uses And although Aristotle in his books de partibus animalium hath said enough to refute the fond opinion of those Philosophers yet none hath handled this argument with more exactness and accuracy and with a more peculiar reflection on Epicurus then Galen hath done in his excellent piece De usu partium Which Gassendus thinks Galen writ with a kind of Enthusiasm upon him adeo totum opus videtur conscriptum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so that all those seventeen books of his on that subject are a kind of 119. Psalm in Philosophy or a perpetual Hymn upon the praise of the great Creator or a just Commentary on those words of the Psalmist Psal. 139. 14. I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well In the entrance of those books Galen first shews the great variety of parts which is in several animals suitable to their several natures the horse because of his swiftness and pride hath the strongest hoofs and most curled main the Lyon because of his fierceness and courage hath his strength lying in his teeth and paws the Bull in his horns the Boar in his tusks the Hart and Hare being timerous creatures their parts are made fittest for flight but man because he hath a principle of reason in him hath no defensive or offensive weapons in his body but he hath hands to make use of both which being joyned with and imployed by his reason far exceed all those advantages which any other creatures have being imployed not only to defend himself but to build houses make clothes arms nets whatever is useful for himself or hurtful to those creatures which he hath command over but because man was made for society and civil converse therefore his hands were not only imployed to defend himself or hurt other creatures but for the mutual benefit and advantage of mankind for by these were Laws written Temples built all instruments of Arts framed by them we enjoy the benefit of others wits we can discourse with Plato Aristotle Hippocrates and other antients though at such a distâ—nce from us Now that the configuration of parts is not the cause of the use of them afterwards as the Lyons paw of his courage the Bulls horns of his fierceness or the slenderness of the Hart of its fearfulness appears by this because the young ones of the several kinds of animals before their parts are grown up strive to make the same use of them which the others do As Galen saith he had often seen a Bull-calf pushing with his head before any horns were grown out and a Colt kicking when his hoofs were yet tender and a young Boar defending himself with his jaws before he had any tusks which is an evident argument that the parts were designed for the use and not the use follow the parts So saith he take three eggs one of an Eagle another of a Duck and a third of a Serpent and after they are hatched through a moderate heat we shall find when they are but newly hatched the two first will be striving to fly before they have wings and the third endeavouring to creep away on its belly and if you breed them up to greater perfection and bring them into the open air you will presently see the young Eagle mounting into the air the Duck quoddling into a pool and the Serpent creep under ground Afterwards he comes particularly to handle the several parts of mans body and first begins with the Hand and shews in each part that it were impossible to have framed them with greater conveniency for their several uses then they have The use of the hand is to take hold of any thing which man can use now there being things of such different sizes which men may use it had been impossible for the hand if it had been one entire thing and undivided that it could have held things greater or lesser then its self but it must have been equal to it But now as the fingers are placed and divided they are equally fit for laying hold of objects of any size or quantity For the least things as a Barley corn are taken up with the fore-finger and the thumb things somewhat bigger are taken up by the same but not by the extremities of them as before things somewhat bigger then these with the thumb fore-finger and middle-finger and so on by degrees till at last the whole hand is used so that the division of the hand into fingers is necessary Neither were this enough but the very position of the fingers as they are is necessary too for they had been useless if they had been all divided in a right line for the firmest hold is either circular or at least in two opposite points but now this is provided for by the position of the thumb which may equally joyn with any of the fingers in taking hold of any thing After this he largely shews the patticular necessity of the softness roundness of the flesh and nails on the tops of the fingers and the special usefulness of these and then comes to the bones of the fingers how necessary they are for firm hold and if there had been but one bone in each finger they would have served only for those things which we take up when they are extended but now seeing they have three several joynts they are fitted for all kinds of things for when we bow our fingers we use them as though they had no bones at all and when we stretch them out as though they were all but one entire bone and the several inflections of the joynts serve for all kind of figures and then he shews the necessity of the flesh within the fingers and on either side of them and upon them and so with wonderful accuracy handles the magnitude number figure of the bones and nature of the joynts of the fingers and then the tendons and muscles belonging to the several fingers which after he hath discoursed on through his first Book he concludes it with the manifest inconveniency which would follow in the hand were not every thing in it in that exact magnitude position and figure in which it is With the same exactness he goes through all the parts of the body handling in the second Book all that belongs to the arm in the third the legs in the fourth and fifth the Organs of nutrition in the sixth and seventh the lungs in the eighth and ninth the Head in the tenth the peculiar and admirable fabrick of the eyes in the eleventh the other parts of the face in the twelfth the parts of the back and so in the thirteenth in the fourteenth and fifteenth the genitals in the sixteenth the arteryes veins and nerves and in the last the peculiar disposition and figure of all these parts and the usefulness of the whole design Which is as great as can be in any work whatsoever which is for us to take notice of
Which yet hath been done to very good purpose by Ioseph Scaliger and Bochartus and many others from the form of the Letters the order and the names of them It seems probable that at first they might use the form of the Phoenician Letters in which Herodotus tells us the three old Inscriptions were extant and Diodorus tells us that the brass pot which Cadmus offered to Minerva Lyndia had an Inscription on it in the Phoenician Letters but afterwards the form of the Letters came by degrees to be changed when for their greater expedition in writing they left the old way of writing towards the left hand for the more natural and expedite way of writing towards the right by which they exchanged the site of the strekes in several Letters as is observed by the forecited Learned Authors Not that the old Ionick Letters were nearer the Phoenician and distinct from the modern as Ios. Scaliger in his learned Discourse on the original of the Greek Letters conceives for the Ionick Letters were nothing else but the full Alphabet of 24. with the additions of Palamedes and Simonides Cous as Pliny tells us that all the Greeks consented in the use of the Ionick Letters but the old Attick Letters came nearer the Phoenician because the Athenians long after the Alphabet was increased to 24. continued still in the use of the old 16. which were brought in by Cadmus which must needs much alter the way of writing for in the old Letters they writ THEOâ— for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which made Pliny with a great deal of learning and truth say that the old Greek Letters were the same with the Roman Thence the Greeks called their ancient Letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as appears by Harpocration and Hesychius not that they were so much distinct from others but because they did not admit of the addition of the other eight Letters which difference of writing is in a great measure the cause of the different dialect between the Athenians and Ionians properly so called We see then the very Letters of the Greeks were no elder then Cadmus and for any considerable learning among them it was not near so old Some assert indeed that History began from the time of Cadmus but it is by a mistake of him for a younger Cadmus which was Cadmus Milesius whom Pliny makes to be the first Writer in Prose but that he after attributes to Pherecydes Syrius and History to Cadmus Milesius and therefore I think it far more probable that it was some writing of this latter Cadmus which was transcribed and epitomized by Bion Proconesius although Clemens Alexandrinus seems to attribute it to the Elder We see how unable then the Grecians were to give an account of elder times that were guilty of so much infancy and nonage as to begin to learn their Letters almost in the noon-tide of the World and yet long after this to the time of the first Olympiad all their relations are accounted fabulous A fair account then we are like to have from them of the first antiquities of the world who could not speak plain truth till the world was above 3000. years old for so it was when the Olympiads began So true is the observation of Iustin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Greeks had no exact history of themselves before the Olympiads but of that more afterwards This is now the first defect which doth infringe the credibility of these Histories which is the want of timely and early records to digest their own history in CHAP. II. Of the Phoenician and Aegyptian History The particular defect in the Historys of the most learned Heathen Nations First the Phoenicians Of Sanchoniathon his Antiquity and Fidelity Of Jerom-baal Baal-Berith The Antiquity of Tyre Scaliger vindicated against Bochartus Abibalus The vanity of Phoenician Theology The imitation of it by the Gnosticks Of the Aegyptian History The Antiquity and Authority of Hermes Trismegistus Of his Inscriptions on Pillars transcribed by Manetho His Fabulousness thence discovered Terra Seriadica Of Seths Pillars in Josephus and an account whence they were taken HAving already shewed a general defect in the Ancient Heathen Histories as to an account of ancient times we now come to a closer and more particular consideration of the Histories of those several Nations which have born the greatest name in the world for learning and antiquity There are four Nations chiefly which have pretended the most to antiquity in the learned world and whose Historians have been thought to deliver any thing contrary to holy Writ in their account of ancient times whom on that account we are obliged more particularly to consider and those are the Phoenicians Chaldeans Aegyptians and Graecians we shall therefore see what evidence of credibility there can be in any of these as to the matter of antiquity of their Records or the Histories taken from them And the credibility of an Historian depending much upon the certainty and authority of the Records he makes use of we shall both consider of what value and antiquity the pretended Records are and particularly look into the age of the several Historians As to the Graecians we have seen already an utter impossibility of having any ancient Records among them because they wanted the means of preserving them having so lately borrowed their Letters from other Nations Unless as to their account of times they had been as carefull as the old Romans were to number their years by the several clavi or nails which they fixed on the Temple doors which yet they were not in any capacity to do not growing up in an entire body as the Roman Empire did but lying so much seattered and divided into so many petâ—y Republicks that they minded very little of concernment to the whole Nation The other three Nations have deseâ—vedly a name of far greater antiquity then any the Graecians could ever pretend to who yet were unmeasurably guilty of an impotent affectation of antiquity and arrogating to themselves as growing on their own ground what was with a great deal of pains and industry gathered but as the gleanings from the fuller harvest of those nations they resorted to Which is not only true as to the greatest part of their Learning but as to the account likewise they give of ancient times the chief and most ancient Histories among them being only a corruption of the History of the elder Nations especially Phoenicia and Aegypt for of these two Philo Biblius the Translator of the ancient Phoenician Historian Sanchoniathon saith they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The most ancient of all the Barbarians from whom the others derived their Theology which he there particularly instanceth in We begin therefore with the Phoenician History whose most ancient and famous Historian is Sanchoniathon so much admired and made use of by the shrewdest antagonist ever Christianity met with the Philosopher Porphyrius But therein was seen
