because a Monarchy or Kingdom had its Beginning that therefore the People that constituted the Moles of that Kingdom had its Beginning Kingdoms Monarchies and States often change their Governours and the Forms of Government and their Stiles and Denominations as the Silk-worm doth his shape and yet the People in a continued succession the same Rome took its Name from Romulus but the People were a Farrago collected and gathered out of the neighbouring Nations Greece fell into one Monarchy under Alexander yet the People that were the Stuffing as it were and Materials of that Monarchy were existing before in other Forms of Government and under other Governours And though it is by some supposed That the Assyrian Monarchy began in Ninus yet Diodorus out of Ctesias tells us That he made up that great Structure of the Assyrian Monarchy by the Conquest of divers People who thereby were added to it as the Egyptians Phenicians Syria Coelicia Pamphilia Lydia Caria Phrygia Mysia and many more mentioned by him l. 3. cap. 1. England began not to be a People when Alfred reduced it into a Monarchy for the Materials thereof were extant before namely under the Heptarchy So that the finding out of the Head of a Monarchy is not like the finding out the Head of a River in the Fountain or the Head of a Family in one common Parent The ancientest Monarchy might have a Beginning and yet the People that are the material constituent of it might exist long before under other Forms or Vicissitudes of Governments 2. All Nations do not always begin their Histories or the Matter of the same Antiquity with the People touching which they write but some earlier some later according to the variety of their Opportunities Educations and Disciplines The Israelites were certainly the most knowing People of the World began early to record the Memorials of their own Times and of those that anteceded them delivered down by Tradition from the Patriarchs Thus did Moses and the Annals of that People are carried down to the very dissolution of their Government The Phenicians began their Historical Monuments after them the Grecians after them The Pelasgi and Attici were a People long before Homer wrote England was doubtless Inhabited before Caesar came over yet we have few Monuments of Britain more ancient than Caesar gives us and from him except Beda we have few Authentical Histories by any known Historian before the Conquest by King William but they have been all written since or very near his time and many of the things which they have put together touching the Britains Picts Danes yea and the beginning of the Saxons have been collected out of broken Monuments in Monasteries and Tradition and digested into series and order of times by those that have written long since the things done by men that lived since the Normans came in as Henry of Huntington William of Malmsbury Roger Hoveden Matthew Paris and others 3. A third difficulty is this That in those elder times there were not those means of preserving the Monuments of things past as after times afforded for whatever antiquity the World may be supposed to be it is plain that Arts have increased and grown Printing is a new Invention and although Letters and Writing were ancient among the Phenicians and from them derived to the Greeks yet we must suppose they were not so perfect or so common in the elder Ages as in those that succeed them And therefore those that contend for an Eternal succession of Men in the World do suppose that by a kind of circulation or rotation Arts have their successive invention and perfection and traduction from one People to another and consequently though some might be early able to deliver over Historical passages as being better instructed in Letters and Writing and more civilized than others yet others attained it later As the Europeans had their Learning from the Asiaticks so the Americans have it from the Europeans and yet the People of Europe Asia and America may be of equal Antiquity Besides all this there have been many vicissitudes and changes whereby ancient Monuments and Histories have been lost As 1. The Variation of Languages or at least of the Characters wherein they were written many things written in former Ages being scarce legible in after Ages and so neglected 2. Wars and Desolations hapning thereby which obliterate many ancient Monuments If by a kind of common stipulation or pact as it were Monasteries had not had a kind of common Protection in the vicissitudes of the Conquests of England by the Picts Danes Saxons and Normans we had had very little extant of ancient things 3. Transmigrations of People from one Country to another whereby they left their ancient Monuments behind them which were neglected by them that succeeded them 4. Floods and Inundations especially in the parts of Asia which swept away many ancient Monuments These are the Allays that are to be given to this particular touching the Epochae and Original of Monarchies Kingdoms and States and the Monuments and Historical Relations of them or hapning in them and to the weight of those consequences deduced or deducible from them in order to the Argument in question touching the Origination of Mankind CAP. IV. The Third Instance of Fact proving the Origination of Mankind namely the Invention of Arts. I Come to the Third Instance of Fact namely the Discovery and Perfecting of Arts and the new Discoveries