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
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
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
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
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
which could easily return to its own disposition 18 V. Of the matter of men subject to corruption Of the upright creation of men Of the Return of man to the disposition of his own nature And of his matter given to corruption 22 VI. God restor'd men created upright and turn'd backward to the wickedness of their own nature â—â—to a better estate by a second creation and lifts them up from men to be Gods Of that whâ—ch is produc'd and of that which is made Of mutable and immutable Of mortal and immortal Of tâ—â—e Spirit which is in God and of the Spirit of the world 28 VII Of one God and of one Spirit which is of God Of divers Gods and Spirits 31 VIII Men being misled by evil spirits fell from their right estate wherein they were creâ—â—ed into the wickedness of their own nature Being restor'd by the Spirit of Regeneration who only proceeds from God they know God whom flesh and blood knows not They obtain hâ—liness which they could not have in their first creation and recompence their natural death with a supernatural immortality 37 IX The Regeneration oâ— men is the grace and gift of God It is not granted to all men to be regenerated but only to the Elect. Election is in things natural Divine Election is in Gods Elect. Who are elected And who are called Reâ—robates 43 X. Divine election is consider'd two manner of waâ—es in God and in mystery One is from eternity The other only distributed according to mystical occasions The one admits of all men indifferently The other first chose the Jews and in them all the Nations of the world The Contents of the Chapters in the second Book CHAP. I. OF the election of the Jews The election of the Jews began from Adam the first father of the Jews The fews 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 ioyn'd in marriage to the church of the Israelites Father of the Jews The Jews esteem God because the sons of God Godâ—â—e Mother of the Jews Friend of the Jews The Jews the friends of God 55 II. God King of the Jews Jews the people of God God the Lord of the Jews Jews the servants of God The Jews call'd holy Call'd just The Jews elected for an eternal people Set apart from all the people of the earth for the lot and inheritance of the Lord. 65 III. To the elected Iews an elected Land was given A holy Land because the Land of the holy And the land of Promise because it was promised with an Oath to the Fathers of the Iews A description of the Holy Land That was a choice land not of its own nature but according to the pleasure of God who bless'd and chus'd it The land of the Iews And for the Iews only to dwell in 73 IV. Jerusalem the holy City of the holy Land the Temple placed in Jerusalem on the forked hill of Sion Eternal hils The City of David The City of the great King Of the Kings of the Iews 79 V. The Gentiles elected in the Iews by a mystical election Esteem'd the sons of God because elected in the Iews And grafted in the Iews 83 VI. Gentiles different from the Iews in Kinred and Original in as much as they are ingrafted in them Gentiles call'd Atheists because without a God called simply men and sons of men and foolish wicked c. 88 VII That the Gentiles are called Sinners 94 VIII Gentiles called children little ones pure 98 IX The Gentiles called the sons of wrath The enemies of God Beasts and so esteemed by the Iews yea unclean beasts The opposite comparison betwixt the Iews and the Gentiles 107 X. The Iews 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 Iews peculiarly form'd by the hands of God God call'd the fashioner of the Iews Adam first Father of the Iews The Iews are call'd the Sons of Adam 112 XI The Iews 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 Iews The Gentiles called strangers the Iews a kind 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 stook that is of Adam Who are the sons of men Who is the son of man The difference 'twixt the brethren of the Iews and other strangers 118 The Contents of the third Book CHAP. I. THe original of the Gentiles is proved to be different from the original of the Iews out of Gen. The Gentiles were created in that creation which is mentioned Chap. 1. All creatures and all men male and female were created on the sixth day of the creation as plants trees and flying fowls upon their own dayes through all the woold Why upon that day one man and he alone from whom all should arise was not created 129 II. Adam was created apart from other men in that creation which is mentioned Gen. 2. Adam was the first and father of the Iews not of all men The framing of Adam was altogether different from the creation of the first men Eve could not be created the same day as Adam was made 135 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 140 IV. Cain a tiller of the ground Abel a shepherd and a keeper of sheep Cain having kill'd his brother Abel is afraid Flies the punishment of fratricide Flies like all guilty men to the East of Eden Marries a wife begets a son and in the same East of Eden builds a City Adam is said to have begotten sons and daughters from the birth of Seth to the death of Adam himself It is not written that he begat either sons or daughters from the death of Abel to the birth of Seth. 146 V. The Genâ—tles prov'd different from the Iews out of the monuments of the Gentiles from the stock of Adam The argument of eternity divided into two classes by the antients Of time Of the bundles of years which the Chaldaeans had made up Of the Periodical year Of the returning and great year Years signified by Serpents Of the cave of age decipher'd by Claudian Of the age of ages 153 VI. Men know not their first histories originals Of the Chaldaeans Of the stupendious number of years which the Chaldaeans are said to have set down in the computation of their Astronomical Tables Of the Aegyptians And of the myriads