in the age he lived in he made that unhappy use of his skill to play the Mountebank with his learning and to abuse the credulity of those who have better stomacks then palats and can sooner swallow down the compositions that are given them then find out the Ingredients of them Thus Annius puts a good face on his new-old Authors bids them be bold and confident and they would fare the better And the truth is they tell their story so punctually in all circumstances in those things which had no certain conveyance to posterity that that were sufficient ground to any intelligent person to question their authority But lest his Authors should at any time want an Interpreter to make out their full meaning he sets himself a large Commentary upon them And certainly he was the fittest person in the world to do it for cujus â—st condere ejus â—st interpretari none so fit to explain Annius as Annius himself The whole story of this Imposture how he made the Inscriptions himself and hid them under ground how they were digged thence and brought to Annius how Annius caused them to be sent to the Magistrates and after published them in the equipage they are in are at large related by that learned Bishop Antonius Augustinus from Latinus Latinius From a like quarry to this came out those other famous Inscriptions walking under the specious title of Antiquitatum Ethruscarum fragmenta wherein besides many palpable incongruities to the customs of those eldest times discovered partly by Leo Allatius in his discourse concerning them there are so many particular stories and circumstances related concerning Noah's being in Italy and other things so far beyond any probability of reason that it is a wonder there are yet any persons pretending to learning who should build their discourses upon such rotten and sandy foundations as these Inscriptions are But though Ixion might Iupiter would never have been deceived with a Cloud instead of Iuno so though persons unacquainted with the lineaments of truth may be easily imposed on with appearances instead of her yet such persons who have sagacity enough to discern the air of her countenance from the paint of forgeries will never suffer themselves to be over-reached by such vain pretenders But these Impostors are like the Astrologers at Rome ever banished and yet ever there and so these are ever exploded by all lovers of truth yet always find some to applaud and entertain them Although it be more difficult to do so now in the present light of knowledge and all advantages for learning then it was in those elder times when the Heathen Priests pretended to the Monopoly of Learning among themselves and made it one of their great designs to keep all others in dependence on themselves thereby to keep up their veneration the better among the people And therefore all the Records they had of Learning or History were carefully lockt up and preserved among the Priests and lest at any time others might get a view of them they were sure to preserve them in a peculiar Character distinct from that in civil and common use By which means the Heathen Priests had all imaginable opportunities and conveniences for deceiving the silly people and thereby keeping them in an obsequious Ignorance which is never the Mother of any true Devotion but of the greatest Superstition It is well known of the Aegyptian Priests that the sacred Characters of their Temples were seldom made known to any but such as were of their own number and family the Priesthood being there hereditary or such others as by long converse had insinuated themselves into their society as some of the Greek Philosophers and Historians had done And yet we have some reason to think they were not over-free and communicative to some of them by the slender account they give of several things which are supposed to be well known among the Aegyptians That the Phoenician Priests had their peculiar and sacred Characters too is evident from the words of Philo Byblius concerning Sanchoniathon if we take Bochartus his Exposition of them He tells us that his History was compared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Inscriptions in the Temples written in the Ammunean letters which are known to few Literae Ammuneorum saith Bochartus sunt literae Templorum literae in sacr is exceptae For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Sun thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Temple of the Sun whom the Phoenicians worshipped as their principal Deity under the name of Beel-samen the Lord of Heaven The same Author tells us out of Diogenes Laertius of a Book of Democritus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which it is evident that the Babylonian Priests had their sacred Characters too And of a Testimony of Theodoret of all the Graecian Temples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they had some peculiar Characters which were called sacred But that leraned Author thinks there is no necessity of understanding it peculiarly of the Graecians because the Greek Fathers called all Heathens by the name of Greeks but if so the Testimony is the larger and amounts to an universal Testimony of the Heathen Temples Neither was this only peculiar to them if we believe some persons of greater Learning then Iudgment who attribute this distinction of sacred and vulgar Characters to the Iews as well as others but without any probability of reason For these learned men being strongly possessed with the opinion of the modern Iews concerning the Antiquity of the present Hebrew Characters and finding themselves pressed not only with the Testimony of some ancient Rabbins but with the stronger evidence of the ancient shekels about Solomons time inscribed with the Samaritan letters have at last found this Evasion that the Samaritan letters were in vulgar use but the present Characters were then sacred and not made common till after the time of the Captivity But this seems to be a meer shift found out by some modern Iews and greedily embraced by their Followers because thereby they are in hopes to evade the strength of the contrary arguments which otherwise they can find no probable solution of And a meer shift it will appear to be to any one that considers on how little ground of reason it stands For none of those reasons which held for such a distinction of Characters among the Heathens can have any place among the Iews For it was never any part of Gods design to have the Law kept from the peoples view Truth is never so fearful of being seen abroad it is only falshood that walks under disguises and must have its hiding-places to retreat to Nay God expresly commanded it as a duty of all the Iews to search and study his Law which they could not do if it were locked up from them in an unknown Character Did not God himself promulge it among the people of Israel by the Ministry of Moses did he not command it
when it is said that they shall all be taught of God the meaning is not that every one that lives in the Gospel state should be thus effectually taught by the Spirit of God but that the number of such under the Gospel should so far exceed those under the Law that they could hardly apprehend the disproportion between them unless it had been set forth in so large an expression Which leads me to the next rule Things fore-told as universally or indefinitely to come to pass under the Gospel are to be understood as to the duty of all but as to the event only of Gods chosen people Thus when there is so great peace prophecyed to be in Gospel times that then men should beat their swords into plow-shears and spears into pruning-hooks that the Woolf should lie down with the Lamb and Leopard with the Kid that Nation should not lift up sword against Nation nor learn war any more with many others to the same purpose all these speeches are to be understood of what the nature and design of the Gospel tends to and what is the duty of all that profess it and what would effectually be in the Christian world did all that profess the Christian doctrine heartily obey the dictates of it and so far as the Gospel doth prevail upon any it so far cicurates their wild and unruly natures that of furious Wolves they become innocent Lambs and of raging Lyons tender Kids so far from hurting and injuring others that they dare not entertain any thoughts of ill will or revenge towards their greatest enemies And thus we may see that notwithstanding the seeming repugnancies of the prophecyes of the Old Testament concerning the state of the New with the events which have been observed in it yet that all those predictions which concerned the bestowing of the spiritual blessings which concerned the Gospel state have had their punctual accomplishment in the sense they were intended Predictions concerning future events where not only the thing its self is foretold but the several circumstances of persons time and place enumerated are to have their due accomplishment and consequently express Gods inward purposes For those promises or comminations which are capable of alteration by some tacite conditions implyed in them do most commonly run in general terms or else are spoken by way of immediate address to the persons concerned in order to the stirring them up the more to the duty God aims at by those comminations as when Ionas limited the Ninivites dâ—struction to forty dayes But when Prophecies are recorded not by way of commination but meer prediction and particular circumstances set down it stands to reason that such Prophecies must have their certain accomplishment and that first because God by setting down the circumstances would give them greater evidences that the predictions came from himself as when the Prophet at Bethel not only foretold the destruction of the Altar there but particularly named the man that should do it viz. Iosias So when God by Isaiah called Cyrus by name it was doubtless a great confirmation to them that the delivâ—rance of the Iews should be by that person Secondly because these circumstances are intended for Landmarks to know the certainty of the accomplishment of the Prophecy For when they finde the circumstances fall out exactly according to prediction they have no ground to question the accomplishment of the substance of the Prophecy And hence it was that in the grand Prophecy of the coming of the Messias all particular circumstances were so long before foretold The first dawning of his day being to Adam after his fall when the nature he should be born of was foretold viz. not Angelical but humane of the seed of the woman To Abraham it was further revealed of what Nation of mankind viz. from his posterity to Iacob at what time when the Scepter should be departed from Judah and from what tribe viz. Iudah to David of what Family in that tribe viz. his own to Isaiah of what Person in that Family a Virgin to Micah in what place viz. Bethlehem and to Daniel at what precise time toward the expiring of his seventy weeks which according to to the most probable computation of them did commâ—nce from the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus and so the 490. years expired near upon our Saviours passion Now certainly the particular enumeration of all these circumstances spoken of so long before and falling out so exactly they could not but give the greatest conviction and evidence that our blessed Saviour was that person so much spoken of by the Prophets in whom all these several lines did meet as in their center Lastly Predictions then express divine purposes when many Prophâ—ts in several ages concur in the same predictions because it is hardly seen but all those tacite conditions which are supposed in general promises or comminations may be altered in different ages but when the conditions alter and the continueâ—he â—he same it is a stronger evidence it is some immutable counsel of God which is expressed in those predictions And in this case one prediction confirms the foregoing as the Iews say of Prophets One Prophet that hath the testimony of another Prophet is supposed to be true but it must be with this supposition that the other Prophet was before approved to be a true Prophet Now both these meet in the Prophecyes concerning our Saviour for to him bear all the Prophets witness and in their several ages they had several things revealed to them concerning him and the uniformity and perfect harmony of all these several Prophecyes by persons at so great distance from each other and being of several interests and imployments and in several places yet all giving light to each other and exactly meeting at last in the accomplishment do give us yet a further and clearer evidence that all those several beams came from the same Sun when all those scattered rayes were at last gathâ—red into one body again at the appearance of the Sun of righteousness in the world Thus have we now cleared when predictions are expressive of Gods internal purposes by observation of which rules we may easily resolve the other part of the disficulty when they only express the series and dependencies of things which would have their issue and accomplishment if God by his immediate hand of providence did not cut off the entail of effects upon their natural causes Now as to these Prophecyes which concern things considered in themselves and not precisely as they are in the counsel of God we are to observe these rules 1. Comminations of judgements to come do not in themselves speak the absolute futurity of the event but do only declare what the persons to whom they are made are to expect and what shall certainly come to pass unless God by his mercy interpose between the threatning and the event So that comminations do speak only the debitum poenae and
