the Sun But what Mathematician ever imagined such lines in the heaven if the words of the Kings and Esay are taken here for the Sun it self and the light it cast upon the dyal of Achaz Take notice that Esay here calls that indifferently the shadow and the Sun which the Kings simply in that place calls the shadow never the Sun Wilt thou have the shadow to ascend ten lines or go down ten lines And Ezechiah said It is easie for the shadow to grow ten lines let it not be so but let it go back ten lines And Isaiah call'd upon the the Lord and he brought back the shadow ten lines by which it had gone down in the dyal of Achaz It seems all this miracle was within the compasse of the dyal of Achaz For Ezechiah said It was easie to make the shadow to come forward Not that it was indeed so easie for a shadow to come forward ten degrees in a minute which could not be done but in ten hours but because it seem'd more easie for a shadow to goe forward than to turn backward he requir'd that which seem'd harder and a greater miracle that it might run back ten lines Certainly the force of this miracle was altogether in the dyal of Achaz according to the intention of sick Ezechiah and according to his Prayer For Isa had ask'd him Wilt thou that it go forward or turn backward Let it turn backward says Ezechiah and the shadow of the dyal was brought back According to the intention of Ezechiah and the Prayers of Isaiah there was herâ— nothing to do with the turning back of the Sun in heaven but the turning back of the shadow upon the dyal and the miracle according to the will of the King and prayers of the Prophet was perform'd really not in the heaven but in the dyal Nor had it been a miracle that the shadow was turn'd back in the dyal if the Sun had turn'd back in heaven for the shadow follows the motion of the Sun in the dyal not bâ— miracle but by nature And it is certain too that
water 's nigh That is 〈◊〉 suffers thirst God could indeed by his miracle in which he is wonderfully powerfull have done all that that the Jews should not be hungry nor dry nor their clothes be worn nor their shoes be spent And there haâ—â—â—en need of these miracles if they had had no wool nor no leather but they wanted none of these things nor was any such miracle needfull Yea this miracle would rather have manifestly evidenced the want of clothes and shoes if for want of clothes and shoes and by the virtue of that miracle they had always put on the same clothes and the same shoes which could never wear out On the other side it shew'd the abundance of clothes and shoes which they had because neither their clothes nor shoes grew old because they chang'd both so often And ascribe this to the providence and care of the Lord by which all things which were necessary for the Jews were provided for them because he led them sometimes through pleasant and plentifull places from whose Inhabitants Deut. 2. and elsewhere They bought mâ—at for money and did eat and bought water for money and did drink for which the Israelites were beholding to the Edomites and Moabites And when Sehon forbad them this privilege they smote him with all his people and all his Cities and took the prey and spoil of his Towns Deuteronomie Chap. 2. And in the third Chapter they destroyed Og the King of Basan And that time they took the land from the Amorites which is beyond Jordan Moses himself would have said On this side Jordan which observe And that amongst the prey and spoils of these two Kings there were garments and shooes found and more than enough of materials to make both clothes and shooes This you may imagin also of the Amalekites oververcom by the Jews Exodus Chap. 17. before the Law given in Sinai To this you may add that the Jews for many years compassed Mount Seir inhabited by the Edomites from whom they bought victuals and water which I made now appear and from whose Cities they had clothes and shooes at a price CHAP. VII That the Flood of Noah was not upon the whole earth but only upon the Land of the Jews Not to destroy all men but only the Jews GIve us leave to discusse this last miracle of the flood of Noah which is believ'd to have overflow'd the kingdoms of the earth with most mighty overflowings and which I rather believe overflow'd only Palestine and the Land of the Jews The causes of this conjecture are chiefly the causes of the Deluge which here I shall mention from their beginnings I show'd you before that the Jews were framed in Adam and esteem'd the peculiar sons of God that they were separated from all other Nations which God had created in the beginning And that those Nations were call'd the sons of men in many places of holy writ I have set forth at large The Lord likewise set the Jews apart from all Nations when he plac'd them in his holy Land as in a fenced garden whither it should not be granted to other Nations to come God then had forbidden the Jews to make any mixture with other Nations Chiefly he suffer'd them not to defile their sons with the daughters of men Against the