certainly Therefore we must understand the Serpent to have crept in two senses before sin and after sin that he crept before sin naturally by the nature of his creation that he crept after sin according to the decree of God and by that condemnation which was onely in spirit So may we understand Adam to have dyed two manner of ways Naturally that he dyed naturally according to the first intention of his making before the Law Legally and after a spiritual manner after the Law by that decree and Law of condemnation which is spiritually conceiv'd Therefore we shall think that there is a twofold death in all men as we conceive to be in Adam Natural which happens naturally to all men by their own imbred nature which is corruptible and mortal A Legal one which smote all men that minute mystically when it was decreed against Adam A natural death by which men dyed naturally before the Law a Legal death which passed spiritually upon them after the Law by transgression of the Law A natural death which followed mans natural sin a Legal death caused by the legal sin of men from the sin of Adam A mystical cause of a mystical effect which onely by way of spirit and mystery is conceivable And truly as the Law of creeping ordain'd against Serpents in the Law of Adam did adde nothing to the reptile nature of Serpents but a condemnation meerly spiritual so the Law of death added nothing to the mortal nature of men except that condemnation of death which in thought and mystery is only conceiv'd Remember says David Psal 89. what is my substance And a little after What man is he that liveth and shall not see death which the Kingly Prophet understood of natural death the causes of which he ascrib'd to the substance and matter of men not to the sin of Adam adde to this what St. Paul hath written Rom. 8. Flesh savours of death and in the 6 Chap. of the same Epistle The wages of sin is death In which he meant natural sin and natural death because natural death is incorporate with natural sin being the sauce of which the flesh rellishes which is the nature and matter of sin Moreover by this distinction of natural and legal sin and natural and legal death easily appears the interpretation of that place of Numbers Chap. 27. where the daughters of Zelopheâ—ad speak unto Moses Our Father dyed in the desert and was not in that sedition which was stirred up against the Lord by Core but died in hâ—s sin They say that their father was dead not in that Judgement wherein Core was swallowed up who rebelled against the Lord but by the sin and fault of his nature which is the seed of sin and corruption and by that fate of nature by which death is the last period of all things subject to corruption They doe not say that he was swallowed up in that just Judgement wherein the lowest earth opened to swallow up those Conspirators but that he dyed a single death in the desert by that same natural Law by which all men owe themselves to death and by which simple natural death abides natural sin CHAP. IV. Men were in the beginning created according to the Image of God and very good Of the Image of God in the first creation Of the Image of God in the second creation Men were created upright in the beginning but of vâ—tious matter which could easily return to its own disposition IT seems not to agree with that which is set down in the 1 of Genesis That I said the Creation of man was evill and corrupt For there it 's said that God did create man according to his own Image and that all things which God created were very good whence Interpreters conclude and rightly that man being created according to Gods own Image was created perfect and upright And if all that God created was very good that man then who was the most excellent of the Creatures was exceeding good To this that I may answer I would first have it granted that the impression of Gods Image in the first creation is different from that in the second creation God expressed in the first Creation that first Image and copie of his wonderful art by which he made the World and all that therein is and by excellent wisdom compos'd and ponder'd them In his renewing which is the second creation God express'd the Image of his own nature wherein he communicated his love and bounty to the Wor'd God in his first creation shewed the out-side of his work but in the second he opened the bowels of his love The first creation expressed the Image of God which we may call the exterior the second creation presents us with the internal Image of God There was nothing besides which God did not communicate in the Image of that plat-form and of his admirable art which he exppress'd in all things which he created But he did not make all things partake of that Image of his nature loâ—e and bounty which be most worthily shewin men when he did regenerate or when he went about to regenerate them Furthermore whatsoever material or corporeal things ar created by the law of their own nature they ar created corruptible and mortal but whatsoever out of things corruptible and material are created a new by the Law of that second creation become incorruptible and immortal To say nothing of other material and corporeal things it is certain that men in the beginning were created according to the Image of God that Image of their Creator which we may call the Image of creation yea they were created according to such an Image of creation which above all other Images of creation is the most excellent amongst all the frames of the creatures which more expresly and more highly represented the Creator But we must confess that men were created at first according to the exteriour Image of God which is called nighest to God at a greater distance in comparison to the Image of the second creation It is true that men were created in the beginning perfect right and excellently good in as farr as men by force and vertue of their creation could be created perfect right and excellently good But no man ought to be ignorant that men were created from the beginning of corruptible matter which might easily be turn'd from perfect to imperfect from right to wrong from good to evil which the men which were first created did evidence by a strong and approved example since the nature of their composition and their own negligence carried them being upright made so far aside Therefore so often as I think of this That men being created according to the Image of God the Creator and according to the Image of the first plat-form perfect right and very good by a fault in them ingrafted by nature did degenerare from righteousness to wickedness from good to evil So often I fancy a Watch newly
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