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is evident then that the Pelasgi were in Creete Now most of the Cretan words are of an Eastern extraction if we believe the learned Bochartus who hath promised a discourse on that subject besides Creete we find the Pâ—lasgi in Chios 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Strabo the inhabitants of Chios say that the Pelasgi of Thessaly were their first inhabitants and here the forenamed learned person hath derived the name Chios the mountain Pelinaeus and the wine Arvisium all from the Eastern languages The next we find them in is Lesbos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which from them was called Pelasgia saith Strabo whose name is likewise fetched out of the East By Bochartus further we find them in Lemnos and Imbros so Anticlides in Strabo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning whose names see Bochartus 82. I know that learned Author makes the Phoenicians the Authors of all these names from no other ground generally but because they are of an Eastern derivation but according to what we have laid down we may yield to the thing it self and upon clearer grounds for of some of these Islands he ingenuously confesseth he can find no evidence of the Phoenicians being in them Phoenices in his Insulis habitasse nusquam legimus but we find it very plain that in those very Islands the Pelâ—sgi inhabited and whether account then be more probable let the Reader judge One thing more I shall insist on which is the original of the Samothracian Mysteries That these were as to their names from the Eastern languages is now acknowledged by all learned men the Cabiri being so evidently derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signisies strength and power i. e. the Dii potes so Cabiri is explained by Varro and Tertullian and the particular names of the several Cabiri mentioned by the Scholiast on Apollonius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are very handsomly explained by that learned and excellent Bochartus from the Eastern languages only he will needs have them derived from the Phoenicians whereas Herodotus expresly tells us that they were from the Pâ—lasgi whose words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We see evidently by this that the Samothracians derived their Mysteries from the Pelasgi and without all question they had their names from thence whence they derived their Mysteries And to this purpose it is further observable that as the old Hetrurians were certainly a Colony of the Pelasgi upon their removal out of Greece so Vossius observs that the old Hetruscan language ferè â— Syris habet cuncta sacrorum nomina hath almost all the sacred appellations from the Eastern Tongues For which purpoâ—e it is further observable which Grotius takes notice of that the jus pontisicum Romanorum was take◠〈◊〉 great part from the Hetrusci the Hetrurians had it ab Hâ—braeis out of the Eastern parts By all which I cannot conceive but this opinion notwithstanding its novelty is advanced to as high a degree of probability as any that stands on the like foundations and not only so but is an excellent clue to direct us to the Labyrinth of Antiquities and gives us a fair account whence the Eastern Tongues came to be so much used among both the ancient Greeks and Hetrurians One thing more this will help us to understand far better then any salvo hath been yet used for it which is the affinity spoken of by Ariâ—s King of Lacedaemon in his Letters to Onias between the Iewes and Lacedaemonians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is explained by Iosephus thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They had found in a book that the Jewes and Lacedemonians were of the same stock from their mutual relation to Abraham Vossius thinks the Original of this was from those of the posterity of Anak who came into Greece and peopled Sparta and would seem to have been of the posterity of Abraham or that they were partly of the posterity of Abraham by Agar or Cethura and partly of the Canaanites driven out by Ioshua But how unlikely a thing is it supposing Sparta peopled by the Canaanites which yet is not evident that they should give out themselves to be of that stock which they had been expelled their Country by And for the true posterity of Abraham coming thither as we have no ground for it but the bare assertion so we have this strong evidence against it that all that came from Abraham were cirucumcised as the Ishmaelites Hagarens c. which we never read of among the Lacedaemonians H. Grotius differs not much from the opinion of Vossius concerning the ground of this kindred between the Iewes and Spartans For in his notes on that place in the Maccabees where it is spoken of he gives this account of it The Dorians of whom the Spartans were a part came from the Pelasgi the language of the Pelasgi was different from that of the Greeks as appears by Herodotus in his Clio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now the Pelasgi saith he are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dispersi a scatterd Nation thence he supposeth these Pelasgi or banished people to have come from the Confines of Arabia and Syria in which the posterity of Abraham and Cethura had placed themselves But 1. it is uncertain whether the posterity of Abraham by Keturah were placed so near Canaan or no. I know Iunius endeavours to find the seat of all the sons of Cethurab in Arabia but Mercer gives several not improbable reasons why he conceives them placed not in the East of Canaan but in the Eastern parts of the world 2. We have no evidence at all of any remove of these sons of Abraham by Ceturah out of the parts of Arabia supposing them placed there nor any reason why they should be banished thence 3. That which was the badge of Abrahams posterity was never that we read of in use among the Spartans which was Circumcision Indeed in much later Ages then this we speak of we read of a people among the Thracians who were circumcised whom the Greeks themselves judged to be Iewes So Aristophanes brings the Odomantes in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Scholiast i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereby it is plain that Circumcision was in use among the Thracians for these Odomantes were saith the Scholiast a people of Thrace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It seems it was a tradition among them that they were Iewes If so it seems most probable that they were some of the ten Tribes who were placed about Colchis and the adjacent places For Herodotus in Euterpe saith that the Syrians that lived about the Rivers Thermodon and Parthenius learned Circumcision from the Colchi of whom he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Only the Colchi and Aegyptians and Aeâ—hiopians had originally the custome of Circumcision Or else these Oâ—omantes might be some of the dispersed Iewes
of Moses and to fall into Idolatry but if there had been any the least suspition of any falsity or imposture in the writing of Moses the ringleaders of their revolts would have sufficiently promulged it among them as the most plausible plea to draw them off from the worship of the true God Can we think that a Nation and religion so maligned as the Iewish were could have escaped discovery if there had been any deceit in it when so many lay in wait continually to expose them to all Contumelies imaginable Nay among themselves in their frequent Apostacies and occasions given for such a pretence how comes this to be never heard of nor in the least questioned whether the Law was undoubtedly of Moses his writing or no What an excellent plea would this have been for Ieroboams Calves in Dan and Bethel for the Samaritans Temple on Mount Gerizim could any the least suspition have been raised among them concerning the aut bentickness of the fundamental records of the Iewish Commonwealth And which is most observable the Iews who were a people strangely suspitious and incredulous while they were fed and clothed with miracles yet could never find ground to question this Nay and Moses himself we plainly see was hugely envied by many of the Israelites even in the wilderness as is evident in the Conspiracy of Corah and his complices and that on this very ground that he took too much upon him how unlikely then is it that amidst so many enemies he should dare to venture any thing into publick records which was not most undoubtedly true or undertake to prescribe a Law to oblige the people to posterity Or that after his own age any thing should come out under his name which would not be presently detected by the emulatoâ—rs of his glory What then is the thing it self incredible surely not that Moses should write the records we speak of Were not they able to understand the truth of it What not those who were in the same age and conveyed it down by a certain tradition to posterity Or did not the Israelites all constantly believe it What not they who would sooner part with their lives and fortunes then admit any variation or alteration as to their Law Well but if we should suppose the whole Iewish Nation partial to themselves and that out of honour to the memory of so great a person as Moses they should attribute their ancient Laws and records to him Which is all that Infidelity its self can imagine in this Case Yet this cannot be with any shadow of reason pretended For 1. Who were those persons who did give out this Law to the Iews under Moses his name Certainly they who undertake to contradict that which is received by common consent must bring stronger and clearer evidence then that on which that consent is grounded or else their exceptions deserve to be rejected with the highest indignation What proof can be then brought that not only the Iewish Nation but the whole Christian world hath been so lamentably befooled to believe those things with an undoubted assent which are only the contrivances of some cunning men 2. At what time could these things be contrived Either while the memory of Moses and his actions were remaining or afterwards First how could it possibly be when his memory was remaining for then all things were so fresh in their memories that it was impossible a thing of this universal nature could be forged of him If after then I demand whether the people had observed the Law of Moses before or no if not then they must certainly know it at the time of its promulgation to be counterfeit for had it been from Moses it would have been observed before their times if it was observed before then either continually down from the time of Moses or not If continually down then it was of Moses his doing if we suppose him to have had that authority among the people which the objection supposeth if not then still the nearer Moses his time the more difficult such a counterfeiting could be because the Constitutions which Moses had left among them would have remained in their memories whereby they would easily reject all pretences and counterfeits 3. How can we conceive the Nation of the Iews would have ever embraced such a Law had it not been of Moses his enacting among them in that state of time when he did For then the people were in fittest capacity to receive a Law being grown a great people and therefore necessary to have Laws newly delivered from bondage and therefore wanting Laws of their own and entring into a setled state of Commonwealth which was the most proper season of giving Laws These considerations make it so clear that it is almost impossible to conceive the Nation of the Iews could have their Laws given to them but at the time of their being in the wilderness before they were setled in Canaan For suppose we at present to gratifie so far the objection that these Laws were brought forth long after the constitution of the government and the national settlement under Moses his name how improbable nay how impossible is it to alter the fundamental Laws of a Nation after long settlement what confusion of interests doth this bring what disturbance among all sorts of people who must be disseised of their rights and brought to such strange unwonted customs so seemingly against their interests as many of the Constitutions among the Iews were For can we imagine that a people alwayes devoted to their own interest would after it had been quietly setled in their land by Constitutions after the custom of other Nations presently under a pretence of a coppy of Laws found that were pretended to be given by one in former ages of great esteem called Moses throw open all their former inclosures and part with their former Laws for these of which they have no evidence but the words of those that told it them We have a clear instance for this among the Romans although there were great evidence given of the undoubted certainty that the books found in Numa's grave by Petilius were his yet because they were adjudged by the Senate to be against the present Laws they were without further enquiry adjudged to be burnt Was not here the greatest likelyhood that might be that these should have taken place among the Romans for the great veneration for wisdom which Numa was in among them and the great evidence that these were certain remainders of his wherein he gave a true account of the superstitions in use among them yet lest the state should be unsetled by it they were prohibited so much as a publick view when the Praetor had sworn they were against the established Laws Can we then conceive the Iewish Nation would have embraced so burdensome and ceremonious a Law as Moses's was had it been brought among them in such a way as the books of Numa
meer Câ—nto a confused mixture of the Christian Platonick and Aegyptian doctrine together So that we could hardly maintain the justness of the repute of the antient Aegyptian Learning from any thing now extant of it but yet we see no reason to question it especially since it is so honourably spoken of in Sacred Writ and seems in it to have been made the standard and measure of humane wisdom For which we have this observable testimony that when the wisdom of Solomon is spoken of with the greatest advantage and commendation it is set forth with this character that it exceeded the wisdom of all the children of the East Countrey and all the wisdom of Aegypt Whence it is most natural and easie to argue that certainly their learning must be accounted the greatest at that time in the world or else it could not have been inferred that Solomon was wiser then all men because his wisdom excelled theirs unless we suppose their wisdom to have been the greatest in that age of the world when the wisdom of the Graecians although in that time Homer is supposed to flourish was not thought worthy the taking notice of We see from hence then as from an irrefragable testimony that the wisdom of the Aegyptians antiently was no trivial Pedantry nor meer superstitious and Magical rites but that there was some thing in it solid and substantial or it had not been worth triumphing over by the wisdom of Solomon It being true of that what Lipsius faith of the Roman Empire Quicquid dignum vinci videbatur vicit caetera non tam non potuit quam contempsit it was an argument of some great worth that it was over-top'd and conquered by it Thus we see how just the repute of the antient Aegyptian Learning is from Testimony and we shall find as great reason for it when we conâ—ider the great advantages the Aegyptians had for promoting of Learning among them Two waies men come to knowledge either by tradition from others or by observation of their own what the Aegyptians had the first way will be spoken to afterwards we now consider the latter of these All knowledge arising from observation must be either of those Sciences which immediately conduce to the benefit of mens lives or such whose end is to improve mens rational faculties in the knowledge of things The former necessity will put men upon the finding out the