command of God the Jews had admitted the Gentiles into their land Who sayes Genesis when they began to multiply upon the earth the sons of God seeing the daughters of men that they were fair or which is the same the sons of Adam who were after called Jews seeing the daughters of the Gentiles took to themselves wives of all which they chose and by that copulation Giants were begotten For the Jews being made strong and lively by Gods late framing of them and going in to the daughters of men as strong men are begot by strong and divine seed mix'd with humane begets Heroes the sons of God lying with the daughters of men begat Heroes valiant men as they are set down in that same place by valiant and famous men in their age It repented God being angry at the wickednesse of the Jews that he had made men and wrought the clay of which he fram'd Adam of whom the Jews were born an earthie and corrupt generation of men The cogitation of whose heart was bent upon evil continually at all times that is from their first beginning both in Adam their Father who had transgressed the commandement of God and in themselves who had likewise broken the covenant of God I will cut off saith the Lord in that place man whom I have created from the face of the earth from the man to the beast from the creeping thing to the fowl of the heaven for I repent my self that I have made them Here take notice that by earth we understand Palestine according to the Hebrew who by earth simply express'd mean their own As I observ'd of the darknesse before in the death of the Lord. God then had decreed to destroy man whom he had created from the face of the earth By the man whom he had created understand the Jews the posterity of Adam I say of that Adam whom he had created or fram'd for creation and framing here is the same By living creatures understand also the Gentiles mingled amongst the Jews and causes of the sins of the Jews according to what I formerly set down at large where I made it appear that the Jews are simply call'd men in comparison of the Gentiles that the Gentiles on the other side compar'd to the Jews were call'd beasts and a people which was not a people in holy Scripture And such was Gods anger that he resolved not only to destroy all those Jews and Gentiles but all the men of that Land and all the cattel of it from the creeping things to the birds of the air except only Noe the Jew who according to Gods command fram'd an Ark to escape the violence of the Deluge The treasures of the great depth were opened sayes Genesis and the windows of heaven were opened and it rained upon the earth forty dayes and forty nights And there was a deluge upon the earth and the waters were multiplyed and they lifted up the Ark high from the earth for they increas'd exceedingly and fill'd all things upon the face of the earth And the waters preval'd exceedingly upon the earth And all the high hils were cover'd under the whole heaven The water was fifteen cubits above the mountaines which it had cover'd And all flesh upon the earth was destroyed birds living creatures and beasts and all creeping things All men and all things wherein is the breath of life died And he destroyed all things that was upon the earth from the man to the beast as well creeping things as fowls of the heaven and they were cut off from the earth Only Noe remained and those that were with him in the Ark. All which Genesis prophetically expressing and opening
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.
Deut. 28. The Lord shall lead thee and thy King to a Nation whom thou and thy fathers knew not He says thy Fathers indeterminately in which are comprehended Adam himself the first Father and clay of the Jews Therefore all Nations were not known by Adam and the posterity of Adam the Fathers of the Jews according to Moses himself yea were utterly unknown But men are not ignorant of their own Off-spring Nor had these Nations been unknown to the Jews if they had been deriv'd from them or their fathers But these Nations unknown to the Jews and their ancestors were probably those of America the Southern and the Greenlanders and the rest to which neither the Jew nor the rest of the Gentiles as yet had accesse To this adde what is written concerning the King of the Jews Psalm 18. A people whom I know not shall serve me and expound and conjecture in this Psalm as in Deuteronomy And that by a most indubitable truth I may clear it that the Gentiles were different in kinred and their first original from the Jews take good heed to that which God says to Abraham at which time he enjoyns circumcision to him and all his house Gen. 27. says he The servant born in thy house and bought with thy money shall be circumcised and whatsoever of your own linage that is to say whatsoever is not of the stock of Adam who was the stock of Abraham The strangers were sprung from another stock then either Adams or Abrahams Nor will it be an ill supposition to take here for the linage of Abraham Abraham himself as he is taken for