those mystical ornaments and gifts with which God decks his Israelitish Bride that he might advance her from the clay of her creation to the splendour of divine glory Ezechiel Chap. 16 I cloth'd thee saith the Lord with partie-coloured garments and shod thee with shoes of violet colour and girded thee with silk and put a fine garment upon thee and deck'd thee with an ornament and put bracelets upon thine arms and a chain about thy neck And put a jewel upon thy face and rings into thine ears and a crown of comliness upon thy head and thou wast adorn'd with gold and silver and thou wast cloth'd with silk and embroydery of divers colours Thou didst eat wheat and honey and thou becamest excellently fair and rose up into a kingdom Again God restified his paternal love to the Jews when he chose them to be his Sons and did become their Father nay he grac'd his Election of them when he call'd them his honourable Sons Ephraim is my honourable son Jerem. 31. Whom he likewise nam'd Gods according to his own name O Israel I have call'd thee by my name Isai 43. According to that solemn custom by which children are called after the name of their Father Of which see the 82 Psalm I have said ye are Gods and all of you sons of the most High Which Christ himself interprets concerning the Jews in the tenth Chapter of the Gospel according to St. John The Jews were there stoning Christ because he call'd himself a God Christ reproving the Jews in that place argues with them in these words Is it not written in your Law I said you are Gods If God said that they were Gods to whom the word of God came the Scripture cannot be false He whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world you say that he blasphemes because I say I am the son of God Which you may more more easily and roundly polish thus If the Scripture O Jews call'd you Gods to whom the word of the Lord came Why should not I be call'd the Son of God who am the Word of God To this that which is written in the beginning of the same Psalm God stood in the Congregation of Gods and standing in the midst of the Gods he gives Judgement which are to be understood of the Jews For that assembly in the midst of which God is said here to stand was the Temple of God That place of the Throne of God and the place of his fooostool where he dwelt in the midst of the sons of Israel Ezechiel 43. In which Temple the Assembly and Church of the Jews was kept The Jews then were Gods and the Assembly of Gods was the Synagogue of the Jews Moreover God threatned in this Psalm those Gods and those Jews that they should die like men that is to say like the Gentiles But you shall die like men that is like the Gentiles as afterwards shall appear David tells us the reason in the beginning of this Psalm why the Jews must needs dye as well as the Gentiles because the Jews says he would judge unrighteousness and accept the face of a sinner that is to say because the Jews forgetting the Law of God would imitate the iniquity of the Gentiles because they would turn themselves to the faces of the Gentiles and transform themselves from holy Jews to be sinfull Gentiles for the Gentiles were sinners as after shall appear The Jews are called gods here inasmuch as they are the Sons of God and because Sons are said not only to bear the names of their Parents but likewise to represent their persons I say you are gods and all of you the sons of the most high The Jews were Gods most dear and best beloved Children whom God is said to carry as a man is said to carry his child Deut. 1. As also to instruct them as a man instructs his son Deut. 8. To have carried them about and to have preserv'd them as the apple of his eye Deut. 32. Which in Latin is translated to have carried them about in his eys Nor did God only love them as a Father loves his children but open'd likewise the bowels of his mercy to the Jews like tender Mothers who hugg their children close to their brests Whom he is likewise said to have carried in his womb And if the Mother would be unmindfull of her Children yet God would not be unmindful of the Jews Isay 49. What shall I say more of that frienship wherein God was pleased to joyn himself to the Jews God was joyn'd to the Jews and lov'd them Deut. 10. The seed of Abraham my friend Isay 4. As also God calls Israel his darling his child of his houshold his tender child Jeremy 3. Which that I may more nakedly and truly expound God was tyed to Israel in that bond of friendship by which the soul of Jonathan was tied to the soul of David 1 Sam. ch 18. and by such a one as God himself lov'd his belov'd Disciple Therefore was Israel call'd the chiefest lover of the Lord Deuteronom 32. God is also call'd the Shepherd of Israel and the Jews are call'd the Sheep of his Pasture We are the people of the Lords pasture and the sheep of his hands Psalm 95. Which was certainly a great sign of their Election For a good shepherd knows the number of his sheep and calls them by their names So God knows the elect and reckons their number so God led the Jews with his rod and his staff and put them in a place of pasture brought them out by the waters of comfort Psalm 23. Lastly there is no example of love paternal affection motherly dearnesse friendship and care by which he chose lov'd fed cared for and kept the Jews CHAP. II. God King of the Jews Jews the people of God God the Lord of the Jews Jews the servants of God The Jews call'd holy Call'd just The Jews elected for an eternal people Set apart from all the peoplâ— of the earth for the lot and inheritance of the Lord. THat love with which a good King is mov'd towards his people comprehends the affections of all other men For a good King is Father Pastor and Friend to his people yea head of his people as the man is the head of the woman And in that regard Ierusalem by which the people of the Jews is signified and which is call'd the City of the great King is Queen and Princesse and Bride to that King in holy Authors Therefore God is King of the Jewish people and the people of the Jews are the people of their own King And not only King but God is the God of the Jews in so far as as the Jews were Elected and themselves anointed to be Kings and insomuch as God is above all Kings as Kings are above their Subjects But God became the God of the Jews not only by Election and mind but also by Covenant and paction often confirm'd and iterated of