latter require secessum otia freedom from other imployments a mind addicted to them and industry in the study of them and a care to preserve their inventions in them The study of Geometry among the Aegyptians owed its original to necessity for the river Nile being swelled with the showers falling in Aethiopia and thence annually over-flowing the Countrey of Aegypt and by its violence overturning all the marks they had to distinguish their lands made it necessary for them upon every abatement of the flood to survey their lands to find out every one his own by the quantity of the ground upon the survey The necessity of which put them upon a more diligent enquiry into that study that thereby they might attain to some exactness in that which was to be of such necessary constant and perpetual use Thence we find the invention of Geometry particularly attributed by Herodotus Diodorus Strabo and others to the Aegyptians This skill of theirs they after improved into a greater benefit viz the conveying the water of Nile into those places where it had not overflown to so great a height as to give them hopes of an ensuing plenty which they did by the artificial cutting of several Channels for that end wherein saith Strabo the Aegyptians Art and Industry out-went Nature its self By this likewise they observed the height of the over-flowing of the river whereby they knew what harvest to expect the following year which they did by a well near Memphis from the use of it called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the walls of which were the marks of several cubits which they observe and publish it to all that they might provide themselves accordingly We see what grounds there are even from profit and advantage to make us believe that the Aegyptians were skilled in Geometry and the knowledge relating thereto And for the promoting of all other knowledge whose end is Contemplation the very constitution of their Commonwealth did much conduce thereto For thereby it was proved that they should always be a sufficient number of persons freed srom all other employments who might devote themselves to a sedulous enquiry into the natures of things Such were the Aegyptian Priests who by the peculiar nature of the Aegyptian Superstitions were freed from that burdensome service of sacrificing beasts which the Priests of other Nations were continually employed about and so they enjoyed not only an easie but a very honourable employment for they were the persons of the greatest honour esteem and authority among the Aegyptians of which rank as far as I can find all were accounted who were not Souldiers Husbandmen or Artificers For Strabo mentions no Nobility at all in Aegypt distinct from the Priests for he divides the whole Commonwealth into Souldiers Husbandmen and Priests And telling us that the other two were employed about matters of war and the Kings revenues in peace he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Priests minded the study of Philosophy and Astronomy and conversed most with their Kings And after speaking of their Kings being studied in their arts as well as others of the Priests he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with whom they spent most of their lives Agreeably to this Plutarch tells us that the Kings themselves were often Priests and adds out of Hecataeus that the Kings used to drink wine by measure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they were Priests for as he saith the Kings of Aegypt were always chosen either out of the rank of Priests or Souldiers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those two orders being of the greatest honour the one for valour and the other for wisdom and if the King were chosen out of the Souldiers he was presently entred among the Priests to learn their mystical Sciences Diodorus indeed seems to reckon some great persons after the Priests and distinct from the Souldiery but if he means by these any other then some of the chief of the other two professions I must say as Causabon doth in another case of Diodorus Sanè Strabonis anctoritas mult is Siculis apud me praevalet Diodorus his testimony is not to be weighed with Strabo's From hence we may understand the reason why that Potiphera whose daughter Ioseph married is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some render the Priest others the Prince of On but these two we see are very consistent their Priests being their great Princes and Heliopolis or On of which Potipherah was Prince or Priest being the chief Seat and University of the Priests
a Crocodile for impudence and all to express this venerable Apothegm O ye that come into the world and that go out of it God hates impudence And therefore certainly this kind of Learning deserves the highest form among the difficiles Nugae and all these Hieroglyphicks put together will make but one good one and that should be for Labour lost There is yet one part of Learning more among them which the Aegyptians are esteemed for which is the Political and civil part of it which may better be called wisdom then most of the fore-going two things speak much the wisdom of a Nation good Laws and a prudent management of them their Laws are highly commended by Strabo and Diodorus and it is none of the least commendations of them that Solon and Lycurgus borrowed so many of their constitutions from them and for the prudent management of their government as the continuance of their state so long in peace and quietness is an invincible demonstration of it so the report given of them in Scripture adds a further testimony to it for therein the King of Aegypt is called the Son of the wise as well as the son of ancient Kings and his counsellors are called wise counsellors of Pharaoh and the wise men whereby a more then ordinary prudence and policy must be understood Can we now imagine such a person as Moses was bred up in all the ingenucus literature of Aegypt conversant among their wisest persons in Pharaohs Court having thereby all advantages to improve himself and to understand the utmost of all that they knew should not be able to pass a judgement between a meer prâ—tence and imposture and real and important Tâ—uths Can we think that one who had interest in so great a Court all advantages of raising himself therein should willingly forsake all the pleasures and delights at present all his hopes and advantages for the future were he not fully perswaded of the certain and undoubted truth of all those things which are recorded in his books Is it possible a man of ordinary wisdom should venture himself upon so hazardous unlikely and dangerous employment â—s that was Moses undertook which could have no probability of success but only upon the belief that that God who appeared unto him was greater then all the Gods of Aegypt and could carry on his own design by his own power maugre all the opposition which the Princes of the world could make against it And what possible ground can we have to think that such a person who did verily believe the truth of what God revealed unto him should dare to write any otherwise then as it was revealed unto him If there had been any thing repugnant to common reason in the history of the Creation the fall of man the universal deluge the propagation of the world by the sons of Noah the history of the Patriarchs had not Moses rational faculties as well as we nay had he them not far better improved then any of ours are and was not he then able to judge what was suitable to reason and what not and can we think he would then deliver any thing inconsistent with reason or undoubted tradition then when the Aegyptian Priests might so readily and plainly have triumphed over him by discovering the falshood of what he wrote Thus we see that Moses was as highly qualified as any of the acutest Heathen Philosophers could be for discerning truth from falshood nay in all probability he far excelled the most renowned of the Graecian Philosophers in that very kind of learning wherewith they made so great noise in the world which was originally Aegyptian as is evident in the whole series of the Graecian Philosphers who went age after age to Aegypt to get some scraps of that learning there which Moses could not have but full meals of because of his high place great interest and power in Aegypt And must those hungry Philosophers then become the only Masters of our reason and their dictates be received as the sâ—nse and voice of nature which they either received from uncertain tradition or else delivered in opposition to it that they might be more taken notice of in the world Must an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be confronted with Thus saith the Lord and a few pitiful symbols vye authority with divine commands and Ex nihilo nihil fit be sooner believed then In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth What irrefragable evidence of reason is that so confident a presumption built upon when it can signifie nothing without this hypothesis that there is nothing but matter in the world and let this first be proved and we will never stick to grant the other I may confidently say the great gullery of the world hath been taking philosophical dictates for the standard of reason and unproved hypotheses for certain foundations for our discourse to rely upon And the seeking to reconcile the mysteries of our faith to these hath been that whith hath almost destroyed it and turned our Religion into a meer philosophical speculation But of this elsewhere We see then that insisting meerly on the accomplishments and rational perfections of the persons who speak we have more reason to yield credit to Moses in his history then to any Philosophers in their speculations And that which in the next place speaks Moses to be a person of wisdom and judgement and ability to finde out truth was his age and experience when he delivered these things to the world He vented no crude and indigested conceptions no sudden and temerarious fancies the usual issues of teeming and juvenile wits he lived long enough to have experience to try and judgement to distinguish a meer outside and varnish from what was solid and substantial We cannot then have the least ground of suspition that Moses was any wayes unfit to discern truth from falshood and therefore was capable of judging the one from the other But though persons be never so highly accomplisht for parts learning and experience yet if they want due information of the certainty of the things they deliver they may be still decâ—iving themselves and if they preserve it for posterity be guilty of deceiving others Let us now therefore see whether Moses had not as great advantages for understanding the truth of his History as he had judgement to discern it And concerning all those things contained in the four last books of his to his own death it was impossible any should have greater then himself writing nothing but what he was pars magna himself of what he saw and heard and did and can any testimony be desired greater then his whose actions they were or who was present at the doing of them and that not in any private way but in the most publick capacity For although private persons may be present at great actions yet they may be guilty of misrepresenting them for want of understanding all circumstances precedent and
Now if we prove that Moses had no interest to deceive in his History and had all rational evidence of Divine revelation in his Laws we shall abundantly evince the undoubted fidelity of Moses in every thing recorded by him We begin then with his fidelity as an Historian and it being contrary to the common interest of the world to deceive and be deceived we have no reason to entertain any suspitions of the veracity of any person where we cannot discern some pecâ—liar interest that might have a stronger biass upon him then the common interest of the world For it is otherwise in morals then in naturals for in naturals we see that every thing will leave its proper interest to preserve the common interest of nature but in morals there is nothing more common then deserting the common interest of mankind to set up a peculiar interest against it It being the truest description of a Politician that he is one who makes himself the centre and the whole world his circumference that he regards not how much the whole world is abused if any advantage doth accrue to himself by it Where we see it then the design of any person to advance himself or his posterity or to set up the credit of the Nation whose History he writes we may have just cause to suspect his partiality because we then finde a sufficient inducement for such a one to leave the common road of truth and to fall into the paths of deceit But we have not the least ground to suspect any such partiality in the History of Moses for nothing is more clear then that he was free from the ambitious design of advancing himself and his posterity who notwithstanding the great honour he enjoyed himself was content to leave his posterity in the meanest sort of attendance upon the Tabernacle And as little have we ground to think he intended to flatter that Nation which he so lively describes that one would think he had rather an interest to set forth the frowardness unbelief unthankfulness and disobedience of a Nation towards a Gracious God then any wayes to inhance their reputation in the world or to ingratiate himself with them by writing this History of them Nay and he sets forth so exactly the lesser failings and grosser enormities of all the Ancestours of this Nation whose acts he records that any impartial reader will soon acquit him of a design of flattery when after he hath recorded those faults he seeks not to extenuate them or bring any excuse or pretence to palliate them So that any observing reader may easily take notice that he was carried on by a higher design then the common people of Historians are and that his drift and scope was to exalt the goodness and favour of God towards a rebellious and obstinate people Of which there can be no greater nor more lively demonstration then the History of all the transactions of the Iewish Nation from their coming forth of Aegypt to their utter ruine and desolation And Moses tells them as from God himself it was neither for their number nor their goodness that God set his Love upon them but he loved them because