that later Ages have made of things that were not formerly known And this Topick consists principally of these parts 1. That there have been such Discoveries of Things and Arts not formerly known 2. That consequently the World especially of Mankind is of a far later Edition than Eternity Touching the former of these it is very evident both by the Tradition of the Ancients and also by our own unquestionable Experience that very great Discoveries have been in several Ages made of Things and Arts that were hidden and unknown unto precedent Ages I shall not trouble my self with those large Catalogues of profitable Inventions which have been successively discovered when before they were not known at least for ought appears to us as the use of Husbandry the making of Wine and Oyl the discovery of the Letters of the Alphabet in successive Ages Musick Military and Civil Discipline Engins of War and Navigation These and infinite more have been by the Industry of former Writers reduced to their several Epochae and Authors of their Discoveries and some of the Authors have had therefore divine Honour given to them by the admiring Heathen These several Inventors and Inventions are registred by Diodorus Siculus in his first six Books by Clemens Alexandrinus in the first Book of his Stromata by Pliny l. 7. cap. 56. and ex professo by Polydore Virgil in his eight Books de Rerum Inventoribus In which and other Collections of that kind although possibly there be many things that are fabulous or grounded
by Wars Oppressions and Internecions Plagues Famines and other Calamities we find the Product of one Nation derived from only two Persons Isaac and Rebecca in the compass of about 5000 Years swoln into incredible numbers of Millions of Persons now existing and known to be of that Linage and Descent and still continuing unquestionably in that Distinction besides those multitudes derived from the Line of Esau and the ten Tribes which are as it were lest and confounded without any distinction among other Nations And thus far of the first Instance concerning the Multiplication of the Nation of the Jews The next Instance that I shall give shall be nearer home the Kingdom of England I shall not give any Instance touching it before the Conquest because those times are dark and besides the Vicissitudes and Successions of various Nations in this Kingdom renders the discovery of the Progress of Generations of Men or the Increases thereof difficult as Britons Romans Picts Saxons and Danes The ancient Inhabitants were the Britons the Body of which People hath been in a great measure shut up and contained within the Country of Wales but what by the transplanting of many of the Welsh into England and by transplanting of the English into Wales it is not possible to say that all the Britons are confined to the Country of Wales or that none but Britons are there and therefore there can be no particular or evident Conclusion made touching their Increase or Multiplication But I shall take a shorter Period or Compass of Time namely the last 600 Years or thereabouts since the Norman Conquest And although it may be true that many Persons of Forein Countries have come into England and planted themselves here so that the whole Increase of this Kingdom cannot be singly attributed to those that were either Natives or such as came in with the Conquerour but many Scotcâ— Irish Dutch but especially French either by Naturalizations or Transmigrations have increased the Inhabitants of this Island yet considering that probably the Migrations of the English into Scotland Holland France and other Countries have made amends for their Migrations hither We may make a reasonable Conjecture that the Descendents from those that inhabited this Kingdom in the time of the Conquerour have increased exceedingly above what they were in that time And the Evidence thereof is this King William the First after his Victory over Herald did in the 16 th Year of his Reign over England caule a Survey to be made of all the Cities Towns Mannors and inhabited Lands in England Northumberland Cumberland Durham and North-Wales This Survey was finished in the 20 th Year of his Reign and the Book it self preserved to this Day among the Records of the Exchequer not only a Transcript or Copy but the very Original Book it self and is called Doomsday In this Book are entred the Names of the Mannors or inhabited Townships Boroughs and Cities and the Owner of them the Number of Plough-Lands that each contains and the Number of the Inhabitants upon them under the several Names appropriate to those Places As for Instance Ibi 12 Burgenses 5 Villani 5 Bordarii 5 Nativi 5 Radiminches 5 Cotterelli and the like according to the quality or condition of the Inhabitants So that this Book in effect gives an Account not only of the Manurable Lands in every Mannor Town or Vill but also of the Number and Natures of their several Inhabitants To make a Calculation of the Number of Plough-Lands and Inhabitants through all England as they are recorded and to make therewith a Comparison unto the present State and Number of Inhabitants at this Day throughout England is a laborious piece of work but it is not difficult to be done in any one County I have tryed the Comparison in the County of Gloucester through some great Boroughs as Gloucester it self Thornbury Tetbury and other places and in effect through the whole County and