which in another place we shall speak more at large as in Deut. 26. Thou hast chosen the Lord to be thy God and the Lord hath chosen thee to day to be to him a peculâ—ar people and in the 27 Chapter Thou art made this day the people of the Lord thy God Therefore God as he is above Kings and as he is a God not only good but exceeding good was mov'd towards the people of the Jews with all those affections of love compassion and care above all the affections with which good Kings are mov'd towards their people That love by which the Lord chose the Jews to be his people was with command and â—ower inasmuch as he was made both their God and King Inasmuch I say as Kings govern their own people and God goâ—erns and commands the Kings themselves by which right and title God is called King of Kings and Lord of Lords But the Lordship and Government of God over the Jews was with majesty and power for their security and salvation not of tyranny to their ruine and destruction God said to Abraham Do not fear Gen. 15. I am thy defender and thy very great reward As also Deut. 33. Blessed art thou Israel who is like to thee a people who art sav'd by the Lord who is the shield of thy help and the sword of thy glory Therefore Gods chief rule and government was over the Jews for which reason he is called the Lord God of the Jews and the Jews were called the people of God a peculiar people and the Lords own Inheritance A people in respect of God by right of government and Kingly power A propertie in respect of the Lord and by right of Lordship By which signification also the Jews are called the lot and inheritance of the Lord Israel my inheritance Isay 19. To a part of which they come as servants and for which cause the Jews are call'd the servants of God The seed of Israel my servant Chro. 1.16 I have said to thee Israel thou art my servant Isa 14. And Psalm 123. Behold as the eys of the servants are in the hands of his master as the eys of the handmaid in the hands of their mistresses so are our eys towards the Lord our God Where observe that God is Lord and Mistresse of the Jews as he was before their Father and Mother It is so ordinary to call the Jews the propertie lot and inheritance of the Lord his servants his vineyard as also his vessels his houshold-stuff and whatsoever comes under the compass of inheritance and Lordship I say all these things are so frequent in holy Scripture that if I should stay longer in rehearsal of them I should lose time God was bound to the Jews and as it is in the 7. Chapter of Deut. God was joyn'd to them he chus'd and lov'd them that in requital the Jews might chuse God be joyn'd to God and entirely love God Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength Deut. 6. Yea which was the greatest relation symnathie and tie of friendship betwixt God and the Jews God exalted the Jews to a name to a praise and to a glory that they might be honoured by thoâ—e who were renowned commended and glorious Praise becomes the upright Psal 33. As a girdle cleaves to the loyns of a man so have I joyn'd to my self all the house of Israel that it might be to me a people a renown a praise and a glory But first of all the Lord call'd the Jews unto holinesse that he might be sanctified by those that were holy Be ye holy as I am holy You shall be holy unto me because I the Lord am holy Levit. 20. and Exod. 19. You shall be to me a Kingly Priesthood and a holy Nation As you also may read every where the Jews anointed and elected to be Kings Priests and Prophets which are most exquisite and choice names of holinesse Because the Jews were elected unto holinesse they are commonly called a Holy Nation and a Holy People in the Bible yea and simply holy In which St. Paul is to be understood Eph. 3. where speaking of himself he says To me the least of the Saints that is to me least of the Jews For Paul who was a great example of Christian humility was not such a one as in regard of his sanctity would boast himself a Saint So must you likewise understand that Acts 16. That the nations may receive their lot amongst the Saints that is to say that the Nations may become partakers of the blessing and election of the Jews for the Saints in that place are the Jews That lot and those Saints the Apostle Peter hath expounded in his 2 Epist Chap. 1. Peter sayes he the Apostle to those who have their lot with us in the common faith which is in Christ But Peter wrote to the Gentiles who had the same faith with the Jews the same blessing the same election in Christ for which cause St. Peters Epistles are call'd General Epistles To this adde what Paul wrote to the Gentiles the Colossians chap 1. Giving thanks to God who makes us worthy of a part of the lot of the Saints in light The Apostle makes himself a gentile of gentiles when he writes who made us worthy In the light was meant the same Christ mentioned by St. Peter Further these things are clear'd by St. John who was himself a Jew in his general Epistle or in his Epistle written to all the Gentiles Chap. 1. That you may likewise have fellowship of blessednesse with us With us that is with the Jews Therefore the Jews are holy and the Nation unholy or the Gentiles Psalm 33. Judge me O Lord and judge my cause against the unholy Nation That is Gentile and not Israelitish For that holinesse from which the Jews were called holy the Lord taught his people as also for that he gave his word to Iacob and his judgements to Israel And in that regard that the Jews were called to the justice of God they were called a just generation Psal 14. The Lord is in the just generation that is the Lord is in the nation and generation of the Jews The Jews were likewise called simply just in which sense take those words of the Wife of Pontius Pilate advising him not to meddle with Christ Have nothing to do with that just man as likewise that of Luke And the Jews observing sent deceiptfull men to take him in his speech by pretending to be just who should feign themselves just that is Jews to whom as the Priests and Scribes believed Christ would easilier discover his opinion of not paying tribute to Caesar As likewise the Histories of the Jews are called the Books of the just Josue 10. Is it not written in the books of the just that is to say in the books wherein the acts of the Jews were written For that cause also was
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
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