he loved them i. e. no other account was to be given of his gracious dealing with them but the freeness of his own bonnty and the exuberancy of his goodness towards them Nay have we not cause to admire the ingenuity as well as veracity of this excellent personage who not only layes so notorious a blot upon the stock of his own family Levi recording so punctually the inhumanity and cruelty of him and Simeon in their dealings with the Shechemites but likewise inserts that curse which was left upon their memory for it by their own Father at his decease And that he might not leave the least suspition of partiality behind him he hath not done as the statuary did who engraved his own name so artificially in the statue of Iupiter that one should continue as long as the other but what the other intended for the praise of his skill Moses hath done for his ingenuity that he hath so interwoven the History of his own failings and disobedience with those of the Nation that his spots are like to continue as long as the whole web of his History is like to do Had it been the least part of his design to have his memory preserved with a superstitious veneration among the Iews how easie had it been for him to have left out any thing that might in the least entrench upon his reputation but we finde him very secure and careless in that particular nay on the other side very studious and industrious in depressing the honour and deserts of men and advancing the power and goodness of God And all this he doth not in an affected strain of Rhetorick whose proper work is impetrare fidem mendacio and as Tully somewhere confesseth to make things seem otherwise then they are but with that innate simplicity and plainness and yet withall with that Imperatoria brevit as that Majesty and authority that it is thereby evident he sought not to court acceptance but to demand belief Nor had any such pittiful design of pleasing his Readers with some affected phrases but thought that Truth it self had presence enough with it to command the submission of our understandings to it Especially when all these were delivered by such a one who came sufficiently armed with all motives of credibility and inducements to assent by that evidence which he gave that he was no pretender to divine revelation but was really imployed as a peculiar instrument of State under the God and Ruler of the whole world Which if it be made clear then all our further doubts must presently cease and all impertinent disputes be silenced when the supream Majesty appears impowring any person to dictate to the world the Laws they must be governed by For if any thing be repugnant to our rational faculties that is that God should dictate any thing but what is most certainly true or that the Governor of the world should prescribe any Laws but such as were most just and reasonable If we suppose a God we cannot question veracity to be one of his chiefest Attributes and that it is impossible the God of truth should imploy any to reveal any thing as from him but what was undoubtedly true So that it were an argument of the most gross and unreasonable incredulity to distrust the certainty of any thing which comes to us with sufficient evidence of divine revelation because thereby we shew our distrust of the veracity of God himself All that we can desire then is only reasonable satisfactisn concerning the evidence of Divine revelation in the person whose words we are to credit and this our Gracious God hath been so far from denying men that he hath given all rational evidence of the truth of it For it implying no incongruity at all to any notions of
the necessary obligation to punishment but therein God doth not bind up himself as he doth in absolute promises the reason is because comminations confer no right to any which absolute promises do and therefore God is not bound to necessary performance of what he threatens Indeed the guilt or obligation to punishment is necessary where the offence hâ—â— been committed to which the threatning was annexed but the execution of that punishment doth still depend upon Gods arbitrarious will and therefore he may suspend or remove it upon serious addresses made to himself in order to it For since God was pleased not to take the present forfeiture of the first grand transgression but made such a relaxation of that penall Law that conditions of pardon were admittable notwithstanding sentence passed upon the malefactors there is a strong ground of presumption in humane nature that Gods forbearance of mankind notwithstanding sin doth suppose his readiness to pardon offenders upon their repentance and therefore that all particular threatnings of judgements to come do suppose incorrigibleness in those they are pronounced against Upon which the foundation of hope is built that if timely repentance do intervene God will remove those judgements which are threatned against them And this was certainly the case of the Ninivites upon Ionas his preaching among them For when the threatning was so peremptory Yet forty dayes and Ninive shall be destroyed all the hope they could have of pardon must be from the general perswasions of mens souls of Gods readiness to remove judgements upon repentance For otherwise there had been no place for any thing but despair and not the least encouragement to supplicate the mercy of God which we see they did in a most solemn manner after they were convinced these comminations came from God himself by the mouth of his Prophet Some think that Ionas together with the threatning of judgement did intermix exhortations to repentance but we can finde no probability at all for that on these two accounts first Ionas then would not have been so unwilling to have undertaken this message for as far as we can see the harshness of it was the main reason he sought to have avoided it by flying to Tarshish Secondly Ionas would have had no pretence at all for his anger and displeasure at Gods pardoning Ninive which is most probably conceived to have been because the Ninivites might now suspect him to be no true Prophet because the event answered not his prediction Now there had been no reason at all for this if he had mixed promises together with his threatnings for then nothing would have falln out contrary to his own predictions And therefore it seems evident that the message Ionas was sent with was only the commination of their speedy ruine which God did on purpose to awaken them the sooner and with the greater earnestness to repentance when the judgement was denounced in so peremptory a manner although it seems Ionas had before such apprehensions of the merciful nature of God and his readiness to pardon that he might suppose Gods intention by this severe denunciation of judgement might be only to take occasion upon their repentance to shew his goodness and bounty to them But this was no part of his instructions which he durst not go beyond in his Preaching what ever his private opinion might be for the Prophets were to utter no more in their Preaching or particular messages then was in their commission and were not to mix their own words with the Word of the Lord. And by this we may further understand the denunciation of death to Hezekiah by the Prophet Isaiah Set thy house in order for thou shalt dye and not live I question not but the Prophet revealed to Hezekiah as much as God had revealed to him for to say as Molinaeus doth that the Prophet spake these words of his own head before he fully understood Gods mind is very harsh and incongruous but God might at first discover to Isaiah not his internal purpose but what the nature of the disease would bring him to unless his own immediate hand of providence interposed which message he would have Isaiah carry to Hezekiah for the tryal of his faith and exciting him to the more lively acts of grace and for a further demonstration of Gods goodness to him in prolonging his life beyond humane probability and the course of second causes Now what repugnancy is there to the truth and faithfulness of God that God should conceal from his Prophets in their messages the internal purposes of his will and in order to the doing good to men should only reveal what would certainly have come to pass unless himself had otherwise determind it And thus the repentance which is attributed to God in reference to these denunciations of judgements is far from importing any real mutation in the internal purposes of God a rock some have split themselves upon but it only signifies the outward changing of the Scene towards men and acting otherwise then the words of the Prophets did seem to import and all the alteration is in the outward discovery of his will which is certainly far from being any collusion in God Unless we must suppose God so bound up that he hath no liberty of using his own methods for bringing men to repentance or for tryal of his peoples graces but must in every instance of his Word declare nothing but his own internal purposes which is contrary to the general method of Gods dealing with the world which is to govern men by his own Laws and thereby to awaken them to duty and deterre from sin by his annexed threatnings without revealing any thing of his internal purposes concerning the state and condition of any particular persons at all which threatnings of his though pronounced with the greatest severity do not speak Gods inward resolutions as to any particular person but what all must expect if they continue impenitent and incorrigible For the only condition implyed in these threatnings being repentance it necessarily follows that where that is wanting these hypothetical comminations are absolute predictions of what shall certainly come to pass on all those who are destitute of the condition supposed in them So that where any comminations are pronounced by any in a prophetical way concerning any person or people and no alteration happen at all in them but they continue impenitent and incorrigible there the not coming of them to pass may be a token of a false Prophet For in this case the only tacite condition implyed in these threatening Prophecies is supposed to be wanting and so the comminations must be understood as absolute predictions Now in those comminations in Scripture which are absolutely expressed but conditionally understood we find something interposing which we may rationally suppose was the very condition understood As Abimelechs restoring of Sarah was the ground why the sentence of death after it was denounced was
there may be clear perception where the object its self is above our capacity Now whatever foundation there is in nature for such a perception without comprehension that and much more is there in such things as are revealed by God though above our apprehension For the Idea of God upon the soul of man cannot be so strong an evidence of the existence of a being above our apprehension as the revelation of matters of faith is that we should believe the things so revealed though our understandings lose themselves in striving to reach the natures of them and the manner of their existence Secondly that which is the only foundation of a scruple in this case is a principle most unreasonable in its self that we are to imbrace nothing for truth though divinely revealed but what our reason is able to comprehend as to the nature of the thing and the manner of its existence on which account the doctrine of the Trinity Incarnation Satisfaction and consequently the whole mysterie of the Gospel of Christ must be rejected as incredible and that on this bare pretence because although many expressions in Scripture seem to import all these things yet we are bound to interpret them to another sense because this is incongruous to our reason But although Christianity be a Religion which comes in the highest way of credibility to the minds of men although we are not bound to believe any thing but what we have sufficient reason to make it appear that it is revealed by God yet that any thing should be questioned whether it be of divine revelation meerly because our reason is to seek as to the full and adaequate conception of it is a most absurd and unreasonable pretence And the Assertors of it must run themselves on these unavoidable absurdities First of believing nothing either in nature or Religion to be true but what they can give a full and satisfactory account of as to every mode and circumstance of it Therefore let such persons first try themselves in all the appearances of nature and then we may suppose they will not believe that the Sun shines till they have by demonstrative arguments proved the undoubted truth of the Ptolomaick or Copernican hypothesis that they will never give credit to the flux and reflux of the Sea till they clearly resolve the doubts which attend the several opinions of it That there is no such thing as matter in the world till they can satisfactorily tell us how the parts of it are united nor that there are any material beings till they have resolved all the perplexing difficulties about the several affections of them and that themselves have not so much as a rational soul till they are bound to satisfie us of the manner of the union of the soul and body together And if they can expedite all these and many more difficulties about the most obvious things about which it is another thing to frame handsome and consistent hypotheses then to give a certain account of them then let them be let loose to the matters of divine revelation as to which yet if they could perform the other were there no reason for such an undertaking for that were Secondly to commensurate the perfections of God with the narrow capacity of the humane intellect which is contrary to the natural Idea of God and to the manner whereby we take up our conceptions of God for the Idea of God doth suppose incomprehensibility to belong to his nature and the manner whereby we form our conceptions of God is by taking away all the imperfections we find in our selves from the conception we form of a being absolutely perfect and by adding infinity to all the perfections we find in our own natures Now this method of proceeding doth necessarily imply a vast distance and disproportion between a finite and infinite understanding And if the understanding of God be infinite why may not he discover such things to us which our shallow apprehensions cannot reach unto what