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
comes to passe that the imputation of the sin of Adam is thought the cause of the imputation of the death of Christ though indeed by reason of the imputation of the death of Christ the sin of Adam was imputed Yea because really and properly God by the sin of Adam made way to the Covenant of grace which is by Jesus Christ Therefore the first born reason of those imputations was in the death of Christ the condition of which the secondary imputation of Adam sin must needs ensue and as Christ was not imputed by Nature but by the meer mystery of God so was Adam imputed to men not by nature but by the meer dispensation of the divine mystery CHAP. III. Of the two chief in the two mystical imputations Adam and Christ Abraham in the middle betwixt them We passe from the sin of Adam to the Iustice of Christ by the faith of Abraham Punishments inflicted by mystical imputations are mystically and spiritually to be understood No man no not Adam himself dy'd for Adams sin Only Christ dyed for that sin All men are understood dead in Christ spiritually and mystically CHrist and Adam were types one of another or rather antitypes and by dissimilitude like one another like because Adam Christ are both imputed after the same manner by dissimilitude because Christ was imputed for justice Adam was imputed for sin but justice and sin are quite different Adam and Christ were in these mystical imputations chief the middle betwixt them was Abraham The guilt of Adam was imputed to all men that the expiation of that guilt might likewise be imputed to them I say that it might be imputed to them by faith in God which is in Christ such as Abraham first had and it was imputed to him for Justice But it is not writ for Abrahams own sake that his faith was imputed to him for justice but likewise for us saith the Apostle that is for all men to whom it shall be imputed believing in him that rais'd Jesus Christ from the dead who was betrayed for the sins of men and rose again for the justification of them In the Rom. chap. 4. Abraham was the original and fountain of that justification in that sense as he is call'd the Father of all believers in the same place of the Romans All that mystery then of regeneration of men which is mens redemption sanctification and salvation consists in these thtee mystical imputations The imputation of the sin of Adam The imputation of the expiation of it by the death of Christ And the imputation of the faith of Abraham which was the mean or mid path by which we should passe from the sin of Adam to that justification and sanctification which by the death of Christ and his resurrection is engendred in men There was then a continued imputation from the sin of Adam to the death of Christ by the faith of Abraham And the whole mystery of mans redemption was accomplished in the persons of three Jews Adam Abraham and Christ accordnig as salvation comes to all the Nations by the Jews according to the promise confirm'd to Abraham That in him all nations should be blessed and in his seed Adam was the Father of Abraham according to the flesh and according to the imputation of sin he was likewise the Father of Christ according to the flesh without the defiling of the flesh Abraham was the Father of Christ according to the blood without the blemish of the blood he was likewise the Father of Adam according to the imputation of faith Christ was the Father of Adam and Abraham according to the redemption and expiation of that sin which flow'd from Adam and was imputed to Abraham In that these three heads of those mystical imputations agree That those three Jews were the Fathers of all Nations not according to the flesh but each of them according to his own mystical imputation But the Gentiles are indeed the Sons both of Adam and Abraham not naturally but according to their engrafting and mystical adoption according to which Adam and Abraham being Jews were imputed to the Gentiles that Christ being a Jew might be imputed to them also Mystical imputations share in all kind of natural and politique imputation A natural conjunction of bodies is common both to the mystical and Physical imputation which by traduction in propagation is ingendred in mystical imputations and a mystical imputation is imagin'd in the similitude of creation and formation According to that mystical communion and conjunction Adam and Abraham are call'd our Fathers and we are said to be begotten in Christ For these three men were common Representatives of all men supposing the whole species But as Adam Abraham and Christ were all men even so were all men one in Adam Abraham and Christ by unity of similitude and participation of the nature as amongst Philosophers all men participating of the same species are reputed one man also amongst Divines the whole species of men is believed to be deposited in those three Adam Abraham and Christ In Adam according to sin in Abraham according to faith in Christ according to redemption Mystical imputations agree with imputations politique in that Adam Abraham and Christ were the chief presidents cautioners and sureties for all mankind That whatsoever Adam should do as to the Law Christ in the business of Redemption Abraham in matter of Faith should stand firm Certainly Adam of whom we chiefly here speak was according to divine Law in an universal esteem as a Prince in behalf of his people Embassadors for a Kingdom or Commonwealth or a President for the Universities And Adam was so ordain'd being the Prince of all mankind that so soon as he should transgresse the Law of God he should not onely be guilty himself but make all men guilty likewise for as the Divines say the act of Adam was not personal but representative that is it was not the act of one person but of a person represented others as sustaining the person of all mankind God had oblig'd all men in that Covenant which he made with Adam as with a security a Procurer or Protector of them that what he should sin in they should also all be guilty Adam had a charge from God not from men according to which he might trannsact mens businesse without their knowledge Adam broke the Covenant of God and according to that punishment of imputation which God upon that breach destin'd for all men all men are likewise thought to have broke it Adam was a common Representative of all men Men sinn'd in general by a unition to that representative as the School-men say and as Christ our Justice was the form of the mystical imputation according to the same manner of imputation was Adam our sin It is known that punishments by Natural and Political imputations have not only seized upon mens persons but have by the sins of men had likewise an influence both upon things living and
Therefore the Election of the Jews must be brought back to Adam the first Father and the first head of the Jews And although the Jews are properly said to be the posterity of Judah Jacob's fourth Son yet taking the denomination largely we shall call those Jews likewise who were begotten even from Adam unto Judah Therefore God elected the Jews the Posterity of Adam and Abraham because he was joynd to their Fathers Adam and Abraham that is because he formed the Jews in Adam and blessed them in Abraham The promises of this mystical Election are found from Adam unto Moses both before and after the Flood repeated often and many wayes to the Fathers of the Jews but confirmed more peculiarly to the Jews in Moses by a Covenant as Deut. 7. Where Moses speaking to the people of the Jews sayes The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people to himself of all the Nations that are upon Earth God himself called that Nation his First-born Exod. 4. Israel my first-born as also the first fruits of the Harvest of the Lord Jeremiah Chap. 2. Both upon the same account by which all the first-born and first fruits belong to God by property of Election as also because the Jews first of all received the mystery grace of election In which sense I say is to be understood Ch. 49. The Lord from the wombe hath called me as also the Kingly Prophet Psalm 22. Thou art he that took me from the wombe thou art my hope from my mothers brests Vpon thee was I cast from my mothers wombe From the wombe of my mother thou art my God God called and chose Israel from the wombe of mystical Election that is to say the Jews were his first-born natural Children by mystical Election nor did he think that they were to be esteemed as the Gentiles who were not called from the wombe nor chosen nor esteemed as his natural Children but adopted into this mystical Election by a second Election and only esteemed the Sons of adoption Hence it is that the Apostle Romans 2. ascribes first Salvation honour and glory which is Election to the Jews first then to the Greeks who are the Gentiles for the Greek in that place is the finer Gentile That the Jews had the first Election not of their own desert but of the meer grace and mercy of God from hence is apparent because that mystical Election proceeded from that eternal Election by which the Jews were chosen from eternity that is by which they were chosen before they were born when they had done neither good nor harm Not for their works as Paul says but of the meer bounty of God who call'd and chose them This eternal Election Isaiah meant Chapt. 