water 's nigh That is 〈◊〉 suffers thirst God could indeed by his miracle in which he is wonderfully powerfull have done all that that the Jews should not be hungry nor dry nor their clothes be worn nor their shoes be spent And there haâ—â—â—en need of these miracles if they had had no wool nor no leather but they wanted none of these things nor was any such miracle needfull Yea this miracle would rather have manifestly evidenced the want of clothes and shoes if for want of clothes and shoes and by the virtue of that miracle they had always put on the same clothes and the same shoes which could never wear out On the other side it shew'd the abundance of clothes and shoes which they had because neither their clothes nor shoes grew old because they chang'd both so often And ascribe this to the providence and care of the Lord by which all things which were necessary for the Jews were provided for them because he led them sometimes through pleasant and plentifull places from whose Inhabitants Deut. 2. and elsewhere They bought mâ—at for money and did eat and bought water for money and did drink for which the Israelites were beholding to the Edomites and Moabites And when Sehon forbad them this privilege they smote him with all his people and all his Cities and took the prey and spoil of his Towns Deuteronomie Chap. 2. And in the third Chapter they destroyed Og the King of Basan And that time they took the land from the Amorites which is beyond Jordan Moses himself would have said On this side Jordan which observe And that amongst the prey and spoils of these two Kings there were garments and shooes found and more than enough of materials to make both clothes and shooes This you may imagin also of the Amalekites oververcom by the Jews Exodus Chap. 17. before the Law given in Sinai To this you may add that the Jews for many years compassed Mount Seir inhabited by the Edomites from whom they bought victuals and water which I made now appear and from whose Cities they had clothes and shooes at a price CHAP. VII That the Flood of Noah was not upon the whole earth but only upon the Land of the Jews Not to destroy all men but only the Jews GIve us leave to discusse this last miracle of the flood of Noah which is believ'd to have overflow'd the kingdoms of the earth with most mighty overflowings and which I rather believe overflow'd only Palestine and the Land of the Jews The causes of this conjecture are chiefly the causes of the Deluge which here I shall mention from their beginnings I show'd you before that the Jews were framed in Adam and esteem'd the peculiar sons of God that they were separated from all other Nations which God had created in the beginning And that those Nations were call'd the sons of men in many places of holy writ I have set forth at large The Lord likewise set the Jews apart from all Nations when he plac'd them in his holy Land as in a fenced garden whither it should not be granted to other Nations to come God then had forbidden the Jews to make any mixture with other Nations Chiefly he suffer'd them not to defile their sons with the daughters of men Against the command of God the Jews had admitted the Gentiles into their land Who sayes Genesis when they began to multiply upon the earth the sons of God seeing the daughters of men that they were fair or which is the same the sons of Adam who were after called Jews seeing the daughters of the Gentiles took to themselves wives of all which they chose and by that copulation Giants were begotten For the Jews being made strong and lively by Gods late framing of them and going in to the daughters of men as strong men are begot by strong and divine seed mix'd with humane begets Heroes the sons of God lying with the daughters of men begat Heroes valiant men as they are set down in that same place by valiant and famous men in their age It repented God being angry at the wickednesse of the Jews that he had made men and wrought the clay of which he fram'd Adam of whom the Jews were born an earthie and corrupt generation of men The cogitation of whose heart was bent upon evil continually at all times that is from their first beginning both in Adam their Father who had transgressed the commandement of God and in themselves who had likewise broken the covenant of God I will cut off saith the Lord in that place man whom I have created from the face of the earth from the man to the beast from the creeping thing to the fowl of the heaven for I repent my self that I have made them Here take notice that by earth we understand Palestine according to the Hebrew who by earth simply express'd mean their own As I observ'd of the darknesse before in the death of the Lord. God then had decreed to destroy man whom he had created from the face of the earth By the man whom he had created understand the Jews the posterity of Adam I say of that Adam whom he had created or fram'd for creation and framing here is the same By living creatures understand also the Gentiles mingled amongst the Jews and causes of the sins of the Jews according to what I formerly set down at large where I made it appear that the Jews are simply call'd men in comparison of the Gentiles that the Gentiles on the other side compar'd to the Jews were call'd beasts and a people which was not a people in holy Scripture And such was Gods anger that he resolved not only to destroy all those Jews and Gentiles but all the men of that Land and all the cattel of it from the creeping things to the birds of the air except only Noe the Jew who according to Gods command fram'd an Ark to escape the violence of the Deluge The treasures of the great depth were opened sayes Genesis and the windows of heaven were opened and it rained upon the earth forty dayes and forty nights And there was a deluge upon the earth and the waters were multiplyed and they lifted up the Ark high from the earth for they increas'd exceedingly and fill'd all things upon the face of the earth And the waters preval'd exceedingly upon the earth And all the high hils were cover'd under the whole heaven The water was fifteen cubits above the mountaines which it had cover'd And all flesh upon the earth was destroyed birds living creatures and beasts and all creeping things All men and all things wherein is the breath of life died And he destroyed all things that was upon the earth from the man to the beast as well creeping things as fowls of the heaven and they were cut off from the earth Only Noe remained and those that were with him in the Ark. All which Genesis prophetically expressing and opening