ground or evidence of reason can we have that an infinite wisdom and understanding when it undertakes to discover matters of the highest nature and concernment to the world should be able to deliver nothing but what comes within the compass of our imperfect and narrow intellects And that it should not be sufficient that the matters revealed do none of them contradict the prime results or common notions of mankind which none of them do but that every particular mode and circumstance as to the manner of existence in God or the extent of his omnipotent power must pass the scrutiny of our faculties before it obtains a Placet for a Divine revelation Thirdly it must follow from this principle that the pretenders to it must affirm the rules or maxims which they go by in the judgment of things are the infallible standard of reason Else they are as far to seek in the judgement of the truth of things as any others are They must then to be consistent with their principle affirm themselves to be the absolute Masters of reason Now reason consisting of observations made concerning the natures of all beings for so it must be considered as it is a rule of judging viz. as a Systeme of infallible rules collected from the natures of things they who pretend to it must demonstrate these general maxims according to which they judge to be â—ollected from an universal undoubted history of nature which lies yet too dark and obscure for any to pretend to the full knowledge of and would be only a demonstration of the highest arrogance after so many succesless endeavours of the most searching wits in any society of persons to usurp it to themselves especially if such persons are so far from searching into the depths of nature that they suffer themselves very fairly to be led by the nose by the most dogmatical of all Philosophers and that in such principles which the more inquisitive world hath now found to be very short uncertain and fallacious And upon severe enquiry we shall find the grand principles which have been taken by these adorers of reason for almost the standard of it have been some Theories which have been taken up meerly from observation of the course of nature by such persons who scarce owned any hand of providence in the world Now it cannot otherwise be conceived but that these Theories or principles formed from such a narrow inspection into the natures of things must make strange work when we come to apply those things to them which were never looked at in the forming of them Whence came those two received principles that nothing can be produced out of nothing that there is no possible return from a privation to a habit but from those Philosophers who believed there was nothing but matter in the world or if they did assert the existence of a God yet supposed him unconcerned in the Government of the world Whence come our Masters
whom it was very frequent who worshipped the devils instead of Gods 2. Because of the general dispersion of Copies in the world upon the first publishing of them We cannot otherwise coâ—ceive but that records containing so weighty and important things would be transcribed by all those Churches which believed the truth of the things contained in them We see how far curiosity will carry men as to the care of transcribing antient MSS. of old Authors which contain only some history of things past that are of no great concernment to us Can we then imagine those who ventured estates and lives upon the truth of the things revealed in Scripture would not be very careful to preserve the authentick instrument whereby they are revealed in a certain way to the whole world And besides this for a long time the originals themselves of the Apostolical writings were preserved in the Church which makes Tertullian in his time appeal to them Age jam qui voles curiositatem melius exercere in negotio salutis tuae percurre Ecclesias Apostolicas apud quasipsae adhuc cathedrae Apostolorum suis locis praesidentur apud quas ipsae authenticae corum literae recitantur sonantes vocem representantes faciem uniuscujusque Now how was it possible that in that time the Scriptures could be corrupted when in some of the Churches the original writings of the Apostles were preserved in a continual succession of persons from the Apostles themselves and from these originals so many Copies were transcribed as were conveyed almost all the world over through the large spread of the Christian Churches at that time and therefore it is impossible to conceive that a Copy should be corrupted in one Church when it would so speedily be discovered by another especially considering these three circumstances 1. The innumerable multitude of Copies wh ch would speedily be taken both considering the moment of the thing and the easiness of doing it God probably for that very end not loading the world with Pandâ—cts and Codes of his Laws but contriving the whole instrument of mans salvation in so narrow a compass that it might be easily preserved and transcribed by such who were passionate admirers of the Scriptures 2. The great number of learned and inquisitive men who soon sprung up in the Christian Church whose great care was to explain and vindicate the sacred Scriptures can we then think that all these Watch-men should be asleep together when the â—vil one came to sow his Tares which it is most unreasonable to imagine when in the writings of all these learned men which were very many and voluminous so much of the Scripture was inserted that had there been corruption in the Copies themselves yet comparing them with those writings the corruptions would be soon discovered 3. The great venâ—ration which all Christians had of the Scripture that they placed the hopes of their eternal happiness upon the truth of the things contained in the Scriptures Can we then think these would suffer any material alteration to creep into these records without their observing and discovering it Can we now think when all persons are so exceeding careful of their Deeds and the Records whereon their estates depend that the Christians who valued not this world in comparison of that to come should suffer the Magna Charta of that to be lost corrupted or imbezzeled away Especially considering what care and industry was used by many primitive Christians to compare Copies together as is evident in Pantaenus who brought the Hebrew Copy of Matthew out of the Indies to Alexandria as Eusebius tells us in Pamphilus and the Library he errected at Caesarâ—a but especially in Origens admirable Hexapla which were mainly intended for this end 3. It is impossible to conceive a corruption of the copy of the Scriptures because of the great differences which were all along the several ages of the Church between those who acknowledged the Scriptures to be Divine So that if one party of them had foisted in or taken out any thing another party was ready to take notice of it and would be sure to tell the world of it And this might be one great reason why God in his wise providence might permit such an increase of heresies in the Infancy of the Church viz. that thereby Christians might be forced to stand upon their guard and to have a special eye to the Scriptures which were alwayes the great eye-sores of hereticks And from this great wariness of the Church it was that some of the Epistles were so long abroad before they found general entertainment in all the Churches of Christ because in those Epistles which were doubted for some tâ—me there were some passages which seemed to favour some of the heresies then abroad but when upon severe enquiry they are found to be what they pretended they were received in all the Christian Churches 4. Because of the agreement between the Old Tâ—stament and the New the Prophesies of the Old Testament appear with their full accomplishment in the New which we have so that it is impossible to think the New should be corrupted unless the old were too which is most unreasonable to imagine when the Iews who have been the great conservators of the Old Testament have been all along the most inveterate enemies of the Christians So that we cannot at all conceive it possible that any material corruptions or alterations should creep into the Scriptures much less that the true copy should be lost and a new one forged Supposing then that we have the same authentick records preserved and handed down to us by the care of all Christian Churches which were written in the first ages of the Church of Christ what necessity can we imagine that God should work new miracles to confirm that dâ—ctrine which is conveyed down in a certain uninterrupted way to us as being seâ—led by miracles undoubtedly Divine in the first promulgation and penning of it And this is the first reason why the truth of the Scriptures need not now be sealed by new miracles 2. Another may be because God in the Scripture hath appointed other things to continue in his Church to be as seals to his people of the truth of the things contained in Scriptures Such are outwardly the Sacraments of the Gospel baptism and the Lords Supper which are set apart to be as seals to confirm the truth of the Covenant on Gods part towards us in reference to the great promises contained in it in reference to pardon of sin and the ground of our acceptance with God by Iesus Christ and inwardly God hath promised his Spirit to be as a witness within them that by its working and strengthning grace in the hearts of believers it may confirm to them the truth of the records of Scripture when they finde the counter part of them written in their hearts by the singer of the Spirit of God It cannot then be with any reason at all supposed
disseminated Vacuity which is presumed to be in the world and because a Coacervate vacuity is not only asserted as possible but as probably existent I assume only then that which is insisted on as probable viz. that that space which lies between our Atmosphere and the Stars is empty of any other thing but only the rayes of the Stars which pass through it I then supposing it a vacuity whether would not the particles of those bodies which lie contiguous to that space presently dislodge from the bodies wherein they are and begin a new Rendezvous of Atoms there for all Atoms are supposed to be in perpetual motion and the cause assigned why in solid bodies they do not flie away is because of the repercussion of other Atoms that when they once begin to stir they receive such knocks as make them quiet in their places Now this cannot hold in the bodies contiguous to this space for both those bodies are more fluid and so there is no such knocking of particles to keep them at rest but which is more those which are contiguous have nothing at all to hinder them from motion and so those particles will necessarily remove into that empty space where there is no impediment of their motion and so the next Atoms to those must remove because that space wherein the other were is made empty by their removal and so the next and so on till not only the air but the whole mass of the earth wâ—ll on supposition of such a vacuity be dissolved into its first particles which will all mutiny in the several bodies wherein they are and never rest till they come to that empty space where they may again Rendezvous together So dangerous is the news of Liberty or of an empty space to these Democratical particles of the Universe Neither can I see how a disseminated vacuity can salve the difficulty for those particles of the most solid bodies being in continual motion and the ground of their union being repercâ—ssion it thence follows that towards that part where the disseminated vacuum is the particles meeting with no such strokes may sairly take their leaves of the bodies they are in and so one succeed in the place of another till the configuration of the whole be altered and consequently different appearances and effects may be caused in the same bodies though it results from seminal principles So that according to the Atomical principles no rational account can be given of those effects which are seen in nature This Dionysius in Eusebius urgeth against the Atomists that from the same principles without evident reason given for it they make of the same uniform matter some things conspicuous to sense others not some short-lived others extreamly long-lived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What ground can there be assigned of so vast a difference between things if they be all of the same nature and differ only in size and shape saith that excellent person who there with a great deal of eloquence lays open â—he folly of the Atomical Philosophy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a rare Democraty of Atoms saith he where the friendly Atoms meet and embrâ—ce each other and from thenceforward live in the closest society together 2. Not only the variety but the exact order and beauty of the world is a thing unaccountable by the Atomical hypothesis Were the whole world still a Hesiods Chaos from the consideration of which Diogenes Laertius tells us Epicurus began to Philosophize we might probably believe an agitation of particles supposing matter created might settle it in such a confused manner but that there should be nothing else but a blind impetus of Atoms to produce those vast and most regular motions of the heavenly bodies to order the passage of the Sun for so great conveniency of nature and for the alternate succession of the seasons of the year which should cut such channels for the Ocean and keep that vast body of the water whose surface is higher then the earth from overflowing it which should furnish the earth with such seminal and prolifick principles as to provide food and nourishment for those Animals which live upon it and furnish out every thing necessary for the comfort and delight of mans life to believe I say that all thâ—se things came only from a blind and fortuitous concourse of Atoms is the most prodigious piece of credulity and folly that humane nature is subject to But this part which concerns the order and beauty of the parts of the Universe and the argument thence that it could be no blind fortuitous principle but an Infinitely wise God hath been so fully and judiciously handled by a learned Person already that I shall rather choose to refer the Reader to his discourse then insist any more upon it 3. The production of mankind is a thing which the Atomists are most shamefully puzzled with as well as the Formation of the internal parts of mans body of which I have already spoken in the precedent Chapter It would pitty one to see what lamentable shifts the Atomists are put to to find out a way for the production of mankind viz. That our teeming mother the earth at last cast forth some kind of bags like wombs upon the surface of the earth and these by degrees breaking at last came out children which were nourished by a kind of juyce of the earth like milk by which they were brought up till they came to be men Oh what will not Atheists believe rather then a Deity and Providence But least we should seem to wrong the Atomists hear what Censorinus saith of Epicurus Is enim credidit limo calefactos uteros nescio quos radicihus terrae cohaerentes primum increvisse infantibus ex seeditis ingenitum lactis humorem natura ministrante praebuisse quos it a educatos adultos genus humanum propagasse But because Lucretius may be thought to speak more impartially in the case how rarely doth he describe it Crescebant uteri terrae radicibus apti Quos ubi tempore maturo patefecerit aetas Infantum fugiens humorem aurasque petissens Convertebat ibi natura foramina terrae Et succum venis cogebat fundere apertis Consimilem lactis sicut nunc foemina quaeque Quum peperit dulci repletur lacte quodomnis Impetus in mammas convert itur ille alimenti Terracibum pueris vestem vapor herbacubile Praebebat multa molli lanugine abundans Had Lucretius been only a Poet this might have passed for a handsomly described Fable but to deliver it for a piece of Philosophy makes it the greater Mythologie that mans body was formed out of the earth we believe because we have reason so to do but that the earth should cast forth such folliculi as he expresseth it and that men should be brought up in such a way as he describes deserves a place among the most incredible of Poetick Fables But if Poets