63. Thou sayes he Lord art our Father Abraham knew us not and Israel had no knowledge of us The Prophet means That God was the Father of the Jews when their Fathers were not born at which time Abraham knew not the Jews and Israel had no knowledge of them The Lord did chuse thee because he lov'd thee Abraham and Israel are here indifferently taken Deut. 7. Not for their righteousness he chose them To which adde that place of 9 Deut. He sav'd me because he lov'd me Psal 18. He hath made us and not we our selves sung David King of the Jews Psalm 100. If you look upon the matter whereof the Jews were created you will find nothing that shall make them appear worthy of the Election For they were made up of the same flesh and bloud as the Gentiles and were temper'd with the same clay of which other men were fram'd As is the clay in the hand of the Potter so art thou O house of Israel in the hand of the Lord. The Prophet alluded to that very clay of which Adam the first Father of the Jews was made That same common and impure clay which is observable This we are taught Gen. 3. In which God is said to have cast Adam out of the Paradise of pleasure which was most choice Land that he might till the ground of which he was made Ground not choice but common unclean of which Adam and all other men were made for common and not elect and unclean are the same Act. 10. and many other places of both Testaments And for the same cause for which Adam was made of common and impure clay God is said to have found Israel in a place of horror and wast wilderness Deuteronom 32. Ezekiel likewise bears witnesse that the Jews were born unclean as other men were born unclean Chapter 16. Where God speaks to the People of Israel his Spouse and the Jews in these words Thy root and thy linage was from the land of Canaan thy Father was an Amorrhite and thy Mother a Hittite And when thou wast born thy navel was not cut and thou wast not wash'd with water to salvation nor salted with salt nor wrapp'd up in clouts No eye spar'd thee to do any of these things for thee but thou wast thrown out upon the face of the earth in the affliction of thy soul in that day wherein thou wast born Passing by thee I saw thee trampled in thy bloud And a little after I spread my garment upon thee and cover'd thy shame And I swore to thee and enter'd into a Covenant with thee saith the Lord and thou wert made mine and I wash'd thee with water and clens'd thee from thy bloud and anointed thee with oyl By which famous Text it appears that the Jews sprung from the same root and were made of the same common earth as all the Gentiles were made of For the Amorrhites and the Hittites here are taken for any manner of Gentiles as likewise the Land of Canaan for a Land not yet chosen an earth common and unclean I say God meant that the Jews being born of a Father and Mother sprung from an unelected earth were likewise themselves born unelected that they were born unclean and defil'd with the bloud of their first creation naked and cast out but by the bounty of God passing by them and pitying them they were wash'd cloath'd and receiv'd into the Covenant of mystical Election By no better signification could the love of God to the Jews have been expressed or rather that holy love by which God in his mystical election was joyn'd to the Jews than by that mystical Marriage in which God is said to have spred his garment over his Spouse the people of Israel Nor is there any other more holy or near knot than that by which two Lovers in the cement of Matrimony make such a mixture of their souls that two become one Hence these sweet Dialogues of Lovers as it were equally match'd with which Solomon has besprinkled his book of Loves where God the Bridegroom lover-like speaks to his Bride the people of Israel And where Israel his Spouse likewise enflam'd with love speaks to God her Husband with reverence and love Hence
blessed in Abraham The Angel which was the Lord himself did bear witnesse Likewise this promise gave God unto Isaac In thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed Gen. 26. And to Jacob Chap. 28. All the nations of the earth shall be blessed in thee and thy seed Therefore it appears that in the Fathers of the Jews and in their seed and in the Jews themselves all the Kinreds all the People all the Nations and Tribes of the earth were to be blessed but these Kinreds Nations People and Tribes we shall meerly call those Gentiles which are without the Kinred Nation People and Tribe of the Jews That blessing by which the Gentiles were blessed in the Jews is The election of God in mystery which was first proper to the Jewes and which by derivation and participation was from the Jews powr'd upon the Gentiles Therefore if God have preferr'd the Jews in a mystical election let the Gentiles have next place with him in the same election But by no nearer title did the Jews cleave to God than by this that they were the first-born in this mystical Election That mystical begetting of the Jews was a kind of a mystical nature by which the Jews were acknowledged as natural Sons For which God is said to have carried them in his womb Isa 46. To which portion or degree of nature because the Gentiles were neither called nor chosen adoption was granted to them which is an imitation of Nature by which being adopted into the family of the Jews they were esteem'd the Sons of the Jews not according to flesh and nature but according to that adoption which is perfected by mystical nature I say by that same election by which the Jews are the Sons of God in the first degree of nature and by which the Gentiles adopted in the Jews are called the Sons of God but because they come in by a second degree by adoption are onely call'd and esteem'd adoptive Sons In which sense St. Paul is to be understood Eph. 1. where he says That God did prâ—destinate or chuse the Gentiles into the Election of the sons of God that is to say of the Jews The Gentiles were adopted into the family of the Jews by that mystical election at which time they were made the sons of Abraham And they were made the sons of Abraham when Abrams name was chang'd and instead of that he call'd Abraham and then when Abram was made Father of the Gentiâ—es Thou shalt be called Abraham sayes the Lord to Abram Gen. 17. Because I have appointed thee father of many Nations Abraham was made father of the Gentiles by the same right as the Gentiles were made sons of Abraham and sons of the Jews in Abraham St. John Baptist meant that election where reproaching the Jews he affirms That God out of these stones could raise up seed to Abraham For he can raise up stones who can call things that are not as if they were as to this purpoâ—e St. Paul spoke Rom. 4. That is to say who can call men out of stones and turn the stones themselves to be men stones I say that are distant from men in the whole scheme of animals I say God that could doe these things which are without and beyond nature could likewise adopt Children to Abraham which is an imitation of nature Adoption sayes he is an holy thing which imitates the benefit of nature But by how much truth is more holy than Imitation by so much is nature more holy than adoption Nature and adoption make sons nature true ones adoption feign'd ones Adoption transfers men from one Family to another and from one name to another It changes the kinred which is fiction and imitation but cannot change the bloud which belongs to nature and truth But neither can adoption alter the condition of the linage As for example it can make sons but of libertines cannot make free or of servants freemen The mystical adoption is otherwise by the force of which the nature of the Gentiles is turn'd into the nature of the Jews That which is imitation of nature in civil adoption is nature it self in the mystical And truth whose image is pretended only by the Law is by the mystery of this adoption really begotten Therefore the Gentiles change both their kind and their linage by adoption and translation into the Nation and family of the Jews And because they change their stock they change likewise the condition of their stock for the Gentiles become by that adoption not only sons but of servants free-men and free-born For all the efficacie of this adoption is to liberty and all such who by right of that adoption come to a part of the liberty of the sons of God claim a liberty That mystery is the force and power of the Spirit of Christ by which the Gentiles are changed into spiritual Jews and into the true sons of Abraham not according to the nature of the flesh but according to the nature of Promise and Spirit which is the true adoption and election of the Gentiles Yea Promise is that election by which alone the Jews are what they are by which the Jews themselves are the sons of Abraham true Israelites and true Jews not according to the flesh but according to Promise and to Spirit For all those that descended of Israel are not Israelites nor those who are the feed of Abraham all his sons but in Isaac shall thy seed be call'd that is to say not the sons of the flesh or the Jews but those that are called sons of the Promise in his seed Rom. 9. I say that promise is it which makes true Israelites and true sons of God But also the Jews without that shall lose their own family which is Gods and their father Abraham they would leave off to be what they are and of Jews become Gentiles and by crosse-changing of their kinred of sons of God become sons of men The Scripture more significantly expresses this conversion of the kinred of the Gentiles into the kinred of the Jews where it affirms them not only to be adopted but ingrafted in the Jews That as a branch which is grafted grows to be one with the tree wherein it is grafted whether it be grafted by plastring or incision I say as by incision one tree is chang'd into another and of two arises one so the Gentiles by ingrafting become one with the Jews as also by force of that ingrafting are chang'd to be the very Jews and so from two Nations are made one people of God Besides there is a difference betwixt grafting of one tree into another and grafting of the Gentiles into the Jews for an unfertil tree uses not to be grafted in an unfertile one nor a wild one on a kindly and right stock but the branches of the Gentiles bâ—rren of holinesse were grafted in the Jews who were holy and fruitful in holinesse of works and those wild ones implanted in the