some altogether different they have wrested to some the likelihood of the names of some people now remaining or some ancient Nation by meer force and have brought all those Nations from the Sons of Noah by conceited conjectures See other fancies they say it is written in the tenth Chapter of Genesis of the Sons of Japhet From them the Isles of the Gentiles were divided according to their Countries every one according to their tongue and families in their Nations Those Isles some expound such as are scattered all the Sea over both Aegean and Mediterranean and those which the Ocean invirons Britain Ireland the Hebrides the Western Isles of Scotland Shetland and all the rest of the Islands known or unknown They will have the Sons of Noah to have been so numerous in the days of the posterity of Japhet that the whole continent of the earth not being able to contain its dwellers they spread themselves into all the Islands far and near And the Colonies being thronged one upon another they divided the land and dwelt in their own Countries as it is here written which whether or no it could come to passe in the third generation of the posterity of Iaphet let any wise man be judge There are those who by all the earth understand all the earth beyond Palestine and will have Europe in that sense particularly call'd one Island according to Hebrew authors if they conjecture that the Sons of Japhet did sail to Europe and divided those vast tracts of land which that the most famous quarter of the earth contains within the third generation of the sons of Iaphet which observe for here is the third only in the lines ascending to the sons of Iaphet Yea if they conjecture that those sons of the third generation of Iaphet did not only assign themselves Europe because Europe is call'd one Island by the Hebrews and because it is here written That the Islands of the Gentiles were divided in their Countries by the sons of Japhet according to their tongues and families how uncertain a faith do they build upon such weak conjectures especially upon the Hebrew speech which is so much famouus in its signification and so strange that it speaks almost nothing but Figures But if there be any faith in conjectures I rather believe that those Islands of the Nations were divided by the sons of Iaphet according to their tongues and families in their Nations were the Nations of the holy land which the Sons of Iaphet divided according to their tongues and families in their Nations Because the same things are there understood of the sons of Iaphet which are said afterwards of the Sons of Cham These are the sons of Cham in their kinreds tongues and generations their lands and people For it is to be thought that the sons of Iaphet setled themselves in the Countries of the holy land as the sons of Cham did For if the Sons of Cham being reprobates had their lot in the holy land which was the land of the Lord why should not we believe that the Sons of Iaphet had likewise their portion in the same land of the Lord whose father the Lord had lov'd and chosen Truly we have shew'd you that the lots of the sons of Shem and Cham fell in that land why then should only the sons of Iaphet of all the posterity of Noah be dis-inherited from the holy land which was their own or by what title could they have been call'd by their brethren being dis-inherited of that land Take serious notice of these words concerning the Sons of Iaphet By these were the Islands of the Gentiles divided according to their nations For I could easily believe that Islands and Countries are here the same And the Countries inhabited by every one of these Nations are called Islands because hedg'd in by neighbouring Nations as they call those Islands of houses which are hedg'd in by lanes round about why may we not as well say Islands of the Gentiles if we say Islands of houses its properly enough used Eusebius in his Chronicle is a great motive to perswade me that the flood of Noah was particular to the Iews where about the time of Abrahams birth he speaks thus In the three and fortieth year of which Ninus reign Abraham was born amongst the Hebrews It was there the sixteeenth power over the Egyptians which they call a dynasty At which time the Thebeans rul'd who govern'd the Egyptians in the year 190. According to the Greek Jews it was not three hundred years from the floud of Noe to the birth of Abraham How then could it come to passe that the most famous Empire of the Assyrians in the space of three hundred years could be setled and established in the space of forty three years I say the Empire of Ninus whole Original is of such an antient date that it runs back not only to fabulous but unknown times Justine rehearses those that are more antient than Ninus in his first Book Vexor who rul'd Egypt and Tanaus who rul'd Scythia by which means that Government of the Theban Kings over Egypt might be setled which at that time had been strengthned a hundred and ninety years But which is more to be wonder'd at is it credible that within three hundred years so short a time fifteen Dynasties could passe over the sixteenth be begun if we call to mind that the Kings of France have yet but three Dynasties now in the space of about two thousand two hundred years It s likewise known out of the History of Genesis which favours Eusebius very much That Abraham went to Egypt in the Dynastie of the Pharaohs which flourish'd also in the time of Joseph Abrahams great Grandchild and which flourisht four hundred years after Joseph in the time of Moses in whose times the New Pharaoh knew not Joseph whom the old one knew so well which Dynastie of Pharaohs comparable to that of the Caesars for its continuance was also famous in the dayes of Solomon For Solomon was joyn'd in affinitie to Pharaoh King of Egypt Kings 1. Chap. 3. Besides the deluge of Ogyges makes it clear that there have been particular deluges which deluge drowned all Boeotia as also that Deucalions floud which swallowed up all Thessaly and many more particular ones which Plato relates that he had heard from the Egyptian Priest in Timaeus The Chinensians boast also of their deluge The Americans of theirs Both of them according to their accompt far distant from the Floud of Noah and why should we not grant to Palestine their particular deluge Yea the Egyptians the neighbours of the Jews deny that ever Egypt was damnified by any floud They say that Nilus waters and makes fruitfull every year their Land but never overwhelm'd it iâ— a general deluge which by very strong arguments and most approv'd records taken out of their Histories the forementioned Egyptian Priest did make clear in the forementioned Timaeus It will not be