I do find 1. That there are very many more Vills and Hamlets now than there were then and very few Villages Towns or Parishes then which continue not to this Day but now there are as many as then and many more The 5 th of March 9 E. 2. there issued Writs to the Sheriffs of the several Counties to return the Names of the several Vills and Land-Owners in their several Bayliwicks which was accordingly done and remains of Record in the Exchequer under the stile of Nomina Villarum and the Sum of the Vills of Gloucestershire together with the five Boroughs of Gloucester Bristol Berkley Dursly and Newenham amounted to 234 which I take it are more than are in Doomsday and yet not so many as are at this day and those that continue to this day are far more populous than they were at the taking of either of those Surveys 2. That there is much more Tillage and more Plough-Lands now than there were then which happens by the reduction of many great Wasts and Commons into Tillage or Meadow or Pasture which then were only Wasts and therefore not particularly surveyed because of no considerable Value and not taken notice of in that Survey 3. That the number of Inhabitants now are above twenty times more than they were at that time as well in particular Towns Boroughs and Mannors as in the general extent of the County and yet that Survey even as to the number and quality of those that resided in those Towns or Mannors at least as Housholders is very precise and particular I have not yet made an exact particular Calculation of the Number recorded in that Book through the whole County but I will give a few Instances of particular Towns which may give an estimate touching the whole Gloucester is now a very great and populous City formerly before the time of H. 8. a Borough In the Survey of Doomsday it is surveyed distinct from the Bertun of Glouc ' the gross of the Borough is surveyed together in the beginning of the County but there are some other particular Burgages thereof mentioned under the Titles of particular Mens Possessions as Terra Rogeri de Lacy Terra Elnuffi de Hesding c. The whole concretion of the City of Gloucester consists partly of what was the ancient Borough partly of accessions from the Mannors or Villages adjacent as Barton and some others I shall therefore cast up the whole Number of all that were in Gloc ' or Barton In the Survey of Gloucester there are reckoned 23 Burgages and Houses 16 that were demolished for the building of the Castle 14 that were wasted and some that belonged to Osbertus Episcopus not numbred but yielded the yearly Rent of 10 Shillings which according to the usual rate of the Houses in Gloucester at that time which was at 5 d or 6 d a House might produce 20 Houses in toto 73. Besides these there are surveyed under the Titles of several Owners of Lands sparsim through the Book as under the Title
Terra S. Dionysii Ecclesia S. Martini and others according to my best Computation and Observation 82. Besides these under the Title of the Poffessions of S t Peter of Glouc ' there are reckoned up as many Burgenses as yielded the Abbot anciently the Rent of 19 s and 5 d and 16 Salmons but at that time 16 Salmons and 50 s Rent without any certain number of Burgesses but if we allow 6 d for a Burgess we may suppose them to 100. The Total 255. The Mannor of Barton or the Barton of Glouc ' some part whereof hath been taken into the Suburbs of Glouc ' was of two Owners part was the King's Lands part belonged to the Abbey of S t Peters but the whole number of the Housholders inhabiting the whole Barton with its members Tuffly Barnwood c. were as followeth Villani 56 Bordarii 39 Servi 19 Molini 04 Liberi homines 10 In toto 128 And the Total of the whole Account of the City of Glouc ' the Barton with its members Brewere Upton Merwin Barnwood Tuffly Norwent amounted then only to 383. And the single City of Gloucester within the Walls contains at this day near 1000 Houses and Housholds Again the Borough and Mannor of Barclay with the members thereof enumerated in Doomsday viz. Alkington Hinton Cam Gosington Dersiloge Cowly Ewly Nimsfield Wotton Simondshall Kingscote Beverscote Oselword Almondsbury part of Cromhall Harefell Weston Elberton Cromale Erlingham Escelword are surveyed to contain in the whole to 590 Families whereas at this time there are near 5000 Families in this Precinct the Parish of Wotton yielding upon the point of 2000 Comunicants and that of Dersilege above 500 at this day Again Tetbury and the Hamlet of Upton belonging to it the Survey of Doomsday gives us an Account of about 73 Families of all kinds belonging to it But now I believe there are little less than 1500 Communicants in that Parish Sodbury the Survey gives us an Account of about 46 Families of all sorts they are now near twenty times so many Thornbury with the Hamlets thereunto belonging the Account of Doomsday is of 105 Families of all sores there is now near six times so many Aderly a little Village at the time of making of that Survey consisting not of above 17 Families of all sorts now above twice as many The like Instances might be produced with the like evidence of very great Increases in the Towns of Cirencester Minchin Hampton Teuxbury Campden Winchcomb Avening Westbury near Bristol and generally through the whole County of Gloucester which I do not without just reason suppose hath more than twenty times the Inhabitants which it