Iâ—â— to enter into a stranger But God hath shewed me to caâ— no man common or unclean For the Angel haâ— said so to Peter What the Lord hath cleansed 〈◊〉 not thou call common Before then that the Lorâ— purified the Gentiles that is before Christ 〈◊〉 death the Gentiles were common and uncleanâ— but after the death of Christ and after that God had purified the Gentiles it was not lawfull to call any man common or unclean But that I may comprehend in brief what 〈◊〉 have spoken here of the Iews and the Gentiles and to show that in stock and nature the Gentilâ— were different from the Iews let us imagine 〈◊〉 our selves the Gentiles every way opposite 〈◊〉 the Iews The Iews by their Election and Creation placed in the degree of Gods the Gentiles in their Creation thought meer men the Iews the sons of God the Gentiles the sons of men the Iews holy the Gentiles wicked and ungodly the Iews just the Gentiles sinners the Iews wise and understanding the Gentiles foolish and unwise the Iews great and high the Gentiles low and small the Jews rich the Gentiles poor the Iews sons of love the Gentiles sons of wrath the Iews friends the Gentiles enemies the Iews thought clean the Gentiles unclean and raised of unclean beasts But if sometimes we likewise read the Iews called simply men as also sons of men wicked impious sinners unwise unworthy sons of wrath enemies unclean beasts and so stigmatized these Iews must be understood such as had fled over to the Customes of the Gentiles which as the first Psalm speaks Have departed to thâ— councel of the ungodly had stood in the way of sinners and not in the Law of God Of Iews who called themselves Jews but were not but of the Synagogue of Satan such as they are called Chap. 2. of the Revelations CHAP. X. The Jews form'd by God in Adam The Gentiles created by God And created by the word of God as other creatures as also on the same day when other creatures were created The Jews peculiarly form'd by the hands of God God call'd the fashioner of the Jews Adam first Father of the Jews The Jews are call'd the sons of Adam THe Jews are the Sons of God by election and fabrick By election which was a mystical generation By fabrick which is nigher to Nature God form'd the Jews in Adam as he took them in Abraham and led them into Canaan of whom Isaias in the 41 Chapter And thou Israel my servant the seed of Abraham my friend since I took thee from the furthest parts of the earth and took thee from far God brought the Jews into the Holy Land in Abraham by that mystical promise by which he gave that Land to Abraham the first Father of the Jews and promised it with an Oath to his seed In which respect Abraham by the right of the Promises is fitly call'd the first Father of the Jews God form'd the Jews in Adam when he form'd Adam the first Father of the Iews and made him in the fashioning of him the first Author and Father of them Wherefore God was call'd the fashioner of the Jews Isa 45. Thus saith the Lord the holy one of Israel the fashioner of him God was the fashioner of Israel because he was the fashioner of the first Father of them whom he made of the clay of the earth Wherefore God is said in Deut. 26. To have made the Jews higher than all the Nations he had created For God had first created the Gentiles and the men of the first creation then form'd the Jews the sons of Promise and the second creation It is worth our taking notice that the men of the first creation who according to my supposition are Gentiles as also the whole world were created by the word The first Chapter of Genesis hath this expresly which is the Chapter of the creation And God said Let us make man according to our own Image He said Let us make And by his word he made him But not by his word but of wrought clay the Lord made Adam Gen. Chap. 2. Which Chapter peculiarly handles the creation of Adam and the framing of the Jews in Adam Whose Historie Moses being about to write began it from the dust of Adam the first father of the Jews as is usual amongst all Historiographers who write the Historie of their Nation to begin from the first Authors of them And God made Adam of the dust of the earth saith Gen Chap. 2. He did not create Adam by his word but made him with his hand out of the dust of the earth That dust of which the Lord fram'd Adam was as the clay in the hand of the Potter as Ieremiah speaks to this purpose Wheresore you shall find it written in the 45 Chapter of Isaias now mentioned Ask the things to come of my sons and command me concerning the work of my hands Where the sons of God and the work of Gods hands are clearly the Jews I know it is written in the same Isaias My hand hath laid the foundation of the earth and my right hand hath measur'd the heavens As also Chap. 19. The Assrrian is the work of my hands But you must understand where you read that the hand of God was us'd in the creation that phrase is there used according to the force of the Hebrew tongue for the force and power of God which is the word of God And in that regard the word of God who is the Son of God and who is the only force power and great strength of God is not only call'd the hand of God but the arm of the Lord which I must in another place more exactly examine But where the hand of God is ascrib'd to forming and as it were to the Potter they are meerly taken for the hands wherewith he as a Potter moulded the clay and made the work Therefore in the same sence as the Lord is called the fashioner of the Jews Isa 54. in the same signification the Jews are truly and properly call'd the work of the hands of the Lord in the same place and the same Chapter Certainly Adam in the genealogie of Christ is call'd the first and the Father of the Jews where Christ is deriv'd from Adam in the third Chapter of the gospel according to St. Luke Where take good notice that Adam the first author the first Father of the linage of the Jews is called the son of God For it is said about the end of that Chapter Who was the son of Enos who was the son of Seth who was the son of God Adam then was the son of God By that fashioning and for that reason because being made of the dust of the earth he was the work of his hands For which reason all the Jews descended from Adam that is the sons of Adam made by God and the work of his hands in Adam are calld the sons of God But why may I not
brought to Adam all the creatures of the earth and all the fowls of heaven Which it is not likely he did in half a day For thither must the Elephants come from the furthest parts of India and Africk who are of a heavy and a slow pace What shall I speak of so many several species of creatures and fowls unknown to our Hemisphere who must swim so much Sea pass over so much Land to come from America to Mesopotamia and there receive their names Seventhly He saw what he would call them He saw that is that he took notice that he should fitly call every one of them and in every name he disputed with himself that is he had those operations of mind which are distinguishable discursively and in time Nor is it possible that Adam could in one half of a day see all the creatures of the earth and the fowls of heaven and then premeditately give every one of them a convenient name which neither in pronouncing of their names not in a continual rehearsing of them he could have perform'd in so short a time Eighthly God sent a deep steep upon Adam and when he had slept a long and deep sleep God took one of his ribs and filled up the flesh for it Ninthly He made a â—oman of the rib Nor did the Grecian Jews believe that the rib of Adam was made a woman the same day that Adam was made for they affirm That Adam was made in the New Moon that is the first day of the Moon But Eve was made the second day of the Moon Which the famous Salmasius has mentioned in his Climacterical years and refuted the superstition of the Jews and withall has cleared their Opinion who believ'd that there was the distance of a day betwixt their creation Tenthly God brought Eve to Adam If you all reckon these things severally not half a day not a week not a moneth will suffice for half of them Nor is it to be overslip'd that Adam called that Female a woman as being taken out of a man nor call'd her man as the females were in the first creation He created them male and female For this man in the second creation did so much excell all other men who were created before and begotten till his time for which cause he was to be the first and the Father of a Nation chosen by God and by which he was to represent by Gods decree all mankind That he could find no fit helper for him amongst all the women of the former creation But a woman must be fram'd for him more excellent than all oother women And hence it comes to passe that Marriages with the rest of the Nations are strictly forbidden the Jews and that the marriages of the sons of God must not be made with the daughters of men left the holy and elect people should be defiled with the prophane Nations and those that were created altogether in a huddle CHAP. III. Of the marvellous framing of Adam Of the marvellous conceptions of Isaac and Christ Adam was made a type of Christ in all things like him but his justice Eve the wife of Adam was likewise a figure of the Church who was the spouse of Christ THey which take pains in reading of the holy Scripture and are serious in the perusal of them find three men marvellously and peculiarly brought forth The first is Adam The second Isaac The third Jesus Christ The first was Adam whose mother was the Earth God his father The second Isaac whose father was Abraham God was his mother for it left off with Sarah to be according to the manner of women Gen. 18. To which God alluding Isa 46. speaking to the Jews the sons of Isaac says he carryed them in his womb The third is Jesus Christ whose mother was a Virgin and whose father God God was father both to Adam and Christ under whose imputation all the world was sometimes to fall God was the father Adam was the son of God Christ was the son of God and God the son Adam was a sinner Christ was just In all other things Adam and Christ were alike Adam was a type of Christ and opposite to Christ Isaac was a type of Christ and in the middle 'twixt Adam and Christ Christ was a Prototype of Isaac and an Antitype of Adam The common Opinion is That Adam was created by God of a full age of the perfect stature of a man and that the day wherein he was created he might be a man of thirty yeers of age at which age Christ died Truely I shall rather think that Adam was in all things like Christ except the justice of Christ as Christ was made in all things like Adam except the sin of Adam and that Adam not streight nor the first day but by leisure and by several ages successively grew from infancy and youth to man's estate by as many degrees as Christ arived at the same state at which Isaac arived at it being himself likewise miraculously brought forth and as other men begotten after the ordinary manner arise from children to be men And he shall finde this to be most probable whosoever shall seriously peruse the History of Adam from the framing of him till the framing of his wife Eve for God framed Adam out of Paradise whom he afterwards carried into Paradise that he might manure it sayes Genesis Hence I gather that Adam was framed an Infant without Paradise because I read that he was carried into Paradise to till it at such time of his age and strength as he was able to perform it Again I believe that that Paradise was that place of the Holy Land which is called Arabia felix for it is bounded Chap. 2. Genesis By Tigris and Euphrates two Rivers joining their streams in their course towards Arabia fall into the Bay of Persia Arabia felix is likewise to be understood the Paradise of the Lord in that place of Gen. 12. where Lot lifting up his eyes saw all the Region about Jordan which was altogether watered like the Paradise of the Lord and like Egypt as thou comest from Segor for it is probable that Genesis has compared and joyned to Arabia felix and Egypt two neighbouring Regions and two of the most pleasant I think that Adam was brought to that Holy Land even as I finde Abraham led to the same Land that Adam might have the first natural possession of it the first and the father of all the Jews and which by a stricter title and a more peculiar obligation God might afterwards promise give Abraham and to the Jews his posterity being Adam's seed and his own Adam being a young man and cultivating of Paradise God thought of giving him a Wife and being as it were uncertain whom he should bestow upon him he brought unto him all the creatures of the earth and all the Fowls of heaven that he might see what he would call them for every thing whatsoever Adam called it