evidenc'd this to us in the last Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans and in the third Chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians and in the first Chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians when he call'd the Gospel in these places An opening of the mysterie which was hidden and conceal'd from ages and eternal times In his 1 Epist to the Cor. 2. Chap. he defined tother The hidden wisdom of God which he appointed before all times As also in his second Epistle to Tim. Chap. 1. The Grace which was given to us in Christ before the times of eternity And in his Epistle to Titus The hopes of eternal life which God had promis'd before eternal times St. Peter speaking of the same in his first Catholick Epistle ch 1. sayes That Christ was foreknown before the foundations of the world were laid By which places that difference of eternities which I observ'd is evidently found That eternity is call'd first before ages and eternal times That eternity is called secondly from all time and from all things That the eternity which is before eternity and before eternal times is the same which Peter calls before the foundation of the world Therefore the eternity from the foundations of the world is the same with that from eternal times and that therefore the foundations of the World were laid from eternal times or from eternity in regard of us or from times and ages to us unknown or from that beginning of which there is no certain knowledge That eternity of the world is not that eternity of God but the resemblance of it according to that of Mercurie in Asclepius God eternal says he had the World before it was found within himself But as the World is the image of God it is also the imitation of eternity CHAP. XI Of eternity beyond eternity Of eternity to eternity The Kingdom of Messias how eternal AS God is call'd eternal before eternity he is likewise call'd eternal after eternity or beyond eternity God shall reign to eternity and beyond it said Moses in his â—ong When the Scripture would expresse the continuance of any thing not to eternity which is only attributed to God but to eternity according to the duration of the world it uses to expresse it by the eternity of the Sun and the eternal course of the Moon and Stars Thus says the Lord who gives the Sun for the light of the day and the Moon and Stars for night If these Laws be left before me then shall the seed of Israel fail before me that it shall be no mâ—â—â—a Nation before me That Covenant made with the Israelites is call'd an eternal Covenant Genesis 17. Isay 55. Ieremie 32. Ezech. 37. and many other places eternal and for ever which is the same The Sun then and the Moon and the Stars are plac'd with Israel for eternity Take that eternity not beyond eternity but to eternity in which sense Ecclesiasteâ— is to be understood But the earth continues to eternity God does prove that the Kingdom of Messias shall continue to eternity by this argument Ieremie 33. If says he my Covenant with the day can be frustrate and my Covenant with the night that night and day be not in their own time then can my Covenant be in vain with my servant David which not in the same words but in the same sense the 72 Psalm has â—et down and it shall abide with the Sun and Moon from generation to generation Where observe that the Sun and Moon there answer to the night and day of Jeremy that is expounded in the 72 Psalm In generation and generation In the 88 Psalm I have once sworn to my holy one if Iâ—le to David his seed shall last for ever and his throne as the Sun in my sight and as the Moon perfect unto eternity as a faithfull witnesse in heaven Where a faithfull witnesse is the same with one permanent and eternal The tenth Psalm speaks that openly The Lord shall reign for ever And in the tenth of Daniel His kingdom shall not perish As also in the 6 of Chronicles I will confirm his Throne for ever That was it which was written in the 11 Chapter of Iohn Christ endures for ever But that the Kingdom of Messias should be eternal and for ever The Angel did most expresly say speaking to the blessed Virgin concerning her Son and of his Kingdom there shall be no end And notwithstanding there shall be an end of the Kingdom of Messias as Paul firmly bears witnesse of in the 15 chapter 1 Cor. And then an end shall be when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to the Father but he must reign till he have put all his enemies under his fect The eternity then of the Kingdom of Messias in the forementioned places is to be underhood of that only which being taken in the second acception shall continue till eternity and not beyond eternity as in the same regard there was no beginning of the eternal beginning What the Kingdom of Messias was and what it shall be we may clearly see out of the forementioned Chapter of the Proverbs as also out of this place of St. Paul to the Corinthians thus says the Wisdom of the Father who is the Messias and Christ Proverb 8. The Lord hath possessed me from the beginning of his ways before he made any thing in the beginning the great depth was not when I was conceived and the fountains of water had not as yet broke out nor the mountains were rais'd up before the hills I was brought forth As yet he had not made the earth the winds and the hinges of the world which are to be understood of the eternity of Christ before eternity of that eternity I say which was before ages before the times of eternity and before the foundations of the world I was ordained from the beginning says the same Wisdom or I had a rule from the head from the beginnings of the earth when he prepared the heaven I was there when he confin'd the depths when he placed the heaven above and weigh'd the fountains of waters when he gave bounds to the Seas and gave a law to the waters least they should passe their limits when he weigh'd the foundation of the earth I was with him Framing all things Which are to be understood of the eternity of Christ by whom all things were made who moderates all things and rules over all things of that eternity I say which was from ages from eternal times from the foundations of the world The Kingdom of Messias begins thâ—n from the creation of the world from the laying of the foundation of the world and from eternal times It was from the beginning which was without beginning And that Kingdom shall also end within that eternity which shall have no end by which the world which had its beginning from ages times eternal shall be swallowed in eternal times and in the end of ages Then shall