which it may be are uncapable of full and particular resolution and those are That the ruine and destruction of man is wholly from himself and that his salvation is from God alone If then mans ruine and misery be from himself which the Scripture doth so much inculcate on all occasions then without controversie that which is the cause of all the misery of humane nature is wholly from himself too which is sin So that if the main scope and design of the Scripture be true God cannot be the author of that by which without the intervention of the mercy of God mans misery unavoidably falls upon him For with what authority and Majesty doth God in the Scripture forbid all manner of sin with what earnestness and importunity doth he woo the sinner to forsake his sin with what loathing and detestation doth he mention sin with what justice and severity doth he punish sin with what wrath and indignation doth he threaten contumacious sinners And is it possible after all this and much more recorded in the Scriptures to express the holiness of Gods nature his hatred of sin and his appointing a day of judgement for the solemn punishment of sinners to imagine that the Scriptures do in the least ascribe the Origine of evil to God or make him the Author of Sin Shall not the judge of all the world do right will a God of Infinite Iustice Purity and Holiness punish the sinner for that which himself was the cause of Far be such unworthy thoughts from our apprehensions of a Deity much more of that God whom we believe to have declared his mind so much to the contrary that we cannot believe that and the Scriptures to be true together Taking it then for granted in the general that God cannot be the author of sin we come to enquire whether the account which the Scripture gives of the Origine of evil doth any way charge it upon God There are only two wayes which according to the history of the fall of man recorded in Scripture whereby men may have any ground to question whether God were the cause of mans fall either first by the giving him that positive Law which was the occasion of his fall or secondly by leaving him to the liberty of his own will First The giving of that positive Law cannot be the least ground of laying mans fault on God because 1. It was most suitable to the nature of a rational creature to be governed by Laws or declarations of the Will of his Maker For considering man as a free agent there can be no way imagined so consonant to the nature of man as this was because thereby he might declare his obedience to God to be the matter of his free choice For where there is a capacity of reward and punishment and acting in the consideration of them there must be a declaration of the will of the Law-giver according to which man may expect either his reward or punishment If it were suitable to Gods nature to promise life to man upon obedience it was not unsuitable to it to expect obedience to every declaration of his will considering the absolute soveraignty and Dominion which God had over man as being his creature and the indispensable obligation which was in the nature of man to obey whatever his Mâ—ker did command him So that God had full and absolute right to require from man what he did as to the Law which he gave him to obey and in the general we cannot conceive how there should be a testimony of mans obedience towards hâ—s Creator without some declaration of his Creators Will. Secondly God had full power and authority not only to govern man by Laws but to determine mans general obligation to obedience to that particular positive precept by the breach of which man fell If Gods power over man was universal and unlimited what reason can there be to imagine it should not extend to such a positive Law Was it because the matter of this Law seemed too low for God to command his creature but whatever the matter of the Law was obedience to God was the great end of it which man had testified as much in that Instance of it as in any other whatsoever and in the violation of it were implyed the highest aggravations of disobedience for Gods power and authority was as much contemned his goodness slighted his Truth and faithfulness questioned his Name dishonoured his Majâ—sty affronted in the breach of that as of any other Law whatsoever it had been If the Law were easie to be observed the greater was the sin of disobedience if the weight of the matter was not so great in its self yet Gods authority added the greatest weight to it and the ground of obedience is not to be fetched from the nature of the thing required but from the authority of the Legislator Or was it then because God concealed from man his counsel in giving of that positive precept Hath not then a Legislator power to require any thing but what he satisfies every one of his reason in commanding it if so what becomes of obedience and subjection it will be impossible to make any probative precepts on this account and the Legislator must be charged with the disobedience of his subjects where he doth not give a particular account of every thing which he requires which as it concerns humane Legislators who have not that absolute power and authority which God hath is contrary to all Laws of Policy and the general sense of the world This Plutarch gives a good account of when he discourseth â—o rationally of the sobriety which men ought to use in their inquiries into the grounds and reasons of Gods actions for saith he Physitians will give prescriptions without giving the patient a particular reason of every circumstance in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither have humane Laws alwayes apparent reason for them nay some of them are to appearance ridiculous for which he instanceth in that Law of the Lacedaemonian Ephori 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which no other reason was annexed but this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they commanded every Magistrate at the entrance of his office to â—have himself and gave this reason for it that they might learn to obey Laws themselves He further instanceth in the Roman custom of manumission their Laws about testaments Solons Law against neutrality in seditions and concludes thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Any one would easily find many absurdities in Laws who doth not consider the intention of the Legislator or the ground of what he requires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What wonder is it if we are so puzled to give an account of the actions of men that we should be to seek as to those of the Deity This cannot be then any ground on the account of meer reason to lay the charge of mans disobedience upon God because he required from
these several living creatures after their kinds which did after propagate in those parts without being brought thither by the help of man If now this supposition be embraced by it we presently clear our selves of many difficulties concerning the propagation of animals in the world and their conservation in the Ark which many have been so much to seek for satisfaction in As how the unknown kind of Serpents in Brasil the slow-bellied creature of the Indies and all those strange species of animals seen in the West Indies should either come into the Ark of Noah or be conveyed out of it into those Countries which are divided from that Continent where the Flood was by so vast an Ocean on the one side and at least so large a tract of Land on the other supposing any passage but of one Continent into another which yet hath not been discovered Besides some kind of Animals cannot live out of that particular Clime wherein they are and there are many sorts of animals discovered in America and the adjoyning Islands which have left no remainders of themselves in these parts of the world And it seems very strange that these should propagate into those remote parts of the world from the place of the Flood and leave none at all of their number behind them in those parts from whence they were propagated These things at least make that opinion very probable which extends the production of animals beyond that of mankinde in the old world and that the Flood though it destroyed all mankinde and every living creature within that compass wherein mankind inhabited yet might not extend its self to those parts and the animals therein in which men had never inhabited And by this means we need not make so many miracles as some are fain to do about the slood and all those difficulties concerning the propagation of animals do of themselves vanish and fail to the groud This is the first way of resolving the difficulty concerning the possibility of the Flood by asserting it not to have been over the whole globe of the earth but only over those parts where mankinde inhabited Secondly Suppose the Flood to have been over the whole globe of the earth yet there might have been water enough to have overwhelmed it to the height mentioned in Scripture For which we are to consider that many causes concurred to the making of this Deluge first the air was condensed into clouds and those fell down with continued force and violence not breaking into drops but all in a body which Sir Walter Rawleigh parallels with the spouts of the West Indies which are thence called the Cataracts or Flood-gates of heaven God loosening as he expresseth it the power retentive which was in the clouds and so the waters must needs fall in abundance according to the expression in Iob Behold he withholdeth the waters and they dry up also he sendeth them out and they overturn the earth Now I say although these waters falling down with so much fury and violence as well as in so great abundance might quickly destroy all living creatures yet this was not all for God who held in the Ocean within its bounds whereby he saith to it Thus far it shall go and no farther might then give it Commission to execute his justice upon the sinfull world and to all this we have another cause of the Deluge which was That the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up By which Vatablus most probably understands Immensam illam profundam aquarum copiam quae est subter terram That vast body of waters which lies in the bowels of the earth now when all these fountains were broken up and the waters within the earth rush out with violence and impetuosity upon it it must needs cause an inundation so great as that is mentioned in the Scripture For as that judicious Historian Sir W. Rawleigh observes Let us consider that the earth had above 21000. miles compass the Diameter of the earth according to that Circle 7000. mile and then from the Superficies to the Center 3500. mile take then the highest mountain of the world Caucasus Taurus Tenariff or any other and I do not finde saith he that the highest exceeds thirty miles in height It is not then impossible answering reason with reason that all those waters mixed within the earth 3500. miles deep should be able to cover the space of 30. miles in height which 30. miles upright being found in the depths of the earth 116. times for the fountains of the great Deep were broken and the waters drawn out of the bowels of the earth But then withall saith he if we consider the proportion which the earth bears to the air about it we may easily understand the possibility of the Flood without any new Creation of waters for supposing so much air to be condensed and so turned into water which doth encompass the earth it will not seem strange to men of judgement yea but of ordinary understanding that the earth God so pleasing was covered over with waters without any new Creation But this will yet appear more probable if the height of the highest mountains doth bear no greater a proportion to the Diameter of the earth then of the 1670. part to the whole supposing the Diameter of the earth to be 8355. miles as P. Gassendus computes both And it is more then probable that men have been exceedingly mistaken as to the height of mountains which comes so far short of what Sir Walter Rawleigh allows to them that the highest mountain in the world will not be found to be five direct miles in height taking the altitude of them from the plain they stand upon Olympus whose height is so extold by the Poets and ancient Greeks that it is said to exceed the clouds yet Plutarch tells us that Xenagoras measured it and sound it not to exceed a mile and a half perpendicular and about 70. paces Much about the same height Pliny saith that Dicaearchus found the mountain Pelion to be The mount Athos is supposed of extraordinary height because it cast its shadow into the Isle of Lemnos which according to Pliny was 87. miles yet Gassendus allows it but two miles in height but Isaac Vossius in a learned discourse concerning the height of mountains in his notes on Pomponius Mela doth not allow above 10. or 11. furlongs at most to the height of mount Athos Caucasus by Ricciolus is said to be 51. miles in height Gassendus allowing it to be higher then Athos or Olympus yet conceives it not above three or four miles at most but Vossius will not yeild it above two miles perpendicular for which he gives this very good reason Polybius affirms there is no mountain in Greece which may not be ascended in a dayes time and makes the highest mountain there not to exceed ten furlongs which saith Vossius it is scarce possible for any