of his Father Abraham Heb. 7. As also the Hebrews are said all to be taken by God in the hand of Abraham their Father Isay 41. There are both divine and humane Lawes for imputations ordain'd according to natural communion and similitude The divine by which God is said to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation And according to that here the fathers are said to eat the sowr grapes and the childrens teeth to be set an edge The humane law by which there is punishment decreed against the Children of the Traytors by the guilt of their Parents There are examples both divine and humane of imputation of the Fathers fault to the Children That amongst divine examples is eminent of the seven sons of Saul whom according to the command of God David gave the Gabaonites as an expiation because their Father before had broke his promise with the Gabaonites and cruelly slain many of them It s read of Alexander that after he had taken Tyre as if he had been the defender of the publique tranquility he crucified all the Tyrians who outlived the siedge who were born of those slaves their Ancestors who long before had destroyed the free people of Tyre together with their Masters cruelly by a conspiracy made against them God imputed to the Jews the numbring of the people which David had caus'd and consumed seventy thousand of them with the plague for their Kings offence For that communion and conjunction politique whereby the whole Kingdom is thought one and one entire body like a living creature whose head is their King And as a murther performed by the hand is not only imputed to the hand but the whole man So in a body politique that which the head doth as being head is imputed to the whole body It is the work of Iove says Hesiod to punish Cities promiscuously for the transgression of the Magistrate So because the Priest of Apollo was violated by Agamemnon the whole Army of the Greeks was almost destroyed by Pestilence And whatsoever the Prince did amisse the Greeks smarted for 't Nor only the act of the head of a City but also of another member makes the whole body liable to guilty So as it is read of Achan Who having taken of the accursed thing brought all Israel under a curse Josue 7. And which is also read of the Levites Concubine 19 Judges whom the Inhabitants of Gabea of the tribe of Benjamin swiv'd to death And whose wickednesse was so rigidly imputed to all the Tribe that all the Tribe for that wickednesse was almost destroyed and routed out Nor were the Heathens ignorant of such imputations As Hesiod says Many times says he the whole Country is destroyed And Horace Neglected Jove doth sometimes add In punishment the good to bad Those imputations which by politique Communion are contracted from the offences of others others of them are of the law of Nations others according to Civil law According to the Law of Nations the fault of Sedecias by perjury was imputed to the whole Nation for which cause being overcome and falling into the Enemies hands they were all carryed Captives to Babilon By the same Law of Nations whatsoever the Ambassadour transacts is imputed to the Commonwealth or the Nation as also 't is imputed to the pledges whatsoever is done by them who give the pledges By Civil law it is imputed to the whole people whatsoever the chief procurer does for the people and to the chief in Government whatsoever they doe in behalf of the people To the Colonie or Colledge whatsoever their Trustees shall do in their behalf To Pupils and Minors is imputed whatsoever shall be judged against them according to the consent of the Tutors or Overseers There are likewise mystical bodies which by their mystical Communion and similitude do engage imputations Such is that mystical body by which all men as it were by a mystical conglutination are joyned with him by reason of that similitude they have with Christ For God did not put on the shape of an Angel but the shape of a Man that he might become in all things like to men except Sin that he might be a fellow sufferer with men and be an expiation for them By that mystical Communion and society by which his death is imputed to all men Such is that mystical Communion and society by which the faith of Abraham is imputed to all the faithful And all the faithfull are call'd the Sons of Abraham not the Sons of Nature but the sons of Adoption and mystical similitude which did unite all things According to that same Communion and mystical society the sin of Adam was imputed to other men For although Adam was made by Gods hands by a peculiar and choice way of framing beyond other men yet God had fram'd him as in other places I took notice of the same clay of the same common earth and of the same matter subject to corruption in which all other men were created And in all things was Adam made like other men with sin also Yea even as fin was a natural imperfection to all inherent and proper to Adam himself and so to all men And likewise as all men by reason of that society of sinning were apt or suceptive of that guilt which came by the transgression of Adam It is commonly believ'd that the death of Christ was imputed to men because the sin of Adam was imputed to them They are deceived that think so Yea upon the contrary the sin of Adam was purposely imputed to men that the death of Christ might be imputed to them likewise For Christ ought not to be referr'd to Adam but Adam ought to be referr'd to Christ For all things tend towards their end for which they are made Christ was the end of all mysteries therefore were all mysteries meerly for Christ and not Christ for the mysteries Adam was a type of Christ But Christ was a prototype of Adam A type is referr'd to a prototype and not a prototype to its type Nor for any other cause was the sin of Adam imputed to men than that the death of Christ which appeals for all mens sins and regenerates them might be also imputed to them Therefore in Gods decree the imputation was first design'd in the death of Christ Secondly in the sin of Adam as you shall read it in the Revelations That Christ was a Lamb slain from the ordaining of the world Yea and that the mystery of shedding his blood was known and decreed before the ordaining of the world 1 Pet. chap. 1. Which you shall never find of Adam because Adam ought to be referr'd to Christ as the principle decree of God and his own first type But these things which were first in the decree and council of God were not also in order of the performance made first Hence also it happens that the sin of Adam went before the death of Christ And hence it
spiritly which consists of most faculties As for example The soul of a brute is more sprightly than the soul of a Plant because a Brute surpasses a Plant in its sensitive faculty The soul of a Man is more sprightly than the soul of a Brute because he surpasses it by his reasonable faculty Therfore the souls of the Elect are most spiritly above the souls of all other men because the Elect surpasse all other men by the Spirit of Christ by the Spirit of Regeneration and that Spirit which proceeds from God Which for that cause the Kingly Prophet called the principal Spirit Psalm 51. By vertue of which the Elect are called Spiritual yea spiritual in their bodies by a resurrection to a spiritual and eternal life The manner of composition of matter and conposition of Spirit is utterly different For that matter which hath most materials cast upon it swells to be bigger but that Spirit becomes more pure and clear which is compos'd of most Spirits And as in Arithmetick to multiply a minute is to to diminish it and divide it into subtiller parts so that Spirit which is multiplyed and rarified by more Spirits becomes more subtil The Spirit of Christ is added yea multiplyed and substracted in the Elect as it was multiplyed in Elisha and as it was taken from Moses and added to the sevent â— men of the Elders of Israel Numb 11. But these things are not belonging to the present discourse Truly I beleeve that Spirit of Christ which is infus'd into the Elect to have been that Leven laid up into three measures of meal of which speaks the Gospel according to St. Matthew Chap. 14. I say that Leven because it increases and is multiplyed in the Elect because it is mix'd with those three faculties of the soul which are in men the rational sensitive and vegetative The Spirit of Christ who from eternity is in the Elect by an eternal election without difference of Nations is in them the strength and power of regeneration resurrection and eternal life That strength is show'd forth and that power is brought unto act by a mystical election and mystical dispensations of time by which the Jews were first elected the Nations being refus'd and rejected which Jews by turn being ejected and neglected the Gentiles were taken into the place of the Jews and by which afterwards the Jews and the Gentiles in one body shall be joyn'd together in one Election and by whch at last the regeneration of both shall be perfected that at the end of time God may grant unto them both resurrection and life eternal without difference of Jew or Gentile which shall be the return from that mystical Election to eternal Election the end and consummation of all mysteries The end then of this Systeme which I must handle and bring about is set down in that mystical Election which was first fram'd to the Jews and into which the Gentiles came thrusting out the Jews that both Jews and Gentiles at last might come into one full salvation I say all this dispute shall be concerning the Jews and the Gentiles Of the Jews who without controversie sprung from Adam and of the Gentiles which according to my supposition I hold to be created before Adam Of the Adamite Jews and of the Gentiles before Adam The second Book of this SYSTEME OF DIVINITY CHAP. I. Of the election of the Jews The election of the Jews began from Adam the first father of the Jews The Jews the first-born because first elected They were not elected of their own deserving