had at the time of the coming in of William the First which is not now above 604 Years since And if we should institute a later Comparison viz. between the present time and the beginning of Queen Elizabeth which is not above 112 Years since and compare the numbers of Trained Souldiers then and now the number of Subsidy-men then and now they will easily give us an Account of a very great Increase and Multiplication of People within this Kingdom even to admiration And let any man but consider the Increase of London within the compass of 40 or 50 Years we shall according to the Observations framed to my hands find That the In-Parishes until the late Fire in that time have increased from 9 to 10 or a 10 th part and that the 16 Out-Parishes have in that time increased from 7 to 12 and yet without any decrement or decay of the rest of the Kingdom By which and infinite undeniable Instances that might be given it is apparent that within the compass of the last 600 Years this Kingdom hath increased mightily in its number of Native Inhabitants And yet it is most apparent that it hath had as great Allays and Abatements of the Multiplication of Mankind in it as any Kingdom in the World For Instance 1. In respect of the nature of its Situation which is all Maritim and consists much in Navigation which exhausts abundance of People by Diseases and Casualties at Sea 2. It hath been as often visited with sore Pestilences Epidemical Diseases and Mortality by reason thereof as any Country the experience of the last 60 Years gives us abundance of Instances thereof and former Ages were as frequently visited in this kind as later 3. Forein Wars both at Sea and Land have devoured great multitudes of our Inhabitants as those formerly with Scotland France Spain and lately with the Netherlands and French 4. No Kingdom in Europe hath had greater Experience of Civil Wars nor greater Consumption of Men thereby than England hath had since the time of William the First For not to instance in our Wars with the Welsh and Irish let any man read but the Histories of the Wars here in England between King Stephen and H. 1. and his Mother King John and his Nobles King H. 3. and the Nobility between King E. 2. and the Earls of Lancaster and Mortimer the Wars between the two Houses of York and Lancaster and their Partizans from the time of H. 4. unto the beginning of H. 7. in one Battel between H. 6. and E. 4. killed of one side 30000 the Rebellions in the times of H. 7. and others the Kings and Queens that succeeded him and the loss of many lives that happened by the suppression thereof the late cruel Wars within these 30 Years last past in England there cannot be Instances given in any one Kingdom of greater Abatements of the Increase by Wars and Internecions than may be given in England 5. Let us also consider the vast Evacuations of Men that England hath had by Forein Assistances lent to Forein Kingdoms and States by Volunteers and Auxiliaries as to Scotland in the late Queens time to France to the Netherlands to Germany 6. To these also add the vast numbers of Men that have transplanted themselves not only into France Holland and our neighbour Nations but also to Virginia Maryland New England Barbadoes Bermudas to Amboyna and other places in the East India and lastly into Jamaica we shall find upon these and other Accounts that England hath had as great Correctives of the Excesses of their Generations within these last 600 Years as any People in the World Add to these the great Famines and Pestilences which have happened within the compass of 600 Years recorded in History and obvious to our own Experience And therefore if notwithstanding all these Correctives the number of Men have continually increased and that in so vast and observable a degree above their decrease we have as much reason to conclude a parity in the rest of Mankind and possibly were we as well acquainted with the Concerns of other Kingdoms or States especially of the Netherlands and France the Instances of this Increase would he as much and possibly more conspicuous than among us Upon the whole matter therefore I conclude That as the Correctives instanced in the
before they were born and many other Historians for a much longer time and we give them credit and certainly such an Occurrence of such remark as the Universal Flood and the Re-peopling of the World must needs be fresh in memory for such a Period of about 800 Years especially considering that the Peopling of the World was a gradual and successive business that must needs preserve its Memory even upon its own account for it was still current and many were concerned in it in the preservation of the laying the first Foundations of their States and Republicks 3. As the Period or distance of time was not great so if we consider the longevity of Mens Lives in those times the Period was not much longer than three Generations and so the Tradition of things might be preserved fresh and certain unto the time of Moses without any great difficulty For Shem that was an Eye-witness of the Flood was contemporary with Abraham Abraham was contemporary with Jacob Cohath the Son of Levi was contemporary with Jacob and with Amram the Father of Moses and Son of Cohath So that the Tradition of the Flood and all that succeeded might be handed from Shem to Abraham from Abraham to Jacob from Jacob to Cohath from him to Amram and from him to Moses 4. Besides