the father and the Jews with a regard to the promises made to Abraham the first of all the Jews in which sense he is called the first and the linage of the Iews the first Chapter of Matthew which is the genealogie of Christ And that thou maist know grant thy self that the linage of Abraham in this place is to be recall'd to Adam the father of Abraham read what is written in the end of that 17 Chap. of Genesis And all the men of that house as well born at home as bought with money and strangers were circumcised Abram then had domesticks his own Country people and those which were born in his house that is to say of of the same stock of Adam as he was born as also those that were bought who were of another stock and linage different from that of Abraham and who had not their original from Adam the stock of Abraham or which is the same with Adamits whom notwithstanding Abraham is said to have circumcised as if they had been Adamits and of the stock of Abraham The stock and originals of all Nations is confus'd and unknown for this reason because those created from an unknown beginning and innumerable ages ago upon all the earth propagation still increasing by which they were throng'd one upon another as likewise by manifold conjunction in which they were mingled one among another destroyed and confused the knowledge of their first beginnings But no such thing happened to the Jews For their proper and certain original and stock is in Adam from a beginning very well known and not very far distant and deriv'd by a continual line to these days by a line as yet different from the Gentiles We have Josephus a Jew himself and a most acute Writer of the affaires of the Jews witnesse of this truth where against Appion he asserts the proper original of his own Nation which he there calls a conjunction and which in his Jewish antiquities he likewise derives from Adam The Gentiles who according to my supposition were originally created in all the earth are call'd almost every where sons of men because they had their stocks and originals not from one man but innumerable fathers of the first creation But the son of man simply so called was a Jew who is likewise called the son of Adam and the son of Isch that is to say the son of Adam the first father of the Jews and only author of that Nation who is called Isch a man by way of eminence and his Wise called Ischa Gen. 2. The common opinion is that the Gentiles sprung from the Jews which fell over to the Gentiles as for example That some sprung from Cain who dishinherited himself from the sons of Cham whom Noe cursed from the sons of Ismael the Bastard of the sons of wicked Esau but every one ought to know those sort of Jews were never accounted Strangers and Gentiles but Jews and brethren of the Jews of which Moses is an eminent witnesse where he speakes of those that were fit to be denizen'd amongst the Iews Thou shalt not sayes he loath the Edomite because he is thy brother Nor the Egyptian because thou wast a stranger in his land Here observe that the Edomites having lost their liberty by falling off from the sons of Adam are again restored as brethren of the Jews and of the same descent And the Egyptians admitted as fellow citizens who had been their entertainers as strangers being of the stock of the Gentiles Moses likewise understood the Edomites to be the brethren of the Jews when he sent Messengers to Edam to tell them Thus saith thy brother Israel Numb Chap. 20. The Ismaelites are also reckon'd amongst the brethren of the Jews as they are the seed of Abraham Gen. 21. I will make the son of thy handmaid a great Nation because he is thy seed You may say the same of the Moabiteâ— and Ammonites the seed of Lot being sprung of the same seed Thare the father of Abraham and imagin the same of the sons of Cain and Cham who departed and were strangers from the Iews as being notwithstanding of the same stock All the Jews are called brethren because likewise deriv'd from Adam and all begoten of Adam But the Gentiles were neither brethren amongst the Iews nor thought the brethren of the Iews for all of them were almost of divers fathers because men innumerable were at first created for which they were call'd sons of men to distinguish them from the Iews who were all the sons of Adam and therefore were call'd sons of men The Gentiles were not numbred amongst the brethren of the Iews because they were esteem'd aliens strangers of a diverse stock from the sons of Adam Thou canst not make one King who is of another stock but only thy brother says God to the Jews Deut. 17. that is to say thou canst not make a Gentile who is not thy brother thy King but him shalt thou appoint whom God shall chuse of the number of thy brethren that is to say of the Jews which is set down in the same place Therefore let us resolve that the Gentiles are different in stock and original from the Jews which I was to prove The Third Book of this SYSTEME OF DIVINITY CHAP. I. The original of the Gentiles is proved to be different from the