but of the meer bounty of God who willed and chused them Made of the same common earth of which other men were created God joyn'd in marriage to the church of the Israelites Father of the Jews The Jews esteem God because the sons of God God the Mother of the Jews Friend of the Jews The Jews the friends of God WE shall understand that the Gentiles are not sprung from the Linage and Kindred of the Jews by that which shall be spoken of the Election of the Jews and Gentiles of both a part We shall begin from the Election of the Jews The Election of the Jews is extolled in the 10 Ch. of Deut. above all things where Moses spoke to the people of the Jews Behold the heavens belong to the Lord and the heaven of heavens the earth and all therein yet the Lord was joyned to your fathers and chused their seed after them Deuteronomy agrees in this with the Epistle of the Hebrews where you may read this That Christ no where chose the Angels but the seed of Abraham For I placed the Foundation of the mystical Election on Christ inasmuch as he was made a Jew and of the seed of Abraham But Adam is but a Type of Christ chief of the seed of Abraham and of the Jews I say a type going before his prototype in order and time By which the mystery of Adam â—s finning is a presupposition of that mystery in which Christ died for the sin of Adam and in which the mystery of election is perfected Therefore we must review the Original of that mystical Election according to the order and dispensation of time from Adam the first Father of the Jews And by the same argument that salvation is from the Jews salvation will appear to come from Adam the first Father of the Jews I say from the very same Adam from whom likewise came condemnation Which salvation being propounded to all men in Adam men never had received it if Adam had not lost it Certainly Regeneration which is the second Creation the Salvation of men and their Election took its Original from the Law which was given to Adam and from that death which from the transgression of that Law did arise I say from the death of Christ which is an abolition of the first Creation and which from Adam himself entred into force But of this more exactly another time But by the same mystery that the Original of Election flowed from Adam upon all Men it was propagated by the same Adam as from his Off-spring upon his Sons and Grand-children all the branches of the Jews For for that cause did God chuse the seed of the Jews because he was before joyned to their Fathers in the forementioned 10 Chap. of Deuteronomy or which is the same because God chose the Father of the Jews For that Glew by which God clave unto the Fathers of the Jews was their Election for it is written in Exodus The God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob. This is my Name for ever and this my memorial from generation to generation Yet take notice of what Laban sayes to Jacob Genesis 31. The God of Abraham the God of Nachar judge betwixt us and the God of their Fathers Where observe that God was not onely the God of Abraham but the God of Nachar Abraham's Brother and the God of Thare Abraham and Nachar's Father
called high for its fruitfulnesse and the excellency of goodnesse by which it was advanced above other Lands The Land of Canaan was likewise call'd The Land of Promise because God by a peculiar Covenant promis'd it to the Fathers of the Jews It is written Gen. 12. That God appeard unto Abraham when he came into the Land of Canaan to which he led them by the hand and said to him To thy seed will I give all this Land And in the 15 Chapter In that day the Lord made a Covenant with Abraham saying I 'll give this Land to thy seed This promise was confirm'd to Isaac the son of Abraham 26. Gen. in these words Abide saies the Lord in the Land which I shall name to thee That Land was Canaan For to thee and to thy seed will I give all these Lands fulfilling my Oath which I sware to thy Father Thirdly this was likewise confirm'd in Jacob the son of Isaac The Land wherein thou sleepest sayes the Lord I will give to thee and to thy seed Hence that 104. Psal Remember for ever the Covenant of his speech which he ordain'd for a thousand generations which he promis'd to Abraham and his Oath unto Isaac which he appointed Jacob for ever and Israel for an everlasting Covenant saying to thee will I give the Land of Canaan the lot of thy inheritance God declar'd this Oath himself more openly Exod. 4. I have made a Covenant with the Israelites that I should give them the earth over which I lifted up my hand that I might give it to Abraham Isaac and Jacob Psalm 104. Canaan is call'd The lot of Israels inheritance According to which signification the people blessed God Psal 16. Because their lot had faln in a fair ground That Land of Promise Oath or Covenant which commonly and improperly is call'd Canaan because Canaan was only a regîon or a Province of it I say that Land God describes to Abraham in the 15 of Genesis I will give thee this land from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates And of this God spake to Jacob in the Vision of the Ladder Thou shalt be stretch'd out in it from the East to the West from the South to the North. These degrees are mark'd out in length and bredth Exod. 23. By these words I will put thy bounds from the Red sea to the sea of Palestin from the desert to the River To which adde that of the 89 Psalm Understand also by this red Sea not of the Gulf of Arabia but all that length of the Ocean which is saild about from the Gulf of Arabia to the Gulf of Persia which is either the red or Erythraean sea or more properly the Idumaean from Esau or Edom whose posterity inhabited the borders of that Sea which in the Hebrew is Edom in the Greek Erythraean in the Latin Red from whom this Sea took its name not from the colour but deriv'd from the first Prince Adde likewise Psalm 89. I will put his right hand in the Rivers Understand those rivers Nilus and Euphrates according to Genesis before-cited Chap. 15. I will give thee this Land from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates Nilus by excellency is the River of Egypt For although in the borders of Egypt and the Holy land there is found a little stream which is called The River of Egypt and the River of Nile Yet understand the Nile it self that the borders of the Holy Land may be fair and large from a very great river to a great river from Nilus to Euphrates And take Nilus here not as it divides Africk but the mouth of the Sea of Alexandria into which Nilus flows This mouth of the Sea of Alexandria is call'd Nile because this Sea is said to be changed into Nile and to receive the colour and taste of Nile it self where the Sea here with seven mouths disgorges it self into the Sea so Lucan in the end of his first book Where by the famous Nile the sea is changed The desert is stretched from the border of the sea of Alexandria continued along by the border of the gulf of Arabia which by a name largely taken the Hebrews call the flood of Egypt where it disgorges it self into the Red Sea and that is it which is meant in Exod. 23. I will put the bounds from the desart to the River That is to say from the Border of the Sea of Alexandria which is Nile and the Border of the gulf of Arabia to Euphrates which is here simply called the River These bounds then were appointed to the Holy Land the Red Sea which is the Ocean the Sea of Palestine which is the Mediterranean on one hand Nilus and Euphrates on the other And here really was that fenced Garden of the Jews nor could there be one better fenced then one environed with two Seas and two great Rivers That you may not onely imagine but see plainly this description I will here insert the Map of it First you must take notice That as the Jews were not chosen according to their own desert being made of that common clay but of the meer grace of God So the Land of the Jews was good and chosen not of its own nature but of the pleasure of God who blessed and chose it which Moses tells us in Deuteronomy 11. That Land sayes he is not like the Land of Egypt where after the seed is sown they dig rivers to water it but it is of hills and fields expecting rain from heaven to water it which thy God visits alwayes and his eyes are upon it from the beginning of the yeer to the end of it Therefore that ground was fertile not of its own nature and disposition as the Land of Egypt which is accounted of all Nations the fertillest upon Earth but because God had blest it because he gave it rain in his own time and opened to it his good treasure as it is Deut. 29. and Chapter 33. because the heaven mizled with rain upon it and that I may end in a word because God descended most upon it God provided that elect earth for the elected Jews Ezech. 20. That Israel might dwel in it alone and without fear Deut. 33. That is undefiled with admiration of Nations which ascribe to that chief right of election what we handled in the former Chapter in which God set aside the Jews for a peculiar people and Nation out of all the peoples and Nations of the earth whom being chosen for his portion and the lot of his Inheritance he likewise placed in a choice Land that they might inhabite it alone without fear TERRAE SANCTAE DELINEATIO CHAP. IV. Jerusalem the holy City of the holy Land the Temple placed in Jerusalem on the forked hill of Sion Eternal hills The City of David The City of the great King Of the Kings of the Jews JErusalem which was chief of the Cities of the Holy Land in greatness and