there be an end says St. Paul when he shall resign the Kingdom to his Father The Kingdom of Christ was from eternity it shall likewise end within age and eternity For this cause all times were made by Christ Heb. 1. and Christ was called the Prince of time Timothy 1. cap. 1. Yea the Kingdom of Christ is called the Kingdom of all ages Psal 144. For which cause St. Paul calls Christ Blessed unto all ages God the Father reign'd before ages before the times of eternity before he had ordained wisdom and had given her command over all things God the Father shall likewise reign after ages after that wisdom who is Christ the Son hath yeilded up the Kingdom to the Father in the end of ages God the Father reigned before eternity and shall after eternity God the Son reign'd from eternity and shall to eternity In which sense understand that in the 90 Psalm From age to age thou art God As also which David sings 4 Chron. chap. 16. Blessed be the Lord from eternity to eternity CHAP. XII Eternity uses to be understood in Scripture by the duration of the Sun and Moon Of an age Of eternal times St. Paul expounded Eternity indefinite JEremie to signifie the eternity of that Law â—nd Covenant by which God had taken the Jews to himself to eternity as also the eternity of that Covenant which God had made with Messias and with his servant David by things undoubted and very well known If says he the Laws of the Sun and Moon and the Stars fail then the seed of Israel shall fail before him And again If the Covenant of the Lord with the day and night can be frustrate then can the Covenant of the Lord be frustrate with David his servant Therefore both of them are set down indubitable and unmoveable the eternity of the seed of Israel as also of the Kingdom of Messias as also the eternity of the Sun and Moon Stars Days and Nights And as they are conveniently joyned so are they conveniently convertible thus The seed of Israel shall never fail before the Lord for the Sun and Moon and Stars can never fail before him It is impossible that the Covenant of God should be in vain which he made with his Servant David that he should be and remain for ever It is likewise impossible that the Covenant which God made with the Day and Night should fail but they should be to eternity and remain continually God meant that impossibility of his Law which should never perish and of his Covenant never to be broken In the 6 chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke It is easier for the heaven and earth to passe away than that one tittle of the Law should passe away Of the Law that is of the Coâ—enant which God made with Israel and with his Messias The whole world is here understood by the heaven and the earth and that impossibility he clears by another as great an impossibility that is the least tittle of the Law shall never passe away nor shall ever the world passe away Such is that which we read Psalm 72. The Messias shall endure with the Sun and Moon unto eternity Which is convertible thus The Sun and Moon shall endure together with Messias for ever It is written Genesis 1. Let us make lights in the midst of heaven that they may divide the day and night and be for signs and times for days and years Which the author of Ecclesiasticus rehearses in these words chap. 43. The Sun and Moâ—n shew the time and appoint the age Times are made up of days and nights months and years and ages which the Sun and Moon divide and dispense and appoint the measure of them especially the Sun who for excellency is called the Father of times and ages by the ancients For which cause holy Writ measures out the eternity of ages by the Sun It is common in holy authors to reckon weeks of years months of years years of years and with them you have many times also ages of ages which comprehend many myriads of years of which an eternity is made up Which you may well call the year of the world or the great world whose times ages are reckon'd innumerable Which you shall not need to wonder at if you wonder that the day of days the year of years the age of ages and all ages of ages have descended from eternal times and shall endure to eternity I thought upon the days of old I have the eternal years in remembrance I have counted the years which were from the beginning says David Psalm 76. The Prophet counted those days but could neâ—er find the number of them For there is no remembrance of things past Ecclesiast chap. 1. And truly For the memory of men being finite and fading can no way extend it â—eif to the knowledge of those former things which are infinite and derived from years eternal As if St. Paul had meant in those places which I mentioned before in the former chapters where he said that the mysterie of the Gospel was hid from eternal times and ages to expresse a thing so much secret and remote that the mystery had been hidden since the world was made with Adam from whom to the Apostle was not above four thousand years That had been indeed to have thrown four drops of water into the midst of the Sea or to have thrown four grains of sand upon the Sea shore according to what is written in the 18 chapter of Ecclus. As a drop of the water of the Sea or a grain of sand so little are a thousand years in the days of eternity The author of the Ecclesiasticus here meant that whatsoever proportion a drop has to the whoâ—e Sea or a grain of Sand to the whole shore a thousand years should have the same proportion to the day of eternity which containâ— the beginning and ending of all things created in the endlesse volums of years For eternity here is taken in the second acception which is from eternity and shall remain to eternity Which times are compounded of ages which ages are accounted by years Nor think here that age to be the first and pure eternity which admits of no distinction of years of no composition or comparison with this second eternity which is secular compounded For although the author of Ecclesiasticus seems to have taken this out of the 88 Psalm where it is said A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday It is to be observ'd that the Psalmist in that place meant that there could be no proportion or comparison betwixt 1000 years Gods eternity which 1000 years he compar'd with a day that is past with that which is not For there is no proportion betwixt an entity and a non entity But in this place the author of Ecclesiasticus admits a perfect proportion betwixt a thousand years and the day of eternity betwixt a drop of water and
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
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
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
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