the Indians were in darkness while the Bacchae enjoyed light which circumstances considered will make every one that hath judgement say as Bochartus doth ex mirabili illâ— concentu vel coecis apparebit priscos fabularum architectos e scriptoribus sacris multa â—sse mutuatos From this wonderful agreement of Heathen Mythology with the Scriptures it cannot but appear that one is a corruption of the other That the memory of Iâ—shua and Sampson was preserved under Hercules Tyrius is made likewise very probable from several circumstances of the stories Others have deduced the many rites of Heathen worship from those used in the Tabernacle among the Iews Several others might be insisted on as the Parallel between Og and Typho and between the old Silenus and Balaam both noted for their skill in divination both taken by the water Num. 22. 5. both noted for riding on an ass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Lucian of the old Silenus and that which makes it yet more probable is that of Pausanias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some learned men have been much puzled to find out the truth of and this conjecture which I here propound may pass at least for a probable account of it but I shall no longer insist on these things having I suppose done what is sufficient to our purpose which is to make it appear what footsteps there are of the truth of Scripture-history amidst all the corruptions of Heathen Mythology CHAP. VI. Of the Excellency of the Scriptures Concerning matters of pure divine revelation in Scripture the terms of Salvation only contained therein The ground of the disesteem of the Scriptures is tacite unbelief The Excellency of the Scriptures manifested as to the matters which God hath revealed therein The excellency of the discoveryes of Gods nature which are in Scripture Of the goodness and love of God in Christ. The suitableness of those discoveries of God to our natural notions of a Deity The necessity of Gods making known himself to us in order to the regulating our conceptions of him The Scriptures give the fullest account of the state of mens souls and the corruptions which are in them The only way of pleasing God discovered in Scriptures The Scriptures contain matters of greatest mysteriousness and mest universal satisfaction to mens minds The excellency of the manner wherein things are revealed in Scriptures in regard of clearness authority purity uniformity and perswasiveness The excellency of the Scriptures as a rule of life The nature of the duties of Religion and the reasonableness of them The greatness of the encouragements to Religion contained in the Scriptures The great excellency of the Scriptures as containing in them the Coveâ—ant of Grace in order to mans Salvation HAving thus largely proved the Truth of all those passages of sacred Scripture which concern the history of the first ages of the world by all those arguments which a subject of that nature is capable of the only thing leâ—t in order to our full proving the Divinity of the Scriptures is the consideration of â—hose matters contained in it which are in an especâ—al maâ—neâ— said to be of Divine Revelation For those historical pâ—ssages though we believe them as contained in the Scripture to have been Divinely inspired as well as others yet they are such things as supposing no Divine Revelatiâ—n might have been known sufficiently to the world had not men bâ—en wanting to themselves as to the care and means of preserving them but those matters which I now come to discourse of are of a more sublime and transcendent nature such as it had been impâ—ssible for the minds of men to reach had they not been immediately discovered by God himself And those are the terms and conditions on which the soul of man may upon good grounds expect an eternal happiness which we assert the book of Scriptures to be the only authentick and infallible records of Men might by the improvements of reason and the sagacity of their minds discover much not only of the lapsed condition of their souls and the necessity of a purgation of them in order to their felicity but might in the general know what things are pleasing and acceptable to the Divine nature from those differences of good and evil which are unalterably fixed in the things themselves but which way to obtain any certainty of the remission of sins to recover the Grace and Favour of God to enjoy perfect tranquillity and peace of conscience to be able to please God in things agreeable to his will and by these to be assured of eternal bliss had been impossible for men to have ever found had not God himself been graciously pleased to reveal them to us Men might still have bewildred themselvs in following the ignes fatui of their own imaginations and hunting up and down the world for a path which leads to heaven but could have found none unless God himself taking pitty of the wandrings of men had been pleased to hang out a light from heaven to direct them in their way thither and by this Pharos of Divine Revelation to direct them so to stear their course as to escape splitting themselves on the rocks of open impieties or being swallowed up in the quicksands of terrene delights Neither doth he shew them only what shâ—lves and rocks they must escape but what particular course they must steâ—re what star they must have in their eye what compass they must observe what winds and gales they must expect and pray for if they would at last arrive at eternal bliss Eternal bliss What more could a God of infinite goodness promise or the soul of man ever wish â—or A Reward to such who are so â—ar from deserving that they are still provâ—king Glory to such who are more apt to be ashamed of their duties then of their offences but that it should not only be a glorious reward but eternal too is that which though it infinitely transcend the deserts of the receivers yet it highly discovers the infinite goodness of the Giver But when we not only know that there is so rich a mine of inestimable treasures but if the owner of it undertakes to shew us the way to it and gives us certain and infallible directions how to come to the full pâ—ssession of it how much are we in love with misery and do we court our own ruine if we neglect to hearken to his directions and observe his commands This is that we are now undertaking to make good concerning the Scriptures that these alone contain those sacred discoveries by which the souls of men may come at last to enjoy a compleat and eternal happiness One would think there could be nothing more needless in the world then to bid men regard their own welfare and to seek to be happy yet whoever casts his eye into the world will find no counsel so little hearkned to as this nor any thing which is more generally looked on
as a matter trivial and impertinent Which cannot arise but from one of these two grounds that either they think it no great wisdom to let go their present hold as to the good things of this world for that which they secretly question wheâ—her they shall ever live to see or no or else that their minds are in suspense whether they be not sent on a Guiana voyage to heaven whâ—ther the certainty of it be yet fully discovered or the instructions which are given be such as may infallibly conduct them thâ—her The first though it hath the advantage of sense fruition delight and further expectation yet to a rational person who seriously reflects on himself and sums up what after all his troubles and disquietments in the procuring his cares in keeping his disappointments in his expectations his fears of losing what he doth enjoy and that vexation of spirit which attends all these he hath gained of true contentment to his mind can never certainly beleive that ever these things were intended for his happiness For is it possible that the soul of man should ever enjoy its full and compleat happiness in this world when nothing is â—ble to make it happy but what is most suitable to its nature able to fill up its large capacity and commensurate with its duration but in this life the matter of mens greatest delights is strangely unsuitable to the nature of our rational beings the measure of them too short for our vast desires to stretch themselves upon the proportion too scant and narrow to run parallel with immortality It must be then only a Supreme Insinite and Eternal Being which by the free communications of his bounty and goodness can fix and satiate the souls desires and by the constant flowings forth of his uninterrupted streams of favour will alwayes keep up desire and yet alwayes satisfie it One whose goodness can only be felt by some tansient touches here whose love can be seen but as through a lattice whose constant presence may be rather wished for then enjoyed who hath reserved the full sight and fruition of himself to that future state when all these dark vails shall be done away and the soul shall be continually sunning her self under immediate beams of light and love But how or in what way the soul of man in this degenerate condition should come to be partaker of so great a happiness by the enjoyment of that God our natures are now at such a distance from is the greatest and most important enquiry of humane nature and we continually see how successless and unsatisfactory the endeavours of those have been to themselves at last who have sought for this happiness in a way of their own finding out The large volume of the Creation wherein God hath described so much of his wisdom and power is yet too dark and obscure too short and imperfect to set forth to us the way which leads to eternal happinesse Unlesse then the same God who made mens souls at first do shew them the way for their recovery as they are in a degenerate so they will be in a desperate condition but the same bounty and goodness of God which did at first display its self in giving being to mens souls hath in a higher manner enlarged the discovery of its self by making known the way whereby we may be taken into his Grace and Favour again Which it now concerns us particularly to discover thereby to make it appear that this way is of that peculiar excellency that we may have from thence the greatest evidence it could come from no other Author but God himself and doth tend to no other end but our eternal happiness Now that incomparable excellency which is in the sacred Scriptures will fully appear if we consider the matters contained in them under this threefold capacity 1. As matters of Divine Revelation 2. As a rule of life 3. As containing that Covenant of grace which relates to mans eternal happiness 1. Consider the Scripture generally as containing in it matters of divine revelation and therein the excellency of the Scriptures appeares in two things 1. The matters which are revealed 2. The manner wherein they are revealed 1. The matters which are revealed in Scripture may be considered these three wayes 1. As they are matters of the greatest weight and moment 2. As mâ—tters of the greatest depth and mysteriousness 3. As matters of the most universal satisfaction to the minds of men 1. They are matters of the greatest moment and importance for men to know The wisdom of men is most known by the weight of the things they speak and therefore that wherein the wisdom of God is discovered cannot contain any thing that is mean and trivial they must be matters of the highest importance which the Supreme Ruler of the world vouchsafes to speak to men concerning And such we shall find the matters which God hath revealed in his word to be which either concern the rectifying our apprehensions of his nature or making known to men their state and condition or discovering the way whereby to avoid eternal misery Now which is there of these three which supposing God to discover his mind to the world it doth not highly become him to speak to men of 1. What is there which it doth more highly concern men to know then God himself or what more glorious and excellent object could he discover then himself to the world There is nothing certainly which should more commend the Scriptures to us then that thereby we may grow more acquainted with God that we may know more of his nature and all his perfections and many of the great reasons of his actings in the world We may by them understand with safety what the eternal purposes of God were as to the wâ—y of mans recovery by the death of his Son we may there see and understand the great wisdom of God not only in the contrivance of the world and ordering of it but in the gradual revelations of himself to his people by what steps he trained up his Church till the fulness of time was come what his aim was in laying such a load of Ceremonies on his people of the Iews by what steps degrces he made way for the full revelation of his Will to the World by speaking in these last dayes by his Son after he had spoke at sundry times and divers manners by the Prophets c. unto the Fathers In the Scriptures we read the most rich and admirable discoveries of Divine goodness and all the wayes and methods he useth in alluring sinners to himself with what Majesty he commands with what condiscension he intreats with what importunity he wooes mens souls to be reconciled to him with what favour he embraceth with what tenderness he chastiseth with what bowels he pitieth those who have chosen him to be their God! With what power he supporteth with what wisdom he directâ—th with what cordials he