election advanced its Head above the rest was called the Princess of the Provinces in the first of the Lamentations of Jeremiah which God had peculiarly chosen out of all the Provinces and Cities of Israel it was called Jebus which is a treading under foot when it was numbred among the Cities of the Nations but being chosen and made a City of the Jews it was called by God Jerusalem that is The sight of peace Baruc. 5. Her foundations are in the holy mountains and glorious things are spoken of her Psalm 87. For that called the faithful City a City holy and elected and adorned with other great Titles well known in holy Writ The Temple placed in it was adorned with an Elogy of most choice holiness I have chosen and sanctified that place that my name may be there for ever and my eyes and my heart continue there alwayes 2 Chron. 7. That Temple was built upon the Mount of Sion God laid the foundation of the mount Sion for everlasting Psal 48. Hence those eternal Hills Deut. 33. as also Genesis 49. which are probably those two on the forked Hill of Sion upon the which the Temple of the Lord was built as likewise the City of David or of the King for which cause Jerusalem is said to be built upon the holy Hills Psal 87. now cited It was called The Temple of the Lord the rest of the Lord and his foot-stool the place of the Throne of God the place of his footsteps where he dwells in the midst of the sons of Israel Ezech. 43. for which cause the Hill of Sion is called the City of God because God dwelt in it God is great and very highly to be praised in his City in his holy hill This God is our God for ever Psalm 48. Our God is onely excellent in Sion cries out Isaias in the ravishment of his Spirit Chap. 3. onely that is cheifly by excellency and beyond all others excellent In which sence that Hill is likewise called a fat mountain and curdled Psalm 68. For all the rest of the Land of Canaan and Jerusalem flowed with the milk of election and sanctity of the Lord but the Hill of Sion was the cream of that milk that milk thickned and curdled a fat cheese pressed out of the milk of the election and sanctity of the Lord but that City was likewise called The city of the solemnity of the Jews Isay 33. Because all the Jews met there to pay their Vows and Sacrifices to God as also for their solemn joy and festivals according to the command of the Lord Deut. 12. In Sion you shall be joyful before your God you and your families in all wherein the Lord shall bless you there you shall feast before the Lord your God you your sons and daughters and your Levites there shall be the rest of the Lord and your rest The Temple and Jerusalem are for the most part joyned 2 Kingâ— 12. In this Temple and in Jerusalem will I put my name for ever And in Joel In the hil of Sion in Jerusalem there shall be salvation he that calls upon the Lord there shall be sâ—ved We must hear the Prayer of Solomon wherein he attests God in the behalf of Jerusalem and the Temple Kings 1. Chap. 8. Wheresoever said he thou shalt send thy People they shall pray to thee toward the City which thou hast chosen and towards that house which I have built to thy Name and thou shalt hear their prayer in heaven More I will say of the holy and chosen Land of Jerusalem and of the Temple of God when I shall speak of the return of the Jews which shall be their full Election In the top of the hill of Sion stood the Palace of the King which was called The City of David and which the Lord himself call'd the City of the great King Of this David and of this great King we shall afterwards have a great discourse In the mean time we must speak something of the Kings of the Jews who sat upon the high Throne of the City of David of whom this was the original We said before that the Lord God was King of the Jews A God to help them with heavenly assistance A King to stand for them in the battel to advance the shield draw the sword and put to flight the â—nemies of the Jews But because when the Jews began to be very stiff-necked it often came to passe that God turn'd from them and going from home as the Gospel speaks conâ—inued long absent then the Jews wthout a King and a Defender were open to the incursions of their enemies who spoyl'd them and most cruelly did destroy them utterly They fearing lest this might again befall them when Samuel their Judge was deed as also his Sons not walking in his ways requested a King who might judge them according to the manner of other Nations who might go out before them and fight their battels for them Which troubled Samuel Nor did the Lord slight the Petition of the Jews Hearken to them in all that they say to thee for they have not rejected thee but me Sam. 1. Chap. 8. Which open thus I was saith the Lord God and King of the Jews by Covenant And I appointed thee O Samuel by that Kingly power which I had over the Jews and thy sons to be their Judges Therefore having rejected thee and thy sons from being Judges they have not rejected thee but me who appointed thee And in that wherein they trespasse against thee they more hainously and grievously trespassed against me For in this they plainly discover'd their thoughts how little confidence they have in me and how weakly their hopes are fix'd upon me But because they are so unbeleeving and hardned in the foolishnesse of their hearts Harken to them and set a King over them Yet truly God had promis'd before in the desert that he would set a King over the Jews Deut. 17. Yea God had promis'd the Jews Kings at what time he blessed Abraham and the Jews in Abraham Kings shall come out of thee And Jacob prophâ—cying and in his sons blessing all the Jews The Scepter shall not depart from Juda. CHAP. V. The Gentiles elected in the Jews by a mystical â—lectâ—on Esteem'd the sons of God because elected in the Jews And grafted in the Jews AFter we have spoken of the election of the Jews it is fit that in order we should speak of the election of the Gentiles which sprang from the Jews as our Lord Jesus Christ himself most openly expresses to the Samaritan Woman in the fourth Chapter of the Gospel according to St. John Salvation is by the Jews But that which God the Son told this Gentile woman God the Father long before promis'd the Fathers of the Jews first to Abraham Genesis Chapter 12. All the kinreds of the earth shall be blessed in thee Then in the following Chapter That all the Nations of the earth should be
likewise call the Jews the sons of Adam since they are also called the sons of Jacob the sons of Isaac the sons of Abraham I say for the same reason as Adam was the Father of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. The Jews by name are call'd the sons of Adam Psalm 58. If you truly speak justice and judge rightly ye sons of Adam for ye work wickednesse in your heart and your hands work injustice upon the earth The Kingly Prophet in this place reproves the Jews whom according to the Hebrew text he calls the sons of Adam because professing justice with their mouths they judg'd wickednesse and in their heart and affections wrought the wickednesse of the Gentiles Which reproach you shall often find cast upon the Jews Such is that of Isay 49. This people draw nigh to me with their lip but their heart is far from me and they have worship'd me according to the command of men and doctrine that is they have worship'd me according to the order commands and doctrine of the Gentiles The second reproach cast upon the the Jews in this Psalm is That their hands wrought wickednesse upon earth Which earth is to be understood that choice holy earth and Land of the Saints that is of the Jews Isa 26. It was a great crime in the Jews that they had wrought injustice but a greater crime that they had wrought it in the land of the Lord which was elect and holy which to fill with iniquity as Ezekiel 8 Chap. speaks was to provoke the Lord. Hence that laid upon the Church of the Iews Thou hast polluted the land with thy fornications and wickednesse which in another place he call'd to defile the earth Here the Iews are understood by the sons of Adam who spake justice with their mouthes but judg'd wickedly and wrought iniquities in their heart and fram'd injustice in the Land holy and elect which is as much to the Iews as to live like Gentiles And David to deterre the sons of Adam the Iews from such deeds of the Gentiles shows them what the Gentiles were and what punishment they were to expect for their wickednesse in the same Psalm and in the next words They erre say they being sinners from the womb they are sinners from their from their nativity they have spoken false things which read thus in that place That he meant they were sinners from the womb in the same sense as St. Paul speaks of the Gentiles Ephesians 2. Sons of wrath by nature for by nature is the same as from the womb It is added they have spoken lies which could be only ascribed to the Gentiles For the â—ons of Adam that is the Iews are here sâ—eaking justice and truly If you truly speak justice ye sons of Adam Yea truth was granted to the Iews according to that of Micah Chap. 20. Thou shalt give truth unto Jacob. That truth was the law and justice of God For which cause the Iews who had the Law of God were called a just Nation and observing truth On the contrary understand the Gentiles by those who spake lies according to that of the 5 Psal In the mouth of the Gentiles there is no truth And again Ye sons of men why wander ye in vanity and follow after lies And in the 62 Psalm The sons of men are vain and light in the ballance Vain and Lyars are joyn'd together And when St. Paul writes in the first of the Romans That all the creation is subject to vanity Understand the first creation which of it self is vain flying and like a first dream Wherefore Nature her self being bad made those of the first creation lyers and wicked Therefore the Iews who truly speak justice are the sons of Adam The sinners the Gentiles who spake lyes CHAP. XI The Jews are called by Moses the sons of Adam The 32. Chap. of Deut. is explained And Isaiah and Hoseas of Adam the first Father of the Jews The Gentiles called strangers the Jews a kinde of men distinct in species from the Gentiles The Gentiles earth-born The Psalm 49. is explained Abraham had servants born in his house and also bought who were not of his stock that is of Adam Who are the sons of men who is the son of man The difference 'twixt the brethren of the Jews and other strangers THere is a remarkableâ— place Deuteron 23. which is the song of Moses in which the Jews are prophetically restored into their Land and are separated from all the People and Nations but the people and the Gentiles separated from the Jews And whom the Jews being in the midst of them shall sometime separate are placed on this side and that side bordering upon the Jews where Moses sayes The most high divided the Nations when he separated the sons of Adam he appointed their bounds according to the number of Israel or which is the same according to the twelve Tribes of the Jews which is the number of the sons of Israel And in the 54 Chap. Behold a stranger shall come who was not with me and he who was a stranger to thee shal be joyned to thee The Gentiles shall adhere and be joyned to the Jews shall be neer to the Jews and neer to the borders of the Jews but shall not be mixed with them which observe for that was openly decreed and promised Deut. 33. Israel shall dwell with security and alone that is undefiled with the mixture of the Nations which is not yet but that it shall be we shall show in its due place Moses gave this reason of the separation of the Jews from the Gentiles in the same song and in the words immediately following His people are the inheritance of the Lord and his portion that is Although in that day the Lord bless all the Gâ—ntiles and in his second Election make them partakers of his inheritance although in that day according to the promise made to Abraham all the Nations be blessed in the seed of Abraham Notwithstanding the Jews who are the seed of Abraham blessed first and before the Gentiles shall be a better part and inheritance of the Lord and shall be accounted to God as a peculiar inheritance the most elect are set apart from the less elect as Saint Paul said that he himself was set apart for a most elect vessel for the Gospel of God Chap 1. Epist to Rom. Further these are applied to the Prophesâ—e of Isaiah and are expounded by it Chap. 19. In that day Israel shall be third 'twixt Egypt and Assyria a blessing in the midst of the earth which the Lord hath blessed Blessed be my people of Egypt and the Assyrian the work of my hands and Israel my inheritance Where note That Egypt is beyond Nile and the gulf of Arabia and Assyria beyond Euphrates placed on the one side and on the other borderers upon Israel that Israel is placed in the third plece betwixt Egypt and Assyria betwixt the Bounds of his Rivers I say observe that