all this without any more Hands in the delivery of it over it appears that Abraham Isaac Jacob were great Men had great Families and Wealth were Men of great Note and Observation for their Learning and Knowledge Men that had great Expectations having a Promise of that Land to be given to their Posterity and although they kept Sheep and Cattel according to the custom of those Eastern Countries yet they were great Princes and Men of excellent Education doubtless Abraham instructed his Son in all the Knowledge that he had received by Tradition from his Ancestors the like did Isaac and after him Jacob. And therefore it might very reasonably be thought that the Traditions of former things were kept fresh and pure in this Line of Men. And though we have no Writings extant ancienter than Moses yet probably in his time there might be Books or at least Monuments and Inscriptions of things done before his time which might preserve the Memory of things past as well as our Books do now For it is not to be doubted but Writing was much ancienter than Moses his time Job speaks of Writing as a thing in use in his time Job 19.23 24. and Josephus tells us of certain Pillars erected by Seth wherein the Monuments of Learning and History were preserved Joseph l. 1. Antiquitat cap. 2. and Moses mentions Books written by others either before or in his time I very well know that Moses had a greater means to know all those things that to a Jew or a Christian are of greater weight than all these namely the Infallible Conduct Revelation and Inspiration of the Divine Spirit But the truth is we are faln into an Age of many Christians in Name and Profession that yet think it below them to believe upon that account without some farther Evidence that may satisfie their Reason I have therefore subjoyned these and the following Considerations to make it appear That upon the bare account of Moral Evidence more is to be said for the truth of the History of Moses than may be said for the truth of any other History of things transacted before the life of the Historiographer 2. Again we usually allow such an Historian to be worthy of belief even in those things whereof we have no other Evidence than the Credit of the Historian if we find many things delivered by him to have so great an Evidence of Truth that they cannot well be doubted by any reasonable Man I will admit that Moses delivers many things that were antecedent to him and can have now no other Evidence than the Credit Prudence and Fidelity of the Historian himself as touching the Derivation of the Nations of the Earth from the several Sons of Noah and though possibly when he wrote there was a vigorous and authentical Tradition or other authentick Evidence of the Truth of them which it may be is now so lost that we have no other Evidence thereof but the bare Relation of Moses this I do for the present admit though in the sequel it will appear that there are other concurrent or collateral Evidences that assert and attest it yet it is plain that the same Moses writes many things that have so undoubted and so solid a Tradition asserting it that no Man can doubt it that will not first deny his own Reason As for instance Can there be any doubt but that the Family of the Israelites were derived from Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the 12 Patriarchs that they were brought out of Egypt under the Conduct of Moses that they lived in the Wilderness forty Years and were there miraculously fed by Quails and Manna since this was written in that very Time and Age that could and would have contradicted it if false Can there be any doubt but the History of his making the Ark and the Tabernacle were true since both continued for many hundred Years after Can there be any doubt of the History of the Fiery Serpents and the Cure of their Biting by the Brazen Serpent which continued in the Wilderness until the time of Hezekiah which was many hundred Years after with an unquestionable Tradition of the reason of its Making Can there be any doubt whether he divided the Land of Canaan in such manner as is set down in his life time namely to the two Tribes and a half on the farther side of Jordan and his Prescripts for the future dividing of the rest since it was enjoyed according to those Prescripts for many hundreds of Years after and part of it until the coming of Christ Can there be any doubt that he gave those Laws Moral Judicial and Ceremonial recorded by him since those very Laws have been for the space of near two thousand Years the very Rule and Model by which the Sacred and Civil Concerns of that People were always ruled and governed and that in contemplation of the same Law that was given by the Hand of Moses and so recorded in his Books of Exodus Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy I say we have not greater Evidence that there was such a Man as Alfred Edward the Confessor or William the Conqueror or that there were such Laws of the Confessor such a Survey of England called Doomsday made by William the Conqueror such an Abbey founded by him in Memory of his Victory in Sussex called Abbatia de Bello such Laws made by H. 1. as are transcribed in the Red Book of the Exchequer under that name such a Charter of King John made at Reningmead or such a Charter as Magna Charta made by King H. 3. than we have that there were such Laws such Distributions of the Land of Canaan and such