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
deriv'd to his own time We know certainly That the Phoenicians had the use of Letters long before Moses and that the Phoenicians spake the same language as the Hebrews did A clear proof of which Samuel Petit hath given us in his Miscellanea and the famous Bouchard in his Phaleg But if the Phoenicians learn'd to speak from the Hebrews Why should not we think they learn'd likewise to write from them Therefore the Hebrews wrote before Moses But what should the Hebrews rather write than their own historie and what hinders us to believe that Moses receiv'd the Jewish Chronicle from them which he wâ—ot Truly I think that Moses whose end it was to write chiefly his own History and the History of the times wherin he liv'd wrote very briefly all the things which were before his own time especially such things as concern'd the first creation And those which were the gatherers of Copies touch'd a great deal more briefly the heads of the Jews and the universal creation And hence I think it has come to passe that the creation of the world is ended in one in the first Chapter of Genesis and that afterward the framing of Adam and building of Eve are a little more particularly set down and that after all that time which was betwixt Cam and Noah is run over in the 4. and 5. Chap. Let any reasonable man judge whether or no in those 4 and 5 Chapters which are very short and full of Genealogies all could be comprehended which was acted or invented upon the face of the earth for a thousand six hundred yeares and more And whether in any reason we can deny such things as without violation of Mysteries of Faith by natural and right demonstrations can be made appear only for this cause because these two short Chapters make no mention of them Thus I seriously considering and diligently weighing all those things which I at large have spoken concerning those most antient times both out of prophane and sacred history as also which I shall speak hereafter of that Eternal age since which the world is said to have been framed by the Prophets and Apostles I doubted not to recall the creation of the first men to the beginnings of things long before Adams time Nor does it trouble me that Genesis makes â—o mention of those men Yea I thought it enough that it had not expreâ—ly denyed such men Yet although Genesis have so briefly nothing more brief gone over the originals of things yet we may gather from the same book that the creation of the first men was far different which is hinted at in the first Chapter from the fashioning of Adam the first father of the Jews which is more largely set down in the second Chapter They argue ordinarily We hear no men named before Adam in Genesis Therefore there were none before Adam And yet we deny that that there was no men before Adam because there are none nam'd in Genes's For it is well known that all things are nor â—et down in Genesis nor that all things must be denyed which Genesis mentions not whose intention it was not to write the History of the first men but of the first Jews only On the same account they affirm that the Ark of Noah was the first of all ships because we read of never another in Genesis As if Adam who according to their supposition was taught all arts at his making should have been ignorant of Navigation the most excellent of all arts and most necessarie for the societie of men They also tell us the same story of Noahs planâ—ing the first Vine because Moses tells us of no Vine planted before it as if the earth when it it was created in the youth of the world had not brought forth any Vines the giver of mirth and restorer of youth Adam being an excellent Husbandman should have neglected the planting of Vines the sweetest part of agriculture and abandon'd wine which according to the Scripture glads God and man But they talk of a Man-monster not of a man who think that Melchisedech was really without Father or Mother or without Original neither having any beginning of dayes nor end of life only for that reason because Moses in no place makes mention either of the Parents birth or death of Melchisedech They doe not mind that which Iohn Cameron a most learned and acute Divine has observ'd That these things were by Moses mystically pass'd over and mystically observ'd by Moses to shew that the Priesthood of Melchisedech was eternal according to the Priesthood of Christ not temporal like the Legal and Mosaical Priesthood which beginning from Fathers begat sonnes in the same order and taking its rise from Moses ended in Christ But Melchisedech's Priesthood neither came from the Fathers of it which were Priests nor was deriv'd upon the Sons which were Priests but such a one it was as had no known beginning and was like to have no known ending Reason and Faith perswade us to understand these things so least the mysterie of silence should pervert the order of nature according to which Melchisedech who had both Father and Mother might naturally beget children and naturally have an original and an end But say they Genesis does not set these things down so Nay these things are not against Genesis these agree with Faith and Reason And these things show that Genesis wrote mysteries not monstrous things Therefore these things are so because so to be understood And with like negligence they believe that there was no men before Adam because there is none before him read of in Moses Nor is it taken notice of that the design of Moses in setting down Adam was not to mention the first of mankinde but the Father of the Jews whose peculiar Historie he wrote and not the History of all Nations Truly the beginning of the Jews in Moses and in Josephus both is with Adam After that Moses has told us the beginning of men and of the Gentiles in the first Chapter with the beginning of the world and has set down the Gentiles different in stock and original from the Jews The Gentiles I say the births of divine creation from the beginning and the Jews the sons of divine architecture in Adam CHAP. III. Men erre as often as they understand any thing more generally which ought to be more particularly taken The darkness at the death of our Saviour was over the whole Land of the Jews not over all the world The Star which appear'd to the Wise men was a stream of light in the ayr not a star in heaven THere is great errour in reading the Scripture many times when that is taken more more generally which ought to be particularly understood as that of Adam whom Moses made first Father of the Jews and whom we hyberbolically call the first Father of all men That which is believ'd of the darknesse in the death of our Saviour is of the same strain For the
things flow'd from that beginning which is the beginning of their knowledge and are content to remit that alone to posterity So Plato To this adde the length of time which changes and consumes all things from whole devoâ—ring jaws the Egyptians could not rescue themselves For they though they show'd abundance of ancient monuments both of their own and other Nations had notwithstanding lost the Annals of their King God Vulcan and of the Sun his son To these deluges fires and devouring times add that grosse ignorance which in several ages hath orerun the whole world more powerfull than fire than water than time it self which hath swallowed blotted out and defaced the memory of things past To this add the wickked dispositions of many men and the hatefull desires of Princes as that of Nabonassar the Chaldaean from whom to the death of Alexander there were four hundred twenty four years He caus'd the deeds of all Kings before him to be abolish'd that a new beginning of all affairs and Kings might begin its computation from himself whence the date of Nabonassar was deriv'd Alvarez a Samedo in his History of China relates That a certain King call'd Tein commanded by a Proclamation to burn all the Books of the Chinensians except Physick-books and was so carefull in bringing an utter destruction for 40 years that he reigned that he utterly overthrew all learned men and all learning in his own age As that was likewise the ambition of vanquishing Princes which so much alter'd the computation of time when they chang'd the Epoche and would have the times nam'd by their names Hence those known Periods from the death of Alexander of Augustus from the fight of Actium and that which was call'd the Epoche of Dioclesian The antient Aegyptians renew'd the intervals of their years as often as they receiv'd new Lawes from new Kings and new Conquerours Which Scaliger in his Book De emendatione Temporum sayes they did very frequently We must needs imagine that all climates of the world have been diversly ruin'd but successively and by turns not all with one push or at one time That those men who were in their own land too numerous behov'd to make up their losses That by divers chances and fortunes mankind hath been toss'd hither and thither nor could not alwayes continue in the same stations Hence it is that no Land could ever boast it self of its Aboriginals that is to say of those men who were first created in it who in the first spring of the Creation came forth every where out of the earth And hence it is that I trust neither Aegyptian Scythian nor Aethiopians calling themselves Aboriginalls and the most antient of Nations The Christian Fathers who liv'd in the next age to Christ whom its fit we call the sons of light as they were not wiser than the sons of this world in their generations so were not they more diligent or provident than they in the enquiry of those generations They were wiâ—e in those things which belong'd to heaven and the second creation they neglected such things as were of the earth and the first creation And as they adhered to the reading of the holy Scriptures they very well rejected the fables of the pedigrees of the Gentiles who thought themselves Aboriginals But on the other side too negligently by their leave they rested upon Adam and thought him alone the first parent of all men because he is read the first in Moses The same negligence which possessed the first pursued the successive Doctors of the Church who knew no other men but such as were begotten by Adam Yea they pronounced them Hereticks that plac'd the Antipodes over against Adams posterity because they must then think them the posterity of some body else I would St. Augustine and Lactantius were now alive who scoff'd at the Antipodes Truly they would pity themselves if they should hear or see those things which are discover'd in the East and West Indies in this clear-sighted age as also a great many other Countries full of men to which it is certain none of Adams posterity ever arived CHAP. XIV They are deceiv'd who deduce the Originals of men from the Grand-children of Noah Grotius concerning the Original of the Nations in America confuted IT is the manner of all men who search out the Originals of Nations to derive them after the flood from the Grandchildren of Noah who were the Grandchildren of Adam And great men are so earnest in this whom I very much prise and have in continual respect for them that they cut out all their originals out of this block And either from some antient record or some old tradition or the similitude of some old and obsolete name or from any other conjecture Some they imagine that landed at such or such a place to have been the authors or fathers of such a Nation As if Italus who fled for example into Italy and gave a name to that Countrey had been the father and author of all the Italians and that Nation had had no Inhabitants before Italus As if the Francks should be thought the authors and first founders of all the French Nation and that there had been no Frenchmen before the Franks because the Franks seiz'd upon France and chang'd the name of the Province and of Gallia made it Francia Must needs Peru be thought to have had their Original from the Chinensians because a piece of a broken boat like those of the Chinensians was found on the banks of Peru Those who guesse so seem to me to be like that two-peny Doctor who told the sick man he had eaten an Asse because he saw the dorsers standing under the bed Hugo Grotius sets out a discourse of the Originals of the Nations of America whom he derives from the Norwegians who eight hundred years ago were carried to Island and went from thence to Greenland and so from Greenland through the Lands adjoyning he conjectur'd got to the South parts of America Laetius did confute the conjecture of Grotius Grotius vindicates himself from Laetius and those things which in him Laetius had confuted he by this absurdity resolv'd to restore But sayes he if the Americans are not Germans the Norwegians and Germans were with him all one now they shall be the Off-spring of no Nation which is as much as to believe with Aristotle that they were from eternity or born of the earth as is reported of the Spartans or of the Ocean according to Homer or that there were some men before Adam as one in France lately dream'd If such things sayes he be believ'd I see a great danger imminent to Religion Grotius had â—â—ittle before read a little discourse of the Prae-Adamices undigested and about to be revis'd which he under colour of friendship by an acquaintance had requir'd of me which I friendly did communicate to him not that he should abuse me Nor do I desire to make return or speak ill of the
should be imputed to any one but his own It remains then that all men have committed the sin of Adam according to similitude if not actually And indeed because there is nothing in the world which is not either the thing actually or the similitude of it which is the image of reality Nor could there be any lawfull imputation from the sin of another but by that supposition by which he who is put in place of the sinner is thought to be transform'd into his image and similitude and to have sinn'd that by similitude which the other sinn'd actually so that for the similitude such punishments may be laid upon the personater of the guilty person as were ordained for himself This the Apostle maintains to have happen'd to all men and to have sinn'd as Adam sinn'd and to have suffer'd the same death which Adam suffer'd for his sin By one man sayes he sin entred into the world and by sin death I say he would have all men turn'd into the image and similitude of the transgression of Adam that they might all be thought to have sinn'd according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam and the like death reign'd over them which reign'd over him for the similitude of his transgression And the Apostle that none might be freed from the death of this punishment adds That death reign'd from Adam upon those also who had not sinn'd according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam For it was known before that the sin of Adam had passed upon all men which had been born since the framing of Adam and should be born afterwards and that death reign'd from him upon his posterity But that he might comprehend all men in the sin of Adam whose roots reached as far from Adam to the foregoing ages as their branches reached from Adam to the future ages and the times after Adam It was the meaning of the Apostle that the sin of Adam was indifferently imputed to all men before and since and that death reign'd from him upon those that were past and those that were to come A wonderful but no singular mystery For the faith of Abraham was imputed by the same mystery to all the faithful both born before Abraham from all eternity and who were born after Abraham and shall be born to all eternity in which sense Abraham is called the father of the Faithfull of those that are past and are also to come To these add what I have said of the imputation of the death of Christ That the death of Christ was not only imputed to all men born after Christ but past back upon all those likewise born before Christ And as it was fit it should be so likewise the manner of the mystical imputation perswades us that it was so spiritually I mean and by way of conception according to which mystical imputation takes hold of men For as Lightning breaking out of a cloud enlightens with one flash things above it and things below it So the imputation that broke out of the sin of Adam darted one and the same lightning upon all men those that were born after Adam and those that were born before him And the same manner of mysterie which may teach us that the death of Adam pass'd upon all men that were not born many ages after Adam will teach us that death could reign backward upon those that were born before him never so long For the manner of imputation is alike for the time past and for the time to come Nor is there any new miracle to be sought for that sin should be imputed to men created before Adam if it be believ'd to be imputed to men created after Adam Let us as far as we conceive view all men from the beginning to the end And at last you will confess that no other could sin but according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam but only those that were begotten and born before Adam For it is certain that all men after Adam and their sons and who shall also be by them begotten did sinn according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam What kind of men must those be I beseech ye who did not sin according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam Certainly it must be those who were born before Adam because the Apostle sayes manifestly they sinn'd before the Law Rom. 5. And to whom before the Law and Adam their sin was not imputed because sin is not imputed when the Law is not And therefore they neither sinn'd nor could sin according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam To make the difference betwixt them and all the posterity of Adam who sinn'd after the Law because after Adam to whom the sin of Adam was imputed because sin began to be imputed from the Law and from Adam and who could sin only according to this real similitude of the transgression of Adam of which we here speak and which no doubt the Apostle meant Let famous men pardon me that have expounded St. Paul upon this place if I tell them that those things which they speake concerning children here are inconsistent whom they would have here to be the persons meant who sinn'd not according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam because they sinn'd not actually as Adam did Yea if they had sinn'd actually they had not sinn'd according to similitude because act is the reality of a thing no similitude And in that very regard because infants sinned not actually they must needs sin according to similitude But the mixture of those natural sins of Adam deceiv'd those most famous men which were inherent to him together with that legall sin which passed upon all men For they imagin'd that children sinn'd not according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam because they sinn'd not actually as Adam sinn'd As for example Because they kill'd not actually as Adam kill'd or might have kill'd because they committed not adultery actually as Adam did or might have done because they stole not actually as Adam stole or might have stollen and so of the rest of Adams natural sins But here there was no intention concerning the similitude of all his natural sins but only of the similitude of his disobedience Into which disobedience no man nor no child could ever fall actually The Apostle said not Who had not sinn'd according to the similitude of Adams sins Nay that only Who had not sinned according to the similitude of Adams transgaession For here he intended nothing concerning all the sins of Adam and those natural sins of Adam which only concern'd himself but of that one transgression that passed upon all men All I say both of age and under age as all men are indifferently comprehended in the species and in regard that old and young and men of all ages sinned in spirit and mysterie not naturally and materially according to the similitude of the transgression of Adam For although